The partnership of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux pioneered American landscape architecture. Their work in Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Boston’s Franklin Park set new standards for outdoor spaces which some Upstate New York cities such as Buffalo sought to emulate, albeit on a reduced scale.
In 1859 Olmsted married his brother John’s widow, Mary, and adopted their children, which included John C. Olmsted. In 1870 Mary gave birth to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. fondly known as Rick, and these siblings followed in their father’s footsteps and formed the landscape architectural firm known as Olmsted Brothers in 1898, which continued many years after their patriarch’s death in 1903.
The Library of Congress is the custodian of Frederick Law Olmsted’s papers, and he is described there as a “farmer, writer, reformer, landscape architect, urban and suburban planner and conservationist.” Certainly he was a man who held a remarkable empathy for all life, and imparted this respect into all his designs.
In Rochester, citizens impressed with the success of Olmsted’s parks in Buffalo desired their own series of parks. In the late 1880s the city selected the Olmsted design which created Seneca Park, Highland Park and South Park, which was later renamed Genesee Valley Park. The city planners must have been delighted when Olmsted declared the farmland recently purchased for Genesee Valley Park was “almost ideal” for the purposed improvement into a city park.
With Governor Theodore Roosevelt in Albany’s Executive Mansion beginning the twentieth century, the citizens of New York State needed to decide the future of their statewide canal network. There was certainly a concern by that Governor about maintaining the preeminence of the Port of New York.
Although the original versions of the Erie Canal built in the previous century were extremely successful, transporting all types of commerce between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard, while enhancing the state treasury through tolls, it was beginning to wear out and needed enlargement to accommodate larger self-propelled vessels, which would dispense with draft-animals.
An actual ship canal would be an extremely large undertaking, and while this perhaps could have been accomplished at a Federal level to take advantage of the only water-level route through the Appalachian chain of mountains, it did not appear the other states in the union were interested in the proposal. The Barge Canal was an effective plan that New York State could build on its own, and was in fact a compromise between the large scale ship canal and the existing horse-drawn canal.
The New York State Barge Canal was approved as a major public works project by voters in a November 1903 referendum. The State constitution at that time provided for an elected State Engineer, and all design work was performed through that office. The construction phase ran from 1905-1918, and crossings of other transportation elements were some of the greatest obstacles the engineering staff faced.
The new canal would be, like its predecessor versions, the only price control on rail-rates east of the Mississippi River, in the days of a pure laissez faire American economy, before the existence of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The workings of a fair market were a motivating factor in the 1903 election, especially for voters on the terminal ends of the canal in New York City and Buffalo.
The onset of World War before the Barge Canal was completed upset and distorted the original premise and interfered with the designed accomplishments. Certainly railroad management did not look forward to continued competition with canal shippers on an economical waterway, which the railroads tax payments were helping build, and the numerous crossings required by the new construction was a matter of deep contention. In the Rochester area, six major rail routes would interface with the new Barge Canal, adding complications, costs and time required for completion.
Another obstacle faced by canal engineers was opposition from the citizens of Rochester. This upstate New York municipality, originally referred to as the Flour City from the numerous mills the original canal spawned, by the early twentieth century saw themselves as beyond inland navigation. The residents of what by then was the Flower City, resented the idea of prospering via what they foresaw as an unsightly and polluted ditch.
Remarkably, the opposition was spearheaded by the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, under the direction of John M. Ives, who evolved into the leading statewide anti-canal advocate. Rochesterians resolutely sought to keep the canal outside of their city limits. The canal engineers succeeded in doing so, by having the Barge Canal route stay south of the city, and using the Genesee River as a nearly three mile navigable spur into downtown. A movable gate dam was constructed near Court Street, which provided the navigational stage into the heart of the state’s third largest municipality.
This same impounding structure also allowed the main east-west route of the Barge Canal to cross the Genesee River in a slack water pool. Guard locks were built on each side of the crossing, which are only used during water level extremes in the Genesee. The Mount Morris Dam, which has mitigated seasonal periodic flooding of the Genesee River, was not completed until 1952.
This more southerly course was not without objection as well, as this route would bisect Rochester’s sylvan Genesee Valley Park. To allay these concerns, the canal engineers hired at great expense the landscape architectural firm of the late Frederick Law Olmsted, to design elegant footbridges to cross the canal. These three identical arched concrete spans are unique to Genesee Valley Park, and were constructed in order to preserve beauty and harmonize with their surroundings while maintaining the integrity of the walking trails.
The Christian Science Monitor wrote in 1912: “Genesee Valley Park is essentially pastoral, but it is pronounced a ”thing of joy and beauty” by all who visit it. It is paralleled in many respects by Franklin Park in Boston, but it has the advantage of the long stretch of the Genesee River running through it. It will be bisected by the Erie Barge Canal, which will be spanned by ornamental bridges, I hope patterned after some of those I saw in Boston. Thus the great waterway from the lakes to tidewater will be made to add beauty and interest to the park.”
Calvert Vaux’s previously designed bridges in New York’s Central Park had pleasingly arched chords, however none of them needed to cross a navigational waterway. The Barge Canal engineers were enamored with the recent advent of reinforced concrete, which allowed them to build large modern structures. An advantage which comes by building with reinforced concrete is that only one set of forms for a particular project need be constructed, from which countless identical clone structures could be cast.
The Guard locks on both sides of the Genesee River allowed the canal section through the park to be dry excavated, and the pilings and footings to be set in a convenient and efficient process. The gentle arch of the bridge chord would be surmounted by an attractive row of balusters topped by a balustrade, serving as an open parapet and enhancing the pleasing unique structure group.
The New York State Barge Canal was completed in its entirety in May of 1918, with the area in the vicinity of Genesee Valley Park being the last construction completed on the statewide route. New York State had built the canal solely with the financial support of its own citizens, with no Federal input or assistance, creating a brand new connection linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
The Empire State patriotically turned over its new transportation network to the national government in order to assist the war effort. Manpower and material shortages, caused by World War I, prevented the Genesee Valley Park pedestrian bridges from being completed until the economic restricting forces of the global conflict eased, with the graceful spans becoming serviceable in the autumn of 1920, and park grading and planting completed the following spring.Legendary canal chronicler Noble E. Whitford in his 1922 epic History of the Barge Canal of New York State wrote: “It was the park, the railroads and the flood conditions that presented the more difficult engineering problems, but none of these was really serious, once the way was cleared for action. By taking scrupulous care the engineers have not allowed the canal to spoil the beauty of the park. Ornamental bridges, both foot and highway, span its waters.”The expansion of the interstate highway system decades later would also bisect Genesee Valley Park, with I-390 spanning the Genesee River and paralleling the Barge Canal. Presently the management and operation of Genesee Valley Park has been divided between the City of Rochester and Monroe County.When the Barge Canal was conceived and built, it had an appeal for recreation possibilities, yet no one was thinking then of trails as activity infrastructure. Yet, in fact what was built is nearly perfect for what has become a statewide network of trails and a system to enjoy, both on the water and along it. The graceful trio of distinctive foot bridges remain an attractive and functional component of Genesee Valley Park, and our canal system and trail network.Herman Melville in Moby Dick wrote: “For three hundred and sixty miles, through the entire breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and most thriving villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility; by billiard-room and bar-room; through the holy-of-holies of great forests; on Roman arches over Indian rivers…flows one continual stream…
For more information and online shopping check out the website at globaltable.com
WEEKEND PHOTO
WEST WING OF METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL FEATURED IN EDWARD HOPPER’S “BLACKWELL’S ISLAND” PAINTING, 1928
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
MUGS $15- TOTE $28- LANYARD $8- ORNAMENT $20- COLOR BOOK $8- POSTCARD $2- LARGE POSTER $35 (NOT SHOWN)
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Illustrations, from above: A Real Picture Post Card view of pedestrian bridge spanning the NYS Barge Canal in Genesee Valley Park Rochester, New York; Genesee Valley Park (courtesy Library of Congress); forms and re-bar are in place for the next concrete pour in this westward view of the East Foot Bridge in South Park, Rochester on August 2, 1920 (NYS Dept. of Public Works, courtesy Erie Canal Museum); a view of three foot bridges over the Erie Canal in South Park (Genesee Valley Park) in Rochester on October 15, 1920 (NYS Dept. of Public Works, courtesy Erie Canal Museum); a view of a tugboat pulling a barge under the East foot bridge on the Erie Canal in South Park (Genesee Valley Park), looking West Rochester on August 30, 1921; and a westbound tanker Burlington-SOCONY belonging to the Standard Oil Company of New York passes through Genesee Valley Park circa 1933, with the western most footbridge and Pennsylvania RR (truss) bridge in the distance (Courtesy Auke Visser’s MOBIL Tankers & Tugs website).
Walking down Sullivan Street I noticed a new hat shop, RYAN RAMELOW HATTER, at 107 Sullivan Street. Mostly universal styled for women or men. the hats are all made in this shop. Not only are there great hat styles and the decor is great and a fun store to visit. The hatter, Ryan, is very friendly and we chatted about starting a business during the pandemic and now being very successful.
Brick walls, tin ceiling, copper pipes holding hats give a fun atmosphere to the shop.
FDNY TRAINING ON WELFARE ISLAND IN THE 1960’S. NINA LUBLIN GOT IT RIGHT.
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
MUGS $15- TOTE $28- LANYARD $8- ORNAMENT $20- COLOR BOOK $8- POSTCARD $2- LARGE POSTER $35 (NOT SHOWN)
Recently this photo was sent to me asking if I knew the location where it was taken. The photo is of staff and faculty of New York Medical College. I could not identify any of the buildings as being part of Metropolitan Hospital on Welfare Island. Dr. Logan is seated on the right side.
Myra Adele Logan (1908 – January 13, 1977) is known as the first African American female physician, surgeon, and anatomist to perform a successful open-heart surgery. Following this accomplishment, Logan focused her work on children’s heart surgery and was involved in the development of the antibiotic Aureomycin which treated bacterial, viral, and rickettsial diseases with the majority of her medical practice done at the Harlem Hospital in New York. Logan attended medical school during the pre–Civil Rights era. The majority of black female physicians in this time period were forced to attend segregated schools. Earning a medical degree as an African American woman during this time period was extremely difficult.Apart from her work as a medical professional, Logan also dedicated her time to organizations such as the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and the New York State Commission on Discrimination.[1]
Personal life Early life and education Myra Adele Logan was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1908, to Warren and Adella Hunt Logan. She was the youngest of eight children and sister to Arthur R. Logan.[2] Her mother was college-educated and involved in the suffrage and health care movements. Her father was treasurer and trustee of Tuskegee Institute and the first staff member selected by Booker T. Washington. Logan’s primary school education was conducted at Tuskegee’s Laboratory, the Children’s house. After graduating with honors from Tuskegee High School, she attended a historically black college, Atlanta University, and graduated as valedictorian of her class in 1927. She then moved to New York and attended Columbia University, where she earned her M.S. degree in psychology. She worked for the YWCA in Connecticut before opting for a career in medicine.[3] Logan was the first person to receive a four-year $10,000 Walter Gray Crump Scholarship[4] that was exclusively for aiding African-American medical students to attend New York Medical College. She graduated from medical school in 1933.[5] She was the second female African American intern at Harlem Hospital in New York and did her surgery residency there.[2][6][7]While working at Harlem Hospital, Logan met and married painter Charles Alston on April 8, 1944.[5] Alston was working on a mural project at the hospital and he featured Logan as his model for work Modern Medicine. In the oil canvas painting, Logan appears as a nurse holding a baby.[8] The project was intended to combine the fact of there being a lack of African American physicians during this time with the maternal gender role placed on women as well.[9] Alston included her alongside Dr. Louis Wright who was the first African American physician at Harlem Hospital and Louis Pasteur in this work, showcasing the advancement of Western medicine with African American and Caucasian healthcare professionals working side by side.[10]That mural has been restored and can be viewed at the Harlem Hospital Gallery.
