Main Site | About BHS | Visitor Information | Exhibitions | Education | Library | Publications| Support BHS Press | Contact us | Online Store | Site Map
 

Photo of the Week: Can we say Spring has Sprung yet?

Written by on April 24th, 2013

[Man and boy standing on the beach, Coney Island] ca. 1880, v1974.7.127; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, arc.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.

[Man and boy standing on the beach, Coney Island] ca. 1880, v1974.7.127; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, arc.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Here we have a photograph for photograph’s sake – the photographer snapped this photo for no other reason than his own enjoyment – and consequently, ours.  Amidst today’s beautiful weather I know I’m not the only one wishing it was July and that my only obligation activity was to snap a photograph of my companions while at a Brooklyn beach.  In this case, the little boy is from another well-known Dutch family, the Lotts and the older gentleman is Major McFall, whom we don’t know much about.

Adrian Vanderveer Martense was an avid photographer, a member of the Brooklyn Academy of Photography, and a member of one of Brooklyn’s oldest Dutch families.  His subjects were his environment, daily activities, and his friends.  His photographs were experiments with film and light levels at a time when no one had a light meter – either hand-held or on-board.  His lantern slides also had an elaborate mount and he labeled them with a description and his “MARTENSE” stamp.

Read more about Martense here and look at the rest of his photographs in our collection in our here.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing more historic Brooklyn images, visit our new website here.  To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

 

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Library & Archives | No Comments Yet »
Tags: , , ,

Photo of the Week: Mr. And Mrs. Julian Ramus

Written by on April 17th, 2013

Adele Schwartz [Mrs. Julian Ramus] ca. 1910, v1978.174.27; and [Julian Ramus outside, Dean St.], ca. 1898, v1978.174.21; Ramus Family Papers and Photographs Collection, v1978.174; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Adele Schwartz [Mrs. Julian Ramus] ca. 1910, v1978.174.27; and [Julian Ramus outside, Dean St.], ca. 1898, v1978.174.21; Ramus Family Papers and Photographs Collection, v1978.174; Brooklyn Historical Society.

These two children were born in different parts of New York City: the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Little did Isaac and Esther Ramus know, when they moved to Dean St. from London in the mid 1830’s, their young grandchild Julian and the little girl pictured above, Adele Schwartz, would one day captivate his heart.

These are part of a collection of photographs that span generations and formats. Both photographs are classified as cabinet cards, paper-based images adhered to a thick cardstock, measuring about the size of a modern day postcard and often bearing the photographer’s or studio’s name. The cabinet card is the descendent of a smaller photograph popular in France called the carte-de-visite (visiting card). More information on cartes-de-visite can be found here. Technological developments in photography allow us to see rich tonal ranges in Adele’s delicate curls and in both children’s dapper attire.

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.

This blog post was written by CHART Intern, Caridad Bojorquez.

 

 

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Library & Archives | No Comments Yet »
Tags: , ,

Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 Championship Banner Displayed for 100th Anniversary of Ebbets Field at Barclays Center

Written by on April 11th, 2013

Dodgers BannerBanner prep

On April 9, 2013 the Brooklyn Nets home game vs. the Philadelphia 76ers began with a rare treat: a presentation of the one and only Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 Championship Banner. This special display of the banner was all part of the centennial celebration of Ebbets Field, which opened its doors one hundred years ago on this same date in 1913.

The Banner itself has quite an interesting history! When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957 the banner went with the team. In 1959, during a press conference a group of New York journalists decided that the banner belonged in New York, and not out on the west coast, and they hatched a plan to steal it. It is uncertain how they distracted the owners and other journalists. One version of the story involved a wastepaper basket fire. Regardless, the “plotters” succeeded and the banner was on its way back to New York the next morning.

One of culprits, Stan Issacs a sports writer for Newsday who passed away on April 2, would keep the banner in his Long Island home before giving it to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. However, it was not Issacs to give, and in July 1996 Peter O’Malley formally gave the banner to the Brooklyn Historical Society.

The championship banner has since been cleaned and conserved.  You can see the extra fabric that was added to the back of the banner to help support the original in the photo as the banner is being unrolled. During the Presentation the banner was joined by Nets CEO Brett Yormark; Brooklyn Historical Society Board Chairman JimRossman; Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz; several Brooklyn Dodgers fans; and of course the Brooklynettes.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Events | No Comments Yet »
Tags: , , ,

Photo of the Week: Two hunters in a field of haystacks

Written by on April 3rd, 2013

[Two hunters in a field of haystacks] ca. 1900 v1985.4.1; William Koch glass plate negatives, William Koch, V1985.004; Brooklyn Historical Society.

[Two hunters in a field of haystacks] ca. 1900 v1985.4.1; William Koch glass plate negatives, William Koch, V1985.004; Brooklyn Historical Society.

I love the casual, kick-back feel of this photo.  I also like the old style of haystacks, and the style of these two hunters.  The William Koch glass plate negatives collection contains at least three other photographs of these two hunters {object id numbers v1985.4.17, v1985.4.28, and v1985.4.30) that show, among other things, their successful hunt expeditions.

William “Billy” Koch was an amateur photographer in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of German immigrants Phillip and Elisabeth Koch.  Billy also ran a tavern named Billy Cook’s Saloon at 3rd avenue and 65th street in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn.  From 1912 to the mid-1950s, Koch worked in the real estate business with his uncle, also named William Koch.

In 1985 Billy Koch’s granddaughter, Mrs. Beatrice Roman, donated to Brooklyn Historical Society not only the collection of 66 glass plate negatives taken by Billy circa 1900 [v1985.4], but also his camera and darkroom equipment.  The collection contains a mixture of country and town shots, group portraits, and casual photos of individuals and homes.

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.

Written by CHART Intern, Twilo Rios.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Library & Archives | No Comments Yet »
Tags: , ,

Map of the Month: April 2013

Written by on April 1st, 2013

Sometimes it is the small details that spark research missions for me; or at least this happened when I looked at this tiny map that is jam-packed with details.

The village of Brooklyn in 1816. Jeremiah Lott. ca. 1800s. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

(Click on the image to see more detail)

Focusing in on the lower-right hand side of the map, I searched to see if I could find more information on the distillery that caught my eye.  I grabbed the library’s trusty reprint copy of Stiles’ A History of the City of Brooklyn and found that the original “Distillery Dock” was put up circa 1766 by a member of the Livingston family but had been burnt down. The distillery labeled on this map was erected by the patriarch of Brooklyn Heights, Hezekiah B. Pierrepont,  and was called “Anchor-Gin” distillery. Pretty cool!  Seems like there is a lot more that can be researched about this distillery, as well as all the other amazing details offered up on this map.

Interested in seeing more maps or research this one further? Come check this and other maps out 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.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | 3 Responses »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »