Born 14 November 1887 Mancelos, Amarante, Portugal Died 25 October 1918 (aged 30) Espinho, Portugal Nationality Portuguese Known for Painting Movement Futurism, Modernism
The leap of the rabbit Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Date: 1911 Style: Expressionism Genre: animal painting Media: oil Location: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso was born in Manhufe (Amarante) and died in Espinho, north of Portugal. In 1906, he left for Paris where he began working as a draughtsman and caricaturist. He became acquainted with frontline artists such as Modigliani, Brancusi, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Sónia and Robert Delaunay, among others. In 1913 he integrated the famous exhibition Armory Show in New York and exhibited in Galeria Der Sturm, in Berlin. Amadeo was among the most commercially successful exhibitors at the Armory Show, as he sold seven of the eight works he showed there. Amadeo met with Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona in 1914, and then left for Madrid, where the shock of World War I was already underway. He then returned to Portugal where he married Lucie Meynardi Peccetto. He maintained contact with many of the most prominent Portuguese artists and poets such as Almada Negreiros, Santa-Rita Pintor and Teixeira de Pascoaes. Between 1915 and 1916 he became friends with the Sonia and Robert Delaunay who sought exile in Portugal and, by this time, he became an active member of the Portuguese avant-garde group Orpheu . During this period he exhibited in Lisbon and in Porto. In his oeuvre, there are evident influences of artistic movements emerging during this time, such as cubism, dadaism, abstractionism and expressionism. On October 25, 1918, at the age of 30, he died in Espinho, of Spanish flu. Even considering his very short life span, Souza-Cardoso was an artist who left an indelible milestone on the history of modern art in Portugal, thanks to his committed and prolific activity, as well as his embrace of the fresh ideas in the art scene of the time, having been inspired by many of the leading art movements of his time.
Stronghold Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Date: 1912; Portugal Style: Cubism Genre: landscape Media: oil
Untitled (boats) Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso 1913; Portugal Cubism marina : wood
Corpus Christi procession Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Date: 1913 Style: Cubism Genre: genre painting Media: oil
EDITORIAL
While watching “ANTIQUES ROADSHOW” I saw the art of Amadeo de Souza Cardoso. An artist of the early 20th century, He exhibited at the famed Armory show in New York in 1913. Enjoy his brilliant use of color. (The pieces on Antiques Roadshow were worth over $100,000.) He died at the age of 30 in the 1918 influenza pandemic.
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
TODAY IS THE RIBBON CUTTING FOR THE RESTORED BLACKWELL HOUSE JOIN US AT 11:30 A.M. TO CELEBRATE THE LONG AWAITED RETURN OF THE HOUSE TO THE COMMUNITY.
TUESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY Wayne Thiebaud
On November 15, Wayne Thiebaud, the cherished American painter of cakes and sweets, hits an impressive milestone: his 100th birthday. Born November 1920 in Mesa, Arizona, and raised in California, Thiebaud remains busy and productive even on the eve of his centenary. We featured the delicious art of Wayne Thiebaud in August. Laura Hussey guessed correctly
SUPPORT THE RIHS AND SHOP THE KIOSK
OPEN WEEKENDS 12 NOON TO 5 P.M. ORDER ON-LINE BY CHARGE CARD
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
CLARIFICATION WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE. WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
FREE COVID TESTING NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL WALK IN COVID-19 TESTING 1901 First Avenue, New York, NY 10029 at 97th Street call (844) 692-4692 9AM-3:30PM Daily Free Diagnostic Testing (Third-party Verified) Screening Required No appointment needed
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Google Images (c)
Wiki-Arts Wikipedia
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Above: “Cement Mixer,” a color lithograph by Jacob Kainen (1909-2001), created while he was in the WPA’s Federal Art Project, 1937. Kainen developed left-wing views during the Great Depression, and when asked about it, he said: “Well, in the Depression, in 1929, I used to see entire blocks evicted, people with their bedding out in the street… no place to go, their mattresses out there. So I took part in the unemployed councils. We used to take the furniture back upstairs and the police gave only half-hearted resistance. So I think that got me started. The government seemed to do nothing about [the economic problems of the working class].” Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
Jacob Kainen, The Search, 1952, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1979.80.9
Jacob Kainen (December 7, 1909 – March 19, 2001) was an American painter and printmaker. He is also known as an art historian, writing books on art. Kainen was a collector of German Expressionist art, and he and his second wife, Ruth, donated a collection of this work to the National Gallery of Art in 1985.
TEXT FROM WIKIPEDIA
Jacob Kainen, Tenement Fire, 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1979.80.1
Jacob Kainen, Huckster, 1942, watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Christopher and Alexandra Middendorf, 1991.7.9
Jacob Kainen was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1909. As the second of three sons born to Russian immigrants, Kainen grew up in a family that appreciated culture and talent. His father’s artistry as an inventor and his mother’s love for music and literature undoubtedly fostered in Kainen an insatiable interest in art. Even at age ten, Kainen was eager to study master works, including clippings of art reproductions from The Jewish Daily Forward in his scrapbooks.
In 1918 the family moved to New York City, where Kainen’s budding passion would further advance with trips to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. Poetry and literature became major components of his artistic study during high school. When Kainen graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School at sixteen, he was too young to be admitted to the Pratt Institute. In the meantime he took drawing classes at the Art Students League, where Kimon Nicolaides taught him to “trust in the freedom and sureness of his hand.” It was during this period that Kainen made his first prints, drypoint etchings. Kainen used this time to further exercise his interests by working in the classics department of Brentano’s bookstore, as well as developing his skills as a boxer.
