Emma Fordyce Macrae, Lady in Red (New York, New York, 1887 – 1974)
From the GRATZ GALLERY
Born in Vienna, Austria and raised in New York City where she remained based for her lifetime, Emma Fordyce MacRae was part of The Philadelphia Ten group.
An exhibiting member of the group from 1937 to 1945, MacRae summered in Gloucester, where she made acquaintance with Philadelphia Ten women. She befriended and regularly socialized with M. Elizabeth Price and Lucille Howard in the late 1920s and 1930s. MacRae studied under Impressionist Robert Reid and at the Art Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Impressionist Frank Vincent DuMond, Symbolist Luis Mora and Ernest Blumenschein.
Best known for her paintings of floral compositions set against textures of interior backgrounds, she was also critically praised for her figurative compositions. Her work demonstrated a keen decorative sensibility. Her paintings often appear dry and chalky as a result of applying her paint sparingly and allowing the texture of the canvas to show through.
MacRae exhibited extensively in many of the most prestigious exhibition venues of her time, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as forty-one times between 1918 and 1950 at the National Academy of Design.
In 1951 she was elected as associate member of the National Academy of Design; she was the sole member of The Philadelphia Ten to achieve that great honor. MacRae painted until a few years before her death in 1974. Her later works focused on smaller-scale floral still lifes and cityscapes – especially of Central Park.
Victory Girls
By Bethesda Fountain, Central Park
SUNDAY IN THE PARK
Untitled
Elizabeth
Summer Flowers
Emma Fordyce Mac Rae works were shown at a special exhibit at the Cape Ann Museum in 2008.
Litchfield Villa, or “Grace Hill”, is an Italianate mansion built in 1854–1857 on a large private estate now located in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. It is located on Prospect Park West at 5th Street. The villa was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, America’s leading architect of the fashionable Italianate style for railroad and real estate developer Edwin Clark Litchfield.
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
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
THE COIGNET BUILDING, A SHOWCASE FOR CONCRETE IN BROOKLYN
The restored Coignet Building stands proudly awaiting a new tenant
Before the Whole Foods in Gowanus was built, a handsome building stood alone, left over from the bustling concrete industry that came before. But more than just another pretty Neoclassical building, the Coignet Building was actually a showcase for a new material, known today as concrete, that took the building industry by storm in the 19th century. Moulded concrete, or beton-coignet as it was called in France, was patented by French industrialist François Coignet and consisted of a mix of sand, lime and cement. Beton concrete was showcased to much acclaim at the 1867 Exposition Universelle de Paris.
Though many people were experimenting with similar mixes, Coignet made it possible to mass produce large pieces of concrete and pioneered the use of iron reinforcements. Coignet’s particular mix, perfected through many tests, was found to be particularly durable, adaptable and affordable. The material could be molded instead of painstakingly shaped with chisels and cutting tools. A cement wash could be applied to color the concrete, giving it the appearance of granite, brownstone or whatever was desired.
Etching of the Coignet Stone Company Building shortly after it was constructed. Image via the Victorian Artificial Stone and Plaster Company
The Coignet Building, completed in 1873, was once part of a five acre factory along the Gowanus Canal operated by the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company. Designed by William Field and Son (which also did the Tower Buildings in Cobble Hill), the building functioned as both an office and a prototype, much like the New York Terra-Cotta Company building that still stands beneath the Queensboro Bridge . The detailing on the exterior referenced numerous architectural styles popular at the time, in order to show the possibilities of the material. The building was landmarked in 2006 by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the designation report calls it “the earliest known concrete building in New York City.”
For many years, the Coignet Building was covered in a faux-brick, which concealed the concrete facade. The building was renovated by Whole Foods as part a deal to purchase the land and its completion was long awaited by local residents.
Work by the Coignet Stone Company can still be found today in some of the city’s most famous landmarks – the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleft Ridge Span in Prospect Park and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
On the two facades of the Coignet Building that face a street, there are two Ionic-columned porticos topped by a pediment. Quoining along the edges of the building give it a neo-Renaissance influence. The staircases leads up to rounded doors, a shape that is mirrored on the first floor windows.
On the second floor, both the rounded and rectangular windows are framed by columns and Italianate window-heads. The whole building is topped by a relatively simple entablature. It is believed that the original floors were possibly made of concrete as well.
After its use as the Coignet Stone Company offices, it was used by the Brooklyn Improvement Company, a company owned by Edwin Clark Litchfield, whose grand home, known today as the Litchfield Villa, still stands on a hill on the edge of Prospect Park.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
BROWNSTONER
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MANSION AND MUNIFICENCE: THE GILDED AGE OF FIFTH AVENUE TONIGHT
Tuesday, April 20, 7 pm. on Zoom
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
The seedier side of Broadway by a 1930s painter October 19, 2020 Cigarette ads, a burlesque house, a struggling theater, a flea circus and freak show (likely Hubert’s Museum): If you visited 42nd Street on the west side of Broadway at Times Square in 1932, this is what you’d find.
“42nd Street West of Broadway” was painted that year by Edmund Yaghjian, an Armenian immigrant who depicted daytime scenes of the 1930s cityscape and nocturnes that showcased the Depression-era Art Deco feel of the New York at the time.
After studying and then teaching at the Art Students League, Yaghjian took a teaching job in 1942 that forced him to leave Gotham for South Carolina, according to The Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, SC.
His New York City, the city of almost 90 years ago, is on view online at Artnet.
Ships on East River, 1937
Lower Manhattan in the 1930’s
When he was only two years old, Edmund Yaghjian’s Armenian family immigrated to Providence, Rhode Island, where they opened a grocery store. The young artist’s talent—and especially his skill in drawing portraits—was encouraged by his local minister who convinced a wealthy parishioner to provide Yaghjian with a scholarship to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. Following his 1930 graduation from RISD, Yaghjian enrolled at New York’s Art Students League. There, he studied with leading American painters, including John Sloan and Stuart Davis. These instructors and the influence of the Ashcan school led Yaghjian to abandon portraiture in order to pursue realistic portrayals of the people and places he experienced in the city. His work was recognized as “best of the year” in the League’s 1930 year-end report and, in 1932, he was represented at the Society of Independent Artists Annual Exhibition.