Detail of Charles Alston’s Modern Medicine (oil on canvas) in Harlem Hospital, a mural commissioned in 1936 by the WPA. Logan was a medical intern at the hospital then and served as a model for the mural; she appears as a nurse holding a baby.
Later life Outside of her career, Logan was a renowned classical pianist. After her retirement in 1970 and later served on the New York State Workmen’s Compensation Board. On January 13, 1977, Logan died of lung cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital at the age of 68.
Medical careerSurgery Myra Adele Logan spent the majority of her career as an associate surgeon at the Harlem Hospital. She remained a surgeon past her terms completion.[11] She was also a visiting surgeon at the Sydenham Hospital, and did all this while maintaining her own private practice.[12] In 1943, Logan became the first woman to perform bypass surgery, an open-heart surgical procedure, which was the ninth of its kind in the world at the time.[12][13] This was when she began dedicating her career towards children’s heart surgery alongside developing the antibiotic Aureomycin.[2][12] In 1951, Logan was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.[12]
Antibiotic Development She worked with a team of doctors who effectively treated 25 lymphogranuloma venereum patients with the developed Aureomycin. After four days of Aureomycin treatment, the gland size of eight patients with buboes had reduced.[14] Logan published these results in the Archives of Surgery and the Journal of American Medical Surgery; she also published results for her research with Puromycin in multiple journals and archives. She also worked with fellow Harlem Hospital physician, Dr. Louis T. Wright, on antibiotic research.[14]
Breast Cancer Research In the 1960s, she dedicated her time towards researching treatments for breast cancer which led to the development of x-ray technology processes that detected the differences in tissue density more accurately; this allowed for earlier and easier detection of breast cancer as well as other types of tumors.[12]The upper Manhattan Medical Group of the Health Insurance Plan (HIP) was one of the first few group practices within the United States, and Logan helped found the practice as well as serve as the treasurer. Logan worked within NAACP‘s Health Committee, the New York State Fair Employment Practice Committee, the National Cancer Committee, and the National Medical Association Committee.[5]
Social Work[edit] Logan was committed to social issues despite her busy schedule as a surgeon. During her career, she was a member of the New York State Committee on Discrimination, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Planned Parenthood. During Governor Thomas E. Dewey‘s administration, Logan served as a member of the New York State Commission on Discrimination. She and 7 other members resigned from the commission in 1944 when Dewey shelved legislation they drafted in regards to anti-discrimination.[3][2] In 1970, upon retiring, she served on the New York State Workmen’s Compensation Board.[1]
Dr. Myra Adele Logan is the only person we can identify.
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
COME SHOP OUR BUCKET HAT COLLECTION. OUR MODEL IS EADIE WARSING
Yesterday I attended the online meeting of the Medical Archivists of New York. This is a professional group of persons working in medical archives. Most work for major hospital systems and universities in the Metrpolitan area.
Though I am not a professional medical archivist, over the years the RIHS has acquired many papers, publications and information on the subject. We have referred many inquiries to these repositories.
As the meeting progressed I discovered that we on Blackwell’s, Welfare now Rooevelt Island have a connection to most of these institutions.
The first was the Oskar Diethelm Library at NY Presbyterian. I have referred persons their in the past.
About the Oskar Diethelm Library
Founded in 1936, the Oskar Diethelm Library houses, preserves, and provides access to printed books and serials, archives and manuscripts, photographs, prints, sound and video recordings, asylum reports, and other ephemera and is part of Weill Cornell Medical College’s DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, & the Arts. The library’s rare book collection contains approximately 35,000 titles dating back to the 15th century dealing with psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, mesmerism, spiritualism, phrenology, witchcraft and related topics. World-renowned individuals and organizations are also represented in the approximately 1500 linear feet of archives, including Donald W. Winnicott, Thomas Salmon, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. By documenting the evolution of scholarly views on the mind, brain, and soul, the library is a vital national and international resource for the study of the evolution of thinking about mental health and illness. The library is part of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, & the Arts, which has a mission to support, carry out, and advise scholarship on a broad range of issues relevant to the present-day theory and practice of psychiatry. Since its inception in 1958, the Institute has sought to use in-depth studies of the past to enhance understanding of the many complex matters that surround contemporary thinking and practice regarding mental health and illness. Over the last decades, Institute faculty have made critical contributions to debates surrounding matters like de- institutionalization, the history of the mind-brain problem, stereotyping, the scientific status of psychoanalysis, and the conceptual origins of different forms of mental illness.Directed since 1996 by the scholar and psychiatrist Dr. George Makari, the Institute has branched out beyond history to foster studies at the interface of the “psy” sciences and the humanities, including explorations of the arts, medical ethics, and mental health policy. The Institute also hosts the Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar, the longest running colloquium of its type in the United States. It convenes working groups that bring together researchers in specific domains, such as the impact of psychiatry on society, a speaker series on Mental Health Policy, and various educational activities for students. With an open atmosphere that draws a mix of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, historians, ethicists, literary critics, and others, the Institute hopes to bridge studies of the past with science of the future, and connect the domains of science and the humanities, a necessity if our understanding of ourselves is to encompass the overwhelming mix of genes, neurons, brains, minds, selves, families, and societies.The library is open to the public by appointment. To work with the library collection, please contact Special Collections Librarian Nicole Topich, MLIS, at nrt4001@med.cornell.edu or (212) 746-3728
The next was the New York Academy of Medicine. This is usually the first step in historical research. The NYAM has some original mother and baby records from the Maternity Hospital on Blackwell’s Island. NYAM.ORG
Mount Sinai Hospital contains records not only from this facility but from others they have acquired, schopol of medicine. They have extensive collections and a wonderful staff dedicated to preserving history.
Other institutions including NYU, Rutgers, New York Presbyterian, SUNY Downstate told of their collections and work being done.
The featured speaker was from New York Medical College. NYMC still has a long standing affiliation with Metrpolita Hospital. Met was housed in the Octagon from 1895 to 1952. There is an extensive collection of art, collections and documents collected by an alumni and donated to the school. Hoping for a visit to Valhalla soon.
WE ARE NOW ON TIK TOK AND INSTAGRAM!
