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November, 2011

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Abraham & Straus Window Display

Written by Emily Reynolds on November 30th, 2011

Abraham & Straus, ca.1895, v1972.1.611; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.

The end of November also marks the beginning of the holiday window displays in New York. This photograph captures an elaborate window display, which appears to be made entirely out of handkerchiefs, at Abraham & Straus department store. The ornate building, located at 422 Fulton Street, became the flagship location of A&S in 1885, and is now a Macy’s store. The three-story arch that once formed the entrance to the building has since been filled in, but other original Art Deco details are still visible.

In addition to this photograph, we have an archival collection about the Abraham & Strauss from 1865 to 1995. The majority of the items date from 1964 and 1965 and were compiled by Abraham & Straus employee Juli Daves in preparation for the store’s centennial celebration. These items include newsletters, a history of Abraham & Straus, news clippings, and correspondence between Juli Daves and Mrs. Kenn Stryker-Rodda, Archivist at the Long Island Historical Society (later the Brooklyn Historical Society), regarding research for the centennial. Other materials in the collection include store directories, souvenir shopping bags, employee newsletters, various printed ephemera, and a catalog dating from 1886, when the store was known as Wechsler & Abraham.

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More Brooklyn Navy Yard!

Written by Carolyn on November 29th, 2011

Courtesy of John Cloud and NOAA Central Library, below is an image of the Navy Yard and Wallabout Bay in 1845. According to Cloud, “The gap between 1827 and 1900 was a time when the U.S. Coast Survey was most active in mapping New York Bay and Harbor and the Environs, as they put it.”

Below “is a crop from the Survey’s first published charts of New York, Sheets 1 through 4 in 1844, and Sheets 5 and 6 in 1845. We particularly like how the Survey was attempting to differentiate agriculture in Brooklyn down to symbolizing different crops and farming row techniques in different ways.”

Detail from: New York Bay and Environs. No. 6. US Coast Survey. 1845. NOAA Central Library.

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Shirley Chisholm Day!

Written by Sady on November 28th, 2011

 

Celebrate Shirley Chisholm Day 11/30/11 by checking out The Shirley Chisholm Project’s online collection of oral history interviews with people who knew her well, including Richard Green, founder of the Crown Heights Youth Collective, who worked on Chisholm’s campaign; and feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem, who ran as a Chisholm delegate to the 1972 democratic convention.

January 25, 2012 will mark the 40th anniversary of Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president, and launch a year-long, borough-wide celebration of this important Brooklynite  - stay tuned!

Intrepid political leader, Shirley Chisholm was born in Brooklyn on November 30, 1924.  When she was three years old, she went to live in Barbados with her maternal grandmother, returning to Brooklyn about seven years later.  She graduated from Girls High School, followed by Brooklyn College, and then she earned a Master’s in Eduction from Columbia University.  In 1968, Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress, and she was one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.  In 1972, Chisholm ran an inspiring campaign to be the Democratic presidential nominee – the race was ultimately Nixon v. McGovern (see campaign commercials here).

To learn more about Shirley Chisholm check out the 40th anniversary edition of her autobiography Unbought and Unbossed and the documentary film Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed by Shola Lynch.

Brooklyn College will celebrate Shirley Chisholm with an annual keynote address on 11/29/11 - this year’s speaker is Anita Hill.
More information on this event here.

 

 

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Events, Oral History | 1 Response »
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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Thanksgiving at Emmanuel House

Written by Keara Duggan on November 23rd, 2011

Sunday School Thanksgiving, ca. 1910, v1981.284.20; Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, v1981.284; Brooklyn Historical Society.

This image showing a Thanksgiving spread at Emmanuel House is one of eighty-seven lantern slides in BHS’s Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, circa 1910-1914. Emmanuel House was located at 131 Steuben Street, near Pratt Institute in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. According to the 1897 Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac, “it was maintained by the Young Men’s League of Emmanuel Baptist Church [and] has reading rooms, game rooms, a gymnasium, and bowling alleys for boys; and free sewing school and kindergarten classes for girls.”

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery. Use this database to search for individual photographs. Currently a small number of our images are available online, but we regularly add new photographs. You can also visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1-5 p.m. to search through our entire collection of images.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present | No Responses »

Wallabout Bay and the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Written by Carolyn on November 18th, 2011

Earlier this week, BHS staff toured BLDG 92, the newly opened history center and museum at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. BLDG 92 explores the fascinating and changing history of the Yard, from the Revolutionary War to the present day. In honor of BLDG 92, this post will showcase maps from the BHS collection that feature Wallabout Bay and the Yard.

The first map is a reproduction of a portion of Bernard Ratzer’s “Plan of the city of New York…” (the Ratzer Map), which was surveyed in 1766 and 1767. This 20th century reproduction was created as an advertisement for the East Brooklyn Savings Bank, whose modern location is indicated on the map in red.

Wallabout Bay and the farming community in 1766. (19--?). Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

The second map was surveyed by Charles Loss in 1810 and shows the newly created Navy Yard. The map also features marshlands and areas bare at low water.

Map of Wallabout Bay and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Charles Loss. (1810). Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

The next image is detail of the Navy Yard from Hooker’s map of the village of Brooklyn in 1827. Note the development of the area as compared to the previous map, specifically, the construction of the Navy Hospital and the U.S. Powder Houses.

Hooker's map of the village of Brooklyn in 1827. ca 1861. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

The following two images were taken from general maps of Brooklyn ca. 1900.

Map of a part of the borough of Kings (Brooklyn), New York City. ca. 1900. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Brooklyn. ca. 1900. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

And finally, detail from a 1995 map of Brooklyn made by the Getty Oil Company. This map illustrates the Yard’s transition from shipbuilding facility to industrial park. If you’d like to learn more about the Yard’s history, visit BLDG 92!

Brooklyn. Getty. 1995. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

 

 

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