From 1938 to 1942, Yaghjian taught drawing and composition at the Art Students League; this tenure was followed by brief teaching stints at schools in New Hampshire and Connecticut, as well as the University of Missouri. Yaghjian was hired as chair of the University of South Carolina’s Department of Fine Arts in 1945, a post he held until 1966 when he was named the university’s artist in residence. Over the years, he mentored Jasper Johns, Sigmund Abeles, and the mural artist Blue Sky, among others. While his move to the South distanced Yaghjian from the national stage, his contributions to the arts in South Carolina were significant. As in New York, he viewed his hometown as a source of intriguing subject matter, capturing the streets of Columbia in vibrantly colored and increasingly modernist urban landscapes that successfully blend vernacular and abstract elements.
Yaghjian’s distinguished career was filled with notable awards and exhibitions at such important museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Academy of Design, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Butler Institute of Art, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Credited with being a catalyst in arts awareness in South Carolina, Yaghjian once noted: “I call myself a painter; only time will tell if I am an artist.”
Night at the Fair
Corner House 1950
Antiques Store, Park Street Grocery, Bring in the Vegetables
Interior of Holy Spirit Chapel former Dayspring Church 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
Sources
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK JOHNSON COLLECTION
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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MANSION AND MUNIFICENCE: THE GILDED AGE OF FIFTH AVENUE
Tuesday, April 20, 7 pm. on Zoom
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
Thousands of souls ended up on this island by choice or chance. There is an extensive collection of records and images about those whom home was on Blackwell’s or later Welfare Island. 1852 Image below, NYPL
In October 2015, under a grant generously funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the New York City Municipal Archives embarked upon a large and exciting new project: processing, preserving and cataloging the Almshouse Ledger Collection. This historic collection contains over 400 handwritten volumes pertaining to city-run institutions including the Almshouses, Workhouses, Lunatic Asylum, Penitentiary and various hospitals, which all found their home on Blackwell’s Island, now Roosevelt Island. The span covers the years 1758-1952. This important project will ensure that the Almshouse Ledgers are preserved for future generations of researchers, scholars, genealogists, educators and anyone interested in social, cultural and medical histories during this period of great change and growth in New York City.
City Home main street: one- and two-story brick buildings; men seated and walking down the street.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ALMSHOUSE: New York City’s Almshouse history dates back to the colonial era, when poverty and regular outbreaks of measles and smallpox overtook its streets. Greater care and responsibility of the city’s poor and sick, along with their dependents, was needed. In 1736, the city took over as official caregivers to these populations and absorbed the workhouses of New York into its activities. Prior to this time, the church had taken care of New York City’s poor and destitute. The first Almshouse was opened on the Commons of the City in 1736 and fell under the care and control of the Overseers of the Poor, House of Correction, Workhouse and Poorhouse, headed by two men appointed by the Office of the Mayor. Broadly referred to as Almshouses, these establishments included workhouses, soldiers’ barracks, hospitals, penitentiaries and asylums. By 1845 all these institutions were housed on Blackwell’s Island, which today we know as Roosevelt Island.
Incurables Hospital Admissions Ledger
As overcrowding, disease, malnutrition and crime became rampant in the Almshouses, they became synonymous with the very worst of New York City. Many city departments were formed to improve and oversee conditions in the Almshouses, Workhouse, Poorhouse, Lunatic Asylum and hospitals on the island only to be disbanded, re-organized or taken over by other agencies.
City Home: Female barracks; 2-story stone building with 1st and 2nd floor balconies
City Home: Nurses’ Home, stone 2-story building with basement, 1st and 2nd floor balconies.
City Home Administration Building, built in 1846: 2-story ivy-covered brick building with hedge.
The ledger-style admissions, discharges and deaths and census books in the collection record the names of people who were confined (voluntarily or otherwise) in the various facilities on Blackwell’s Island. Many volumes contain detailed information regarding age, gender, disease, date of admission, discharge and/or death. While overwhelmingly male dominated, women, and children to a lesser extent, are well-represented in these books during the years 1822-1860. With few opportunities for employment outside the home, a widow or unmarried woman without family support was often forced to turn to the city for help. Many women brought their children with them, or had their babies in the institution. Women who were unable to nurse their own children were assigned a wet nurse who was paid by the department overseeing the institution. A large number of the assigned wet nurses were inmates from one of the island’s institutions. Many mother-child pairs are noted in the children’s registers.
Old man exiting City Home brick building, “1887” medallion over door.
City Home, Indoor Recreation Center (“Klondike”). Long single-story structure; male patients seated outside.
City Home: Men seated on benches in Recreation Hall.
1864-1873 Certificates of Death
City Home for Dependents: Lawn and beach chairs outside Female Division. Look closely and not Chapel of the Good Shepherd
City Home: Ivy-covered Protestant Church.
City Home: Catholic Church under construction. Our Lady Consoler of the Afflicted
City Home District: Exterior, Neurological Hospital Ward. Man in wheel chair seated in front of 1-story building.
Neurological Hospital Ledger 1927
Bond, Hospital and Stock ledgers contain valuable information about the inmates, patients and employees of Blackwell’s Island institutions, including name, age, nativity, child parentage (if known), when they arrived in New York and their port of origin. The type of food, beverages and supplies needed to run such overcrowded and busy facilities are also well documented, as are the needs of the staff of the institutions. Ledgers containing death certificates offer types of illnesses patients suffered succumbed to, while hospital ledgers include information on illnesses suffered from. Some ledgers offer details about the patients themselves. Census Ledgers provide the most detailed information about the various facilities with numbers being taken on a daily basis.
