Yesterday I was ready to visit Nick Golebiewski’s Studio Sale in the Brookly Navy Yard. I set out on the 1:24 p.m. NYC Ferry to the Yard, Upon arriving I asked for directions and realized that the Studio Sale was next Saturday, not yesterday.
After some yummy purchases at Russ and Daughter’s in Building 92 I set off to Wegman’s about 5 blocks down Flushing Avenue. Lots of great hot and cold to dine in or take out as well as a supermarket.
On my way there I noticed a lot of young folks lining up outside one of the Yard building. No idea what the occasion was.
The parking lot for off -duty NYC ferries
We forget that the Navy Yard was the major construction site of the most famous ships that served the US Navy. No longer a military facility ships are still dry docked here for repairs and maintenance.
Barge 81 while at sail.Yesterday, it was high and dry in a dry dock.
The bow of DBL81 sitting in a dry dock showing that she is only 3 feet in the dock.
The midsection of this enormous carrier high and dry.
The stern with crane on adjoining pier.
An adjoining area awaiting ships with a great view or the WIlliamsburg Bridge
The We Work building next to the dock where NY Ferry arrives. The area next to the building has lounge chairs and even a basketball hoop for those who need a break outdoors.
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On the street I saw people who had celebrated Hali. Here is a description of this springtime Hindu celebration:
What is Holi?
Holi, sometimes referred to as the “Festival of Love,” or the “Festival of New Beginnings,” is considered one of the most revered and celebrated festivals in India. On this day, people are encouraged to unite, and forget all resentments and negative feelings towards each other. Many who celebrate also consider Holi to be a day for meeting new friends, forgetting past burdens, forgiving others, and repairing broken relationships.
Who Celebrates Holi?
Holi is predominantly celebrated by millions of Hindus across India and South Asia. Although it is now also celebrated by many non-Hindus across Asia, Africa, UK, and North America.
Where is Holi Celebrated?
Originating from the Indian subcontinent, Holi is widely celebrated in India, but is observed by others throughout areas of Asia and the Western world. The religious festival has also become popular with non-Hindus in many parts of South Asia, Jamaica, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Mauritius, and Fiji.
Why is Holi Celebrated?
The Holi festival has many religious and mythological roots, as it celebrates various legends associated with the holiday. Holi celebrates the legend of Prahlad and Hiranyakshyap, the legend of Radha and Krishna, and many more.
By celebrating these various stories, Holi reassures people of the power that truth holds, since the moral of all legends is the victory of good over evil. The legend of Hiranyakshyap and Prahlad also represents the importance of extreme devotion to God. These legends help people follow a strong moral code in their everyday lives and emphasize the importance of truthfulness.
How is Holi Celebrated?
Holi celebrations begin the night before with a Holika Dahan, where people will gather, perform religious rituals by a bonfire, and pray that their internal evil be destroyed. The following morning is celebrated as Rangwali Holi, a free-for-all festival of colors, where people throw powdered dye and spray water. This celebration occurs in the open streets, parks, outdoor temples and buildings. Musical groups perform from place to place as everyone sings, dances, and enjoys the Holi traditions. People also make time to see friends and family, share gossip, and pass around Holi delicacies.
Here is the event I arrived a week early for. Join me nest Saturday at Nick Golebiewki’s Studio Sale
Dear JUDITH, I’d like to invite you to a spring-clean studio sale on Saturday, March 18 from 1-5pm in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building 280, Suite 610.
Come by for framed art, prints, daily drawings, sketches, postcards and more…
Please RSVP and I will send you a guest pass. The QR code you’ll receive is needed to enter the Brooklyn Navy Yard and pass security. The pass also includes a map of the Yard.
TOKEN BOOTH FROM MANHATTAN TRAM STATION BEING REMOVED IN 2010 RENOVATION ANDY SPARBERG, GLORIA HERMAN, 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
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
AKSHAYA PATRA
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Amelia Simmons wrote what is widely regarded as the first American cookbook, American Cookery. Through its recipes and ingredients, this work shows how a unique American diet and identity was created.The book was so popular that after its first printing in Hartford, Connecticut in 1796, and it’s second printing in Albany, NY, that same year, it remained in print for 35 years after its first publication; however, very little is known about its author.Simmons’ American Cookery used terms known to Americans, using readily available ingredients. It’s believed to be the first cookbook to include “Indian pudding,” johnnycake, and a precursor to pumpkin pie.The cookbook was the first to suggest serving cranberry with turkey, and the first to use the Dutch word “cookey.” It introduced a precursor of baking soda, starting a revolution in the making of American cakes.The book was named one of the 88 “Books That Shaped America” by the Library of Congress. Only four copies of the first printings are known to survive.Pamela Cooley has sought to solve the mystery surrounding Simmons through historical and genealogical research. Cooley shares her research and theory about the enigmatic author in a virtual program with Oneida County History Center of Utica on Wednesday, March 15th.Pamela Cooley’s interest in culinary history led her to research Amelia Simmons. Cooley has presented on Simmons in the U.S. and Canada. She is a retired archivist and also an avid historic cook who teaches open hearth, bake oven, and
Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led an extraordinary life. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age.Mastering the Bible, Latin translations, and literary works, she celebrated political events, praised warriors, and used her verse to variously lampoon, question, and assert the injustice of her enslaved condition.By doing so, she added her voice to a vibrant, multisided conversation about race, slavery, and discontent with British rule; before and after her emancipation, her verses shook up racial etiquette and used familiar forms to create bold new meanings.In a new biography, The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery & Independence (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), David Waldstreicher offers an account of Wheatley’s life and works, correcting myths, reconstructing intimate friendships, and deepening our understanding of her verse and the revolutionary era.The Massachusetts Historical Society a program with David Waldstreicher, in conversation with Kellie Carter Jackson of Wellesley College, on Monday, March 13th.This program will take place from 6 to 7 pm, and will be held both in person at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and virtually. Admission is $10 for in person attendance, free for virtual. For more information or to make a reservation, click here.David Waldstreicher teaches history at the City University of New York Graduate Center and is the author of Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification and Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution. He has written for The New York Times Book Review, Boston Review, and The Atlantic, among other publications.
