POTW: National Oyster Day

Liza

[Collection of oysters attached to a pipe, false teeth, golf ball, and rubber ferrule, belonging to Frank Seerveld of Great South Bay, Long Island], 1938, Brooklyn Daily Eagle collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.

This Photo of the Week honors National Oyster Day, August 5, with a slew of images, advertisements, a recipe, and a dispute that document bits of the Brooklyn oyster's story. Many of us have heard the legends of oysters the size of dinner plates (how does one actually go about eating that?), but have you ever considered the pickled oyster, whether an oyster planter is a farmer or a fisher, or who ships New York's oysters around the world? Here's to hoping you enjoy the national holiday with a fresh and briny slurp.

 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 November 1867, p.1

Brooklyn City and Business Directory for the year ending May 1, 1871. Brooklyn, NY, Lain & Company, 1871.

 

Standard Union, 17 May 1922, p. 7. 

 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 11 July 1930, p. 15.

 

[Oyster shippers at Bluepoints Oyster Co., West Sayville, Long Island], 1934; Brooklyn Daily Eagle collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 3 December 1953, p. 18.

 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 24 February 1954, p. 4.

 

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.

 

This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.

 

Post a Comment

While BPL encourages an open forum, posts and comments are moderated by library staff. BPL reserves the right, within its sole discretion, not to post and to remove submissions or comments that are unlawful or violate this policy. While comments will not be edited by BPL personnel, a comment may be deleted if it violates our comment policy.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
 eNews Signup

Get the latest updates from BPL and be the first to know about new programs, author talks, exciting events and opportunities to support your local library.

Sign Up