Moonlight, Nelson, Walter H., circa 1887, V1972.1.1218. Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201. Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
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…
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…
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…
Library festival, BPL_0440. 1968. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs
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…
Astronomical observatory/laboratory, Flatbush. [191-?] NEIG_0750. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs.
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…
[Freight Trains at the New York Dock Company Docks, Red Hook, Brooklyn], circa 1920, V1973.5.878. Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Bracelet, [1875-1900], M1990.53.6. Fred Hoyt family research collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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.
Cat named “Lazybones,” circa 1910, V1981.15.182; Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides, V1981.15; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
The photo of the week depicts a cat named “Lazybones,”…
[Child wearing headphones], October 1995. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Dina Abdulhadi reading, April 24 2024. Photo: Kevina Tidwell.
“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 Albertype Co., Northwest Corner Ridge Boulevard and 85th Street, circa 1940; black and white photographic postcard, V1973.4.547; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Array of noted literary talent, 1960s, gelatin silver print, CBPL_1062. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
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…
Jules Geller, Royal Lace Paper Works, 1954, gelatin silver print, WORK_0299. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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…
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…
One among a row of boulders in Prospect Park with protest posters showing the faces of Oluwatoyin Salau, Rem'mie Fells, Dominique Jonathan Ferrell and Freddie Carlos Gray Jr. in Prospect Park; BRCP_0039. 2020. Brooklyn Resists community photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Garfield Place trees], circa 1916; Raymond V. Ingersoll collection (BCMS.0061), Box 13. Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.
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…
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.
Left: Van Dyke, Henry. Days Off. Scribner's Sons, 1908. Cover design by Margaret Armstrong. Right: Ford, Paul Leicester. Tattle…
Bklyn Eye & Ear Hospital, [189-?], photographic print, V1972.1.804; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.
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…
[Voices of Brooklyn performance], 1998. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Carpenters, 1952, Gelatin silver print, SWEL_0721; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Ralph Irving Lloyd, A Rainy Day, circa 1910; black and white photograph, V1981.15.176; Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides, V1981.015, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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…
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…
Sodas delivered by train. WORK_0842. 1951. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs
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…
[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…
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, Weeksville Heritage Center, ca. Brownstoner
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…
[Tandem bicycle on the beach at Coney Island], 1889, V1972.1.808; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
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…
Man carrying small boy on his shoulders at demonstration at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Anthony Geathers photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Fort Greene Park], 1926, gelatin silver print, PARK_0111; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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, 1951, Gelatin silver print, SCHL_1325; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Daphney Desir (left) and Uchenna Agbim (right) rehousing land conveyances], ca. 1989. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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.
[View of Fulton Street.], 1959, V1974.9.13; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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, October 24, 1982, V1973.4.86; Postcard Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
[Kids in Museum], ca. 1990. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Brooklyn Historical Society Staff Party, circa 1990. Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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.
Chosen for Mom, by Doris Adler, 2003; Real Brooklyn, a day in our lives photographs, 2007.041, Box 1; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
This post was authored by BHS Library and Archives processing intern…
Man with pigeons, 1990, gelatin silver print, COHEN_0166; George Cohen photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
How they got out. CRIM_0143. 1952. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs
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…
Take me in to the ball game, 1952, Gelatin silver print, DODG_0184; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Young turkey hunters], 1951, HOLI_0109; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Protest posters], circa 1992, AIDS/Brooklyn Exhibition records, 1993.001; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Plan of Elevation on Clinton St for Long Island Historical Society Building competition, circa 1878. 128 Pierrepont Street building architectural drawings, M1980.8.7. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Looking 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)…
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…
[Stained glass lunette in the Othmer Library], circa 1990s. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Child in Luke Skywalker Halloween costume], 1977; Long Island Historical Society photographs, V1974.031, V1974.31.127; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Long Island Historical Society, the Directors' Room, 1938. Long Island Historical Society photographs, V1974.031. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Employees of I. Defrancisci & Son Macaroni Machines], 1917, OSOS_0015. Our Streets, Our Stories collection. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. Donated for capture by Leonard DeFrancisci.
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…
New temple dedicated--Past Deputy Grand Master Jacob Lawrence, Grand Master Daniel Mason, and Deputy Grand Master Charles L. Weaver, left to right [all African Americans,] share the gavel at dedication of Universal Grand Lodge's new temple at 442 Willoughby Ave. A cornerstone-laying ceremony has been planned for later in the year. 1954. CLUB_0110. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs
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…
[Gregg Chapel], [191-?], photographic print, GREGG_0008; Gregg Chapel photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Photograph of Joseph R. Lentol at St. Cecilia Catholic Church], circa 2010, Joseph R. Lentol papers, CBHM.0004, Box 4, Folder 19; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Cortelyou Road and Flatbush Avenue, 1916, v1973.2.106; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection ARC.201; Brooklyn Public Library, 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 Buffalo, Daniel Berry Austin photograph collection, Brooklyn Museum/Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Ruth Johnson, [Long Island Roadside Eating Stand], 1938. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Josiah M. Grumman diary cover, clippings, poem, and POW roster], 1861—1862,
Josiah M. Grumman diary, 1973.110; Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
Carl Steinbuch, [119-125 Park Place], circa April 1973, color slide, V1982.7.11. Carl Steinbuch slide collection, V1982.007; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Ten boys pose with birdhouses of their own construction, 1916. EAGL_0237. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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.
Consuelo Gestal sends first entry blank, Junior Eagle-Daily Edition banner. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 6, 1916, p. 5.