Kainen would go on to become an expert in the classics and quite a skilled amateur prizefighter. Kainen was finally granted admittance to Pratt in the fall of 1927. Though Kainen had a deep interest and appreciation for the old masters during this period of his life, he quickly found the Pratt curriculum backward, too anti-modernist, and dogmatic. Upon entering school his portraits and color choices remained warm in tone, but as he progressed they became brighter and more reminiscent of Cézanne’s palette. In Kainen’s final year of school, Pratt instituted a curriculum that focused more on commercial art and commercialized drawing styles. This catalyzed Kainen into a rebellion that resulted in his expulsion from the institute three weeks before graduation, and subjected him to further scorn from many of those associated with Pratt.
This event proved monumental in Kainen’s conceptual and artistic development. After his expulsion, Kainen sought out other avant-garde artists in the city, especially those who shared his institutional disdain. It led him to begin to engage with the emotive palette and gestures of German Expressionism and the social awareness and ferocity of social realism during the 1930s. He became a part of the New York Group, “interested in those aspects of contemporary life which reflect the deepest feelings of the people; their poverty, their surroundings, their desire for peace, their fight for life.”His expressionist and social leanings began to definitively merge in the mid-1930s in works such as Tenement Fire (1934) and The Flood (1936).
Jacob Kainen, The Bath, 1941, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1979.80.6
CAREER Kainen also frequented cafeterias that had become the places where urban artists met to debate and develop ideas, both social and aesthetic. Kainen and Arshile Gorky became acquainted during a particular exchange in which they both defended the importance of copying master works and admitted to lurking in museums. The friendship with Gorky and his influence that resulted from their meeting would prove to be a lifelong one. Kainen was an active participant in the WPA‘s graphic arts program during the second half of the decade, but he eventually parted with the aesthetics of social realism in favor of abstraction. Yet his work would never lose its humanism or its concern for history: “However abstract the forms and colors seem, they should somehow give off an aura of human experience.”[2] When opportunities in New York for work with the WPA ran low, Kainen moved to Washington, DC. in 1942.[3]
Jacob Kainen, Driver’s Seat, 1938, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1979.80.3
CURATOR From 1942 to 1970 Kainen was curator of the Division of Graphic Arts at the Smithsonian’s U. S. National Museum. Though jarred by the elementary state of Washington’s then slow-paced art scene, Kainen found inspiration in the Victorian skyline and architecture that defined the buildings surrounding his studio in Dupont Circle. In the 1940s he was one of the first abstract artists working in the city, and produced abstract compositions of symbols and forms that resounded with both his physical surroundings and personal experiences.
In 1949 Kainen’s national loyalty was questioned and he was placed under investigation by the Civil Services loyalty board. During the 1930s, and the time spent in New York after his expulsion from Pratt, Kainen had written art reviews for the Daily Worker and signed legal petitions that attempted to institute social change. Such activities later put his job in jeopardy when he was being considered an “enemy of the state”.[This quote needs a citation] Kainen was not cleared of formal charges until 1954. The psychological strain and anxiety of this period became evident in his vivid abstractions with titles like Exorcist (1952), Unmoored #2 (1952) and The Listener (1952). Kainen later remembered this time as a period when: “I begin with the aesthetic balancing of forms but these psychological ghosts take over.”
Soon after his clearance by the Civil Services board, Kainen shifted from abstraction to elegant figurative work. As evidence of fervent independence, Kainen rejected the popularity of Abstract Expressionism for a return to the figure. Kainen began to participate in substantially more exhibitions in Washington after he met his wife, Ruth Cole, in 1968. Prior to their marriage Kainen painted nightly after his workday, at his unheated studio, until ten or eleven o’clock at night, then returned home to do writing or museum research until 2 a.m. because he was not allowed to do scholarly writing on government time. Kainen retired from the Smithsonian in 1970 in order to paint full-time. Kainen taught evening classes in painting and printmaking at the Washington Workshop Center for the Arts,[4] and was instrumental in introducing Morris Louis to Kenneth Noland and hiring Louis to teach painting at the Workshop. Shortly thereafter, Louis and Noland began collaborating on “staining”, the fundamental notion of Washington Color Field Painting, and a groundbreaking technique with many influential practitioners, although Kainen did not consider himself to be a member of the Washington Color School.[5] After his departure from the Smithsonian Institution in 1970, his work shifted back to pure abstraction.
Jacob Kainen died in his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the age of 91 as he was preparing to go to his studio to paint. He was the father of mathematician Paul Kainen and inventor Daniel Kainen.
Jacob Kainen, Residential Facades, 1949, gouache on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Christopher and Alexandra Middendorf, 1991.7.8
MOMO THE COLER HEALING HOUND CLARA BELLA GUESSED IT !!
CLARIFICATION WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE. WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
EDITORIAL
Kainen was one of numerous artists and scholars who were considered enemies of the state. Many were never exonerated and their lives ruined. This article features only a small amount of his works. Please check out his pages on the Smithsonian American Arts Museum site, https://americanart.si.edu/search?query=%22Jacob+Kainen%22
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated IMAGES COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM AND ARE COPYRIGHTED (C) TEXT COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Using the Arts – visual art collection, art-making, music, dance, literature, architecture and more – to enhance patience experience and outcomes as well as the resiliency of medical professionals, family members and other caregivers in clinical settings.