INSTAGRAM @ roosevelt_island_history
TIK TOK @ rooseveltislandhsociety CHECK OUT OUR TOUR OF BLACKWELL HOUSE ON TIC TOK
ED LITCHER RECOGNIZED COLER HOSPITAL WITH THE OCTAGON (THEN METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL TO THE SOUTH)
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
Renderings courtesy of Uri Wegman and Richard Joon Yoo
A permanent memorial in Greenwich Village honoring the lives lost to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire will finally be built. Designed by artists Richard Joon Yoo and Uri Wegman and commissioned nearly a decade ago by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, the tribute will feature the names of all 146 workers who died, cut into steel panels outside of 23-29 Washington Place, the building where the tragedy happened over 100 years ago. As first reported by the New York Times, a dedication ceremony for the new memorial is scheduled for October 11.
The design from Wegman and Yoo is inspired by the mourning ribbons that were traditionally draped on buildings during times of public grief. The main part of the memorial is a textured stainless steel ribbon, which descends from the corner of the building on the ninth floor and splits at the top of the ground floor, continuing along both sides of the building.
The names of the victims are etched into the ribbon, which hangs 12 feet above the sidewalk and is reflected by a reflective panel on street level. As visitors look up and read the names, they will see the testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses reflected in the panel.
The coalition invited the public to help create a 300-foot-long ribbon formed from individual pieces of fabric and sewn together by volunteers. The cloth ribbon’s patterns and textures will be etched onto the steel ribbon of the memorial.
The Triangle Factory Fire is one of the deadliest workplace tragedies in American history. The event occurred around 4:30 p.m. on March 25, 1911, when a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Asch Building, located on the corner of Washington Place and Greene Streets.
Most of the factory workers were poor immigrant women and girls, hired by owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who preferred to hire them because they would work for less pay than men would and were considered less likely to unionize.
The factory floor was notorious for its poor working conditions and neglectful management by Blanck and Harris, who are said to have personally designed the layout of all 280 sewing machines throughout the floor to minimize conversation and maximize production. They even fined workers for talking, singing, and taking too many breaks.
The fire, which was ignited when stray ash from a foreman’s cigarette landed on rags and cloth on the floor, quickly erupted, fueled further by grease from the sewing machines. When the women on the factory’s eighth floor tried to escape, they realized they were trapped behind the doors that Blanck and Harris kept locked throughout the workday. Factory workers leaped out of the building’s windows to their deaths to escape the flames.
Considered one of the worst workplace tragedies in American history, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire brought attention to the widespread mistreatment of laborers and poor working conditions in factories nationwide. As 6sqft previously noted, the working conditions that created the tragedy were common in factories around New York City and the country. Roughly half of the City’s garment workers died above the seventh floor, out of reach of the city’s fire hoses. Most factories sported wooden staircases and blocked exits.
In 2012, the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition organized an international competition aimed at creating a permanent memorial to honor the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire at the site of the tragic event. After reviewing nearly 180 submissions, the Coalition selected Uri Wegman and Richard Joon Yoo’s design as the winning proposal.
In 2015, New York State granted $1.5 million towards the construction of the memorial, and in January 2019, the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission approved the design. Finally, in 2021, the Public Design Commission approved and commended the memorial’s design.
For members of the coalition, the memorial, as is a recognition of the labor movement in New York City, is long overdue.
“In a city that calls itself a union town, it’s about time to have labor stories out there,” Mary Anne Trasciatti, president of the coalition and director of the labor studies program at Hofstra University, told the Times.
“There’s nothing on the landscape that tells the stories of working people as working people.”
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INTERIOR OF GOOD SAMARITAN LUTHERAN CHURCH LOCATED IN AREA NOW BETWEEN GOOD SHEPHERD AND RIVERCROSS DEMOLISHED IN THE 1970’S
THE VIEW OF “DOUBLE TAKE” FROM THE ROOF OF THE SUBWAY STATION. TO SEE MORE OF DIANA COOPER’S ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE: dianacooper.net
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
Diana Cooper’s massive new mosiac on Roosevelt Island, titled Double Take, was inspired by her experience of traveling through the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, an artificial urban enviornment, and emerging into the natrual waterways and greenery of New Jersey. When she visited the location where her mural would be, on an MTA building across from the F train subway stop, she realized how similair the experience for riders arriving to Roosevelt Island would be to her own. The visuals in her mosaic take cues from the architecture of Roosevelt Island including the Roosevelt Island tram, the FDR Memorial, and the Queensboror Bridge, as well as the East River. In her abstract peice, she combines the organic shapes and colors of Roosevelt Islan’s trees and waterways with those of the built urban enviornemnt and transit system.
Art at Amtrak in Penn Station
Photo Courtesy of Amtrak
Amtrak is continuing its celebrated Art at Amtrak public art program with two new art installations by Shoshanna Weinberger and David Rios Ferreira in New York Penn Station. Weinberg’s piece, titled Traveling Along Horizons, will cover the Amtrak 8th Avenue concourse columns with figures symbolizing marginalized bodies. It depicts the way in which civilization measures time and travel between sunrise and sunset, with stripes that signify social division imposed by race, class, and ethnicity.
Ferreira’s contribution, Get Carried Away, You Have the Right, will transform the Amtrak rotunda into a cosmic gateway with pillars of temporal beings that blur the line between abstract and figurative art. The images included in the piece, along with imagery from Amtrack’s own archive, show different maps, train cars, and ticket stubs. The focus of the creation is Indigenous and Afro-Futurist imagery. On August 1, this fourth installment of Art at Amtrak will replace Derrick Adams’ six-month installation, which will become an animation on a 160-foot-wide LED digital screen above the main concourse at Moynihan Train Hall. The two new art installations will remain on view until January 2024.