The invite appeared in the Junior Eagle - in a section dedicated to…
Systems Upgrade and History Discovery Center, Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street. Jan Hird Pokorny, Architects and Planners, circa 1996. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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.…
George Aptecker, [Girls at Coney Island], 1961. George Aptecker collection, CBHM.0003. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Yard worker in a telephone booth], circa 1965, v1988.37.36, Anthony Costanzo Brooklyn Navy Yard Collection, v1988.37; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Last 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…
[Six orphan children in wading pool], 1951, gelatin silver print, SWEL_0523; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Magnet, 1924, Gelatin silver print, HOSP_0206; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, HOSP_0206, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Vault Door Closed, Historic Structure Report], 1993. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Ron Foster, [Group of people holding their fists up at a demonstration.], July 4 2020, color digital photograph, BRCP_0009. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Sunset, Coney Island, August 23 1963, V1988.12.92; Otto Dreschmeyer Brooklyn slides, Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
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…
Jay St., Brooklyn, N. of Willoughby St., circa 1950; Stereograph, v1974.2.16; Alfred C. Loonam stereoscopic views, v1974.002, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Interior of Hamilton Building, Long Island Historial Society, Court and Joralemon Streets], circa 1872, V1974.031.70. Long Island Historical Society photographs, V1974.031. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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], 1945, NEIG_2376; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Patrick D. Pagnano photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Six horses pulling a Ronalds & Johnson Co. bathroom display], circa 1905, photographic print, ARC_202_Box_20_Folder_3_001_r. Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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.
Contrasted detail of ARC_202_Box_20_Folder_3_001_r.
Ronalds…
[Boy with bicycle], 1886, V1974.7.49; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Edna Huntington in a canoe], 1935. Edna Huntington papers and photographs, ARC.044. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Jim Kalett, [Interior of Sahadi Importing Company, Brooklyn, N.Y], c. 1983, black and white photograph, V1992.35.5. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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 "…
Worker cutting fish, 1987, COHEN_0092; George Cohen photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
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.
Eugenie and Louis Fribourg, twins. Eugenie Fribourg collection.…
[Basement View from the Great Hall during Renovation], circa 2000. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Brooklyn Blackie Tattooing], 1961; Irving Herzberg Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Ralph Branca, 1952, DODG_0006; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Left: Brooklyn Buildings, ca. 1850, print, ARC.202_box16_311; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Right: 162-166 Remsen Street, 1949, gelatin silver print, NEIG_0232; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Three horses drinking out of a fountain], ca. 1898, photographic print, V1972.2.23; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
View of many flowering daffodil plants in Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1935. GRDN_0093. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Women’s Committee Fashion Show], 1968. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, ARC 288. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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,…
Ballybunion Irish bar, 2012, color photograph, OSOS_0280. Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn 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…
Girls as Queen Esther, 1965, HERZ_0424; Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
Left: The Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y., circa 1905, postcard, 2014.019.17.07.002; The Packer Collegiate Institute records, 2014.019; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Right: [Jules Ferry courtyard], circa 1948, photographic print, 2014.019.08.02.011; The Packer Collegiate Institute records, 2014.019; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
On December 12, 1947, Madame Carrillon, La Directrice of Collège Jules-Ferry in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France wrote to Packer Collegiate…
Elizabeth and Laura Fitzpatrick, 1943. FITZ_0186, Laura Fitzpatrick photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Susan Mullin, undated, Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Don Newcombe], circa 1951, DODG_0749; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
The Hidary and Abadi families. Older woman sipping soup at a soup pot in her kitchen. 1999. BJHP_0283z. Brooklyn Jewish History Project, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
"Long Island Treasures Preserved in Brooklyn," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 27, 1900. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Mechanical milkman, 1953, WORK_0136; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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 interior, 1934, BJHP_0034; Brooklyn Jewish History Project, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Marcia Bricker, "Odessa Restaurant," circa 1980, color slide, V1992.43.40. Marcia Bricker photographs collection, V1992.043; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[New Neighbors Exhibit Opening], June 1996. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Families sledding on a snowy hill in Prospect Park] 1978, V1990.2.183, Donald L. Nowlan Brooklyn collection, 1990.2, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[P.S. 15 graduating class], photographic print, June 1900, V1972.1.1343, Early Brooklyn and Long Island photographs, ARC.201; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Cyclone roller coaster], 1968,
V1988.12.47; Otto Dreschmeyer Brooklyn slides, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Former Brooklyn Historical Society Executive Director, David Kahn]. undated, Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Diners at Dome Motor Inn restaurant], circa 1978, HERZ_0004_044, color slide.
Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, BCMS.0056. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Mid Flame and Smoke, undated]. THEA_0011. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Juke box jive--Happy-faced teenagers at Colony House [located at 297 Dean Street] applaud two slick-footed regulars [dancing], 1944. SWEL_0695. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Miniature Abraham & Straus delivery van], 1908. DEPT_0008. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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 “…
Toddler on the sidewalk in a winter suit., [1950?], Gelatin silver print, OSOS_0182; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Man outside of the Long Island Historical Society], undated. Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Records, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Shore Hotel sign damaged from the Hurricane Sandy], 2012, 2014.010.7, MIchael Claro Hurricane Sandy Photographs, 2010.010; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Boy outside of video store], 1986, COHEN_0036; George Cohen photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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 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.
[Memorial to Lady…
Young students, oldest school--[eight] prospective R.N.'s are receiving instructions from Anna Dennis, R.N., director of nursing at the Prospect Heights Hospital … 1946. HOSP_0566. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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 African-American children with puppy], circa 1968, HERZ_0667, black and white silver gelatin print.
Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, BCMS.0056. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
In 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…
Elephantine Colossus], circa 1893, Illustration, V1972.1.1090; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Group portrait taken at Brooklyn Pride Street Fair, 2007. Ann Rosen photograph collection, ROSE_0013.
Brooklyn Public Library, 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…
Brooklyn Anchorage, 1878, gelatin silver print, BRID_0040; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
So 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, 1952, Gelatin silver print, CBPL_0111; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[John T. Martin house], c. 1880, v1972.1.1312, Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Portrait of man posing on a boardwalk in Coney Island], 1898, v1974.022.4.068, Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, ARC.199; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Miklos Suba, Study for “Barber Pole, South 8th Street,” [1941?], watercolor on paper, 2022.006.28; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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…
[Waterfront basketball], 1951, PARK_0050; Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm visits the Fulton St. festival, 1972 ca. 2020.002.018.
