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…
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,…
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…
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…