Book Purchases made through this Amazon link support the New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
Assassin in Utopia: The Oneida Community & The Garfield Assassination
The new book An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President’s Murder (Pegasus Crime, 2023) by Susan Wels is a true crime odyssey that explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the reader from a free-love community in Upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield.From 1848 to 1881, a small utopian colony in Upstate New York — the Oneida Community — was known for its shocking sexual practices, from open marriage and free love to the sexual training of young boys by older women. And in 1881, a one-time member of the Oneida Community — Charles Julius Guiteau — assassinated President James Garfield in a brutal crime that shook America to its core.Thousands came by trains and carriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of woodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds of Ayrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at the people who lived in this place —especially the women, with their queer cropped hair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of this strange outpost worked and slept together — without sin, they claimed.An Assassin in Utopia is the first book that weaves together these explosive stories in a tale of utopian experiments, political machinations, and murder. This deeply researched narrative tells the true, interlocking stories of the Oneida Community and its radical founder, John Humphrey Noyes; his idol, the eccentric newspaper publisher Horace Greeley (founder of the New Yorker and the New York Tribune); and the gloomy, indecisive President James Garfield — who was assassinated after his first six months in office.Susan Wels is a bestselling author, historian, and journalist. Her Titanic: Legacy of the World’s Greatest Ocean Liner spent fourteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list; the book was also a Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today bestseller. Her work has received press coverage in PEOPLE, Smithsonian’s Air & Space Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the San Jose Mercury-News among many other journals. Wels’s work as a historian includes her acclaimed San Francisco: Arts for the City as well as her research on the role of women at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Wels and her husband divide their time between the San Francisco Bay Area and their farm in the south of Chile.
New Book On New York’s Women Legislators 1919-1992
The new book Ladies Day at the Capitol: New York’s Women Legislators 1919-1992 (SUNY press, 2022) by Lauren Kozakiewicz integrates for the first time the history of New York’s women lawmakers with the larger story of New York State politics.Through extensive research and interviews, Kozakiewicz documents New York women’s actions as elected officials between 1919 and 1992 and explores how gendered ideas affected their careers and ability to represent women’s voices in government. Ladies’ Day at the Capitol offers a general framework for understanding the women’s legislative careers over time while also providing a deeper look at key lawmakers’ specific histories. The study broadens out to include chapters on creating representative organizations of women legislators and women’s efforts to champion specific issues.Lauren Kozakiewicz holds a combined appointment as Lecturer in the History Department at the University at Albany, SUNY, and liaison for Albany’s University in the High School Program where she collaborates with New York State high schools to develop advanced history offerings for university credit.Her research focuses on women politicians and political culture generally in early twentieth century America, giving special attention to the world of New York State politics. She has published in the journal New York History and in New York Archives Magazine. Her teaching experience includes courses on women’s history, New York history, and political & reform movements in America.
The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
Sarah and Angelina Grimke are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives.In The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (Liveright, 2022), Kerri Greenidge presents a parallel narrative, shifting the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepening our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality.Greenidge’s narrative centers on the Black women of the family, from the brilliant intellectual and reformer Charlotte Forten, to Angelina Weld Grimke, who channeled the family’s past into pathbreaking modernist literature during the Harlem Renaissance. In a grand saga that spans the eighteenth century to the twentieth and stretches from Boston and beyond, Greenidge reclaims the Black Grimkes as complex, often conflicted individuals shadowed by their origins.
WELFARE ISLAND BRIDGE WITH FDNY TRAINING CENTER ON THE NORTH AND CANCER HOSPITAL ON THE SOUTH. BEFORE MAIN STREET, CARS EXITED AND ENTERED THE ISLAND VIA A ROAD ON THE WEST SIDE OF ISLAND.
(YES, WE USED THIS PHOTO BEFORE)
(YES, WE USED THIS PHOTO BEFORE)
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
NEW YORK ALMANACK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
10 Most Beautiful And Best Libraries In NYC To Spend A Day At
Looking for a new place to snuggle up with your book and admire some architecture? Try one of these beautiful NYC libraries
Believe it or not, NYC’s libraries are some of the most prestigious around the country (and world for that matter). Whether you’re looking for somewhere to curl up with your new book, or want somewhere lesser known to admire architecture, there’s plenty of places to do it! From the famous New York Public Library in Midtown to lesser known (but equally beautiful) spots, you’re sure to be in awe when you see the detailing and book collections these places have to offer. Without further ado, these are the best and most gorgeous libraries in NYC to visit!