IMAGES OF COLER STAFF AND RESIDENTS ARE REPRESENTED IN THE MURAL
ARTIST FRANK PARGA AND STAFF MEMBER
JAVIER, ONE OF THE COLER RESIDENT ARTISTS IS REPRESENTED ON THE MURAL
ABOUT THE ARTIST FRANK PARGA
Frank Parga is an artist currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY. He received a Bachelor of Fine arts degree in Painting with a minor in Sculpture from the University of Texas at El Paso. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art from NYU in 2002. Frank is a professional Artist and Muralist who works as an educator and mentor for youth from elementary schools to the university level. Frank is currently Director of Education at One River School of Art and Design in Larchmont, NY.
THE LIGHTHOUSE BEAMS OUT IN THE HALLWAY
HEALING HANDS ARE REPRESENTED ON THE MURAL. JUDITH BERDY AND ROBERT HUGHES AT THE EVENT
PART OF EACH OTHER’S LIVES
The mural created alongside staff and residents NYC Health +Hospitals Coler is reflective of their sense of unity and extended family as well as Roosevelt Island itself. The larger wall shows some of the staff and residents that exemplify the caring compassion that is displayed everyday. It is a safe haven for residents with outdoors spaces, a garden and magnolia trees (which are in the background of the large wall). The is a real sense of unity at Coler which is represented by the large “Helping Hands” in the center The hands are the people all representative of the diversity that exists at Coler. As stated by one of the residents “Coler is home to many. We are like a big extended family.”
The other two walls incorporate iconic landmarks from Roosevelt Island . The first is the lighthouse located at the northern end of the island. The second is the aerial tramway that connects Manhattan to the Island. Both images are surrounded by and at times disappear into a background of trees and leaves. This is representative of nature on the island and can give a sense of outdoors while inside.
The mural Incorporated a wide range of colors. This is intended to brighten the space as well as represent the trees and flowers of the island. These bold colors are also reflective of the diversity of the staff and residents.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR SUGGESTION TO ROOSEVLTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM WIN A SMALL TRINKET FROM THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK. WE CAN ONLY ACKNOWLEDGE 3 WINNERS EVERY DAY. THANKS, EVERYONE WHO IS NOT MENTIONED. WE APPRECIATE YOUR INTEREST
MOMO, Coler’s healing hound was an eager member of the audience. She will be glad to accept your donation of $20- for a mug with her image.
WEEKEND IMAGE
LOBBY OF 30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA
THOM HEYER, ALEXIS VILLEFANE AND JAY JACOBSON ARE THE WINNERS
EDITORIAL
I was excited to be invited to be included in an initial focus group for the new Coler mural. Today the final murals are finished and now in the main hallway for all to see.
This is a wonderful addition to the Department of Therapeutic Recreation where staff and residents will see new visions of our unique Coler and RI. It comes to Coler at a time in our history and that of Coler has been challenged and daily must be reminded of the world beyond our garden. At a time of year when the leaves are falling and autumn is setting in, this joyous expression will be even more appreciated in winter.
Coler serves as a home for 500 New Yorkers It is a place of healing, restoration and engagement. The mural will become a hub of socially distanced socializing.
The joy of bright colors and the intimacy of the artwork will remind all of the wonderful community Coler is located in. From the historic lighthouse, just a few yards north to our wonderful tram that brings so many to discover the island.
The Coler community welcomes this mural and our thanks again are to the Laurie Tisch Illumination Foundation.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All materials in this publication are copyrighted (c)
JUDITH BERDY – Photos NYC Health + Hospitals Laurie Tisch Illumination Foundation Robert Hughes, Executive Director, Coler
MATERIAL COPYRIGHT WIKIPEDIA, GOOGLE RIHS ARCHIVES AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (C) FUNDING BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
DISCRETIONARY FUNDING BY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS THRU NYC DYCD
We wouldn’t blame you if stopping to stare at this mural within the Bedford Park Blvd station made you miss your 4 train. Andrea Dezsö’s piece, “Community Garden,” is a sumptuous mosaic creation using thousands of pieces of colored tile. Dezsö’s work often features nature, and this is no different, though it’s likely more vibrant than the gardens above-ground.
SOUTH FERRY (1) Sadly, the new South Ferry station—you know, the one that was basically destroyed during Hurricane Sandy—was home to an incredible tile piece that’s no longer able to be viewed by the public. In the old South Ferry station, however, there’s some incredible—if less monumental—tile to be found, in the form oh ceramic ships that were the work of subway architects George Heins and Christopher LaFarge.
Old City Hall
Okay, this one’s a bit of a cheat, since you can only access the station on tours led by the New York Transit Museum. But the old City Hall subway stop, closed since 1945, was arguably the prettiest subway station of its time—thanks, in large part, to the tile work by Rafael Guastavino. But those exiting the current Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station can still get a peek at the Spanish master’s handiwork: the open plaza near the entrance to the Manhattan Municipal Building is covered by an atrium that features an undulating Guastavino ceiling.
Bleecker St (6)
The Bleecker Street 6 station is part of the original IRT line that opened in 1904, and the tile work shows its age: Heins and LaFarge, the architects of the stops along that line, commissioned the ceramicists at the Grueby Faience Company to create Beaux Arts-inspired signage for the station, including the rich blue station marker seen here. When the station was refurbished in 2012, the lovely tile work was, thankfully, preserved.
Astor Pl (6)
Heins and LaFarge were also responsible for the Astor Place station, and it too features the handiwork of the Grueby Faience Company, notably the beaver tiles found throughout. (Those were a nod to the Astor family, which got rich off of beaver trading. Who knew?) But there’s also a more modern mosaic in the station, completed by legendary designer Milton Glaser in 1986. He took inspiration from the existing station architecture for his tiled murals, and placed large porcelain panels throughout in random patterns, so they would “take on the appearance of a puzzle,” as Glaser told the MTA.