City Home District: Officers’ residences. Two-story wooden bungalows. These were known as Cottage Row, adjoining Blackwell House
CHRYSLER BUILDING Jay Jacobson, Vern Harwood, Guy Ludwig, Alexis Villefane, Hara Reiser, and Ed Litcher 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 Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
Sources:
NYC DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS & INFORMATION SERVICES, 31 CHAMBERS STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007, USAARCHIVES@RECORDS.NYC.GOV
NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
FROM “BLACKWELL’S ALMANAC” 2015, By Bobbie Slonevsky
It is well known that the more than 3,000 cherry blossom trees gracing the Potomac Tidal Basin in Washington DC were a gift of the city of Tokyo early in the 20th century. Less well known is how and when we acquired ours.
The name Mary Lasker reverberates in philanthropic circles, mostly in the field of medicine. But she had other interests too. Wife of advertising mogul Albert D. Lasker, Mrs. Lasker was determined to contribute, and inspire others to contribute, to the beautification of New York City. The two best-known programs of her Salute to the Seasons Fund, founded in 1957, are the Park Avenue Malls Planting Project and the Park Avenue Holiday Lighting. However, another donation may have proved even more consequential.
In 1975–76, at the dawn of the Roosevelt Island development, Lasker made a generous gift of cherry blossom trees to the community. They now constitute the magnificent allées along the west promenade across from what was Goldwater Hospital and will soon be Cornell Tech, and all along the east promenade. There is no doubt that their cloud-like masses of blossoms that bloom every April enriched our Island landscape.
But, just as important, they seem to have inspired RIOC, other RI organizations and Island developers to plant more. Additions over the years now embellish all of Roosevelt Island. Of particular historical note is the grove of less mature trees south of the Rivercross lawn, which was dedicated in 2011 to the people of Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami. The trees were planted by RIOC and the Roosevelt Island Residents’ Association in coordination with the Roosevelt Island Tree Board. They anchored a fundraiser hosted by RIRA, the Japanese Association of Roosevelt Island and other groups to raise money for Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.
Roosevelt Island boasts several varieties of cherry blossoms. They all flower within a couple of weeks of one another, the white blossoming earlier than the heavier pink blooms. The exquisite blossoms that come and go so quickly are said to symbolize the Allée of cherry blossoms on the west promenade.
Trees planted after the earthquake/tsunami. A commemorative plaque on the rock reads: “Celebration of Hope: This grove of trees is dedicated in solidarity with the Japanese people.” 10 evanescence of life, the cycle of life, death and rebirth, an aspect of Asian cultural tradition often associated with Buddhist influence.
When the flowers burst out of their buds, the Asian people celebrate with food, dance and music— the very components of the Cherry Blossom Festival that took place in Four Freedoms Park on April 25, and has been an annual tradition since 2010. There are upwards of 400 cherry blossom trees on RI. This compares with 500 in Central Park and just 200 in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. What’s more, the recent festival attracted several thousand visitors. Our celebrity may be in its infancy, but surely we have made it to the Cherry Blossom Big League.
*No more Cherry Blossom Festivals since 2019
UPDATES
VISITOR CENTER KIOSK EXPANDS HOURS
April Friday, Saturday, Sunday
May Wednesday-Sunday OPEN 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Upcoming Events
with the NYPL Roosevelt Island Branch
Tuesday, April 20
“Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue”
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
Author and Harvard History Professor Lizabeth Cohen provides an eye-opening look at her award-winning book’s subtitle: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age. Tracing Logue’s career from the development of Roosevelt Island in the ‘70s, to the redevelopment of New Haven in the ‘50s, Boston in the’60s and the South Bronx from 1978–85, she focuses on Logue’s vision to revitalize post-war cities, the rise of the Urban Development Corporation, and the world of city planning
Jane’s Walk
on Zoom
Roosevelt Island: A Vibrant Sustainable Community
Monday, May 3 1:00 PM 1-2 hours On Your Browser/ Register at MAS.ORG
TED BY THEODORE LIEBMAN, ARCHITECT, PERKINS EASTMAN, AND JUDITH BERDY, ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
We will review the history of the island and its change from the infamous Welfare Island to today’s vibrant Roosevelt Island community and the 1969 Johnson Plan and its execution. We will review all the architecture, the restoration of landmarks, and sustainability features on the island, the tram and subway, the new Cornell Tech University and Four Freedoms Park created as a memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and designed by Louis I. Kahn.
TUESDAY, MAY 18th
Health Fair & Senior Awareness Day.
11a.m. to 3 p.m. Chapel Plaza Sponsored by Carter Burden Senior Network Watch for Details
ROOSEVELT ISLAND DAY RETURNS SATURDAY, JUNE 12th
Watch for details about events throughout the island
FDR HOPE MEMORIAL DEDICATION SATURDAY, JULY 17th
Watch for details on the long-awaited opening of this memorial in Southpoint Park
One of the original eagles that graced the old Penn station. This one is in front of Madison Square Garden, 2 Penn Plaza
Ed LItcher, Guy Ludwig, Andy Sparberg, Aron Eisenpreiss, Alexis Villefane all got it!
FROM GUY LUDWIG
good morning Mss berdy and the whole gazette team!
Tthe stone eagle depicted sits in front of two Penn Plaza, facing Seventh avenue. one of many, the proud bird sat atop the original penn station beginning in 1910
At the start of the station’s demolition in 1964, the eagle shown and several others were ceremoniously lowered off of the building for the press, radio and television to see. eventually – and some would say incongruously – the eagle in the picture was mounted in front of the new complex which replaced the old pennsylvania station. interestingly, right behind that eagle, in the lobby of the building she guards, is another statue from inside pennsylvania station – that of alexander cassett, the executive behind the massive effort which resulted in the original penn project.
it is a vivid, large bronze piece, and he looks like he might be hurrying to catch one of his own trains, home. if mr. Cassatt and his eagle could talk, i wonder what they would say about where they live now, versus the stunning surroundings for which they both conceived.
guy ludwig westview since 1980
p.s.