The most notable library in NYC is none other than the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library in Midtown. Complete with dozens of stunning chandeliers and millions of works ready to be explored, why wouldn’t you want to spend an afternoon in the iconic Rose Reading Room (pictured above)? Stop by and see their collection of items that aim to “inspire and empower visitors to discover, learn, and create new knowledge—today and in the years ahead.”
Where: 5th Ave and 42nd St
What was once the private library of John Pierpont Morgan (yes, thee JP Morgan), this architectural beauty was gifted to the city in 1910 and then renovated once again in 2006. It’s full of a collection of jaw-dropping historical works, including Beethoven music, an early copy of Frankenstein, and more. When you’re not thumbing through historical artifacts in their naturally lit exhibition space, you can visit Gilder Lehrman Hall for occasional concerts and recitals.
Where: 225 Madison Ave
Central Library is arguably Brooklyn’s most notable library, and its beautiful architecture is meant to resemble an open book. The 1941 Art Deco building is perched in front of Grand Army Plaza and hosts many events and concerts in their outdoor space. The sweeping grand lobby is something to behold and their vast contemporary and historical collections are worth your hours of browsing.
Where: 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Jefferson Market Library has been a Greenwich Village staple for years now, and why wouldn’t it be when it looks like a Medieval castle? Between the stain glass windows, carved doorways, public garden, and more, it’s jaw dropping both inside and outside. It originally being a courthouse adds to the mystique, alongside its Adult Reading Room, first-floor Children’s Room, and beautiful brick-arched basement called the Reference Room.
Where: 425 Avenue of the Americas
The New York Academy of Medicine has been open to the public for over 140 years now, and it’s home to one of the most significant historical libraries in medicine and public health in the world. We’re talking about all sorts of health documents and artifacts that tell the history of health in our country: from journals on small pox to ancient medicine recipes. They also host many health-focused events you can attend!
Where: 1216 5th Ave
Located inside the Lincoln Center, this library lies more on the performing arts side than the book side, but it’s still a great visit! It’s home to the Billy Rose Theatre Collection (one of the world’s most extensive research collections in the fields of theatre, film, dance, music, and recorded sound), and they constantly host events, panels, and exhibitions about performance art.
Where: 40 Lincoln Center Plaza (entrance at 111 Amsterdam between 64th St and 65th St)
As the name suggests, Poets House is a poet’s dream, and a great place to come for inspiration. It sits right near Rockefeller Park and boasts lovely views of the Hudson River (that will surely get the creative juices flowing). Aspiring poets and writers frequent this hangout in order to browse their 70,000+ volumes of literature and write works of their own. They also offer tons of programs for children and adults alike who are interested in diving into the world of poetry.
Where: 10 River Terrace
Another Upper Easter Side library is the New York Society Library which resides in a townhouse that first opened in 1754. With over 300,000 volumes of info ready to be read, you can hangout in their cozy reading rooms free of charge, but you have to be a member of the society to check out any books. They also host free exhibits and events that are open to all!
Where: 53 E 79th St
Butler Library resides on Columbia University’s Morningside campus, and from the outside, it looks like a European facade. Once you acquire a guest pass, you can find tons of resources and books in their collection to help you cozy out in their space. With over 2 million books shelved in the maze of stacks, you’ll be in awe as you check out inscriptions from writers and philosophers like Homer and Dante on the walls. This gorgeous library just oozes Ivy League.
Where: 535 W 114th St
The all-new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library just received a major renovation that now ranks it as one of our favorites. The library offers tons of services and resources, including unlimited browsing, seating, computer access, a free publicly accessible rooftop terrace, and more. Plus, this summer will see the return of in-person programs and classes as well! There’s also a Thomas Yoseloff Business Center, with additional research materials and services!
GUY LUDWIG, DANIELLE SHUR, ANDY SPARBERG, NINA LUBLIN, GLORIA HERMAN,ALEXIS VILLAFANE, ARON EISENPREISS, ARLENE BESSENOFF & NINA LUBLIN ALL TOOK THE EXPRES RIDE TO A CORRECT ANSWER!
THANK YOU NASRI MUNFAH FOR THE WONDERFUL PROGRAM
“THE CHALLENGES OF BUILDING THE LIRR GRAND CENTRAL MADISON TUNNEL.”
This was an excellent presentation on a project that started in the 1970’s and is just completed.
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
SECRET NYC
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Queens of the Air: American Women Aviation Pioneers
Within the holdings of the National Archives, you will find many resources documenting the history and early days of aviation. Among these records include the stories and flights of American women aviation pioneers, captured by newsreel footage and World War I era photographs.
Within textual material for an item titled Aviation, Historical, Since 1919 you can find Ruth Elder, the first woman to attempt a transatlantic flight.