Plastic Chandeliers on Park Avenue
Have you seen the four shining chandeliers that decorate Park Avenue from 69th to 70th Street? These interior design favorites are usually constructed with crystals and candles, but artist Willie Cole chose a more relatable and layered medium: plastic. The 4 part series is made from 9,000 recycled water bottles and recycled, “found objects”, with a statement in favor of second-life materials and mindful city trash usage. Each fixture has its own name and design, inspired by the author’s personal experiences and the installation’s location. If you happen to find Liberty Lantern, you’ll notice that each bottle is filled with one image of New York’s own Lady Liberty. Willie Cole’s chandeliers will be on display through the end of the year and more of his indoor work can be viewed at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
The Book of HOV at The Brooklyn Public Library
Photo by Gregg Richards, Courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library
You can’t miss the grand, open-paged book that sits on the exterior of The Central Branch of The Brooklyn Public Library, with song lyrics from a New York rapper you’re sure to know. For all the music lovers, but especially all the Jay-Z lovers, The Book of HOV exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is a once-in-a-lifetime visiting opportunity. Curated and produced by Jay-Z’s own Roc Nation, this first-ever in-house, tribute exhibit features over 300 donated books from Jay-Z’s personal collection, never-seen-before photos and murals, as well as a full-sized replica of the recording studio where the rapper produced some of his greatest hits.
The Central Branch has even created 13 limited edition library cards, each with art from one of Jay Z’s iconic albums that you can collect and use! The exhibit is presented in chapters, so viewers are free to walk through the library and explore on their own time. The experience doesn’t interfere with the regular functions of the library, so whether you’re passing through in search of a particular book, or going only for the exhibit, curiosity and musical inspiration will be your guide!
My Neighbor’s Garden in Madison Square Park
Photo by Rashmi Gill
There’s a web-like entanglement of hand woven crochet hanging 95 feet in the air in Madison Square Park. Artist, Sheila Pepe, has created her first outdoor exhibition, My Neighbor’s Garden, which opened on June 26 and will be on view until December 10, 2023. The structure features welcoming gateways and canopies in bright tones of pinks, oranges, reds and purples. .The design, created by Pepe in close collaboration with MSPC’s horticulture team, is enchanced by vining plants such as bitter melon and morning glory, which weave around and through the crocheted constructions.
Not only is the structure optimistic, colorful, and unexpected to a park visitor, but it also makes a statement about women’s craft practice and inclusion. The sheer scale of the project required Pepe to recruit and gather small, lively groups of friends and strangers interested in crocheting together to help produce the installation. Crochet sessions with the artist will continue across the summer months in the park as part of a range of public programs.
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ARON EISENPREISS SENT US THIS VIDEO SUBWAY ADS SEE LINK BELOW TO YOUTUBE
Subway Sun” – subway etiquette by Oppy (Amelia Opdyke Jones). There’s a nice presentation by the Transit Museum and Poster House available on Youtube.
THE VIEW OF “DOUBLE TAKE” FROM THE ROOF OF THE SUBWAY STATION. TO SEE MORE OF DIANA COOPER’S ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE: dianacooper.net
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
Gladys Dixon arrived on Roosevelt Island in 1975 as a patient at Coler Hospital. For most of those years Gladys has served as a patient advocate for the residents of Coler, even after she moved to her apartment here in 1988. Today she was honored by Rev. Gerardo Ramirez and Warden Verna Fitzpatrick. Gladys was presented with a commendation from the Rt. Rv. Matthew F. Heid, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York for her service to the Church and Coler.
photo Karen Hall
Judith Berdy, a member of the Coler Community Advisory and Chair of the Coler Auxiliary remembered first meeting Gladys in the early 1980’s. Community members would join Rev. Oliver Chapin to do caroling every holiday season. Gladys, a resident there would escort us thru the wards to serenade the patients with our off-key songs.
Gladys was and always will be an advocate for Coler residents. She had lead many a meeting and listened to plans from Administration. She always had thoughtful comments and was there to make sure the best was done for those who live and work at Coler.
Thru blackouts, hurricanes and the pandemic Gladys has lead the CAB. For years Gladys was the Chair of the Council of Community Boards ( 11 hospitals, 4 nursing homes and dozens of other facilities part of NYC Health + Hospitals.). Gladys exemplifies service to the entire Roosevelt Island Community.
Judith Berdy
TO FIND OUT ABOUT VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AT COLER, CONTACT JBIRD134@AOL.COM
Good Shepherd Church was the home of Reverend Oliver Chapin from 1965 to 1975. He then moved to the newly built 510 Main Street. Rev. Chapin was the Episcopal Chaplain at Coler from the 1960’s until his retirement about 1998. Rev. Chapin and Gladys made a great team at Coler providing ministry and services to all there.
When the Island was becoming a rresidential community Oliver Chapin became Episcopal pastor of Good Shepherd.
Rev. Chapin retired after years of service there and is commemorated with a plaque in the Chapel.
THE VIEW OF “DOUBLE TAKE” FROM THE ROOF OF THE SUBWAY STATION. TO SEE MORE OF DIANA COOPER’S ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE: dianacooper.net
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM Judith Berdy Karen Hall
Many people have heard of and enjoyed Haagen-Dazs ice cream, but the story of its beginning is equally cool. A headline in JGirls+ Magazine from 2022 says it all: “Haagen-Dazs: A Jewish Story of Immigration, Entrepreneurship, and Ice Cream.” The story began with Reuben Mattus (originally Nifka Matus), born in Grodna, Poland in 1913 who arrived in New York City in 1921 with his widowed mother and older sister.
Reuben’s father Nathan had died during the First World War. They first settled in Brooklyn, where his mother joined a relative making Italian lemon ices. Reuben grew up squeezing those lemons and delivering the product by horse and buggy to local stores.
The 1930 census of Brooklyn finds him at age 17, working in an ice cream shop, and according to JGirls+ Magazine “he was traversing the city selling ice cream bars and sandwiches from a horse drawn cart. Forty years later he would achieve his dream of revolutionizing the ice cream world.”
Reuben was a manager in an ice cream factory in The Bronx according to the 1940 and 1950 census. Throughout this time, he was experimenting with ice cream recipes, as he wanted to make a better ice cream, one which featured more butterfat and less air than what was being sold in stores.
He also wanted it to sound imported and Scandanavian, so in 1960 he invented the word “Haagen-Dazs” and started his own business. He even placed a picture of Denmark on the cartons.