Alexander Cassatt’s was the seventh president of the Pennsylvania railroad and presided over the construction of the entire “New York terminal” project. and, for heaven’s sake, it is NOT Cassatt whose statue is behind the eagle. the one behind our eagle is that of Samuel Rea, who FOLLOWED mr. Cassatt as president of the Pennsylvania system. Cassatt IS cast in bronze as well, and this likeness, too, resided in the old Penn Station, but now rests at the railroad museum of Pennsylvania.
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
Sources BLACKWELL’S ALMANAC
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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It turns out the the biggest bird will be hovering over Central Park this summer, bringing joy and happiness to the roof of the Metropolitan Museum.
I Wonder if “Happy Days” will be sung there this summer!!!!
Image and text courtesy of 6sqft
The Met’s latest rooftop installation features a swaying Big Bird overlooking Central Park
Installation view, The Roof Garden Commission, Alex Da Corte “As Long as the Sun Lasts,” 2021. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Anna Marie Kellen
A 26-foot-tall moving sculpture featuring the Sesame Street character Big Bird has been installed atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the museum’s annual Roof Garden Commission series. Created by Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte, As Long as the Sun Lasts exhibition includes a blue-feathered Big Bird sitting on a floating crescent moon and holding a ladder, gazing out at Central Park and the massive towers that dot the skyline. The exhibition will open at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden on April 16 and be on view through October 31.
installation view, The Roof Garden Commission, Alex Da Corte, “As Long as the Sun Lasts” (detail), 2021. Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Hyla Skopitz
The installation has a red base with three interlocking steel pieces and a mobile component that rotates along with the breeze, a design inspired by the artist Alexander Calder, known for his kinetic sculptures. Big Bird sits suspended at the top of the sculpture and has about 7,000 individually placed laser-cut aluminum feathers.
Making Big Bird blue instead of his familiar yellow is a nod from Da Corte (who lived in Venezuela as a child) to the Brazilian version of Sesame Street, which had a blue-colored bird character named Garibaldo. It also reflects the character’s “melancholic disposition” expressed in the work, according to the museum.
Installation view, The Roof Garden Commission, Alex Da Corte, As Long as the Sun Lasts (detail) 2021 Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo Anna-Marie Kellen
“The installation, which the artist initiated just as the pandemic was taking hold, invites us to look through a familiar, popular, modern lens at our own condition in a transformed emotional landscape,” Max Hollein, the Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, said in a press release.
“As the sculpture gently rotates in the wind, it calls us in an assuring way to pause and reflect: We are reminded that stability is an illusion, but ultimately what we see is a statement of belief in the potential of transformation.”
The exhibition is free with admission to the museum. Advance online reservations are required. Learn more here.
This is one of the Mc Donald’s original designed shops
Ed Litcher, Alexis Villefane, Jay Jacobson, Gloria Herman, Nina Lublin all had their burgers here!!!
EDITORIAL
I just saw this image of Big Bird and decided this is just what NYC needs now, artistic whimsy!!!
Can just visualize birders in Central Park trying to discuss the ornithological species of Big Bird!
UPCOMING PROGRAMS FROM
THE NYPL & RIHS ON ZOOM
Tuesday, April 20 “Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue” Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen. REGISTER WITH THIS LINK: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2021/04/20/mansions-and-munificence-gilded-age-fifth-avenue
Tuesday, May 18 “Saving America’s Cities” Author and Harvard History Professor Lizabeth Cohen provides an eye-opening look at her award-winning book’s subtitle: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age. Tracing Logue’s career from the development of Roosevelt Island in the ‘70s, to the redevelopment of New Haven in the ‘50s, Boston in the’60s and the South Bronx from 1978–85, she focuses on Logue’s vision to revitalize post-war cities, the rise of the Urban Development Corporation, and the world of city planning
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
6sqft RIHS ARCHIVES
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
You are surely aware of the great Ketchup Packet Shortage. Of course you are. Well, the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of this crisis became a riveting mystery for me to track. After all, our Roosevelt Island Historical Society Almanac readers are a pretty savvy bunch. So I jumped in. And then, as these things happen, one Google step led to another. So come with me on my trek to the empire of condiment packets.
The What is pretty clear. Ketchup packets from take-out food have gone missing – particularly Heinz ketchup. (Full disclosure, I come from Pittsburgh where Heinz is headquartered and as a youth visited the Heinz plant on several school outings) The toney Brit newspaper, the Guardian, recently devoted serious space to this situation. They called it an American Tragedy. “It’s an American tragedy that takes place in under a minute. You eagerly open the warm takeout bag in your hands, the smell of french fries wafting through its package. Everything seems to be there until you dig around the bottom of the bag. Nothing but napkins. Where’s the ketchup?”
Who? Everyone. When? Now. Where? Apparently everywhere. (Not quite. I understand Mickie D. doesn’t use packets of condiments. Big squirty jugs instead.)
Who? Everyone. When? Now. Where? Apparently everywhere. (Not quite. I understand Mickie D. doesn’t use packets of condiments. Big squirty jugs instead.)
Why? The answer seems to be the increase in demand for the little packets, created, most likely, by the Covid-fueled gusto for take-outs. Again according to the Guardian, now citing the Wall Street Journal: “The uptick in ketchup demand has had an influence on the price of packets, which have increased 13% since January 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal.” The Journal tells us that “Long John Silver’s…said that the price increase of ketchup has cost the company an extra half-million dollars.” I told you this was serious stuff.
FoxNews has followed the story, too, and reports that Heinz Ketchup packets are being scalped on eBay. Fox says that listings vary in quantity, but one lot of 50 ketchup packets recently sold for $9.99. Another listing for 100 packets sold for $11.99. Another listing for 500 ketchup packets sold for $28.95 (with free shipping). Some scamps will stop at nothing.
