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August, 2011

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Horses Drinking out of Fountain

Written by Emily Reynolds on August 24th, 2011

Horses drinking out of fountain, ca.1897, v1972.2.23; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Taken at the corner of Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue, this photo shows three horses drinking out of a large fountain. The fountain was erected by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (A.S.P.C.A). On the far left is Emma Toedteberg,former librarian of the Long Island Historical Society (read more about her here), participant in the A.S.P.C.A., and namesake of BHS’s catablog.

BHS’s 1897 and 1898 city directories confirm that 63 Lafayette Avenue was occupied by Joseph Nadler, a ladies’ tailor. 65 Lafayette was occupied by William H. Fricke, a furrier, and August Kretzer, a grocer. Next door at 67 Lafayette was Theo. Eisenbiegler, a butcher. Although some embellishments have been added, the buildings appear to still be standing, as visible in this Google Street View shot. However, the tailor and furrier who once occupied the buildings are long gone, replaced by a restaurant, a real estate office, and a burger joint.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Library & Archives | No Responses »
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Brooklyn’s Imagined Communities

Written by Carolyn on August 19th, 2011

I have always been interested in America’s 19th century social reform movements. Maybe it’s my Quaker heritage, but I find the history of Utopian communities fascinating and moving. In a century of great change and upheaval, many 19th century Americans sought comfort and stability through community.  Whether these groups expressed their identities through conservative or radical ideas, they shared similar desires to live humanely, raise families, and care for each other.

To my great surprise, I have found reform groups represented in the BHS map collection. From temperance groups to housing reformers, Brooklyn was home to people with strong ideas on how to make the world a better place. One such person was Electus B. Litchfield, creator of the Blythebourne development in today’s Borough Park. In 1887, Litchfield purchased farm land and built a number of small cottages; he named the community Blythebourne, meaning “happy home” in Scottish.

I have found several references to Blythebourne in our map collection. The most prominent dates from around 1887 and was published by the Blythebourne Improvement Company in order to advertise the property. The map’s verso has some very interesting text about the evils of tenement housing in Manhattan and the comparatively serene conditions to be found in Blythebourne:

Property of Blythebourne Improvement Co. at Bath Beach Junction, Kings Co., L.I. 1887? Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Property of Blythebourne Improvement Co. at Bath Beach Junction, Kings Co., L.I. 1887? Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

The map itself is not quite so interesting:

Property of Blythebourne Improvement Co. at Bath Beach Junction, Kings Co., L.I. 1887? Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Blythbourne is also represented in some of our maps from the 1890s. First, an example from 1894:

Map of the enlarged city of Brooklyn : from official records and surveys. J.B. Beers & Co. 1894. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Followed by 1898:

Atlas of the 29th, 30th, 31st and 32nd Wards (formerly towns of Flatbush, New Utrecht, Gravesend, and Flatlands), Kings Co., New York. 1898. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

And finally, 1899:

Map of the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York. Hyde & Company. 1899. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Although Blythebourne was integrated into Borough Park by the mid-1920s, remnants still remain. The local branch of the post office is still known as the Blythebourne Branch.

 

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | 1 Response »
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BHS’s New Blog for Brooklyn Bounty

Written by Keara Duggan on August 19th, 2011

Want to know all of the latest news regarding chefs, food and guests attending this year’s Brooklyn Bounty Cocktail Party? Check out BHS’s newest blog, Brooklyn Bounty. This year’s cocktail party will include tastings of food and drink from Brooklyn growers, chefs and purveyors; historic cocktails in our beautiful library; storytelling by local people from neighborhoods far and wide across Brooklyn; viewings of historical and new maps and materials related to local food and agriculture; a creative silent auction of unique Brooklyn prizes and experiences; and music by The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn. All funds raised at Brooklyn Bounty will be used to support BHS’s nationally-recognized education programs. Purchase your ticket here.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present | No Responses »

Crossing Borders this Fall

Written by Sady on August 18th, 2011

Does your family, relationship, or identity cross borders of race, ethnicity, or culture?

We’re learning more about Brooklyn’s overlapping, interweaving communities.

Join the conversation at these upcoming events, on Twitter using #cbbg, and at brooklynhistory.org/cbbg.

 

 

 

MySpace Codes

What Are You? a discussion about mixed heritage
Monday, September 26, 2011 7 p.m.

Othmer Library, Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights
Free

Participate in this discussion about mixed heritage co-sponsored by Loving Day, a global network fighting racial prejudice through education and building multicultural community. This conversation will be facilitated by Jen Chau of Swirl, a multi-ethnic anti-racist organization that promotes cross-cultural dialogue; with Suleiman Osman, author of The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification, Race, and the Search for Authenticity in Post-War New York; performance artist Judith Sloan, co-author and co-creator with Warren Lehrer of Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America; and writer and actress Katrina Grigg-Saito, whose documentary and installation FishBird is titled for the saying “a fish can love a bird but where would they live?” Panelists will start the conversation and we hope you’ll join in. Brooklyn Brewery beer and light refreshments will be served.