Even though it cost more, it was an immediate success. His wife Rose helped by hand delivering samples to delicatessens in their Jewish community. They were also marketing to college students who were more interested in natural foods during the 1960s. A humorous advertisement was printed in The Bridgeport [CT] Telegram in 1961 featuring “Miss Haagen-Dazs dressed in her native Norwegian costume.”
Although Haagen-Dazs was manufactured in The Bronx, Reuben would not list it in The Bronx phone book (it was included in the Manhattan book). He told Newsday (Nassau edition) in 1973 that “It has snob appeal. That’s why I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to let people know it comes from the Bronx.” The was the year the first store was opened, in Brooklyn. That gourmet “snob appeal” apparently worked, as there were 37 franchises by 1979.
The Daily News ran this headline that October: “Pint-sized Luxury has a Big Future: Haagen-Dazs Deserts the Bronx for National Stardom.” The business had moved to Perth Amboy, N.J., with wife Rose as business manager and daughter Doris managing the franchises. And for the first time the business began to advertise.
The 1980s brought more changes as Haagen-Dazs was sold to Pillsbury in 1983 for $70 million. Following open heart surgery in 1985, Reuben became more interested in making a lower fat product, which he called Mattus.
In 1993, the Buffalo News in 1993 featured a photo of Reuben, age 80 with his new product and the headline: “Haagen-Dazs Founder Scooping Lower Fat Product.” It was even served at President Bill Clinton’s inaugural parties. Reuben showed no signs of retiring at age 80, stating “I will retire right before I’m buried.”
Reuben died a year later, on January 27, 1994 while vacationing in Deerfield Beach, Florida. His obituary appeared all over the country, from New York to Los Angeles; from Mississippi to Chicago and Montreal. Survivors included his wife Rose, daughters Doris and Natalie, six grandchildren, and one great granddaughter.
The New York Times added that – “the products popularity in supermarkets led to a coast-to-coast string of hundreds of franchise stores, and ultimately they spread as far as Tokyo.” His gravestone in Paramus, New Jersey (from Findagrave.com) reads – “Reuben Mattus A Man of Vision. To Him Nothing was Impossible.”
Reuben’s wife Rose died in 2006. She was honored in 2023 on International Women’s Day. The General Mills website included a photo from her Brooklyn High School yearbook where Reuben wrote a love note to her in 1935.
Sharon Ann Stern
OCTOBER 2, 1945 – JULY 25, 2023
Sharon Ann Stern, age 77, of New York, New York passed away on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
Back before Cornell Tech’s campus was built on Roosevelt Island, I had “office hours” in RIVAA Gallery on Wednesdays and Fridays where Roosevelt Islanders could drop-in and learn about our campus. It was also great to have the gallery open to visitors those days. People would come in to see me, the art exhibitions – or both. One day Sharon Stern and her wonderful assistant Nicole came into the gallery. We immediately connected – her dry wit and intellect were captivating. She often wore a hat and looked just smashing. As others have pointed out, Sharon left her apartment only on Mondays and Wednesdays – when Nicole was with her. Getting ready and out was no small feat and she only trusted Nicole to help her do it. After that first meeting, Sharon would drop by the gallery almost every Wednesday and we would chat. We would rib each other in a lighthearted way – she was VERY opinionated, and I respected that. We disagreed a lot but could remain friends. Sharon was always willing to listen to my problems and complaints. Never once did she make me feel like my problems were trite compared to hers (which, of course, they were). And she usually knew just what to say – or not to say. I once told her that she missed her calling: she would have been an excellent psychologist. But her love of literature prevailed. I was in awe of Sharon’s ability to manage her staff, get a college degree, live in her own apartment, operate her wheelchair while still using the ventilator, grocery shop, and in essence do all the “stuff of life” while being a person with quadriplegia, using a ventilator. Sharon was my hero. She was brave, whip smart, tireless, fun and the best listener in the world. I will miss her.
Jane
JANE SWANSON
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS
Sharon was opinionated. A year ago she told me she didn’t believe in vaccinations and hadn’t received any in decades. As she sat in her wheelchair outside on the plaza by Rivercross, she looked to me as part of the vulnerable population that would benefit from receiving the Covid vaccine. Hers was a sad life but she wouldn’t like our saying this. Yes, she did it her way. But that was Sharon. Stubborn, proud, independent, and a survivor.
LAMP BASE BEFORE IT WAS ADOPTED BY THE RIHS. JUDY SCHNEIDER GOT IT RIGHT
THE VIEW OF “DOUBLE TAKE” FROM THE ROOF OF THE SUBWAY STATION. TO SEE MORE OF DIANA COOPER’S ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE: dianacooper.net
WE ARE NOW ON TIK TOK AND INSTAGRAM!
INSTAGRAM @ roosevelt_island_history
TIK TOK @ rooseveltislandhsociety CHECK OUT OUR TOUR OF BLACKWELL HOUSE ON TIC TOK
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
NEW YORK ALMANACK Illustrations, from above: Rueben and Rose Mattus (courtesy Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream company); Häagen-Dazs’ first store at 120 Montague Street, Brooklyn, NY (courtesy wikimedia user Fuhghettaboutit); and Reuben Mattus.
Advancing into the later stages of life, some turn their thoughts to immortality, whether through achievement, offspring, or religion. Many more focus on simply having enough dough to sustain themselves with dignity to the end. Annie Edson Taylor took aim at both goals.
In 1901, she was approaching her sixty-third birthday. She had long fended for herself, an adventurous entrepreneur in an age when most women were still locked into dependency. But life offered scant opportunity for an aging free spirit.
“If I could do something no one else in the world had ever done,” she said to herself, “I could make some money honestly and quickly.” She had lost the slim figure and light step of youth, which had allowed her to get by as a dance instructor. She sat alone at her home in Bay City, Michigan, and mulled her prospects.
“The idea came to me like a flash of light,” she remembered. “Go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”
The feat has become a cliché, but to this day only sixteen individuals have gone over — eleven survived. Even the great showman P.T. Barnum, who first thought of the stunt in 1856, never had the nerve to try it. At the dawn of the twentieth century, no one had yet dared take the plunge.