The fast food resto business is getting sharper. The editor of a fast food trade mag laid down the law, telling owners that they “must run a much more efficient operation. You must run a tight ship, and you cannot get by being loosey-goosey and freewheeling with your condiment packets.” No loosey-goosey with your condiment packets. That tells it like it is.
This was just the beginning of my remarkable tour. Diligent researchers on the Tedium website dug down deeply into the roots and meaning of the story. Their findings:
The first Heinz ketchup packet didn’t come about until 1968, getting beat to the market by soy sauce packets, which came about roughly a decade earlier. Note: Keep this in mind. We will return to soy in a few paragraphs. I think I still have some of the earliest packets – from 1970 or so – in my pantry. Never know when you might need them.
According to Marketplace, food companies are very particular about the size of their ketchup packets. Despite the fact that they generally can be made in larger sizes, the market has settled on nine-gram packets, despite the fact that nine grams is clearly not enough since we use like six of them in a single serving. This seems deeply suspicious. Note to self: Follow the money.
Heinz sells a lot of these packets every single year—according to the company, that’s around 11 billion or so every 365 days, or two for every person on the planet. At nine grams each, that’s about 109,000 tons of ketchup. Heinz uses more tomatoes than any other company in the world. That’s some tomatoes. Particularly since until the mid-19th century, people were still wobbly about eating tomatoes, fearing it was related to the deadly nightshade. (Others felt/feared tomatoes were an aphrodisiac.)
Heinz’s website says that “Every tomato in every bottle of HEINZ Ketchup sold in the U.S. is grown in America by passionate people (might this refer back to tomatoes as aphrodisiacs?) dedicated to growing high-quality, non-GMO tomatoes, many who have farmed with us for generations.” Apparently, Heinz has developed its own specialized strains of tomatoes for its ketchup. The website continues “Each step in the tomato-growing process is monitored by HEINZ Tomato Masters: seven of the world’s foremost experts on ketchup tomatoes, who keep HEINZ tomatoes at the highest standard of quality – because the ketchup on your table is only as good as the tomato it comes from.” Love the idea of seven Tomato Masters. Not six. Not eight. And passionate.
\Now, another question leapt up. How in the world did soy sauce packets beat ketchup packets into the market? Surely the demand for ketchup must exceed the demand for soy sauce. The trail led to a serious article in another high class mag, The Atlantic, “The Mysterious, Murky Story Behind Soy-Sauce Packets”.
Things get a bit complicated here. Soy sauce packets track back to Howard Epstein (not that Epstein), who, as the founder of the dominant soy-sauce brand Kari-Out, is seen as the ambassador of packaged American soy sauce. Epstein became interested in food packaging because his father manufactured the flimsy plastic packaging for freezer pops. Epstein’s first venture into his father’s trade was a popcorn-packaging business, which he bought for $5,000 over 50 years ago. That didn’t work out and at 81 Epstein was looking for a change when one of his father’s salesmen, who sold tea bags, suggested he consider the soy-sauce-packaging business. In 1964, Epstein founded Kari-Out, and he says he arrived to the industry right as it was becoming commercially viable. He ran his new business out of the popcorn factory he owned. (As a fellow 81er, I am lost in admiration for a guy who starts a new business and changes the world.)
Going wasn’t easy. Epstein says that an old Jewish guy trying to break into the Chinese food business was tough. But his freezer-pop expertise gave him an edge. His break came in with affordable air travel, which went mainstream in the 1970s. To serve the newly airborne hordes of families and businessmen, airlines began offering prepared foods onboard. Epstein found his first major foothold as the primary provider of soy sauce for these in-flight meals. The Atlantic piece continues, “Cheap airfare also allowed Epstein to travel the country in search of new customers. He was scouting at a time when Chinese takeout joints were becoming as commonplace as nail salons and convenience stores in strip malls around the country.” He soon built up a widespread network of customers, and Kari-Out’s products appeared in the Chinese restaurants across the country. Now, he estimates that Kari-Out has a 50 percent market share. The company’s soy-sauce packets remain ubiquitous—Epstein recalls finding Kari-Out packets at a concession stand in rural Iceland a couple years ago. “We’ve survived 50 years,” Epstein says. “I never get sick of Chinese food or soy sauce.”
But the story doesn’t end here. Take a deep breath. A food and drink article on Thrillist followed up The Atlantic article. They learned that what we get in soy sauce packets isn’t really soy sauce. “Rather than soybeans, most are made with ‘hydrolyzed vegetable protein,’ which — while it could be processed from soybeans — is too ambiguous of a term to know for certain. Legitimate soy sauce (Kikkoman and other Asian brands) usually lists soybeans as the second or third ingredient. The packets also usually contain caramel coloring, molasses, and MSG, none of which are present in the real stuff either.” And on top of this, the wasabi we eat in sushi bars and take out is probably not real wasabi, but rather colored mustard and horseradish. All the news isn’t bad: Heinz has said they are planning to increase their ketchup output by 25%. The life of an investigative reporter isn’t easy. It’s Sunday morning and I think I will take the rest of the day off, perhaps order some take-out. Good eating. Stephen Blank RIHS April 11, 2021
UPCOMING NYPL AND RIHS ZOOM PROGRAMS
Tuesday, April 20, 7 p.m. “Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue”
REGISTER WITH THIS LINK: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2021/04/20/mansions-and-munificence-gilded-age-fifth-avenue
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
UNDER THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE ED LITCHER, ARLENE BESSENOFF, CLARA BELLA, HARA REISER, GUY LUDWIG, JAY JACOBSON, GLORIA HERMAN ALL GOT IT RIGHY
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)
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Our landmark lighthouse will soon be restored and a replication of the original top will be installed. Architect Thomas Fenniman has designed a restored version of the structure that will stabilize and restore the structure. Fenniman has had vast restoration experience including the RIHS Visitor Center Kiosk, Chapel Narthrax, Chapel Roof all on the Island.