Lexington Ave-59th St (4/5/6/N/R/W)
The Lexington Avenue/59th Street Station’s dreamy glass mosaic murals by Elizabeth Murray used Bloomingdale’s, right above the station, as a jumping point. Titled Blooming, the mosaic mural cascades around corners and down different tunnels to “stimulate thoughts about passage,” the artist notes. Lines of poetry by William Butler Yeats and Gwendolyn Brooks also work their way into the art, which first premiered in 1996.
Sheepshead Bay (B/Q)
A popular tourist destination at the turn of the 20th century, the art of Sheepshead Bay’s B/Q station plays with that reputation. In her 1998 installation Postcards From Sheepshead Bay, DeBorah Goletz captures recreational moments from the time-period, drawing from old postcards. One mural allows visitors to stick their heads through for photographs, emulating an old boardwalk attraction. One mural even features sheepshead fish, after which the onetime village was named.
Buhre Ave (6)
The title of Soonae Tark’s Arts for Transit piece, found inside the Buhre Avenue station in the Bronx, is simple: “Have a Happy Day.” And it’s impossible not to—the geometric shapes, rendered in colorful glass tile (courtesy of Miotto Mosaic Art Studio), are meant to “inspire commuters and the people of the neighborhood with positive energy and uplifting feelings,” according to the MTA. Mission accomplished.
Flushing-Main St (7)
Artist Ik-Joong Kang was inspired by Flushing for this composition, which hangs inside the Main Street stop at the end of the 7 line. Each of the installation’s 2,000 ceramic tiles is printed with a unique design that reflects some aspect of the community, whether it’s a pizzaiolo tossing a pie into the air, or a baseball heading toward an unknown destination.
Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum (2/3)
Eastern Pkwy Brooklyn, NY Visit Website The art within the Eastern Parkway subway stop reflects the institution that bears its name: MTA’s Arts for Transit collaborated with the Brooklyn Museum to bring a bit of its collection underground. Each of the pieces found in the station comes from a demolished building. Tile comes in for the framing; each piece is surrounded by a mosaic of rich blues, with gold tile evoking the feel of a gilded frame you’d find in a museum.
FLAGPOLES ON THE ARRIVAL DECK AT THE HELIX LEADING DOWN TO MAIN STREET
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds, Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C)
FROM CURBED NEW YORK (c) By Amy Plitt@plitter
ARTS FOR TRANSIT MTA.NYC TRANSIT PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
A YOUNG READER TELLS US OF HIS IMPRESSION OF VIEWING A VICKER’S PAINTING AT THE VASSER ART MUSEUM.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery, Vassar College, Gift of the Shepherd Gallery Associates, New York and purchase, Lydia Evans Tunnard, class of 1936, Fund 1993.4
MORE ABOUT SQUIRE J. VICKERS
Robin Lynn and Nathan Steckman
On November 9th, 2020, I interviewed my 10-year old grandson Nathan about an oil painting by Squire J. Vickers (1872-1947) which he said was his favorite work at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery at Vassar College, near his home.
I wanted to know why he liked this particular oil painting and learn about the artist who painted it. Little did I know that Vickers was not only a painter, but the chief architect of the NYC subway system and designed its stations and signs while working there for a very long time between between 1906 and 1942. Vickers decisions and choices for signage are still visible today as we ride the rails.
I told Nathan about what I had learned about Vickers from a New York Times article, Underground Renaissance Man: Watch the Aesthetic Walls, Please, August 3, 2007:
“As the architect of perhaps three quarters of the subway system, Vickers also lived what he preached, taking three forms of public transportation every day from his home in Grand View-on-Hudson in Rockland County to his office in Manhattan: a train to a ferry to a subway. His house and painting studio overlooking the Hudson, an Arts and Crafts cottage that he designed, was one of his life’s other great passions. He called the estate Over Joy, and he painted there prodigiously, often producing canvases of fantastical, almost science-fiction-like city scenes with geometric motifs that echoed the subway’s designs.
” Robin: What’s the title of the picture?
Nathan: “Fantasy Castle with Man on Zebra.”
Robin : What attracted you to it?
Nathan: The castle is tall with rounded shapes and bunches of different colors.
Robin: Do you think Vickers was thinking of subways while painting?
Nathan: Yes, I think so because the painting has a subway look. Once I saw the road underneath it, I thought it could be a railroad track. And the zebras could be the trains. I think the station could be under the castle. You could hop on a zebra and ride away.
Robin: And the sky?
Nathan It looks like there are bridges in the background. They’re white. The sky has many colors.
Robin: But it’s a fantasy scene, right? What did you dress up as at Halloween?
Nathan: A ranger from Ranger’s Apprentice.
Robin: Is that a fantasy figure?
Nathan: Yes
Robin: What is a fantasy?
Nathan: A fantasy can be make-believe. Here, it’s something that the painter thought of by himself and is not real. Although some things can be real. The castle could be real. But probably not. The road could be real.
Robin Could the Wizard of Oz be on that road?
Nathan: Yes, that could be perfect. Could be like the emerald city.
Robin: Do you know what year Vickers painted the picture?
Nathan: No.
Robin: It was 1923. Vickers could have been thinking about the Wizard of Oz (published in 1900).
I showed Nathan a picture of the smooth, no-nonsense Northern Blvd. sign made out of colored mosaics surrounded by a brown band which we still see today on the IND line, and is its original sign from 1933 when the station opened. I asked him to compare the painting and the subway sign.