Niagara sang a siren call to daredevils. They walked across the gorge on tightropes and rode rafts and barrels through the fearsome rapids below the cataract. Niagara was nature stripped naked, a torrent where all the water of the Great Lakes heaved over a drop of more than a hundred fifty feet and crashed to the bottom in a swirl of mists and rainbows.
Growing up in a middle-class family in Auburn, New York, Anna Edson had loved to read adventure stories. At eighteen, she married David Taylor, but he died soon after the wedding. She studied to be a teacher, one of the few professions open to women, and landed a job in San Antonio, still the wild west. She was the victim of a stagecoach robbery there. The thief said if she refused to hand over her money, “I’ll blow your brains out.” Reluctant to part with her savings, she claimed to have answered, “Blow away!”
She moved to the city of New York and remade herself as a dance, physical culture and etiquette instructor. Afterward, she lived a restless, nomadic existence teaching in various cities around the country. She seemed to attract adventure, surviving an earthquake in Charleston and a fire in Chattanooga.
Now she would undertake her greatest adventure, defying death. Niagara had long attracted honeymooners, but it also drew the suicidal. More than a thousand people had ended their lives there. Taylor admitted she preferred to die rather than enter the poor house. She knew that ”it would be fame and fortune or instant death.”
She designed her barrel herself and had a cooper construct it — four and a half feet tall, built of heavy oak staves bound with ten iron hoops. She hired a carnival promoter as manager and announced that she would make the attempt in October 1901. She cut twenty-one years off her age, insisting she was forty-two.
She would take off from an island about a mile above the Falls. She climbed into the barrel with a couple of cushions for protection. A boy attached a bicycle pump to one of the narrow air holes and soon asserted that he had crammed in enough air to “last her for a week.” The holes were corked, and Annie Taylor began to speed down the channel, alone and in darkness.
The rapids above the falls were rugged enough, dropping forty feet over one precipice, flipping and turning the barrel, which had a hundred-pound anvil attached to the bottom for ballast. Rocks along the Canadian shore threatened to smash it to pieces. As she approached the precipice, Annie heard the thunder of the mighty Horseshoe Falls. The barrel seemed to hesitate, she said, then plunged.
She lived. Her manager arranged for a two-hundred-dollar appearance at the Pan-American Exposition, which was going on in nearby Buffalo (President William McKinley had been assassinated there a month earlier). She sold photos of herself with her barrel.
But her income from the spectacle soon dried up. She was no Barnum. She refused to appear in tawdry dime museums. “If she had been a beautiful girl, why we could have made thousands,” her manager said before deserting her, taking her iconic barrel with him.
Annie Taylor achieved immortality of a sort, but it offered a thin cushion as she bounced through her later years. She had a replica of the barrel made and became a familiar figure on the streets of Niagara Falls, where she sold postcard illustrations and had her picture taken with tourists.
Later, she offered the public quack electrical treatments and, as she went blind, her services as a clairvoyant. Her livelihood dwindled, and she was stunned that someone who had “done what no other woman in the world had nerve to do” should end up a pauper.
In 1921, at age eighty-three, she found herself in the county infirmary — the poor house. “If all my plans materialize,” she announced, “I shall not remain here long.” She died two months later.
Sharon Ann Stern
OCTOBER 2, 1945 – JULY 25, 2023
Sharon Ann Stern, age 77, of New York, New York passed away on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
This afternoon I learned that Sharon Stern passed away last night. She was a resident of Goldwater Hospital long before there was a Roosevelt Island. Sharon was 77 years old and she lived in an apartment in 540 Main Street since the late 1970’s. Sharon was one of a group of Goldwater residents who moved into their own apartments when the community was built.
I had met Sharon at Goldwater in the 1960’s and from then on we met occasionally and kept in touch when we visited and discussed our cats.
Sharon wrote poetry and published “Armature” in 2002*. Sharon struggled with staff to assist her and sadly she only left her home the one or two days a week when she could safely manage. She had episodes when her wheelchair failed and left her stranded. She would not travel off the island due to bad experiences.
Sharon would attend synagogue services and wrote extensively using a computer. She rejected many assistive devices to make her work easier.
A few years ago she marveled at reaching 75 years of age.
May she be a rest now and we remember her constant determination.
Sharon was opinionated. A year ago she told me she didn’t believe in vaccinations and hadn’t received any in decades. As she sat in her wheelchair outside on the plaza by Rivercross, she looked to me as part of the vulnerable population that would benefit from receiving the Covid vaccine. Hers was a sad life but she wouldn’t like our saying this. Yes, she did it her way. But that was Sharon. Stubborn, proud, independent, and a survivor.
Robin Lynn
Dear friends,
Tonight begins Tisha b’Av – the fast of the 9th of Av. We intended to send this out earlier today however we were otherwise occupied. Unfortunately, we lost a member of our Roosevelt Island family today; Sharon Stern, obm. Many of you have seen her around – Sharon had polio as a child and has been living on Roosevelt Island since she was 8 year old, first at the then Goldwater Hospital and then in her own apartment in Eastwood. Her funeral was today and her family will be sitting Shiva in Queens.
I would like to share with you the few words we shared at the funeral today:
It is quite interesting that Sharon passed away on Erev Tisha b’Av, as we enter a communal fast. Sharon reminds us very much what a community is, what the core of a community is – כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה. On the one hand, most of her life she was dependent on others, but on the other hand she was very independent. Notwithstanding her physical limitations, she always saw herself as part of the community and contributed to the community. On a personal level, I lost a reliable friend, a confidante. I knew I could say whatever was on my mind and she would never judge me. She had infinite wisdom to share on many topics and cared tremendously for myself and my family. There are many things that we strongly disagree on, yet we spoke often and openly about everything. She was always a very proud Jew, proud of her Hebrew and Yiddish language and knowledge of Torah. She always tried to fulfill the Mitzvos to the best of her ability. She developed a very deep and meaningful relationship with my son, Mendel, who I hope can share with you one day more about it. We will miss her tremendously. Nechama
A SUMMER DAY ON ONE OF THE MANY TERRACES OUTSIDE GOLDWATER HOSPITAL JAY JACOBSON AND GLORIA HERMAN GOT IT RIGHT
THE VIEW OF “DOUBLE TAKE” FROM THE ROOF OF THE SUBWAY STATION. TO SEE MORE OF DIANA COOPER’S ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE: dianacooper.net
WE ARE NOW ON TIK TOK AND INSTAGRAM!
