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What American History Tells Us About Fear of Immigrants

November 4, 2024 Fiona Danyko
Tags monday quote, the hill, glenn c altschuler, stuart m blumin, immigrants, immigration, history, america, election, presidential election 2024

Women’s Book Battles

October 11, 2024 Fiona Danyko
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The New York Historical Society is currently showcasing “Circulating Control: Women's Book Battles, 1880-1930,” which explores the influence of New York City’s first librarians – women. In the late 1870s, women in New York started the New York Free Circulating Library, creating the largest network of literature in the city. By managing and keeping this library system, these women naturally began influencing and mediating the kinds of books New Yorkers had had access to.

In the nineteenth century, Christian reformers targeted these efforts, attempting to censor books and publications they saw as immoral. However, the women who ran these libraries resisted control, and still found ways to circulate literature on controversial topics of the time. The exhibit highlights how censorship often sparks greater public support for the ideas censors seek to suppress, a trend we still see to this day.

Visitors can explore preserved texts, photographs, and relics from New York City’s first librarians through November 30, 2025.

Tags friday photo, women's book battles, ny historical society, new york historical society, new york history, book censorship, library, libraries, new york city, nyc, history, nyc history

Perhaps a Congressional Happy Hour Is in Order to Resolve Immigration Reform?

July 8, 2024 Fiona Danyko
Tags monday quote, the new york times, jt rogers, playwright, oslo, drinks, history, food, diplomacy, ny times

Let Us Not Forget

April 3, 2023 Paola Calero
Tags monday quote, migration, immigrant stories, maribel hastings, david torres, latino los angeles, history

New York City’s Federal Hall

July 1, 2022 Melanie Katz
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Nestled on Wall Street among the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan sits a historic landmark which has been a major seat of local and national government since before the American Revolution. Originally the site of New York City Hall, this spot has been a center of political activity since the 18th century: the Stamp Act Congress was held here to protest “taxation without representation,” and in the wake of the Revolutionary War, it was where the shape of the new nation was decided. The Continental Congress, which at that point was known as the Confederation Congress, met here between 1785 and 1789. Following the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, New York City was proclaimed the first capital of the United States. The same building, now known as Federal Hall, was the location for George Washington’s inauguration as the nation’s first president. It was here that the first United States Congress, made up at that point of exclusively white, property-owning men, met in 1789 and wrote the Bill of Rights, expanding and defining some of the rights of offered in America. Federal Hall also witnessed the nation’s first lobbying campaign, as abolitionists voicing their opposition to slavery prompted the new government’s first explosive debate over rights in 1790. The balance of power between the federal and state governments was hotly debated in this building – a debate which continues to this day. This Independence Day, the echoes of this landmark building’s rich history and this nation, where rights and liberties have been altered and debated again and again, seem more relevant than ever.

Tags friday photo, independence day, july 4th, federal hall, government, constitution, rights, history, american history, nyc

Grand Central Concourse

May 27, 2022 Melanie Katz
Ceiling of Grand Central above arched windows, featuring Gemini, Orion, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Aquarius, and Pegasus.

Opened in 1913, Grand Central Terminal is a gorgeous example of the Beaux-Arts architectural style, blending modern efficiency with ornate and impressive detail. The Main Concourse is one of the most recognizable spaces in New York City, particularly because of the famous mural on the ceiling, which features the night sky complete with several constellations. The mural was originally painted directly on the plaster ceiling of the Main Concourse, with detailed artistic depictions of several of the zodiac signs, including Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, and Aquarius, along with Orion, Pegasus, and a few lesser-known constellations. Unfortunately, a leaky roof mostly destroyed the original mural within the first few decades after it was painted, so the roof was “restored” in the 1940s. However, when the new ceiling was unveiled, the original mural had not been restored at all, merely covered up with large boards. A new mural was painted, with a few puzzling changes, including much-simplified images. The new mural retained a major error in the original – the mural was painted backwards, with east and west reversed. The original mural is probably long-gone behind the boards and their “restoration,” but the Main Concourse is still an impressive sight to behold.

Tags friday photo, grand central terminal, grand central, ceiling, mural, constellations, zodiac, history, train station, nyc

At The Met – Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast

May 6, 2022 Melanie Katz
Why Born Enslaved!
Why Born Enslaved!

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

Modeled 1868, carved 1873

Why Born Enslaved! (right), After La Negresse (left)
Why Born Enslaved! (right), After La Negresse (left)

RIGHT: Reduced-scale plaster reproduction by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, used to make other reproductions for sale.