Th original Lighthouse Park from Metropolitan Hospital
Current lighthouse and design for newly restored structure
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LANDMARK LIGHTHOUSE
NYC LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION
This small Lighthouse stands at the northern tip of Roosevelt Island on a projection of land which was at one time a separate island connected to the main land by a wooden bridge. Local legend maintains that during the 19th century a patient from the nearby Lunatic Asylum was permitted to build a stone fort on this outcropping as he feared an invasion by the British. When plans were formulated to build the Lighthouse, this patient was allegedly persuaded to surrender the fort only after much cajoling and a bribe of bogus money. The tale continues that the patient himself demolished the fort and built the new Lighthouse, carving the inscription:
Lighthouse inscription:
This is the work Was done by John McCarthy Who built the Light House from he bottom to the Top All ye who do pass by may Pray for his soul when he dies.
While construction of the Lighthouse cannot actually be credited to the diligent Mr. McCarthy, the warden of the Lunatic Asylum did specifically mention in his annual report of 1870 an “industrious but eccentric” patient who had built near the Asylum a large section of seawall, thereby reclaiming a sizable piece of land. The warden further remarked that this patient “is very assiduous, and seems proud of his work, and he has reason to be, for it is a fine structure, strong and well built.” Whether or not this patient was the model for the legend of the fort and Lighthouse builder, a connection of the Lighthouse and the Lunatic Asylum is a historical fact. In May 1872, City official resolved to “effectually light” the Asylum and the tip of the island. The following September, the Lighthouse was completed , with lamps furnished by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. The stone structure was built under the direction of the Board of Governors of the Commission of Charities and Correction, the body which administered the numerous City institutions on the island., At that time. The supervising architect for this Commission was James Renwick, Jr.
James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895), was son of a highly regarded professor at Columbia College. He began his notable career in 1836 as an engineer supervising the construction of the great Distributing Reservoir at 42nd Street for the Croton water supply system. In 1840, his drawings were selected in a competition for the design of Grace Church, which, at that time, was New York’s wealthiest and most fashionable congregation. Renwick, only twenty-five and entirely self-trained as an architect, achieved instant recognition. During his long and highly successful career he designed many important buildings, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Main building at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, the William E. Dodge Villa (now Greyston Conference Center) and St. Patrick’s Cathedral-both designated landmarks, as is Grace Church. As an art collector and yachtsman, Renwick’s association with the Charities and Corrections Board, in all likelihood, had philanthropic motivations. He designed the Workhouse, City Hospital and Smallpox Hospital on Blackwell’s Island (as Roosevelt Island was then known); the Inebriate and Lunatic Asylum on Ward’s Island; and the main building of the Children’s Hospital on Randall’s Island. He also designed several smaller structures, among them, the Lighthouse on Roosevelt Island.
The Lighthouse is approximately fifty feet tall and is constructed of rock-faced, random gray ashlar. The stone (gray gneiss) was quarried on the island itself, predominately by convict labor from the Penitentiary on the island, and was used for many of the institutional buildings erected there. The Lighthouse is encircled by a small yard paved with flagstone. An entry walk at the south is flanked by stone bollards which have pyramidal tops carved with simple trefoils. The Lighthouse is octagonal in plan and vertically organized according to the tripartite division of the classical column-base, shaft and capital. The base is separated from the superstructure by a series of simple moldings which are interrupted to the south side by a projecting gable above the single entrance doorway. This doorway, which an incised pointed arch above a splayed keystone with flanking corbels, is designed in a rustic version of the Gothic style. The stepped stones of the Lighthouse are pierced above the doorway by two slit windows which light the interior staircase. The top of the shaft is adorned with Gothic foliate ornamentation in high relief, separated by simple moldings from the brackets which support the observation platform. These elements form the crowning feature of the Lighthouse. The octagonal lantern, originally surmounted by a picturesque conical roof is of glass and steel. It is surrounded by a simple metal railing.
The rock-faced stone and the sparing uses of boldly scaled ornamental detail give the Lighthouse the strength and character of a medieval fortification. In its isolated setting, the Lighthouse is a prominent and dramatic feature of Roosevelt Island.
Metropolitan Hospital Nursing Students relax at the Lighthouse Park
The stairway inside the Lighthouse. Original lamp in position, now removed
UPCOMING NYPL AND RIHS ZOOM PROGRAMS
Tuesday, April 20, 7 p.m. “Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue”
REGISTER WITH THIS LINK: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2021/04/20/mansions-and-munificence-gilded-age-fifth-avenue
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT JAY JACOBSON, ANDY SPARBERG, SUSAN RODETIS, M. FRANK, VERN HARWOOD ALL GOT IT!
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO JOIN THE RIHS.
YOUR MEMBERSHIP SUPPORTS ALL OUR ACTIVITIES JOIN TODAY AND SHOP THE KIOSK WITH A 10% DISCOUNT ON ALL PURCHASES. JOIN ON-LINE AT RIHS.US OR MAIL IN THIS FORM.
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
RIHS (C) FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Charles M. Schwab’s Riverside House was, according to The New York Times “The most pretentious house” in New York — photo The Library of Congress
When the doors of the gargantuan Charles M. Schwab mansion named Riverside House were opened in 1947 for the sale of the interior fittings, among the 100 viewers was S. Archer Gibson. The elderly man was not there to buy bronze hardware or stained glass windows. He was reminiscing. In the soaring two-story chapel area of the French Renaissance chateau Gibson touched the cabinet of the grand pipe organ he once played as Charles Schwab’s private organist. The impressive instrument had been enlarged by the millionaire at Gibson’s request in 1904 at a cost of $21,500 and again in 1911 for $23,457.50 more.
The days when the fabulously wealthy installed pipe organs into their homes and hired private organists – Gibson earned $10,000 per year – were over. And the days of Schwab’s extraordinary mansion were over as well.