What may be her greatest feat however, took place on November 19, 1916, when she broke the existing cross-America flight air speed record of 452 miles set by Victor Carlstrom by flying nonstop from Chicago to New York State, a distance of 590 miles.
The next day she flew on to New York City. Flying over Manhattan, her fuel cut out, but she glided to a safe landing on Governors Island and was met by United States Army Captain Henry “Hap” Arnold (who changed her spark plugs in the Curtiss pusher), who would one day become Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces. President Woodrow Wilson attended a dinner held in her honor on December 2, 1916.
Other American women aviation pioneers include Bessie Coleman, the first African American and Native American woman pilot, and known for her daring stunt tricks in the air.
In 1922, Coleman became the first African American woman to complete a public flight and audiences were thrilled with her loop-the-loop and Figure 8 tricks in her plane. She also became known for giving flight lessons and inspiring both Africans Americans and women to fly planes.
Willa Beatrice Brown was an aviator, flight instructor, officer, and civil rights activist, who created a path for thousands of black men and women to become pilots.
Brown’s efforts to establish a training school for African American Air Force cadets led to the creation of the Army Training facility at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1941.
Katherine Stinson became one of the first women in the United States to earn a pilot’s license on July 24, 1912, at the age of 21. After earning her license, Stinson and her family founded the Stinson Aircraft Company, and the Stinson School of Flying, in San Antonio, Texas.
In 1918, Stinson became the first woman commissioned as a mail pilot for the Post Office Department. After working for the Post Office, Stinson applied to be a volunteer pilot for the army during World War I, but was rejected twice due to her gender.
THE FORMER CITI BUILDING BEING STRIPPED OF ITS LOGO TO BECOME ALTICE
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
NEW YORK ALMANACK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Eighth Avenue and 56th Street today looks nothing like it did when painter Lucille Blanch captured this otherwise ordinary block south of Columbus Circle 93 years ago.
Today, modern office buildings and apartment towers obscure the view of the Argonaut Building—the castle-like white structure that still stands down the block on Broadway and 57th Street. The enormous billboards are long gone, too. The church below it, the flamboyant Broadway Tabernacle, met the wrecking ball in the 1970s. The tenement with the empty storefront next to the tire shop has also disappeared, replaced by a McDonald’s. This stretch of West Midtown in the 1920s was known as the automobile showroom district, which explains the tire store and what look like car dealerships on the left-hand corner and in the middle of the block.
Lucile Blanch made a living as a painter, departing her Minnesota hometown to study at the Art Students League on West 57th Street on scholarship. She then became involved with the Fourteenth Street School, a group of artists with a social realist bent.
In 1930, she would have been 35 years old. Why she chose this corner to paint remains a mystery. But her depiction of the bright, colorful cityscape dwarfing the small, low-key residents might be saying something about the power of the urban environment over its residents caught in the toll of the Depression.
(Hat tip to Village Preservation’s Off the Grid blog, which included this painting recently in a post about unheralded female artists living and/or working South of Union Square.)
STAINED GLASS WINDOWS IN THE NARTHRAX OF CHAPEL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD GLORIA HERMAN GOT IT!
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
Shop girls, down and out men, lone pedestrians on the way to the elevated train—from the 1930s to the 1980s, Isabel Bishop observed these men and women from her Union Square artist’s studio, painting them in soft tones that reveal their humanity and fragility.
Born in 1902 in Cincinnati, Bishop moved to Manhattan at age 16 to attend the New York School of Applied Design for Women. She then took classes at the Art Students League, developing her talents as a printmaker and painter.
Bishop married in 1934 and moved to Riverdale. But she kept her studio first at Nine West 14th Street and then another at 857 Broadway. The Union Square area in those pre- and postwar decades was home to lower-end department stores, offices, and cheap entertainment venues.
And of course, there was the park itself, a gathering place for everyone from soap-box agitators to workers on their lunch hour to derelict men with no where else to go.
The subject matter right outside her studio suited Bishop perfectly.
“It was in New York’s pulsating environment that Bishop combined her admiration for the old masters with a contemporary taste for urban realism,” states the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
“With her discerning eye, she portrayed ordinary people in an extraordinary manner, often monumentalizing her figures within spaces that barely created context or indicated a location.”
“She chose average models from the streets of Manhattan and often rendered them in a state of physical activity—a sharp departure from the idealized, passive nudes of previous traditions.”
[“Fifteenth Street and Sixth Avenue,” 1930]
Bishop focused many of her paintings on women—the otherwise ordinary women who passed through Union Square, coming in and out of offices or catching a train. Neither mothers nor sex symbols, they “exist for themselves,” as one critic put it.
“On the street corner, in the automat, in the subway and on park benches in fine weather, Miss Bishop proved herself a perceptive observer,” wrote the New York Times in her obituary. “For young women in the big city who were as yet unmarked by life, she had a particular feeling.”
[“Fourteenth Street,” 1932]
As time went on, Bishop’s style seemed to become more muted, with figures of women in what looks like perpetual motion—perhaps a comment on the rise of women in American society.
Bishop kept her Union Square studio until 1984; she died in 1988. This self-portrait was done in 1927, when she was just 25.
