Edward Hopper, People in the Sun, 1960, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.61
In Edward Hopper’s People in the Sun, five men and women sit on a terrace beneath a vast blue sky. Stark contrasts and cool light emphasize the eerie expressions, frozen poses, and formal attire of the visitors. Hopper distilled his memories of tourist destinations in the American West to create a scene that is strangely familiar but nowhere in particular. The precisely staggered deck chairs and bands of color indicating mountains, sky, and grass create an abstracted environment that veers between a real view and a stage set, as if Hopper were replaying a silent film of a family vacation. People in the Sun suggests a crowd of tourists who feel obliged to take in a famous scenic view, but do so with little pleasure. The canvas may reflect Hopper’s discomfort in the West, where he found himself unable to paint with his usual enthusiasm when confronted by the harsh light and monumental landscapes.
CAPE COD MORNING
Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning, 1950, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.92
In Cape Cod Morning, a woman looks out a bay window, riveted by something beyond the pictorial space. She is framed by tall, dark shutters and the shaded façade of the oriel window. The brilliant sunlight on the side of the house contrasts with the blue sky, trees, and golden grass that fill the right half of the canvas. The painting tells no story; instead, the woman’s tense pose creates a sense of anxious anticipation, and the bifurcated image implies a dichotomy between her interior space and the world beyond. Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014
Edward Hopper is one of America’s best known and most time-honored artists. A realist who was internationally acclaimed during his lifetime, Hopper painted characteristic American subjects, from movie theaters and restaurants to New England lighthouses. The still pose of the figure and dramatic light and shadow in Cape Cod Morning evoke tense anticipation in an isolated place.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Commemorative Guide. Nashville, TN: Beckon Books, 2015.
RYDER’S HOUSE
Edward Hopper, Ryder’s House, 1933, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design, 1981.76
HOUSE IN ITALIAN QUARTER
Edward Hopper, House in Italian Quarter, 1923, watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 2004.30.7
WHITE RIVER AT SHARON
Edward Hopper, White River at Sharon, 1937, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.41
Hopper painted White River at Sharon in September 1937, when he and his wife were visiting the farm of friends in Vermont. The distinctive light of early autumn suffuses a landscape that at first glance seems untouched by man. But Hopper believed that evidence of the human presence in the natural world reflected the reality of contemporary life. Careful examination reveals a road in the center of the composition and a railroad embankment at the upper right.
HOPPER’S NYC STUDIO
FROM ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST:
Inside Edward Hopper’s Private Greenwich Village Studio (C)
Tour the rarely seen, perfectly preserved aerie where the artist created many of his famous works
When Edward Hopper was 31 years old, he moved into the small Greenwich Village space where he would both work and live until his death, at age 84. With a skylight providing the rich natural light he adored and both a roof and window looking out onto Washington Square Park, the setting was ideal for both his work and that of his wife, the painter Jo Hopper, who worked alongside him. While the building, part of a row of 13 Greek Revival homes lining Washington Square Park North, has since been acquired by New York University, the top-floor studio remains much as it was.
Overseen by the NYU School of Social Work, whose offices occupy the rest of the building, it is available for view by appointment.
It’s easy to feel you are seeing the space much as Hopper did. Though the bedroom and bathrooms have been converted, the studio space still houses Hopper’s handmade easel and a printing press, the spokes of which he used as a hat rack, as seen in Berenice Abbott’s 1948 photo of him in the studio. Also still visible are the large skylights that pour light into the space and the double windows looking out onto the park, as well as a portrait of Edward by Jo. If the area feels spartan, that’s much in keeping with the way Hopper lived and worked. “It’s not like he was a beatnik and having all of his buddies over and they were talking about art. He was a very introverted, very private painter,” says Jennifer Patton, executive director at the Edward Hopper House in Nyack, New York. “Obviously he painted looking out the window. There are several drawings and paintings that are of Washington Square Park, and obviously those would have been very significant in his development as an artist, just in terms of having an interesting still life right outside his front window.” Among these works are Skylights (1925) and Roofs of Washington Square (1926).
Skylights by Edward Hopper (Photo by Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
What remains clear is Hopper’s devotion to both Greenwich Village and his 3 Washington Square North home. In Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, art history professor Gail Levin says that in 1946 he was nearly evicted by NYU and was able to stay only as a result of a heated and ongoing dispute that Jo Hopper called “The Battle of Washington Square, the long struggle against New York University.” But he never left, dying in the studio in 1967. “New York provided an urban bustling growing city. He did not embrace the whole ash can movement,” says Patton. “He didn’t paint the dirty industrialized New York. He painted New York as he saw it and certainly that was during his time living in the studio.”
Students and admirers of Hopper’s work are also able to visit the Nyack, New York, home in which he was raised. Igniting his love of the water and boats, the Hudson River village was immensely influential and frequently depicted in his work.
JO AND EDWARD HOPPER
JOSEPHINE NIVISON HOPPER, AS PAINTED BY EDWARD HOPPER (LEFT) AND WITH EDWARD HOPPER (RIGHT)
BROOKLYN BRIDGE EAST TOWER AND THE FOLLOWING GOT IT RIGHT: HARA REISEN ANDY SPARBERG ALEXIS VILLEFANE CLARA BELLA LARRY PARNES
EDITORIAL
Edward Hopper’s tranquil scenes and pastoral views are a wonderful contrast to chaos in our daily lives. I suggest 40+ days of A HOPPER A DAY.”
JUDITH BERDY
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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
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Folk and Self-Taught Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists.
SAAM is one of the only major museums to clearly advocate for a diverse populist and uniquely American voice within the context of what is traditionally considered great art. Artists who are deeply engaged with personal exploration often create works of profound complexity. Recurring themes include struggle and persistence, salvation and protection, and the reshaping of personal worlds through creative expression.
THE COLLECTION
SAAM was among the first major museums to champion and collect works by self-taught artists. This aspect of SAAM’s collection spans works that emanate from folk traditions, such as quilting and woodcarving, to highly innovative works of great personal vision. It began in 1970, after the astonishing Throne of The Third Heaven of The Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, made by James Hampton, came to light in a makeshift studio not far from the museum following the artist’s death. Several donors made it possible for this iconic work, understood as a seminal representation of African American cultural and artistic heritage, to become the cornerstone of a collection that aimed to tell an ever-expanding story of America through the art of its people. Since it acquired Hampton’s “Throne,” the museum has been recognized internationally as a leader in championing the importance of works by artists who have no formal art training.
Today, SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art features more than 400 artists and 1,300 works of art. The collection is one of the most visited and widely admired of its kind.
