The Bowery Boys: New York City History
ABOVE: Fly fishing in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, August 1909. Meanwhile, downtown, people cast for greater prizes indoors. (Pic courtesy LOC) STARS OF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: R.C. Leonard, fishermanLOCATION: MSG II Of all the curious events to ever happen at Madison Square Garden — from the first one to the latest — no… Read More
STARS OF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: 1980 Russian Olympic TeamLOCATION: MSG IV Nope, that headline is not from an alternate timeline. Thirty years ago, the most memorable moment in US Winter Olympics history occurred on February 22, with the victory of the US men’s hockey team against its athletic and ideological rivals from the Soviet Union.… Read More
STARS OF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: Warren RemedyLOCATION: MSG IIThe picture above is of the Katharine Hepburn of dogs, Warren Remedy, the only dog to ever win the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show three times in a row. Despite the name, this smooth-haired Fox Terrier canine superstar was female. She also kicked off the storied Best… Read More
Wealth and elegance mix with Egyptian relics at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1960 Fashion Ball. Photo by Walter Sanders (courtesy Life Google images) click for larger view It’s Fashion Week! Seventy years older and still looking good. Check out a brief history on the eve of its final performance in Bryant Park. [Slate] Did… Read More
From a pack of old, aquatic themed ‘cigarette cards’, naturally [NYPL]Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that a Canadian developer may bring a luxury, multi-floor aquarium to a new skyscraper in Times Square. The proposed aquatic amusement, to feature “sharks, rays, penguins, otters” and a pirate museum, would liven up the freshly built, so-called 11… Read More
(click for larger view)1899 “On the streets in a New York blizzard.” I can’t quite figure out where this is taken. Any guesses? Photo taken by the Byron Company, one of the city’s leading photography studios of the day. Remarkably, a descendant of founder Joseph Byron still operates a photo studio today. From the Library… Read More
STRESSED: William Sulzer in 1911, a New York City representative on his way up…and out *okay, technically he was removed in disgrace As bloggers, newshawks and politicos wait to see what, if anything, comes of the latest New York Times supposed bombshell about current governor David Paterson — he’s already protesting “I DID NOT HAVE… Read More
Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, well before the FDR Drive. New York Times architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler passed away in 1914, just as New York was entering a new era of the skyscraper. Schuyler was “a stanch advocate … who believed it was a legitimate development and architectural expression of the times.” An unfortunate loss,… Read More
[from Flickr, taken by ajagendorf25] We love the Manhattan Bridge, but there’s no doubt it’s had a rocky history. For one hundred years, it’s withstood more than just comparisons to its far more iconic neighbor, the Brooklyn Bridge. Built to relieve pressure on the East River’s best known bridge, the Manhattan Bridge went through two… Read More
NAME THAT NEIGHBORHOOD Some New York neighborhoods are simply named for their location on a map (East Village, Midtown). Others are given prefabricated designations (SoHo, DUMBO). But a few retain names that link them intimately with their pasts. Other entries in this series can be found here. NEIGHBORHOOD: Kingsbridge, the Bronx DUMBO, for Down Under… Read More
— Vingboons, View on New Amsterdam (1664) Click on pic for closer view (courtesy Henry Hudson 400) “By proclaimation of February 2, 1653, Director General Peter Stuyvesant informed the inhabitants of New Amsterdam that henceforth the Island of Manhattan would constitute the City of New Amsterdam and that the City would be ruled by two… Read More
I promise, I’m not turning this into an obituary blog! But I was reading the New York Times on Saturday and came across this small write-up. Usually, the paper features two or three short articles of notable people who have passed on; Ms. Mon Toy’s obit was instead in the paid section: “MARY MON TOY,… Read More
Famished: Mark Twain and a few friends at Delmonico’s in honor of his 70th birthday, dated Dec 5, 1905.Just in time for NYC Restaurant Week! I just put up a new ‘illustrated’ version of the August ’08 Delmonico’s Restaurant podcast in our archive feed. Before Delmonico’s, New Yorkers ate in taverns or oyster houses. But… Read More
“I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go? I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon** got all icy… Read More
Above: Howard during his tenure as an Air Force pilot during World War II The controversial historian and Brooklyn native Howard Zinn, champion of the proletariat in writings like his A People’s History of the United States, died yesterday at age 87. His People’s History is a classic of what was formerly considered underground history,… Read More