Khalil Abdulkhabir photographs of the Dar-ul-Islam movement, 2020.002.
Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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,…
Sunrise on Brighton Beach, 2009, 2010.008.2; Jacob Mann photographs, 2010.008; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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 coat of arms], 1939, Gelatin silver print, CONE_0198; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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" ("…
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.
Johan Sellenraad's mural of Plymouth Church in the Clark Street subway station.
Plymouth Church House, 1941, CHUR_0109. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs. …
HERZ_0080, Bathing beauties, 1959, black and white silver gelatin print. Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, BCMS.0056. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Ponyback protest--Post office economy moves notwithstanding. The Oceantide Civic Association of Coney Island undertook to show that the mails must go through, 1950. WORK_0770. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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, [Person reading on boardwalk], 1989, v1992.48.59. Anders Goldfarb photographs of Coney Island, v1974.031. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Hair Link], circa 1875, M1986.72.7; Artifact collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Accused shakedown artists face law, Sep 28, 1954. Gelatin silver print, CRIM_0066;
Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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;…
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, 1948, Gelatin silver print, HOSP_0432; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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], circa 1910, V1981.284.32, Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, v1981.284; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
V1990.7.1, [South Side of Fulton Street between Brooklyn and New York Avenues], circa 1972. Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation publication and photograph collection, ARC.124. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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. …
Librarian Charlotte Villanyi wearing jewelry made from castoff keys collected by the Brooklyn Public Library in nationwide campaign sponsored by the Paper and Twine Club. CBPL_0722, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Canarsie Quonset huts], [1946?], NEIG_0315, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Coney Island Wonder Wheel], circa 1945, CONE_0239; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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 bottom of book chute, 1962. BPL_0298; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs;
Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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…
Louis Reyes Rivera. SHBZ_0092. Jamel Shabazz photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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.…
Flooding at the end of 1st Street and Gowanus Canal, April 15, 2007. Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus records. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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,…
Senior Basket Ball Team, Adelphi College yearbook, 1910. Brooklyn Yearbook collection, BCMS.0031. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
St. Thomas Aquinas : moving pictures. [Projection booth for outdoor movies] 1913. CHUR_1201, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Group at Coney Island seaside home, 1892, gelatin silver print. Julius Wilcox photograph collection, WILC_0022. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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 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.
[Faber family], 1924; Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Pratt Institute blacksmith students], circa 1905, SCHL_1603; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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 Building, a future cooperative for homeless families," The Cooper Square Plan: Report for Discussion, October 15, 1986,
Ronald Shiffman Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Boys with butterfly, 1975, Photographic print, V2008.013.1; Lucille Fornasieri Gold photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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.
Arnie Goldwag Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Collection,
Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Boys boating along Canarsie Creek, 1924, Photographic print, OSOS_0248; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
CHUR_1206, Spring Window, 1915, black and white silver gelatin print. Photographs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, BCMS.0002. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Long Island Historical Society, Pierrepont Street and Clinton Street], 1961, by Ellis Herwig, V1974.031.30; Long Island Historical Society photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Miklos Suba, Untitled (Brooklyn Bridge), circa 1926, crayon on paper. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[8-foot shark caught on Sheepshead Bay fishing trip], 1950, NEIG_1852; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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. 1954. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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, Pierrepont Street near Fulton Street], December 15, 1958, gelatin silver print,
V1974.4.886; John D. Morrell photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
"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], CBPL_0313, 1950s, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public 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…
Explosion at Hell Gate, [1880], Lantern Slide, V1974.7.121. Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection
Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
On 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…
Automatic short paste drying unit, [1932?], Photographic print, OSOS_0016. Our Streets, Our Stories collection. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
George Cohen, Brighton Beach YM-YWHA Jewish Community Center, 1987. George Cohen photograph collection, COHEN_0093. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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 corner of the park, [190-?], Postcard, POST_0109. Brooklyn Postcard colletcion. …
Randy Duchaine, Fireworks over the Central Library, April 14, 1997, color print. Media Relations photographs, Brooklyn Public Library institutional archives. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Architectural rendering of Kismet [Shriners] Temple located at 62 Herkimer Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant, 1909. Caption on front: R. Thomas Short, Architect, lower right. CLUB_0509. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
Cycling 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…
[Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges, with six baseball bats and duffel bag over shoulder], 1952, gelatin silver print, DODG_0498; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
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.
The Brooklyn Daily Programme, October 17, 1874, and The Brooklyn Daily Stage, December 4, 1876. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History…
Protestors kneel down on Flatbush Avenue. Photo by Francesca Magnani, 2020.
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…
View of Prospect Park's Endale Arch, cobblestone path, street lamp, several park benches, and portion of park beyond. Endale Arch, 194-?, gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photograph collection, PARK_0166. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
This 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…
The winner of the "smallest dog" title meets an Irish Wolfhound—the winner of the "largest dog" title.
Brooklyn Dog and Horse Parade, 1935, gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photograph collection, NEIG_1738. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
PORT_0606, Marianne Moore, 1949, black and white silver gelatin print. Photographs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, BCMS.0002. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Title page from The Grand Canyon dedication tour by Edwin B. Wilson, 1920. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Flatbush Avenue with a view of Erasmus Hall High School and Astor Theater. 1972-1977. NEIG_0858. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, 194-?, WORK_0054, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
RUTT_0085, Flatbush Ave. Extension, 1924, Edgar E. Rutter Photograph Collection,
Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library
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…
[Cuyler Presbyterian Church] , CHUR_0529. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Litchfield Villa, HERZ_0213. Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
Each 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…
Courage of a soldier by Mavis John. 2014. VETS_379. New York Harbor Hospital Creative Arts Program Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
Kimberly McEwen, 1971, color photograph. Brooklyn Heights Garden Club collection, BCMS.0082. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
George Bradford Brainerd, [The soap fat man], 1870s, glass plate negative. George Bradford Brainerd photograph collection, BRAI_0234. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Isaac and Esther Ramus around 1855. bhs_v1978.174.38. Ramus family papers and photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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,…
[Women working in the Eberhard Faber pencil factory], circa 1915, V1988.35.6, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company, June 21, 1949, Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photos,
Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library
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…
Federal naturalization record for Nejib Ibrahim Katibah, 1912. Ancestry.com.