The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly
George Widener George Widener is an ace with numbers. 28–28 plays with a connection he had at the time between the numbers of his own birthdate (2−8) and this then-girlfriend’s: 4–28, or (2 x 2)-28. Widener explains that he sees the numbers in his mind and enjoys envisioning all of their possible relationships. He called this piece a “portrait/snapshot” of the two of them at the time it was mad
DAVID BUTLER
David Butler, Nativity, ca. 1968, paint on tin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2014.61.1
David Butler fashioned a garden of pounded, cut, and painted metal forms around his Louisiana house. His sculptures fuse biblical imagery with characters from his dreams. The tiered layers, attached parts, and cut-out shapes created an animated array as wind and sunlight played across his installation. Butler, with other African Americans across the South, blended Christian beliefs with folk practices to create spaces that felt self-determined and protective in a world that was often harsh and unpredictable.
The Iceman Crucified series encapsulates some of Fasanella’s most powerful and poignant artistic themes. His father—Joe the Iceman—is cast as the crucified Christ to explore ideas of suffering and sacrifice, memory and personal growth. The series was a turning point for Fasanella; his artistic vision broke free from the confines of realism and his imagery became deeply personal.
As a child, Ralph worked alongside his father on his ice delivery route, putting in long hard days on tough streets. Iceman Crucified #4 was the final work in and pinnacle of the series. In it Fasanella encompasses old and new worlds and is simultaneously nostalgic and celebratory. The Christ figure is transformed into a heroic presence, serene and full of grace. The traditional INRI is replaced with the phrase that came to be equated with the artist himself: “Lest We Forget”—a clear message to viewers to remember who we are and where we come from. Ralph Fasanella cast his father, “Joe the Iceman,” as the crucified Christ to explore ideas of suffering and sacrifice and to portray the working man as a persevering hero. Fasanella’s parents were Italian immigrants who instilled in their son the values of work and solidarity. He became an artist who ardently championed labor and the common folk. “Lest We Forget” was Fasanella’s impassioned plea to always honor the sacrifices of our forebears.
Howard Finster, THE LORD WILL DELIVER HIS PEOPLE ACROSS JORDAN, 1976, enamel on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., 1988.74.6
Howard Finster, THE MODEL OF SUPER POWER PLAINT (FOLK ART MADE FROM OLD T.V. PARTS), 1979, assembled and painted electronic television parts, painted metal, painted stic, glitter, mirror glass, wood, cardboard, and ceramic, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.245
EDDY MUMMA
Eddy Mumma was named in honor of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christian Science, whom his parents admired. He began painting in 1969 following his wife’s premature death and at a time when his own physical health was deteriorating. His increasing interest in art may have marked a flagging faith. Around 1980, his style and output exploded. Regal, flamboyant, and colorful characters crowd within their rectangular frames, most often featuring large eyes and upraised hands. Mumma’s paintings seem to redirect a character that was once larger-than-life; as Mumma’s physical presence faded, his work came increasingly alive.
TWO SIGN KIOSKS Jay Jacobson, Vicki Feinmel came closest
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I had accomplished some of my goals from the pandemic. This weekend a friend and I voyaged to Brooklyn to have lunch “al fresco” and take multiple ferry rides to enjoy fresh air and a different view. This summer the highlights were not Paris and London but Broad Channel, Rockaway, Soundview, City Island, Greenpoint and Long Island City!
Walk around other neighborhoods and enjoy our city again. It is a mass of villages, quite different from Roosevelt Island,
Judith Berdy jbird134@aol.com
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 WONDERFUL ARCHIVES OF THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM (C)
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In 1999 the family of Reverend Oliver Chapin was donating memorabilia to the RIHS. One day his daughter pulled the Inventory report out from under a bed. This massive volume measured 17 X 22″ and was two inches thick, weighing at least 5 pounds. I loaded it in my shopping cart and hauled the treasure home. How did Rev. Chapin have this? He lived in the Central Nurses Residence when the apartments were under construction and found all kinds of treasures discarded in the trash. This was the mother load of island information.
WHAT WAS DISCOVERED
There are copies of original plans of most of the buildings existing on the island in 1970. We have plans for some of the buildings that are now gone and can examine the details of the architecture and structure. Many of the plans are for additions or remodeling of existing structures. These are examples of the contents of the inventory report.
The quality of the plans depends on the condition and our ability to get a perfect photo of this fragile paper.
You are welcome to see this book in person and discover unknown facts about our history, most of which is demolished or substantially changed.
WELFARE ISLAND BRIDGE, KNAPPEN, TIBBETTS, ABBETT ENGINEERS 1955 (?)
NORTHERN WING, NURSES HOME (FORMERLY SMALLPOX HOSPITAL) ADDITION OF THE WING, RENWICK, ASPINWALL AND OWEN, 1903. NOTE: NORTH WALL COLLAPSED IN 2006
(SOUTH WING OF) NEW YORK CITY TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES, (FORMER SMALLPOX HOSPITAL) YORK AND SAWYER , TWO DIFFERENT ARCHITECTS FOR WINGS. NOT DATED
STRECKER LABORATORY, NO DATE, F.C.WITHERS ARCHITECT
ALTERATIONS TO CENTRAL DOME FOR NEW OPERATING SUITE, CITY HOSPITAL, CHARLES B. MEYERS, ARCHITECT, NO DATE
TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE NAVE LOOKING EAST, CHAPEL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, WITHERS AND DICKSON, ARCHITECTS, NO DATE
PLAN OF BASEMENT, CHAPEL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, WITHERS AND DICKSON, NO DATE
OCTAGON BUILDING (OLD LUNATIC ASYLUM) OPERATING ROOM AND ACCESSORIES IN THE CUPOLA OF THE METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL., WILLIAM FLANAGAN, ARCHITECT, NO DATE
GOLDWATER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL*, WARD B, .S.S GOLDWATER, COMMISSIONER 1939 SOON TO BE CHRONIC DISEASE HOSPITAL
ELEVATOR STOREHOUSE BUILDING, GENERAL PLAN OF BRIDGE STAIRS AND PLATFORM, BENJAMIN LEVITAN, ARCHITECT, 1910
GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH, GEROGE A..GREIBEL, ARCHITECT, NO DATE
GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH, GEROGE A. GREIBEL, ARCHITECT, NO DATE, NOTE DIFFERENT ENTRY
ONE STORY ADDITION, SYNAGOGUE ON WELFARE ISLAND, 1929
ALTERATION AND ADDITION TO GARAGE, CITY HOME DISTRICT, WELFARE ISLAND, FOR FIRE COLLEGE AND TRAINING SCHOOL
DORMITORY FOR MALE EMPLOYEES, METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL, MITCHELL BERNSTIEN ARCHITECT. IMAGE BELOW IS OF DRAPER HALL, FEMALE STAFF HOUSING.