She isn’t as well-known as she should be, but her amber-hued men and women caught in ordinary, fleeting moments speak to the anonymity and motion of urban life in the 20th century.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The other day we featured a photo of the island’s Holy Spirit Chapel with an adjoining pergola. While examining it, I was curious about the photographer Shirley Carter Burden. That is a familiar name. Check out his famous family history below.
Plaque on side of brick building: Erected 1906 for D.P.C., Robert W. Hebberd, Commissioner; etc.
Plaque on rusticated wall: Pathological Laboratory of Metropolitan Hospital, completed in 1910. William J. Gaynor, Mayor
Side of stone 3-story building with turrets and balustrade, pointed arched windows. of Smallpox Hospital
Wall of above building with turrets and pointed arched windows, attached to brick building with coins and bays. Smallpox Hospital
Smallpox Hospital: Closer view of above photograph. 2nd story balcony over door.
Close-up of gnarled branches of large tree alongside of building fire escape.
Fire escape of unidentified stone building.
Fire escape of unidentified brick building, looking SE. Queensboro Bridge in background, street lamp foreground.
Side view of small rusticated building. (A chapel?) Looking West, huge apartment building under construction. Ramp foreground.
Large tree trunk in foreground, wooden stool at foot of tree. Blurry church door in background.
Rectangular pergola in foreground; chapel in background.
Stained glass window seen from exterior.
Smallpox Hospital: 3 1/2 story stone building. Arched windows, 2nd story balcony with columns.
Looking SW across East River. Posted on street lamp: One-Way arrow and To Bridge arrow. Manhattan skyline in background.
SHIRLEY CARTER BURDEN
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
FROM WIKIPEDIA
Shirley Carter Burden (December 9, 1908 – June 3, 1989) was an American photographer,[1][2] author of picture essays on racism, Catholicism, and history of place.[3][4] He served on advisory committees of museums, including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, and was the Photography Committee chairman at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and of Aperture,[5] which named the Burden Gallery (New York) in his honor.
He was at the Browning School in New York City until 1926, but did not go on to college or university education.[8]
Career
Beginning in 1924, Burden assisted at Pathé News. In 1926, he and his cousin filmed an Ontario Indian tribe for their The Silent Enemy, and from 1927 held a minor position at Paramount Studios. A 1929 meeting with Edward Steichen inspired his interest in photography and later gained his mentorship. He sought better motion picture prospects in California and Hollywood[9] and from 1929 to 1934 used his contact Merian C. Cooper to gain associate producer work, most significantly at RKO on Academy Award nominated “She“.
Commercial career
During World War 2 Burden established Tradefilms in 1942, successfully producing training films which were then in demand from the US Navy, the Office of Education, and Lockheed Aircraft. This business was unsustainable postwar and Burden and Tradefilms partner Todd Walker opened a photography studio in Beverly Hills, California, in 1946, producing advertising and architectural photography for magazines Architectural Forum, House and Garden, Arts and Architecture.
Fine art career
Dissatisfied with commercial photography, and having embraced Roman Catholicism, Burden decided on a more fulfilling fine art career, encouraged by Minor White[10] whom he met in 1952. The friendship developed into his patronage of White’s Aperture magazine. He assisted Edward Steichen in gathering photography for, and subsequently contributing images to, MoMA‘s highly successful, international travelling Family of Man (1955), working on this also with Dorothea Lange whom he befriended.
These contacts and experience launched a successful fine art photography career.; his photo-essay on the all-but-abandoned Ellis Island,[11] was exhibited under the auspices of the City of New York, and an invitation to exhibit his essay on the Weehawken ferry at MoMA in Diogenes With a Camera IV in 1958, curated by Steichen, who encouraged Burden to photograph Trappist monks at the abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Kentucky (God Is My Life).[12] Travel to Lourdes in 1960 resulted in Behold Thy Mother, published by Doubleday in 1965, and notoriety continued with the well publicised I Wonder Why, which documented racism experienced by a young black girl.[13]
He continued with his photo essays (on Japan, and his ancestors, the Vanderbilts[14]) and he repaid his success by chairing or advising a range of photography organisations, and teaching (1978–81, at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.).
Personal life
In 1934, Burden married Flobelle Fairbanks, an actress and niece of actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr.[15] Together, they were the parents of two children, a daughter and a son:[6]
Margaret Florence (1936–2019), who married Daniel Childs.[16]
After the death of his first wife Flobelle on January 5, 1969,[16] Burden married Julietta Valverde Lyon in 1971.[8][19]
Burden died June 3, 1989 above Teterboro Airport, on a Los Angeles to New York flight.[6] His grandson, S. Carter Burden III, is the founder of the managed web hosting provider Logicworks.[20] His granddaughter, Constance Childs, married celebrity chef and Food Network host David Rosengarten.[21]
Legacy
He gifted or exchanged, in memory of his first wife Flobelle, large numbers of photographs from his generous and eclectic collection of modernist works to MoMA, The Centre for Photography and other institutions. In 1989, 5 years after Aperture moved headquarters to a five-story brownstone at 20 East 23rd Street in New York,[22] the building’s second floor was devoted to the Burden Gallery, in recognition of Burden’s longtime support.[6]The Burden Professorship in Photography at Harvard University in 1999 was established posthumously by his family.