Nathan: They both have a mosaic quality to them. The sky (in the painting) looks like oil on a rough surface. If we could feel the tiles, they might feel the same as the rough paper of the painting. The painting could be a real scene because there’s a city sky, but the buildings are green. The sun is a color you don’t normally see in a regular sun. The buildings are different colors – blue, orange, yellow.
Robin: So is the scene real or a fantasy?
Nathan: A fantasy.
Robin: What about the Northern Blvd. sign?
Nathan: It’s real. It would be in a subway station.
Robin: Can you make up an alternative name for the painting?
Nathan: “Train Tracks under a Blue Castle with Men on Zebras.” The zebras can be the railroad cars. Yes, Vickers could have been thinking of a subway system; probably that’s where the idea for the road came from.
Robin: What do you think is on the other side of the castle?
Nathan: A train ready to go to a bridge or another fantasy castle where there are men on elephants. Elephants are for Republicans. Donkeys for Democrats. The zebras could be democracy.
Robin: Do you think this work is abstract?
Nathan: Yes.
Robin: Do you think the sign is abstract or is it precise?
Nathan: Precise.
Robin: Don’t you think it’s interesting that during his weekday job, he’s precise, and when he paints he’s abstract.
Robin: What are some words you’d use to describe how the work makes you feel?
Nathan: It makes me feel entertained. There are different colors everywhere. My eyes began darting back and forth. I would jump on the zebra.
Robin: Do you want a pen name if your interview is published? You know, that’s a name that’s not yours but you use when you’re being published.
Nathan: I guess. You could call me Squire J. Vickers, Jr.
PAINTINGS BY JOSEPH SQUIRE VICKERS
SQUIRE J. VICKERS American (1872–1947)
CITYSCAPE WITH SUN 1927
Oil on burlap Museum purchase Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg
2011.3.2
Vickers studied architecture at Cornell University and was Chief Architect for the New York Subway System (1906–1942). He was also a painter. After the 1913 Armory Show, which introduced European modernism to America, Vickers was inspired to move away from naturalistic representation towards abstraction. As seen here, he began to use the simplified forms of Cubism and the expressive, non-naturalistic color of the Fauvists to capture the energy of New York City. During the 1920s, many artists sought to represent the rapidly-changing city, which was developing in construction, communications technology, and industry. Playing an instrumental role in the city’s mass transportation system, Vickers had an intimate knowledge of urban development, and was keen to express it in his paintings.
SQUIRE J. VICKERS American (1872–1947)
COTTAGE WITH TUNNEL Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg
c. 1920 Oil on burlap
Museum purchase
2011.3.1
Vicker’s inspiration, aside from European Modernism, was the Arts & Crafts Movement, which also informed the subway’s architectural embellishments that he was responsible for: their flattened designs often incorporated tiles by such makers as Grueby and Rookwood. Further, the patterned roof tiles of his Arts & Crafts home recall those found in his fantasy landscapes like this.
New York Skyline at William J. Jenack Estate Appraisers & Auctioneers in 2016
CANAL STREET STATION AND TIMES SQUARE STATION MOSAICS
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SOME NEW FLAGS ON THE THREE FLAGPOLES ARE COMING SOON
Vintage Fire Call Box at the Corner of Vernon Blvd and 33rd Avenue Still Connected to Overhead Wiring JOAN BROOKS, ARLENE BESSENOFF, VICKI FEINMEL WERE THE WINNERS
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff Roosevelt Island Historical Society MATERIALS USED FROM:
The story of Squire Vickers, the man behind the distinctive look of the New York City subway
By KERI LAKINGER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |(C) JUN 30, 2016 AT 8:15 AM
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
That grand pile in Queens across the river. The big thing with four towering red and white stacks – the Ravenswood Generating Station, to be precise. “Peaker” will come a bit later: read on.
It’s big. Ravenswood was the world’s first million kilowatt power plant. It was one of the largest power generating stations in New York, with the capacity to supply 21% of all the electricity used in New York City.
Some (early) history
We learn from an article in the Brownstoner magazine that the plant sits on the former site of the Jacob Blackwell Mansion, built in 1744. Blackwell was a latecomer, of course — the Dutch were well established along this coast by the 1650s. Jacob was one of 12 children of Robert Blackwell (who, you recall, came to own our island when he married the daughter of its former owner, Robert Manning). Jacob Blackwell became the owner of a Ravenswood house – not yet “the Mansion” – in 1717. At that time, Ravenswood became a neighborhood of fine riverside estates – now “the Mansion”. Soon, however, the wealthy moved eastwards on Long Island. Their mansions were left behind and by the late 1870s many ended up as orphanages and asylums. As the LIRR moved in along Newtown Creek, hundreds of small factories sprang up in Ravenswood which prospered along the busy East River. Finally, during the 1930s and 40s, vast tracts of public housing (and Queensbridge Park) were erected and the recognizable shape of modern Ravenswood was formed.
The Ravenswood plant was initially designed to be a nuclear generator!
Richard Gentilviso writes in a June 20, 2012 article in The Gazette that about the same time – summer, fall 1962 – the Japanese decided to allow Tokyo Electric to build a nuclear plant in Fukushima and Con Ed was about to go online at Indian Point, Con Ed also applied to the Atomic Energy Commission to build a 1,000-megawatt nuclear generating station at the Ravenswood generating station. This would have been the world’s largest nuclear plant, with a capacity greater than all existing nuclear power plants in the U.S. at the time.
Local opposition quickly coalesced against the proposal and succeeded in stopping the threat of a nuclear power plant in the Ravenswood area’s back yard. Expert views were conflicted. In April 1963, Con Ed Chairman Harland C. Forbes told a Congressional committee any concerns were “rather silly” and that “one or two people have raised some question about the genetic effects of radiation and so forth”. But in testimony to the same Congressional committee, David E. Lillenthal, a former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said, “I would not dream of living in the borough of Queens if there were a large atomic power plant in that region because there is an alternative—a conventional thermal power plant to which there are no risks.”
