B A R R E N I S L A N D T H U R S D A Y S E P T E M B E R 1 2 | 6 : 3 0 P. M. R I N Y P L B R A N C H ________________ S P E A K E R : C a r o l Z o r e f f From the mid-19th century until the 1930s, there was a factory island in Jamaica Bay where large animals were rendered into glue and fertilizer. Carol Zoref discusses her book about the immigrant families who worked in the factory and lived their entire lives on Barren Island, in a world that no longer exists.
The lecture is FREE and open to the public. It is the fourth and final in Society’s annual series of spring lectures, which is supported by funds provided by Amalgamated Bank, Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation’s I Public Purpose Fund and New York City Council Member Ben Kallos, with funding from the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development.
— Mark your calendar for the next round of public lecture events hosted by the RIHS on: February 13th, January 9th, December 12th, and November 14th. Stay tuned for more information about each program. —
Here’s a twitter link to a featured NY1 piece on Roosevelt Island.
The #MorningsOn1 anchors are spending the week visiting places they've never been in NYC. Today, @StacyAnnGooden is checking out Roosevelt Island, a history-packed destination accessible by tram. pic.twitter.com/gOnmDXi6XD
Over the last few years, Melinda and the Hart Island Project have brought the plight of Hart Island’s deteriorating condition to the public and opened the conversation to make the Island a public park.
Our friend and neighbor Ursula Beau-Seigneur passed away March 27th, 2019. Ursula was active in the RIHS for many years. She was a writer and editor of our book “Images of America-Roosevelt Island” in 2003 and the author of the text for our maps of the Island. Quietly, Ursula was a perfectionist and great contributor to our efforts. She was our treasurer and important contributor to our programs and efforts. She would gladly sit at our table at community events and discuss the Society with visitors. Ursula worked for over 25 years at Goldwater Memorial Hospital as the Librarian in the Patient’s Library. She ran writing, poetry, arts Below and many programs for the residents there. Her knowledge of the patrons of the library was great and she went out of her way to accommodate their wishes. As Goldwater closed she transferred to the Coler campus. She reactivated a dormant library into a warm welcoming place for reading, watching videos, using the assistance devices. She retired many years after she needed to. Ursula and I would share dinners and talks of her life, family and many adventures. The last few years she enjoyed the art classes at the Carter Burden Senior Center and showed us her talents in painting. The attached photo is one of her with the painting she completed in the class. Ursula is survived by her brother Dennis Kehoe and family, in California. A memorial service will be scheduled after Easter.
Goldwater Hospital’s closing gave photographer Charles Giraudet the opportunity to photograph for posterity this 75-year old building. Built by the WPA, Goldwater is a showplace of creative and forward-thinking architecture. Join Charles Giraudet and the Roosevelt Island Historical Society for a photographic walk through the now silent halls, byways and passages of this architectural masterpiece.
Charles Giraudet’s earliest memory takes place in his father’s photo studio in Paris, France. After completing his architecture studies, he moved to New York and worked on projects large and small for over 15 years. Giraudet came back to photography when he started to look at the camera itself as an architectural artifact—a room that captures light and fragments of life. A small camera collection ensued, with which he has taken images around the globe. Lately, his projects have been revolving around concepts familiar to architects (perception, identity, memory, scale, transformation, the body in space, etc.), and the documentation of the human experience as it is manifested in space. He is currently documenting Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island, New York, which is being demolished to make room for the new Cornell Tech campus.
