Blog posts by Alice

black and white newspaper photo of person in goggles and gas mask behind table of vegetables and a biohazard sign

POTW: Biohazardous Organic

Alice

[Protester at USDA organic standards hearing], 1998-03-26, crop from BCMS_0027_0875; Linewaiters' Gazette Collection; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
The March 26, 1998 issue of the Park Slope Food Coop's Linewaiters' Gazette included photographs taken by Judy Janda of a protest at the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) hearing on proposed organic standards at the Livingston, New Jersey campus of Rutgers University. Greg Todd, a member of the Coop's Environmental Committee, spoke at…

black and white photo of a black woman with glasses, a purse, leather jacket, and bell bottom slacks standing between two white men in suits. All three are smiling.

Meet Ruth Goring

Alice

Meet Ruth Goring: Brooklynite, healthcare worker, assembly district leader, and co-founder of the Unity Democratic Club, a progressive, interracial political club based in Crown Heights in the early 1960s.

[Installation of first set of permanent markers on Eastern Parkway (crop)], October 19, 1979, gelatin silver print; Box 6, Folder 7, Eastern Parkway Coalition records, 2007.016; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
At the Center for Brooklyn History, we have an interview with Ruth Goring conducted on…

black and white photograph of group of adults and children, mostly men and boys, posing with trash cans, rakes, and brooms. They stand under a bridge on dirt ground in rain jackets and boots.

POTW: Ecology cleanup along Coney Island Creek

Alice

Ecology cleanup along Coney Island Creek, 1971, HERZ_0058; Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day! And this week's Photo of the Week brings us to an ecology clean-up along Coney Island Creek in 1971. Photographer Irving Herzberg captured this intrepid group ready with rakes, brooms, trash cans, galoshes, and rain jackets. Once a wetland haven for fish and oysters, Coney Island Creek has been affected by urbanization and…

black and white photo of a young woman standing in front of a chain link fence. A grassy area, trees and some cars are in the background. The young woman is smiling, striking a pose with one hand on her hip and the other behind her head.

POTW: The talkative Annie Brown

Alice

The talkative Annie Brown., 1942, FITZ_0137; Laura Fitzpatrick photograph collection; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
This week's Photo of the Week is a photograph taken by Laura Fitzpatrick of "the talkative Annie Brown" in 1942. Fitzpatrick took photographs of friends and family in Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant with her Agfa Billy camera in the late 1930s and 1940s, and these images make up the Laura Fitzpatrick photograph collection. The askew angle of the shot and Annie's jaunty pose show a playful…

POTW: A sidewalk in Bensonhurst

Alice

A Syrian Jewish family. Two girls playing in the streets of Bensonhurst., 1951, BJHP_0027; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
This week's Photo of the Week takes us to a sidewalk in Bensonhurst where Sally and her friend play in front of a laundromat in 1951. From the Biographical Note in the catalog record: The family of Isaac and his younger sister Sally is from Aleppo, Syria. Their father, Jacob, arrived in the United States in 1914, and first lived in the Bronx. He…

scan of a scrapbook page, yellowed paper with black and white image of a building with people standing outside. Handwriting says: "Infant Incubators Dreamland"

Infant Incubators at Dreamland

Alice

Infant incubators as amusement park attraction? Browsing through the digitized Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, I saw a few photographs of the exterior and interior of an old German farmhouse-style building. At the bottom of each photo, Armbruster wrote: "Infant Incubators Dreamland, 1904." 

Infant Incubators Dreamland, 1904, V1974.022.5.115. Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
…

black and white photograph of a tugboat and barge. The barge has "No. 1" painted on the side and the wording on the tugboat is cut off: "...of Baltimore." The sky takes up about half of the photograph.

POTW: Garbage barge at Barren Island

Alice

Garbage barge at Barren Island, 1910, NEIG_2117; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
This week's photo of the week takes us to a tugboat and garbage barge at Barren Island in 1910. I could not find the associated article with this Brooklyn Daily Eagle photograph, but this could have been meant to illustrate a proposed project to develop Jamaica Bay as a harbor extending "from the southeasterly border of Barren Island to a point some 7,000 feet east of the Long Island…

black and white photo of a boardwalk. A man leans against a wall in the foreground with his bike in front of him. A wooden roller coaster if in the background with the curve closest to the camera. A closed food shop is also in the foreground.

POTW: The Thunderbolt

Alice

[Bike on Coney Island boardwalk], 1984, V1992.48.21; Anders Goldfarb photographs of Coney Island; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
 This week's Photo of the Week features an Anders Goldfarb photograph of the Coney Island boardwalk in 1984. A man with his bike rests in the sun against a wall in the foreground. In the background is not the Cyclone, but the original Thunderbolt, a wooden roller coaster that operated from 1925 to 1982. The Thunderbolt soon became a ruin and the structure was demolished in 2000…

Black and white photograph of a cat sitting on a wooden fence

POTW from the Vault: Cat named “Lazybones”

Alice

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,”…

POTW: Cutting up carpenters

Alice

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…

POTW: Great big beautiful dolls

Alice

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…

POTW: All this for the Dodgers!

Alice

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…

Not forgotten: Activism in the AIDS/Brooklyn exhibition collection

Alice

[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…

POTW: The Blessing of Brooke the Office Cat

Alice

[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…

POTW: Cumberland Street Hospital's magnet

Alice

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…

POTW: Brooklyn Fire Headquarters

Alice

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…

POTW: Penny-farthing

Alice

[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…

A Tale of Two Schools: a Brooklyn-France Connection in the Aftermath of World War II

Alice

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…

POTW: Kane Street Synagogue

Alice

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…

POTW: Bundling Up

Alice

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…