Bedford-Stuyvesant

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Photo of the Week: Self Portrait

Written by Julie May on February 6th, 2013

Untitled, January 11, 1899, 2010.023.30; 141 Quincy Street photograph album, 2010.023; Brooklyn Historical Society.

This charming photograph comes from a photo album discovered and donated to the Brooklyn Historical Society by the current owner of 141 Quincy Street. The album contains interior photographs of the home, this young lady’s family members including a sister, both parents, and a baby, in addition to a parade and a few outings. 141 Quincy Street is located between Bedford and Franklin Avenues in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The house was built around the turn of the century in what was at that time a middle-class neighborhood of German immigrants. Legend has it that the sisters lived in the house their entire lives. When they died, the house was auctioned off, but the person who bought it lived there only a short while. The current owner and donor of this album intends on staying in the house for a while and is enjoying the original details throughout the house: floor to ceiling mirrors, some of the original furniture, the multiple fireplaces, and the beautiful light fixtures.

I love looking at this picture and imagining this young woman experiencing the changes of Brooklyn from the late 19^th century well into the 20^th century. I also like that her self-portrait includes her camera. This looks like an early roll film camera with bellows and a fixed lens. It was at this time that Kodak started making Brownies available to the masses, but this camera looks a bit more complicated indicating a more involved interest in photography. Want to see a similar camera? BHS has several cameras on exhibit that trace the technological progress of photography and its cameras in our 3^rd floor gallery where Say Cheese: Portraits to Pics is on view.

Interested in seeing more photographs 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 Othmer Library Wed-Fri 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Library & Archives | 3 Responses »
Tags: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn photographs, Photo of the Week, Photographs, Photography Collection

In Memory of Elsie Richardson

Written by Sady on March 21st, 2012

Elsie Richardson and Shirley Chisholm

Elsie Richardson (1922-2012) was a Brooklyn leader, community organizer, and activist who lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She was co-founder of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council and was essential in the creation of the first nonprofit community development corporation in the country, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, which became a national model. You can learn more about the history and present of Restoration from this video.

Brooklyn Historical Society interviewed Elsie Richardson for the oral history archives in 2008 in collaboration with Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary that year. Elsie Richardson was 86 years old when the resulting exhibition, Reflections on Community Development, opened at BHS and the Skylight Gallery at Restoration, and it was an honor to have her at the opening. Audio montages from that exhibition are available here and also on iTunes (search the iTunes Store for “Brooklyn Historical” and you can subscribe for free to the BHS podcast).

In 2010, Elsie Richardson was honored by the New York City Commission on Human Rights and a video about her life and social justice work is included in Fighting for Justice: New York Voices of the Civil Rights Movement.

Here’s Elsie Richardson describing the founding of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council and describing her leadership strategy to always end meetings talking about solutions:

In 1966, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) took a walking tour of Bedford-Stuyvesant as part of his efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Here is Elsie Richardson remembering how she famously told Senator Kennedy that the issues had been “studied to death and what we need is bricks and mortar”:

Two weeks after Senator Kennedy’s meetings in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the work to establish Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration began to take root:

The next two audio clips are from an archival recording from 1967 of a meeting in Bedford Stuyvesant announcing the plans for Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration. Thank you to Ron Shiffman for donating this recording to the BHS’s collections.

In this clip, we hear Elsie Richardson and the audience’s reaction to the New York World Journal Tribune’s reporting on the community organizing happening in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which the newspaper describes as “Brooklyn’s teeming ghetto.” This audience of engaged and organized community members takes particular issue with the newspaper’s description of Bedford-Stuyvesant’s “downtrodden people.”

Here is the beginning of Senator Kennedy’s speech that same day – including a little joke about “downtrodden people.”

Finally, here is Elsie Richardson remembering how The New York Times reported on her community organizing work in 1968, describing her and other leaders as “middle-aged matriarchs.”

Elsie Richardson was an inspiring leader whose work lives on in Brooklyn and beyond.

UPDATE: Check out this piece in The Nation remembering Elsie Richardson written by Michael Woodsworth.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Exhibitions, Oral History | 3 Responses »
Tags: Bed-Stuy, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Elsie Richardson, Oral History Highlights, Ron Shiffman

Mapping Weeksville

Written by Carolyn on March 16th, 2012

Recently, BHS staff had the privilege of touring the historic Hunterfly Road Houses at the Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The houses are original structures dating from the 1840s to the 1880s, and offer an intimate look into the lives of African Americans in Brooklyn. Founded by James Weeks in 1838, Weeksville was a free African American community with an independent infrastructure, including schools, an orphanage, churches, and newspapers.