MySpace Codes

20 Years Since the Crown Heights Riot
of August 1991
Sunday, October 23, 2011 2 p.m.

Medgar Evers College
1650 Bedford Avenue, Crown Heights
Free

Listen as historians and community members respond to oral history interviews with Crown Heights residents recorded in the 1990s and 2010.  What’s changed?  What’s stayed the same?  The panel will include the following guests: co-curators of the Crown Heights History Project, 1993-1994 Craig Wilder, professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn, and Jill Vexler, anthropologist and curator of exhibitions about cultural identity and social history; Dexter Wimberly, curator of the Crown Heights Gold exhibition at the Skylight Gallery; Rabbi Eli Cohen, Executive Director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council; and Alex Kelly, organizer of Crown Heights Oral History – Listen To This and Monica Parfait, a student interviewer from Paul Robeson High School, currently in her first year at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Women’s Development and the President’s Office at Medgar Evers College.

UPDATE: Also speaking: museum educator and public historian Cynthia Copeland and Pamela Green, Executive Director of Weeksville Heritage Center.

MySpace Codes

Jungle Fever 20 Years Later:
A screening of Spike Lee’s iconic 1991 movie followed by discussion
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 7 p.m.

BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene
$12 / $7 for BAM and BHS Members

Watch Spike Lee’s iconic 1991 movie about mixed-heritage relationships, Jungle Fever, and hear how three panelists respond to the movie 20 years later. With historian Renee Romano, author of Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America and co-editor of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory; Michele Wallace, film critic, daughter of artist Faith Ringgold, and author of Black Macho and The Myth of The Superwoman and Dark Designs and Visual Culture;  and Imani Perry, author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop and More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States. This event is co-presented by BAMcinématek.

MySpace Codes

The Hapa Project:
A multiracial identity art project
created by artist Kip Fulbeck
Thursday, December 8, 2011 6:30 p.m.

Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
215 Centre Street, Manhattan
Free

Join a discussion about what it means to be Hapa. Once a derogatory label derived from the Hawaiian word for “half,” Hapa has since been embraced as a term of pride by many whose mixed racial heritage includes Asian or Pacific Island descent.  Kip Fulbeck photographed more than 1,200 people from all walks of life who identify as Hapa – from babies to adults, construction workers to rock stars, engineers to comic book artists. The project is featured as a part of MOCA’s core exhibition, With A Single Step:  Stories in the Making of America. Join Fulbeck in conversation with Ken Tanabe, founder of Loving Day, a global movement for a new holiday to celebrate the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Loving Day fights racial prejudice through education and builds multicultural community. This event is co-sponsored by MOCA and is part of Target Free Thursday at MOCA.

MySpace Codes

Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations is made possible by:

Institute of Museum and Library Services

The National Endowment for the Humanities

New York Council for the Humanities

Loving Day

Swirl

BAM

MOCA

Medgar Evers College

Two Trees Management

Brooklyn Brewery

Sweet’N Low Division of Cumberland Packing

Con Edison

 

 

Posted in Oral History, Public Programs | 2 Responses »
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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Good Humor Ice Cream

Written by Julie May on August 10th, 2011

Good Humor Ice Cream, ca. 1950, v1991.11.17.2; Harry Kalmus papers and photographs, ARC.046; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From the desk of BHS’s Photo Archivist, Julie May: I don’t have specific memories of the Good Humor Ice Cream truck coming to either the suburban neighborhood of my childhood in Pennsylvania or the urban neighborhood of my adulthood in Brooklyn.  However, it’s important to point out that Good Humor became very popular in the 1920s and hit its peak in the 1950s when this photograph was taken by Harry Kalmus. While this scene is likely somewhere in or near Kings County, it could have been taken anywhere as Good Humor trucks numbered in the thousands and were franchised from New York to California. And although some of us may not be able to associate green lawns, distant houses and huge dogs with our own summers, I think it’s fair to say a lot of us remember running up to the ice cream truck on a hot summer day and soon finding the drips of ice cream going down the arm holding the popsicle, fudgsicle, rocket popsicle, or chocolate éclair on a stick. On the other hand, perhaps we don’t need any reminder as many of us are trying desperately to cool ourselves in New York City right this very minute and finding a ton of ice cream, juice, and food trucks all over New York City. While I sit inside BHS’s air-conditioned library, I cling to an even more important memory this photograph calls up for me:  I shared the majority of my popsicles – delivered by the ice cream truck or my Mom’s station wagon — with my dog, Tobi, a stunning, svelte, and sweet Airedale Terrier who also suffered in the heat of the summer while waiting for the ice cream truck to drive by.

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