THREE VISITORS AT THE LGHTHOUSE IN THE 1950’S PLEASE NOTE: NO SEAWALL PEDESTRIANS BEWARE! GLORIA HERMAN AND ALEXIS VILLAFANE 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
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
NEW YORK CITY MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES WIKIPEDIA
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
SAVE THE DATE-TUESDAY, MARCH 7TH, IN PERSON PRESENTATION NO RESERVATIONS REQUIRED ALL ARE WELCOME
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND,MARCH 4-5, 2023
ISSUE 930
REFORMING WOMAN OF
BLACKWELL’S ISLAND #7
MARY BELLE HARRIS
Superintendent of Women
and
Deputy Warden of the Workhouse
on
Blackwell’s Island
NYC CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT
JUDITH C. REVEAL
Harris, Mary Belle (1874–1957)
American prison administrator. Born on August 19, 1874, in Factoryville, Pennsylvania; died on February 22, 1957, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; the only daughter of John Howard and Mary Elizabeth (Mace) Harris; graduated from Bucknell University, A.B. in music, 1893, A.M. in Latin, 1894; earned Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indo-European comparative philology from the University of Chicago, 1900.
Mary Belle Harris was born in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, the oldest of three children. Her father John Howard was a Baptist minister and president of Bucknell University from 1889 to 1919. Her mother Mary Mace Harris died when Mary Belle was only six. John Howard married Lucy Adelaide Bailey —a close family friend—a year later. Their family grew by six sons as a result of this second marriage, and Bailey was a much-loved stepmother to Mary Belle. Harris and her brothers received an education at the Keystone Academy, a Baptist secondary school founded by her father.
Harris did not actually start in the career for which she became famous until she was nearly 40. She worked as a scholar and teacher after earning an A.B. in music, an A.M. in Latin at Bucknell University, and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indo-European comparative philology from the University of Chicago. Harris taught Latin in Chicago and Baltimore between 1900 and 1910. In Baltimore, she studied archaeology and numismatics at Johns Hopkins University. In 1912, she traveled to Europe to teach at the American Classical School in Rome.
When Harris returned to America in 1914, a close friend from her years at the University of Chicago, Katharine Bement Davis— now commissioner of corrections in New York City—offered Harris the post of superintendent of women and deputy warden of the Workhouse on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island), a strip of land in the East River, between Manhattan and Queens. Harris, who had no job prospects, accepted the post, even though she lacked experience in corrections administration. The Workhouse, severely overcrowded with a daily population of 700 women, was known for its grim atmosphere. Harris, who believed that prisons should teach employable skills and rehabilitate, dedicated herself to prison reform. She created a library and permitted card playing and knitting in the women’s cells in order to alleviate boredom; she also facilitated daily outdoor exercise by fencing off a section of the prison yard. She quickly earned a reputation for success based on common sense.
Harris remained at the Workhouse for three years. In 1917, the defeat of reform mayor John Mitchel forced her resignation, and, in February of 1918, she assumed the superintendent’s position at the State Reformatory for Women in Clinton, New Jersey. She continued her reforms, which included a system of self-government in the cottages and an Exit Club for women preparing for parole.
In September of 1918, Harris was granted a leave of absence to join the War Department’s Commission on Training Camp Activities. She became assistant director of the Section on Reformatories and Detention Houses, where she was responsible for dealing with women arrested in camp areas. She set up detention homes and health facilities in various cities in the South, including Florida, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.
In May of 1919, Harris became superintendent of the State Home for Girls in Trenton, New Jersey, a juvenile institution notorious for its dangerous inmates. Although plagued with continual problems, Harris was successful in establishing a system of self-government, then resigned from the State Home in 1924. The following year, on March 12, 1925, Harris was sworn in as the first superintendent of the Federal Industrial Institution for Women, a new establishment to be built at Alderson, West Virginia. She worked with the architects, overseeing all aspects of construction to ensure that Alderson would be a place of education for the inmates. It opened November 24, 1928, and, under Harris’ direction, became a model institution. The innovative features of the prison included the absence of a large surrounding wall or heavily armed guards, the establishment of farming and other physical activities, a system of self-government, and the promotion of education and vocational training. Despite the relative freedom of the institution, there were few disciplinary problems or escapes.
Following Harris’ retirement from Alderson in March 1941, she returned to Pennsylvania and served on the state Board of Parole until it was abolished in 1943. She then settled in Lewis-burg, Pennsylvania, served as a trustee for Bucknell University, and lectured and wrote about her activities in the world of female incarceration. In 1953, she began an extended tour of Europe and North Africa, visited her nephew in Cyprus, and inspected two Libyan prisons. She returned to Lewisburg in July of 1954 and died there on February 22, 1957, of a heart attack.
Harris was outspoken in her quest for re-form in women’s penal institutions, emphasizing the need for women to “build within them a wall of self-respect,” to learn employable skills which they could use upon their release, and to free themselves from dependency upon the community and/or men. She was considered a tough and powerful administrator and was recognized for her positive contributions to penal reform.
sources:
Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green, eds. Notable American Women: The Modern Period. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980.