Family 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 Casino], 1946, CONE_0451. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs.
Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.ption
This 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…
[Flood at Sutter and Saratoga Avenues], 1923, NEIG_0291. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Children riding to school in pony cart], circa 1947. Kasper Family Collection, BCMS.0080. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Solution of the tenement problem: Riverside Building, the Quadrangle, 1892. WILC_0320, Julius Wilcox photograph collection, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Ice Delivery from the American Ice Company to Emmanuel House], circa 1910, lantern slide, V1981.284.12. Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, ARC.138. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Every 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.…
Brooklyn Eagle postcard collection, [Knox Hat factory, St. Marks and Grand Avenues], circa 1905, POST_0558, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Rendering of Steve Brodie (1863-1901) who jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge, and survived, on July 23, 1886. Image includes a portion of the East River and four small boats.] 1886. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
GEAT_0002, Anthony Geathers Photograph Collection, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library
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…
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.
The Othmer Library at the Center for Brooklyn History
Has gentrification affected the lives of immigrants in Brooklyn? How did Coney Island become the destination it is today? If you could…
[Sidewalk conditions on southeast corner of Pearl and Willoughby Streets looking south from roadway of Willoughby St], 1915. Subway Construction Photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
One 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…
[Hotel St. George pool], 1930. Photographs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, NEIG_1455. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
Brooklyn Borough Hall murals, circa 1939. Edgar E. Rutter photograph collections, RUTT_0001. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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.…
Requiescat in pace--No tears were shed for the passing of the Fulton St. L today, but Masur, the florist on lower Fulton St., rushed out with a wreath to hang on the elevated pillar in front of his shop [with sign, "Funeral services May 31, 1940 of the dirty elevated, undertaker, Mr. Storekeeper of Fulton St."] as a final touching tribute. TRAN_0262, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Center for Brooklyn History
In search of something wholly unrelated, I fell upon the mischievous photograph above from the Eagle commemorating the final run of the…
Marie Roberts Dreamland Circus side show photographs, CONE_0590, c1924, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.
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…
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.
The Chat, November 29, 1924
One attendee not impressed with Tomson’s spiritual…
To close out National Bicycle Month, here's a little a celebration of bicycling in Brooklyn, from 1897 to the present.
POST_0143, Music Island, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., summer circa 1897,
Brooklyn Postcard Collection, Center for Brooklyn History
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…
[Brooklyn Central Library, Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway; Alfted Morton Githens, Francis Keally, Associated Architects], CBPL_0004, 1938; Roy Pinney photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
[Brooklyn Navy Yard Buildings], NEIG_1249, 1908; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
The Gottlieb family. Mother holding baby girl in an urban park on the Lower East Side. BJHP_0173, 1947; Brooklyn Jewish History Project, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
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 …
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…
[Four people and a field of sheep], circa 1890, arc.202_box17_112; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.
Spring 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…
Loew's Pitkin Theater, 1958. NEIG_0227, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Center for Brooklyn History
Today’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…
Old Tower House, NEIG_1696, 1910; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
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…
WILC_0085, 1892, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library
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…
BPL_0002, 1951, Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photograph Collection,
Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library
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…
[Opening game of the World Series], DODG_0002, 1947; Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
It'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 Folly], THEA_0027, 1906; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
To 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 --…
[Former Joseph Wild & Co factory, 218 Kosciusko Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant], circa 1935; Bommer family collection, 1992.033, Box A0142; Center for Brooklyn History.
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).
[Former Joseph Wild & Co building, 196 Kosciusko Street in
Bedford-Stuyvesant], circa 1935; Bommer family
collection, 1992.033, Box A0142; Center for…
Photo of Neighbors Against Garbage (N.A.G.) litter cleanup, GEHP_0193, c. 1990s; Greenpoint Environmental History Project; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
In 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…
Fulton Ferry House, [190-?] TRAN_0364, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Center for Brooklyn History
Our 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…
Did 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…
[Interior of the Slave Theater], Hiroki Kobayashi, circa 2010;
Hiroki Kobayashi photographs on the Slave Theater from
the collection of Dexter Wimberly, 2014.023;
Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Black 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-…
Khalil Abdulkhabir, Young Girls and Teachers at the Yasin Mosque,
circa 1975, 2020.002.005; Khalil Abdulkhabir photographs of the Dar-ul-Islam movement,
2020.002, Center for Brooklyn History.
The 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…
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?
PORT_0043,…
A 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.
Fred Richardson in his newly opened store with sculptor Ruth Inge Hardison. New Amsterdam News, Brooklyn Edition, December 12, 1964…
J. S. Johnston, Life Saving Station, Manhattan Beach, Coney Island, N.Y., c. 1894, v1972.1.557; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 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…
Larry Racioppo, New Year's Day dinner toast, 6th Avenue, 1977, RCPO_0005; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Family history, memory, and tradition abound in the work of Larry Racioppo, including this evocative and joyful image of a family New Year's Day toast.
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…
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:…
Office of Z. O. Nelson & SonA corner of our office, Walter H. Nelson, circa 1887, v1972.1.1222; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn HistoryIn 1917, the best Christmas gift one could receive was a lump of coal. A coal shortage was sweeping the borough and coal reserves were dangerously low. Massive barges, laden with coal mined in the Northeast, idled in waterways along the Brooklyn shoreline. An impenetrable mile-wide ice field prevented their delivery.
During the nineteenth to mid-twentieth century…
This 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…
Ralph Irving Lloyd, Meserole House, 1000 Lorimer St., c. 1905, lantern slide, V1981.15.124; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. This week’s photograph of Adrian and Mary Meserole’s house on Lorimer Street takes us to the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Adrian Meserole’s family had once owned much of present-day Greenpoint. His ancestor Jean Meserole and his wife were Huguenots—Protestants in Catholic-controlled France—who fled with their young son first to Amsterdam and then to New Amsterdam, present-day New York City, in 1663, becoming one of…
Close-up of portion of United Airlines airplane after crash at Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, 1960.Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection.On December 16, 1960 a United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided in midair above New York City. The TWA plane crashed on the coast of Staten Island, killing all 44 passengers and crew. The United airliner veered to the East, crashing into the densely populated neighborhood of Park Slope, right at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Sterling Place.