GAS MAIN (?) CONNECTION OUTSIDE SPORTSPARK, 250 MAIN STREET.
CLARIFICATION
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BOOK SALE NEXT SATURDAY
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EDITORIAL
It is wonderful to go thru the plans of the structures of the island. I could spend hours examining the details of the buildings. I am fascinated by the hand drawn beauty of the designs and the talents of those when imagined the architecture and those who built the structures. Judith Berdy
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)
PHOTOS FROM JUDITH BERDY COPYRIGHT RIHS/2020 (C)
MATERIAL COPYRIGHT WIKIPEDIA, GOOGLE RIHS ARCHIVES AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (C)
VISIT THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER AND SHOP AT OUR GREAT BOOK SALE SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 12 NOON TO 5 PM.
SEPTEMBER 19-20, 2020
The
160th Edition
SHIVELY SANITARY TENEMENTS
EAST RIVER HOMES
now
CHEROKEE APARTMENTS
A BUILDING WITH GREAT INTENTIONS
AS THE 19TH CENTURY became the 20th century, the plight of tuberculosis patients started influencing housing in all sorts of ways. In New York City, it took the shape of a sanitary tenement.
The idea, from Dr. Henry Shively of Presbyterian Hospital, was to create comfortable, healthy housing for poorer families with members who suffered from tuberculosis. Anne Harriman Vanderbilt (wife of William K. Vanderbilt Sr.) provided the funds, and Henry Atterbury Smith designed the four interconnected six-story buildings. Construction began in 1909 and the East River Homes opened in 1912.
Now called Cherokee Apartments, the complex occupies the space from 77th Street to 78th Street between John Jay Park and PS 158. Most of the windows are floor to ceiling and have three sashes, allowing for a lot of light and air to come in, both having been deemed crucial for TB sufferers. This also allows them to open wide out onto iron balconies, on which sleeping was encouraged. The pent eave roof was designed to hang over the balconies, protecting patients from the elements.
The floors are concrete and curve up onto the wall, eliminating corners that could trap germs and dust, and ensuring that any carpeting would be removable. The stairways in the corners of the buildings are open to the air, have two banisters (one for adults, one for kids), and were built with chairs on each landing, so that tuberculosis patients climbing to the sixth floor had convenient and comfortable places to rest if they started to have trouble breathing. Every apartment opened directly out to the stairs, giving a sense of the independence of a private house.
The rooftops and courtyards were designed to be pleasing, safe, and healthy places to aid in recovery. The stairwells were topped by story-high glazed skylights that allowed air to circulate up and down the stairs.
The originally family sized apartments have been rearranged in recent years to have fewer, larger rooms, and the facilities that made the roofs such nice places to spend time and recover have been removed, as have the skylights. The buildings never accomplished what Shively had hoped, because while 48 of the rooms were, at first, leased as a Home Hospital, most of the tenants turned out to be on the wealthier side. Poor families, for the most part, could not afford to live in the apartments.
Today, Cherokee Apartments is a housing cooperative and the building is a historic landmark. As such, the outside must be preserved, and many of the unique features from its origins as a tuberculosis sanitarium can still be seen.
MRS. WILLIAM K. VANDERBILT
Anne was also known for her philanthropy and for devoting “herself to those less fortunate”.[5] She financed the construction of the “open-stair” apartment houses, four large buildings that contained almost 400 apartments on Avenue A (now known as York Avenue) in Manhattan. The buildings were created to house tuberculosis patients. Vanderbilt donated $1,000,000 and the buildings were completed in 1910.
DR. HENRY SHIVELY
Dr. Shively’ s theories, Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, and the project site A prominent advocate of the value of home care for tuberculosis sufferers was Dr. Henry Shively, head of the Vanderbilt Clinic of Presbyterian Hospital. The Vanderbilt Clinic, home of the Philanthropic causes of William Kissam Vanderbilt, had been established to provide medical care for New York’s poor. Many of the clinic’s patients suffered from tuberculosis and the efficient treatment of the disease became one of Shively’s chief concerns.
In a 1911 article, Shively described tuberculosis as a medical problem with social ramifications, and one that had to be attacked on numerous fronts: social, architectural, and moral, as well as medical. To this end Shively proposed an architectural solution a building which could bring all the positive features of sanatorium treatment to patients in their own homes.
The Shively Sanitary Tenements (also commonly referred to as the East River Homes or the Vanderbilt Model Tenements) were designed to house tuberculosis patients and their families in a clean, sanitary environment, to provide plenty of fresh air for sick residents and to show that consumptives could remain with their families without infecting others. According to Shively, his purpose was to demonstrate and the possibilities of treatment of suitable cases of tuberculosis, in making more permanent the good results of sanatorium treatment, and in providing the protection of a hygienic home for those who are delicate and. anemic, or convalescent from other exhaustive diseases and thus especially susceptible to tuberculosis.
As a precedent for his idea, Shively cited an experiment conducted by the Swedish National Anti-Tuberculosis Association in Stockholm. Twelve families, each having one or more adult housed together under close medical and hygienic supervision. After three years, none of the children of these families had contracted tuberculosis, in sharp contrast to the normal course of the disease where children were most likely to be infected if their parents were. Through his connection with the Vanderbilt Clinic, Shively was able to convince Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt to help fund his experiment.
Anna Harriman Vanderbilt, second wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, dedicated herself to many philanthropic causes. She was concerned with the plight of New York’s poor and was active in helping unfortunate children through ·the Protestant Big Sisters. On an individual basis, she helped relocate families of consumptives to better, healthier living quarters. She was involved with the American Women’ s Association in New York and played an important role in the founding of the American Red Cross Hospital near Paris during the First World War.
For the Shively Sanitary Tenements Mrs. Vanderbilt and her husband purchased eighteen city lots on the block between East 77th and 78th Streets from York Avenue to Cherokee Place for $81,000, and gave an additional $1,000,000 towards the construction of the buildings and hoped to show that these apartments would eventually !pay for themselves and bring a fair return on the initial investment. With this in mind, the Vanderbilts established a trust to oversee their investment, with William K. Vanderbilt, Anna Harriman Vanderbilt, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., Henry r. Shively and Walter B. James (another physician associated with Presbyterian Hospital) serving as trustees. The terms of the trust provided that after expenses, one half of the income from these buildings would be used to help .poor tuberculosis victims pay for their treatment, am help support the families of those who could not work .One quarter of the income was to go to the Presbyterian Hospital to help pay the expenses of indigent patients, and. the final quarter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons for the same purpose.
The site was chosen for its proximity to the East River and its consequent abundance of fresh air. Moreover, it was open to the street on three sides with a school playground on the fourth (west) side. Numerous other service institutions were located nearby, including the Junior League Club House for working girls, a Carnegie library and the East Side Settlement House. Across Cherokee Place was John Jay Park.
