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“London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.” Dorothy Parker. We’re staying hopeful and hurrying off to meet the weekend this Friday. Happy Weekend everyone.
88.1.1.2441 Samuel H. (Samuel Herman) Gottscho (1875-1971) Times Square at night. DATE:November 2, 1932
Tony Hillery is the founder and director of Harlem Grown, and organization that connects local public schools to the greater community through the use of common garden spaces and mutually engaging activities. Harlem Grown provides 3,000 children in 12 schools with hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. They raise support for renovation of abandoned lots, providing tools, supplies and manpower to transform wasted space into a vibrant garden classroom through a number of grant sponsored initiatives.
Well now it’s official. Today’s the #SummerSolstice which means that summer has started! And in NYC that means tons of things, but one that remains an eternal image of summer in the city is an open hydrant. The first New York City fire hydrant was installed in 1808 at the corner of William and Liberty streets and today, NYC has around 109,000 of them. But when did people start using them to cool off? In 1896, there was a massive heatwave. Disproportionately affected were those living in lower Manhattan’s crowded tenements. Even in the best situation, there really wasn’t enough room for people, and as temperatures indoors rose well above 100 degrees, staying indoors became intolerable, and possibly deadly. Eventually the police commissioner, a young Teddy Roosevelt, demanded that the fire department plug into the hydrants and spray down the streets, to clean away the massive amounts of garbage in the streets. New Yorkers, enterprising as always, treated this like a water park and parents brought their children into the street to enjoy the water. The rest is history, and by the 1930s, people were cracking open their neighborhood fire hydrants every summer. . . . 2013.12.37 Mel Rosenthal (1940-) Young girl at a fire hydrant on the sidewalk DATE:1976-1982
For those of you keeping track, today’s #MuseumWeek theme is #SportsMW and it’s also #WorldRefugeeDay. With all that in mind, we’re sharing this video with you. As part of the third gallery of New York At Its Core, the Future City Lab, we focused on the different ways communities around NYC build bridges and come together. This video tells the story of a Staten Island soccer team, part of a program that focuses on disadvantaged children of African descent living primarily in Staten Island, as well as other parts of NYC. The Roza soccer club was founded in Monrovia, Liberia in 1981, but the club moved to Staten Island during the Liberian Civil War which took place from roughly 1989 - 1997. At that time, there were large numbers of West African refugees resettling in Staten Island. #NYAtItsCore
Federal holidays celebrate and define our highest ideals as a nation, and memorialize blood shed upholding them. Few days embody this principle better than Juneteenth — the day Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, with news of the Civil War’s end and emancipation. You want to honor people who died making America what it is? Honor the black enslaved.
Last year, on Juneteenth’s 150th anniversary, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution making great strides to honor Juneteenth — but it wasn’t enough.
It wouldn't be a block party without dancing. #Museummile
Victor Hugo Green’s travel guide for African Americans offered readers a way to navigate the dangerous landscape that was the Jim Crow era in the United States. Published from 1936 to 1966, it listed facilities around the country that would serve black customers in the decades prior to the outlawing of racial discrimination. “It goes without saying,” this 1959 edition reads, “you want to read ‘WELCOME’ in the smiles of those that you visit.”
Read about the conservation work done on this issue on the From the Stacks blog!
The Negro travelers’ green book. 1959 edition. Published by Victor H. Green & Company. New-York Historical Society.
Well, the news about the Paris Climate Accord means we’re going out with this one day early. Share your answers on Twitter or Tumblr with #WhatifMCNY
Much like Schrafft’s and Horn and Hardart’s Automat, Child’s Restaurant was a staple eatery with many locations across New York. The flagship location was launched in 1889 by brothers Samuel S. Childs and William Childs in the Financial District. Their concept? Quick and affordable meals out of a clean kitchen. Really though, Child’s emphasis on hygiene is noted as being unusually dedicated. To this end, locations had white tile walls and floors, marble counter tops, mirrors, wooden furniture and servers wearing starched white uniforms, like nurses. Additionally, a lot of locations featured cooks flipping pancakes in a window to attract customers. Within five years, Child’s had grown to five profitable locations and eventually expanded to over 120 locations in 33 cities, including a Coney Island boardwalk location in 1923 (this is now the location of Dreamland Roller Disco). Customers could order classics like corned beef hash, creamed oysters on toast, bean soup, or a glass of chilled buttermilk for mere cents. At its peak, the chain served nearly a million customers a day but changing tastes and a series of business decisions ultimately led to the company’s demise. One of these bad business decisions? William attempted to turn the restaurants vegetarian, something New Yorkers weren’t quite as up for back then. By the late 1950s, the last Childs’ location, in Times Square, finally closed. 93.1.1.17844 Byron Company (New York, N.Y.) Child's Restaurant. DATE:1900
Directed by Nate Lavey and AIDS at Home curator Stephen Vider.
