Fascinating Brooklyn stories from our local history archivists.
POTW: Moonlight
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
Tonight's Photo of the Week is a cool evening on the water in 1887 by Walter H. Nelson from our Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection. In this scan the silvery photographic substrate slightly obscures the image. In person, the photograph seems touched with moonlight. Nelson was an amateur photographer about whom little has been written. Aside from…
Kitchen Connections
One of the things I love about archival research is how many senses it activates. The obvious visual delights, tactile sensations, hints of grass and vanilla wafting from the boxes, and the reading room rustle of papers, chairs, and keyboards. Noticeably and rightfully absent is our fifth sense, taste. Archival research has no flavor*, but food is constantly on the minds of many researchers. What were their research subjects eating? What did it taste like? What did their homes smell like while it was cooking? How and where did they source ingredients? These questions are key to understanding…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Everybody Has Those Days
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
Brooklyn Historical Society Staff, circa 1990. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.Have you ever felt like this at work? The real question is, what exactly is the person in the photograph feeling and expressing? Why was this photograph taken? To me, this photograph evokes extreme frustration, possibly having to do with their work or with their computer. But to different people, the picture could evoke different emotions, such as exhaustion or perhaps even pain from a headache. Unfortunately, we don’t have any more…
POTW: Coney Island Boardwalk
It's officially summer time so today's Photo of the Week is brought to you by the Edgar E Rutter collection. It is an 8 x 10 print that shows the exterior view of Coney Island beach and the boardwalk under construction. Image includes a portion of the amusement park in the distant background. Inscription reads: "General view looking east from Steeplechase Pier."Edgar E. Rutter served as the official photographer for the borough of Brooklyn in the early 20th century. The photographs in this collection are almost exclusively from his work in that capacity, although some photographs are from the…
PotW: Is Your Summer Booked?
Summer is here, bringing long lazy days with time for relaxed reading at the beach and parks. This photo shows a group of youngsters attending a library festival at the Bushwick Branch of Brooklyn Public Library in 1968. Every year the library hosts free programs and resources to enrich your summer with reading and cultural activities. See what we have on offer this year on our Summer at the Library page.Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s…
Seeing Stars: Astronomical Observatories in Brooklyn
Close on the heels of the recent excitement around the 2024 solar eclipse, we received an email from one of our readers who was able to expand on what we know about one of our photographs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: an astronomical observatory in the back yard of a Flatbush home. (I emphasize astronomical because I found in my research in our Brooklyn Newsstand that the word observatory was often used for observation points on high…
PotW: New York's Floating Cars
Before trucks became common, trains carried most American freight over land. In the same era, New York Harbor became the busiest port in the United States — if not one of the busiest in the world. Brooklyn’s (and all of Long Island’s) factories, refineries, and warehouses were only connected via freight rail to…
PotW: A Mournful Ouroboros
This black beaded bracelet is shaped like a coiled snake swallowing its own tail, which is an image known as an ouroboros. The ouroboros symbol can have many meanings, but this one, created during the late 19th century, represents the eternal cycle of life and death. The bracelet’s color, materials, and symbolism identify it as an article of mourning jewelry. Victorian mourning culture was…
PotW from the Vault: Cat named “Lazybones”
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on January 9, 2019 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. The photo of the week depicts a cat named “Lazybones,”…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Here’s to Baseball!
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers' victory over the Yankees in the 1955 World Series, the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) curated PLAY BALL! – an exhibit that told the story of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson. Today’s Photo of the Week captures a moment from the exhibition's opening day festivities, where attendees were invited to participate…
Brooklyn poets remember
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
“She wrote poetry, she published, she was read, and then she died.” Former Brooklyn poet laureate D. Nurkse spoke those words as an introduction to the poet Enid Dame. Nurkse was one of seven poets who read in the Othmer library last month to a packed room. Each poet selected poems from the Center for Brooklyn History’s library and archives collections and read them in conversation with their own poetry and reflections. Nurkse, in his words on Dame…
The House on the Hill
Today's Photo of the Week showcases a beautiful home in Bay Ridge at 8311 Ridge Boulevard. This stunning mansion at the top of a hill is still standing today, though it is located at the corner of 84th Street and Ridge Boulevard, not 85th Street as this postcard states. The house…
From the Vault: An Ode to Brooklyn Poets
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
I am reviving, from the vaults, this photo of a major gathering of Brooklyn "literary talent", first featured in this blog about Brooklyn poetry. The original Brooklyn Daily Eagle captions read:"Array of noted literary talent of Brooklyn gathers around folk singer Oscar Brand at the National Library Week Luncheon in the Hotel St. George on Tuesday, April 5. Seated, left…
Green-Wood Cemetery
Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery, [190-?], Brooklyn Postcard collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. The Center for Brooklyn History provides this guide for those researching Green-Wood Cemetery. The Center for Brooklyn History’s holdings include books, photographs, maps, deeds, illustrations, and oral histories. In addition to these materials, researchers are encouraged to browse the collections and other research guides for resources that may be relevant to their work. To make an appointment or ask a question, please contact cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org…
Hello, Doily!
Mass-produced items can still require the human touch. This Photo of the Week depicts an employee of the Royal Lace Paper Works at 846 Lorimer Street hand-engraving a metal die with intricate floral patterns. Though the dies themselves were manufacturing tools, the skill needed to create them was similar to that needed to engrave fine silver. Each die would…
Portals to the Past: A Peek Through the Archives
For the past few years, in pursuit of a new career as an information professional, I have been working towards a master’s degree in library and information science (MLIS) with a concentration in archival studies from the iSchool at the University of Missouri, where I will be graduating in May. My profound passion for libraries and archives stems from the belief that providing access to valuable resources is a fundamental service to the community, especially for those underrepresented individuals whose stories are often overlooked and difficult to discover. As a queer first-generation minority…
Opening the Pocket Doors: The Enthusiastic Catalogers Department
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
Brooklyn Historical Society Staff, circa 1994. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.Did your favorite singer release an album recently and use an image of a card catalog to promote said album? Are you not entirely sure what a card catalog actually is? Not to worry, we are here to explain! Let’s first look at the word catalog: for the purpose of libraries at its most basic level, it is an organized list of books held by a specific library. Prior to cards, library catalogs were recorded in books. But as…
The Rocks Cry Out
On June 8, 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in Brooklyn, I took a walk in Prospect Park on a shady path across the East Drive from the Vale of Cashmere, notable for a line of large rocks…
A Tree Grows on Garfield Place
Walking around Park Slope is especially lovely in the Spring as the trees bloom to create a canopy over the sidewalks. One of the neighborhood's most beautiful streets, Garfield Place, has Raymond V. Ingersoll to thank. Ingersoll served as Brooklyn Parks Commissioner from 1914 to 1917, making tree planting around the borough a top priority for his administration. Garfield Place…
A Peek Inside Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital
Beware letting a photographer document your medical procedures lest it end up in a future form of communication we have yet to imagine. This Photo of the Week, taken around 1890, is one of five scenes captured inside the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital around 1890, possibly for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Here a doctor administers anesthesia to a…
Margaret Armstrong, Alice Morse, and the Decorated Cloth Book Cover
In the 1880s, two New Yorkers burst into the competitive scene of cloth book cover design: Margaret Nielson Armstrong (1867–1944), a Manhattanite, and Alice Cordelia Morse (1863–1961), a Brooklynite. They became two of the major forces behind the art's golden age, which lasted from about 1880 to 1910. Fourteen of their works are on display at the Center for Brooklyn History, now through June 2024.
Opening the Pocket Doors: Voices of Brooklyn
On January 1, 1898, the city of Brooklyn officially became a borough and joined Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx to form New York City. To mark the centennial of this event, the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) created an original theatrical production titled Voices of Brooklyn. Voices of Brooklyn is a 40-minute dramatic performance that tells the…
Cutting up carpenters
Who knew shopwork classes could be so fun! This week's Photo of the Week depicts (from left to right) 6-year-olds Richard Steiner, Augustus Jackson, and Nicholas Parese working on some carpentry projects in May 1952. This class was hosted by Willoughby House, a settlement house founded in 1901, which provided art, drama, and athletic workshops for Brooklyn kids and young people in…
Rain, rain, go away
I don't know about you but I'm pretty sick of rain - and we haven't even reached the storied April showers yet. Regardless, I take solace in the fact that rain-flooded streets are nothing new in Brooklyn, as this circa 1910 lantern slide by Ralph Irving Lloyd proves. Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd (1875-1969) was a Brooklyn…
Ramadan
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
Young girl at evening prayers with her father during Ramadan, 2010, GERH_0001; Robert E. Gerhardt, Jr. photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.This Sunday, March 10 marks the new moon and the start of Ramadan. In this photo from the Robert E. Gerhardt, Jr. photograph collection, a young girl stares intently into the camera. She and her father are praying at the Muslim American Society in Bath Beach, 1933 Bath Avenue, in 2010. Robert Gerhardt Began photographing Muslims in Brooklyn in 2010 during Ramadan, leading him to photograph mosques and Muslims all…
Dipping into the Collection: Thall and Lopez family papers and photographs
For this month's blog post we thought we might take a peek into the collection, looking at the Thall and Lopez family papers and photographs. The collection consists of documents, ephemera, and photographs related to several generations of the Thall and Lopez families of Canarsie, Brooklyn. Included in the collection are letters, photographs, account ledgers, blue prints, wills, deeds, stock certificates, Civil War infantry manual, Civil War currency, notes, newspaper clippings, electrification contracts, and assorted legal documents. It’s an interesting look at a family that has lived in…
Railfan Sandwich Man's Loco-Motive to Increase Business
Local businesses are acts of faith - an individual dream of creating a place that people will want to patronize, enriching the owners and community alike. This Photo of the Week shows one inventive owner’s novel idea to boost his business. In early 1951, Ben Lewanda took over the Parkway Sandwich Shop, 4223 Fort Hamilton Parkway. Finding his custom lacked pep, he got the idea of installing a model train to travel around the periphery…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Beauty and the Beer (An Exhibit That Never Was)
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
[Beauty and the Beer exhibit advertisement], ca. 2000. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.She’s beauty and she’s grace, she’s Miss..Rheingold? That’s right. From 1941 until 1965, the beer company, Rheingold Brewery—best known as the official beer of the New York Mets—also ran a beauty contest called Miss Rheingold. The beer company was founded by German-Jewish immigrant Samuel Liebmann in the 1850s in Brooklyn. His sons took over their father’s brewery about a decade later and eventually changed the name to…
For Valentine’s Day, a Love Letter to Joan Maynard, Activist and Artist
February is both the month of Black history and the month of love, so what better time to discuss one of Brooklyn’s most beloved historical figures, Joan Maynard! Joan Maynard is probably best known for her work as the first Executive Director of the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History (now usually shortened to the Weeksville Society), a position she held from 1974-2011. Weeksville was an independent community of…
Biking with a Friend
What's better than riding a bike on the beach? Riding a bike on the beach with a friend. Today's Photo of the Week looks at the tandem bicycle, an intimate vehicle that requires teamwork. Operating a tandem bike might be easy, but finding a tandem partner is tricky. You need someone sporty, unafraid of leg cramps, with the desire to go in the same direction as…
Documenting a Brownstone's Rebirth
In 2018, the New York Times published a story about an unusual Carroll Gardens brownstone for sale. 12 Second Place had been painstakingly restored during the brownstone revival movement of the 1960s and 70s, and had been owned by the same couple, Jane and Thor Rinden, ever since. Moreover, the Rindens had documented their five-year renovation process (1968-1973) in a charming and intimate scrapbook filled with photographs and memories. Fascinated by this story, I left a comment on the article, and fortuitously enough, the Rindens' estate decided that the scrapbook should come to the…
Happy Black History Month
Happy Black History Month! Today's Photo of the Week is from the Anthony Geathers photograph collection, which consists of about 66 images taken in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations throughout Brooklyn. This image depicts a young boy on a man's shoulder as they listen to people speaking at a demonstration at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Mr…
Midwinter Remembrance
As we enter midwinter, take in this snowy Photo of the Week of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park from 1926. This monument was created by Stanford White and Adolph Alexander Weinman in 1908. It memorializes the roughly 11,500 captives who died aboard British prison ships in Brooklyn’s Wallabout Bay during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). The conditions on the ships were horrific…
Great big beautiful dolls
In August of 1951, Park Slope kids competed in P.S. 77's "beautiful doll" contest. This week's Photo of the Week shows the winners standing proudly with their entries in the schoolyard (from left to right): Judith Flynn (third place), Barbara Joyce Wendel, Roberta Hope Wendel (the Wendel's got the grand prize), and Camille Stafanello (first place). Second place winner Arlene Kennedy did not…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Adopt-A-Block
In the 1990s, the librarians at the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) dedicated significant efforts to implementing measures aimed at preserving and enhancing access to the Society’s collections. Several of these initiatives took the form of cataloging projects, many of which spanned multiple years and were funded by state and government agencies. By the…
From the Vault: Majestic Theater
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on January 27, 2016 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. The photo of the week depicts a view of Fulton Street, including the Majestic Theater, in the Fort…
Love of Line, of Light and Shadow: The Brooklyn Bridge
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
Clarinetist F. Gerard Errante commissioned a clarinet score and video from Reynold Weidenaar as a "centennial tribute to the Brooklyn Bridge" in 1982. Musical America described Love of Line, of Light and Shadow: The Brooklyn Bridge as "a strangely moving, evocative work ... visually spectacular ... with an equally fascinating soundtrack of traffic resonances and…
Opening the Pocket Doors: A History of Education at the Brooklyn Historical Society
Education departments play a pivotal role in museum settings. Through teacher workshops, student and adult programs, guided tours, and more, museum educators are tasked with creating accessible educational opportunities, facilitating open conversations, reducing barriers to participation, and ultimately ensuring that the museum experience is meaningful for all patrons. One of the record groups that I was most…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Say Cheese!
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
Is it even a holiday if you didn't all get together for a big, awkward group photo? While we don’t have all the details behind this particular group photo of a staff party for the Brooklyn Historical Society, we know that director, David Kahn, is pictured on the far right with fellow staff members around 1990. And we can definitely relate to everyone being told to “squeeze together!” or the classic, “say…
From the Vault: Real Brooklyn, a day in our lives photographs now available at BHS
This From the Vault post was originally written by John Zarrillo and published on March 10, 2016 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. This post was authored by BHS Library and Archives processing intern…
World Wildlife Day & the Pigeon
December 4th marks World Wildlife Day, which the United Nations describes as “an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people.” When thinking of Brooklyn wildlife, the first that comes to mind might be the pigeon. This bird certainly does not require conservation efforts today, and…
Honor Among Thieves?
Today’s dramatic Photo of the Week documents a slick Flatbush burglary with an unusual conclusion. A tenacious robber, who tried several times to gain entry claiming to be a repairman, finally hoodwinked the wary housekeeper by waiting until she brought out the garbage. He brandished a gun and then, joined by a partner lurking nearby, they gained access. Once in, they stole furs, jewels and cash and locked Mrs. Arline Tompkins and the other person on the…
All this for the Dodgers!
Anyone else missing baseball season? This week's Photo of the Week takes us to Ebbets Field where we see a crowd of fans who were unable to get into the final game of the Yankees-Dodgers 1952 World Series. Over 33,000 people attended the game, so many people were turned away at the gates. The boy in the middle appears to be pleading with the photographer to let him in, others look like they would squeeze…
Pint-Sized Pilgrims
Residents of the Infants Home of Brooklyn, located at 1358 56th Street attended their 1951 Thanksgiving dinner dressed as pint-sized pilgrims, ready to hunt their own turkey! For children living at the Infants Home, a holiday to gather with family may have felt a little sad, but we love how their caregivers tried to make the holiday a little more fun. We hope these little ones had the best Thanksgiving ever. At…
Not forgotten: Activism in the AIDS/Brooklyn exhibition collection
Friday, December 1 is World AIDS Day, a day started by the World Health Organization in 1988 to "show strength and solidarity against HIV stigma and to remember lives lost." The first World AIDS Day was recognized by awareness events (such as condom distributions and fundraisers), discussions among medical experts and human rights advocates, and world leaders calling on the United Nations to increase their efforts to combat the…
Opening the Pocket Doors: What Could Have Been
KatherineLooking up at the looming and detailed façade of 128 Pierrepont, it’s difficult to imagine anything else in its place. The classic Queen Anne style seems to fit right in with the surrounding brownstones, completing the historic feel of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. But in 1868, when the former Long Island Historical Society (LIHS)…
From the Vault: Ruby's Bar
This From the Vault post was originally written by Julie May and published on May 13, 2013 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. This Photo of the Week was originally written and published by the Brooklyn Historical Society, so some terms and links may be out of date. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History…
Opening the Pocket Doors: A Stained Glass Mystery
If you've visited the Othmer Library, you might have noticed the large stained glass lunettes (arched windows) on the gallery level. These are original to the space, but did you know there used to be more stained glass features throughout the building? Similar lunettes, faintly visible in the photo below, once adorned the Great Hall. More obscure is the stained glass screen at the rear…
May the Library Be With You
The year is 1977. You're obsessed with the best movie you've ever seen in your life, Star Wars. Of course you want to dress as the movie's hero, Luke Skywalker, for Halloween. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of Star Wars costumes everywhere, as retailers scrambled to catch up with the movie's unforeseen popularity. So you pull out your galoshes and utility belt to get that perfect…
Opening the Pocket Doors: A Room of (Our) Own
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
If you were to go up to the third floor of 128 Pierrepont and walk to the doors that read “Gina Ingoglia Weiner Gallery” and peer through the windows, you would see a room that currently holds a portion of the Center for Brooklyn History’s collections in neat rows of archival boxes. But this room was not always utilized for storage; prior to a storage room, it was used as an exhibit…
National Pasta Day
Did you know that October 17th is National Pasta Day? According to Italy Magazine, there are approximately 350 different types of pasta, including a personal favorite, macaroni. These curved, bouncy little tubes are the perfect vehicle for a variety of sauces and cheeses or eaten alone with butter and garlic. If you lived in Brooklyn…
Black Masons in Brooklyn: an Indomitable Brotherhood
I became interested in the subject of Freemasonry after happening upon several pictures of African American Masons in our Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs. I have…
Halloween Inspiration
Tis the season to get your Halloween costumes ready! Need inspiration? Perhaps this haunting Photo of the Week can assist. Here we have six children dressed as what appear to be bears, bunnies, and…perhaps baby birds? Shrubbery? Stumps? Whatever they are, we hope they inspire you. This image is believed to have been taken during the 1910s at the Gregg Chapel at 190 4th Avenue. The…
The Blessing of Brooke the Office Cat
This week's Photo of the Week takes us to St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church in Greenpoint where Brooke the cat is being blessed by a priest during a Blessing of the Animals event circa 2010. The Blessing of the Animals is observed in the Catholic Church in conjunction with the annual Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4th. The man holding Brooke, Joseph R. Lentol…
From the Vault: Transformation and Discovery
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
This From the Vault post was originally written by Julie May (who loves the fall) and published on October 1, 2014 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. As we should expect of our…
Prospect Park Zoo
Today's Photo of the Week is from the Daniel Berry Austin collection. Austin was an amateur photographer whose subjects often included farms and landscapes. This photo, of one of the buffalo's at the Prospect Park Zoo, was taken in 1902. The Prospect Park Zoo opened in 1890. At the time it was known as The Menagrie. Of the original facilities in the park, the Deer Paddock, located near the present Carousel, was…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Get Out Your Camera!
Clams, anyone? In celebration of the 75th anniversary of its founding, the Long Island Historical Society (LIHS) sponsored a photo contest geared toward Long Island’s students. Dozens of private and public high schools from all four counties in Long Island (Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk) were invited to participate. LIHS specifically requested student involvement because the board…
I Married the Widow of the Man Who Shot Your Horse
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
A researcher wrote to me a few months back, seeking to fact check a piece of romantic Civil War hearsay. * He had heard of a promise made on the battlefield between two soldiers of Brooklyn’s 14th Regiment at the second battle of Bull Run in August, 1862. Quartermaster Sargeant Alexander Barnie Jr. was said to have vowed to the mortally wounded Lieutenant Josiah M. Grumman to marry…
Park Slope's Colorful Past
Today's Photo of the Week shows one block of Park Place looking noticeably different than it does today. Several of the classic nineteenth century brownstone rowhouses on this block are painted not-so-classic colors, with blue, yellow, and mint green all lining up next to the traditional reddish brown of the leftmost house. A bright red convertible in the foregorund brings another…
These Homes are for the Birds
In spring of 1916 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle posted a challenge to the children of Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties: make a birdhouse for the birds of Long Island. The invite appeared in the Junior Eagle - in a section dedicated to…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Save the Clock Tower!
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
What time is it? Unfortunately, if you were to take a look at the clock tower at the top of 128 Pierrepont, you would not get a reliable answer. Part of the original design by George B. Post, the clock tower has been a part of the building since its construction between the years of 1878 and 1881.…
The George Aptecker Collection
Today's Photo of the Week looks at an image from the George Aptecker collection. Aptecker was a photographer and diarist who photographed street scenes and portraits in and around New York City. He was a frequent contributor to U.S. Camera Magazine, Camera 35 Magazine, and Modern Photography Magazine. He also exhibited his work at the Village Camera Club, Underground Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of…
Telephone Booth: From the Vaults
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on October 4, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. In the not-so-distant past, telephone booths could be seen on…
New York City History Day
SonyaLast June, 30 students from New York City participated in National History Day, a contest for Middle and High School students held at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. After months of hard work crafting original historical research projects and competing in multiple contests, they were selected from over 500,000 students who competed internationally. The projects, all connected to the theme – Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas – ranged in topic and presentation. From performances examining the visionary of David Sarnoff and his impact on television; to papers examining…
International Lifeguard Appreciation Day
Celebrate International Lifeguard Appreciation Day (July 31) with this Photo of the Week, which ran in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on August 20th, 1951. The original caption reads “Maxie, the lifeguard at the Infants Home of Brooklyn, whistles while he works.” The accompanying blurb continues, saying, “When it comes to expert protection of life, leave it to four-year-old Maxie. He is the…
Cumberland Street Hospital's magnet
Is this modern art or Cumberland Street Hopital's 500-pound, $280 electric magnet? This Photo of the Week, originally published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in April 1924, shows a demonstration of the magnet's considerable power: "when plugged into an ordinary electric socket it can lift a steel door key from a hand 12 inches below." While this is an impressive display, the magnet was actually meant…
Opening the Pocket Doors: A Peek Inside the Vault
This week’s photo of the week takes us on a journey into the depths of the Long Island Historical Society (LIHS) building. In the cellar, nestled opposite the crawl space and underneath the stairs, is where one would find the LIHS vault. The safe door, pictured here, was installed after the introduction of the elevator in 1937. The room was lit by a single lighting fixture in the center of…
Remembering Summer 2020
Three years ago this summer, the streets of Brooklyn, like the streets of cities all across the country, erupted in Black Lives Matter protests in response to the murder of George Floyd along with so many others at the hands of the police. As in years past, the area around Brooklyn's Central library became a gathering point for protesters. Then newly part of the…
Happy Fourth of July
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
Today's photo of fireworks double exposed over a sherbet sky comes from the photographer Otto Dreschmeyer. Dreschmeyer was a resident of Ridgewood (briefly Brooklyn, once and currently Queens) and the son of German immigrants, about whom very little is known. Dreschmeyer was an amateur photographer who captured the kinds of images many of us have on our photo rolls today: parades, cats, and fireworks. Have…
Bookplates: Explanation and Inspiration
A bookplate is a label attached to the inside cover of a book, usually with the owner's name or initials, sometimes following the Latin phrase “ex libris” which translates to “from the books of.” Each label is unique to its owner, a way of announcing to the world, "This is mine!" A label that we would recognize as a modern bookplate has origins in late 15th century Germany. One of the first examples is this small hand-colored woodcut print depicting an angel holding a shield, which appears in books from the library of scholar and priest Hilprand Brandenburg (1442-1514). By…
Brooklyn Fire Headquarters
This From the Vault post was originally written by Dan Brenner and published on June 5, 2019 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. In 1892, the Brooklyn Fire Department opened its headquarters at 365…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Humble Beginnings at the Hamilton
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
When the Long Island Historical Society was founded in 1863, its founding members had grand ideas to house a library and host lectures but did not yet have their own building. The society’s permanent residence did not begin construction until 1878, eventually being completed in 1881. So where was the Long…
My Parents’ Wedding Photo
We never had much artwork in our home. The visual centerpiece of our living room was a symmetrical arrangement of three framed photographs: my parents’ hand oiled color wedding portrait in the center, flanked by the black and white high school graduation photos of me and my younger brother Robert. My parents, Carmella and Anthony Racioppo, displayed this same wedding portrait in each of their three Brooklyn apartments. I grew up seeing it every day. As I learned about photography, I realized what a good photograph it was: a professionally lighted studio portrait taken with a Century view…
Brooklyn Army Terminal
Today’s Photo of the Week shows the interior of the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT), a sprawling complex spanning 95 acres on the Sunset Park waterfront. Designed by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1919, it was the largest military supply base in the United States. In this photo, we can see supply trains and balconies, which allowed cranes to access cargo from any floor. BAT also served as headquarters for the New York Port…
When Disco Was King
For this week's Photo of the Week we are rolling back the clock to 1980 and we're strapping on our skates for a cruise around the dance floor of the Empire Roller Disco on Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights. The indoor rink could accommodate 2,500 skaters and was reportedly so crowded that "if you fell, you didn't fall." In February of 1980 Patrick D. Pagnano, the street photographer, was hired by Forbes Magazine to capture that moment. “It…
A Horse-Drawn Toilet
This Photo of the Week* highlights what at first seems to be a perfectly ordinary horse-drawn carriage. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the team of six is not drawing a carriage, but rather a toilet. Ronalds…
Penny-farthing
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on June 14, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. The photo of the week depicts Eddie Tepper posing with a penny-farthing bicycle in 1886. This is…
Opening the Pocket Doors: The Trails and Trials of Miss Edna Huntington
I recently finished processing the library correspondence sub-series of the Brooklyn Historical Society’s (BHS) Institutional archive, which contains almost all the mail library staff received from 1863 to the mid-1990s. There are reference questions, membership acceptances and resignations, correspondence to and from other institutions, RSVPs, and much more. Looking at these records provides insight into the activities…
Olives on the Avenue
Today's Photo of the Week takes us to a Brooklyn institution, Sahadi's on Atlantic Avenue. This photograph of bins of olives and grains inside the store taken by Jim Kalett circa 1983 is similar to one published in Brooklyn...and How It Got That Way by David McCullough, for which Kalett was the photographer. The book notes that the western end of Atlantic Avenue became "…
Happy May Day from this Brighton Beach Fishmonger
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
George Cohen, a Bronx-born photographer, donated a selection of his photographs of 1980s Brighton Beach to the Brooklyn Public Library in 2013. On this May Day qua International Workers' Day, I found a worker cutting a fish for sale in Brighton Beach in 1987. This fishmonger reminded me of my father, who worked as a fish cutter in Ohio in the 1980s. He made frequent trips to New York where he…
Eugenie Fribourg: Nearly 99 Years in Brooklyn
May is Jewish American Heritage Month and to celebrate I thought we could take a closer look at the Eugenie Fribourg Family Photographs and Ephemera Collection. It is comprised of materials relating to and documenting the family and professional life of Eugenie Merzbach Fribourg, a Jewish-American Brooklynite whose life spanned nearly the entire 20th century. She was born in 1908 and died in 2007, just weeks before her 99th birthday and the vast majority of her life was spent in Brooklyn.
Opening the Pocket Doors: Underneath the Floorboards
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
It’s not every day you get the chance to see what lies underneath the floors of an old building. And while we don’t have any beating hearts underneath our floorboards, this photograph offers us a rare glimpse of the foundation of 128 Pierrepont Street. As was mentioned in our first Opening the Pocket Doors post written by my colleague, Nicole Font, our building at 128…
Want a Tattoo? Fuhgeddaboudit!