PERGOLA SOUTH OF HOLY SPIRIT CHAPEL, NOW THE SANCTUARY .
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
Katharine Bement Davis, (born Jan. 15, 1860, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 10, 1935, Pacific Grove, Calif.), American penologist, social worker, and writer who had a profound effect on American penal reform in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Davis graduated from the Rochester (New York) Free Academy in 1879 and for 10 years thereafter taught high-school science in Dunkirk, New York. In 1890 she entered Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, as a junior, and after graduating in 1892 she pursued further studies at Columbia University, New York City. She then served as head resident at the St. Mary’s Street College Settlement in Philadelphia (1893–97). In 1897 she undertook doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, and, after work there and at the University of Berlin and Vienna University, she received her Ph.D. in economics in 1900.
In January 1901 Davis began work as superintendent of the newly opened state reformatory for women at Bedford Hills, New York. Over the next 13 years the institution became famous for its experimental approach to penology. Davis instituted a prison farm, courses in various vocational subjects, and a cottage system. She was particularly interested in identifying various classes of reformable, habitual, and incorrigible offenders, and her work in that field induced John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1912 to establish a Laboratory of Social Hygiene on property adjacent to the reformatory to further such research. In 1909, during a European trip, she won international acclaim for her work in organizing self-help relief programs following a disastrous earthquake in Messina, Sicily.
In January 1914 Davis was appointed commissioner of corrections for New York City. She was the first woman to hold a top-level post in the government of that city, and she moved quickly to improve conditions in its 15 penal institutions, especially to suppress drug traffic, segregate women prisoners, and upgrade dietary and medical facilities. She established the New Hampton Farm School for delinquent boys and laid plans for a separate detention home for women (ultimately opened in 1932). In 1915, principally as a result of her efforts, the New York legislature enacted a program of indeterminate sentencing and parole supervision, and in December of that year Davis was named first chairman of the city parole board to direct the new system. She held the post until the end of the reform administration in 1918.
From 1918 until her retirement in 1928 Davis was general secretary and member of the board of directors of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, the department of the Rockefeller Foundation that had operated the Bedford Hills laboratory. There she directed research into narcotics trade and addiction, the “white slave trade,” various forms of delinquency, and other aspects of public health and social hygiene. In 1929 she published Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-two Hundred Women; she was also author of a great many articles in professional and popular journal.
Commissioner Davis visiting Blackwell’s Island institutions
JAY JACOBSON, GLORIA HERMAN, ED LITCHER, ANDY SPARBERG & ELLEN JACOBY 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
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Mollie Steimer (Ukrainian: Моллі Штаймер; 1897–1980) was a Ukrainian Jewishanarchist activist. After settling in New York City, she quickly became involved in the local anarchist movement and was caught up in the case of Abrams v. United States. Charged with sedition, she was eventually deported to Soviet Russia, where she met her lifelong partner Senya Fleshin and agitated for the rights of anarchist political prisoners in the country. For her activities, she and Fleshin were again deported to western Europe, where they spent time organising aid for exiles and political prisoners, and took part in the debates of the international anarchist movement. Following the rise of the Nazis in Europe, she and Fleshin fled to Mexico, where they spent the rest of their lives working as photographers.
Biography
On November 21, 1897, Mollie Steimer was born in Dunaivtsi, a village in the south-west of the Russian Empire (modern-day Ukraine). At the age of 15, she and her family emigrated to the United States, settling in a ghetto of New York City and setting to work at a garment factory. At this time, she started to read radical political literature, such as Women and Socialism by August Bebel and Underground Russia by Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky.[1]
Early activism
By the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Steimer had gravitated towards anarchism, inspired by the works of Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman. Together with other Jewish anarchists, Steimer helped form a clandestine collective called Der Shturm (“The Storm”), which published radical works in the Yiddish language. Following some internal conflict, in January 1918, the group reorganized and launched a new monthly journal titled Frayhayt (“Freedom”), which published articles by Jewish radicals such as Georg Brandes and Maria Goldsmith. The journal’s motto was a Henry David Thoreau quote: “That government is best which governs not at all” (Yiddish: Yene regirung iz di beste, velke regirt in gantsn nit).[2]
Several of the collective’s members, including Steimer, lived and worked together in a six-room apartment on Harlem‘s East 104th Street. Due to the political repression brought by the Espionage Act of 1917 and the tense political climate that preceded the First Red Scare, the collective was forced to distribute Frayhayt in secret, as it had been among the papers banned by the federal government for its anti-war and far-left political stances.[3] By the summer of 1918, the group had drawn the attention of the authorities, after they had begun distributing leaflets denouncing the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and calling for a social revolution in the United States by means of a general strike.[4]
Arrest, trial and imprisonment
Steimer herself distributed thousands of copies around New York, including at her own workplace. On August 23, she threw a handful of the leaflets out of a window, which alerted the police, who arrested Steimer after receiving information from an informant within the Frayhayt group. Their apartment was subsequently raided and a number of their other members were arrested, on charges of conspiracy, under the Sedition Act of 1918.[5] During their trial, which came to be known as the case of Abrams v. United States, Steimer gave a speech in which she declared:[6]
“By anarchism, I understand a new social order, where no group of people shall be governed by another group of people. Individual freedom shall prevail in the full sense of the word. Private ownership shall be abolished. Every person shall have an equal opportunity to develop himself well, both mentally and physically. We shall not have to struggle for our daily existence as we do now. No one shall live on the product of others. Every person shall produce as much as he can, and enjoy as much as he needs—receive according to his need. Instead of striving to get money, we shall strive towards education, towards knowledge. While at present the people of the world are divided into various groups, calling themselves nations, while one nation defies another — in most cases considers the others as competitive — we, the workers of the world, shall stretch out our hands towards each other with brotherly love. To the fulfillment of this idea I shall devote all my energy, and, if necessary, render my life for it.”