On Jan. 6, 1964, Con Ed withdrew its application for the nuclear power plant at Ravenswood.
But, writes Gentilviso, the nuclear story wasn’t over. Con Ed proposed another plan in 1968 to build a nuclear reactor not more than several hundred feet from the Ravenswood plants below an abandoned hospital site on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island). A nuclear plant on our island!!! They made a third proposal in 1970 for nuclear plants built on man-made islands located several miles off Coney Island in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Neither plan went far.
At the end of the day, said J. Samuel Walker, a historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Ravenswood was kind of a test case…” After Ravenswood, he said, the commission “agreed on kind of an informal rule: They wouldn’t allow a [nuclear] plant any closer to the city than Indian Point.
The Great Blackout of 1965: “Big Allis”
Con Ed’s first two Ravenswood units constructed in 1963 were Ravenswood 10 and 20, each having a generating capacity of approximately 385 megawatts. Then, in 1965, Cen Ed commissioned Ravenswood 30. It was built by Allis Chalmers which announced that Con Ed had ordered the “world’s first MILLION-KILOWATT unit…big enough to serve 3,000,000 people.” This sheer scale helped the plant become popularly known as “Big Allis”.
Big Allis played a role in the Great Blackout of 1965. The blackout – which affected many communities in the Northeast and Canada, began at a misprogrammed protective relay on a transmission line on the Beck power station in Queenston, Ontario, near Niagara Falls. The safety relay was set to trip if other protective equipment deeper within the Ontario Hydro system failed to operate properly. On a particularly cold November evening, power demands for heating, lighting, and cooking were pushing the electrical system to near its peak capacity. Transmission lines heading into southern Ontario were heavily loaded. The safety relay had been programmed incorrectly, and it did what it had been asked to do: disconnect under the excess loads it perceived. Bear in mind that at this time, all of these power generators scattered across the two countries were interconnected with few firewalls between them. The idea was that it would be easier to share power as required.
As a result of this failure, a small variation of power originating from the Robert Moses generating plant in Lewiston, New York caused the relay there to trip, disabling a main power line heading into Southern Ontario. Instantly, the power that was flowing on the tripped line transferred to the other lines, causing them to become overloaded. Their own protective relays, which are also designed to protect the lines from overload, tripped, isolating Beck station from all of southern Ontario.
With nowhere else to go, the excess power from Beck then flowed east, over the interconnected lines into New York State, overloading them as well. The Beck generators, with no outlet for their power, were automatically shut down to prevent damage. The story goes on, but basically a ”tsunami of power” was heading south. In New York City, as monitoring dials went wild, a crucial operator at the main power control station made frantic phone calls upstate instead of preemptively shutting down the city’s system to protect it. Automatic shutoffs took over and suddenly closed down the Con Ed system for the first time in its history, causing damage to the power system.
I was told (which means that I cannot confirm this) that people at Ravenswood hoped the Big Allis would withstand the oncoming load and keep the City’s power on. Alas, it was not to be. Big Allis’ burned up its bearings – because the device that kept the bearings oiled ran on the power generated by Big Allis – so Big Allis went down too.
Ultimately the 1965 power failure covered 80,000 square miles and affected about 25 million people. (But the Blackout Baby Boom turns out to have all been a myth.)
Who Owns Ravenswood?
Ravenswood was originally built and owned by Con Ed. Due to New York State’s energy market deregulation, Con Edison was required to sell all of its “in-city ” generating stations in New York City including Ravenswood. In 1999, Con Edison transferred ownership of Ravenswood to KeySpan Energy. In 2004, KeySpan constructed a new unit, Ravenswood 40, using combined cycle technology with generating capacity of 250 megawatts. National Grid plc acquired KeySpan in 2007 but due to its involvement in electrical transmission, the New York Public Service Commission required National Grid to sell Ravenswood to ensure competition in the market. On August 26, 2008, Ravenswood was sold by National Grid to TransCanada Corporation for $2.9 billion. Trans Canada sold Ravenswood to LS Power/Helix Energy Solutions Group with Ethos power running it. In 2018, Helix Generation LLC filed a lawsuit against TransCanada Facility USA Inc. for allegedly fraudulently misleading Helix prior to the sale.
And today – Peaker Plants
Ravenswood is not now of 16 operating Peaker plants in New York City that fit into the New York Power Authority’s market and send their energy to the city’s power grid. Peakers are run to provide power to the grid to meet peak demand. They were intended to be used only once or twice a year, but they now run in New York City on a more regular basis to meet the city’s growing energy demands, particularly in the evening when more lights and devices are turned on.
Peakers may be run only a relatively few hours in the year, but they often tend to be among the most polluting assets on the electrical grid. Reasons are they are older and they are fed by the most polluting fuel oil. Clean energy groups contend that the reductions in greenhouse gases are tremendous, when Peaker plants are replaced with renewables-plus-storage.
Peaker plants are also expensive. A new report (“Dirty Energy, Big Money,” published by the PEAK Coalition, which consists of New York City environmental justice groups NYC-EJA, UPROSE, and The Point CDC, as well as New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and Clean Energy Group) found that New Yorkers over the last decade have paid more than $4.5 billion in electricity bills to the private owners of the city’s Peaker plants, just to keep those plants online in case they’re needed—even though they only operate between 90 and 500 hours a year. Even at the upper limit, that’s less than three weeks. This all means that the price tag for peak electricity in the Big Apple is 1,300 percent higher than the average cost of electricity in the state. The report also found that about 85 % of the last decade’s peak electricity payments were funneled to three private, out-of-state firms—a Boston hedge fund, a Houston fossil-fuel generation company, and a New Jersey private equity firm—that own a large share of the oldest New York City Peaker plants.