The plane left a large trench running down Sterling Place and set fire…
Rustic Vanderveer Park sign at Flatbush Avenue and Avenue F, with a few houses in the background and a one-horse shay, 1894. NEIG_0905, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Center for Brooklyn History.
The last quarter of the nineteenth century brought rapid changes to many parts of Brooklyn, not least to the town of Flatbush and its environs. Flatbush (from the Dutch vlacke bos, flat forest or wooded plain) was one of the original 6 towns making up the city of Brooklyn, and became part of that city in 1894. Four years later Brooklyn would become part of the…
Vanderveer Park entrance sign at Flatbush Avenue and Avenue F, with a few houses in the background and a one-horse shay, 1894. NEIG_0905, Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Center for Brooklyn History
The last quarter of the nineteenth century brought rapid changes to many parts of Brooklyn, not least to the town of Flatbush and its environs. Flatbush (from the Dutch vlacke bos, flat forest or wooded plain) was one of the original 6 towns making up the city of Brooklyn, and became part of that city in 1894. Four years later Brooklyn would become part of…
Providing for others, 1952, SCHL1347; Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photo Collection, Center for Brooklyn HistoryThanksgiving is typically thought of as a day where we watch a parade of large floating creatures, eat ourselves silly and then gather around the television again to enjoy grown men chasing each other in pursuit of a ball. But not too many people know its strange history.
Prior to Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday, different versions of it were celebrated at different times throughout the year. One aspect of what we think of today as Thanksgiving has always been…
East Flatbush, 1980s, Jamel Shabazz Photograph Collection, SHBZ_0039, Center for Brooklyn History
There's a long history of medicinal uses of alcohol.
Cooking too, for that matter. Recipe is the Latin imperative, and its original use was not for instructions on how to prepare dinner, but in prescriptions, where it was used as a command preceding a list of medicines to combine into a...cocktail. This also speaks to a more holistic understanding of food and drink as healing medicine, and chef as apothecary. But more on that in another POTW post!
"Grip, Colds…
Classon Avenue showing entrance to Union PlacePhotograph album; Bommer family collection, 1992.033, Box A0142; Center for Brooklyn History.
This week we explore photographs of a Clinton Hill block from the Bommer family collection.
The easternmost end of Pratt Institute’s Clinton Hill campus gives little indication that it was once a densely-built city block, but it was. Bounded by Classon, Dekalb, and Willoughby Avenues, and formerly by Emerson Place to the west, the block was unusually wide. In the 1870s, a wealthy, Spanish-born merchant-developer named…
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…
Voting machine instructionWoman giving voters instruction in the use of a voting machine in lobby of A.I. Namm's department store. Photographs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, CLUB_0078; Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.Brooklynites have seen many changes in voting patterns, locations and technology through the years.In the past, the voting process was more decentralized than it is today and took place in a dizzying array of locations. Many of these are still familiar to us as polling places. A list in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1920 indicates a very large…
SWEL_0298"We want our nursery centers." Brooklyn Eagle, March 9 1947. Photographs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, SWEL_0298; Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.In the wake of WWII, Brooklyn's working mothers fought to continue government-funded childcare.Women in Brooklyn have been leaders of social change on every conceivable political front, from the fight for racial justice and the right to vote, to equality around labor and reproductive rights. Women have also been at the forefront of protest efforts against the Vietnam War and for environmental justice.…
2015.008.1Long Island Historical Society, Library Floor Plan, circa 1878; 128 Pierrepont Street building architectural drawings, ARC.302; Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.This week we look back at a building design contest that literally shaped our library space.The Long Island Historical Society (the former name of Brooklyn Historical Society which recently became the Center for Brooklyn History) held a building design contest from December 1877 to February 1878 after raising approximately 93,000 dollars to construct a new building at the corner of…
Button, 1997; M1999.17.1, Center for Brooklyn History
In 1997, Brooklyn Public Library celebrated its 100-year anniversary serving local readers, the first free public library in Brooklyn having opened in 1897 inside Public School 3, in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
This button is one example of our extensive button collection. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a substantive push to collect more community ephemera, and pin-back buttons such as this one are excellent examples of the importance of ephemeral social and cultural history.
Last week we announced that…
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,…
[Candy Dept., A. I. Namm & Son Department Store], 1898, V1972.1.749 ; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society. Halloween is still four weeks away, but store shelves are already stocked with candy for eager trick-or-treaters. While today most of the candy is manufactured outside of New York, a hundred years ago Brooklyn had a thriving candy industry.
In the mid nineteenth and early twentieth century, Brooklyn was one of the largest confectionery and chocolate manufacturing centers in the United States. By 1908, local…
The "Camperdown elm," circa 1950; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection (V1974.5.3405), Brooklyn Historical SocietyWith temperatures falling, the beloved (or controversial) smell of pumpkin spice in the air, and the autumnal equinox passed on Tuesday, fall has officially arrived!
While the “vehicular-ly” blessed may head upstate or into New England for their annual “leaf peeping” pilgrimages, Brooklynites looking for a taste of fall foliage need only head to Prospect Park. Home to tens of thousands of trees, the one that, perhaps, best embodies our mood in 2020…
Old Navy yard sign that reads: Builders of the World's Mightiest War ShipsFrank J. Trezza, Old Navy yard sign that reads: Builders of the World's Mightiest War Ships, 1978, color slide, V1988.21.344; Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding collection, 1988.21; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Brooklyn Historical Society is thrilled to announce that the Brooklyn Navy Yard oral history collection is now available through our online Oral History Portal!