HENRY ATTERBURY SMITH, ARCHITECT
Henry Atterbury Smith The architect chosen to design these model tenements was Henry Atterbury Smith (1872-1954). Having received his architectural education at Columbia University, Smith worked throughout the New York area. His early work consisted primarily of smaller, individual houses but during the early 1900s he developed his concept of the “open stair” plan for apartment buildings as a healthful and economic solution to low- and moderate-cost, multi-family dwellings. He wrote numerous articles for architectural journals promoting his ideas on multi-family housing in general, and especially on the benefits of this particular type of plan. Smith was concerned about the poor quality of most tenement buildings. He wanted to show that apartment houses constructed according to his ideas, with open courtyards and open stairs, could be built soundly, without overcrowding, for moderate expense, and could be healthful environments and thus beneficial to their residents. Smith saw this type of building as an answer for both city and suburban environments, and for many types of people and problems including the housing shortage of World War l and for employers who wanted to provide company housing.
In 1911 Smith formed the Open Stair Tenement Company to construct buildings of his design. In addition to the East River Homes, his company built the John Jay Homes across East 77th Street (demolished). In 1917- 18, under the name Open Stair Dwellings Company, Smith built more apartments on West 146th and 147th Streets in Manhattan (eXtant). He Was also responsible for several apartment buildings in other parts of the city, including Queens (No. 3418 9lst Street).
THE STORY CONTINUES……..
The continuation of the story is fascinating and good reading. To read the entire designation report from the NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION: http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1516.pdf
The system of building model homes for the disadvantaged continued with the City and Suburban Houses.
2014 program with Charles GIraudet at the NYPL branch. In the audience: Ursula Beau-seigneur, Stephen and Lenore Blank, Ron Davidson, Rick O’Connor, Arline Jacoby, Vivienne and the feet of Bobbie Slonevsky.
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy CREDITS JUDITH BERDY ATLAS OBSCURA PHOTOS FROM POPULAR SCIENCE #80 NEW YORK TIMES WIKIPEDIA Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
SHANA TOVAH
Tonight, in a few hours is the eve or our new year, Rosh Hashanah. Alone is no way to be on a day that should be celebratory with friends and family. Though I am not great for entertaining groups, this year I bought the brisket, made matzo balls, took the paperwork off the dining room table, put on a tablecloth, took out he candlesticks, have the honey ready and the food will be prepared on time. The mandatory bottle of Manichevitz is also on hand. The kitchen aromas of cooking fill the apartment.
Soon my neighbor and I will break bread (Challah) and hope for a better 5781.
May you and your family be blessed with a healthy and prosperous new year.
PLUS WIN ONE EXTRA TRINKET FOR EACH PERSON YOU IDENTIFY
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
HOW MANY PERSONS HIT A HOME RUN?
Andy Sparburg Clara Bella, Alexis Villefane were the first to identify the old stadium after renovation
This came from Jay Jacobson For reasons unknown in family lore, my Brooklyn-born and bred uncle Leo Jacobson demonstrated his “I follow my own rules !” philosophy by becoming a Yanqui fan. He had achieved enough business success that he was able to buy an on the field, right on the edge of the grass six seat box just behind third base at the Yankee Stadium, and one day, he brought my brother on me with him to the game. My brother and I had the two front row seats in the box. As game time approached, the organist began to play the Star Spangled Banner. Everyone rose and stood with a hand over heart. As we stood, a ball that had been used for infield practice rolled to a stop in front of Uncle Leo’s box. The organist was playing, and I leaned over the railing of the box to grab a great souvenir. Before I could reach down, I felt a mighty whack on the back of my nine year old head. It came from my Uncle Leo: “Nobody moves during the National Anthem!!” So I recognize your photo as that of the place where I learned a lesson from my late Uncle Leo. And that’s part of the reason our son is Daniel Leo Jacobson. Sent recently from an iPhone transmitting near my home planet.
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
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EDITORIAL
Please support the RIHS by purchasing a book or more at the kiosk this Saturday or at our table at the Farmer’s Market next Saturday.
To our Jewish subscribers, Shana Tovah.
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 Roosevelt Island Historical Society
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
On the Manhattan side of the river, the bridge is located at East 103rd Street, between Exits 14 and 15 of the FDR Drive. The bridge is accessible from the East River Greenway and a pedestrian overpass across the FDR Drive to the East River Houses apartment complex in East Harlem. The bridge connects to the southwestern corner of Wards Island and provides access to the many playing fields and scenic waterfront of Randall’s Island and Wards Island Parks.
History The first known bridge to Wards Island was a wooden drawbridge between East 114th Street in Manhattan to the northwest corner of the island. The bridge was built in 1807 to serve a cotton business run by Philip Milledolar and Bartholomew Ward and lasted until 1821, when it was destroyed by a storm.[3]
Pedestrian access to Randall’s and Ward’s Islands was established with the opening of the Triborough Bridge by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in 1936. Although plans to construct a separate pedestrian bridge to provide Manhattan residents better access to the new Wards Island Park were developed by Robert Moses in 1937, construction of the bridge did not begin until 1949. Designed by Othmar Hermann Ammann and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the footbridge was originally known as the Harlem River Pedestrian Bridge.
The Ward’s Island Bridge opened to pedestrians on May 18, 1951 and was completed at a cost of $2.1 million.[The bridge was later opened to bicycles in 1967.Although the bridge was originally painted in a red, yellow, and blue color scheme, it was repainted in sapphire blue and emerald green in 1986.
Restricting access to the bridge during the overnight hours and winter months traces back to concerns from residents of the East River Houses in the 1980s and 1990s over patients from the Manhattan State Psychiatric Center who frequently crossed the bridge into Manhattan. Tenants believed that the patients were responsible for increased levels of crime in their neighborhood.
In 1999, the New York City Department of Transportation proposed that the bridge be converted to a fixed bridge status. However, this proposal was delayed due to the clearance necessary to float construction equipment up the Harlem River for reconstruction projects associated with the Third Avenue, Willis Avenue, and 145th Street Bridges.[12]
The Wards Island Bridge underwent reconstruction between April 2010 and April 2012, which included replacement of the walkway deck, steel superstructure, and electrical and mechanical control systems. It reopened in June 2012, with the overhaul project costing $16.8 million.
OTHMAR HERMANN AMMANN
Designed by master bridge engineer Othmar Hermann Ammann (March 26, 1879 – September 22, 1965) who is remarkably responsible for more than half of the bridges that connect the City to the mainland.
