Fascinating Brooklyn stories from our local history archivists.
Jingle Bells
I have been told there has been too much death and gloom in my blog posts, and not enough color. Enough of cemeteries and disasters, they say. Despite any number of reasons I can see for continuing in that vein, I am determined to turn my face towards more cheerful subjects. Like for example...good grief, I am entirely at a loss. Here's something. Our volumes of the Williamsburgh Gazette were just returned to us after a sojourn elsewhere. That's good news. But somehow even the events of 170 years ago fail to ignite that fire of interest so…
Brooklyn Navy Yard
Check out this great, and kinda creepy, video about the Brooklyn Navy Yard - it features Rubena Ross, a woman we've interviewed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project. The City Concealed: Brooklyn Navy Yard from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.
Keepin' It Brooklyn
Students at the Secondary School for Research in Park Slope working with Urban Memory Project, Park Slope Civic Council, and BHS on a wonderful oral history project. Check out their blog Keepin It Brooklyn!
Listening to Women
The Brooklyn Historical Society announces a New Seminar: Listening to Women: Documenting Women's Lives through Oral History A six-week non-credit course meeting once per week for 2 hours Wednesdays March 18, 2009 – April 29, 2009 6:30 – 8:30pm Registration Deadline: February 25, 2009 Admission limited to 15 participants. Sign up HERE I took it for granted that like most of the billions of people who are born and die on this planet I was just an accident. There was no reason for me. Yet my life burned inside me. Even such as it was, it was the only record of me, and it was my only creation…
Inauguration Day
We here at BHS just gathered in the kitchen to watch the Inauguration. We tried to spot our colleagues who made the trip to DC among the inspiring millions on the Mall. Oral historians sixty years from now will be saying: "Tell me what it was like to see the first black person elected President of the US..." Interestingly, this painting, View of the Yosemite Valley (Thomas Hill, 1865), hung behind President and First Lady Obama at their Inaugural Luncheon and is on loan from the New York Historical Society.
Hopeful Barack Obama
Barack Obama at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday. President in less than 24 hours!
The Visitor's Book
If there is one category of manuscript material that, for whatever reason, often sits for years unused and neglected, it is the visitor's book, with its close friend, the autograph collection. These single items, sometimes physically substantial in themselves but not a part of a group of letters or other materials relating to one subject, and often containing nothing but signatures, are hard to connect to substantive research projects. And yet, they do sometimes offer insights that enrich our knowledge of events and through the window of the locality offer an idiosyncratic view of…
The War Comes Home
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Brooklynite Luis Carlos Montalvan, a veteran of the Iraq War who came with Philip Napoli to see our exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans. Mr. Montalvan's assistance dog Tuesday was a wonderful visitor to the museum! Here Luis Carlos Montalvan and Aaron Glantz, author of The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans speak with Laura Flanders:
Kent Ave Bike Lane
While not a solution to the Kent Ave Bike Lane Debate, this is a good idea:
Narrative Medicine
While reading on the train this morning, I saw an ad in The New Yorker for a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University: enhance your 'witnessing' skills as applied to providing quality healthcare Doctors and nurses are picking up deep-listening skills from the Columbia Oral Research Office! What a wonderful thing, and much-needed training for many of the medical professionals I've encountered.
Abandoned Brooklyn
Brooklyn photographer Nathan Kensinger has a show opening on January 24th at Union Docs, a documentary arts collaborative in Williamsburg. He photographs abandoned industrial spaces in Brooklyn, getting into those haunted spaces in your neighborhood you've always been curious about.
The Impact of Listening and Being Heard
I just rediscovered this video on Channel Thirteen's website of a panel we hosted here at BHS in conjunction with the exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans:
Student Exhibit in Park Slope
We worked with these students on the oral history elements of their project (stay tuned to hear some of their interviews on our website). They're a great group and I can't wait to see their exhibit!
Jay-Z & Santogold: Brooklyn (Go Hard)!