Forty-nine interviews with the women and men who worked in and around the Brooklyn Navy Yard, particularly during WWII,…
Old Mexico Restaurant[Old Mexico Restaurant, 115 Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights.], 1959, V1974.4.295; John D. Morrell photographs, Brooklyn Historical Society. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! This month-long observance encourages Americans to recognize and celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of communities who trace their heritage to Spanish-speaking populations from Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, as well as Spain itself.Hispanic Heritage Month begins every year on September 15 and extends through October 15. Its unique timeframe…
Schwarren, Litchfield VIlla, circa 1880, arc.202.box17.113; Photograph and illustration collection, ARC 202, Brooklyn Historical Society.I’m both lucky and thankful to have gotten the opportunity to intern at the Brooklyn Historical Society this past summer. 2020 has been unique in its challenges, and at the end of a disjointed spring semester, I was left without a real plan for the summer. When I came across a notice for a remote internship through the Brooklyn Historical Society that seemed to fit my area of interest, I decided to apply, despite having never physically…
Men sorting mail at Vanderveer Post Office, circa 1925, V1973.5.630; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection (ARC.202); Brooklyn Historical Society.Happy (recent) Labor Day! This photograph of workers sorting mail was taken at the Vanderveer Post Office, located on Nostrand Ave near Avenue I.The photo depicts the process of manual mail sorting, from the workers standing at the large wooden tables, to those putting mail onto shelves and into slots. Over time, the process of sorting mail has become increasing mechanized, and as a result, the workforce of the post office…
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…
A draught of New York from the Hook to New York Town: by Mark Tiddeman [1773-1780]; NYC-[177-?].Fl.RA; Brooklyn Historical Society.This week’s map is a colorful nautical chart, where the numbers in the water indicate soundings (measurements of the depth of the water) in fathoms (one fathom equals six feet). The map is oriented with north to the right and shows the western end of Long Island, including four of Brooklyn’s original six towns. Can you spot them?
A draught of New York from the Hook to New York Town was originally created around 1730 by British navigator and…
Profile of lower part of Croton Aqueduct: compiled under the direction of John B. Jervis by Theophilus Schramke. Ground plan of the lower part of Croton Aqueduct; [1846], Map Collection, M-[1846].Fl.Folio; Brooklyn Historical Society. This week we’re taking Photo of the Week on a journey uptown.This 1846 map shows a cross-section of the southern portion of the Old Croton Aqueduct, from the Harlem River to the Distribution Reservoir (at the present-day location of Bryant Park), and resulting flow of water to the southern tip of Manhattan at the Battery. Construction of the Old…
Auction notice of valuable real estate at Sheeps Head BayAuction notice of valuable real estate at Sheeps Head Bay; [1879], Map Collection, B P-[1879].Fl; Brooklyn Historical Society.This 1879 auction notice advertising lots for sale in Sheepshead Bay sought to lure potential buyers to Brooklyn's southern limits with the promise of "bathing, boating, and fishing."
At the time, the Sheepshead Bay--named after a nightmarish fish with rows of human-like teeth--was less developed than its more popular beachfront cousins, Coney Island and Brighton Beach. Compared to these other…
Map of South Brooklyn Temperance Village in the 8th Ward of the city of Brooklyn; Map No. B P-[184-?].FlBefore Prospect Park, before the “Slopes,” before the brownstones, there was “Temperanceville,” or the “South Brooklyn Temperance Village.”
This little remembered planned community was part of the first wave of residential development that transformed Brooklyn’s 8th Ward beginning in the early 1830s. This map, probably printed about 1849, advertises available lots for sale between Fourth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, and 12th and 15th Streets. On a current neighborhood map,…
bhs_bc003516268_aMap showing Behr Monorail route, Brooklyn; [1889], Map Collection, B C-[1889?].Fl; Brooklyn Historical Society.During the first decade of the twentieth century, Fritz Bernard Behr, a British engineer and inventor of a monorail system, created plans to build a monorail line from South Ferry to Surf Avenue in Coney Island.Behr claimed that express trains on his monorail system would travel between seventy-five and a hundred miles an hour. He also proposed that riders would pay a reasonable three or five cent fare. While Behr had constructed an experimental…
Cedar Knoll, from map 161, Cemetery of Evergreens: [by Robert] Graves, surveyor, Robert Graves, 1860; B A-1860.Fl; Brooklyn Historical Society.Among other things, Roswell (Robert) Graves, Jr. was a civil engineer, New York City Surveyor, real estate developer, and not-so-honest businessman. In 1849 he was one of six trustees to incorporate the Cemetery of the Evergreens (also known as Evergreens Cemetery) on the Brooklyn Queens border, part of what’s now known as the Queens Cemetery Belt.Prior to the 19th century, New Yorkers were buried in small cemeteries in churchyards or…
Map of the western part of the Township of Gravesendoriginally laid down by a scale of five chains or 20 rods to an inch, 8th August 1788 by Herman Lefford & Roger Strong: April 16th 1806; [18??]It was April of 1639, and Anthony Jansen van Salee and his wife Grietje had just been given six months to leave the New Netherlands forever. Anthony, the first known person of Muslim descent to settle in the Americas, had been in and out of court often over the years, chiefly for refusing to pay mandatory fees to the Dutch Reform Church. Grietje had also weathered her share of…
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…
Average monthly rent by blocks, Brooklyn: supplement to Survey of the New York City market: prepared by Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. and its system companies. [1940]; B B-[1940].FL; Brooklyn Historical Society.Today Brooklyn Historical Society is excited to celebrate the launch of our new Map Portal, providing online access to 1500 digitized maps. For the remainder of the summer, we’ll be taking a weekly dive into our map collections to give you a taste of the breadth and depth of the collection, and entice you to start exploring!Paying rent is on every New…
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.
Brooklyn Connections Convocation, in person and in simpler times
Among the many holidays, events, and celebrations that have been upended due to the coronavirus pandemic, a cherished spring tradition here in Brooklyn was cancelled this year.…
v19721771Eugene L. Armbruster, Dreamland, 1904; V1972.1.771, Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.Eugene L. Armbruster's dreamlike photograph shows a mother and daughter in Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park in 1904, the year the park opened.