Did you know that from 1961-1997 tattooing was banned in New York City? The city blamed the ban on an outbreak of Hepatitis B, but the shops may have been casualties of Mayor Wagner’s crusade to “clean up” ahead of the 1964 World’s Fair. With the shops closed many artists left the city, but a few began working out of apartments, and any New Yorker could still get a tattoo if they knew where to look. This photograph shows a family peeking…
The Shot Heard Round the World
To celebrate the return of baseball season, today's Photo of the Week is of Ralph Branca, the man who became famous for what would be called The Shot Heard Round the World. Ralph Branca pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1944-1953 and then again in 1956. He also pitched for the Tigers (1953-1954) and the Yankees (1954). A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career high of 21 wins in 1947. In 1948 he…
Assessing an 1848 Clairvoyant's Predictions for Brooklyn's Future
On November 21, 1848, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran an article titled “An Evening with a Clairvoyant '' in which an unnamed woman mesmerically read from a book written 102 years into the future. The topic: “the history of…
Four Horses of Fort Greene
In this Photo of the Week, Brooklynites of two and four legs are lured to what appears to be a refreshing fountain on a warm day. The women wear light, summery patterns, and the workmen have bared their shirtsleeves and even forearms. Yet neither heat nor work could disrupt hat fashions. The women display their ornamented millinery while the men sport a variety…
Brooklyn Goes Daffy - It's Spring!
Spring has officially sprung, on March 20th to be exact, and with it come the bright faces of flowers. I am always on the lookout for blooms in the late days of winter, but for me the daffodils mark the true turn of the season. This photo of the week, taken in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 1935, makes the flowers look like they are glowing. If you think the flowers are…
Opening the Pocket Doors: The Women’s Committee of the Long Island Historical Society
To celebrate Women's History Month, this week's photo takes us back to 1968 for a fashion show presented by the Women's Committee of the Long Island History Society (LIHS). The Women’s Committee formed in 1959 to further the objectives of LIHS through fundraising and planning social events. Its creation was spearheaded by Maud E. Dillard, who served as its president from 1959 to 1964. Following her term,…
One Pub's Layered History
This Friday is Saint Patrick's Day, so I searched our Digital Collections portal for something Irish to share for Photo of the Week. I was pleasantly surprised to find an image from my own neighborhood, Bay Ridge, which is home to many Irish-American families. This color photograph of the Ballybunion Irish bar at 9510 3rd Avenue was taken in 2012 and donated to the Our Streets, Our Stories…
Happy Women's History Month from three Queen Esthers
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
Today's photo of the week comes from the Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection. Five Hasidic children stand on the front step of a Williamsburg building on Purim in 1965. Three are dressed as Queen Esther, hero of the Book of Esther, who saved the Jewish people of ancient Persia from King Haman. To read more about the Herzberg collection, see this 2014 blog post. Although some of…
A Tale of Two Schools: a Brooklyn-France Connection in the Aftermath of World War II
On December 12, 1947, Madame Carrillon, La Directrice of Collège Jules-Ferry in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France wrote to Packer Collegiate…
A Decade in the Life of a Brooklyn Photographer: the Laura Fitzpatrick Collection
Today’s Photo of the Week comes from the collection of Laura Fitzpatrick, who began taking pictures at age 11 of her friends, family and neighbors in Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, during the years 1938-1948. Our photo depicts Laura and her mother Elizabeth standing on a Brooklyn street, elegantly dressed and coiffed. Behind them we see a line of storefronts and a man breezing by in a wide cap. In…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Celebrating Presidents' Day with President Susan Mullin
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
Happy Presidents’ Day! This week, we are sharing an image of former Brooklyn Historical Society President, Susan Mullin, who both enacted and embodied change within the Historical Society. Susan Mullin, originally from Virginia, moved to Brooklyn Heights with her husband soon after marrying. She immediately took to Brooklyn’s charm and diversity. While Mullin initially ran an antique shop on Pineapple Street, she…
Celebrating Don Newcombe
Happy Black History Month! Today we’re celebrating Dodgers pitcher Don “Big Newk” Newcombe. Born in New Jersey in 1926, he played for the Newark Eagles, Nashua Dodgers, and the Montreal Royals before pitching his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 20, 1949. Later that year he became the first Black pitcher to start a World Series game and was named Rookie of the Year. After completing two years of…
Soup Season: The Syrian-Jewish Edition
It's Soup Season! Today's Photo of the Week comes from our Brooklyn Jewish History Project. This is Fritzie Abadi (Hidary) on a Syrian cooking day, testing her recipe. Fritzi (Frieda) was chef Jennifer Abadi's grandmother. Her cookbook-memoir, “A Fistful of Lentils: Syrian-Jewish Recipes from Grandma Fritzie’s Kitchen” (now in its new and revised…
Opening the Pocket Doors: What Past Exhibitions Reveal
Throughout its 157-year history, the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) executed over 150 exhibitions. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working to process the Exhibits and Special Projects portion of BHS’s institutional archive. To wrap up this part of the project, this blog post highlights the exhibits that stand out as significant in BHS history, particularly those that demonstrate how the society's values…
Brooklyn's Mechanical Milkman
Today we’re celebrating not leaving the building for basic necessities! It’s too cold out there. In 1953, automats had been thriving throughout New York City for decades, but Rowe Corporation endeavored to explore territory beyond the cafeteria: the apartment lobby. The Clinton Hill Apartments became the testing site for the charmingly retro-futuristic “mechanical milkman,” which claimed to save women from “braving Winter…
Kane Street Synagogue
This photo of the week shows the sanctuary interior of Kane Street Synagogue in Cobble Hill in 1934. The building was constructed in 1855 as a Middle Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the Norman style of Romanesque architecture and was subsequently owned by the Trinity German Lutheran Church. Congregation Baith Israel purchased the building in 1905 when they moved from their Boerum Hill Synagogue (Congregations…
Odessa in Brooklyn
This image of a restaurant in Brighton Beach is from our small collection of photographs by Marcia Bricker. Bricker, a documentary photographer, had worked for the federal jobs program CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) documenting the Soviet refugees that began settling in the Brighton Beach area in the 1970s when the Soviet Union relaxed immigration policies. In…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Ba Da Dao/Sunset Park Chinatown History Project
Today’s photo of the week shows a moment from the opening of New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community in June 1996. The event featured lion dancers, shadow puppets, food, games, and calligraphy workshops. In this photo, taken in the Othmer library, lions stand beside a shadow puppet theater as an excited audience (not pictured) waits for the play to begin. In 1992, The Brooklyn Historical…
Sliding into the New Year
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on February 18, 2015 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. This POTW was originally posted late in a snowy winter. We have yet to see…
Stories a Photo Can Tell
I recently reprocessed the composite collection Early Brooklyn and Long Island photographs (ARC.201). This 1900 class photo from P.S. 15 is included in the collection. We have many class photographs like this one, such as in our Class Photographs collection (BCMS.0029) and our Brooklyn schools collection (CBHM.0006). But what caught my interest about this photo was an index card…
July 16, 1968 Was Hot
The holidays are over and we're sliding into the cold, quiet weeks of deep winter. Today's Photo of the Week hopes to bring some color and heat to these dark days! This photo shows Astroland's Over the Falls in front of the Cyclone on July 16, 1968. The photographer, Otto Dreschmeyer, noted on the back of the image that the day was hot. After the freezing holiday weekend, it might be difficult to…
Opening the Pocket Doors: A Look at Executive Director, David Kahn
Katherine, Leon Levy Senior Processing Archivist
Welcome to our second installment of Opening the Pocket Doors, our ongoing series looking into the processing of the Institutional Records of the Brooklyn Historical Society. In our previous post in this series, we delved into a brief history of our institution, formerly known as both the Long Island Historical Society and the Brooklyn Historical Society. Today, we…
Dining Under the Dome
The Dome Motor Inn was THE place to stay when traveling to Kamloops in mid-20th century Canada. A couple hundred miles northeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, Kamloops was home to the popular inn, which boasted a dome-covered restaurant that itself became a tourist destination. Red and lime-green vinyl seats surrounded wood tables that were arranged beneath an…
Brooklyn Theater Fire: The Musical!
On this day, December 5th, 1876, the Brooklyn Theater, on the corner of Washington and Johnson Streets caught fire. This was a terrible tragedy, and close to 300 people lost their lives. You can read more about that tragedy on our The Brooklyn Theater Fire of December 1876: a community's response post. Instead, today's post is inspired by J.W. Turner, singer/songwriter, who took that tragedy and turned it…
Cutting a Rug: Evidence(s) of Social Dance in Brooklyn
Roll up the rug – what you do at the start of a house party Cut a rug – what happens when you neglected to roll it up first I’ve been a social dancer most of my life, and the form closest to my heart is Lindy hop. I was interested to see what I could find in the archive that documented…
The Smallest Horse in the World
Before Cyber Monday became a multi day event, before stampedes of parents besieged displays of Elmo and Cabbage Patch kids with greater gusto than I will ever understand, there was the neighborhood department store. While Manhattan had Macy’s, Brooklyn had Abraham & Straus. On Valentine's Day, 1865, Abraham & Straus opened its doors at 285 Fulton Street as Wechsler & Abraham, a “…
Bundling Up
It finally feels like fall in New York and Brooklynites are starting to bundle up. This photo of the week takes us to the sidewalks of 1950s New York where little Cataldo Piccione poses for the camera in his one-piece winter suit. While the exact location of this scene is unknown, we can see the familiar sight of buildings rising in the background and a not quite legible…
Opening the Pocket Doors: Processing Brooklyn Historical Society’s Institutional Records
The week’s photo of the week shows an unidentified man standing in front of our landmark building located at 128 Pierrepont Street. Designed by architect George B. Post and built in 1878-81, the four-story Queen Anne-style building features ornamentation made from locally produced terra cotta. For over 150 years, staff in this building have worked to preserve, provide access to, and…
Hurricane Sandy
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on November 7, 2018 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. It’s been ten years since Hurricane Sandy, but it’s not soon…
Be Kind, Rewind
Today's Photo of the Week rewinds to 1986, where a boy is peering into a Brighton Beach video store. These entertainment temples started in the late 1970s and wound down in the 2000s, although there are still some to be found in New York City, serving those looking for a hit of nostalgia or simply unwilling to make the jump to streaming. We all remember having to settle for an older title because the new…
The Lady of Gravesend
The Lady so integral to the history and development of Brooklyn spent most of her life in England. She was born Deborah Dunch around 1586, in London’s Gray’s Inn or a country estate outside the city. Her father, Walter Dunch, was a barrister and her grandfather, William Dunch, was an Auditor of the Royal Mint. She was a child during the reign of Elizabeth I, and grew up in the shadow of the plague, which had killed one-quarter to one-third of London’s population only twenty years before her birth and made appearances again in 1581 and 1592.
No Bones About It – They Are Getting the Skinny on This Exam Subject
In honor of the scary season, today's photo of the week features our popular Halloween friend. Here in Brooklyn Heights within the last few weeks we’ve seen skeletons clambering up or down the sides of buildings, leaning chattily over a table in quiet conversation, or…
Five Children and a Puppy
Gina MurrellIn the bright sun, five Black children squat down on the ground, forming a semicircle. Four have their hair carefully sectioned off in plaits, the fifth has natural hair closely shaven, as if fresh from the barber. All five look on with affection, their arms outstretched. What is the object of their focus? A fluffy puppy on a…
The Elephantine Colossus
This From the Vault post was originally written by Dan Brenner and published on November 6, 2019 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. The Elephantine Colossus was an elephant-shaped hotel attraction located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Coney Island from 1885 through…
LGBTQ+ History Resources at the Center for Brooklyn History
October is LGBTQ+History Month. In the weeks leading up to this month celebrating the history and achievements of LGBTQ+communities, a question that is asked by researchers is: What resources do the Center for Brooklyn History have on queer people? The answer? A lot! This Brooklynology blog post will highlight several CBH LGBTQ+history resources that can be referenced in October and all year-round…
Risky Business: October 1878
LizaSo begins another October, arguably Brooklyn’s best month (feel free to debate me in the comments). Let’s take a moment to travel back to another Brooklyn October, back to this photographed moment in October 1878. Brooklyn was independent from New York City, no Statue of Liberty was yet visible from Brooklyn’s shores, and the only way to reach Manhattan was by boat. But this last detail was…
Wasted Space, But Not for Long
Can you guess where this week's Photo of the Week was taken? "Referred to as 'the hole' by library personnel," this cavernous space was the sub-basement of our very own Central Library. In this photo we see a miniature Chief Librarian, Francis R. S. John, speaking with a Brooklyn Eagle reporter about plans for the space to be converted into stacks for 500,000 more books. This sub-basement was…
A Child's Bedroom in 1880
I recently updated the finding aid for our Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection (ARC.201) and came across this haunting image of a child's bedroom in a home at 28 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights. Taken around 1880, the image shows a number of dolls standing and sitting in the room, looking disturbingly as if they had just been caught mid-action. Sunlight streams…
Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, 1900-1939
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on September 13, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. In the dog days of summer, it seems fitting to call out a collection…
The World of Miklos Suba
When artist and trained architect Miklos Suba (1880-1944) immigrated to NYC in 1924, he was confronted with a starkly different cityscape compared to his native Hungary. Suba quickly became enthralled by the American urban landscape. He spent hours wandering the busy streets and industrial areas along Brooklyn’s waterfront in search of his next subject. During these excursions, Suba produced numerous…
Remembering 9/11 with Larry Racioppo and Amy Weinstein
Larry Racioppo and Amy Weinstein
This month's guest blog post comes from friend of the blog Larry Racioppo and Amy Weinstein. First is Larry's contribution followed by Amy's. On February 19, 2002, I met Jan Ramirez, the vice president and director of the New York Historical Society's museum, at St. Paul’s Chapel, the oldest church building in Manhattan. Soon after the 9/11 attacks she helped to launch History Responds. As part of this series, she commissioned me to photograph the Chapel’s wrought-iron fence which ran north along Broadway from Fulton Street to Vesey Street. Thousands of New Yorkers and…
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge was completed in 1903, making it the second of three bridges to connect Brooklyn to our neighbors in Manhattan. Make no mistake, this middle sister is no Jan Brady. At completion, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world and quickly became a vital artery for movement between the boroughs. The bridge was one of the last to be designed to accommodate horse and carriage traffic and…
Shirley Chisholm Visits Fulton Street Festival
In 1972, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm strolled the tables lining Fulton Street, stopping to chat with vendors at the bustling outdoor festival in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. Just four years earlier, in 1968, Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress,…
Jacob Mann Photographs
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on February 28, 2018 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. Brooklyn Historical Society is fortunate to have several fine art photographers represented in the photography…
The Skate Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln’s Unexpected Legacy in Prospect Park
Abraham Lincoln never thought he would witness a kickflip. Never mind seeing one while cast in bronze and elevated nearly nineteen feet high over the southeast corner of Prospect Park lake. However if you stroll through the park’s ornate Concert Grove and make your way down to the waterfront esplanade, taking care to avoid the skateboarders flying around Abe’s feet, you will find yourself being scrutinized by more than the sunbathing red-eared slider turtles who have (against all odds) also made the lake their home. Skaters grind, slide, and slam under the watchful eye of the United…
Hot Dog Days
It's the dog days of summer here in Brooklyn, a perfect time to head down to Coney Island and enjoy a hot dog on the boardwalk. This coat of arms honoring the 50th anniversary of the hot dog in 1939 shows a royal figure knighting a kneeling hot dog in the center. On the sides are two dachshunds (wiener dogs, of course) standing on their hind legs with faces turned up towards a radiant pot of "sinapi" ("…
Remembering CETA artists in NYC
Walking through the Clark Street subway station in Brooklyn Heights, one can easily miss the two colorful tile murals installed near the entrances. Completed in 1981 by artists Jonah Sellenraad, Alan Samalin, and ceramicist Joe Stallone, the murals depict several nearby attractions, including Plymouth Church and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
Summer Vibes
Welcome to August! To bring us into the final weeks of summer vacation, this Photo of the Week is all about those summer vibes. A bevy of the titular "bathing beauties" is seen frolicking in the surf at Coney Island, each with a different stylish swimsuit and creative coif. The palpable joy on their faces is what drew me to this image. Of course during these…
One-Woman Coney Express
Today’s Photo of the Week features a photogenic protest against the curtailment of postal service. The previous year the Post Office ran a deficit of $550, 000. On April 18, 1950 the Postmaster General, Jesse M. Donaldson, acting on advice of the House Appropriations Committee, cut…
Anders Goldfarb Photographs of Coney Island
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on August 23, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. Anders Goldfarb is a Brooklyn-born documentary photographer. After receiving…
Mourning the Victorian Way
This simple, braided bracelet holds a special meaning. If you look closely, you’ll see that the braid is actually made of human hair. Although not widely practiced today, collecting a lock of hair from a deceased loved one to incorporate into a piece of jewelry was quite common in the Victorian era. According to author Allison Meier “There was also a hair jewelry industry that emerged with workshops and retailers to support this fashion…
Extortionists Targeting Abortion Doctors Arrested
In 1954, sixteen years before abortion was decriminalized in New York, four extortionists made it their business to blackmail doctors believed to be performing the then illegal procedure. Two of them posed as cops. They were Bruno Makan, 35, of 185 Marine Avenue in Brooklyn; Robert Murphy, 30, of 61 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn; Doris Aviron, 24, of 311 W. 178th Street in Manhattan;…
UnBanning Books Since 1934
You might have heard of our recent initiative Books UnBanned, which allows individuals ages 13-21 nationwide to apply for a free BPL eCard, providing access to our full eBook collection as well as our learning databases, and which makes a selection of frequently challenged and banned eBook & audiobook titles always available for BPL cardholders. But obviously, banning books and restricting access to information is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. Did you know that in 1934, the Brooklyn Jewish Center founded the American Library of Nazi-Banned Books? Though it's…
To Save Three Lives
Tuesday, June 14th is World Blood Donor Day, so this Photo of the Week takes us to a scene at Kings County Hospital on October 22, 1948. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle caption, eight firefighters donated four quarts of blood "To Save Three Lives." The firefighters knew the three girls for whom they were donating blood: "Dolores Johnson, 4, and her sister, Eleanor, 2, in the institution with critical…
Kindergarten Class at Fort Greene Park
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on September 20, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. No matter the decade or time period, it sure is challenging to keep kindergarteners…
From Factory to Community Hub
I recently reprocessed our small Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation publication and photograph collection (ARC.124), which includes this photograph. At first I was thrown off by a notation on the back reading "Sheffield," and thought this must show Sheffield Avenue in New Lots. But I quickly realized…
Introducing the Park Slope Civic Council Records
The Park Slope Civic Council (PSCC) was founded in 1896 as the South Brooklyn Board of Trade, a kind of chamber of commerce formed to lobby the city and state for improvements to infrastructure and services across the geographic area south of Downtown Brooklyn. In the late 1950s, the South Brooklyn Board of Trade changed its name to the Park Slope Civic Council in order to improve engagement in the neighborhood. As a result of this change, PSCC leaders planned to center civic projects and residents' needs, as opposed to focusing mostly on business owners. …
Fighting Metal: Keys to Victory
When I first saw today’s POTW, I thought - Best jewelry ever, but what is the story here? The photo’s caption covers the bare essentials, but left me opportunities to dig for more. Miss Charlotte Villanyi [standing in front of several book shelves] tries out…
Home Sweet Hut
Today's Photo of the Week takes us to one of the city's first housing developments for veterans and their families. These semi-cylindrical structures made of corrugated steel sheets, known as Quonset huts, were erected along the Belt Parkway in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Canarsie and Gravesend. The steel huts, leased from the Federal government and shipped from a naval base in Rhode Island, provided temporary…
Wonder Wheel
The world-famous Wonder Wheel is a Ferris wheel (also known as a pleasure wheel) designed by Romanian immigrant Charles Herman and operated by his business partner Herman Garms. Herman walked away after the Wheel’s completion, reportedly earning no money for his invention. Garms ran the Wheel for sixty years, spending his summers sleeping in a home beneath the ride. In 1983, the Wheel was sold to Denos…
Miss Chien at the Book Chute
On Monday, June 18, 1962, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle announced the opening of a "New Borough Library": the Brooklyn Heights Branch and Business Library. The newspaper sent photographer Ben Schiff to take photos of the new library and its staff, including Janet Chien, seen in the above Photo of the Week. In the photos that Schiff took for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Chien can be seen seated with library coworkers…
Community-driven Change in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greater Gowanus
Throughout the Center for Brooklyn History’s archival collections there exists evidence of grassroots community organizations mobilizing to improve the quality of life for Brooklyn residents. Two recently processed collections provide insight into the people, programs, and services of community-driven neighborhood associations in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greater Gowanus, meanwhile illuminating common and reoccurring issues faced by residents throughout the greater metropolitan area. This month we take a closer look at the history and impact of the Prospect Lefferts Gardens…
Jamel Shabazz's Portrait of Louis Reyes Rivera
For this Photo of the Week, we are highlighting the work of Jamel Shabazz, a Brooklyn photographer who picked up his first camera at the age of fifteen. Shabazz says his goal is to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture. While having incredible range, Shabazz is often most known for documenting the people of Red Hook, Brownsville, Flatbush, Fort Green, Harlem, the Lower East Side and Bronx's Grand Concourse.…
April Showers Bring May Flowers and Floods
This week’s Photo of the Week looks back just 15 years to April 2007. A person in jeans and a raincoat rides their bicycle through at least eight inches of water with their kid in tow. The caption on the back of the photograph reads “4.15.07 - Flooding. End of 1st street and Canal.” In April 2007, a devastating Nor'easter barreled up the East Coast of the United States,…
Bringing Swagger to the Court Since 1910
For this Photo of the Week we have a captivating portrait of the Adelphi College senior basketball team from their 1910 yearbook. These six women, with their puffy, ruffled dresses, elaborate updos, and, in one case, an enormous hair bow, hardly fit our modern conception of athletic. Nonetheless, they project a confidence, even a ruthlessness, that makes it clear they were formidable on the court. Look…
What’s Better Than a Bake Sale?
This gangly construction was the brainchild of Rev. Dr. James Donohoe of St. Thomas Aquinas Church at 9th Street and 4th Avenue who, desiring to fund the construction of a new school to serve his parish, struck on the idea of offering outdoor picture shows on the planned school site. The setup was carefully considered, with a solid projection building, metal screen, electric…
Sun and Sea Therapy for Children
The Seaside Home for Children, run by the Brooklyn Children's Aid Society, was a seasonal charitable facility for sick and lower-income children and their mothers. Located in Coney Island amongst the luxury shoreline resorts, the Home offered families a few days by the sea at no cost. On-site medical care from a dedicated team of doctors and nurses was also available.…
The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company
The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company traces back to 18th century Bavaria, where carpenter Casper (Kasper) Faber began crafting and selling lead pencils in the small town of Stein. Casper’s son Anton Wilhelm (A.W.), took over the business in 1784, renaming it the A.W. Faber Company. In 1790, French scientist Nicholas Jacques Conte developed a method for heating a mixture of graphite and clay to form a superior writing tool that could be…
Early Years of the Pratt Institute
Today’s Photo of the Week looks at a classroom in the early years of the Pratt Institute. The school was founded by businessman and philanthropist Charles Pratt, who envisioned a school for working-class people to get hands-on experience in industrial trades, arts, and engineering. The school opened in 1887, just a few blocks from Pratt’s home at 232 Clinton Avenue. Starting with only twelve…
The Cube as an Alternate Plan to Urban Renewal
In the mid-1980s, there was a rejuvenated plan to redevelop several blocks in Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan. Called the New Cooper Square Plan, it was a continuation of an earlier plan, called the Cooper Square Alternate Plan, that was formulated in reaction to a Robert Moses/New York City urban renewal plan that had threatened to…
The Evolution of Thought: Work by Lucille Fornasieri Gold
This week's Photo of the Week highlights the work of Lucille Fornasieri Gold, a Brooklyn photographer. She started photographing with a Leica camera in 1968, while her children were in school. She would develop and print in the kitchen darkroom of her home in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. When she moved, she lost her darkroom and while her negatives were processed, they remained unprinted for…
Changing Tides: 1965 Journal of Brooklyn CORE
Founded in Chicago in 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality - better known as CORE - is an interracial organization focused on nonviolent, direct action to achieve equal rights for Black Americans in all areas of US society. While southern chapters of the organization often made national headlines, there were chapters outside the South, including in Brooklyn, New York. The Brooklyn chapter of CORE…
On a Boat Built for One
This week's Photo of the Week takes us to a scene on the Canarsie Creek in 1924 where 1-year-old, William Johnson, floats in a little toy boat next to a skiff holding an unidentified man and boy. It's possible this creek is a section of the Fresh Creek Nature Preserve, a body of water between Canarsie and Starrett City in the Jamaica Bay Watershed. In October 2021, the Governor's Office of…
Windows of Rare Beauty
We've lately had some surprisingly warm days in Brooklyn, and though they've been mixed with days appropriately cold for February, I nonetheless found my thoughts turning toward Spring. So for today's Photo of the Week, we have this Brooklyn Eagle photograph of a spring-themed stained glass window. The window was commissioned by Howard E. Raymond in memory of his…
Built for Brooklyn History: A Place With Many Names
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on July 26, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. Visitors to the Center for Brooklyn History on Pierrepont Street sometimes…
An Unsightly Approach
The Brooklyn Bridge is arguably one of the most--if not the most--iconic symbols of Brooklyn. It has been depicted in art, like Hungarian-born American artist Miklos Suba’s version above, and replicated the world over. So, it's hard to imagine a time when the bridge was ever considered ugly. In fact, in the early 1900s, the approach to the bridge from the Brooklyn side was referred to by some as "the ugliest spot in the…
Shark attacks in Brooklyn? Fuhgeddaboudit!
They probably won’t need a bigger boat to haul in this little shark, caught off the coast of Sheepshead Bay. Although sharks can be found in Brooklyn’s waterways, attacks are extremely uncommon. In fact, the last shark attack in Sheepshead Bay was in 1916, when swimmers Gertrude Hoffman and Thomas Richards escaped with non-fatal injuries. Brooklynites have little to fear from these finned…
Eubie Blake and the Legitimization of the Black Musical
His father called him Bully. His mother called him Wally. Neighbors called him Mouse. Relatives called him Eubie. And Eubie was the one that stuck for James Herbert Blake. Happy Black History Month, Brooklyn fans! Today we're going to spend time with the American pianist, lyricist, and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music, Eubie Blake. Not orginally from Brooklyn, but a resident, Eubie Blake was born February 7, 1887…
Civic Center Book Shop: "For Lovers of Old Books"
"He’s sort of a crazy guy," said Walter Goldwater about Irving Binkin, the proprietor of Civic Center Book Shop, in New York City Bookshops in the 1930s and 1940s: The Recollections of Walter Goldwater. "And has a great big bookshop with a lot of stuff in it." The "great big bookshop with a lot of stuff in it," Civic Center Book Shop was…
Atoms for Peace and Goodbye, Central Library
Today, former Brooklyn Collection materials, staff, and all the rest officially moved to our new home at the Brooklyn Historical Society building on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights. As our own exhibits at Central Library also become a thing of the past, let's appreciate this view of the Flatbush Avenue side of Central Library, where the Atoms for Peace exhibit trailer was parked in the 1950s. While we may not know exactly what was on…
Hell's Gate Explosion
AllysonOn October 10, 1885 the ground in Princeton, New Jersey shook. There was no great earthquake. It was, instead, the largest planned detonation prior to the atomic bomb. In order to clear obstacles from Hell Gate - a narrow tidal strait in the East River -- and free up ship traffic the US Army Corp of Engineers started blowing up several obstructions in the waters. This…
Macaroni-Making Machine
Ever wonder how the pasta gets made? This photograph from circa 1932 shows an "Automatic Short Paste Drying Unit," which promised pasta-making "From Press to Package without Handling." The machine itself was manufactured by the Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation at 156-166 Sixth Street in Gowanus. Ignazio De Francisci, an engineer from Sicily, founded Consolidated Macaroni…
Coordinating Dance Moves and Community in Brighton Beach
If your New Year's resolutions include getting more exercise, perhaps these gals in a Brighton Beach dance class can provide a little inspiration. Photographer George Cohen captured the scene in 1987 at the Shorefront YM-YWHA (Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association), a Jewish Community Center on Coney Island Avenue in Brighton Beach. The first YMHA…
"The Fastest and Most Thrilling Ride Ever Offered the Public": Flying Turns at Steeplechase Park
It's January in Brooklyn, but one can always take a journey into summer through the collections at the Center for Brooklyn History (CBH). CBH holds many archival collections and digitized photographs on our digital collections portal and online image gallery that document Coney Island and its fantastic amusement parks, such as Luna Park, Dreamland and Steeplechase Park.