Apparently Kanye West and Jay-Z are as obsessed as I am with Santogold & Diplo's mixtape Top Ranking - as it inspired this awesome track from the new Notorious B.I.G. biopic. (Thanks, Peter!) Jay-Z on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes
Brooklyn Theater Fire in Wikipedia
Our thoughts seem to be turning in a melancholy direction. Before we level our attention towards happier matters, let me note the publication of a new Wikipedia article, written by our friend Garry Osgood, on the Brooklyn Theater Fire of 1876. It is fashionable to be suspicious of Wikipedia as a source, but let me assure readers that they can have every confidence in Garry's work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Theater_Fire Garry distills a clear and detailed account of the horrific events of the evening from the published sources, especially our own Brooklyn…
Two cemeteries
The victims of the Brooklyn Bridge Disaster in 1883 mentioned in Leslie's last post had been celebrating "Decoration Day," the holiday we now call Memorial Day. At a time when the dead of the Civil War lived on in memory, people would visit the borough's cemeteries to lay flowers upon the graves of their loved ones. Decoration Day at Cypress Hills is the subject of more than one print in our collection of illustrations from the 19th century magazines. While Green-wood Cemetery has received considerable media attention over recent years in part…
Minstrel History in Brooklyn
On a recent Saturday afternoon in the Brooklyn Collection, I found something in our Ephemera Collection that startled me. I was going through folders that focus on Clubs in Brooklyn. Some of them still exist today, like the Montauk Club of Park Slope. Many of the folders include programs of performances held at one club or another. One word jumped out at me as I looked at programs that were dated well into the 20th century: "Minstrel." It was almost like going through an old trunk full of treasures in the family…
Real World: Brooklyn
MTV's Real World: Brooklyn premiered last night. I haven't seen the show since the 1990s and although I admit to being curious about their Red Hook habitat, I think reading the Recaps on Gawker will suffice: Every time they mentioned Brooklyn or played a song about Brooklyn they used, well, a black male chorus of dudes shouting "Brooklyn!!" Which is all well and good, that kind of Bed-Stuy braggadocio is certainly a significant part of popular, visible Brooklyn culture. But I hope they switch it up sometimes. To like a bunch of Lubevitch from Midwood singing "Brooklyn!" or some old Polish…
Moving the Astroland Rocket
Oh wow. An icon of Coney Island and nostalgic symbol of enthusiasm for the Space Age, the 14,000 lb Astroland Rocket was moved today... To Where? We don't know yet. video courtesy of magicalthemeparks on YouTube
Face of Brooklyn
Interpreting Brooklyn artist Nora Herting's project Face of Brooklyn is nearly completed!
Check out her amazing portraits of Brooklynites.
Polar Bears for Coney Island
On New Year's Day, when the Polar Bears take their annual chilly swim in the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island, they were joined by Reverend Billy (of the Church of Stop Shopping), Lola Staar and others hoping to Save Coney Island as we know it.
A Little Analysis Practice
One of the challenges of working with novice researchers is that they fail to understand that history is an imprecise science. We can only work with the documents that exist. Until the time machine is invented (something I am anxiously awaiting), we will never know exactly what happened in the past. Many of my students are frustrated by this concept because they want to have exact answers and they want those answers now. I do my best to combat this need by showing them that analyzing documents can be a fun challenge, and that the stories documents tell can be fascinating…
Happy New Year!
Something lovely for the New Year from Brooklyn Photographer Etienne Frossard:
Vanity Fair: Oral History of the Bush White House
I don't think I can bring myself to read this just yet but Vanity Fair just published Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House which is bound to be interesting if you can stomach it.
What's in a name?
Ever since one of my graduate art professors instructed her students to physically or conceptually transform the telephone book, I’ve been fascinated by city directories. These lists of people--most of whom don’t know each other--are linked together by the simple fact that in one particular year, they all lived in the same village, city, or town. It is an archeological document of people, forever frozen in time. Our city directories run from 1796 to 1934, and you can consult them on microfilm in the Popular Library. What makes them a lot more interesting…
The Brooklyn That Never Was Part 1
I doubt that Brooklyn is more beset with projects that came to nought than any other borough--or is it? As we contemplate the slowdown, if not the demise, of the Atlantic Yards project, let us pause to consider some other ideas that got little further than the paper they were drawn on. My last post mentioned the Union Temple House. If you recall, I was transported back to 1929--Thursday October 24th to be exact-- and found myself floating in mid air next to the shell of the Flatbush wing of the Central Library, with pigeons using my head as their perch and my shoulders as--…
Belcher Hyde 1929
I am searching for an analogy that would best describe my relationship to the Belcher Hyde Desk Atlas of Brooklyn, of 1929. It is intense and ongoing, much like the relationship a serious language student has with a good dictionary. It is less messy than human relationships, because the atlas never answers back, never betrays, always gives me something when I turn to it, even if it is not exactly what I am looking for. Unlike my dogs, it never disobeys or embarrasses me, and while it lacks warmth it is constant and true. You would not call it beautiful, but you…
Bowery Boys Blog Brooklyn Too
The Bowery Boys gave us a shout out on their blog today in a post about Mayor George Hall. They admit to being a little Manhattan-centric so cheers for the Brooklyn post! And I just listened to their fun podcast about Green-Wood Cemetery.
Interestingly, one of the first people we interviewed when our Oral History Program began in 2006 was Charles Hamm whose grandfather commissioned the statue of Minerva who stands in Green-Wood Cemetery keeping watch on the Statue of Liberty.
It's Happening in Brooklyn!
BHS's exhibit, It Happened in Brooklyn, has been drawing great attendance from NYC public school kids. You may not have known that BHS education staff was part of the Task Force that developed the Scope & Sequence curriculum guide used by Social Studies teachers throughout the city. It Happened in Brooklyn was designed to directly link up to what the kids are learning in class. Kids love the big map on the floor and the musket, but they're also fascinated by the slave bill of sale for a transaction that happened right here in Brooklyn.