In 1933, Mr. Ammann became chief engineer for the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. He guided the construction of many of New York’s signature bridges, including the George Washington Bridge, Triborough, the Henry Hudson, the Bronx-Whitestone, and the Marine Parkway bridges. He was also responsible for managing the building of the Lincoln Tunnel. In addition, he sat on the Board of Engineers in charge of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. He collaborated on some of the best-known American bridges, including the Verrazano-Narrows, the Delaware Memorial, and the Walt Whitman bridges.
“In bridge designing, the aesthetics are quite as important as engineering details. It is a crime to build an ugly bridge, ” said Swiss-born and educated civil engineer and designer Othmar Hermann Ammann who immigrated to New York City in 1904.
In 1964, Amman was awarded the National Medal of Science from President Lyndon Johnson, the first time the medal was given to a civil engineer.
A number of years ago Ammann’s daughter, Margot Durrer, told this author that the 103rd Street Bridge was his favorite.
In 2003 the Parks Department dedicated the Othmar Ammann Playground in his honor. The playground is located in the shadow of the Tri-borough Bridge on E. 124th Street between 1st/2nd Avenues in Manhattan.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Wards Island Bridge Facts Bridge ID Number: 2-24062-0 Borough: Manhattan Type: Vertical Lift Telephone: 212-369-5810 Location: FDR Drive at 103rd Street Waterway: Harlem River Miles from Mouth: 0 Channels: 1 Used by: Ped Length: 1247′ Max. Span: 312 Roadways: 0 Sidewalks: 1 – 12′ Construction Cost: $2,160,031.01 Land Cost: free Total Cost: $2,160,031.01 Date Opened: Oct. 11, 1941
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This is awful info about Pennell, although well-written. In 1998 I bought a Joseph Pennell lithograph of Atlantic City, 1885, at the Park Ave. armory show. It’s going bye bye. RL Look what just traversed the E River heading north: North River! Newly refurbished. New paint job. Single stack (versus Red Hook with stacks), but looking soooooo good!! Jay Jacobson Another informative, enlightening and uplifting view. If only the government could do something like that in these times. Your work is an asset to my brain. AC
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 NYC DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WIKIPEDIA
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Mural at Studio by Stuart Davis (c) WNYC Municipal Archives
The Works Progress Administration or WPA was launched in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide employment during the depression. Under the WPA there were new roads, dams and other public works project. It also put artists, actors, writers and musicians to work contributing their share to the cultural development of the nation.*
Artists were paid by the hour, on average, $26 a week and many were given their professional start by the WPA. On WNYC’s Forum of the Airin 1938 the actor Burgess Meredith credited the WPA with promoting new art. “Although the WPA art project was primarily designed to give employment to unemployed artists, the result has been the establishment of the beginning of a vital art movement which is unparalleled in history.”
At the time there was a lot of controversy about funding abstract works. Yet, one of the few places open to such new ideas was WNYC.
JOHN VON WICHT
In Studio C, there was a very different kind of wall panel by John Von Wicht. He was one of the many immigrant painters who worked for the WPA, and his work was a lot more geometric. The shapes seem to be simultaneously floating in space and anchored. At the time, von Wicht said he was trying to emulate the style of Bach in his work. Today the mural is at the Brooklyn Public Library, Grand Army Plaza branch. It may be difficult to think that it was created for a radio station, but if you look at it closely you can see some microphones and, of course, a record.
LOUIS SCHANKER
There’s a lot of movement in Louis Schanker’s mural. He was a very animated personality and he liked to paint big. In fact, at WNYC, a group of his fans who called themselves the Kibitzers Club used to come and watch him paint. He was an eccentric kind of guy. He ran away from home and to join the circus, where he looked after the elephants. If you look closely at this picture, there is a lute and a zither, a cello, and a harp, and the suggestion of ghostly musicians keeping them in play. Today the mural can be seen in its original location near the north elevator banks on the 25th floor of the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan.
BYRON BROWNE
Of all the artists, Byron Browne was the only one who tailored his work to fit the studio. He painted directly onto the acoustic tiles that were the soundproofing of the room. The mural (as well as the von Wicht) and some of WNYC’s Warren McArthur furniture had been used as part of 1986/87 Brooklyn Museum show The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941. Unfortunately, the mural did not return to WNYC but was moved to the city office of Management and Budget on the north side of the Municipal Building. Eventually, there were changes to those offices and the work was stored with the Art Commission of the City of New York. The mural was recently conserved and installed in the new Staten Island Courthouse.
LOUIS FERSTADT
Louis Ferstadt’s “Radio Service to the Public” in April, 1938. (Photo courtesy of the Art Commission of the City of New York/FAP-WPA Photo) The second and unfinished panel accompanying Radio Service to the Public. (Photo courtesy of the Art Commission of the City of New York/FAP-WPA Photo) The real mystery works are the two panels by Louis Ferstadt. They were never hung although originally commissioned and intended for the Director’s Office. The smaller, incomplete panel features an ear in the center, a radio announcer or operator and a girl on a swing with her legs like a phonograph needle on spinning record. The second panel shows musicians, an ear and around the outside are figures of people. It was titled “Radio Service to the Public.” Of all the murals, it is the least abstract. One might liken it to the more social realist works of the period with a political message. In this case, that radio is here to bring people together and enlighten them. Louis Ferstadt is probably better known as a comic book artist than as a muralist. Many in the world of comics and graphic novels revere him for his pioneering work in the field. We can’t help but think that the work he did for the American Communist Party paper, The Daily Worker in the 1930s, may have something to do with why the WNYC mural never got mounted, and to this day, cannot be located. Perhaps, dear reader, you know where it is?
She was a gregarious young abstract artist who was influenced by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian with whom she used to go dancing in Harlem. Later she married Jackson Pollock. Krasner worked hard and did many sketches for her WNYC assignment. They began as a series of still-lifes and gradually became more abstract. Unfortunately, she never got to complete her painting because the WPA mural project came to an end with World War II. However today, at her bequest, her estate sells sketches for the murals and donates the money to support needy young artists. Two of these reproductions can be viewed on the eighth floor stairwell landing at the WNYC and WQXR studios in Manhattan.
MAX BAUM
Max BAUM Finally, one last contribution of the WPA Federal Art Project to WNYC remains on site. It is a cast aluminum sculpture “Harpist” by Max Baum and can be viewed in New York Public Radio’s eighth floor reception area. Very little is known about Baum. A single page in the archive files at the Museum of Modern Art in New York indicates he was born August 10, 1910 and studied for four years at The École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and eight years with the sculptor Aaron J. Goodelman. He also indicated that he spent months at the Musée Bourdelle in Paris. Baum designed the marquee and bas-reliefs for the Victory Building in Toronto in 1930 but otherwise did freelance sculpture and casting between 1928 and 1935. He wrote: “I consider myself best for work at architectural sculpture, since I have always studied that and have had varied experience at actual work and commissions.”