A Million Possibilities
Brooklyn Public Library kicked off celebrations of its 125th anniversary on November 30th and will continue them into the new year. In honor of that, and in the spirit of celebration and possibility brought by the New Year this week, today's Photo of the Week is of fireworks at the Central Library for BPL's centennial in 1997. On November 30, 1896…
Encounter with Kismet on a Ride Through Bed-Stuy
DeborahCycling recently through Bed-Stuy I was startled to see two huge onion domes, one with a sag to its finial, rising above neighboring rooflines and I stopped to take some pictures of a remarkable building. A banner on the front indicated it is the Friendship…
Gil Hodges Gets His Due
We’re thrilled that Gil Hodges has finally been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Hodges was one of the famed “Boys of Summer,” but he started life as a son of the Midwest. Born in Princeton, Indiana in 1924 he excelled at high school baseball, basketball, track, and football. After attending…
The Brooklyn Theatre Fire of December 1876: a community's response
At the Center for Brooklyn History, a variety of collections document Brooklyn's vaudeville and theater scenes—from scrapbooks where individuals preserved programs and tickets, to periodicals like The Opera Glass, the Brooklyn Daily Programme and The Brooklyn Daily Stage. These serve as a testament to the popularity of these performances among a wide and diverse segment of Brooklynites.
One Photographer's Reflections on Protests and the Pandemic
As part of Brooklyn Resists, we have invited local photographers, both amateur and professional, to contribute their work to the community-driven digital archive hosted by Urban Archive. Interested in submitting your own photographs, ephemera, audio recordings, or artwork? Click here to find out more about our community collecting project. At the end of May 2020, the case of George Floyd unleashed an unprecedented series of protests all over the United States and beyond…
The Restoration of Endale Arch
AllysonThis photograph, aside from being an excellent candidate for the liminal spaces Twitter account, depicts the view that park-goers would have seen when exiting the Endale Arch and entering the Long Meadow. It is located under Park Drive, which at construction, would…
Brooklyn's Dog and Horse Parade
The Thanksgiving holiday often revolves around food, family, and friends, but awaiting those holiday mainstays brings its own traditions. For some, one of these might be tuning into the National Dog Show. With a nod to that event, this week’s Photo of the Week…
Happy Birthday Marianne Moore
Brooklyn poet Marianne Moore was born on this day in 1887. For a birthday tribute, today's Photo of the Week is this striking portrait of her from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle photo morgue. This image appeared in the Eagle on June 3, 1951 alongside an announcement of Moore winning an honorary degree at the University of Rochester. That same year, Moore's Collected Poems…
Eaglets on a Jolly Jamboree
In summer 1919, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane invited the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper to conduct a tour of parks of the northwest for the purposes of "stimulating American travel to American resorts," which also "successfully inaugurated the new motor transport service between some of these parks." In 1920, he again invited the Eagle to arrange a tour, this time to assist in the dedication ceremonies for…
Bring Your Photo ID: Filling Gaps in the Archive
Everyone loves a mystery, and we have no lack of them here in the archive. Some are in the form of unidentified photographs waiting for eagle-eyed staff or other longtime Brooklynites to recognize their true identities and bring them out of the darkness. Today’s Photo of the Week flashed into view as I was browsing our collection, a picture identified only as…
Trommer's Near-Beer
Today's Photo of the Week takes us to Trommer’s Brewery at Bushwick Avenue and Conway Street. Brewery President George Trommer (right) is smashing a beer bottle to celebrate a new fleet of delivery trucks. George was the son of founder John F. Trommer, a German immigrant who worked as Brewmaster at Ulmer’s until 1897 when he purchased an existing brewery and changed the name to Trommer’s Evergreen Brewery. George took over the business…
A Tough Rowhouse to Hoe: On Agriculture and Urban Development
It's difficult to picture from where we're standing, but until the 1920s, significant portions of southern Brooklyn were still farmland. This week's Photo of the Week comes from Edgar E. Rutter (1883-1956), a commercial photographer who was employed by the New York State Public Service Commission and various other state and city agencies to photograph the sites of proposed construction projects in Brooklyn and…
The Kanawake Teieriwakwata hymnal: aiding Mohawk services in the city of churches
Today's Photo of the Week takes us to Boerum Hill, where residents of the Kahnewake Mohawk territory near Montreal, Canada, settled in the early and mid-20th century. The Mohawk are one of six nations that belong to the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Nation. The large number of Kahnewake Mohawks who resided in this section of Brooklyn while pursuing economic opportunities in New York City earned the area the…
A (Maybe) Brooklyn Haunting for Spooky Season
AllysonEach day on my walk to work I pass the Litchfield Villa, admire it for its Italianate style architecture, glance at the dance class that is usually taking place on the front lawn and continue on my way. It was designed and built in 1854 by Alexander Jackson Davis, a prominent architect for Edwin Clark Litchfield, a railroad and real estate developer. He's the one who turned a small creek into Gowanus…
The Art of Healing: Works from the Veterans Creative Arts Program collection
New York City is host to art programs for diverse populations offered in a range of venues: museums, schools, libraries, cultural institutions and hospitals. It is rare to get a glimpse of artworks made by veterans of military service. From 2008-2017 the Veterans Creative Arts Program, hosted at the Veterans Affairs (VA) New York Harbor Hospital, Brooklyn Campus, offered…
Dressing for Tradition
I recently finished processing the Brooklyn Heights Garden Club collection, which chronicles the club's history through documents, ephemera, clippings, and scrapbooks. The club was founded in 1940 by Mrs. Thomas Sturgis to "bring added beauty to Brooklyn Heights by the creation and cultivation of gardens, plantings and window boxes." In 1949, the club started organizing an annual…
The Soap Fat Collector
Soap making during the 1800s was dirty business. It required two key ingredients: rendered animal fat and lye, a caustic substance traditionally made from wood ashes. Before industrialization, many Brooklynites made their own soap using accumulated cooking fat and grease from the home. The final product, known as soft soap, was stored in barrels and used…
Faces of a Family in 19th Century New York: the Ramus Collection
The first set of photographs originating from the former Brooklyn Historical Society to be featured in the Center for Brooklyn History digital portal is the Ramus family collection. It is a tantalizing set of images rich in examples of fashionable dress between 1848 and 1910 and a variety of photographic techniques including daguerreotypes, tintypes,…
A Legacy in Lead
As New York City students return to the classroom, we’re dreaming of fresh school supplies. Notebooks, rulers, folders, and of course: pencils. Were you the kid who always had two freshly sharpened pencils ready to go at a moment’s notice? Were you the monster who borrowed a pencil and never returned it? Either way, there’s a good chance you've used a Faber pencil. The Faber family started manufacturing pencils in Germany…
April 1, 1949: A Day in Brooklyn Labor History
On April 1, 1949, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was full of news of workers on strike. The headline for the day announced that a taxi strike was on and "90% tied up," meaning that all but 701 of the city's 11,510 taxicabs had refused to start their engines. Meanwhile, CIO radio operators at Pan-American Airways had launched a strike over deadlocked contract negotiations, and in a slim article further down the page, readers…
The Poet From Syria
Anna SchwartzFamily history research is one of the Center for Brooklyn History's most popular research topics. Millions of people can trace their roots back to Brooklyn. Yet despite an abundance of resources available at CBH, piecing together the social history of one's ancestors--or anyone for that matter--can be difficult, exhausting, and full of dead ends. Several months ago, I ran across the name of a young dentist (and poet) in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle who emigrated to…
Inman's Vaudeville
AllysonThis week's photo is of Inman's Casino, which was located on the Bowery of Coney Island. The Bowery was south of Surf Avenue and ran from Jones Walk to West 16th Street on the east side of Steeplechase Park. Its main drag, known as Ocean Avenue until around 1905 and as Bowery Lane thereafter, ran parallel to Surf Ocean. The Vaudeville opened prior to 1900, and claimed to cater to women and children. But if this…
Water, Water Everywhere
This week's Photo of the Week takes us to the intersection of Sutter and Saratoga Avenues in Brownsville in July 1923, when severe storms turned the borough's streets into rivers, flooded subway stations and basements, and caused guysers to erupt from manhole covers. Lightning blasted apart wood paving blocks on Cortelyou Road in Flatbush, threw a construction worker from his ladder on Ocean…
An Unusual Ride to School
Today's photo of the week comes from the recently processed Kasper Family Collection. The Kasper family lived at the Manhattan Beach Veterans Housing Project in South Brooklyn in the late 1940s. The Manhattan Beach project was one of many veterans housing projects that the city created in the late 1940s to respond to a surge in demand as soldiers returned from overseas. As this 2011 Brooklynology blog…
Housing Starts: The Riverside Buildings and the Push for Affordable Housing in Brooklyn
In the late 19th century housing conditions for the poor in Brooklyn were crowded, unsafe, poorly ventilated, and lacked amenities. Today's Photo of the Week shows one of the first efforts in our borough to create affordable and pleasant housing for those who struggled to pay the rent. The cyanotype above…
An Icy Summer
For non-native New Yorkers like myself, surviving the hot, humid days of summer feels like an annual badge of pride. Grabbing a popsicle from the freezer or an ice cream cone from the neighborhood creamery has long been a favorite way to beat the heat. Today, most Brooklynites take access to cold and frozen food for…
Debate and Diplomacy in Brooklyn’s History
Jen HoyerEvery year, the National History Day contest provides students with an opportunity to dive into research related to an overall theme and present their findings in a variety of formats at their regional contest. We’re thrilled to host the regional contest for New York City at the Center for Brooklyn History in the 2021-22 school year, and we’ve been using the summer break to brainstorm some of our favorite topics related to this year’s contest theme. This year’s theme is Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences. You can read more about the theme at nhd.org/theme.…
Hat Works of Knox the Hatter
Today we're looking at the imposing apartment building at 369-413 St. Marks Avenue that began life as the world’s largest hat factory. Founded by Irish immigrant Charles Knox, the Knox Hat Company began operations in lower Manhattan, selling beaver hats in a small store he opened in 1838. Through promotion and word of mouth, the business built an impressive clientele, including Abraham…
Steve Brodie Jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and Lived (Maybe?)
This is a rendering of Steve Brodie a resident of Manhattan and former newsboy who claimed to have jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and lived. The bridge, then called the East River Bridge had just recently been completed in 1883 and on July 23, 1886, Brodie took the plunge. Or did he? The…
Contribute to our Brooklyn Resists Community Collecting Project
This week's Photo of the Week is a call to action. Did you know that one facet of Brooklyn Resists is a community collecting initiative? We invite you to share your thoughts, experiences, and digitized personal artifacts as part of the Brooklyn Resists community collecting project. Learn more about what this entails and read our statement of purpose and guidelines here. Our ultimate goal is to provide…
Celebrating Student Research: Brooklyn Connections 2020-21
Brooklyn Connections is a program run by the Center for Brooklyn History’s education department that cultivates 21st Century learning skills in students and supports teachers with the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. Click here to view a selection of this year's Brooklyn Connections final projects. Has gentrification affected the lives of immigrants in Brooklyn? How did Coney Island become the destination it is today? If you could…
Bulger's Hotel: Subway Construction Photographs Shed Light on a Lost Brooklyn Business
Cecily DyerOne of the most frequent challenges for staff and researchers in CBH's Othmer Library is finding photographs that provide evidence of Brooklyn's past built environment. The city's 1940 tax photos are our go-to resource, but these can miss houses, businesses, and community landmarks that were razed in earlier years. For some…
Brooklyn's Lost Saltwater Oasis
As a summer heat wave kicks off the last few days of Pride Month, our Photo of the Week takes us to an elegant indoor pool at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights. The Hotel St. George was once the city's largest hotel and a glamorous spot to see and be seen. It was also a known cruising and gathering space for gay men, some of whom resided at the hotel. As such, it has been featured in two of…
The Lost Murals of Borough Hall
This week's POTW takes us inside the office of the new incoming Brooklyn Borough President as New Yorkers get ready to vote in the June 22 primary election. Borough Hall, originally City Hall, is located in the heart of downtown Brooklyn and is one of the borough's oldest public buildings. It was also home to two highly contentious 900 square foot murals, whose final fate remains unknown today.…
Process of EL-imination: the last days of the Fulton Street elevated
In search of something wholly unrelated, I fell upon the mischievous photograph above from the Eagle commemorating the final run of the…
Lionel the Lion-Faced Man
Stephan Bibrowski (1890–1932), also known as "Lionel the Lion-Faced Man," was born outside Warsaw, Poland with a rare condition called hypertrichosis. Often called “werewolf syndrome” hypertrichosis causes excessive hair growth on the body and is now thought to be hereditary. While Stephan’s mother was pregnant with him she watched as his father was attacked by a lion, an event she believed caused Stephen’s condition. At four…
Taking a Bite Out of Spiritualism
When the Scientific American offered a $2500 prize to anyone who could produce a visible psychic manifestation, Chicago medium Elizabeth Allen Tomson answered the call. In the Fall of 1923 she arrived in New York with her husband and spokesman, Dr. Clarence Tomson and their daughter. Tomson performed several seances in homes across the city, using a technique that involved her entering a large cabinet where she fell into a trance and manifested spirits of the dead. One attendee not impressed with Tomson’s spiritual…
Wheeling in the Years: A Slice of Brooklyn Bicycle History
To close out National Bicycle Month, here's a little a celebration of bicycling in Brooklyn, from 1897 to the present. Even now, in the 21st century, I feel a powerful sense of freedom, exhilaration, and agency whenever I'm riding my bicycle around Brooklyn. It must have been truly extraordinary for women in the 19th century, who were newly admitted to the ranks of "wheel riders" in the 1890s. At the time, Brooklyn…
A Look Back at Brooklyn's Central Library
Recently the Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the completion of Phase One of a multi-phase renovation project. This phase returns space formerly used for administrative needs back to the public and creates five grand spaces: the Major Owens Welcome Center, New and…
A Story of Sands Street
Today's photo of the week takes us to the corner of Sands and Navy Streets in Vinegar Hill, a section of Downtown Brooklyn adjacent to the Navy Yard. While the neighborhood was named for the final battle of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, reflecting the large Irish population who settled here in the early to mid-1800s, people of all backgrounds resided in Vinegar Hill's densely-built streets. The…
A Mother's Immigration Story
This is a photo of Regina (Rivka, nee Kanner) Gottlieb and her daughter Madeline in a park on the Lower East Side in 1947. The joy on both of their faces is palpable, despite the difficult years that preceded this photo. Regina and her husband Alexander were both from Poland, Alexander from Borislaw and Regina from Lodz Ghetto. They had both survived …
The Librarian in Congress: The Life and Work of Major Owens
Representing Brooklyn From his roots as a librarian here at Brooklyn Public Library, to his ascent to the New York State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, Major Owens' legacy is defined by his work as a tireless antipoverty reformer and as an advocate for education, civil rights, Americans with disabilities, workers' rights, and immigrants. As Brooklyn Public Library cautiously opens the doors to Central Library and a handful of other branches a little further this month, we are also unveiling renovations and improvements that have taken place during our…
Spring, Is That You?
Anna SchwartzSpring in Brooklyn is often fleeting, lasting a month or two at most. With it brings relief from winter’s harsh weather, blooming flowers, and tepid evening breezes. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, spring also marked the return of sheep to Prospect Park. Every April, a large flock of Southdown, a breed known for its adaptability and good lambing…
Mesopotamia in Brownsville
DeborahToday’s Photo of the Week features a busy corner in Brownsville, 1501 Pitkin Avenue, where the stately Loew’s Pitkin Theater took up the entirety of the block between Legion Street and Saratoga Avenue. I was drawn to the building by this snapshot showing the random composition and distinctive pinked edges of mid-century candid photography, with the huge structure looming over a…
Park Slope's Old Tower House
Today’s photo of the week takes us to Park Slope, where a residence locally known as "the old tower house” once stood on the south side of 8th street between 5th and 6th avenues. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle published the above photograph of the old tower house in 1910, two years after the death of the building’s longtime owner, Asa B. Richardson. The Eagle claimed at the time that the…
Brooklyn in Blue
Today's Photo of the Week is a cyanotype created by New York City photographer Julius Wilcox. Wilcox was born in Vermont in 1837, moving to New York at the age of 29 and settling in Brooklyn. He made his living as a writer for the New York Evening Gazette and as part owner of a bicycle business. He seems to have taken up photography as a hobby, photographing mostly in Manhattan, favoring architecture and the city’s working-class and poor. His album of original cyanotypes with…
National Library Outreach Day: On Bookmobiles and Fugitive Libraries
This week is American Library Association's National Library Week, a time to celebrate library workers and outreach efforts, and promote library use and support. Wednesday, April 7th is National Library Outreach Day or the Day Formerly Known as Bookmobile Day. The bookmobile pictured above dates back to BPL's outreach efforts in the 1950s, a beauty known as the "Library on Wheels." The borough's first, its maiden voyage was in October 1951…
When the Dodgers went to the Bronx: Game 1 of the 1947 World Series
AllysonIt's been a strange long year and something like the start of baseball seems even stranger in our current climate. Fields and stadiums are opening slowly with limited entry and required vaccination cards. But back in 1947 all you needed to see a game was a ticket and some excitement. This is a shot of fans from Game 1 of the World Series pitting the New York Yankees against Brooklyn's own beloved Dodgers. 73,365…
The Opening of a Vaudeville Theater in Williamsburg
Amy LauTo celebrate the announcement in the beginning of March that theaters will reopen in April, our photo of the week takes us to the corner of Graham Avenue and Debevoise Street in Williamsburg. This corner was the location of the Folly Theater which opened on the afternoon of October 14, 1901. The Folly was owned by Richard Hyde who -- according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle --…
One Bedford-Stuyvesant Block's Industrial Past
This week’s Photo of the Week takes us to Kosciusko Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, on the block that forms the northern boundary of Herbert Von King Park (known in the 19th century as Tompkins Park).
Cleaning Up the Waterfront with N.A.G.
Dee BowersIn the early 1990s, residents of Greenpoint and Williamsburg were fed up with the city neglecting their neighborhoods. A number of grassroots community organizations sprang up in response to various issues, including development, community board planning processes, and excessive litter. One such organization was Neighbors Against Garbage (N.A.G.), founded in 1994 in a local…
The Brief Life of a Fanciful Building
DeborahOur photo of the week features the Fulton Ferry House that once stood where Old Fulton Street met the water’s edge in Brooklyn Heights, one in a series of ferry buildings on that site. One of the handsomest depictions of this building is paired in the Eagle photographs with an earlier Brooklyn ferry house, built sometime before 1746. The early view is adapted from an engraving in Stiles’ … history … of Brooklyn, N. Y. from 1683 to 1884. Stiles is…
Web Archiving at BPL: Saving Brooklyn's Web Content One URL at a Time
Dee BowersDid you know that Brooklyn Public Library has a web archive? In 2017, the Brooklyn Collection (now part of the new Center for Brooklyn History) joined the Internet Archive’s Community Webs program, in which public libraries around the country are given the funding and support to start and sustain web archives. We have been archiving Brooklyn web content through this program for over three years now. Web archiving is how we describe the process by which we save and preserve websites and web content in a stable and static archival format. This is…
Preserving Black History in Brooklyn
Anna SchwartzBlack historical sites are rapidly disappearing across Brooklyn despite efforts by local activists and preservationists. The destruction of these tangible sites of memory--largely as a result of redevelopment and gentrification--impacts the way we remember, understand, and tell history. The recent demolition of the Slave Theater in Bedford-…
Bedford-Stuyvesant's Dar-ul-Islam Movement
Maggie SchreinerThe Dar-ul-Islam, known as "the Dar," was one of the most significant grassroots movements established by African-American Sunni Muslims in the United States. The founding members of the Dar-ul-Islam came from the Islamic Mission of America, founded in 1939 by Daoud Ahmed Faisal and Sayedah Khadijah Faisal, at 143 State Street (the “State Street Mosque”). In 1962-1963…
Brooklyn's First Black Elected Official: Bertram L. Baker
Before Shirley Chisholm or David Dinkins made history, Bertram L. Baker paved the way. If you've found yourself on Jefferson Avenue between Tompkins and Throop Avenues, you may have noticed street signs announcing his name. The first Black elected official from Brooklyn, Bertram L. Baker made his debut in the New York State Assembly in November 1948, where he would serve for the next twenty-two years. It was a milestone in Brooklyn history, but do you know his story, or what politics in the borough looked like when he was elected?
Community and Activism in one Brooklyn Family's Roots
Cecily DyerA few years ago, I went in search of background information about a periodical in the Center for Brooklyn History collections called Afro-America. It was published in the late 1960s from Fred Richardson’s African American Bookstore in Crown Heights, which sold books by and about Black writers, poets, and political leaders, as well as picture books for children and art by Black artists. Fred opened the store when he was just 22.
The Life Saving Station of Manhattan Beach
This week's photo takes us to the lost eastern end of Manhattan Beach.Manhattan Beach, on the eastern end of Coney Island, was the brainchild of robber baron Austin Corbin. In the 1870s, he bought 500 acres here and erected two luxury resort hotels for vacationing New Yorkers (not all New Yorkers, however, as Corbin was a notorious anti-semite who barred Jews from the resort). He also built the New York and Manhattan Beach…
Generations of New Years
Photographer Larry Racioppo grew up in a large Italian-American family in Brooklyn, and his family has always been well-represented in his work. We hold a collection documenting his work and career, and many of the photographs from the collection are available on…
Brooklyn's Teen Poets
The teenage years are a difficult time, with emotions running high and relationships with the people in your life changing quickly. Poetry is a universal outlet for teens to explore feelings about themselves and their world. While most poems stay tucked away in journals or at the bottom of trash cans, some brave souls are eager to share. Before social media, publication in a school newspaper was one of the most direct ways for a poet to reach their peers. We combed through our Brooklyn High School newspapers for a selection of the very best teen poetry Brooklyn had to offer:…
When Coal Was King
A Few of Our Favorite Things: Holiday Photos from the Collections
NatibaThis year has proven to be a year like no other, full of ups and downs, and a longing from most for better and brighter days. Despite the challenges, we at the Center for Brooklyn History are grateful for what we've been able to achieve this year. A historic partnership between two long standing, and significant institutions, and with it, the opportunity to serve our community and our borough, by expanding access to a singular collection in a single space, free and open to all. For this edition of Photo of the Week, we'd like to share our personal picks from our combined collections, that…
Before the Roller Disco
The 1960 Plane Crash That Rocked Park Slope
Vanderveer Park: When Flatbush Was a Suburb
Vanderveer Park: When Flatbush Was a Suburb
The Curious Origins of Thanksgiving
Take Two Shots and Call Me in the Morning: The Business of Selling Beer and Liquor
Michelle MontalbanoA Brooklyn Block's Hidden History
A Short History of the Saratoga Park Playground
Saratoga Park is one of the many beautiful greenspaces Brooklyn has to offer. It’s the second largest park in Bedford-Stuyvesant, named for the nearby Saratoga Street, which takes its name from the Battles of Saratoga during the Revolutionary War. According to the New York City Parks Department, the word Saratoga might be Iroquois or Mohawk in origin, perhaps meaning either “springs from hillside” or “place of miraculous water in rock.” Before it became a park, the land was owned by James C. Brower and his family. Brower owned a hardware business, helped organize the New York and…
This Business of Voting…
Is It Un-American for Mothers to Work?
Designing the Library of the Future
Celebrating the Next Million Possibilities!
Reading Against the Grain in the Montauk Club Collection
The Brooklyn Collection is now part of the Center for Brooklyn History! Learn more about this historic partnership here. This post is a collaborative effort of historian Dylan Yeats, Vice President of the Montauk Club and co-chair of its History Committee, and archivist Diana Bowers-Smith, who processed the Montauk Club Collection at Brooklyn Public Library along with librarian and archives volunteer Kreya Jackson. Founded in 1889, when Brooklyn was still an independent city, the Montauk Club is a social club in the Park Slope neighborhood. Its landmarked Venetian Gothic clubhouse,…
Home Sweet Brooklyn
Fall(ing) into an Odd Brooklyn Autumn
Brooklyn Navy Yard oral history collection now available online!
The Migration of Mexican Cuisine
Summer Archives Internship Reflection from Sophia Terry
Summer Archives Internship Reflection from Fiona Wu
Sorting Mail at the Post Office
Supplementing Curriculum with Primary Sources
Brooklyn Connections is the education division of the Brooklyn Collection where we focus on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This post's author, Rachel Chapman, is a former science teacher and current school librarian at the George Westinghouse Educational Campus in downtown Brooklyn serving grades 6 through 12 where she enjoys engaging students in reading and research. Rachel received her Masters of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS) from the…
Mapping New York City's Waterways
Building NYC's Water Infrastructure
A Bungalow by the Bay
No To-Go Cocktails Allowed: Brooklyn's Temperance Village
On the Rail: the Behr Monorail that Never Was
A Grave Tale: Roswell Graves, Jr. and the Cemetery of the Evergreens
A Litigious Legacy: the Story of a Gravesend Map
Lesson Learned? Considering the Draft Riots of 1863 for Today
The arrival of 4,000 Union troops in Manhattan on Thursday, July 16, 1863, marked the beginning of the end to four days of civic unrest and racial violence throughout New York City, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. That week, hundreds of buildings had been ransacked and burned. 119 people had been killed (although some estimates push that number closer to 500) including 19 African Americans, 11 of whom had been publicly lynched.At the height of the Civil War, the events that came to be known as the Draft Riots ignited simmering class and racial tensions in a city–and country–spiraling in the wake…
Start Exploring with the BHS Map Portal
Brooklyn Connections Student Projects, an Online Gallery
Brooklyn Connections is the education division of the Brooklyn Collection where we focus on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. Click here to view a selection of this year's Brooklyn Connections final projects.
Announcing the Launch of the BHS Map Portal!
A Summer Day at Dreamland
Quarantine Summer
A Teacher Grows in Brooklyn: Sarah J. Smith Tompkins Garnet
In March 2020, just before the closure of Brooklyn Public Library’s physical spaces, the Brooklyn Connections team had the pleasure of spending a day at the Brooklyn College Archives with their archivists and a group of New York City school teachers for a day-long professional development workshop on women in Brooklyn. We were excited to be in the Brooklyn College Archives because of their fantastic collection of material about the life and work of Shirley Chisholm; this inspired us to look at material from the Brooklyn Collection that highlights the lives of other women of color in Brooklyn…
A Reckoning for Brooklyn's Philip Livingston: Slaver, Trader, and Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Transforming Brooklyn's Legal Landscape
In Honor of Black Life
What does remembrance look like? As an archivist, special collections manager and lover of history, a large part of remembrance for me is representation. This and other similar threads are constantly a part of how I think about the work we do at the Brooklyn Collection. Who are we representing? Who has enough, and who does not? I ask this every time I think about a possible donation or addition to our collection. Our current climate and the awakening being experienced by others around Black life and its importance (it is), how history is repeating itself and the renewed calls to remove…
Grammar School Graduation, 1900
Processing Privilege and Moving to Action: Watch, Listen, Explore
Structural Racism in America: Watch, Listen, Explore
Confronting a History of Injustice: Watch, Listen, Explore
Black Lives Matter
Finding your Brooklyn Roots in Brooklyn Historical Society's Beginnings
With its "Finding Your Brooklyn Roots" initiative, BHS invites its followers to submit questions about their Brooklyn ancestors. In this post, we share one of our recent discoveries based on one of your inquiries. When a patron wrote to us hoping to learn more about her family roots in Brooklyn, she didn’t expect that we would be able to trace her ancestors back to Brooklyn Historical Society. We were just as surprised to find out that her second and third-great grandfathers, Julian and John Hooper, were not only early members of the Society, but made several contributions to our collections…
Brooklyn is not a Place, It is a People
My Mother's Sisters
After singer-songwriter John Prine died on April 7, 2020 from coronavirus complications, local radio stations and media outlets created playlists of his “essential songs”. Listening to WFUV-FM, I heard When I Get to Heaven for the first time. The song, from Tree of Forgiveness, his 18th and last studio album in 2018, begins humorously, but then turns serious. Some of Prine’s lyrics really struck home for me: “I wanna see all my mama’s sisters because that’s where all the love starts. I miss ‘em all like crazy, bless their little hearts.” My mother had three sisters and four brothers who…
Class Portraits from Clinton Hill
“Spanish Influenza” in Brooklyn and What We Can Learn from Our History
We turn to the history of the “Spanish” influenza pandemic, which swept through New York City in several waves between 1918 and 1920. Today, insights from this past may help us cautiously begin this next chapter in our present.