INSTAGRAM @ roosevelt_island_history
TIK TOK @ rooseveltislandhsociety CHECK OUT OUR TOUR OF BLACKWELL HOUSE ON TIC TOK
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
Sharon Ann Stern, age 77, of New York, New York passed away on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
This afternoon I learned that Sharon Stern passed away last night. She was a resident of Goldwater Hospital long before there was a Roosevelt Island. Sharon was 77 years old and she lived in an apartment in 540 Main Street since the late 1970’s. Sharon was one of a group of Goldwater residents who moved into their own apartments when the community was built.
I had met Sharon at Goldwater in the 1960’s and from then on we met occasionally and kept in touch when we visited and discussed our cats.
Sharon wrote poetry and published “Armature” in 2002*. Sharon struggled with staff to assist her and sadly she only left her home the one or two days a week when she could safely manage. She had episodes when her wheelchair failed and left her stranded. She would not travel off the island due to bad experiences.
Sharon would attend synagogue services and wrote extensively using a computer. She rejected many assistive devices to make her work easier.
A few years ago she marveled at reaching 75 years of age.
May she be a rest now and we remember her constant determination.
POET, TUTOR Sharon Stern breathes with a respirator.Credit…James Estrin/The New York Times
A Life Changed but Not Destroyed by Polio
Barron H..Lerner, M.D.
Jan. 26, 2009
Polio may seem like a distant memory. But thousands of people still live with the effects of the disease every day. And many are only in their 60s.One of them is Sharon Stern. In 1954, at age 9, she developed the dreaded “summer plague.” Although she experienced some recovery early on, she has had no use of her four limbs ever since. Unless you happened to visit an enclave of several dozen disabled people on Roosevelt Island in New York City, you would never meet her.I first met Ms. Stern, the cousin of a friend, in the lobby of her apartment building. She had steel-gray hair with bright eyes, and was carefully wrapped into her electric wheelchair.The wheelchair contained a portable respirator, connected by a tube to a mouthpiece. Most people take breathing for granted. But while awake, Ms. Stern must continually create a seal with her lips on the mouthpiece to receive air. At 12 times a minute, 16 hours a day for more than 50 years, that is a lot of effort. (A tight mouth seal enables her to sleep safely). Ms. Stern’s polio narrative is familiar. She was a healthy girl until she developed a severe headache. A doctor performed a spinal tap on the family’s kitchen table.
Her parents took her to a Brooklyn hospital, but her paralysis spread. When she began to have trouble breathing, a sign of severe bulbar polio, she was taken by ambulance to another hospital. There she was placed into the machine alternately praised as a lifesaver or condemned as a “steel casket”: the iron lung.Except for their heads, patients were encompassed within iron lungs. Using changes in air pressure, the machines breathed for the patients, basically moving their paralyzed respiratory muscles. Portholes provided access to patients’ bodies.But the portholes were a mixed blessing. It was not uncommon for the seals to loosen, causing them to fall open; that allowed outside air to enter and stop the iron lungs from working.Unable to get air, patients could not call for help. Ms. Stern recalls several times when — probably turning blue from lack of oxygen — she finally got the attention of a passerby who fixed the machine.Some children could not be saved. When a young girl in her ward died, Ms. Stern remembers being terrified of telling her parents: she thought they would expect her to die, too. The death haunted her for years, especially when she heard the song “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball,” which the girl’s father often sang to his daughter.When it became clear that Sharon’s case would not reverse quickly, she was moved to Goldwater Hospital on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island). There she began a grueling program of physical therapy aimed at restoring her ability to walk and breathe on her own.Neither of those goals was met. One day at age 11, she realized she would never ride her bicycle again. She remembers how she cried.
But there were other goals. The philosophy of Goldwater’s polio ward and its sponsoring organization, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, was uplifting: “No matter how physically disabled we were, we could do anything in life.” By 1957 Sharon had left the iron lung, able to use less restrictive breathing devices that could be mounted on a wheelchair. Aside from an 18-month period at home, she spent her teenage years at Goldwater. The staff, busy with rehabilitation, often neglected other things. “Teenage sexuality was ignored in the hospital,” Ms. Stern told me, “although it was very much on our minds.”Nevertheless, there were high jinks. Once, someone was able to smuggle some wine onto the ward. Ms. Stern was out of the iron lung by then, but the nurse put her back in temporarily to ensure that her tipsy young patient did not stop breathing.Ms. Stern left Goldwater in 1976, moving into an apartment in a building designed for people with polio and other disabilities. That year she also earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Empire State College. She has tutored children and adults in reading and math, and written more than 1,000 poems.Still, when pressed, Ms. Stern acknowledges feeling “battered by life.” Most of her friends have died or moved away. And it is hard to find and hire aides, who must be available for her around the clock. Since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, perhaps the most public face of disability was that of Christopher Reeve. He represented the patient-activist, fighting the system and crusading for research.But most physically disabled people live quiet lives, striving for normalcy and deriving meaning and pleasure from their accomplishments. Thus, Ms. Stern shuns terms like victim, survivor and physically challenged, referring to herself not by what she cannot do but by what she does: “I’m a poet, a tutor, a client of the home care agency and an employer of my staff.” Barron H. Lerner teaches medicine and public health at Columbia University Medical Center.
“ARMATURE’ is available on line for purchase.*
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
CENTRAL NURSES RESIDENCE WHERE 475 STANDS NOW ED LITCHER AND GLORIA HERMAN GOT IT RIGHT
THE VIEW OF “DOUBLE TAKE” FROM THE ROOF OF THE SUBWAY STATION. TO SEE MORE OF DIANA COOPER’S ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE: dianacooper.net
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
