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July, 2012

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Doll and Spinning Wheel

Written by Susan Gamble on July 25th, 2012

Doll and Spinning Wheel amid Bookshelves on Top Floor of Long Island Historical Society, 6/21/1979, Amy Davis, v1974.31.103; Photographs Relating to Long Island Historical Society; Brooklyn Historical Society.

With renovations to BHS’s first floor and lower-level underway and Brooklyn Historical Society’s 150th anniversary rapidly approaching, it is fun to look through photographs of the institutional archives collection. One such photograph features this eerie porcelain doll, once housed in BHS’s storage room. This doll may seem lost and lonely, but according to Mrs. Gordon, a former BHS librarian, in the days of volunteer “women’s groups” at BHS the doll collection was considered to be an extremely valuable part of the library’s holdings. This photograph was taken in 1979 when Brooklyn Historical Society was still known as the Long Island Historical Society; the name change took place in 1985. Look for more stories and images from BHS’s past as we launch our 150th anniversary celebration in 2013.

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.

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: A Man and His Dog

Written by Susan Gamble on July 18th, 2012

A Man and His Dog on a Bench in Prospect Park, circa 1975, v2008.013.40; Lucille Fornasieri-Gold Photograph Collection; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Lucille Fornasieri-Gold donated ninety-three color and black and white photographs to Brooklyn Historical Society in 2008, including this one of a man and his dog on a bench in Prospect Park. Lucille Fornasieri-Gold was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the 1930s. Gold started photographing with a Leica camera in 1969, while her children were in school. She would develop and print in a kitchen darkroom in her Park Slope home. When she moved, she lost her darkroom, and as a result Gold had an abundance of processed negatives that remained unprinted for years. In the 1990s, Gold and her husband scanned the negatives and modified the images using Adobe Photoshop. In 2002, Gold retired and now works only on her photography, processing her negatives digitally. She says of her photography: “When I’m photographing I feel the weight of the antecedents, the spirals of time, the evolution of thought and science.”

The photographs in this document a variety of neighborhoods in Brooklyn as well as New York and New Jersey and subjects as diverse as street scenes, children, dogs, twins, and cityscapes, influenced by the photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gary Winogrand, and Lisette Modell.

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.

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Freedom of the Outdoors

Written by Susan Gamble on July 11th, 2012

Freedom of the Out of Doors…, Paul Parker, circa 1943, v1991.110.25; Brooklyn Bureau of Community Services Collection; Brooklyn Historic Society.

This publicity photo was taken by Paul Parker for the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Services in the early 1940s. It depicts a group of visually-impaired women grilling hot dogs at the Shelter Island Camp of the Brooklyn Bureau of Social Service and Children’s Aid Society. The verso of the photograph reads: “Grilling a ‘hot dog’ over a camp fire under a counselor’s watchful eye at Shelter Island Camp of the Brooklyn Bureau of Social Service and Children’s Aid Society gives a blind girl confidence and a sense of achievement.”

The camp was located at 28 Congdon Road on Shelter Island and was the summer retreat for thousands of people including the children of the Brooklyn Bureau of Social Service. The summer camp catered to people with disabilities and at risk youth. The location of the camp is now a private residence.

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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Three Picnicking Ladies

Written by Michael Satalof on July 4th, 2012

Three picnicking ladies, ca. 1899, 2010.023.61; 141 Quincy Street photograph album; 2010.023; Brooklyn Historical Society.

These three ladies are enjoying a leisurely picnic by the water in Prospect Park in 1899. Even then, just a year after the consolidation of Brooklyn into modern New York City, Frederick Law Olmsted’s park provided neighbors with a refuge from the rapid urbanization taking place beyond its boundaries. Today, the park is still an oasis for many Brooklynites, providing a place for recreation or relaxation, and a place to enjoy nature in the heart of Brooklyn.

The photograph comes from the 141 Quincy Street photograph album, which documents the house and home life of a Bedford-Stuyvesant family in the late 1890s. The album was donated to Brooklyn Historical Society by the third owners of 141 Quincy Street, a house still standing and in almost its original condition, between Bedford and Franklin Avenues. More pages from this album can be seen in Say Cheese! Portraits to Pics, now on view at Brooklyn Historical Society.

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.

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Map of the Month – July 2012

Written by Carolyn on July 3rd, 2012

This month’s featured map is attributed to Matthaeus Seutter and Augustine Herrman and dates from approximately 1740. It is the 3rd state (or edition) of the map, and is part of the Jansson-Visscher series of maps (for comparison, look at Nicholas Visscher’s Novi Belgii Novaeque Angliae nec non partis Virginiae tabula, which was featured on Map of the Month in March 2011). For more information on early maps of the eastern United States (including the Jansson-Visscher series), please see this description from Fordham University Libraries.

The map includes a decorative cartouche, illustrations of wildlife, and an indexed view of Manhattan as seen if looking north from Governor’s Island. And if you look very closely at the Brooklyn section of the map, you’ll see some of the original town names, including Breukelen and Gravesent.

Recens edita totius Novi Belgii : in America Septentrionali siti. Matthaeus Seutter. 1740. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Click here to view detail of the map.

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.

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