Cleaning Up in Brooklyn
Backgrounds of Brooklyn: Historical Flair for Your Video Calls!
Keeping New York in Motion
Moving Day: When All of Brooklyn Moved at Once
Changing with the Times, Always First to Respond
"Indian Villages": The Story Behind a Map
Taking Stock of Staying Stocked
HIV in Our Communities
The Evolution of a Brooklyn Block
Online Instruction and Office Hours with Brooklyn Connections
To all the teachers who are teaching online right now, the Brooklyn Connections team wants to say: thank you for everything you are doing! We recognize how exceptionally challenging, time consuming and emotionally and physically taxing this work is and we are here to offer support. Let us know if we can help in any of the following ways: Online Instruction: Let us take the mic for awhile! Brooklyn Connections educators are here to deliver live or asynchronous lessons of your choosing for grades 4 through 12. What kind of lessons? Online research! (i.…
A Flatbush Pharmacy
Poison for Profit
Everybody gets sick. For most of us, our health is a deeply personal and even private topic. But sickness and health are also public issues that have long shaped Brooklyn’s economy, its built environment, its laws and institutions, and its diverse communities. Taking Care of Brooklyn: Stories of Sickness and Health is one of Brooklyn Historical Society’s current exhibitions which explores how centuries of Brooklynites have understood sickness and health. Through the experiences of everyday Brooklynites giving, receiving, demanding, and being denied health care, Taking Care of Brooklyn shows…
Stay Connected! Online Research Tutorials for Brooklyn Newsstand and our Digital Collections
Looking for tips for digging into your Brooklyn history research online? Check out our new video tutorials for Brooklyn Newsstand and the Brooklyn Collection's Digital Collections. Brooklyn Newsstand is a collection of digitized Brooklyn newspapers made available through a partnership with Newspapers.com. Right now, the full content of Brooklyn Newsstand is available for free from any location. The Digital Collections offer a selection of more than 20,000 historical photographs and maps from the Brooklyn Collection, and audio and video recordings created by the Brooklyn…
Cooking for Brooklyn
Contraception, Control & Care
Everybody gets sick. For most of us, our health is a deeply personal and even private topic. But sickness and health are also public issues that have long shaped Brooklyn’s economy, its built environment, its laws and institutions, and its diverse communities. Taking Care of Brooklyn: Stories of Sickness and Health is one of Brooklyn Historical Society’s current exhibitions which explores how centuries of Brooklynites have understood sickness and health. Through the experiences of everyday Brooklynites giving, receiving, demanding, and being denied health care, Taking Care of Brooklyn…
Doing Your Part to Take Care of Brooklyn
The Recap: Toxic City
Photographs and Reflection in the Time of Quarantine
I’m restless. I’m 72 years old and have been “sheltering at home” since March 7th. I’m not sure which I miss more – seeing my grandchildren or exploring the outskirts of New York City. I’ve spent many quiet hours photographing its waterfront and abandoned interiors. Almost every day since the 7th, I’ve scanned panoramic and large format negatives or made pigmented inkjet prints, and I expect to continue this routine in the weeks and months ahead. I’m lucky to have the means and equipment to do so, but man do I miss being out photographing. I’m trying to internalize the advice of my friend…
A Mother's Rights
Pandemics in Brooklyn: a view from 1918
It’s hard to know which of these things is more unexpected: that, in a time of health crisis and desperate need for accurate information, my first instinct is to read the newspaper from 100 years ago; or that said news coverage has proved oddly comforting. If either of these instincts resonates with you as well, check out what the Brooklyn Daily Eagle shared about the 1918 influenza pandemic. First of all: folks felt unsure about things. On September 18th, writing about “Influenza and Sports” (some things never change…), the Eagle reported that “Whether the influenza will flourish is a…
Hidden Ephemera in the Clippings Files
Beyond the stanchions, in the center of the Brooklyn Collection, sit two rows of cabinets. Clocking in at 110 drawers, they contain a collection of newspaper clippings that are finally getting some much-needed attention. The clippings files include folders with obscure labels such as "Local Color" and "Brooklyn Spirit", and the subjects they cover—the aforementioned included—are cataloged in a 447-page Word document. It is also one of our best-kept secrets. Though we use the clippings files to answer many reference questions, they are so sprawling and voluminous that even a…
Brooklyn Women Rule the Road
Emily Roebling's Bridge
Hunterfly Road and Brooklyn's Weeksville
New recordings from the Packer Collegiate Institute now online!
This post was written by Aliki Caloyeras, Brooklyn Historical Society Digitization Intern. Brooklyn Historical Society is pleased to announce the availability of over 175 newly digitized audio recordings, films, and videos from the Packer Collegiate Institute records (2014.019). This project has been made possible by a generous digitization grant from the Metropolitan Library Council (METRO), and follows up on our previous work with METRO to preserve quickly-deteriorating magnetic media and provide the public with easy access to our audio, video, and film collections.
Williamsburg families
From Castle Keeps to Community Spaces: The Evolution of Brooklyn’s Armories
Deborah
Desegregating Brooklyn's Classrooms
The Recap: Gentrification 2.0
A Leather Pocketbook
A Souvenir Bell Cast from the Fire
Brooklyn Historical Society's Statement in Support of our Colleagues at the Museum of Chinese in America
A statement from BHS President and CEO Deborah Schwartz The staff and Board of Brooklyn Historical Society are devastated by the news of the fire at 70 Mulberry Street, where MOCA stored its invaluable collections. We share MOCA’s commitment to the importance of local history, and we are prepared to help in any way we can as our colleagues establish their path to recovery. From its founding, MOCA has been a bold and creative voice in the museum field, never shrinking from the next challenge in telling the resilient stories of community. MOCA will need resources and expertise to get…
Alfred Steers's commemorative medals
Revolutionary-era cannonball
A Ceremonial Firefighter's Helmet
Happy New Year!
I, Asimov in Brooklyn: How the Library Shaped a Writer’s Mind
I'll write as I please and let the critics do the analyzing.
— Asimov, 1973
Cozy up for the holidays!
It's Christmastime in Brooklyn!
Manhattan Bridge
A Child’s Christmas in South Brooklyn (with apologies to Dylan Thomas)
When I was a boy growing up in South Brooklyn, no one was concerned about keeping Christ in Christmas. That was a given. Even my uncles who never set foot in church went to the standing room only midnight mass on Christmas Eve.
Winter is coming...
Thanksgiving Day
Teaching with Primary Sources: History Mystery!
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Using primary sources in the classroom shows us that we can access history through many different formats as long as we are grounded in historical thinking. A History Mystery is a fun way to create an…
G. Frank Edgar Pearsall
John Yapp Culyer
Caring for Brooklyn’s Digital History
Erica López, BHS Digital Preservation Fellow, writes about the joys and challenges of preserving legacy media. We experience, understand and interact with Brooklyn’s rich history in so many different shapes and forms. At Brooklyn Historical Society’s Othmer Library, this history is documented in manuscripts, photographs, moving images, oral histories and artifacts. In today’s increasingly digital world, our history can also be found on floppy disks, CDs, hard drives, and smart phones. Digital materials are at risk for a number of reasons, but the biggest risk is obsolescence. For…
On Native Land
On October 7th, I attended a convening of Brooklyn based cultural institutions, hosted by Brooklyn Museum in partnership with the Lenape Center. It was a 2-day workshop to discuss Living Land Acknowledgements and develop ongoing collaborative projects between Lenape-Delaware Nations and cultural institutions in Brooklyn. A Living Land Acknowledgment is a statement that recognizes the indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from the homelands and territories upon which an institution was built and currently occupies and operates in. For Brooklyn, it was originally the “Lenapehoking…
The Elephantine Colossus
The Carroll Street Bridge
Lucille Fornasieri Gold Photographs
The Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding Collection
Teaching with Primary Sources: School History in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create freely available Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Now that school is…
A Voice from the Past
Preserved in Brooklyn Historical Society’s collections is a wax audio cylinder from 1927 with a big story to tell.Intent listeners will just make out the soft voice of a woman identified as “Mrs. Hunt.” She thanks the congregation of Plymouth Church for inviting her to Brooklyn Heights to celebrate “the memory of one whose name always seems to me to be the complement of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.”Although a somewhat obscure figure today, Mrs. Hunt, (also known as Sally Maria Diggs, Rose Ward, and, troublingly, "Pinky," throughout her life), shared a unique…
For Every Reader, Their Book
Madeline Knight-DixonAs soon as I tell anyone I’m a librarian, inevitably one of the first questions people ask is, “Can you recommend a good book?!” The short answer is: Yes! S. R. Ranganathan created five principles of librarianship (and yes, this is the kind of thing you learn in library school). One of these principles is, “Every reader, their book” and “Every book, their reader.” Connecting patrons to books that match their interests and needs is one of my favorite parts of being a librarian. We in “the biz” refer to this as Readers’ Advisory. At Brooklyn Public Library, we’ve taken readers’ advisory to the…
The Sharon Hall Hotel
Zig Zag Records, Sheepshead Bay
Bliss Estate, Owl's Head Park
Altar to Liberty, Green-Wood Cemetery
An End of Summer Tribute: Coney Island and the Wonder Wheel
Imagine this: It’s a cool summer day and you are the first in line with your friends for the Ferris wheel on Coney Island. The operator opens the gate and you hop on a blue passenger car and sit facing the beach. Your pod slowly rises and starts to shake; the higher and higher you get, the more clearly you can see the boats floating on the horizon, and as you sit behind your friends you see a wonderful view of the Verrazano Bridge, then the pod…drops! The wind blows heavy as you swing in the air. You scream, but also laugh it off because you go on the Ferris wheel every time you’re here but…
Ocean Parkway Bike Path
A (Not So) Brief History of Red Hook
Shipyards, dry docks, and machine shops. The place with the IKEA and the Fairway. Home of the fabled wild dogs on Beard St. and the abandoned grain elevator. Former home of the Dell's Maraschino Factory and the Snapple Factory. A Brooklyn neighborhood with a "small town" feel, cobbled streets, and limited public transit. It's possible that no other section of the borough has been so readily defined by single facets of its complex character. A waterfront community with deep maritime and industrial roots, Red Hook—like many neighborhoods in Brooklyn—is in flux. This is vividly borne out…
Teaching with Primary Sources: Food in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create freely available Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Brooklynites love to…
The Ralph Irving Lloyd Lantern Slides
Clay Lancaster
Teaching with Primary Sources: Environmentalism in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create freely available Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. As summer…
The Anthony Costanzo Brooklyn Navy Yard Collection
Map Digitization!
Thanks to our new initiative, Portal to the Past: Creating Brooklyn Historical Society’s Digital Map Collections, BHS has just finished digitizing 1,600 maps!In 2017, BHS received a generous grant from National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support Portal to the Past: Creating Brooklyn Historical Society’s Digital Map Collections, a project that will increase public access to the institution’s extensive collection of flat and folded maps through conservation, digitization, and the creation of a web-based portal. Additional generous funding for this project has been provided by the…
Marianne Moore
Making Award-Winning Connections
A visitor to the Brooklyn Collection archive this summer will notice an eye-catching display in our exhibition case. Stepping closer, they’ll learn about the Dreamland fire in Coney Island, read political cartoons about the Verrazzano Bridge, and even see a replica of the Farragut Houses public housing project. The visitor will more than likely learn something new about Brooklyn’s history from this exhibition by local researches. They may be surprised to learn that all of these researchers are students.
The Williamsburg Bridge
Newly Digitized Historic Video Now Available!
We are excited to announce that Brooklyn Historical Society has arrived on the Internet Archive!We will be using this new account to provide access to historic films, movies, and audio recordings from our collections. You can currently explore over 40 newly digitized movies and 6 audio recordings from a variety of our collections, ranging from 1920s home movies to 1970s radio commercials. fig-17918] Our digitization project revealed some lovely surprises! We digitized videos of BHS exhibitions from the late 1980s and early 1990s, including “Not Forgotten: AIDS at the Brooklyn…
BHS's Young Scholars Program wins 2019 AASLH Award of Excellence for Leadership in History
The AASLH Leadership In History Awards is the Nation’s Most Prestigious Competition for Recognition of Achievement in State and Local History.
BHS's Young Scholars Program wins 2019 AASLH Award of Excellence for Leadership in History
The AASLH Leadership In History Awards is the Nation’s Most Prestigious Competition for Recognition of Achievement in State and Local History.
Fabulous Coney Island!
The Red Hook Grain Terminal
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch
Outlining inequality: how student research put redlining on the map
Jen HoyerAt Brooklyn Connections we are all about student research, and so we’re always excited to find historic examples of this in the Brooklyn Collection. One item in particular gives a glimpse into the impact student research has had on our borough. NYPIRG, the New York Public Interest Research Group, was founded in the 1970s as an issues-focused student activist group. Within seven years of its inception it was based on thirteen campuses across the state and counted over 100,000 dues-paying members. Students were able to receive academic credit for engaging in research on NYPIRG projects;…
The Fulton Ferry Fireboat House
Schenck-Crooke House
A Personal History of the Mermaid Parade
According to Wikipedia, Coney Island’s first Mermaid Parade took place in 1983, and it is now the largest art parade in the United States, attracting over 3,000 participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators.
Hours before the Parade’s start, the audience begins lining up behind police barricades along Surf Avenue. Spectators and costumed participants ride the subway to the recently renovated Stillwell Avenue stop.
Kings Theatre
The mysterious affair of Stiles
Brooklyn Fire Headquarters
Huron Street Public Bath
Hicks-Platt House, Gravesend
Teaching with Primary Sources: the LGBTQ+ Movement in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create freely available Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Every year in June we…
Paerdegat Basin
Conservation: BHS’s Maps Get Some TLC!
In our second post about the Library & Archives project Portal to the Past: Creating Brooklyn Historical Society’s Digital Map Collections, we are happy to announce we recently completed a significant milestone: conservation!One large facet of this project was being able to conserve a few maps in order to reintroduce them into our collection for researchers, scholars, and map enthusiasts. The Portal to the Past project team chose ten maps to conserve out of 1,600 based on four parameters: historical significance, uniqueness, state of decay, and those most in scope with our collection.…
Mozart in Concert Grove, Prospect Park
Emma, the Catablog
By Julie May and Maggie Schreiner Today, we announce the retirement of Emma, an interactive catalog of the archives and special collections held in the Othmer Library at Brooklyn Historical Society. For the last ten years, the staff at BHS have held Emma in high regard for the function it offered and the stepping stone it represents. Emma included basic records that described individual archival and special collections, and linked out to fuller, more complete descriptions such as finding aids and inventories when they were available. It was built using WordPress blogging software, hence…
Hotel Margaret
If You Can Make It Here, They Won't Take It Anywhere
They say you can’t go home again. But for a garbage barge called Mobro 4000, after months of sailing through much of the Northern Hemisphere and capturing the attention of the world, home was the only place it could go.
Prospect Park Picnic Ground
Teaching with Primary Sources: Bridges in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create freely available Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Brooklyn is all…
Squibb Plant, Brooklyn
Last Suppers and Good Fridays
Our guest blogger Larry Racioppo is a lifelong Brooklynite and photographer who has documented Brooklyn and New York City for over 40 years. The Brooklyn Collection holds a collection of Racioppo's work and recently hosted a retrospective exhibition devoted to his career in conjunction with the release of his book Brooklyn Before. Racioppo was raised in a Catholic Italian-American family and has been documenting Good Friday ceremonies since 1974. Here, he shares some of that work and muses on Catholic iconography and community in general. We did not have art in our home. But we did have an…
Ronald Shiffman collection is open for research!
The Ronald Shiffman collection on the Pratt Center for Community Development (2013.023) is now open for research at Brooklyn Historical Society!
Brighton Beach Hotel, 1888
Stauch Baths in Coney Island
A Man Playing the Trumpet in Prospect Park
A Man and His Dog in Prospect Park
Teaching with Primary Sources: Women’s History Month
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Each Packet contains one secondary…
Coffey Park, 1934
I Know What You Did Last Century
Since Brooklyn's inception it's residents have been employed in an array of occupations tailored to the needs of their growing community. In addition to addresses the early City Directories listed each resident's occupation as well, providing a unique opportunity to examine the labor needs of Brooklyn in the 19th century. Coopers, rope-makers, doctors, teachers, laborers, sailors and many others played a crucial role in the daily life of early Brooklyn. Looking through a directory by hand for every wheelwright, or blacksmith is an ardous, and labor intensive job though…
Dedication of Bronze Plaque on Samuel F.B. Morse Monument, April 27th, 1968
Forgotten History: Remembering Dr. Mary M Crawford and her Contributions to Brooklyn's History
For this Women’s History Month, Brooklyn Collection is spreading awareness about Dr. Mary M. Crawford, a woman who radically altered how the world viewed female doctors during the early 1900s. Not only did Doctor Crawford serve abroad during World War I as the only female doctor in the American Hospital in Paris but she was also the first female ambulance surgeon in Brooklyn who later became chief surgeon of the Williamsburg hospital.
Bedford Avenue YMCA
Manhattan Furrier
Teaching with Primary Sources: Black History Month
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Each Packet contains one…
Juxtaposition
Flatbush Avenue
High Hopes for Snow!
The Fierce Women Skaters of Roller Derby's Heyday in Brooklyn
In honor of our current exhibit Empire Skate: The Birthplace of Roller Disco, I decided to look into some older roller skating history in Brooklyn. The sport of roller derby has seen a surge of women's teams and leagues emerge nationwide since its 21st-century revival in Austin, Texas in 2001. It was introduced to a wider audience with the release in 2009 of the feature film Whip It, which starred Elliot Page and was Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. What contemporary fans of the sport may not know is that its first heyday of mainstream popularity started in New York City in 1948, and…
Doing the Snow Dance!
Daisies
Teaching with Primary Sources: Community Organizing in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection, focused on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. As part of our work, we create Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Each Packet contains one…
Cat named “Lazybones”
Happy New Year!
The Brooklyn Dodgers
In 2013 the Brooklyn Collection acquired several boxes of Brooklyn Dodgers memorabilia from Al Todres, a lifelong collector. Todres certainly wasn’t the only one actively collecting Brooklyn Dodgers material nearly 60 years after the team was transferred to Los Angeles. Why does a baseball team that left Brooklyn in the middle of the last century still inspire so much loyalty and curiosity? Every collector has a different answer, and it certainly goes beyond statistics and player performance. The team that would become the Dodgers played in Eastern Park when Brooklyn was still an independent…
Merry Christmas
Hand-colored photographs
Teaching with Primary Sources: Maps and Atlases in the English Classroom
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. We’ve already talked about how much we love maps and atlases when we’re teaching with primary sources; this blog post looks at how we can use those in the English classroom by examining a lesson on the…
City Hall on Fire
Before "BROOKLYN BEFORE"
Our current exhibition "Larry Racioppo: A Retrospective" highlights the work of photographer Larry Racioppo, a native Brooklynite who has documented the borough of Brooklyn (and New York City) for over 40 years. It includes photographs from his collection, and features many of his Brooklyn-based photo projects such as Brooklyn Churches, Theatres, Coney Island and Prospect Park, as well as photographs and photographic equipment, books, ephemera and archival material from his storied career. His latest book "Brooklyn Before" shows the vitality of his native Brooklyn, stretching from historic…
Happy Hanukkah!
Lundy’s Restaurant
Happy Thanksgiving
Teaching with Primary Sources: Avoiding Plagiarism
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Using primary sources in the classroom shows us that we can access history through many different formats as long as we are grounded in historical thinking. When we’re using primary sources in the classroom,…
Prospect Park
Hurricane Sandy
Brooklyn For Peace and the Defense of Civil Liberties
By Library and Archives assistant Laura Juliano The papers of Brooklyn For Peace, which date from 1983 to the present, and consist of over 25 linear feet of organizational records, event ephemera and recordings, and subject files, are now available for research at Brooklyn Historical Society. The collection reveals both the history of the organization as well as the broader grassroots response to a wide variety of significant social and political issues at the local, regional, and national levels from the late twentieth century to the present. Brooklyn For Peace (BFP) was founded in 1984 as…
Pygmalion and Galatea
Seeking Tsuneko Tokuyasu
Here at the Brooklyn Collection, one of our biggest collections is the records of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper. The eagle statue from the newspaper's downtown building has perched in the lobby of Central Library for over 20 years on long-term loan from the Brooklyn Historical Society, and you might have heard that due to a post on this very blog, the eagle was recently made a permanent gift to the library, where it will nest in perpetuity. In addition to the eagle sculpture, we hold clippings and other materials from the Eagle offices, including over 200,000 photographs from their "…
Othmer Library
Teaching with Primary Sources: Claims and Counterclaims in History
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. The ability to identify and analyze claims and counterclaims is key for students of all ages. Primary sources give us a terrific opportunity to identify claims and counterclaims of various voices…
Meserole House
The Faces of Halloween
October ushers in one of the most celebrated of Autumn holidays, Halloween - that historical mash-up of Celtic culture, popular culture, Christianity, pagan folk-lore, superstition, and Horror. In the Brooklyn Collection we have photographers that have captured the many aspects of this holiday, from the humorous to the mysterious, and from the gory, to the adorable. Lev Dodin Lev Dodin's work is distinguished by his composition and use of vibrant saturated colors. His demonic hobgoblins contrast vividly with the green and blue background, and his group…
Ramus Family Papers
Autumn
BHS Map Collection Update
Brooklyn Historical Society's Library & Archives team has an exciting project update to share! In 2017, BHS received a generous grant from National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support Portal to the Past: Creating Brooklyn Historical Society’s Digital Map Collection, a project that will increase public access to the institution’s extensive collection of flat and folded maps through conservation, digitization, and the creation of a web-based portal. The map collection at BHS is unique and robust in the content and historical sweep. Comprised of manuscript and printed street,…
Typewriting Class
Teaching with Primary Sources: Citing our Sources
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Using primary sources in the classroom shows us that we can access history through many different formats as long as we are grounded in historical thinking. Whether we’re using primary or sources in the…
William Koch Glass Plate Negatives
Housing in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. As part of our work, we create Primary Source Packets to help students and teachers access primary source material from the Brooklyn Collection about local history topics. Each Packet contains one secondary source which provides a general introduction to the topic, followed by at least ten primary sources accompanied by document based questions. For the start of…
Packer Collegiate Institute
The Bridge: a book report
In the summer of 2018, Brooklyn Connections was delighted to have two of our student alumni join us as interns. Over the course of seven weeks, these interns learned about archival research and chose a topic of their interest to dig into in the Brooklyn Collection. They assembled their findings, and we're excited to share one of them with you on the Brooklynology blog! Intern Ashirah Newton chose to learn about the Brooklyn Bridge, and her research included a book report on a new book in our collection: The Bridge by Peter J. Tomasi, illustrated by Sara DuVall. The following…
West Indian Carnival
Drake Bakery photographs
The Cyclone
The Michael Shellens family collection
Processing Found Material: The Martha Gayle Collection
Archives acquire materials in a myriad number of ways; it could be through outright purchases, materials bequeathed by planned giving or estates; or donations from collectors who’ve run out of space, time or energy to continue their pursuits. There are those other times when people find material that they deem not useful to them but of enough sentimental or historical value that makes throwing items in the trash not an option. The Martha Gayle Collection falls into the latter category. Donated by George Camarda in 2016; it documents the life of a Caribbean immigrant Martha Gayle and her…
Brooklyn Storefronts
Happy Summer!
Teaching with Primary Sources: Notetaking Skills
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula.
This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Using primary sources in the classroom shows us that we can access history through many different formats as long as we are grounded in historical thinking.
Lucille Fornasieri Gold Photographs
Marcia Bricker Photographs
Happy Fourth of July!
Brooklyn Historical Society Statement on Muslim Ban Ruling
As an institution dedicated to the history of Brooklyn, we are proud of the rich fabric of multicultural heritage in Brooklyn. Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision to uphold the government’s Muslim ban makes it even more imperative that we affirm our commitment to the histories of all Brooklynites. We want Brooklyn’s Muslim communities in particular to know that their stories, their struggles, and their contributions are embraced and deeply valued by the Brooklyn Historical Society. As part of our commitment, last year Brooklyn Historical Society launched a public history and arts project…
Spencer Memorial Church
Teaching with Primary Sources: How can we do research with political cartoons?
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Using primary sources in the classroom shows us that we can access history through many different formats as long as we are grounded in historical thinking. The Brooklyn Connections team loves…
Soccer in Brooklyn
Fostering Civic Engagement through Local History Research
Jen Hoyer and Julia Pelaez were thrilled to represent Brooklyn Connections at the 2018 American Library Association Annual Conference. They presented a session on fostering student engagement through local history research, which included a discussion about how local history research can spark civic engagement in students, and what tools we should equip students with so that they can succeed with their research. The goals of this workshop were to understand how local history is a unique and relevant entry point for guiding inquiry-based learning and civic engagement; to identify,…
Just When You Thought Everything was Destroyed: Street Art and Brooklyn’s Waterfront
Jackie Robinson Exhibition
American Sugar Refining Company
Brooklyn Dogs
A Look Back at Brooklyn's LGBTQ+ History
Happy Pride Month Brooklyn! Pride month is always tons of fun in Brooklyn. From the parades to the parties it’s a wonderful time to celebrate diversity, inclusion and visibility, the highlight of which is the Pride Parade. The Pride Parade was started in 1970 to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots which were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community to protest the police raid of the Stonewall Inn. Historically Stonewall is often seen as the start of the Gay Pride movement, a veritable phoenix rising from the ashes, but even before…
Coney Island Boardwalk
Tony Velez Photographs
Teaching with Primary Sources: Asking Questions for Research
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Our big question is: How can we ask questions to help us with our research? Get Ready Asking good research questions is an important part of the research process. We love to explore how primary sources can…
Cherry Blossoms at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Rambunctious Brooklyn boy falls for bridge
David C. Hurd papers and photographs
Brooklyn Gardens
First Communion Pictures
I’ve been photographing First Communions, one of the three Catholic Initiation Sacraments, since 1971. One of my first ‘serious’ photographs depicts my Aunt Millie and her son John standing in the rain outside our parish church. John has just made his First Communion and is proudly holding his little prayer book wide open for me. Over the years I often returned to photograph at this church St. Michael the Archangel in Sunset Park (where I had made my First Communion), and to St. John the Evangelist in South Brooklyn where I lived in the 1970’s and 80’s.…
Edna Huntington
Baseball
Teaching with Primary Sources: Using the Internet to find Primary Sources Online
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. We all spend more time online than we can probably add up (or would like to admit?!), but are we experts at finding primary sources online? Moreover, how do we teach our students to become pros at digging…
An Ode to Brooklyn Poets
Happy Passover and Easter!
Luna Park
Spring
24 Middagh Street
Teaching with Primary Sources: What’s a Primary Source?
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. At Brooklyn Connections, we love to share ideas on how to develop skills for teaching and learning with primary sources. But let’s take a moment to step back and ask ourselves: what IS a primary source?? How…
Coney Island Season Is Here!
This guest post is in conjunction with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and their "Last Stop in Brooklyn" Contest. You can read the first post in the series here and enter to win a copy of "Last Stop in Brooklyn" here courtesy of Crown Publishing!