Steel tycoon Charles M. Schwab had no intentions to built just any house in 1901. His would be the largest and most expensive. And he intended that it would vastly outshine the mansions rising on Fifth Avenue along Central Park.
Schwab had started out in the steel business as a teenage laborer in a Carnegie steel mill and was by now one of the wealthiest men in the country; the head of United States Steel.
Among the Fifth Avenue houses, only Andrew Carnegie’s mansion rising at 91st Street and 5th Avenue had a vast garden and fenced yard. The free-standing home was unique in its luxurious setting. Along Riverside Drive, however, millionaires were opting for free-standing residences surrounded by lawns. This is what Schwab had in mind when he spent $865,000 for the full block on Riverside Drive in 1901, extending to West End Avenue, between 73rd and 74th Street. It was the most ever spent on a building lot to date. The magnate commissioned architect Maurice Hebert to design a French Renaissance chateau that would impress. Hebert did exactly that. The 75-room limestone mansion was a marriage of elements from three French chateaux: Blois, Azay-le-Rideau and Chenonceau. Surrounded by lush lawns and formal gardens it diminished the homes of Vanderbilts and Rockefellers. Andrew Carnegie, in seeing the massive edifice rising is said to have commented, “Have you seen that place of Charlie’s? It makes mine look like a shack.” The tycoon spent $3 million on the structure and several million more for the furnishings and antiques. It was a four-story palace with a 166-foot tower that offered panoramic views.
To supply the vast amount of stone to build it, a quarry was opened in Peekskill, New York.
According to Robert Hessen in his “Steel Titan: The Life of Charles M. Schwab,” “Schwab had a passion for owning the biggest and the best – homes, or automobiles, or private railroad cars.” Riverside House would exemplify that passion.
The sheer size of the mansion staggered the editors of Harper’s Weekly who admitted that it “may strike the average observer as a burdensome possession, oppressive to maintain, and likely to be embarrassing to heirs, but if Mr. Schwab can stand it, we can.”
The New York Times, on the other hand, cooed. “In architectural design, richness of decoration, and completeness of details this structure is calculated to surpass in luxury and magnificence any city home in America, if not the entire world.”
More than 100 artists, designers, modelers, engineers and architects were engaged in the construction. Hebert personally supervised the work of artisans at the William Baumgarten & Co. creating reproduction tapestries for the house – several of which were exhibited at the St. Louis World’s Fair before being installed in the house. Ceilings and walls were decorated by artists like Albert Mantelet, Arthur Thomas and Jose Villegas.
Rooms were executed in various periods; the dining room in Louis XIV, the library in Henri II (a copy of the library in Fontainblue), the parlor in Louis XVI (copied from the Petite Trianon), the main hall in Francis I and so on.
“Nothing will enter into the construction of the new dwelling,” reported The Times, “that has not been made specially to order…So-called stock material, no matter how good it may be, will be ignored.”
Interior pillars were made of elaborately carved marble, paneling was South American mahogany, The chapel, where the custom-made organ was installed, doubled as a music room and was large enough to seat a full orchestra. A natatorium in the basement featured a glazed-brick pool 20 by 30 feet under an arched glass roof. There was a bowling alley and 50-foot gymnasium on this level as well.
The art gallery was filled with $1.5 million in artworks. There were six elevators, a self-contained power plant and, to Mr. Schwab’s great satisfaction, the 1906 version of air conditioning. Years later he would brag, “When I built it, it was the most modern house in the United States…this was thirty years ago, yet it had an air-cooling system in it.”
The master bedroom was 20 feet square and the adjoining bath had a five-foot square shower stall. There were a four-car garage, a receiving lodge for incoming goods, and a service tunnel beneath the sculptured gardens.
While other millionaires entered their mansions through expensive and impressive wooden double doors, Schwab went a step further. “Of particular note will be the massive bronze doors on the west side of the house at the main entrance,” said The Times. “While these doors will not be as large as those on the Capitol at Washington, each of them will weigh from a ton to a ton and a half. There will also be another set of bronze doors on the north side of the building leading to Seventy-fourth Street.
Schwab’s wife, Eurana, had protested against moving so far northward, fearing she would never see her Fifth Avenue friends again. After a period, despite her Fifth Avenue friends visiting regularly, Rana Schwab stopped accepting social invitations – even those to the White House – out of embarrassment of her physical condition. The food-loving Rana became severely overweight. She stayed in Riverside House, catered to by her 20 servants–chief among them George Stone the butler. Nevertheless, in 1917 as World War I raged in Europe, she dedicated two rooms of the first floor for the use of Red Cross volunteers who knitted sweaters, socks and bandages for soldiers in France.
In 1921 S. Archer Gibson was recorded playing the Schwab organ, creating what would be among the earliest organ recordings. Later, in 1932, Schwab agreed to allow the National Broadcasting Company to broadcast a series of Wednesday night organ concerts played by Gibson.
The couple lived in luxurious comfort in Riverside House until Schwab’s fortunes were wiped out by the Great Depression. The massive mansion changed almost overnight from a palace to a hulking white elephant. Unable to pay the taxes Schwab tried futilely to sell the property for $4 million. He moved into a small apartment on Park Avenue in 1939 where he died nearly penniless later that year.
The mansion sat ghostly and vacant for years. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia rejected the idea of using the house as the mayoral mansion, feeling it was far too grandiose. It was the last hope for the hulking and sumptuous Schwab house. After sitting empty for a decade, the land was purchased as the site of an apartment building. The sale of the interior fittings which organist S. Archer Gibson attended was the last time visitors would stare in awe at the painted ceilings, the carved grand staircase and the marble columns.
The wrecking company informed the press a few days later that the great pipe organ in the chapel was too large to remove. It would be smashed with the rest of the house. At the eleventh hour, however, Eric Sexton of New Canaan, Connecticut purchased the instrument, disassembled it and installed part of it in his home in Camden, Maine.