Dreamland was the last of Coney Island's original three large amusement parks, along with Steeplechase Park and Luna Park, and sought to draw visitors with sophisticated architecture and its location right at the water's edge, where the ocean breeze would cool the public during…
Otto Dreschmeyer, Sunset, Coney Island, August 23, 1966, v1988.12.92, Otto Dreschmeyer Brooklyn slides, v1988.12, Brooklyn Historical Society.Now that it is July, Brooklynites are truly in our quarantine summer. Though we may not have our usual bevy of pastimes to look forward to, beaches reopened with lifeguards yesterday, and we are continually entertained (and sometimes annoyed) by fireworks in neighborhoods across the borough and city.
This image brings these two pastimes together, showing a view of the sunset behind the Coney Island shoreline with a double exposure of…
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…
Attributed to Thomas McIlworth, Philip Livingston, circa 1764; M1974.72.1, Brooklyn Historical SocietyWe are witnessing a moment of reckoning sweeping across the globe. The simultaneous power and fragility of historical narrative is being exposed as communities reject public monuments erected by past generations. Sculptures of Confederate generals, of Christopher Columbus, of American presidents including Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt are being scrutinized, the “great deeds” they memorialize weighed against the histories of racial oppression and violence they ignore.…
Demolition of the Old Kings County Courthouse, Matthew Black, 1961, gelatin sliver print, V1973.5.609; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society.The photograph featured in today's photo of the week shows the demolition of the old Kings County Courthouse in 1961. Only the portico of the once Palladian structure--now a carcass of stone and marble--remains.
The courthouse, erected in the 1860s and designed by architects Gamaliel King and Herman Teckritz, was once one of Brooklyn's finest civic structures. Located on 250 Joralemon…
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…
Graduating class, Public School 15With this week's Photo of the Week, we congratulate the graduates of 2020!
The photograph above shows the graduating class of P.S. 15 in the year 1900. The school stood on Third Avenue between Schermerhorn and State streets. Today it is the home of the Khalil Gibran International Academy High School, but you can still see evidence of its history above the entrances, where there appears a “Public School” sign in terra cotta over one door, and “Public School No. 15” over another.
We are fortunate that on the back of the photo, the donor…
Conversations to Inspire as We Grapple with Our Long History of Racism, Part 3This is the final of three blog posts that share recordings of past conversations that took place live at BHS. You can see the first post -- “Confronting a History of Injustice” -- here, and the second post -- “Structural Racism in America” -- here. We hope that together, they serve as prompts for each individual’s evolving insights about race, and that they spark frank discussion and spur action.In the midst of this watershed moment in American history there is a great deal to be learned about race…
Conversations to Inspire as We Grapple with Our Long History of Racism, Part 2This is the second of three blog posts that share recordings of past conversations that took place live at BHS. You can see the first post -- “Confronting a History of Injustice” -- here, and the third post -- “Processing Privilege and Moving to Action” -- here. We hope they serve as prompts for each individual’s evolving insights about race. We hope that they spark frank discussion and spur action.In the fight for racial equity, there are many systems in America that have racist roots and are…
bhs_V1989.22.7_a-1Bob Adelman, Civil rights demonstration, circa 1962, v1989.22.7; Bob Adelman photographs of Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demonstrations v1989.022, Brooklyn Historical Society.This image comes from our collection of photographs from the Brooklyn Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). In the spirit of the work that CORE and similar organizations have done over many decades, today we are using this space to highlight campaigns, organizations, resources, and books where you can learn more, donate, and get involved with the movement for racial justice…
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…
Teaching Ballet Class Remotely, March 2020.Lauren Jaeger, Teaching ballet class remotely, March 30, 2020, 2020.003.222; Brooklyn Historical Society COVID-19 collection, 2020.003; Brooklyn Historical Society.Over the past several weeks, our Photos of the Week have expressed gratitude for Brooklyn and New York’s essential workers who have been keeping the city going during the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant shelter in place circumstances. In this final installment of this series, we’re putting focus on a different facet essential to Brooklyn: Brooklynites themselves.
In a…
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…
Group portrait of Miss Stanton and girlsThis week we honor Brooklyn's teachers. To all the educators who have rapidly adapted to a remote learning environment, thank you for continuing to provide educational opportunities and a crucial sense of routine to our children.
Children in 19th and early 20th century school photographs often look stiff and expressionless—an image of childhood that feels unfamiliar. The many poses and personalities among these students at Emmanuel House in Clinton Hill, by contrast, give these charming photographs a sense of relatability even one…
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.
New York State’s Regional Monitoring Dashboard
New York State’s Regional Monitoring Dashboard, https://forward.ny.gov/regional-monitoring-dashboard
On Friday, May 15, New York State will begin the gradual process of rolling back the Executive Order known as NY Pause. This ten-point…
Operation Clean Sweep Demonstration, circa 1962, v1989.22.2; Bob Adelman photographs of Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demo, v1989.22, Brooklyn Historical Society.This week we’re honoring our borough’s cleaners and sanitation workers. To the people who are cleaning hospital rooms, grocery stores, buses and subways, and picking up garbage and recycling, thank you for doing this important work to keep us safe and healthy!
The above image from 1962 shows a Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demonstration called “Operation Clean Sweep” and illustrates the…
[Panorama of Brooklyn and Manhattan
waterfronts]
[Panorama of Brooklyn and Manhattan
waterfronts], circa 1910, photographic prints, v1976.2.268; Edward B. Watson photographs and prints
collection, Brooklyn Historical Society.
Video chats and conference calls have become a routine element of our everyday experiences of work, school, and connecting with family or friends. Add a bit of…
Flatbush car barn, circa 1885; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection (v1972.1830), Brooklyn Historical SocietyThis week we honor the transportation workers who are keeping New York City connected in this time of global crisis. To the bus and subway operators and drivers, engineers, mechanics, and tradesmen, along with cleaning staff, thank you for what you are doing to keep our essential workers and others still commuting daily safe. We are devastated by reports, including this recent opinion piece from the New York Times, of transit workers getting sick and…
Brooklyn Daily Eagle Saturday May 5, 1888
Moving. No one enjoys moving – lugging all your furniture into the van, heavy boxes full of books, exhausted family members, crying kids. It’s stressful and miserable moving at any time of the year.