Drake Bakeries
Jacob Mann Photographs
The Eagle Above Our Doorway
Winter Sports in Brooklyn
Happy Valentine’s Day
Valentine's Day/Ash Wednesday: Musings & Photos
Photographer Larry Racioppo is back with another guest post for Brooklynology, this one musing on this year's rare congruence of Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday. Today is the first time since 1945 that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fall on the same day. This rare occurrence has made me think about the significance of each day and what they symbolize: Ash Wednesday – death, Valentine’s Day – romantic love. What I learned about Ash Wednesday in Catholic grammar school is summed up here: “…we use ashes made form the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous…
Teaching with Primary Sources: Maps and Atlases
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. With Google Maps available at the touch of a finger, students are more familiar than ever with using maps to get around. Exploring the ways we can use maps as informational texts leads to great classroom…
Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Collection
Harry Kalmus papers and photographs
Susan Smith McKinney Steward: Brooklyn's First Black Woman Physician
AllysonWelcome to Black History Month at the Brooklyn Collection! Last year our blog highlighted the good work of Hattie "The Tree Lady" Carthan. This year we want to share the story of another Black woman pioneer – Susan Smith McKinney Steward who was Brooklyn's first black woman physician (who also happened to be the third Black physician in the whole country.) Dr. Kinney Steward had a very successful practice with locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan but for her, medicine was more than just treatment. It was a means by which she could further elevate and impact the community she loved…
Empire Stores
131 Miles and Countless Stories: Finding the Lost Histories of Brooklyn’s Waterfront
Several years ago, in the thick of research and development for a Brooklyn Historical Society project about Brooklyn’s waterfront, I found myself calling a long list of New York City government phone numbers. My goal was simple but elusive – to figure out exactly how many miles of coastline there were in the borough of Brooklyn. I had scoured books and articles – to no avail. City reports on the waterfront are plentiful – especially in the years after the devastation of Superstorm Sandy – yet still no luck. But I’m a historian, and we historians can be pretty dogged about research. About ten…
Badges of Honor
Most of the exhibitions we create here in the Brookyn Collection are comprised solely of material from our numerous holdings - historical photographs, letters, prints, maps,etc. We took a slightly different approach with our curent exhibit, "Badges of Honor: Brooklyn's Protectors". The result is an exciting collaboration, pairing the Brooklyn Collection's resources, with the unique Brooklyn badge collection on loan from Art Sinai. Brooklyn born Art Sinai started acquiring badges in 1978 when he worked for the Treasury Department. His first badge was a gift from a colleague…
Call for Donations: Public Protest Materials
In January 2016, Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) posted a call for Brooklynites to donate their Women’s March Posters. We received 50 contributions that now make up the Women’s March Poster collection. Brooklynites have a long history of actively participating in local, regional, and national events that have an impact on Brooklyn and the United States. As the one-year anniversary of the Women’s March and the 45th President’s Inauguration approach, BHS invites Brooklynites once again to help build our collections. We seek to broaden our scope by documenting Brooklyn’s history and…
Teaching with Primary Sources: Observations and Inferences
Brooklyn Connections is the education outreach program in the Brooklyn Collection. It focuses on cultivating 21st Century learning skills in students and supporting teachers on the incorporation of archives materials into curricula. This blog post is part of a series from the Brooklyn Connections team, sharing skills and ideas for using archives primary source material in the classroom. Archives are rich in primary sources that can be used for teaching valuable skills to our students. They key starting point to using primary sources in the classroom is teaching foundational skills of how to…
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Snowy Brooklyn
Frigid New Year
Season’s Greetings
Happy Hanukkah!
Deck the Blog: Staff Favorites from the Brooklyn Collection
Brooklyn is home to some of the most iconic winter tableaus in the world. Whether it's the ski worthy snow-capped hills of Fort Greene Park, the odd beauty of fire escapes adorned in holiday lights, or the faces of the brave souls who wait bundled and stoic for the B26 bus; Brooklyn winter is a special kind of wonderful! To celebrate the holiday season we’re decking the blog with some of our favorite seasonal photos from the Brooklyn Collection. We dug deep to find images that celebrate the character and vivacity of Brooklyn landmarks and people. There are hilarious snapshots from the Our…
Brooklyn Theatre Fire
Packer Collegiate Institute Records
Happy Thanksgiving!
Urban Archive
Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) Launches website, The Packer Collegiate Institute: A Story of Education in Brooklyn
In 1845, a group of Brooklynites formed a committee to establish a school for "Female Education." This group established a board of trustees, raised money to build the school and it opened as The Brooklyn Female Academy on Joralemon Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn with increasing success year after year. A fire nearly destroyed the school's future in 1853, but Harriet Putnam Packer offered the funds to rebuild. The school was designed by Minard LaFever (also known for St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church) and reopened as The Packer Collegiate Institute in 1854. The…
NYC Trash: Past, Present and Future
In this post, guest blogger, photographer Larry Racioppo shares with us a glimpse of his work photographing "Trash" in Brooklyn and NYC. His photos will also be on exhibit at the City Reliquary in their show "NYC Trash: Past, Present and Future" and will "present the stories behind New York City’s solid waste, from “one man’s garbage is another man’s gold” to the inventive ways New Yorkers are reusing and recycling." To view more of Larry's portfolio and his photos of trash in Brooklyn, visit us at the Brooklyn Collection! Natiba Guy-Clement,…
BLDG 77
Dodgers
A strange case of Widow's Mite, or the Ghosts Come Knocking
In a few days, Halloween will roll through the city, with the trick-or-treating gaggle of supermen, frankensteins, skeletons and witches roaming the streets. There will also be a fair amount of ghosts and ghouls among them. The gossamer-looking ghosts will be swaying by the front porches and windows even past October 31st, until the obligatory turkeys and pilgrims will replace them. Brooklyn loves a good ghost story and is protective of several such legends. All Brooklyn ghost hunters know of the haunted apartment on the corner of State and Clinton once occupied by none other than H.P.…
Happy Halloween
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch at Grand Army Plaza
Hurricane Sandy
Telephone Booths
John D. Morrell photographs
Kindergarten class at Fort Greene Park
Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks
Discovering Gravesend
Tennis
Coney Island: America's Playground
Brooklyn Historical Society has partnered with over a dozen Brooklyn schools in the past decade to implement Cultural Afterschool Adventures (CASA) programs in partnership with NYC Council Members. In the Young Scholars program, our educators meet with a group of upper elementary school students over the course of the spring semester, culminating in the creation of a book on a pre-selected theme. These books are then distributed to students, their families, and their schools. A copy of the student work is added to the Othmer Library & Archives, memorializing the student work for…
West Indian Immigration and Carnival: Coming to Brooklyn
In the summer of 2017, Brooklyn Connections was delighted to have two of our student alumni join us as interns. Over the course of seven weeks, these interns learned about archival research and chose a topic of their interest to dig into in the Brooklyn Collection. They assembled some of their findings, and we're excited to share them with you on the Brooklynology blog! This post is by Emilia Boothe. Caribbean immigrants have been coming to New York in small but significant numbers ever since the 1960s. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (also known as the Hart-Celler Act) had a great…
Park Slope: Recollections of Change
Brooklyn Historical Society has partnered with over a dozen Brooklyn schools in the past decade to implement Cultural Afterschool Adventures (CASA) programs in partnership with NYC Council Members. In the Young Scholars program, our educators meet with a group of upper elementary school students over the course of the spring semester, culminating in the creation of a book on a pre-selected theme. These books are then distributed to students, their families, and their schools. A copy of the student work is added to the Othmer Library & Archives, memorializing the student work for…
Women, Work, and World War II
Brooklyn Historical Society has partnered with over a dozen Brooklyn schools in the past decade to implement Cultural Afterschool Adventures (CASA) programs in partnership with NYC Council Members. In the Young Scholars program, our educators meet with a group of upper elementary school students over the course of the spring semester, culminating in the creation of a book on a pre-selected theme. These books are then distributed to students, their families, and their schools. A copy of the student work is added to the Othmer Library & Archives, memorializing the student work for…
West Indian Carnival
Caribbean Immigrants in Brooklyn: an American story
Brooklyn Historical Society has partnered with over a dozen Brooklyn schools in the past decade to implement Cultural Afterschool Adventures (CASA) programs in partnership with NYC Council Members. In the Young Scholars program, our educators meet with a group of upper elementary school students over the course of the spring semester, culminating in the creation of a book on a pre-selected theme. These books are then distributed to students, their families, and their schools. A copy of the student work is added to the Othmer Library & Archives, memorializing the student work for…
Stories of Our Brooklyn Firefighters
Brooklyn Historical Society has partnered with over a dozen Brooklyn schools in the past decade to implement Cultural Afterschool Adventures (CASA) programs in partnership with NYC Council Members. In the Young Scholars program, our educators meet with a group of upper elementary school students over the course of the spring semester, culminating in the creation of a book on a pre-selected theme. These books are then distributed to students, their families, and their schools. A copy of the student work is added to the Othmer Library & Archives, memorializing the student work for…
Anders Goldfarb Photographs of Coney Island
Love Letters from David C. Hurd, a Jamaican immigrant in Brooklyn
This post was written by Yingwen Huang, Processing Intern
“I only wish I could send you some of this nice cool weather along with some rain and hail that we are having just now; for it would do Kingston a world of good. Even a little snow wouldn’t do any harm.”
-- David C. Hurd to his pen pal Avril Cato in Jamaica, March 16, 1914.
Collection Storage
Dog Days of Summer
Brooklyn Storefronts
BHS DUMBO: Photographer Robin Michals reflects on the Brooklyn waterfront
Robin Michals is one of over two dozen photographers featured in the Brooklyn Historical Society DUMBO exhibition "Shifting Perspectives: Photographs of Brooklyn's Waterfront," on view through September 10, 2017. In this post, she reflects on what attracted her to the waterfront as a subject. Click here to learn more about the beautiful exhibition of Brooklyn waterfront photography.
Happy Summer!
Brooklyn Historical Society Pierrepont
19th Century Photographs
Prospect Park
The Kosciuszko Bridge and the Changing Face of Brooklyn
Bridges are icons, creating unforgettable outlines across beloved skylines. The Kosciuszko Bridge may not often have been deemed postcard worthy, but the show-stopping cable-stayed design of its replacement (opened in April 2017) is drawing nostalgia over the soon-to-be-removed historic span. Taking a closer look at the Kosciuszko Bridge – and the many bridges that have stood in the same location through centuries past – paints a picture of a changing neighborhood in a changing city.
Happy Fourth of July!
Third Avenue Series: Scrap
Blogger One More Folded Sunset and photographer Larry Racioppo are working on a series of pieces on Brooklyn's Third Avenue. This is the fourth, about a visit to the 3rd Avenue Junk Shop. Click here for the first, second, and third, and stay tuned for more.
Cyclone
Pride
Penny-farthing
The Many Faces of the Brooklyn Bridge
Yesterday was the birthday of John Augustus Roebling, who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. In honor of that occasion, here is a selection of images of the bridge from our collections. Search our historic photographs here for more images of the bridge through the years.
Beach Season
Through His Lens: The photographs of Theobald Wilson
Kennedy Memorial
Dining under Gas Lamps at Gage & Tollner’s
This post was authored by BHS Library and Archives processing intern Yingwen Huang. Ying processed the Edward and Gertrude Dewey collection of Gage & Tollner records, which are now open and available to the public in our library. For more information, please see the collection’s finding aid. Walking down Fulton Street shopping district in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood, you can’t help but notice the striking building featuring two white Doric columns under a portico. This landmarked building was once Brooklyn’s iconic Gage & Tollner restaurant. Closed in 2004, the…
Third Avenue Series: Mystic Essentials of Brooklyn
Blogger One More Folded Sunset and photographer Larry Racioppo are working on a series of pieces on Brooklyn's Third Avenue. This is the third. Click here for the first and second, and stay tuned for more. It's loud on Third. Even in a changing city economy, with "makers" on the rise (how did we ever live without them?), and industry lighter than in earlier decades, that expressway traffic never goes away, and the cycles of delivery, spreading out across the city, roll on and on. Even when most of the businesses below bring down their shutters for the night, leaving only the…
Shifting Perspectives
BHS Dumbo
"Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear...": Photo Retouching in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Deborah
Happy Mother's Day
“Views of Nassau County” now online!
Brooklyn Historical Society received a generous grant from Gerry Charitable Trust in 2015 to digitize and catalog seven scrapbooks from the Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks [Arc.308]. Eugene Armbruster was an amateur photographer and historian during the late 19th century and early 20th century in Brooklyn. Following retirement from The H. Henkel Cigar Box Manufacturing Company, he became interested in local history and took thousands of photographs depicting buildings and street scenes throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, and neighboring states. His scrapbooks are…
The Other Side of the Park
Photographer Larry Racioppo, whose work is on display in our current exhibition on Prospect Park for the park's 150th anniversary, shares some memories and photos of the park in this guest post. Racioppo is also working on our Third Avenue blog series with blogger One More Folded Sunset. Prospect Park was a part of my life long before I became a photographer. Glued to the black construction paper pages of Racioppo and Tenga family albums are photos of my parents and their friends posing ‘dressed up’ in the park or just outside it, along its stone walls.…
Ambergill Falls
Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) Launches Oral History Portal
Housing and Building Research
Brooklyn Pets
Aerial Photography
Jackie Robinson Exhibition
Third Avenue Series: At the VFW
Blogger One More Folded Sunset and photographer Larry Racioppo are working on a series of pieces on Brooklyn's Third Avenue. This is the second. Click here for the first, and stay tuned for more.
Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn are back!
In January 2017, a new piece of art was installed at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Tillary Street, at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. Two snow-white resin sculptures representing “Miss Brooklyn” and “Miss Manhattan” were hoisted above the busy street traffic on two slowly rotating “Lazy Susans” supported by a stem-like post. Now, as they steadily revolve in opposite directions, they enjoy a 360 degree view of the area from whence they were banished nearly 60 years ago. The original “Miss Manhattan” and “Miss Brooklyn” were not rotating. Once upon a time, they were firmly…
The Story of Pinky
Women formed a central part of the abolitionist movement in the years that led up to the civil war and during war time. They participated in many varied ways, from writing and giving speeches to becoming conductors of the Underground Railroad and assisting union soldiers by organizing Sanitary Fairs around the country. There were others who participated in a more unconventional role that afforded them no agency. This is the story of one such woman, or rather, an enslaved girl of 9 years old, and her part in the abolitionist movement. Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights and its Reverend…
Spring
Bushwick and her Neighbors, Vol. 1-3 now online!
Brooklyn Historical Society received a generous grant from Gerry Charitable Trust in 2015 to digitize and catalog seven scrapbooks from the Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks [Arc.308]. Eugene Armbruster was an amateur photographer and historian during the late 19th century and early 20th century in Brooklyn. Following retirement from The H. Henkel Cigar Box Manufacturing Company, he became interested in local history and took thousands of photographs depicting buildings and street scenes throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, and neighboring states. His scrapbooks are…
Reliable & Frank's
Bernard Gotfryd photographs
Under the Expressway: Marking Time on Brooklyn's Third Avenue
Blogger One More Folded Sunset and photographer Larry Racioppo are working on a series of pieces on Brooklyn's Third Avenue. This is an excerpt from the first. In future posts, they'll be interviewing businesses owners, uncovering art, and continuing to find inspiration in the avenue's changing landscape. I'm drawn to city borders. Not 'edge of town' divisions, but the ones inside the city limits, where infrastructure, for better or worse, creates some kind of boundary: a rail track, a highway, an elevated train line. They're city landmarks, hardly ever for…
Smith-9th Street Station
Ina Clausen & Protest in Brooklyn
Ina Clausen (center), 1957, Prospect Park, Brooklyn. With the inauguration of Donald Trump in January, it seems that we have entered a renewed moment in the public sphere, with each week defined by protests, community meetings, and urgent calls to contact your elected officials. This moment, however, is not so very brand new -- there is of course a long and varied history of protest movements and resistance both in the United States and abroad. Given the current political climate, I thought it would be appropriate to mine the Brooklyn Collection for some local precedent. I turned to…
Family Research
Hunterfly Road Houses
Hattie "The Tree Lady of Brooklyn" Carthan
“We’ve already lost too many trees, houses and people…your community – you owe something to it. I didn’t care to run.” – Hattie Carthan Welcome to Black History Month at the Brooklyn Collection. As most of you know, many great artists, leaders, educators, activists and politicians contributed to Brooklyn’s rich and indispensable Black history. Today we thought we would highlight one of those activists, Ms. Hattie Carthan, a community leader and environmentalist who forever changed Bedford-Stuyvesant. Hattie Carthan moved to Brooklyn from Virginia, and was once described as “the best…
Brooklyn Sewers
Jackie Robinson
You Gotta Believe
Swimming is one of the best ways of keeping physically fit, and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. There are those that swim recreationally, and then there are those brave souls who test the limits of their capabilities by endeavoring to swim the English Channel. One such person was Mrs. Betty Cohn of 120 Ocean Parkway, who became the first grandmother to swim the channel when she swam from France to England in 1951. News of her swimming prowess was carried in newspapers around the world. like the Singapore Free Press, and Melbourne Australia's Argus newspaper where she said…
Blizzard of 1888
Paerdegaat Basin
Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation oral history open to researchers in January, 2017!
Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) and Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (Restoration) partnered on the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Oral History project in 2007-2008 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Restoration’s founding as the first community development corporation (CDC) in the United States. Fifty-six interviews were conducted with founding board members, supporters, activists, artists, tenants, and other community members. Audio clips from these oral history interviews were included in the exhibition Reflections on Community Development: Stories from Bedford…
Ektachrome Film Returns
Puerto Rican Oral History Project records now open to researchers
This collection includes recordings and transcripts of oral histories narrated by those in the Puerto Rican community of Brooklyn who arrived between 1917 and 1940. The Long Island Historical Society (now Brooklyn Historical Society) initiated the Puerto Rican Oral History Project in 1973, conducting over eighty interviews between 1973 and 1975. The oral histories often contain descriptions of immigration, living arrangements, neighborhood ethnicities, discrimination, employment, community development, and political leadership. Since their creation in the 1970s, the recordings had not been…
Second Avenue Subway
Oral histories of the West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records now open to researchers!
Brooklyn Historical Society launched The West Indian Carnival Documentation Project in 1994 to supplement existing photographs and histories of the event with personal narratives and life histories of Carnival participants. In cooperation with the West Indian American Day Carnival Association and the Brooklyn Museum, the project attempted to document different viewpoints from within the Carnival organization and the diverse participants. Since their creation in 1994 and 1995, recordings had not been fully processed and have been inaccessible to researchers, that is... until now! The oral…
Happy New Year
Listen to This: Crown Heights Oral History collection now open to researchers
Titled Listen to This by the donor Alexandra Kelly, this oral history collection includes interview audio and summaries created and collected within the context of a community project undertaken by project director Kelly and Paul J. Robeson High School interns Treverlyn Dehaarte, Ansie Montilus, Monica Parfait, Quanaisha Phillips and Floyya Richardson. These interviewers recorded conversations with forty-three narrators. In addition to the educational experience for the student interns, the oral histories were conducted as life history and community anthropology interviews. Topics of…
Happy Holidays!
Crown Heights History Project Oral Histories now open to researchers:
Also known as "Bridging Eastern Parkway," the Crown Heights History Project produced oral histories in audiotapes and transcripts within the context of an exhibition project undertaken in part by Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) in 1993 and 1994. Three interviewers recorded conversations with over forty narrators. In addition to exhibition product value, the oral histories were conducted as life history and community anthropology interviews; topics of discussion include family and heritage, immigration and relocation, cultural and racial relations, occupations and professions, education and…
Bushwick and Her Neighbors, Vol. 1 is now online!
Brooklyn Historical Society received a generous grant from Gerry Charitable Trust in 2015 to digitize and catalog seven scrapbooks from Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbook collection. Eugene Armbruster was an amateur photographer and historian during the late 19th century and early 20th century in Brooklyn. Following retirement from The H. Henkel Cigar Box Manufacturing Company, he became interested in local history and took thousands of photographs depicting buildings and street scenes throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. His scrapbooks are organized by subject and…
Electrification of Long Island Rail Road
Prospect Park Sea Lions
Brooklyn Storefronts
Happy Thanksgiving!
Brighton Beach Hotel Move
John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge
Brooklyn Bar
Brooklyn Heights Promenade
Gertrude Hoffmann's First Act
This week, guest blogger Sunny Stalter-Pace marks the 50th anniversary of dancer and choreographer Gertrude Hoffmann's death with a post sharing some information about Hoffmann's early life and career. Stalter-Pace is writing a biography of Hoffmann and has used the Gertrude Hoffmann Collection here at the Brooklyn Collection as part of her research. Gertrude Hoffmann (1885-1966) enjoyed a long career as a performer, choreographer, and producer. Brooklynology introduced the versatile vaudevillian in a blog post that’s now more than 5 years old; it followed that post with another on her…
Fashion, Fashion, Who's Got the Fashion?
Recently, I had a to check a number of microfilm reels of the Brooklyn Daily Times. As I scrolled through the reels, a recurring comic feature caught my eye. Modish Mitzi features stunning fashion illustrations and the trials and tribulations of the titular Mitzi, a wealthy fashionista who always has to have the latest styles. With the help of her equally stylish friends Polly and Adelaide, and of course, the funds from her very accommodating father, Mitzi somehow manages to both navigate her socialite lifestyle and always be wearing the most up-to-the-minute 20s and 30s fashions while…
Burton Sisters
Brooklyn on film at the Library of Congress
A couple of months ago, a colleague at the Brooklyn Museum Library tweeted that she had found a film reel in their collection with nitrate film. Since nitrate film is highly flammable and needs to be stored in special conditions in order to prevent it from catching fire, the library needed to identify the film quickly in order to decide whether or not to keep such a dangerous item. All they knew was the film's title, "Brooklyn Progress," the date range, 1933-1937, and that the content included a kind of tour through prominent Brooklyn sites. Photo courtesy J.E. Molly Seegers I…
Scrapbooks
Fine Art Photography
Fall
Othmer Library
19th Century Brooklyn photographs
AIDS/Brooklyn Oral Histories at Othmer Library now open to researchers
Conducted for an exhibition undertaken by the Brooklyn Historical Society in 1993, the AIDS/Brooklyn Oral History Project yielded an exceptional set of twenty-one recorded oral history interviews. The project attempted to document the impact of the AIDS epidemic on Brooklyn communities. Recordings, initially made on audiocassette tape and videotape, were with narrators who had firsthand experience with the crisis in their communities, families and personal life. For many years since the exhibition closed, the tapes had not been fully processed or digitized. Thanks to the generous funding…
Red Hook
Glass plate negative
Knickerbocker Field Club
East 25th Street
Red Cross
Nathan's
Tales of Another Cleveland Convention
I was working with our clippings collection the other day and came across the subject heading "Red-Headed Legion." Intrigued, I decided to explore this organization further. The trail led me all the way to the 1924 Republican National Convention which, like this year's, was held in Cleveland, Ohio. But let me start with the legion itself. "Red-Headed Legion Holds Rally of Nine" announced a headline in the June 9, 1924 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The nine who attended the rally comprised "four red-headed women, four red-headed men and one man with black hair and a red mustache…
Ferry Terminal
Masquerade
Sunbathers
David Attie's Champions
"... at a time when you could claim notoriety for posting videos of kitten climbing out of cardboard boxes, my father and his work had all but vanished.” On July 20th, a new exhibit opens at Brooklyn Historical Society that highlights the 1950’s Brooklyn street photography of the late fine art and commercial photographer David Attie. Despite a successful and wide-ranging career – which included frequent covers and spreads for Vogue, Time, Newsweek, Playboy, and Harper’s, portraits of everyone from Bobby Fischer to Lorraine Hansberry to Leiber & Stoller, and his own book of photographs,…
Happy 4th!
That's A Wrap
The school year has finally come to a close but, before students and teachers rejoice at the long summer days that lie ahead, they take the time to pause and partake in that time-honored celebration of achievement: the graduation ceremony. How have Brooklynites celebrated this singular milestone throughout the years? We have numerous graduation programs in our collection, and by studying their content, as well as the physical program themselves, we see how the ceremonies were a reflection of their era, and how they changed with the times. The early commencement programs were elegant…
Tintype
Everett and Evelyn Ortner papers and photographs now open to the public!
Summer
Colonial New York Close Up: Revisiting Bernard Ratzer's Plan of the City of New York
Joe's Restaurant
Children of the Dump
A few months back, the Brooklyn Collection provided some images and expertise to ABC News for a story about Brooklyn’s Dead Horse Bay. The story was most excellent – if you missed it you can check it out here. I used the video as a source for a note taking lesson and, during the lesson, my students kept peppering me with questions: What was life like for the people who lived and worked on the island? What was school like? How did the island's inhabitants navigate all that garbage? I could only answer their questions in adjectives: smelly, exhausting, backbreaking, dangerous,…
Elevated Train Station
Brooklyn Bridge
Memorial Day Parade
Goats Do Roam in Brooklyn
This spring, one of the most hotly anticipated arrivals to Brooklyn is a herd of eight goats. The animals are here on the loan from a Rhinebeck farm for the summer months during which they will help control invasive weeds in the Prospect Park. They will be deployed in the Vale of Cashmere (between Flatbush Ave and the East Drive) to graze on poison ivy and goutweed which have been taking over the area after Hurricane Sandy damaged it. The goats are already hugely popular; the park's free “Fun on the Farm” event this weekend – with a "bleet and greet" tour every 30 minutes – is booked to…
Idle
Cherry Blossoms
Refugees: In their own words
Brooklyn's Paper Trail
We are pleased to announce that we have completed a finding aid for our collection of Brooklyn letterhead stationery. The Brooklyn Letterhead Collection spans 200 years of business in our borough, from 1802 to 2002, with the bulk of the collection representing the 1850s to the 1960s. Several thousand different businesses, institutions, and organizations are represented in the collection, including carpenters, plumbers, painters, city agencies, religious institutions, and more. The finding aid includes a complete listing of the names, addresses, and dates from the letterhead collection,…
Streetcar
The Story of the Little Brown Jug
This week a guest blogger shares her story of how researching in our digital newspaper database, Brooklyn Newsstand, led her to a surprising discovery about her family history, and a new heirloom to boot! We librarians are always so happy to hear these kinds of stories, as we often don't get to learn where research in our collections leads after patrons exit our doors. Our guest blogger Joan Harrison is an artist and author. She is a Professor Emerita of Long Island University, where she taught for many years. One evening in early March as my husband was watching the PBS show "Finding Your…
Lucille Fornasieri Gold Photographs
Traffic
Sanders for (Student Body) President!
With the upcoming primary elections on April 19th, Brooklyn, all of New York City, and indeed all of New York State finds itself basking in the reflected glare of the white-hot spotlight that follows this season's presidential candidates. Trump, Cruz, Kasich, Clinton and Sanders are trotting all over the map this month, drumming up support for their causes and tasting some local delicacies along the way. Tomorrow Brooklyn's Navy Yard will host a debate between Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, drawing even more focus onto our patch of Long Island. As is widely…
Fire on Montague Street
A.I. Namm & Son Department Store
Bob Adelman photographs
John McCrae and the Mysterious Miss Packard
Our newest blogpost is written by a guest blogger Linda Granfield. It is published with her permission and that of the Guelph Historical Society (Guelph, Ontario, Canada). The article first appeared in Historic Guelph, vol. LIII. 2014-2015. Linda Granfield, a native of Melrose, Massachusetts, is the award-winning author of 30 history books for adults and young readers; John McCrae is the subject of two of those titles. She holds degrees from Northeastern University and the University of Toronto; Linda lives in Toronto, Canada. She invites anyone with further…
Scouts
Early Spring
New to the Library Collection: Tauranac New York City Subway Maps
Real Brooklyn, a day in our lives photographs now available at BHS
Car barn
Adrian Vanderveer Martense
Wood-frame Houses
Majestic Theater Follow-up
Our Martyr President: Theodore Cuyler on Abraham Lincoln's death
Love Lane
Willow Street
Majestic Theater
Martense Farm
Ambrotype
Teen Thursdays at BLDG 92 Part II
In 2014, NYC School’s Chancellor Carmen Farina announced a new program called Teen Thursdays, which pairs cultural institutions with middle schools to provide afterschool programming. Brooklyn Historical Society was proud to be a part of that pilot year, and to participate in the program’s expansion this year to our partner site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92. They recorded their sessions on Tumblr (including a video of their final performance!). Last week, Janise Mitchell wrote about her experience with the Teens. Here, Heather Flanagan, School Programs Educator at BHS &…
Teen Thursdays at BLDG 92
In 2014, NYC School’s Chancellor Carmen Farina announced a new program called Teen Thursdays, which pairs cultural institutions with middle schools to provide afterschool programming. Brooklyn Historical Society was proud to be a part of that pilot year, and to participate in the program’s expansion this year to our partner site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92. They recorded their sessions on Tumblr (including a video of their final performance!) Here, Janise Mitchell, School Programs Educator at BHS & BLDG 92, reflects on the program. …
Eberhard Faber Pencil Company collection
21st Century Teens at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Since 2012, Brooklyn Historical Society has partnered with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92 to lead “Teen Innovators at BLDG 92”, an afterschool program serving local high school students (Check out their Tumblr of their experiences). The students come from nearby high schools and in the fall, visit tenants in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and conduct research projects under the direction of BHS museum educators. In the spring, through a generous grant from the Pinkerton Foundation and the support of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, the Teen Innovators will be placed in paid…
Now Showing at the Fox...