*The WPA played a major role in WNYC’s history and ensured that the station not only stayed on the air, but grew significantly and prospered. WPA funding also underwrote drama and music programming, the rebuilding of our studios and the construction of a state-of-the-art transmitter facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
This article is based on a slideshow script originally written by former WNYC Senior Archivist Cara McCormick.
Audio courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives WNYC Collection. Thanks to MOMA Archivist Michelle Harvey for her research assistance.
HUNTER’S POINT BRANCH QUEENSBOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY ARLENE BESSENOFF AND NINA LUBLIN WERE THE FIRST TO GUESS
EDITORIAL
I seem to have become captivated by WPA artists and their works. I feel that Byron Browne and Stuart Davis are old friends by now. The background stories for the artists vary from Midwestern farm boys to immigrants from Eastern Europe. They all got a chance in the U.S. to make a career and support themselves on the $24- a week the WPA paid them.
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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
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Joseph Pennell at work in his studio at Aldephi Terrace, London, between 1910-1926, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum J0002045
Joseph Pennell
Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) was an American artist whose métier was etching and lithography, and who became one of the foremost book illustrators of his time. Judy asked me to write about him, first, because of his love for New York City. In the Preface to a collection of his etchings of New York City (New York Etchings, Dover Publications, 1980), the editor, Edward Bryant, writes, “Joseph Pennell loved New York City. For him, it was man’s greatest achievement… Here to be etched and drawn and painted was the embodiment of the modern spirit capable of creating a great age.” Pennell, Bryant continues, “compiled a remarkable record of New York City during the first quarter of the twentieth century… describing with amazing fidelity buildings and places.” But, second, Pennell was also the author of The Jew at Home, an account of his travels in Poland and Russia, a vicious attack on Jews he encountered there, illustrated with grotesque etchings of these people.
Pennell seems to have lived a nearly idyllic life. Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from Germantown Friends. (He seems to have been a Quaker.) After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts he worked etching historic landmarks and illustrating travel articles and books for American publishers. In 1884 he moved to London and there produced numerous books, both as an author and as an illustrator. Many of these were prepared in collaboration with his wife, author Elizabeth Robins Pennell. His London friends included many of the most notable creative figures of the day, including George Bernard Shaw, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Singer Sargent and his close friend James McNeill Whistler. (Pennell and his and wife wrote a famous biography of Whistler.) Pennell moved back to the United States during World War I and taught at the Art Students League of New York.
He traveled widely, producing etchings, pen-and-ink drawings and lithographs of cathedrals, plazas, street scenes, and palaces for publications such as Century, McClure’s and Harper’s. He also made panoramic views of massive construction and engineering projects, such as the Panama Canal and the locks at Niagara Falls. During World War I, he created a number of important poster designs as a part of Charles Dana Gibson’s Division of Pictorial Publicity of the Committee on Public Information, which was organized when the United States entered the war in 1917. Pennell won gold medals at the Exposition Universelle (1900), and 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He distinguished himself not only as one of America’s most talented etchers but also as a promotional genius who helped to spur the revival of printmaking and print collecting during the first two decades of the 20th century.
In the midst of all of this, he wrote and illustrated The Jew at Home: Impressions of a Summer and Autumn Spent with Him (D. Appleton: New York, 1892), a brutal attack on Polish and Russian Jews, based on his travels in Eastern Europe in 1890.
Anti-semitism in this era came in several distinct streams. One was the fear of Jewish wealth and influence, of rich and powerful Jews controlling every deed and event. Another was the dread of Jewish masses, swarming out of Russia and Poland into Western Europe and New York (a fear, note, which some in established Jewish communities in Berlin, London and New York also shared). Another stream might be termed the “casual anti-semitism” of London’s and New York’s society clubs and boardrooms.
Pennell’s book wades deep in the second stream, repulsed by Eastern nor a Jew lover,” but he labels “the Austro-Hungarian or Russian Jew as the most contemptible specimen of humanity in Europe…dreaded by the peasant…loathed by people of every religion.” The typical Polish Jewish town, he says, is “a hideous nightmare of dirt, disease, and poverty; and…all this disease and ugliness is in a large measure the outcome of their own habits and way of life.” Later of Russian Jews, he writes, “They like dirt; they like to herd together in human pigsties;…they like to make money out of the immorality of the Christian. They are simply a race of middlemen and money-changers.”
Some nuance does exist in Pennell’s views: “There is no doubt whatever that these Jews who have stood persecution for centuries have in them many elements of good which ought to be developed, which can be developed, and which are developed almost every time an individual Jew is given a chance.” If he feels that the individual Jew can rise on his own, he detests the mass wave of immigrants, clannish and self-seeking. They must not be helped. If they are, “they will ask for more, until they are strong enough to drive everybody else out of that part of the country in which they have settled…. they intensified all those characteristics which in the end have made them so odious…”
Questions. First, his wife. Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855–1936) was an American writer who grew up in Philadelphia, attending convent schools. Bored with being a proper Catholic young lady, she took up writing as a career, starting with articles in periodicals such as Atlantic Monthly. Through this she met a young artist named Joseph Pennell, who had also had to face down parental disapproval to pursue his creative calling. Elizabeth Pennell sounds remarkable, in the words of one researcher, “an adventurous, accomplished, self-assured, well-known columnist, biographer, cookbook collector, and art critic”. She wrote travelogues, mainly of European cycling voyages, and memoirs, centered on her London salon. She and her husband knew everyone worth knowing. Among her writings, her biographies included the first in almost a century of the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, one of her uncle the folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland, and one of her friend the painter Whistler.
Elizabeth Pennell was an early cycling enthusiast, particularly because it enabled city dwellers to escape to the countryside. She claimed that “there is no more healthful or more stimulating form of exercise; there is no physical pleasure greater than that of being borne along, at a good pace, over a hard, smooth road by your own exertions”. She disparaged racing (for men but especially for women), preferring long unpressured travel, and wondering if she had inadvertently “broken the record as a touring wheel-woman”.
Did she share her husband’s opinions of Jews? Did her husband’s trip reveal something new and horrible or did it merely confirm existing sentiments? Could they have lived together for so long, undertaken so much together without sharing these views? How did this fit into their lives?
What about the circles they moved in? Certainly, anti-Jewish sentiment existed widely in Britain. Opponents of the Boer War blamed “Jewish capitalists” for fomenting the war and for pushing imperialism in general. When the wave of Jews fleeing Russia broke over Britain early in the twentieth century, demands were widespread that Britain not become “the dumping ground for the scum of Europe”. The Aliens Act of 1905 sought particularly to control this immigration. A leader in The Times blamed Jews for World War I and the Bolshevik regime, calling them the greatest threat to the British Empire. The widely read Illustrated London News “featured any number of respectful pieces on Jewish life” (writes the author of Victorian Jews through British Eyes) but also ran Pennell’s anti-Semitic series during December, 1891.