Below are some images that I took during our visit to WHC:

Hunterfly Road Houses at Weeksville Heritage Center.

After visiting WHC, I was inspired to see if Weeksville was represented in the BHS Map Collection. In particular, I was curious to see if Weeksville was shown on 19th century maps of Brooklyn. The results were interesting; although I did find Weeksville represented on a handful of maps, the majority did not show the community. The reason for this omission is not clear from the maps themselves, and is open to interpretation.

First, an example from 1856 that shows some of the infrastructure of Weeksville, although the map does not actually have the name Weeksville on it. The community was located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and its modern-day boundaries are roughly Atlantic Ave., Kingston Ave., St. John’s Place, and Ralph Ave. On the following map, you will see the former site of Berean Baptist Church as well as “P. Col. S. No. 2,” which stands for “Public Colored School No. 2.”

Detail from: Map of the city of Brooklyn : being the former cities of Brooklyn & Williamsburgh and the town of Bushwick. Matthew Dripps. 1856. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Next, an example from 1849 that says Weeksville. Unfortunately, the map was dissected and mounted on linen, and “Weeksville” is on the dissection line.

Detail from: Sidney's map of twelve miles around New York : with the names of property holders, &c. J.C. Sidney. 1849. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

The final example is from a map of the area around New York City, from 1852:

Detail from: Map of the country thirty three miles around the city of New York. J.H. Colton. 1852. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Visiting WHC was an amazing experience, and if you’d like to learn more about the vibrant history of Weeksville, visit the WHC website. You can also read more about In Pursuit of Freedom, BHS’ partnership with WHC and the Irondale Ensemble Project, on the BHS website.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | No Responses »
Tags: African Americans, Bedford-Stuyvesant, maps, Weeksville

Jungle Fever

Written by Sady on November 11th, 2011

We’re getting ready for the 20th anniversary screening of Jungle Fever (1991)
at BAM next Tuesday 11/15 7PM.

People who haven’t seen the film an awhile remember that awesome Stevie Wonder song and that it was Halle Berry’s first film role:

We’re interested in talking about how gender, race, and interracial romance play out in this film and we’re curious about how people will receive the film 20 years later – especially a Brooklyn audience who will know why it’s particularly relevant that Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra) is not only white, “H-bomb,” says Cyrus (Spike Lee), but from Bensonhurst, “Megaton bomb!” Reading this New York Times review of the film from 1991 brings you back to that time.

Join 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;

Historian Renee Romano, author of Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America and co-editor of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory;

And 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 in a conversation after the screening.

This event is co-presented by BAMcinématek.

Jungle Fever 20 Years Later
Tuesday, 11/15/2011 7PM

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

UPDATE: Check out this Op-Ed on Jungle Fever & Harlem’s Identity Crisis from THIRTEEN’s MetroFocus.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Events, Oral History, Public Programs | 1 Response »
Tags: BAM, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bensonhurst, CBBG, Crossing Borders Bridging Generations, Fort Greene, Spike Lee

Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Audio Tour

Written by Sady on January 13th, 2011

Photo by Muemaphoto.com

To complement the Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Neighborhood & Architectural History Guide by Francis Morrone, the Brooklyn Historical Society presents a new audio tour of Fort Greene / Clinton Hill.

The tour is hosted by author, filmmaker, and longtime Fort Greene resident Nelson George. It features excerpts from oral history interviews from the Brooklyn Historical Society’s collections: artists, community activists, and longtime residents both past and present including professional basketball player Albert King, WNYC’s Jad Abumrad, and former Freedomways managing editor Esther Cooper Jackson.

Historian Francis Morrone tells us about landmarks like the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument and Underwood Park as well as the poet Marianne Moore. And we learn more about keystones of the neighborhood like BAM, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Pratt Institute from the inside.

You can listen here, or download the audio tracks via iTunes: Search the iTunes Store for the free Brooklyn Historical Society podcast.

Fort Greene Park: Now the park is beautiful and safe, but for residents who remember the 1970s and 80s, it wasn’t always that way.