But, I recently learned, it could be worse. Much worse. In fact, in Brooklyn from around the 1820’s to just after the start of World War II, Moving Day was the same for every single Brooklynite – May 1st of each year. Each May, leases ended and in a mass exodus the…
Engine 202 Ladder Company 101 fire fighters on truckEngine 202 Ladder Company 101 fire fighters on truck, 1925 ca., gelatin silver prints, v1973.5.593; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society.This week we honor the first responders in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) -- the paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and the Fire Department of the City of New York -- who provide all kinds of vital pre-hospital care. Thank you!
This gelatin silver print of firefighters from the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY…
Indian villages, paths, ponds and places in Kings County [1946]; B B-1946.Fl; Brooklyn Historical Society.
A map called “Indian villages, paths, ponds and places in Kings County” is one of the more popular items in Brooklyn Historical Society’s Library & Archives. But a question we often hear is: where did the information in this map come from? To find out we had to look, strangely enough, at the life of a construction worker and vaudevillian from County Longford, Ireland.
James A. Kelly’s first…
Interior of Sahadi Importing Company, Brooklyn, N.Y[Interior of Sahadi Importing Company, Brooklyn, N.Y], circa 1983, v1992.35.5; Jim Kalett photographs for "Brooklyn -- and How it Got that Way", Brooklyn Historical Society.
During these weeks of sheltering in place, we will be honoring Brooklyn’s essential workers: the people who keep us fed, provide groceries and other essentials, clean homes and workplaces, and take care of us when we’re sick.This week we're honoring our borough's tireless grocery store workers, who have been working to keep food, household needs, and…
Health Center, Mid-Brooklyn Health Society, Inc.,1977;V2007.042.83;Brooklyn Historical Society
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…
[Christmas mail delivery], circa 1925, gelatin silver prints, V1973.5.640; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society.This week we honor all the postal, shipping, and delivery workers who continue to deliver our mail, packages, and food throughout our vast city, come rain, shine, or pandemic.
This photograph of a US Postal Service carrier pushing his package-filled cart was taken in front of the Wynmore Social Club at 255 Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn around 1925. The club was located across the street from the main Brooklyn…
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.…
Interior of Cutler's Drug StoreInterior of Cutler's Drug Store, 1887, V1972.1.587; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection; Brooklyn Historical Society.This week we are honoring all those employed in pharmacies who continue to work throughout the pandemic, ensuring that New Yorkers can obtain the medications they need. We thank you!
George E. Cutler was born in 1842 in Massachusetts, where, after serving in the Navy and fighting in the Civil War, he studied pharmaceutics, boarding and working at an apothecary in his hometown. By the 1870s, he had moved…
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…
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…
Pilgrim Laundry CookPilgrim Laundry cook, circa 1910, v1989.003.3; Pilgrim Laundry photographs, v1989.003, Brooklyn Historical Society.For the next several weeks we will be honoring Brooklyn’s essential workers: the people who keep us fed, provide us with groceries and other essentials, clean our homes and workplaces, and take care of us when we’re sick.This week we’re honoring our borough’s hard-working food service workers, who are cooking meals for delivery-only restaurants, providing grab-and-go lunches for school children, and sustaining our frontline medical workers at…
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…
Annual Report, American Red Cross, Brooklyn Chapter, 1943-44; American Red Cross, Brooklyn Chapter collection (1985.091), Brooklyn Historical SocietyAre you Taking Care of Brooklyn? In these unprecedented times, support our front line healthcare providers by doing your part: Practical Social Distancing; Stay home; Wash your hands; Avoid touching your face.
BHS’s recent public history project and exhibition of the same name, Taking Care of Brooklyn, explores the history of women as caregivers, both in the home and in the workforce. In the late nineteenth century, the…
An ad for Dutch Boy brand lead paintUsed in Dr. David Rosner's presentation for this program.Each Recap post highlights a recent public program featured at Brooklyn Historical Society. Scroll to the bottom of the page to hear the program in its entirety.How can we combat a toxin that is all around us?In New York City, which has some of the oldest housing stock in the country, thousands of pounds of lead-based paint and the dust or chips it can produce have accumulated on the walls, ceilings, and other surfaces in public and private housing, as well as schools, offices, and…
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…
Collections storage at BHSThis week’s POTW takes you behind the scenes, inside BHS collections storage!Hanging on our paintings rack is an unusual portrait of Brooklynite Rachel Hardy Ray that depicts her nursing a child, not something you see too often in nineteenth-century American portraits. It's almost as if her baby was carefully placed to keep the artist from capturing a full #freethenipple moment!As unusual as it may seem, breastfeeding has actually been a traditional motif in art for centuries, used to represent maternal protection and fertility. It was a common trope…
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…
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…
Woman in car, 1910-1925, V1981.283.3.89; Burton family papers and photographs, ARC.217; Brooklyn Historical SocietySexism in driving is as old as the American automobile industry. At the turn of the twentieth century, as Americans began purchasing personal vehicles, social commentators immediately dismissed female drivers, assuming the “fair motorist” was timid and hindered by “woman’s natural distaste for mechanics.” Luckily, photographs like this one from the Burton family papers and photographs show that women have ruled the road just as long as men!
As the Brooklyn Daily…
Brooklyn Bridge, circa 1901; Early Brooklyn and Long island photograph collection, V1972.1.1278, Brooklyn Historical SocietyWhen it opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge immediately became one of New York City’s most iconic landmarks, a symbol of American ingenuity and technological prowess. Did you know it likely never would have been completed without the steadfast management of one great woman?
Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903) took over daily oversight of the bridge’s construction in 1872. That year, her husband Washington Roebling developed decompression sickness, “the…