All things considered, Pennell does not seem too far out of step with his time. Still, the book and its illustrations are particularly vile. These wretched, selfish people deeply, profoundly offended him. So one last question. In an era where some of my friends will no longer watch a Woody Allen movie, can we separate an artist’s work and his life? Can we enjoy Pennell’s work while aware of his anti-Semitism?
All indications are that he was a much better husband than Dickens or Hemingway, that he was not as bad as Wagner who once wrote that Jews were by definition incapable of art and probably no worse than Degas, also an anti-Semite and a staunch defender of the French court that falsely convicted Alfred Dreyfus. Caravaggio and Ben Jonson both killed men in duels or brawls. Genet was a thief, Rimbaud was a smuggler, Byron committed incest, Flaubert paid for sex with boys. So what? Some of my friends still won’t watch Manhattan.
Judy asked me to tell you about Joseph Pennell who made wonderful art of New York City (though never of Blackwell’s Island) not to brood over such intense matters.
Stephen Blank Roosevelt Island September 12, 2020
WORLD WAR I POSTER
Joseph Pennell, That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth, Buy Liberty Bonds, ca. 1917, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Barry and Melissa Vilkin, 1995.84.57
New York Bay from the Margaret by Joseph Pennell, 1857-1926, artist. dated between ca. 1922 and 1926. New York City. As Wuerth described, “In foreground housetops on Columbia Heights, middle distance Brooklyn docks, East River, Governor’s Island, lower end of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and Jersey shore on the horizon. Colours, cream, blue, Gray, rose, brown, black, orange, white and violet, on dark Gray paper.” (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Joseph Pennell, Battery Park (from Portfolio, Lithographs of New York in 1904), 1905, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.144
Henry Wolf, Joseph Pennell, The Cathedral from High Street, 1887, photomechanical wood engraving on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.130.22
Joseph Pennell, Lower Broadway, 1904, drypoint, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of DeWitt Hornor, 1978.77.6
Joseph Pennell, Nassau Street (from portfolio, Lithographs of New York in 1904), 1905, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.140
Joseph Pennell (American 1857-1926)- ”Sunset, From Williamsburg Bridge” (Wuerth 674)- etching and drypoint, 1915, edition of 100, collector stamp ‘T. F. T’
INVALUABLE.COM
Unidentified Rail Car Loaders
Joseph Pennell, Provide the Sinews of War, Buy Liberty Bonds, 1918, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.148
Summary Washington, DC. Closeup view of figures on steps leading to Lincoln Memorial, statue of Lincoln visible between Corinthian columns beyond.Contributor Names Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926, artistCreated / Published [ca. 1922]
The hall of iron, Pennsylvania Station, New York Summary Prints shows passengers in the steel-and-glass concourse of Pennsylvania Station. Contributor Names Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926, artist Created / Published [New York] 1919. Subject Headings – Pennsylvania Station (New York, N.Y.)–1910-1920 Library of Congress
Title Concourse, Grand CentralSummaryPrint shows passengers on the main concourse at Grand Central Terminal, New York, New York.Contributor NamesPennell, Joseph, 1857-1926, artistCreated / Published New York], [1919]Subject Headings- Grand Central Terminal (New York, N.Y.)–1910-1920 Library of Congress
ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL
Sketch of Elizabeth by her husband
Elizabeth was a noted writer, cook book collector and food critic among her talents.
The final string to her bow was as a cyclist. She praised cycling in general, and the ease with which it enabled city dwellers to escape to the countryside, for its fresh air and views. She claimed that “there is no more healthful or more stimulating form of exercise; there is no physical pleasure greater than that of being borne along, at a good pace, over a hard, smooth road by your own exertions”. She disparaged racing (for men but especially for women), preferring long unpressured travel, and wondering if she had inadvertently “broken the record as a touring wheel-woman”.She started off cycling in the 1870s, while she still lived in Philadelphia. On moving to London, she and her husband exchanged their Coventry Rotary tandem tricycle for a Humber model, going on to experiment with a single tricycle, a tandem bicycle, and finally a single bicycle with a step-through (“dropped”) frame. The first journey that she turned into a book was A Canterbury Pilgrimage, a homage to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as a gentle introduction to cycling in England. Over the next few years, the pair took several trips together, including another literary pilgrimage, this time on the trail of Laurence Sterne’s 1765 travel novel A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. On a later leg of this 1885 journey they “wheeled” a tandem tricycle from Florence to Rome, attracting more attention than she was comfortable with, as possibly the first female rider that the Italians had ever seen.In 1886, now each on safety bicycles, they journeyed to Eastern Europe. This was at a key time in the history of the bicycle, and, of course, in the history of women’s rights as well, and they were both intertwined, in the figure of the New Woman. Suffragists and social activists such as Susan B. Anthony and Frances Willard recognised the transformative power of the bicycle. By the time the Pennells had gone Over the Alps on a Bicycle (1898), Annie Londonderry had already become the first woman to bicycle around the world. There was a ready audience for Robins Pennell’s books, and the last-mentioned was chosen as a book of the month.
New York Yacht Club on 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues Jay Jacobson, our resident mariner guessed this one just after dawn.
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
Sometimes get get lead down the garden path, sometimes it is full of weeds. When I spotted the dark history of Joseph Pennell and his hateful anti-Semitic writings. I asked Stephen Blank to write the article and more learned history of this trait.
Both Pennells left their works to the Library of Congress. Tens of thousands from their art, writings and letters are available to the public at LOC.GOV.
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
Thanks to Stephen Blank for his contribution to this issue C McGrath, “Good Art, Bad People” (NYTimes) M Mendelsohn, “Beautiful Souls Mixed Up With Hooked Noses” (Victorian Literature and Culture) Preface to volume of P’s etchings A Cowan and R Cowan, Victorian Jews Through British Eyes (1998) FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
George Warren Fuller (December 21, 1868 – June 15, 1934) was a sanitary engineer who was also trained in bacteriology and chemistry. His career extended from 1890 to 1934 and he was responsible for important innovations in water and wastewater treatment. He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built the first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association, and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer.