On October 25, 1918, Steimer and her co-defendants were found guilty, with Steimer herself being sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $500 fine (equivalent to $9,000 in 2021).[7] With support from a wide range of society, notably including Zechariah Chafee and the entire staff of Harvard Law School, the sentence was appealed and the defendants were released on bail.[8] Steimer returned to activism, for which she was arrested multiple times over the following year. On March 11, 1919, during a police raid against the Russian People’s House on New York’s East 15th Street, Steimer was arrested on charges of incitement and subsequently transferred to Ellis Island.[9] Following a hunger strike against the conditions of her solitary confinement, Steimer was released before she could be deported, although the government kept her under surveillance. Back in New York, she met Emma Goldman, with whom she developed a lifelong friendship.[10]
On October 30, 1919, Steimer was arrested again and imprisoned on Blackwell’s Island. For six months, she was again held in solitary confinement, which she likewise protested with another hunger strike and by loudly singing revolutionary songs. When the Supreme Court upheld her conviction, her co-defendants informed her of a plan to flee the country into exile, but Steimer herself refused to cooperate, as she didn’t want to dishonor the workers that had paid her $40,000 in bail (equivalent to $625,000 in 2021).[11] In April 1920, Steimer was transferred to Jefferson City, Missouri, where she was held for a year and a half. By this time, she had learnt of the death of her brother from influenza and her father from shock.[12] Her lawyer managed to secure her release, on the condition of her deportation. But she initially refused to accept this, due to her staunch opposition to state borders and her concern for fellow political prisoners of the United States.[13] Nevertheless, after some convincing, she arrived back at Ellis Island, where she eagerly awaited her chance to participate in the Russian Revolution.[14]
Deportation and exile
On November 24, 1921, Steimer and her co-defendants were deported to the Russian Soviet Republic on the Estonia. By the time they arrived in Moscow, on December 15, 1921, there were no anarchists left to greet them. Emma Goldman had left for exile, Peter Kropotkin had died of old age and any left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks had been suppressed by the Red Army, while hundreds more anarchists were still held in the prisons of the Cheka.[15] Despite the climate of political repression, Steimer made a new home in Petrograd, where she met and fell in love with Senya Fleshin, a veteran of the Makhnovist movement.[16] Together they established an organization to aid political prisoners in Russia, for which they were arrested on November 1, 1922 and sentenced to exile in Siberia. But after they carried out a hunger strike, they were released on November 18, on the condition that they remain in Petrograd and report regularly to the authorities. Despite these conditions, they continued their activities, and were again arrested on July 9, 1923. Following another hunger strike and protests made to Leon Trotsky by anarcho-syndicalist delegates of the Profintern, they were again released, although this time they were to be deported.[17]
Fleshin; Steimer; Voline 1930
On September 27, 1923, Steimer and Fleshin were deported to Germany, where they were reunited with Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in Berlin. From the German capital, Steimer wrote articles about her experiences in Russia for the British anarchist newspaper Freedom, to which she denounced the authoritarianism of the Communist Party.[18] The couple also continued their activities in aiding Soviet political prisoners, now as members of the International Workers’ Association. In 1924, they joined their fellow exile Volin to Paris, where they established a mutual aid society for anarchist exiles from all countries and participated in the debate around the Platform, which Steimer criticised as authoritarian.[19] During this period, Steimer also met a number of other anarchsts, including Harry Kelly, Rose Pesotta, Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witkop, and was briefly reunited with her co-defendants Jack and Mary Abrams, who had also left Russia out of disillusionment with the Revolution.[20]
In Mexico City, the couple operated a photographic studio, became close with a group of Spanish anarchist exiles and were once again reunited with Jack and Mary Abrams. In 1963, Steimer and Fleshin retired to Cuernavaca, where they kept up with the development of the international anarchist movement and received visitors from the United States. In the late 1970s, Steimer was interviewed by a number of film crews about Emma Goldman and her anarchist convictions, to which she remained a stalwart into her old age.[25]
Mollie Steimer died of heart failure in her Cuernavaca home on July 23, 1980, aged 82.[1] Senya Fleshin died less than a year later.[25]
COVER OF BROCHURE COMMENORATING THE OPENING OF THE EAST RIVER DRIVE IN 1941, A WPA PROJECT (NOW THE FDR DRIVE). THIS IS A COMPOSITE IMAGE OF DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE DRIVE. ARON EISENPREISS, GLORIA HERMAN, HARA REISER AND NINA LUBLIN GOT IT RGHT!!!
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
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THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