LEFT: cast 2006 by Kehinde Wiley

Why Born Enslaved! Why Born Enslaved! (right), After La Negresse (left)

New York’s most famous art museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is currently featuring a groundbreaking exhibition called “Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast.” The exhibition is centered around a single sculpture – a marble bust by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux entitled Why Born Enslaved! (1868). The bust, featuring a Black woman with tied arms and a defiant expression, became very popular in Europe when it was created. The Met’s exhibition explores the idea that antislavery imagery often reinforced the colonial power structures that they were meant to critique. It is “the first exhibition at the Met to examine Western sculpture in relation to the histories of transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and empire.” The exhibition is thoughtfully and expertly curated to challenge “institutional narratives… bringing race to the forefront of discussions about art and culture.”

Tags friday photo, art, museum, history, exhibit, sculpture, antislavery, abolition, nyc, met museum

The Harlem Meer

April 15, 2022 Melanie Katz
Photo from the southern tip of the Harlem Meer on a sunny morning

Central Park, built in the mid-1800s, was the first landscaped public park in the United States. Its designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, were ambitious, aiming to create a space in the middle of New York City where residents could experience a wide variety of landscapes all in one place. The park successfully combines landscaped gardens, wild wooded areas, pastoral fields, and more. The designers also incorporated several bodies of water – ponds, lakes, and streams – into their plans. In the northeast corner of the park, the Harlem Meer is one such manmade lake. The Meer, Dutch for “lake,” is today a haven for wildlife like fish, turtles, and waterfowl, as well as a popular destination for the neighboring community in Harlem.

Tags friday photo, harlem meer, harlem, central park, nyc parks, nyc, history, design

Gay Liberation Monument

March 4, 2022 Melanie Katz

Located in Christopher Park, a small park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, stands a permanent monument to the gay rights movement in the United States. Known as the Gay Liberation Monument, the small group of statues by artist George Segal sit and stand in couples, seeming to relax and enjoy the park, “showing the public comfort and freedom to which the gay liberation movement aspired.” The monument is positioned in front of the historic Stonewall Inn, a bar and dance hall which has catered to the LGBTQ+ community since 1966, and which was the site of the famous Stonewall Riots in the summer of 1969. The riots, led by heroes like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, began when police raided the bar and arrested many of the patrons. The Stonewall Riots are widely acknowledged as a major galvanizing force in the fight for gay rights in the United States. The figures placed in the park outside are a poignant tribute to the LGBTQ+ community, and the people who fought for acceptance and visibility.

Tags friday photo, lgbtq, history, stonewall, nyc, gay liberation, gay rights, marsha p johnson, silvia rivera

NYC Parks Renaming Project: Celebrating Black Leaders

February 25, 2022 Melanie Katz
Juneteenth Grove
Juneteenth Grove

Photo credits:

NYC Parks / Daniel Avila, 2020

Malcolm X Promenade
Malcolm X Promenade

Photo Credits:

Library of Congress, New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection / Ed Ford, March 12, 1964

NYC Parks / Art & Antiquities, October 1937

NYC Parks Photo Archive, June 16, 1965

NYC Parks Photo Archive, June 27, 1941

Audre Lord Walk
Audre Lord Walk

Photo Credits:

Wikimedia, 1980

NYC Parks Photo Archive, August 15, 1962

NYC Parks Photo Archive, July 1962

NYC Parks / Daniel Avila, April 27, 2021

Constance Baker Motley Recreation Center
Constance Baker Motley Recreation Center

Photo Credits:

NYC Parks Photo Archive / Daniel McPartlin, June 24, 1965

NYC Parks Photo Archive / Alajos L. Schuszler, November 18, 1935

NYC Parks Photo Archive, February 3, 1943

NYC Parks Photo Archive, March 9, 1945

NYC Parks / Public Programs, December 11, 2021

NYC Parks / Public Programs, January 14, 2021

NYC Parks / Public Programs, January 23, 2020

NYC Parks / Daniel Avila, February 21, 2008

NYC Parks / Public Programs, March 29, 2019

Juneteenth Grove Malcolm X Promenade Audre Lord Walk Constance Baker Motley Recreation Center

In June 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent national dialogue about race and justice, NYC Parks “pledged to demonstrate how it stands in solidarity with the Black community in its fight to combat systemic racism.” Since making this pledge, the Parks agency has named twenty-eight parks spaces to honor the Black community. Many of them are named after prominent Black Americans, including civil rights leaders, artists, activists, educators, athletes, local community leaders, and more. The project aims to “encourage discourse about their contributions, and work to make the park system more diverse and reflective of the people it serves.” For this year’s Black History Month, NYC Parks put together an exhibition at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park featuring highlights from this expansive project. Historical photos sourced from the Municipal and National Archives, the New York Public Library, the NYC Parks Photo Archive, and several other sources are on display in the gallery alongside contemporary photos. These photos are contextualized by wall plaques giving information on the park locations and the Black leaders for whom the spaces are named.

Tags friday photo, black history month, black leaders, nyc, parks, history, renaming project
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