In July 2019, the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority study identified Peaker plants in the state that could be replaced with battery storage, and Ravenswood was identified as a candidate to have an 8-hour battery storage facility that can power 250,000 homes. The report concluded that most of the Ravenswood transition could be completed by March 2021, and this transformation would be a new sustainable model for the city to transition other Peaker plants to zero emissions.
The Ravenswood plant would be the largest battery-run plant in the state, considered the first of its kind in the region, and would fall in line with Governor Cuomo’s Green New Deal goals of 1,500 MW of storage in New York by 2025 and 3,000 MW of storage by 2030. The state recently finalized new pollution restrictions that would drive the most polluting plants into retirement. Still, batteries are only as environmentally friendly as the sources of the power that recharge them. The Ravenswood battery would continue to be charged in part by existing fossil fuel infrastructure.
In this past October, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) said that it had agreed with a coalition of clean energy and environmental justice groups to assess how NYPA can “transition” the Peaker plants in its service area to “utilize clean energy technologies”. According to the NYPA and PEAK Coalition, the available options could include “battery storage and low to zero carbon emission resources and technologies”. As well as lowering greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, the transition plan is aimed at improving air quality. The NYPA-PEAK Coalition release emphasized that plans to transition NYPA’s six Peaker plants in New York City and one on Long Island, which have been in operation since 2001, must maintain the electric system’s reliability and resiliency requirements while helping the state meet its policy goal of achieving zero carbon electricity statewide by 2040.
Under New York’s groundbreaking climate law passed last year, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the state must reform this system to achieve a carbon-free electricity generation system by 2040. But many argue that there is no need to wait that long – the technology exists to transform the system – and that what is needed now is a commitment to prioritize the health and resilience of our hardest-hit neighborhoods.
QUEENSBORO BRIDGE FROM MANHATTAN WITH ELEVATOR STOREHOUSE BUILDING BY BERENICE ABBOTT No one guessed this one
FROM A READER
Hi Judy, I just saw the newsletter about Wodemar, and scrolling down I got a surprise–I have two of Woldemar’s prints, in your newsletter (versions of the two, I should say). I bought them more than 50 years ago, when I lived a few blocks from Gracie Mansion (in an old tenement walkup) and could barely afford art. They are quite large, and their colors are slightly different from the ones you show. Both are winter scenes, and show at least part of Roosevelt Island. They were something of a premonition of my future, at a time when I never imagined I would marry or move out of Manhattan. My dream then was to live in one of those East Side buildings that look out on these scenes.
I never knew anything about Woldemar Neufeld, so I thank you for the information. I don’t know why I never looked him up–the prints, which have the look of original woodcuts or linoleum prints–have been with me for so long, and I did buy them before there was internet or google. I have had them in my summer place in Maine for many years, because I like to have Roosevelt Island to look at while I’m away from here. I hope they’re ok–I haven’t been back to Maine this year and it’s unlikely that I’ll see my prints until next summer if we’re all lucky.
Susan Lees
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Queensboro Bridge: I. From 63rd Street Pier, Manhattan.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1937. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4f4c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
TODAY IS VETERANS DAY, WHEN WE HONOR THOSE WHO SERVED AND DIED FOR OUR COUNTRY
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
OUR 207th ISSUE
OF
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WOLDEMAR NEUFELD
View, New York City, Upper East Side, Woldemar Neufeld, Hell Gate in Summer, George Glazer Gallery
Neufeld, Woldemar, Artist
Artist description:” This is where I wheeled my children uncountable times in buggies and strollers. It was really good and satisfying on these outings with my children because I could observe the tug boats from close up. Note the East River bridges against the background.”
Woldemar Neufeld (1909 – 2002) Born of German-speaking Mennonites in Waldheim, Russia, Woldemar Neufeld immigrated to Canada in 1924, arriving with hope that the “new world” would welcome him with opportunity. At age 15 Neufeld settled in Waterloo, Ontario. Eager to erase his immigrant identity, Neufeld plunged into the Canadian way of life by rapidly learning the Pennsylvania-German dialect that was spoken by many inhabitants locally, and by learning English at school.
Neufeld’s parents were insistent that their son receive serious training in religion and German, as he would have received at a Mennonite school in Russia. Enrollment at Waterloo College (now Wilfrid Laurier University) meant a strict education given by Lutheran Seminarians – Neufeld relished the degree of seriousness with which art was taught. A visit to Homer Watson’s studio in the village of Doon, a few miles from Waterloo, proved to have a significant influence on Neufeld’s future career. Watson, then a well-known Canadian painter, insisted that, should he ever pursue formal studies, Neufeld should remain true to his own vision and style.
Upon graduation from the college school in 1930, Neufeld enjoyed a career as an independent artist, living and working in Waterloo, Toronto and Vancouver. He helped found the Art Society of Kitchener, an artist collective that still exists today. He began taking ambitious sketching trips to northern Ontario, and short visits to see his sister in the United States. During one of these visits, Neufeld decided to enroll at the Art Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, and so came to spend the rest of his career in the U.S.A.
