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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Music Pavilion, ca.1880

Music Pavilion, ca.1880, v1972.1.545; Photography Collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.

This stereoscopic photograph shows a crowd watching a performance at an outdoor stage in Brighton Beach. The various resorts on Coney Island were home to many musical performances and other amusements. Anton Seidl conducted at this venue fourteen times per week. Unfortunately, this building was “seriously menaced” by a storm in 1896 and Seidl never conducted there again. But the next time you go to a concert in Prospect Park or on the Williamsburg waterfront, remember that you are part of a long tradition of Brooklynites enjoying music outdoors.

The records of the Seidl Society, a group which sponsored Seidl’s performances at Brighton Beach and elsewhere, are available for researchers in BHS’s Othmer Library. Read more about those material here, and make an appointment if you would like to access the collection.

Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Ladies Cycling, ca. 1915

Riding a Ladies’ Safety, ca.1915, v1988.468.28; Michael Shellens family collection, ARC.094; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From the desk of Julie May, Photo Archivist: For the past couple years, I have commandeered a May blog post or Photo of the Week to exhibit my love of bicycles – both as an activity and as an interesting graphic among Brooklyn Historical Society’s photography collection in acknowledgement of National Bike Month.  Unfortunately, I have not discovered any new bicycle photographs in the past year to share and so I am recycling the one above from the Michael Shellens family collection.  The two young ladies photographed are likely the daughters of Michael Shellens, Ruth and Hazel, taken in one of the family’s homes in Sunset Park.  Ruth is about to leave her sister behind in a ladies’ safety bicycle, a development for cycling that made it easier for ladies to ride while wearing dresses.

Hopefully this picture will entice half the population to throw on a sundress and get out on a bike and the other half to ride along.  If you don’t know where to go or who to go with, there are a ton of events listed at a new website here.  If you don’t have a bike, New York City is about to embark on another development in cycling – bike share!  Coming this July, people wearing all sorts of garments will be able to participate in the joys, without some of the pains, of cycling through Citi Bike – 10,000 bikes at 600 stations.

So by all means, ride any kind of bike over to Brooklyn Historical Society to check out our other photographs, exhibits, and programs — we’re a Bike Friendly Business so you get $1 off admission if you arrive by bike.  Happy, safe, and polite riding everyone!

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. To search our entire collection of images visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Brooklyn Documentaries

To help celebrate their one year anniversary DocumentaryStorm, a New York City-based website for documentary lovers, hand picked and organized a selection of documentaries focusing on Brooklyn and its community. BHS is proud to share this selection of documentaries with you.

The Brooklyn Bridge: This documentary gives a contemporary twist to the story of the legendary Brooklyn Bridge. Completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the entire world for the rest of the century. An excellent documentary about one of the wonders of modern architecture, the Brooklyn Bridge was designated as a Historical Landmark in 1972. Interviews were conducted with the men, women, and children who pass over and under the bridge every day.

A Portrait of Williamsburg: Williamsburg is a section of Brooklyn, New York that is currently going dramatic gentrification. This historic neighborhood boasts a melting pot of various cultures, including Italians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Hasidic Jews. A blossoming hipster culture has resulted in soaring real estate prices. What are the effects of this gentrification on the local population, young and old?

Trial By Fire, the New York City Fire Museum: The New York City Fire Department helps keep Brooklyn safe. This documentary dives into the history of this important institution, tracing its origins, its evolving procedures, and even its wardrobe choices through the years. The documentary provides an interesting look at the transitional time in history when firefighters went from volunteers to paid city workers. Complete with compelling interviews and archived footage, few details of our past and present heroes history is left out.

The Empire State Building Shall Rise: The Empire State Building is clearly visible from almost any roof in Brooklyn. The tallest building in New York City would not have been built without sacrifice of hundreds of Brooklyn based construction workers. In fact, the building’s successful construction is a miracle when one puts it into the context of the Great Depression. Standing 102 stories tall, the building was built by men without harnesses, proper training, or any fear of heights.

Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Concert Grove Lagoon, Prospect Park

Concert Grove Lagoon, Prospect Park, 1897, v1973.2.365; The Brooklyn oversize 19th century collection, v1973.002; Brooklyn Historical Society.

As the days get warmer and the nights get shorter there’s nothing like an outdoor picnic to celebrate the early days of summer. This photo of picnickers in Concert Grove Lagoon depicts a picturesque scene of Brooklynites enjoying the mid-day sun at Prospect Park in 1897. At the turn of the twentieth century, as Brooklyn’s population continued to diversify, members of different social classes mixed more and more in public spaces such as parks and theatres – even as class and race divisions continued to stratify. The photograph also depicts a fleet of bicycles for cycling, a leisure activity fast gaining popularity in 1897.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. To search our entire collection of images visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Map of the Month – May 2012

This month’s featured map is from the Gazzettiere Americano, an atlas published in Livorno, Italy in 1763. The map shows New York Harbor and surrounding areas, and includes a number of Brooklyn references. If you look closely, you will see the following names on the Brooklyn area of the map: Bushwick, Brockland, Redhook, Flatland, Flatbush, Gravesend, Utrecht, and Coney Isola. The small numbers on the map are called soundings and they represent water depths. Soundings were commonly featured on early nautical charts and maps and are still used today in navigation.

Porti della Nuova York e Perthamboy. Giuseppe Maria Terreni. ca. 1763. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

(Click on the image to see more detail)

Interested in seeing more maps? You can view the BHS map collection anytime during the library’s open hours, Wed.-Fri., from 1-5 p.m. No appointment is necessary to view most maps. Our cataloged maps can be searched through BobCat and our map inventories through Emma.

Map of the Month is part of a project to catalog our map holdings, funded through the Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Collections program. If you would like to help us do more of this kind of work with our exciting map holdings, donate here.