The Bowery Boys: New York City History
The Empire State Building’s proposed airship dock, as depicted in the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Airships (or dirigibles or Zeppelins, take your pick) were frequent flyers at the start of the century, and naturally many found themselves near or over New York City. In fact this almost defunct form of air… Read More
A very different Puerto Rican Day parade, in 1966 Manhattan’s largest parade happens this Sunday, June 8th: the annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade, an event that yearly brings national pride, festivity, chaos and anxiety to most of the city. The first Puerto Rican Day parade occured all the way back in 1958, a replacement… Read More
The events of the Stonewall Riots so reverberate within the international gay community that the thousands-strong Pride Parade every June ends here every year, while over in Europe (specifically major cities in Germany), their annual celebration is actually called Christopher Street Day. But the Christopher of Christopher Street would most likely be scandalized to learn… Read More
Above: one of the few extant photographs of the actual riot PODCAST It’s the summer of 1969, and the police have raided the Stonewall, a popular gay bar in the West Village. Join us as we look at the raid, the riots, and their significance today. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other… Read More
Pic courtesy of Friends of St Nicolas Park The Hamilton Grange National Monument is finally on the move! The home of Alexander Hamilton, built in 1802 and inhabited by the Founding Father for all of two years before his fateful duel with Aaron Burr, is being slowly lifted from its cramped, ingracious little spot next… Read More
Above: the sun comes out for Sarah Jessica Parker New York City usually spends the summer movie season being destroyed by aliens or scarred by car chases. So despite what you may think of the upcoming Sex And The City movie, consider this — not only does the Big Apple make it out alive, it… Read More
I was in Philadelphia for the holiday but couldn’t leave the Bowery Boys behind, stumbling into an attractive nude lady with a connection to old New York. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, known less for its collections of Thomas Eakins than for its usage in the movie Rocky, holds an old piece of Stanford White’s… Read More
Another angle of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous snapshot of some spontaneous love-making in Times Square on V-J Day
Okay nobody may ever honor our current president with a lavish equestrian statue, unless it’s a joke and he’s wearing a cowboy hat. But military tradition and the neo-classical and Beaux-Arts predilictions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries slapped many commanders in chiefs onto a saddle for decoration. New York city has five… Read More
This Memorial Day the city is celebrating the 125th birthday of the Brooklyn Bridge. What are you doing to celebrate? Go here for a list of the official list of events in honor of Roebling’s baby. Or listen here to hear our podcast on the birth of the bridge.
Our modest little series about some of the greatest, notorious, most important, even most useless, mayors of New York City. Other entrants in our mayoral survey can be found here. You can divide the mayors of New York into at least five different groups, with some obvious overlapping into one or more groupings: 1) Ladder… Read More
Barnum star Jumbo the Elephant is used in a truly horrific thread company advertisement, being dragged by gigantic spools through the streets of New York City! Oh, PETA, where were you in the 1870s? The Barnum American Museum, America’s surrealistic showcase of the moralistic, natural and bizarre, burned down to the ground in 1865. But… Read More
You know PT Barnum from his circus, but he was bringing the freakshow to New York long before then. Come take a tour with us of the craziest museum to ever hit New York City. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting services. Or you can download or listen to it HERE… Read More
What if your best known accomplishment in this world was the fact that you posed for a well-regarded American masterpiece by your more talented older brother? Welcome to the world of Rubens Peale! Philadelphians and American art lovers in general should be quite familiar with Rubens’ father Charles Wilson Peale, one of early America’s pre-eminent… Read More
Of all the people who lived in New York City during the Revolutionary War, of all the great Americans who helped shaped history here in the city, [cue deep-voiced announcer] only one can be called America’s first U.S.-born saint. Commuters who zip on and off the Staten Island ferry and tourists gallivanting through Battery Park… Read More