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JUST UP THE RIVER
Ward’s Island WPCP plays a vital role in pollution control as part of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). The plant is the first to use conventional activated sludge for sewage treatment. The plant has undergone several upgrades such as masonry resurfacing and the installation of boiler and residual handling facilities and power supply systems since it started operating in 1937. watertechnology.net
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CURRENT VIEW AFTER MANY UPGRADES
GEORGE W. FULLER
Early life and education
George W. Fuller was born in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1868. After his primary and secondary education, he was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 16. He deferred his attendance at MIT for one year (beginning 1886) due to the death of his father. At MIT, he studied under William T. Sedgwick and completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1890. Sedgwick was able to send Fuller to Berlin, Germany to study under the chief engineer for the Berlin waterworks, Carl Piefke. During his stay in Berlin, Fuller studied bacteriology at the Hygiene Institute of the University of Berlin.
WIKIPEDIA
GEORGE W FULLER
Continued… Career After returning from Berlin, Fuller started working at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Lawrence, Massachusetts while still under the tutelage of William T. Sedgwick. While at LES, he investigated the treatment of sewage using filtration systems. His most important work was the study of filtration for potable water treatment. His early investigations were designed to increase the filtration rate for slow sand filters so that water treatment facilities could be built on smaller land footprints and, thus, be constructed more economically.
Louisville and Cincinnati filtration studies During the period 1895 to 1897, Fuller was hired by the City of Louisville, Kentucky to study water filtration processes for the purpose of purifying Ohio River water for human consumption. The focus of his investigations were on “mechanical filtration” treatment systems (also called rapid sand filtration), which used filtration rates that were 60 times higher than those of slow sand filters. Aluminum sulfate was added prior to filtration to form larger particles that would be amenable to filtration. The work in Louisville made it clear that except for the clearest upland water supplies, a sedimentation treatment step would have to be added prior to filtration to remove the bulk of the suspended particulate matter
Fuller learned from his Louisville work when he designed the investigations at Cincinnati, Ohio for the purification of Ohio River water. From 1897 to 1899, Fuller investigated mechanical filtration using the addition of aluminum sulfate followed by a sedimentation step before the final filtration process.[4] Water purification
After completing the Cincinnati filtration report, Fuller opened a single person consulting practice in New York City. One of his first assignments was from the East Jersey Water Company to design a 30 million gallon per day mechanical filtration plant at Little Falls, New Jersey. The plant was a milestone in public health protection because it incorporated all of Fuller’s findings from his research over the previous 10 years and it became the model for the design of subsequent drinking water filtration facilities.
Graph showing dramatic decrease in typhoid fever death rate after chlorination of water supplies in the U.S. Death rates for typhoid fever in the U.S. 1906–1960 On June 19, 1908, Fuller was hired by John L. Leal to design and build a chlorination system for the Jersey City, New Jersey water supply at Boonton Reservoir on the Rockaway River. Given an impossible deadline as a result of a New Jersey Chancery Court order, Fuller successfully completed the chlorination system in 99 days. John L. Leal developed the basic concept of applying chlorine in the form of a dilute solution of chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite) at fractions of a ppm. Fuller modeled his chloride of lime feed system on the aluminum sulfate feed system that he designed for the Little Falls Water Treatment Plant. The chlorination facility fed 0.2 to 0.35 ppm of chlorine to an average water flow of 40 million gallons per day from Boonton Reservoir. Fuller testified as an expert witness for the defendants, the Jersey City Water Supply Company, in both trials that resulted from a lawsuit filed by Jersey City against the water company.
The chlorination system that he designed and built was declared a success by the Special Master, William J. Magie, and was judged capable of supplying Jersey City with water that was “pure and wholesome.”[10] The success of the Boonton chlorination system was due, in no small part, to the engineering excellence of Fuller. Chlorine use exploded after the positive ruling by Justice Magie and typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases were conquered as a direct result of Fuller’s reliable engineering of the first chlorination system.[7] Sewage treatment The foundation of Fuller’s expertise in sewage treatment was laid at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Massachusetts.
He later went on to design and supervise the construction of some of the most important sewage treatment plants in the U.S. Fuller and his partner Rudolph Hering were responsible for the design of the earliest Imhoff tank sewage treatment facilities in the U.S., which were located in Chatham, New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia.[ He wrote two books that defined the state-of-the-art of sewage treatment. \
At the time of his death, an activated sludge system that he designed was being constructed on Wards Island to handle sewage flows from New York City.
TYPHOID FEVER DEATHS
DECANTATION AND STORAGE TANKS
SLUDGE VESSEL OUTWARD PROFILE
SLUDGE VESSEL SECTIONS
SLUDGE VESSEL INBOARD PROFILE AND PLANS
CONTEMPORARY VESSEL
LANDSCAPE PLAN
1929 RENDERING AND LAST WEEK FROM NYC FERRY
YOU ARE INVITED TO THE DEDICATION OF THE WARD’S ISLAND SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS
SEATING AREA BEHIND THE NEW 460 MAIN STREET NINA LUBLIN GUESSED THE WATER CONTAINERS USED FOR WEIGHT TESTING OF THE TRAM CABINS
WEEKEND PHOTO
WEST 4TH STREET SUBWAY STATION NINA LUBLIN WAS THE FIRST TO GET IT. WE HAVE HAD COMPUTER GLITCHES, SO FORGIVE ME FOR NOT MENTIONING ALL THE READERS WHO RECOGNIZED THE STATION.
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
Years ago I bid on a set of plans of the Ward’s Island Sewage Treatment Plans on E-Bay. I won the plans and they have been tucked away for ages.
As with all the architectural plans, I have featured, the artwork is amazing and the care and detail put into these utilitarian buildings is wonderful.
The story of people like George W. Fuller is interesting and his work has brought water treatment so far forward.
You are belatedly invited to the plant dedication. (You should bring your facemask). Judith Berdy
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)
PHOTOS FROM JUDITH BERDY COPYRIGHT RIHS/2020 (C)
FUNDING BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
DISCRETIONARY FUNDING BY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS THRU NYC DYCD
THESE ARE PHOTOS THAT I TOOK OVER THE YEARS OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. SOME WERE TAKEN FROM BOATS SAILING PAST THE TOWERS ONE WAS TAKEN FROM ELLIS ISLAND
FROM ELLIS ISLAND
VIEW FROM SOUTHPOINT PARK
FROM A SHIP SAILING OUT OF NEW YORK HARBOR
EDITORIAL
After 19 years we all remember exactly where we were at 9 a.m. on September 11th, 2001. Where were you?
On the following Saturday after the tragedy, a few of us put up a table by the Chapel and neighbors came over to write remembrances. I remembered returning to the candy store to get more oaktag a number of times. We put the posters in the island stores. I do not remember what happened to the posters. I do remember those we lost from the island from the city and the posters with photos all over our city.
Today we mourn over 23,742 souls in our city a number so mind boggling that I cannot comprehend a memorial for ten times the number of people who perished on 9/11.
Judith Berdy
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy CREDITS JUDITH BERDY Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