This summer, I was digging in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle “morgue” for information on one of Brooklyn’s long lost movie palaces, the Fox Theater. The morgue can be overwhelming, with thousands upon thousands of tiny clippings in equally tiny envelopes housed in rows of rather ominous looking file cabinets. That said, the multitude of clippings is exactly what makes morgue exploration so exciting. While digging for one thing you, can’t help but stumble across thousands of other things you didn’t even know you were looking for. Like this: Brooklyn Daily Eagle 28 Feb 1930. I found…
Happy New Year!
Where's the snow?
Need Help With Your Holiday Shopping?
Well, the Brooklyn Collection has got you covered. All you have to do is suit up in your best hoop dress and top hat and get yourself to downtown Brooklyn, and we promise all your holiday gift-giving woes will melt away. Okay, hang on to your bonnets, here we go! First stop: Fulton Street! “Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 22 December 1860. You’ve just got to get back to W.H. Cornell for those fancy boxed prunes that were such a hit with Uncle Clarence last year. Everyone in your knitting circle surely needs a box! Next, you’ve got to find the…
Our Christmas Tides from Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church
My colleague John Zarillo, processing archivist here at BHS, recently announced the good news the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church records have been processed and made available to the public. He also surprised me with what can only be described as a cataloger’s bonus: at least 8 boxes of the Church’s book collection to be cataloged and placed in a special collections area in the library. Upon opening the first box, I was immediately struck by the superb condition of the books, some more than 100 years old. At first glance, there are editions of the many books published by LAPC’s…
Mary Sandsted, a "typically American girl"
As it often happens, one stumbles upon a story by chance. While going through a stack of old portraits of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial staff, I happened upon a portrait of a young woman, Mary Sandsted Igoe, a society reporter for the newspaper. Encased in a passe-partout freckled with age, the portrait was remarkable in more than one way. To start with, it was the only portrait of a woman in the whole stack. Other images were studio portraits of venerable gentlemen in formal suits, with grave countenances and carefully groomed moustaches. Mary Sandsted Igoe seemed incapable of…
Happy Holidays!
Cyclo-what?
If you read about a “cyclorama” in downtown Brooklyn, maybe you would think it has something to do with bicycles. Actually, a cyclorama is a form of entertainment that was highly popular in the late-nineteenth century. The word refers both to large panoramic paintings and the circular or hexagonal buildings that were custom-built to house such paintings. In an era before movies, cycloramas were considered one of the most engaging amusements on offer, and they were extremely popular. Almost every major American and European city had a cyclorama building at one point, and Brooklyn was…
Charles (Karl) Blieffert photograph album
Horse-drawn cart
Happy Thanksgiving
Lundy's Restaurant
Hand-colored photographs
Brooklyn Continuation School
Our Streets, Our Stories Community Scanning Update
The Our Streets, Our Stories introduction post found me preparing for my kick-off event at the Leonard library and putting finishing touches on the mobile digitization kit. Four months later I’m now preparing for my fifth community scanning event at the Clinton Hill library and working toward scheduling more spring events. Our Streets, Our Stories has been well received by the library community and public interest is steadily growing. As we host more scanning events in different neighborhoods, I'm adjusting my outreach efforts to reflect what I've learned along the way.…
Washington Park
Double Header -- two programs on Brooklyn's baseball history!
All of New York is buzzing about the Mets' impressive waltz into the World Series -- their first appearance in the championship since 2000 (their last World Series win was in 1986). If you're anything like us, your glee at their success is mediated by the pangs of loss still felt from when Brooklyn's beloved Dodgers decamped for Los Angeles. As it happens, October 4th was the 60th anniversary of the Dodger's World Series win against the Yankees in Game 7 -- the only championship the team won during its tenure in Brooklyn. If that paragraph got your heart beating a bit…
Cranston Family Photographs
Foffe's
What's wrong with your tongue?
Our colleague recently left for a new gig in Staten Island. We here at the Collection wanted to give her something to remember us by. We settled on a photo of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s eagle, the one who sat perched over the main entrance to the Eagle Building in Downtown Brooklyn from 1892 until the building was demolished in 1955. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Building, 192-?. The eagle is special partly because the bulk of the Brooklyn Collection is comprised of holdings from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper, which folded shortly before the building came down. What’s more, the…
Shipbuilding at Brooklyn Navy Yard
Long Island College Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association records now open to the public
A Whale's Tale
Don’t you love a heartwarming animal story? You know, the ones where dogs and cats put aside their instinctual differences to find their way home or children risk it all to rescue baby pandas? Those are excellent stories. This is not one of those stories. I found a photo of a large whale on a flatbed truck in a folder appropriately named “Animals.” The 1953 photo’s caption told of a seven year old, 75 foot, 70 ton fin whale named Mrs. Haroy. Naturally, I had some questions. "Where's Jonah?" Brooklyn Daily Eagle 30 Mar 1953. Print. With a bit of research, I found some answers…
Cat named “Lazybones”
Abraham - Straus
Ritter Painless Dental Co.
Preservation and Progress at the Brooklyn Collection
Brooklyn is in constant flux. Every day, it seems, someone comments that “the neighborhood is changing so quickly” or “five years ago none of this was here!” The Brooklyn Collection’s new exhibit, Preservation and Progress, explores those very statements. Pacific and Atlantic Photos, Inc. Municipal Building Under Construction, 1925. In conjunction with the Brooklyn Connections program, the exhibition looks at buildings that are long gone and buildings that have been landmarked by the Landmarks Preservation Commission; buildings that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Two…
Class Portraits
Ice in Brooklyn
Harry Kalmus Photographs
The Cyclone
Baby Prince
A Civil War of Our Very Own
General Ulysses S. Grant is an American hero. He commanded the Union forces during the Civil War and is today lauded as a military genius. What's more, he served two terms as President of the United States - that’s quite a resume. (Yes, yes, he made some mistakes during his time in office, but show me a president who hasn’t.) Grant died in 1885 and was buried in his tomb (the aptly named Grant’s Tomb) on Manhattan’s Riverside Drive. It's big. Thomson, Edgar S. "Grant's Tomb." 1895. Print. Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection. Brooklyn didn't have a body to bury…
1977 Blackout
East New York Then, Now, and in the Future
BHS hosted a panel discussion entitled “A Biography of East New York” on Tuesday, July 14, about how this Brooklyn neighborhood got to where it is today and where it is headed in the future. Moderated by Jarrett Murphy, the executive editor and publisher of City Limits, our panelists included Brandon Gibson, founder and CEO of Light Rock Holdings LLC, a real estate company that focuses on acquiring residential properties through NYC, Michelle Neugebauer, Executive Director of the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC), Winston Von Engel, Director of the Brooklyn Office of the…
Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit!
It has been an amazing five years here at the Brooklyn Collection. I will miss my job as Project Manager of Brooklyn Connections and I will certainly miss the students and teachers I have worked with. But most of all, I will miss all the friends I have made here at the Brooklyn Public Library. 2015 Brooklyn Connections Convocation I have learned so much more from the Brooklyn Connections students and teachers than I could have ever taught them—and I doubt they even know it! From our students I’ve learned to be patient (especially with our middle schoolers) and to look at…
Brooklyn Historical Society's building
Ginger Adams Otis and The Vulcan Society
On Tuesday, July 7, Brooklyn Historical Society hosted a book talk with Ginger Adams Otis, author of Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York's Bravest, a book about the traditions and infrastructure that shape the FDNY and the impressive men and women of color who have fought for institutional change. Otis was joined by three members of the Vulcan Society, an organization focused on increasing the number of minority groups represented in the FDNY. Members of the Vulcan Society included Regina Wilson, President of the Vulcan Society, Captain Paul Washington, former president…
Cabinet Cards
Daisies
Sheep in Prospect Park
Crow Hill Castle
New York's prisons have been in the news a lot recently: tragic deaths, racial bias, the promise of sweeping prison reform, and the Shawshank Redemption-like escape of two convicts from an upstate prison. It got me thinking about Brooklyn's own prison history - specifically that of the Crow Hill Penitentiary, a long since demolished landmark of Brooklyn's past. Thomson, Edgar S. Crow Hill Penitentiary. 1896. Print. Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection. The Crow Hill Penitentiary, also known (and perhaps better known) as the Kings County Penitentiary, was an ominous…
Beach
The Giglio Feast
Every July a few typically sleepy residential streets in Williamsburg erupt into a festival of lights, food, music, and parades. This is, of course, the annual celebration sponsored by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, also known as the Giglio Feast. Since so many of us have enjoyed the sights and sounds (and funnel cakes) of this week-long event, it is only prudent that we take a moment to look into the origin and history of this Italian-American tradition. The Giglio Feast celebrates a selfless act of bravery by Bishop Paolino, who lived in the small Italian…
Recent Changing Demographics Challenge Racial Categories in America
On Wednesday, June 17th, we welcomed internationally recognized demographer and author of Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America, William Frey, to talk about how multiracial marriages and internal migration patterns are changing American demographics. The event was programmed in connection with our Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations (CBBG) program, an initiative to collect oral histories from multicultural and mixed race Brooklynites and create public programs that provide an open space for engaging conversations on the dynamics of race. In his talk, Frey…
Brooklyn Sewers
Brooklyn Connections 2014-2015 Wrap-Up
The 2014-2015 school year has proven to be yet another great year for Brooklyn Connections. We're pleased to have served nearly 2,000 students in 76 classes from 33 schools in Queens, Manhattan and, of course, Brooklyn. Throughout the year, the Brooklyn Connections staff continued to support students by teaching 21st century learning skills and aligning our skill-based lessons with the Common Core Standards. After students learned and understood the research skills, they completed a project that had a visual, oral and written component. Students also visited the Brooklyn…
Summer
The Garden of Damascus in the Heart of Brooklyn
June is Immigrant Heritage Month and Brooklyn has long been a destination for new Americans. Shaped by historic waves of Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews, Brooklyn grew from a smattering of Dutch hamlets to a bustling industrial center rich in cultural heritage. Today, Brooklyn remains a hub of immigrant life; home to communities of more recent immigrants from places such as China, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. BPL is doing storytelling workshops and art discussions at the end of the month, so come see us and celebrate our collective heritage! (Oh, and we have a…
Our 4th Annual: What Are You? Sparked Dialogue on Identity and Mixed Heritage
On Monday, June 8th, we hosted our 4th Annual: What Are You?, an event initiated by our Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations (CBBG) program. From 2011 to 2014, CBBG collected oral histories of mixed-heritage Brooklynites and created public programs that provided an open space for engaging conversations on the dynamics of race, ethnicity, identity, culture, class, and sexuality. The What Are You? public program series in particular tackles the question that so often plagues people of mixed heritage - “What are you really?” - and highlights the personal stories and voices of people of color…
Our Streets Our Stories: Community Scanning Events
In collaboration with the Metropolitan New York Library Council and Queens Library, the Brooklyn Collection will spend the next year hosting an exciting new project. As a recent winner of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge, “Culture in Transit” will be working to democratize the cultural heritage of New York City. Here in Brooklyn, we will be operating under the name “Our Streets Our Stories,” working closely with Brooklyn Public Library's ongoing oral history project of the same name. Our Streets Our Stories has a…
Lucille Fornasieri Gold photographs
All the World's a Stage - Even the Confederacy - for Brooklyn Soldiers Fighting in Civil War
On the back wall of Brooklyn Historical Society’s critically acclaimed Personal Correspondents exhibition, under the heading “Facing Death,” resides a grim and tragic quotation from the letters of James Beith, a private in the 48th regiment, New York Infantry. There is nothing thought of a poor soldier when he gets killed, only for to dig a hole and throw him into it, then sometimes hardly cover him with enough of dirt. The quotation is from a letter which Beith wrote to his brother in May of 1864, while his regiment marched north through the brutal and desperate final months of the Civil War…
House Research
Memorial Day Parade
Coffee in Brooklyn
Glass Plate Negatives
Unlocking A Civil War-era Surgeon’s Kit
In April 2015, Brooklyn Historical Society opened a new exhibition, “Personal Correspondents: Photography and Letter Writing in Civil War Brooklyn”. The exhibition uses BHS’s evocative 19th century photography and correspondence collections to reveal the personal, funny, moving, and tragic stories of wartime Brooklynites at home and on the battlefield. As a research assistant on the exhibition, I was charged with researching many of the artifacts featured in the exhibition. The objects – from sewing kits to cannonballs to broadside posters – allowed me to experience the dramatic changes in…
Grand Army Plaza
Putting Out Fires Since 1865!
Our Firemen, 1887 2015 marks 150 years of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) bravely serving New York City. I am proud to say my brother-in-law is a FDNY firefighter who started out as a volunteer firefighter. For years, Brian responded to fires whenever the loud siren was rung at the Oceanic Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 in Travis, Staten Island. As Staten Island's oldest volunteer fire house, Oceanic received its charter in 1881 and is today -- out of the ten volunteer fire houses in the city (here's a bit more about that) -- one of only two…
Cherry Blossoms
In the Shadow of the Bridge
“At times...I feel an enourmous power in me - that seems almost supernatural. If this power is not too dissipated in aggravation and discouragement I may amount to something sometime. I can say this now with perfect equanimity because I am notoriously drunk and the Victrola is going with that glorious Bolero.” – Hart Crane The poet Hart Crane may not have been born in Brooklyn (as so many of us aren’t), but his time here would radically change not only his life, but American poetics as well. Born on July 21, 1899 in Garrettsville, Ohio, Crane moved to the city when he was…
Narrows Sunday School: Religious education in 19th Century Brooklyn
The following post was authored by our Spring 2015 Library and Archives processing intern Stephanie Coy. It highlights one of several collections which she has cataloged this spring. In 1988, Brooklyn Historical Society purchased a manuscript that chronicled the weekly activities of the Narrows Sunday School during the period of 1834–1845. The Narrows Sunday School was founded by Dr. John Carpenter in the Village of Fort Hamilton in 1825. After three years of successful service to the village’s residents, the school moved to a chapel building adjacent to the Dutch Reformed Church in the Town…
A Night to Remember
It is once again upon us; that century-old ritual of courtly grace and sequins! Prom! Prom, short for 'promenade,' has been around since the late 19th century. Starting at colleges, the dances served as a more egalitarian version of the ever-popular debutante balls cherished by the upper classes. The dances were fancy, but usually more high tea than black tie. Because proms served as socialite training grounds, it makes sense to see them listed in Brooklyn Life's "Dances" section along with the other society happenings. The magazine, published weekly for Brooklyn's upper crust…
Personal Correspondents
50? That Bridge Doesn't Look A Day Over 25!
Every morning the Verrazano-Narrows bridge greets me and every evening it says goodnight, the lights twinkling like the city’s own stars. It’s one of the best things about living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. (The worst thing being the very long R train ride home.) When I first moved to Bay Ridge, the bridge was an anchor of sorts. It told me, when I accidentally got off at the wrong subway station, which way was home. Walk this way, it said. Toward me. I might be biased but I think it’s a prettier than the George Washington; more elegant than the Brooklyn Bridge.…
Ebbets Field
Brooklyn Collection + Brooklyn Historical Society
The Brooklyn Collection is pleased to be joining forces with our counterparts at the Brooklyn Historical Society this spring to offer new programs exploring the fun and fanciful side of our borough's history. *Note that two of these three programs are happening at the Brooklyn Historical Society (128 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights) and some do charge an admission fee. Extreme Brooklyn Trivia: All Star EditionThursday, April 16th, 6:30pm at the Brooklyn Historical Society$10 General Admission / $5 for BHS and G-W MembersReserve tickets>>The result of an unprecedented d…
Sheepshead Bay
When Brooklyn Was Briney
Brooklyn Daily Eagle 18 April 1948. Remember when you were little and you'd put black olives on your fingers? Were you the type of kid who could only get one or two on before you'd snatch them off like a bird? Or were you like me, a ten-finger-all-or-nothing-go-big-or-go-home olive eater? I was the bane of all family dinners featuring tacos. Or maybe you hate olives? If that is the case, you can stop reading now. In 1890, Irving T. Bush built a warehouse on the banks of New York Harbor in today's Sunset Park. Within a decade what had started as a single warehouse was on the cusp of…
The Toy That Kills
Brooklyn in the early 1950s was a borough of rising crime, and the problem was steadily getting out of control. Cab drivers were held up, grocery stores robbed, and gangs fought for bragging rights in the streets. Stories of victimized residents and business owners were a regular feature in the newspaper. Something had to be done. Various community groups met to discuss strategies that would get weapons off the streets and out of the hands of the youth.Enter the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which along with civic leaders, business leaders, and local precincts waged a three-year campaign, one…
Pilgrim Laundry
Hurricane Sandy
Accessing the Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations Oral History Collection through the Digital Humanities
I'm pleased to announce that the Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations (CBBG) oral history collection is now open for research! From 2011 to 2014, a team of oral historians sponsored by BHS conducted interviews with mixed-heritage people and families in Brooklyn. CBBG narrators and interviewers explored the themes of cultural hybridity, race, ethnicity and identity formation in the United States. The complete collection of over 100 oral history interviews is available for use in the Othmer Library and a portion of the contents are accessible online at the CBBG website. An exciting feature…
Brooklyn Bridge
Artist Talk-Jesus in Brooklyn: Four Good Fridays with Larry Racioppo
Larry Racioppo has been photographing Good Friday on the streets of Brooklyn for over 40 years. Join us on March 25th at 7:00 p.m. as this celebrated street photographer talks about his work documenting the public processions, and celebrations of faith of four neighobrhood churches. Greater Zion Shiloh Baptist Church St. John the…
Bickford's
In Bloom
City Hall on Fire
Cheers!
We hope that you'll join us next Wednesday, February 25th to hear Peter Thomas Fornatale and Chris Wertz as they present their new book, "Brooklyn Spirits and Cocktails: Craft Distilling from the World's Hippest Borough". They'll be discussing the history of distilled spirits in Brooklyn, and the new ways that restaurants, entrepreneurs, and bars are bringing back old recipes and methods, while adding their own twist to the enjoyment of cocktails. The talk begins at 7:00 p.m, and there will be a cocktail receiption at 6:30…
What's Up With Parkville?
I have a confession to make. Up until this past November I wasn't a Brooklynite. I've been teaching students to love Brooklyn but, for the past six years, I've been living in Astoria, Queens. Now, don't go thinking I'm ashamed - I have tons of Queens pride. But, in the spirit of having a shorter commute and fewer (read: zero) roommates, I've moved to South Brooklyn. I mentioned to a friend that I'd moved to Kensington and, upon telling him what my cross streets were, he retorted, "No, you live in Parkville." Naturally, I was offended. First of all, I teach kids about Brooklyn's history…
Sledding
Fred Snitzer collection of Kings County postal ephemera now open to the public
Sweethearts
A School for Girls and One for Boys
It's doubtful that you've heard of James W. Naughton but very likely you have walked passed one of his magnificent buildings. Naughton, an Irish immigrant, moved to Brooklyn when he was eight years old. He became an architect after apprenticing in Milwaukee at the age of fifteen and upon his return to New York, he studied at the Cooper Union. In 1879 he became Superintendent of Buildings for Brooklyn's Board of Education and designed more than one hundred buildings, including Brooklyn's first high school. Before Brooklyn had any high schools, it had grammar schools.…
Your Local Subway Station
Map of the Month--February 2015
Blizzard?
Film Screening and Discussion: "Battle for Brooklyn" -- Wednesday, January 28th, 7pm
As part of Brooklyn Transitions, a series of programs and events about neighborhood change in our borough, the Brooklyn Collection presents the film "Battle for Brooklyn". This documentary is an intensely intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by owners and residents facing condemnation of their property to make way for the controversial Atlantic Yards project, the development plan that created the Barclay's Center (home of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team) and the Pacific Park apartment towers that are currently under construction. Shot over seven years and…
Basketball in Brooklyn
The Mystery of PS 125
Looking at Google Maps, it is plain to see that PS 125 in Brownsville has been abandoned for quite some time. When did the oldest school in the neighborhood close, and why? This researcher started this blog assuming that these would be easy questions to answer. It turns out there is no clear answer to either one. From its creation in 1900, PS 125 was ill-equipped to handle the influx of Jewish, mostly Russian and Polish, immigrants streaming over the newly opened Williamsburg Bridge from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Four new schools opened in Brownsville between 1905 and…
Polar Bears in Brooklyn
The Mermen of Brownsville
The Brooklyn Collection has rotating exhibits all year round showcasing gems from the Collection (including an annual exhibit of student work). Currently, we're exhibiting items relating to "The Education of Kings: A History of Brooklyn Schools!" It will be up in the collection until February 13th, so please stop by and check out the yearbooks, photos, and other rare and unique Collection items we have on display. In honor of our current exhibition, the Brooklyn Connections team has set out to detail the history of three Brooklyn Schools over the next three weeks. With that,…
Bitterly Cold
Teddy Bears from Brooklyn
The teddy bear has been a perennial gift favorite for at least a century. You may be surprised to learn that the invention of teddy bears is squarely rooted in Brooklyn. The holiday season is a good time to review the story of this adorable stuffed toy with which so many of us have a deep emotional connection. An early 20th century family photograph of Brooklyn-born sculptor Frederick MacMonnies' daughters Betty and Marjorie, flanked by their governess and their good friend, the teddy bear.My research was spurred, oddly enough, by a work of fiction. Karen Hesse’s…
Uncovering Historical Maps at Brooklyn Historical Society
As I wrap up cataloging the last few maps and polishing the last blog post for this phase of Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)-funded map cataloging for BHS, the time has come to let everyone know what we have accomplished in the last 17 months. The purpose of a CLIR Hidden Collections grant is to ‘uncover’ ‘hidden’ collections, by making previously uncataloged collections available for discovery on the Web. For libraries, this goal is achieved by the creation of MARC (machine-readable catalog) records for each item in the collection for inclusion in local and international…
Merry Christmas
Brooklyn's Corporation Counsel records now open to researchers!
Free From Freakish Ideas
Parties, man. The worst. Who do you invite? Or more specifically, how do you invite everyone except for that guy? New Year's Eve parties? The worst of the worst. A day already filled with expectations, topped with anticipation, with a dash of nostalgia and/or regret. Thank goodness there are people who are paid to tell us what to do and what not to do to avoid garish social faux pas. Marie Manning, writing under the pseudonym Beatrice Fairfax, wrote the first newspaper advice column in the New York Evening Journal in 1898. The format proved an instant success, with other…
Festival of Lights
Shop Talk with Brooklyn Makers: In the Seam
Welcome to Shop Talk, our regular series highlighting some of the fantastic Brooklyn-made products (and their makers) available in the BHS Gift Shop, open daily from 12pm to 5pm!
They'll Say 'Aww, Topsy!' At My Autopsy!
Sometimes, all it takes is an episode of Bob's Burgers to ignite a historical research adventure! In the episode aptly named "Topsy," Louise devises a scheme to take revenge on an obnoxious science teacher who is obsessed with Thomas Edison. While researching for her science project at the local library, Louise and her siblings stumble across a video of an elephant being electrocuted by the Edison Electric Company. Louise cackles with delight at the idea of smearing the reputation of her teacher's beloved hero in front of the entire class, "I'm going to tell everyone the truth about Thomas…
House Research
December Staff Pick from the BHS Gift Shop: Park Slope Neighborhood & Architectural History Guide by Francis Morrone via Brooklyn Historical Society
Welcome to the latest installment of Brooklyn Historical Society STAFF PICKS, a fun way to explore our awesome gift shop! The BHS Gift Shop features many items crafted right here in Brooklyn, as well as an array of fascinating books on the history and culture of New York City and our favorite borough. Once a month we feature a staff member and their favorite book from our gift shop because, let’s face it, who better than our Brooklyn-lovin’ staff to give great gift ideas? This month we chat with BHS President Deborah Schwartz, whose favorite book in the BHS Gift Shop is the Park Slope…
Repeal Day!
Manure Freely: The Floral Stylings of Julius J. Heinrich
The Brooklyn Collection's ephemera files are pretty expansive, filled with an array of amazing (and sometimes random) documents tucked away into acid-free manila folders: programs, community newsletters, membership cards, and the like. We have a fair amount of newspapers and periodicals as well, including one well-loved booklet from 1889 entitled Henirch's Floral Instructor. I was drawn to the book due to the filigree on the cover and the floral-themed typeface. It is pretty, yes? As I started to gently flip through the pages I began to get some scents (Pun! Bad pun!) of late 19th…
Map of the Month - December 2014
Parades
The building of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge
Brooklyn Connections Professional Developments
We are pleased to announce the Brooklyn Connections 2014/ 2015 teacher professional development schedule. To register for any of the workshops, please email connections@bklynlibrary.org or visit our website. ------ Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson--a great topic for this year's NHD theme: Leadership and Legacy What: Creating a National History Day Project with the Brooklyn Collection and the Museum of the City of New York When: Monday, December 1, 2014 from 5pm-7pm Who should attend: Teachers and parents who have students or children participating in National History Day or those who…
November Staff Pick from the BHS Gift Shop: A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick by Meryl Meisler
Welcome to the latest installment of Brooklyn Historical Society STAFF PICKS, a fun way to explore our awesome gift shop! The BHS Gift Shop features many items crafted right here in Brooklyn, as well as an array of fascinating books on the history and culture of New York City and our favorite borough. Once a month we feature a staff member and their favorite book from our gift shop because, let’s face it, who better than our Brooklyn-lovin’ staff to give great gift ideas? This month we chat with Lindsay Palmer Vint, BHS’s Visitor Services and Retail Manager, whose favorite book in the BHS…
In Honor of Our Veterans
The Brooklyn Hellfighters
The day was November 11th, 1919. At exactly 11:00am, on the one year anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting between the Allies and Germany, all school children in Brooklyn were asked to place their pencils on their desks for a ten minute silence so that they could "realize vividly the significance which that moment had for America's embattled armies." Brooklyn Daily Eagle 11 Nov. 1919. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the events of the newly elected day of remembrance (not a national holiday until 1938 and not called Veteran's Day until 1954): parades, dinners, and…
Golden City USA
When New Yorkers dream of summer fun at an amusement park by the sea, most turn their thoughts to Coney Island. However, 100 years ago they might have been dreaming about Canarsie’s Golden City Park. The popular yet often forgotten amusement park opened in the summer of 1907 to a crowd of 25,000. Built on Jamaica Bay by Warner’s Canarsie Amusement Company, the park relied on the recently extended railroad system to deliver daytrippers from all over the city. An undated rendering of the park in its heyday.Golden City delighted attendees with amusement park staples such as a…
Map of the Month--November 2014
Shop Talk with Brooklyn Makers: Brooklyn Rehab
Welcome to Shop Talk, our regular series highlighting some of the fantastic Brooklyn-made products (and their makers) available in the BHS Gift Shop, open daily from 12pm to 5pm! Alyssa Zygmunt, the creator of Brooklyn Rehab, uses her daily observations of NYC culture to create inspired and unique products that make the perfect souvenirs for out-of-towners and seasoned New Yorkers alike. From key chains and salt and pepper shakers, to glass bottles with labels of local bodies of water, such as the Gowanus Canal (because that water must be tasty!), and 100% authentic New York City pigeon…
Food vendors at Wallabout Market
Brooklyn Bounty 2014 Taste Spotlight - Odd Fellows Ice Cream
In anticipation of Brooklyn Bounty, BHS’s premier fundraiser at 26 Bridge on October 22nd, we are profiling our participating restaurants and honorees of the Food & Heritage Awards. Below is a profile of OddFellows Ice Cream Company, one of the sweet and chilled participants in our evening’s tasting menu. Ice Cream is year-round! (left to right) : The OddFellows Team - Mohan Kumar, Sam Mohan, & Holiday Kumar Right on the corner of Kent Avenue and North 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is a small ice cream parlor with big flavors. OddFellows Ice Cream Co. is passionate about their…
Highland Park
October Staff Pick from the BHS Gift Shop – Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Welcome to the latest installment of Brooklyn Historical Society STAFF PICKS, a fun way to explore our awesome gift shop! The BHS Gift Shop features many items crafted right here in Brooklyn, as well as an array of books on Brooklyn and New York City suitable for the whole family. Once a month we feature a staff member and their favorite item from our gift shop because, let’s face it, who better than our Brooklyn-lovin’ staff to give great gift ideas? This month we chat with BHS Processing Archivist John Zarrillo, whose favorite book is Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. He recommends…
Education at BHS: CASA/Young Curators at PS 32
The Young Curators is an after-school program led by Brooklyn Historical Society educators guiding students through a themed investigation of their school’s neighborhood using primary sources from BHS's collection and other resources. Based upon their given theme (i.e. Colonial Brooklyn or the Evolution of East New York), students create a three-panel exhibit that is eventually displayed at their school. Students write the text, recreate images through drawings, and choose images like maps and portraits to be included. They even work with a graphic designer for the colors, fonts, and design…
Autumn Harvest Season
Map of the Month--October 2014
Brooklyn Bounty 2014 Taste Spotlight - Brooklyn Winery
In anticipation of Brooklyn Bounty, BHS’s premier fundraiser at 26 Bridge on October 22nd, we are profiling our participating restaurants and honorees of the Food & Heritage Awards. Below is a profile of Brooklyn Winery, one of the delicious participants in our evening’s tasting menu. Photo by Rina Brindamour “Our job is to make people happy.” _____ Co-founders and wine entrepreneurs Brian Leventhal and John Stires have been working with grapes since 2010, when they opened one of the first hybrid winery and event spaces in Brooklyn, NY. Their interest in wine- making bloomed when John and…
Transformation & Discovery
Education at BHS: CASA/Young Curators at P.S. 276
The Young Curators is an after-school program led by Brooklyn Historical Society educators guiding students through a themed investigation of their school’s neighborhood using primary sources from BHS's collection and other resources. Based upon their given theme, (i.e. Colonial Brooklyn or the Evolution of East New York), students create a three-panel exhibit that is eventually displayed at their school. Students write the text, recreate images through drawings, and choose images like maps and portraits to be included. They even work with a graphic designer for the colors, fonts, and design…
Shop Talk with Brooklyn Makers: Build Your Block
Welcome to Shop Talk, our regular series highlighting some of the fantastic Brooklyn-made products (and their makers) available in the BHS Gift Shop, open daily from 12pm to 5pm! Brooklyn is an ever-changing borough, and whether you've been here your whole life or are just now calling it home, I think everyone can agree that it is a very special and exciting place to be. While new buildings are sprouting up around every corner, it is important that we take the time to appreciate and preserve the essence of classic Brooklyn. Our maker for this month, Patrick Chirico, found a unique way to…
Dirt for Dirt's Sake: the trials of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer"
In observance of Banned Books Week, the Brooklyn Collection offers this tale taken straight from the institutional archives of Brooklyn Public Library. On July 11, 1963 a stern memo was distributed to every library throughout the borough of Brooklyn: "TO: ALL SERVICE AGENCIES FROM: THE ASSISTANT CHIEF LIBRARIAN RE: MILLER, HENRY - TROPIC OF CANCER The New York State Court of Appeals ruled on July 10, 1963 that TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller is obscene under the New York State obscenity law. The following action must be taken immediately: No copy is to be loaned to…
Ready or Not . . .