After spending a decade chronicling the area surrounding Cleveland in his paintings, Neufeld moved to New York City in 1945. Settling into a studio on the Upper East Side, Neufeld established himself as an artist and instructor along the city’s East River. The bridges, boats and shorelines became prominent as his subjects for oils, watercolours and block prints. He devoted himself to documenting the area, working with children in settlement houses and serving as an art director.
In 1949, the artist moved to an eight-acre farm among the hills, lakes and forests of Connecticut, just 80 miles north of New York City. Here, at New Milford – with Homer Watson’s ambitious studio as his inspiration – Neufeld turned his 140-year-old stone house and barn into a home, gallery and summer art school.
New Milford proved to be a further inspiration for the maturing artist. He discovered a passion for the surrounding landscape and subject matter and he chronicled the area in numerous paintings. Delighted with the similarities between this newest home and Waterloo, his first home in North America, Woldemar Neufeld chose to settle in New Milford, the last stop on his artistic journey.
Woldemar Neufeld died on November 24 from complications of Parkinson’s disease, shortly after his 93rd birthday.
JOAN BROOKS, VICKI FEINMEL AND LAURA HUSSEY GUESSED RIGHT BEFORE 7 A.M. CARLA BELLA WAS CORRECT TOO
FROM A LOYAL READER Dominique. Better known as Nikita or The Cat. My human takes care of the other stuff. Have you not heard? Dogs have masters. Cats have staff.
CLARIFICATION WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE. WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Google Images (c) WILFRED LAURIER UNIVERSITY PERMANENT ART COLLECTION ALL IMAGES ARE SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT (C)
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Queensboro Bridge: I. From 63rd Street Pier, Manhattan.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1937. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4f4c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Herman Maril, Interior with Cat, 1972, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Jules Horelick, 1972.152
Henry Wolf, Girl with Cat, 1902, photomechanical wood engraving on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.130.192
Chuzo Tamotzu, Cats, ca. 1935-1937, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Evander Childs High School, Bronx, New York through the General Services Administration, 1975.83.89
Ted Gordon, Cat, 1969, felt-tipped pen and ink and collage on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak, 1982.114.2
Lee Hager, Cat on a Chair, n.d., color lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Internal Revenue Service through the General Services Administration , 1962.8.96
Will Barnet, Woman and Cats, 1962, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Harry W. Zichterman in memory of Joshua C. Taylor, 1981.140
Saul Steinberg, Still Life with Cat, 1966, pen and ink, ink wash, colored pencil, pencil and paper collage on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1967.102.1
No one guessed the unused prison barge that is docked across from Riker’s Island. ( A blue and white elephant that is costing the city millions a year)
CLARIFICATION WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE THE FIRST WINNER OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE. WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
EDITORIAL
Maybe after such a tough season, we need to cuddle up with our feline friends. Send us your favorite feline’s photo. Enjoy springtime in November
Judith Berdy
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Wikipedia for both THIS ISSUE COMPILED FROM THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM COLLECTION
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
WHILE ADS AIMED AT WOMEN WERE MORE DEMURE AND LESS SEDUCTIVE
You never mentioned some words like “period”
The more tulle fabric the better
An image of the product
We all need a chandelier
THERE WAS ALWAYS FREDRICK’S OF HOLLYWOOD
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR SUGGESTION TO ROOSEVLTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM WIN A SMALL TRINKET FROM THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK. WE CAN ONLY ACKNOWLEDGE 3 WINNERS EVERY DAY. THANKS, EVERYONE WHO IS NOT MENTIONED. WE APPRECIATE YOUR INTEREST
WEEKEND IMAGE
MAGNETS FOR SALE IN RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK
CLARIFICATION
WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE. WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
EDITORIAL
What a refreshing weekend this has been. Warmth and sunshine brought many of us out. I was at Coler where families were having visits with their relatives, outside in the sunshine. The island glowed in autumnal warmth.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All materials in this publication are copyrighted (c)
JUDITH BERDY
MATERIAL COPYRIGHT WIKIPEDIA, GOOGLE RIHS ARCHIVES AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (C) FUNDING BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
DISCRETIONARY FUNDING BY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS THRU NYC DYCD
What is left after training poll workers, working early voting and finally the big day on Tuesday. We do everything in bi-partisanship at the BOE. We don’t talk politics and are there to serve the voters. This year was like no other, the enthusiasm and eager workers. The voters who stood in line and thanked us for working.
THE SYSTEM WORKS
TODAY WE PASSED THE TRUMP COUNTDOWN CLOCK ON THE NYC FERRY AS THE ELECTION OF JOE BIDEN WAS ANNOUNCED.
THE VIEW THIS EVENING FROM BROOKLYN’S DOMINO PARK
From 1960………… This year-let’s all get out and Vote!
FROM STEVE BESSENOFF’S COLLECTION
A mailer from 1960.
QUALIFICATIONS TO VOTE
(WAYS TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM VOTING) INCLUDED: POLL TAX, LOYALTY OATH AND LITERACY TEST. EVEN NEW YORK HAD A LITERACY TEST CHECK OUT WHAT STATES DEMANDED OF VOTERS
HOW STATES VOTED 1860- 1956
SEE HOW STATES TURNED FROM ONE PARTY TO ANOTHER FROM 1944 TO 1956
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE TALLY SHEET FOR 1960
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds, Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD
COLLECTION OF
STEVE BESSENOFF
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C)
PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
EDITORIAL
Steve gave me this literature from Esso. It was a mailer that was sent our to customers from your local gas station.
It is shocking to see that there were poll taxes, literacy taxes and loyalty oaths in 1960. Residency requirements by state, county and election district were another way of voter supression, especially in the south.
Yes, in New York there was a literacy test!
I can provide you with a clear copy of these pages if you request.