The Gregg Chapel
Here was a little puzzle which I knew could be best solved by taking my deskbound self out of the library and hitting the streets with a camera. But being more inclined to search through old atlases and surf web sites, I told myself I was doing essential background research. The Gregg Chapel was the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church's mission to the Italians of Gowanus in the early years of the 20th century. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article dated August 5, 1913, describes the plans for the building on Fourth Avenue: "It will be of modern construction...On the…
The Romance of Cordage
While re-housing the Business and Industry section of the Brooklyn Ephemera Collection, I stumbled across this catalog and price list for Waterbury Cordage. I don't know why this little book seemed so interesting other than, a. I like the word "cordage" and b. the cover art is beautiful. I found myself reading about types of rope, learning how to make splices, and deciphering strange images of what I now know to be a cross-section of rope. My only knowledge of ropemaking comes from reading Moby Dick. I was curious to see what else I could find…
Zinn at Studs Terkel's Memorial
Voices of Rwanda
Voices of Rwanda documents the testimony of survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Oral histories are a very powerful tool in the protection of human rights.
After the Forgetting
WWII Army Nurse
This is neat: a local paper in Michigan posted an oral history interview (transcript and audio) with Imojean Ketter who served overseas during WWII as an Army Nurse. What a great project for local papers. I do know that the role of the woman has changed over the years. We are recognized as someone that can contribute. I think that now that we see a woman running for president and vice-president, not long ago that wouldn't have happened so I'm sure that women in the military now have not only changed the military but have changed people's ideas of what women can do.…
Iraq War Veterans
I'm very much looking forward to reading this new book from the Palgrave Studies in Oral History series: SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the Pentagon by Carl Mirra, a soldier in the U.S. Marine Corps during the first Gulf War, currently an Associate Professor of Education at Adelphi University. This book is an oral history of soldiers, policymakers, and family members effected by the ongoing Iraq War. I've met many Iraq & Afghanistan War veterans who come here to see our exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam…
DNA and Oral History
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote a really interesting piece in this week's New Yorker about tracing his family genealogy using oral histories, sometimes the only source of family history for Americans of African descent since civic records, such as the Federal Census, often didn't include African-Americans until after the Civil War. Now, developments in DNA testing are challenging the verity of some family stories which leads to interesting questions about which holds more truth: what generations pass on or what science demonstrates?…
School History: Brownsville, 1913
My students at PS 165 might be sorry to hear that this headline appeared in the Eagle back in 1913, and their teachers will not be going anywhere. They might also be surprised to read of a time when their school was ruled by students, not teachers. In 1913, the principal of PS 165 in Brownsville reportedly tried "an interesting experiment." He decided to place disciplinary responsiblity in the hands of the students. Teachers were renamed Directors, and each class became a club with elected officers. The directors provided academic…
Axel Hedman, Architect
The streetscapes of Brooklyn are shaped by the work of countless builders and architects, some famous, some obscure. Some deserve their obscurity. But there are many too who may not have achieved fame, but whose fine work continues to anchor neighborhoods and arouse interest in passers-by. Axel Hedman is a name known to people who like to read guides to architecture and Landmark Designation Reports. Hedman's buildings are dotted through several Brooklyn neighborhoods. Born in Norrkoping, Sweden, in 1861, Hedman immigrated to the U.S. in 1880. He was naturalized in 1901…
Brooklyn By the Bay: Bensonhurst and Canarsie--upcoming event with Brian Merlis and Lee Rosenzweig
Brian Merlis, author of several illustrated books on Brooklyn neighborhoods, and co-author Lee Rosenzweig will discuss their latest two books on Bensonhurst and Canarsie, comparing and contrasting these two communities. Date and time: Saturday, December 6 at 2 p.m. Place: Brooklyn Collection, Central Library, Grand Army Plaza
National Day of Listening - November 28th
My name is Andy and I'm a volunteer at the Brooklyn Historical Society. My day job is with StoryCorps, the national oral history project, which is also located in Brooklyn (Ft. Greene). You may have heard excerpts from StoryCorps interviews on NPR's Morning Edition. The mission of StoryCorps is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. This Friday, the day normally associated as the biggest shopping day of the year, we are launching the inaugural "National Day of Listening." The founder of StoryCorps, MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay, is spearheading the campaign. "We want…
Recipes from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Thanksgiving Menu
"Whether your Thanksgiving holidays mean a gathering of the relatives, the arrival of the college set or just the usual family circle, it's wise social strategy to be prepared for informal entertaining." Margaret Pettigrew, Eagle Staff Writer Most people groan when they have to conduct research on microfilm machines. I love it. Sure, it makes you a bit queasy and it is hard to walk in a straight line once you've finished, but it is well worth it in my opinion. I am fascinated by recipes from the early twentieth century. And the Brooklyn…
What Do You Get...
When you put a bunch of oral historians together in a room? Lots of talk about digital storage and server space! bahdumbum But it was a good conversation last night up at the Columbia Oral History Research Office with Ann Cvetkovich, author of An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (2003). Ann discussed the unique strengths of the ACTUP Oral History Project, an activist archive of 100 interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, coordinated by Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman. Video clips of the interviews are available online and…