September Staff Pick from the BHS Gift Shop – The New York Nobody Knows by William B. Helmreich
Welcome to the latest installment of Brooklyn Historical Society STAFF PICKS, a fun way to explore our awesome gift shop! The BHS Gift Shop features many items crafted right here in Brooklyn, as well as an array of books on Brooklyn and New York City suitable for the whole family. Once a month we feature a staff member and their favorite item from our gift shop because, let’s face it, who better than our Brooklyn-lovin’ staff to give great gift ideas? This month we chat with the wonderful Lead Visitors Services and Events Associate, Kate Ludwig, whose favorite book is The New York Nobody…
Brooklyn Bounty '14: French Louie
In anticipation of Brooklyn Bounty, BHS’s premier fundraiser at 26 Bridge on October 22nd, we are profiling our participating restaurants and honorees of the Food & Heritage Awards. Below is a profile of French Louie, one of the delicious participants in our evening’s tasting menu.
French Louie: All Things French, American and Brooklyn
The Great Trolley Strike of 1895 - Part 2
Map of the Month – September 2014
Brooklyn Bounty '14: Mast Brothers Chocolate
In anticipation of Brooklyn Bounty, BHS’s premier fundraiser at 26 Bridge on October 22nd, we are profiling our participating restaurants and honorees of the Food & Heritage Awards. Below is a profile of Mast Brothers Chocolate, one of the delicious participants in our evening’s tasting menu.
Mast Brothers Chocolate: Honoring Brooklyn and the Cocoa Nib
Williamsburg: Then & Now
Our collection of photographs by Anders Goldfarb are some of the most contemporary images in our holdings aside from those taken by Jamel Shabazz. However, unlike Shabazz who captures the personalities of Brooklynites, Goldfarb mostly captures the personalities of the borough's dilapidated buildings. In a 2012 interview with Goldfarb, Peter Mattei asked: "What emotion do you feel when you see these buildings? What makes you want to photograph them?" "It's a form of compassion I think I have for the building," Goldfarb replied, "because they're old and the old as a rule tend to perish and…
Walking with Eugene Armbruster
It’s shocking how fast July and August have slipped by, but at least the weather is still good. One of my favorite ways to enjoy both this weather and this city is to wander around with a camera. Based on the images in the Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks collection, that appears to have also been one of Armbruster’s favorite pastimes. Flipping through Armbruster’s photographs, it is easy to imagine him wandering around different neighborhoods in Brooklyn in the 1920s, taking pictures of whatever seemed interesting or beautiful in the moment. The four images above appear to…
Shop Talk with Brooklyn Makers: The Dynamic Duo of Boundless Brooklyn
Welcome to Shop Talk, our regular series highlighting some of the fantastic Brooklyn-made products (and their makers) available in the BHS Gift Shop, open daily from 12pm to 5pm! When it comes to handmade crafts, Brooklyn takes the gold medal. You can find almost anything made by hand, from soaps, to earrings, to cutting boards. Today, we get to know David Shulman and Terence Arjo, Brooklyn makers who specialize in DIY water tower models, magnets, coasters, t-shirts, and key chains. Much of their success is attributed to their ability to provide a product that is historic and beautiful, but…
The Great Trolley Strike of 1895 - Part 1
A Look at the Year Ahead: Brooklyn Connections
We at Brooklyn Connections are gearing up for our 8th year reaching out to local schools, teaching research skills and learning about local history. With an exciting two-year, $400,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation and additional generous funding from The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, David and Paula Weiner Memorial Grant, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., Tiger Baron Foundation, and Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, we can continue our efforts of teaching authentic historical research to students around Brooklyn! Students at PS/ IS 163 learned about transit history. They…
The Feast of San Gennaro
Brooklyn Bounty 2014: ReConnect Café
In anticipation of Brooklyn Bounty, BHS’s premier fundraiser at 26 Bridge on October 22nd, we are profiling our participating restaurants and honorees of the Food & Heritage Awards. Below is a profile of ReConnect Café, recipient of our Pioneer Award, and part of our tasting menu.
ReConnect Café: Coffee to Buzz the Neighborhood
Electrification of the Long Island Railroad in Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Postal Service
A Digest of a Different Sort
Last week I was looking for a piece of ephemera for a project packet I was creating on Brownsville when I stumbled across something different: a digest, if you will. This digest then went on to change the entire course of my day. How did one small magazine change the entire course of my day, you ask? Well, I immediately stopped looking for information on Brownsville, that's how. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading about sports, history, restaurants, and women in "The Magazine For Brooklyn, About Brooklyn, In Brooklyn." Brooklyn Digest Magazine was a small monthly magazine…
Brooklyn Bounty 2014: Brooklyn Oenology
BHS’s premier fundraiser, Brooklyn Bounty, is fast approaching. Held at 26 Bridge on October 22nd, it will feature an exciting array of Brooklyn chefs providing tastings of some of the best offerings from their menus! Purchase your ticket here. To whet your appetite, we are featuring the food and drink of several of our participating chefs and restaurants in the months leading up to #BKBounty14 on the BHS Blog. Enjoy!
Brooklyn Oenology: Celebrating Creativity with Wine
Map of the Month - August 2014
Shop Talk with Brooklyn Makers: Tina, the fearless lady behind TATTLY
If you think temporary tattoos are just for kids, then you haven't discovered Tattly yet, the Brooklyn-grown company that specializes in creating temporary tattoos even adults want to wear - everyone from Brooklyn hipsters to hip grandmas. And in addition to being a Brooklyn company, Tattly also supports artists! They employ artists from all over the globe to design tattoos which ranging from vegetables to comic book characters. Today we catch up with Tina, the fearless lady behind Tattly who took a design challenge and made it into over 100 amazing temporary solutions. What's the story…
Brooklyn Bounty 2014: Delaware and Hudson
Excitement is in the air for Brooklyn Bounty, Brooklyn Historical Society’s premier tasting benefit this fall! On October 22, at the impressive 26 Bridge Street in DUMBO, guests will treat their palates to tastings from Brooklyn’s finest chefs and restaurants. With this year’s theme, “Kings County Agricultural Fair,” we celebrate Brooklyn’s vibrant sustainability movement with delicious and exciting samples from all across the borough. In the next few months leading up to the event, to whet our appetites for what’s to come we will profile several of the participating restaurants, as well as…
On Vaccinations and the Small Pox epidemic of 1894
The Quiet, Colorful Moments of Irving Herzberg
Irving Herzberg (1915-1991) is perhaps best known for capturing personal, candid moments. The Brooklyn Collection houses Herzberg's life's work; over 2,300 images of day-to-day Brooklynites: a woman with her tired baby, a man looking at totem poles, and children stuffing their faces with cotton candy. The Brooklyn Collection also has some amazingly terrifying photos of the plane crash that shook up Park Slope in the winter of 1960 and a wealth of photos that he took of Brooklyn's traditionally closed Hasidic community. Herzberg spent 10 years, Sunday after Sunday,…
Before "organic" was even a notion...
In an unusual confluence of the World War I centennial observation and the height of harvesting season, a small, curious cache of photographic images found its way to the Brooklyn Collection. Twenty six lantern slides and seven photographic prints, presumably from 1919, depict a group of Brooklyn youngsters and their teachers tending vegetable plots. A couple of them feature the Park Commissioner John N. Harman as well. It was not only a tree that grew in Brooklyn, apparently, but also carrots, kohlrabi, beans, beets, radishes and corn. The pictures were taken at the Betsy Park…
Map of the Month--July 2014
June Staff Pick from the BHS Gift Shop - Rats by Robert Sullivan
Introducing Brooklyn Historical Society STAFF PICKS, a new way to explore our awesome gift shop! Our gift shop has been open for a little over a year, featuring many items crafted right here in Brooklyn, as well as an array of books on Brooklyn and New York City suitable for the whole family. Once a month we will feature a staff member and their favorite item from our gift store because, let’s face it, who better than our Brooklyn lovin’ staff to give great gift ideas? This month is all about Andy McCarthy, BHS Reference Librarian, and his favorite book from our gift shop: Rats: Observations…
Mapping the first Red Scare: Ohman's map of 'racial colonies'
She said, She said exhibition
It’s with great pleasure that I announce the opening of the exhibition She said, She said: Art and inspiration in the work of Nell Painter and Lucille Fornasieri Gold. If you weren’t already aware, Lucille Gold generously donated a set of 93 photographs to Brooklyn Historical Society in 2008. They are all available for your viewing pleasure here. She has been a favorite of ours for some time: we’ve offered her pictures as enhancements to fundraising events and gift prints to BHS staff; we’ve connected her to the documentarian of New York Street Games who used her photos in the film and to…
Summing Up a School Year with Brooklyn Connections
The 2013-2014 school year has proven to be a truly banner year for Brooklyn Connections. We're pleased to have partnered with over 2,000 students in 70 classes from 30 schools in Queens, Manhattan and of course, Brooklyn. Students from PS 131 before their visit to the Brooklyn Collection in January Throughout the year, Connections staff supported students by teaching Common Core-aligned research skills, including note-taking, text and photographic analysis, outlining, and writing a research question or thesis statement. All partner schools visited the Brooklyn…
Borough Park's P.S. 131, a trove of school history
Last fall the Brooklyn Connections staff was approached by two enthusiastic educators from P.S. 131 who had recently discovered fascinating artifacts at their Borough Park school. They hoped to use the artifacts to inform a school history research project with a select group of 5th grade students in collaboration with Brooklyn Connections. Given our love of school history (see To Number a School, We Don't Need No Education, Brooklyn Schools: A Look at Ephemera and More, Welcome to M.S. 57), it should come as no surprise to our faithful readers that we jumped at the…
Roller Skating
A Case of Mistaken Identity
Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902)
Marianne Moore
Everybody Loves a Parade
Born in 1846, William Cody, better known by his stage name Buffalo Bill, was a jack-of-all-trades when it came to the American West. He rode for the Pony Express, scouted for the Union during the Civil War, and rode against various Native American tribes during the period of westward expansion. His stories would eventually find their way to the big top when, in 1882, Cody began his 45-year career as an entertainer and showman by creating a small show that would eventually morph into an extravaganza entitled Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. He wooed audiences…
Map of the Month - June 2014
Memorial Day
Knish Knosh
Join us this Wednesday evening May 28th, when the "world's leading knish expert and author" Laura Silver will be with us to talk about her new book, "Knish, In Search of Jewish Soul Food". Ms. Silver will share with us her travels and research through various countries and communities, as she traces the origins and contemporary expressions of this ubiquitous culinary icon that once reigned from Brownsville to the Lower East Side. We'll have a knish reception at 6:30, with the talk beginning at 7:00 p.m.
Twin Track Stars Break Barriers
Ice Delivery in the City
A Magnolia Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Cycling Tradition
Researching Reinhardt
If reports are to be believed, Brooklyn has been undergoing some kind of ground-shaking cultural renaissance for the past ten or twenty years. The borough -- once sleepy, then neglected -- is now a ballyhooed land barnacled with oft-parodied "artisanal" this-and-that shops, awash in alternative art-spaces, and peppered with the black and white "gear" of our recently dispatched cagers. Brooklyn is it! Brooklyn is cool! Brooklyn is a global brand, a baby's name! But if you Google "Brooklyn is" you will also see the gloomy auto-fill death of this shangrila not too far…
Bensonhurst, 1976
A Library for Children -- the Stone Avenue Branch
The Stone Avenue Library Branch has stood at 581 Mother Gaston Boulevard for 100 years, and has recently celebrated that fact with a renovation and re-opening party. Of course, the street wasn't called Mother Gaston when the branch was built -- that came later, after local activist Rosetta "Mother" Gaston opened the Heritage House as an education and community center in this very library. Another name change worth noting is that of the branch itself. Now known as the Stone Avenue Library, it first opened its doors in 1914 as the Brownsville Children's Library --…
Forgotten Professions
Map of the Month - May 2014
Horses in Brooklyn
Author Talk: The History of Pizza, Wednesday, April 30th 7pm
“The History of Pizza in New York” with Scott WienerWednesday, April 30th 2014, 7:00pm Brooklyn Collection, Second Floor, Central Library Everyone loves pizza. Scott Wiener, however, loves pizza more than most people. In fact, he transitioned from a pizza enthusiast who dragged his friends on pizza adventures to a nationally-known “pizza expert.” He runs multiple highly-rated tours of pizzerias in NYC, writes a column for a pizza trade magazine, holds a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of pizza boxes, and even wrote a book titled Viva La Pizza! The art…
April Snow Showers
Come see Doin' It In the Park
Come to the Brooklyn Public Central Library on Thursday, April 24, 2014 to see Doin’ It In the Park! The movie will play at the Dweck Center (follow arrows to the basement level). Showtime is at 7pm. Directed by Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couliau, this independent documentary explores the history, culture, and social influence of New York City’s summer basketball scene. As we all know, pick-up baseball is a way of life in New York City – according to the filmmakers, there are 700+outdoor courts and an estimated 500,000 players. And despite the summer heat, there’s…
The Changing City
I recently visited my brother in Paris, and in preparation for this trip, I went to see an exhibit of historical photographs at the Metropolitan Museum – Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris. Beginning in the mid-19th century, a city planner named Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann master-minded a program for the improvement and beautification of Paris, razing entire streets and neighborhoods in Paris with the same zeal that Robert Moses would adopt in New York City in the next century. The city of Paris hired photographer Charles Marville to chronicle the city’s transformation during this…
The Fight of the (Nineteenth) Century
Kingsborough Golden Anniversary
Brooklynology is happy to present a guest blogger this week, historian John Manbeck. After 32 years teaching English at Kingsborough Community College and eight years as Brooklyn Borough Historian, Manbeck continued to write a column for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle for another eight years. He has authored/edited nine books on Brooklyn history and is now writing fiction. Back in 1967, I was looking for a job. I had just returned from a two year grant as a Fulbright professor at Helsinki University in Finland and applied for a professorial position at Kingsborough Community College in Manhattan…
The Eagle has Landed!
Yes, the long wait is over! The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper is available in its entirety (or as near as we can hope to get to its entirety) as a free, searchable database online. Those who have used our Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online database, which offered the Eagle from 1841 to 1902, will be pleased to learn that the second half of the Eagle, 1903 to 1955, is finally open for research online. You can search the database, browse specific dates of the paper, print or save articles, and share them through the social media outlet of your choice through our new historic…
20 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Brooklyn
We've become a monoculture of list readers. With the advent of Buzzfeed and the like, we've grown accustomed to sifting though these monotonous lists to identify if we saw that movie or had that toy as a child. Admit it, you totally read these articles. Did you see the one about the 58 worst things that happen on social media? Or the 19 questions people with moustaches are tired of hearing? And don't get me started on all the quizzes. Recently, while scrolling through my newsfeed, I came across a Buzzfeed article about the 60 things you probably didn't know about New…
Map of the Month - April 2014
Red Hook Library
More Than Just a Name: Overton Tremper
As an undergraduate studing history, I've enjoyed spending my past semester interning at the Brooklyn Collection. Because of my love for all things sports, I jumped at the opportunity to help create an exhibit focused on the history of sports in Brooklyn. I quickly realized that there's so much more to Brooklyn's sports history than the Brooklyn Dodgers! I sorted through hundreds of old photographs, newspaper clippings, and even yearbooks to create a diverse representation of sports in Brooklyn. Come check out the display in the Brooklyn Collection (on the 2nd floor balcony…
Brooklyn Connections Educators Take on ABQ for NCHE Conference
Earlier this month, Brooklyn Connections educators – Christine, Kaitlin and Brendan – descended on Albuquerque, New Mexico for the annual National Council for History Education (NCHE) Conference. Christine Kaitlin Brendan Excitement over this conference was twofold; well maybe three if you count the added bonus of temporarily escaping winter’s reach for a few glorious days … Santa Clara, NM … ok, twofold: 1) it offered the opportunity to replace our educator hats with those of students eager to soak up historical antidotes and best practices…
Portraits with Dogs
Brooklyn Bounce: book presentation and meeting with the author, Jake Appleman
The book "Brooklyn Bounce: The Highs and Lows of Nets Basketball's Historic First Season in the Borough" documents the first year of the Brooklyn Nets. The arrival of the team and the rise of the Barclays Center was accompanied by much public discussion, heated at times. The sports writer Jake Appleman shadowed the team for the first year in Brooklyn and chronicled its many (sometimes unexpected) highs and lows. To prepare yourself for the conversation, please take a look at the interview with Jake Appleman. Join us this Wednesday evening, March 26, at 7:00p.m. in the Brooklyn…
Prospect Park, Two by Two - Part Two
This is the second part of a two-part blog post on the Prospect Park Zoo, read the first part here. End radio silence. "The good ship West Point has been heard from. All fears that the prowling warships of the European combatants had intercepted it and carried off the animals, perhaps to provide amusement for the Kaiser's grandsons or the young Russian Grand Dukes, have been laid to rest" (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 7, 1914). A few days later the animals arrived safely but, on the day of the grand parade and exhibition, it rained. A lot. Commissioner Ingersoll postponed the opening…
Brooklyn Women
Brooklyn's Police Matrons
Prospect Park, Two by Two - Part One
I have always had a fondness for zoos. I used to work with a zoological park in Washington State and volunteered with one here in New York City. I love that even though we live in an urban jungle we can travel to a jungle in Asia or South America for the price of a subway ride (and general admission). Zoos were not always magical places. Many of the early menageries and zoos collected animals by trapping them in the wild and placing them in cramped cages that looked nothing like their native environment. Today, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoos and the aquarium here in…
The Rooftops of Brooklyn
What do you see from your rooftop? Chances are, if you have lived in Brooklyn at any point in the last century, you have spent at least some time on the roof of your building. I have many fond memories of climbing through my window and scaling my fire escape to get to the sunlight and calm of my roof. The rooftops give you space to breathe, and at least the illusion of solitude. Most of the time I am completely alone – a rare and amazing feeling to have in the city – but I also sometimes see people on other rooftops sunbathing, or sitting with a friend, or barbequing, or doing yoga, or simply…
The Streets of Brooklyn Heights
Map of the Month - March 2014
Spring Teacher Professional Developments
We here at the Brooklyn Collection are pleased to announce two FREE professional development opportunities for teachers in spring 2014. The professional developments are open to all English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers who teach grades 4 - 12. Brooklyn and the Civil Rights Movement on May 15, 2014, 9:00am-3:00pm with special guest speaker Dr. Brian Purnell. Explore the Brooklyn Collection's original Civil Rights materials. Learn about the efforts of Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which included protests, community clean-ups, marches,…
Brooklyn's Carnegie Libraries
This blog post looks at Andrew Carnegie's library legacy in the microcosm of one borough, but those interested in a wider-angle view of the philanthropist and industrialist are encouraged to attend a lecture by Carnegie biographer David Nasaw in the Dweck Center at Brooklyn's Central Library this Sunday, March 2nd, at 1:00pm. RSVP for free tickets here: http://brooklynpubliclibrary.brownpapertickets.com/. An eager line outside the Brownsville Branch library, 1908. In the Brooklyn Collection we have a few boxes of photographs documenting that special, revered category of library --…
The Emancipation Proclamation: Copperheads Respond
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. The American political landscape was marked by many different and complicated factions during the Civil War. One group, often dubbed "Copperheads," remain the most misunderstood. Copperheads were Unionists affiliated with the Democratic party who opposed the Civil War. For reasons including a fear that emancipated slaves entering the labor force would threaten the livelihoods of northern white workers,…
Science Fiction and Multiraciality: CBBG Event Recap
Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations (CBBG), a project of Brooklyn Historical Society, is an oral history project and public programming series that examines the history and experiences of mixed-heritage people and families, cultural hybridity, race, ethnicity, and identity in the historically diverse borough of Brooklyn. On December 14th, 2013, BHS’ Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations program hosted a fantastic, creative and well-received event titled Science Fiction and Multiraciality: From Octavia Butler to Harry Potter. This event allowed New Yorkers to critically engage with…
Coney Island Aflame
Author Talk: "Come Out Swinging: the Changing World of Boxing in Gleason's Gym" with Lucia Trimbur -
Please join us this Wednesday, February 26th, for an evening with Lucia Trimbur, author of Come Out Swinging: the changing world of boxing in Gleason's Gym. Founded in the Bronx in 1937, Gleason's Gym moved to Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood in the 1980s and remains there to this day, even as redevelopment and an influx of wealth transformed the waterfront area. A holdover from the "golden age" of boxing, Gleason's itself has transformed through the years; the changing demographic of its clientele reflects broader trends beyond the roped boundaries of the boxing ring. …
And the Medal Goes To...
After watching the Winter Olympic games in Sochi for the last two weeks, I got to wondering, how many individuals from Brooklyn had participated in the winter spectacular? I mean, let's face it: Kings County and Alpine skiing don't really go hand in hand. Where would people practice? I know, I know, there is Prospect Park, and I have seen people on cross-country skis there. But one slide down Mt. Prospect and a mogul skier is headed straight for Eastern Parkway, or over Copley Plaza. I suppose with all the snow and ice lately, officials could turn Flatbush Avenue…
Portrait of Mrs. Henry T. Fleitman
The Emancipation Proclamation: Black Soldiers Respond
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. As I discussed a few weeks ago, the promotion of black military service was among the Emancipation Proclamation’s most controversial and significant provisions. Black men were eager to join the Union military from the start of the Civil War. Freedmen penned letters to President Lincoln and other officials calling for black recruitment as early as 1861. Rarely did officials respond to these poignant letters (…
Closing Reception for Artist-in-Residence Elizabeth Felicella, Wednesday, February 19th, 6:30pm
Please join us this coming Wednesday, February 19th, at 6:30pm for a special closing reception. We've had the deep pleasure of working with photographer Elizabeth Felicella during her residency at the Brooklyn Public Library and we invite the public to meet the artist and view some of the images she's captured in her months-long exploration of Brooklyn's Central Library building. The Brooklyn Collection is located on the 2nd floor balcony level of the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza. Wine and cheese will be served.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln
The Emancipation Proclamation - Abraham Lincoln Responds
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. For 150 years, historians have debated Abraham Lincoln's motivations, feelings, and beliefs about slavery and emancipation. What motivated him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation? Did he free slaves in rebel states for political expediency, or for moral reasons? What did Lincoln think or say in the moments before he signed the document that declared "forever free" over 3,000,000 enslaved men, women, and…
A School Grows in Brooklyn
I'll See Your Polar Vortex and Raise You a Blizzard
Over the past few weeks, it seems as though every other day a mess of snow, sleet, and rain has fallen on our fair city, only to become a sheet of treacherous ice in the days following. New Yorkers have been running to the local supermarkets to buy the necessities ('necessities' being an incredibly subjective term: milk and bottled water for one person might be chips and a bottle of wine for another) and stopping at the hardware store to purchase the last remaining bag of salt and a leftover garden trowel, the only shovel to be found in a twenty block radius. Even though we've been…
Constructing the Brooklyn Sewers
Map of the Month - February 2014
Documenting Sandy: Photographer Highlight - Robin Michals
Our Documenting Sandy exhibition is up in our 3rd floor gallery, featuring photographs by professionals and amateurs during the devastating aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. This is the third installment of our photographer highlight series. In it, we tell you more about the photographers who contributed to the exhibition. Robin Michals is a professional photographer who has been chronicling views of the de-industrialization of the waterfront in New York City. For several years she has also been working on the series Castles Made of Sand that illustrates the locations around New York City that…
Vamping Horns
The Emancipation Proclamation: White Minnesotans Respond
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. The Civil War obscures a concurrent war fought by the Union, also on American soil: the Dakota War of 1862. What sparked the violent outbreak between the Dakota (also known as the Eastern Sioux) and white Minnesotans? Increasing numbers of white settlers encroached on Dakota territories, especially after Minnesota gained statehood in 1859. Additionally, the Union’s failure to promptly submit the annuity…
Brooklyn Film Night -- Wednesday, January 29th, 7pm
After a brief holiday hiatus, the Brooklyn Collection is happy to kick off another year of public programming next Wednesday, January 29th. On this evening we will take an audiovisual tour through some previously unscreened gems from our 16mm film collection as well as introduce new content from a collection of Umatic videos created by Brooklyn Public Library staff in the 1980s. All fans of vintage Brooklyn are welcome! Come by at 6:30 to pick up free tickets and mingle during our wine and cheese reception. Screening starts at 7:00pm. All programs are held in the…
Building the Manhattan Bridge
The Emancipation Proclamation: A Kentucky Soldier Responds
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. Most Americans think about the Civil War in terms of the Union north and the secessionist south. But perhaps no states played as decisive a role in the war as Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky, the "border states." These were slave states that fought for the Union. For strategic and political reasons, the loyalty of these states proved essential to a Union victory. Kentucky, with its abundant…
It Came From the Sewers
Documenting Sandy: Photographer Highlight - Nick Lakiotes
Our Documenting Sandy exhibition is up in our 3rd floor gallery, featuring photographs by professionals and amateurs during the devastating aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. This is the second installment of our photographer highlight series. In it, we tell you more about the photographers who contributed to the exhibition. Nick Lakiotes is a graphic designer who lives in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn with his wife, 6-year old daughter, and infant soon. Nick’s story of his Hurricane Sandy experience is vivid, and scary. Nick and his family didn’t think their residence would sustain much damage or…
Ansonia Clock Company
The Emancipation Proclamation: Junius C. Morel Responds
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. This week, BHS opens a major long-term exhibition, "Brooklyn Abolitionists/In Pursuit of Freedom." The exhibition, part of a public history partnership with Weeksville Heritage Center and Irondale Ensemble Project, explores the unsung heroes of Brooklyn’s anti-slavery movement. Among those unsung heroes was a man named Junius C. Morel. Born in North Carolina, Morel lived and worked in Philadelphia before…
Pining for Warm Weather
The Emancipation Proclamation: Jefferson Davis Responds
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. It should not surprise readers that the President of the Confederate States of America did not respond positively to the Emancipation Proclamation. In a long and florid speech to the Confederate Congress on January 13, 1863, President Jefferson Davis portrayed the proclamation as a crime against humanity that would be decried and reviled throughout history. “We may well leave it to the instincts of that…
A Brief History of a Blonde Bombshell
While researching the Queen of Tots pageant at the Infants Home of Brooklyn, I stumbled upon a photo of Hollywood icon Carole Landis crowning one of the young queens. Queen Crowns Queen, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1954. I could have Googled her and gotten an immediate summary of her life and work, but that's not how we roll at the Brooklyn Collection. I went downstairs into our archive to see if I could find a small envelope with her name on it amidst the myriad of file cabinets. Lo and behold, I am not the only person who has taken an interest in Ms. Landis. I found a whole mess…
Map of the Month - January 2014
Happy New Year
Merry Christmas
The Emancipation Proclamation: The New York Times and Martin Delany Respond
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. The Emancipation Proclamation was considered the most radical of the Union’s war initiatives, not in the least because it publicized the legalization of black men’s military recruitment--publicized, not legalized. The Militia Act of 1862, issued weeks before Lincoln's September 1862 preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, first sanctioned black military service in the form of armed combat and manual labor.…
BHS December Staff Pick: Left Field Cards
Name: Lindsay Palmer Vint Role at BHS: Retail Coordinator Pick of the month: ANYTHING by Left Field Cards! This week we started carrying a line of hip, playful baseball inspired cards and gifts by Greenpoint, BK designer Amelie Mancini. Each card is handcrafted using linoleum block printing and a traditional letterpress. Humorous, well-crafted, and beautiful colored, these unique cards make great gifts! They also have a unique story: Mancini is a French-born painter and printmaker who moved to New York in 2006. When she arrived in the States, she didn't know what a curveball was until a…
Stocking Stuffers from the BHS Museum Store!