In place of Schwab’s French Renaissance chateau sits The Schwab House — photo cityrealty.com
In place of Charles M. Schwab’s magnificent French chateau now stands an uninspired red brick building with a name dripping with irony: “The Schwab House.” To read more about Charles Schwab, his life and career check out Wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Schwab
RIHS AWARDED GRANTS FROM POMEROY FOUNDATION
Pomeroy Fund Awards $50,000 to 14 NYS History Organizations to Support Capital Needs
TROY, N.Y. – The Pomeroy Fund for NYS History, a partnership between the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and Museum Association of New York (MANY), awarded an additional $50,000 to 14 history-related organizations to assist with urgent capital needs projects.
In this highly competitive fourth round of urgent funding, 167 museums and historical societies submitted applications to support projects such as window replacements, new HVAC systems, technology upgrades, roof repairs, and accessibility for people who use wheelchairs.
”This was an overwhelming response from history organizations, which underscores the incredible need that remains across New York State,” said Deryn Pomeroy, Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Pomeroy Foundation. “Capital improvements are essential to help these important organizations reopen and stay open.”
“This round helped us see the vast challenges New York’s museums face in the wake of deferred maintenance, limited municipal investment in cultural properties, and the deep financial setbacks incurred through pandemic related revenue reductions,” said Erika Sanger, MANY Executive Director.
Roosevelt Island Historical Society will purchase a printer, scanner, and computer to continue to reach and engage its audience with a daily publication, From the Archives, and virtual programs
UPCOMING NYPL AND RIHS ZOOM PROGRAMS
Tuesday, April 20 “Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue” Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
Tuesday, May 18 “Saving America’s Cities” Author and Harvard History Professor Lizabeth Cohen provides an eye-opening look at her award-winning book’s subtitle: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age. Tracing Logue’s career from the development of Roosevelt Island in the ‘70s, to the redevelopment of New Haven in the ‘50s, Boston in the’60s and the South Bronx from 1978–85, she focuses on Logue’s vision to revitalize post-war cities, the rise of the Urban Development Corporation, and the world of city planning
JOIN THE KIOSK STAFF
Mature person needed for paid work in RIHS Visitor Center kiosk. Must have good knowledge of the island and history. Flexible days of work for up to 5-6 hours a day, usually 1 or 2 days a week. Must be outgoing and personable and able to deal with busy days. References requested. Please send one page resume to rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com.
MOMA ENTRANCE ALEXIS VILLEFANE, LAURA HUSSEY AND OLYA TURCHIN ALL 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
Sources
DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated PHOTOS BY JUDITH BERDY / RIHS (C)
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Photo by Ida Jervis; Alma Thomas papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
The Eclypse, 1970 Acrylic on Canvas
Alma Thomas is a singular figure in the story of twentieth-century American art. She developed her exuberant form of abstract painting late in life, after retiring from a long career as a schoolteacher. Blossoming in the mid-1960s, her vibrant, rhythmic art transcended established genres, incorporating elements of gestural abstraction and color field painting. She created a style distinctly her own, characterized by the dazzling interplay of pattern and hue. At a deeply politicized moment in American life, Thomas’s abiding sources of inspiration were nature, the cosmos, and music. “Through color,” she stated, “I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man’s inhumanity to man.”
Thomas’s art first entered the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection in 1970. The museum acquired more than a dozen works during the artist’s lifetime and, upon her death, received thirteen canvases by bequest.
Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas draws on these extensive holdings to offer an intimate view of Thomas’s evolving practice during her most prolific period, 1959 to 1978. New research into her materials and techniques show how Thomas continued to innovate until the end of her life, at times changing her methods to adapt to her declining physical ability due to arthritis. As the luminous works in the exhibition reveal, Thomas’s astounding creative drive and mastery of color remained constant through her final years.
After the exhibition closes at SAAM, it will travel to several venues across the United States.
Red Abstraction, 1959 Oil on Canvas
Alma Woodsey Thomas
1891–1978
Thomas was born in Columbus, Georgia, the oldest of four girls. In 1907, her family moved to Washington, D.C., seeking relief from the racial violence in the South. Though segregated, the nation’s capital still offered more opportunities for African Americans than most cities in those years.
As a girl, Thomas dreamed of being an architect and building bridges, but there were few women architects a century ago. Instead, she attended Howard University, becoming its first fine arts graduate in 1924. In 1924, Thomas began a 35 year career teaching art at a D.C. junior high school. She was devoted to her students and organized art clubs, lectures, and student exhibitions for them. Teaching allowed her to support herself while pursuing her own painting part-time.
Thomas’s early art was realistic, though her Howard professor James V. Herring and peer Loïs Mailou Jones challenged her to experiment with abstraction. When she retired from teaching and was able to concentrate on art full-time, Thomas finally developed her signature style.
She debuted her abstract work in an exhibition at Howard 1966, at the age of 75. Thomas’ abstractions have been compared with Byzantine mosaics, the Pointillist technique of Georges Seurat, and the paintings of the Washington Color School, yet her work is quite distinctive.
Thomas became an important role model for women, African Americans, and older artists. She was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, and she exhibited her paintings at the White House three times. Artist Details
Light Blue Nursey, 1968, Acrylic on Canvas
Snoopy Sees the Earth Wrapped in Sunset ,1970 Acrylic on Canvas
Snoopy Earth Sun Display on Earth, 1970 Acrylic on Canvas
Red Sunset Old Pond Concerto 1972 Acrylic on Canvas
Aquatic Gardens, 1973 Acrylic on Canvas
Wind and Crepe Myrtle Concerto 1973 Acrylic on Canvas
INTERIOR OF THE OCTAGON IN 1970 Alexis Villefand, Arlene Bessenoff, Gloria Herman and Jay Jacobson 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
Sources:
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM National Museum of Women in the Arts
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