Great Gift Ideas from the BHS Museum Store!
Still looking for a unique holiday gift for HIM? We have the perfect gift. Come by and shop our unique selection of products made by the Brooklyn Brewery! We carry The Beer Soap Shaving Kit, made with Chocolate Stout ($18), a Brooklyn Brewery Bar Mat to complete your home bar ($16), and even a Beer Making Kit, the perfect gift for that Do-It-Yourself type of guy ($55). Need an environmentally friendly stocking stuffer? We even carry Brooklyn Brewery notebooks made with recycled packaging from your favorite beer. Carry your Brooklyn Brewery pride with you every day! Stop by our store this…
The Healthcare Dilemma
The Emancipation Proclamation: Frederick Douglass responds
In conjunction with a current exhibit, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. A month after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass reflected on the moral impact of emancipation on all Americans. “We are all liberated by this proclamation. Everybody is liberated. The white man is liberated, the black man is liberated, the brave men now fighting the battles of their country against rebels and traitors are now liberated… I…
Toddlers in Tiaras of Yesteryear
Brooklyn has crowned many a beauty queen in its day. The Queen of Beer? Yes. The most beautiful grandmother? Of course! It turns out Brooklyn was crowning beauties of all ages. The Infants Home of Brooklyn, originally located in a private home at 1356 56th Street which was later demolished to make room for a new, more permanent building, hosted an annual beauty pageant to crown the Queen of Tots. The Infants Home opened in 1919 as an emergency shelter for five children left homeless by a fire in Borough Park. It was specifically a home for Jewish children until a 1947 plea by the Welfare…
Williamsburg Cattle Rustlin'
The Emancipation Proclamation: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle responds
In conjunction with a current exhibition, the Brooklyn Historical Society blog is featuring a series of blog posts called “The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond.” Learn more here. Two days after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle took a dim view of Republican Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and of the impact that emancipation would have on the reunion of north and south. “The truth is, the proclamation tends only to embitter the strife, and to render all but impossible a restoration of the Union. The chances of Union were remote enough without this…
Repeal Day is Here!
The Emancipation Proclamation: Americans Respond
In October, BHS opened an exhibition featuring a rare edition of the Emancipation Proclamation. The document, which includes the signature of President Abraham Lincoln, has offered many visitors to our institution an opportunity to reflect on the remarkable events that took place in the United States during the 1860s. Lincoln did not sign the Emancipation Proclamation in a vacuum. Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs influenced the President's decision and responded to the proclamation with a range of emotions, from jubilation to outright horror. BHS's exhibition captures the cacophony…
Map of the Month - December 2013
Happy Thanksgiving
The Dreaded Banana Peel
Documenting Sandy: Photographer Highlight - Nathan Kensinger
In case you missed it, our Documenting Sandy exhibition is up in our 3rd floor gallery, exhibiting photographs taken by professionals and amateurs in the devastating aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. A couple times a month, we’re going to tell you more about the photographers who contributed to the exhibition, and what their experience was like as both an observer and a participant. Nathan Kensinger is a professional photographer and filmmaker who hails from San Francisco and now resides in Brooklyn. I first saw some of Nathan’s work at a Brooklyn Public Library exhibition showing a side of…
Speakeasies Abound in Prohibition Era Brooklyn
Prohibition has always held a certain level of fascination in my mind and, dare I say, I'm not the only one. Long has the era been immortalized by Hollywood through movies, TV shows and the fashion trends they inspire. However, living in the current day and age that we do one might find it difficult to navigate what's real from what's merely a romantic reinterpretation of a profound, if not completely befuddling, time in our nation's history. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 6, 1928. The Morgue hosts not one, but three drawers stuffed with newspaper clippings from the prohibition era…
That green branch cut down
When the Brooklyn Daily Eagle shut its doors in 1955 the borough lost an important conduit for receiving news of the world and for investigating and editorializing on community developments. After the paper's short-lived revival finally sputtered out in June of 1963 -- just a few months before John F Kennedy was killed in Dallas -- Brooklynites had to turn to smaller neighborhood newspapers for reports on the assassination and to see their grief reflected back to them in stunned print encomiums for the recently dead president. In addition to the entirety of the Eagle, we also have…
Storewide Sale on November 30th!
Exhibits are not the only curated space at Brooklyn Historical Society! Last month we unveiled our brand new store: a space dedicated to all things for and about the city’s most famous (and maybe even infamous) borough, Brooklyn! Explore our artfully chosen mix of uniquely Brooklyn-centric gifts, books, souvenirs, toys and artisan goods. You’ll find the serious, silly, irresistible, charming and of course, tasty, all brimming with Brooklyn history and character. This month we offer a brief introduction to some of the artists and designers. MEET OUR MAKERS: Brooklyn Owl business owner Annie…
Brooklyn's Plymouth Church in the Civil War Era - Wednesday Evening Author Talk
Statue of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher with Mrs. Rose Ward in flowered hat (1927). Mrs. Ward's freedom had been purchased by the congregation of Plymouth Church during one of Beecher's sermons in 1860. During the years leading up to the Civil War, Brooklyn had the distinction of being one of the strongest abolitionist cities in the nation. And led by the fiery and passionate preacher Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church became a central site in the abolitionist movement. From electrifying sermons and fund-raising concerts, to harboring escaped slaves, Plymouth Church…
Map of the Month - November 2013
Researching Your Family Tree: Monthly Genealogy Workshop
When our doors swing open here at the Brooklyn Collection they are likely being pushed apart by the determined hands of a genealogist. Whether looking for the Williamsburg address of a great aunt or hunting down the high school yearbook photo of Dad, the Brooklyn Collection is where many an ancestor sleuth starts her journey. In order to better assist these researchers, and to introduce a whole new phalanx of patrons to the genealogy trade, we are teaming up with historian and genealogist Wilhelmena Kelly to offer monthly genealogy workshops in Central Library's ground floor…
It’s November!
An Old Saloon
Brooklyn's Ice Palace
It's not often we take patrons to the "Morgue," but during our recent Educator Open House, we took a group of teachers down to the basement of the library to see the old clippings and photographs of the Brooklyn Eagle. Close-up of Celia Mallon and Connie Richichi working in file room or library at Brooklyn Eagle in Downtown Brooklyn. 1953. While we were down there, I pulled a folder to show the teachers some of the remarkable photographs we have. I pulled, "Klopfer, Sonya*Ice Skater," and as the teachers made comments about the photo, I was more interested in learning about…
A Conversation with Brooklyn Public Library's First Artist-in-Residence, Elizabeth Felicella -- Wedn
Elizabeth Felicella will discuss her work as an architectural photographer with Brooklyn Collection archivists Ben Gocker and Ivy Marvel, with special attention to how it relates to her photographs of the library archive that are included in the current exhibition, Brooklyn Public Library: An Open Book. An archive is typically deemed a repository of the past, compiled for the sake of posterity, the future; this public conversation, which is grounded in the collaborative relationship between photographer and archivist that has developed during Felicella’s time as Artist-in-Residence…
Brooklyn Opens a Street (Through Your Backyard)
Map of the Month — October 2013
High School Newspapers Make Headlines
Some people would rather die than have their high school experiences splashed across the (blog) pages of one of the world's most widely read newspapers, but we imagine that Janet Yellen, who was recently nominated to head the Federal Reserve, has more important things on her mind. The Brooklyn Collection, however, is not above basking for a moment in her reflected glory, as we've recently made news because we hold not just Ms. Yellen's Fort Hamilton High School yearbook, but also her high school newspaper, the Pilot, of which she was an editor. These heretofore unregarded…
Food!
Open House and Tour of the Brooklyn Collection
Every year the Archivists Round Table of Metrpolitan New York organizes a week of lectures, tours, workshops and open houses at cultural institutions around the city and calls it, fittingly, Archives Week. The Brooklyn Collection will be participating in the festivities this year, with an open house and exhibit tour on Monday, October 7th, from 6 - 8pm. The event will include an introduction to our collections and programs, including the school outreach initiative, Brooklyn Connections. Visitors will also tour the exhibition "Brooklyn Public Library: An Open Book", which is on…
Brooklyn Public Library: an Open Book
As we've recorded in the webpages of this blog before, the Brooklyn Collection serves as the defacto institutional archive for the Brooklyn Public Library. We keep the annual reports, the retired library cards, the book plates, the program flyers, and all the other flotsam and jetsam one would expect to be generated by the fifth-largest library system in the United States, serving a population of over 2.5 million Brooklynites. It is not often that these materials see the light of day, so we are very pleased to announce a new building-wide exhibit at the Central Library…
Science stuff
Autumn Avenue
Fall Educator Programs
We are pleased to announce two FREE educator programs for the fall. The events are open to all teachers and educators from across the city and offer a unique opportunity to tour and explore the Brooklyn Collection. Both events will take place in the Brooklyn Collection, 2nd Floor, Central Library. Please join us for our Open Educator House on October 2, 4pm-6pm. Tour our facilities, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle "morgue" and other restricted areas. View thousands of primary sources that are available to you and your students. Access our…
Brooklyn's Vitagraph Studios: an author talk with Trav S.D., Wednesday, September 25th, 7pm
The Brooklyn Collection will kick off its fall season of lectures with a look at Brooklyn's contribution to film history. In the early years of cinema, Brooklyn (Midwood, to be specific) was one of America’s great film production centers thanks to the early establishment there of Vitagraph Studios by J. Stuart Blackton in 1907. Above, a 1913 image of a fashion shoot at Vitagraph Studios. Brooklyn writer Trav S.D. (Travis Stewart), author of the new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, will talk about the central role the studio played…
Sustained thoughts about swimming
The March
With the country's eyes turned toward the past today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington we thought it only appropriate to turn our own eyes to a few items from the Collection dealing with this historic event. Below you will see scans of an Organizing Manual, a Bus Captain's name tag, and pages from the Lincoln Memorial Program. All of these materials come from the Civil Rights in Brooklyn Collection donated by the recently departed, and sorely missed, Rioghan Kirchner. Because of people like her history was not only made, but also preserved for future…
Brooklyn Connections Continues to Connect Students to Local History
The Brooklyn Collection is pleased to announce that it has received funding to continue the Brooklyn Connections program. Our generous funders, the David and Paula Weiner Memorial Grant, the Morris & Alma Schapiro Fund, and the Tiger Baron Foundation have ensured the program will go on! The program will continue to be available at no cost to Brooklyn classrooms for the 2013-2014 school year. We are proud to be in our seventh year of operation. Thanks to our generous funders, Brooklyn Connections will be able to expand in several important ways: *Additional…
Celebrating the March on Washington from Brooklyn
Next week, America celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On August 28, 1963, between 200,000 and 300,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to rally for black civil and economic equality. Present at the historic event were several Brooklynites who, as members of the Brooklyn branch of the Congress of Racial Equality (Brooklyn CORE), walked from the County of Kings to Washington, D.C.
Rioghan Kirchner
We at the Brooklyn Collection are very sad to announce the passing of a great friend to the library, Rioghan Kirchner. Visitors to the collection may recall seeing Rioghan at her volunteer post in our reserve room, where she spent every Tuesday afternoon indexing the Black News newsletter (a resource that she donated) with her faithful dachsund Teddy waiting patiently at her feet. Her warmth and humor will be missed by all who knew her. In addition to her work with us in preserving the history of the civil rights movement in Brooklyn, Rioghan was herself an activist…
Brooklyn Schools: A Look at Ephemera and More
At the Brooklyn Collection, we have a large assortment of Brooklyn school ephemera, newspaper clippings, photos, yearbooks and even school newspapers. I've written a few entries about schools the Brooklyn Connections program has partnered with: Erasmus Hall (STAR Early College), MS 57 and PS 26 (Brooklyn Excelsior). Recently as I was doing some research for yet another Brooklyn Connections partner school, I came across this: School Diary, Primary School 3, 1878. The flip side of the Diary states, "New and improved series of school records adapted for public of private…
Shaking Up the History of Canarsie with the Young Curators of P.S. 276!
Gabriella Kula served as an Educator for the Young Curators program at P.S. 276 in the Spring of 2013.
As an educator for the Young Curators program, my goal was for the students of P.S. 276 to gain new insights into their local heritage and Canarsie’s past. We began our time together by coming up with a list of questions, and we looked at artifacts, images, and primary sources to discover historical and cultural content that has left the students more connected and committed to their neighborhood than ever before.
The Young Curators of P.S. 133 Uncover the History of Revolutionary Brooklyn
Kayla Goodson served as an Educator for the Young Curators program at P.S. 133 in the Spring of 2013. She is a four-year veteran of the Brooklyn Historical Society's team of museum educators. This past spring, I had the pleasure to work with an incredible class of 4th and 5th graders from P.S. 133 for the “Young Curators” program in order to design a professional history exhibit in their school. Each week, we worked together as historians to piece together the events and experiences of the Revolutionary War in Brooklyn. While much of the class was acquainted with the American Revolution,…
The Young Curators at PS 32 Take a Walk Around the Block
Erin Boyle served as an Educator for the Young Curators program at P.S. 32 in the Spring of 2013. On a very cold afternoon all the way back in February, I led a joyful crew of 4th and 5th graders from PS 32 in Gowanus on a walk around the block. When we set off for the walk, The Young Curators had spent two class sessions scouring photocopies of an historic map from the BHS collection and had planned out a route—a simple square path that would take them from their school on Hoyt Street, across the Union Street Bridge and back across the Carroll Street Bridge to complete the square. Together…
Floyd Bennett Field
Death in the Air
Accurate or not, it's fair to say that in the popular imagination the Brooklyn Dodgers are remembered as a rag tag bunch of lovable lunks, both object of their zany fanbase's opprobrium as well as affection. What other sports team wore so sour an epithet (dem Bums!) as proudly as the Dodgers? Yet, for all of the organization's sweet buffoonishness, there have been times when an ill-starred pop-up has darkened the outfield. One such instance, and one which is perhaps little known to all but those who bleed blue, occurred in 1935 -- in a private plane, in the skies above Toronto.…
Cemeteries can be fun
Map of the Month - July 2013
Writings from Racial Realities
New Collection: The Linewaiters' Gazette
It is always exciting to accession a big new collection, as it brings the promise of new researchers, new information, and because it's just fun to dig around in new stuff. Our latest big new collection is the Linewaiters' Gazette, the official bi-weekly newspaper of what is likely the world's most famous grocery store, the Park Slope Food Coop. Perhaps you've heard of it? The Park Slope Food Coop was established as a members-only, collectively-run buying club in 1973, housed in the Mongoose Community Center at 782 Union Street (where the Coop continues to operate). …
Summer Camp
July Program -- Mailer╙│ Brooklyn -- Wednesday, July 31, 2013 7:00pm
Brooklyn Public Library and the Norman Mailer Center present a discussion of American writer Norman Mailer and his impact on the literary culture of Brooklyn. Having spent 40 years of his career living and writing in his Brooklyn Heights home, Mailer’s rich history of iconic literature contributed over 30 pieces of fiction, non-fiction, and plays to the American canon, including his second novel, Barbary Shore, which was written during this time in Brooklyn. Brooklyn author, Evan Hughes, Literary Brooklyn: The Writers of Brooklyn and the Story of American City Life, will lead this…
Teacher Workshop with Green-Wood Cemetery
In early June, Brooklyn Connections had the pleasure of welcoming 24 educators from throughout the city for a teacher workshop on local history in partnership with Green-Wood Cemetery. Green-Wood Cemetery gates in an 1894 photograph taken by Edgar S. Thompson. The day started with an introduction to the Brooklyn Collection and the resources it can offer to teachers who are interested in creating lessons and units about Brooklyn. We developed a set of worksheets, lesson plans and examples of primary sources that teachers could use to help them devise a unit about any neighborhood they might…
Happy Fourth of July!
Adieu!
After twenty years under sail as a Brooklyn Public Library crew member, your blog editor will be jumping ship on Friday 28th June, leaving in her wake a trail of 92--count 'em--92 blog posts on everything from Pigtown to alcoholic turtles. With an eye to the future, yet, as befits a local history librarian, with feet firmly anchored in fine examples from the past, let me now look forward to life beyond the library.
For an old special collections dame, collecting is going to be an attractive pastime.
Selections from the 16mm Film Collection -- Wednesday, June 26th, 7pm
You are by now most likely aware of the phenomenon that is Hot Bagels, a lovely little vintage film that pays copious homage to the king of all round baked goods (in my opinion). We've featured it on this blog before, and on the strength of its charm alone it has racked up more than 100,000 views on YouTube. So perhaps Hot Bagels is old news, but, much like a day-old bagel itself, it is no less delicious for being a bit stale: What you may not know is that Hot Bagels is just one of 42 vintage Brooklyn films we've had transferred from the original 16mm film format to…
Graduations Galore
The graduation ceremonies, at every step from kindergarten to elementary school, to middle school, to high school, to college and on--have come and gone. Enshrined here in our collection are many celebratory moments from graduations past--so here are a few of them. Probably never before have the public schools of Brooklyn made so fine a showing in their graduating classes as the records for the term just closed present~ Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 6, 1899 Kindergarten graduate of Public School 133 in 1953…
Happy Summer!
Let's Get Trivial! Part II
In April we hosted a trivia night at one of our favorite (not to mention most convenient, as it is just steps from the Central Library) watering holes, Bar Sepia. It was a memorable evening; along with the usual fine beers and smooth wines contestants tasted the salty brine of competition, the bitter tears of defeat, and, for the victors, the robust, thirst-slaking flavor of a free bar tab! A good time was had by all who sought to disprove the notion that only the dead know Brooklyn. No boxing allowed. No children, either, as this will be at a bar…
A Reflection on Brooklyn Businesses
Post written by Mark Daly, Reference Intern, May 2013 My reference internship at the Othmer Library has been a highlight of my library school education. I have enjoyed the opportunity to pick up new skills, meet researchers of all types, and -- not least -- learn more about my home borough. One subject I wish I'd spent more time investigating is the history of commercial enterprise in Brooklyn. When I see stories in the news about the borough's funky tech start-ups and co-working spaces, I begin to wonder what the library's collections can tell us about the businesses of yesteryear. As part…
We Don't Need No Education
Summer is just around the corner, with its balmy breezes and skin-licking sunshine, prompting among Brooklyn youth the understandable urge to break free from the confines of a drab schoolday and spend the afternoon lolling in the park, strolling down the avenue, or staging a massive protest at City Hall. At least that was one way of reading the events of late April 1950, when thousands of students all over the city spilled out of their schools and into the streets, disrupting the school day, traffic, and life in the city in general. An estimated 1,000…
Finding Answers to the Impossible at the Brooklyn Historical Society
Post written by Jeff Edelstein, Reference Intern, May 2013 As my internship at the Brooklyn Historical Society’s Othmer Library approaches its end, I have been looking over the dozens of queries that I have responded to since my arrival at the beginning of the academic school year in September, and I am struck by the number of times when at least some information to seemingly impossible questions was available using resources readily available in the library. Two such resources that I consulted frequently are the Brooklyn & Long Island Scrapbooks collection of newspaper clippings and the…
Ridgewhat?
Early last year we received a generous donation of some 650 postcards depicting all manner of the visually mundane so typical of that epistolary medium: a statue of U.S. Grant attended by a shadow and a cloud; the empty interior of Johnny Johnston's steakhouse on Church Avenue; and this one from 1908 -- a few kids, black dog in tow, palling around on the street. There's nothing much remarkable about this postcard, at least from the standpoint of this non-deltiologist, but what did catch my eye is the location of this particular street scene: That's: Woodward Avenue West from Gates.…
Loosely collected thoughts: Digital Cultural Heritage and User Experience
"You can't back up the Internet." That was from Aaron Straup Cope, and he was talking about digital preservation, but it could have been the subtitle for the whole day last Friday, at the Digital Cultural Heritage and User Experience symposium. You can't back up the internet: it is a forward moving thing, a live performance. This year is Brooklyn Historical Society's 150th anniversary, and it’s a point of pride that we could play a role as a host, stakeholder, and instigator in this symposium. Brooklyn Historical Society is an urban history center in a landmark building. It has made a…
Matthew Lewandowski: Design Drawings and Die-sets
BHS actively collects documents, artworks, and artifacts that support our mission ad collection development goals. In librarian and museum parlance, we call this acquisition and accessioning. Accessioning has its etymological roots in Latin, as a concept in property law (think “accessory”, as in the property added to an estate) but for libraries, archives, and museums, it’s just as useful to think of accessioning as providing access, the act of making something usable by researchers. In the months ahead, we’ll be featuring a few of our recent acquisitions, and pulling back the curtain to give…
Shore Acres--inside a Shore Road Mansion
A recent article on the discovery of a Paris apartment left untouched since the beginning of World War II reminded me of how rare and precious are our images of nineteenth- and early twentieth century interiors. While our collection contains hundreds of photographs of exteriors of that period, The Peet Residence and the Pope Mansion are two among only a handful of houses whose interiors are preserved for us today through the magic of photography. So it was particularly delightful to come across an album containing exterior and interior shots of a grand house…
Capstones and Cornerstones
It's quiet in the library for a few more minutes. The staff will start to arrive around 9, the first school tour will flow in around 10 am, soon enough the doors will open for researchers, and then at 5, we'll strike the set and prepare for tomorrow's symposium, "Digital Cultural Heritage and User Experience". There are all sorts of reasons to be excited for this event. It's a great lineup of our smartest friends, digging into the way we work now. There will be notes and remarks to follow on the website and live responses all day on Twitter and Facebook. The symposium marks the culmination of…
LICH: following the paper trail
The Long Island College Hospital is safe, for now. Last week SUNY Downstate withdrew its plan to close the historic beloved cash-strapped hospital. LICH will still need to find a suitable partner, but for now because of the alliance between the community and staff, LICH can continue serving the Red Hook, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods as it has since 1858. Emerging from the Brooklyn German General Dispensary, LICH’s founders were the first to bring the concept of a teaching hospital to the U.S., training …
Map of the Month - May 2013
The detail that I chose to be the focus of May's Map of the Month comes from "Map of New-York and Its Vicinity. Drawn by D.H. Burr for New York as it is in 1835" -- "Ft. Lafayette."
May Day vs. Loyalty Day
May 1st is a day that means different things to different people. For some, it is a day to celebrate the glory of spring with a dance around the maypole. For many, it is known variously as International Workers' Day, Labour Day, or simply May Day -- a commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 and an acknowledgement of the strides made by the labor rights movement since then. For a smaller subset, May 1st is Loyalty Day, a day to pledge allegiance to the flag and reassert one's "love and devotion to the nation." It is of course no coincidence that the latter…
Listen!
The Listening Project: Midwood is a collection of gripping oral history interviews collected by documentary film maker Dempsey Rice during a residency at the Council Center for Senior Citizens in Midwood. If you think of oral history as long-winded wallowing in nostalgia, think again--these interviews are riveting stories distilled from long lives and told with grace, humor and panache. There are so many wonderful interviews to choose from that I urge you to explore the site. Here to whet your appetite is Harriet Solomon recounting the story of how she almost died on…
The Merchant Marine, Sheepshead Bay, and Richard Avedon
Just a year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Brooklyn saw the opening of the largest United States Maritime Service training station at Sheepshead Bay. Built for $8,500,000 on old beach, bath, and amusement grounds once owned by John P. Day, the station was equipped to pump out 30,000 trained merchant seamen a year. At the opening ceremonies on December 12, 1942 more than 10,000 men, officers, and guests assembled to hear Telfair Knight, director of the Division of Training of the War Shipping Administration, read a laudatory message on behalf…
The History of Brooklyn's Waterfront with John Manbeck, Wednesday April 24th 7pm, Central Library's
Please join us this coming Wednesday, April 24th, for our latest author talk with former borough historian John Manbeck. He'll discuss the Brooklyn waterfront's rich history and how its use influenced the development of Brooklyn's industries and communities, from ship-building to ferries, factories, and beaches. The city continues to look for new ways of utilizing the waterfront today with plans under way for new housing, parks, and business projects. Manbeck has written several books on various aspects of Brooklyn history, many of which are available in the…
Emily Warren Roebling in the Press
There is a tired cliche that "behind every great man is a great woman". This has always seemed to me to be a way to shoehorn women into the mostly-male narrative of history as we learn it. The wives of presidents and inventors are rarely given their own space in history, and are usually seen as appendages of the men they married. When researching prominent women in history, it is very likely that you will at first find more information about their husbands. The same is not true for Emily Warren Roebling. I was first drawn to her when researching news coverage of her husband's illness,…
Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 Championship Banner Displayed for 100th Anniversary of Ebbets Field at Barclays Center
On April 9, 2013 the Brooklyn Nets home game vs. the Philadelphia 76ers began with a rare treat: a presentation of the one and only Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 Championship Banner. This special display of the banner was all part of the centennial celebration of Ebbets Field, which opened its doors one hundred years ago on this same date in 1913. The Banner itself has quite an interesting history! When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957 the banner went with the team. In 1959, during a press conference a group of New York journalists decided that the banner belonged in New York, and not out on…
Let's Get Trivial!
Two trivia contestants battling for the crown of Brooklyn's Smartest Nerd Very rarely here at the Brooklyn Collection are we able to combine three of our most indefatigable passions: showcasing our broad knowledge of Brooklyn's past; partnering with local businesses to bring fun and free events to the public; and enjoying a drink or two with friends. But now, thanks to a new partnership with Sepia, a local bar just steps from Central library's door, we can pursue all three passions simultaneously in the form of a... Trivia Night! So here's what you need to…