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INSIDE THE
WASHINGTON SQUARE ARCH
ISSUE # 1276
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
One of New York City’s most elusive places is the inside of the Washington Square Park arch, which has been long closed off to the public. Until a few years ago, the interior was too unstable for public access. But a video from the Unforgotten film series, which premiered first on Untapped New York in 2022, gives you a first-hand look inside. The episode, titled “How History, Community, and Art Can Define an Iconic New York City Monument,” features Sheryl Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy; Nicholas Baume, Artistic & Executive Director at Public Art Fund; Karen Karbiener, Professor in the English department at New York University; and Michelle Young, the founder of Untapped New york. The video depicts everything from dance and music performances in the park to a public art installation and shots of the Arch’s interior.
The Unforgotten Films is now partnering with the New York Landmark Conservancy to highlight forgotten New York sites and their histories. For the next few months, the Conservancy will highlight a new Unforgotten film on social media. Each film will focus on a different location, from the abandoned hospital on Ellis Island to Green-Wood Cemetery. We’ll be following along, so stay tuned!
The episode captures the diversity and the “greater city” within the park through interviews and B-roll scenes of daily life. The episode gives viewers a bit of a history lesson as well; the park was built atop a potter’s field with approximately 20,000 people buried by 1825. Washington Square Park was opened two years later as a military parade ground, which people used to congregate. The Arch was one of the final additions to the park after the fountain in the 1850s. The Arch has a spiral staircase inside that leads to the roof, giving the rare viewer a 360-degree look at Manhattan (access inside and atop was provided through a special joint event between Untapped New York and NYC Parks in 2019 thanks to former Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver).
In the episode, you will learn about the time Marcel Duchamp and other Dadaists illegally climbed to the top of the Arch and declared it an independent republic. Fast forward to the modern era, and the episode also dives into artist Ai Weiwei‘s 2017 sculpture “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” which served as a commentary on the increasing hostility towards immigrants nationwide. Ai integrated his sculpture into the shape of the arch, which the episode suggests reinforced the diversity and openness of people from all walks of life.
“Washington Square Park certainly is a cultural center and folks will rally either around the fountain or around the arch itself.” Sheryl Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy, says in the video. “It’s been the site of protests, it’s been the site of incredible cultural activity in a place where you can feel the city’s presence very strongly,” Karen Karbiener of NYU and the Walt Whitman Initiative, continues.
Unforgotten Films is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council.
MARJORIE MATTHEWS AWARDS AT COLER
NYC Health + Hospitals celebrated their Community Advisory Boards and Hospital Auxiliaries on Thursday evening, at the waterfront tent in front of Coler.
Hundreds of guests gathered to acknowledge the community activities undertaken by each facility’s Community Advisory Board and Auxiliary. These groups operate across all our municipal hospitals and post-acute facilities.
These valuable organizations play a significant role in supporting the facilities and maintaining direct communication with the administration. The Auxiliaries are 501(c)3 not-for-profit organizations that fund activities, programs, and investments which the hospitals need but are unable to finance independently.
Above Borough President Mark Levine presented a proclamation to Verna Fitzpatrick, Chair of the Coler Community Advisory Board, along with Coler Executive Director Stephen Catullo
Judith Berdy and Jacqueline Kwedy of the Coler Auxiliary celebrate Francine Benjamin of the Resident Council celebrate with member Gloria Swaby
CREDITS
Untapped New York
Judith Berdy
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.
Mel Brooks was 14 years old and still known as Melvin Kaminsky when he began working as a busboy in the Catskills at the Butler Lodge in Hurleyville, Sullivan County, hoping to be in the right place at the right time to start a career as an entertainer.
In his 2021 autobiography, All About Me: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, Brooks wrote that whenever he finished his duties as a busboy at the Butler Lodge he would travel to some of the larger hotels nearby to watch their comics perform.
“I loved the Mountains,” he wrote. “The Borscht Belt was so important for my training in comedy. I think it was there that I first learned my craft. The audiences were very tough. They didn’t give it away. When you got a laugh, you really earned it. Those audiences sharpened your ability to survive and sometimes triumph over disastrous performances.”
While there is little doubt that performing in the Mountains at an early age played a major role in the development of Mel Brooks’ career, a relationship he formed while working here proved even more significant.
At one point, his friend and mentor, Don Appell, the social director at the Avon Lodge in Woodridge — and the man who got Mel the job at the Butler Lodge in the first place — introduced him to a young man named Sidney Caesar, who had just graduated high school and was working as a musician at the Avon.
“Six foot two with lush dark blond hair and the shoulders of a lifeguard, ‘Sid’ didn’t look like the usual Jewish boy from Yonkers,” Patrick McGilligan wrote in Funny Man, his 2019 biography of Brooks.
“Younger than Caesar by four years and shorter by six or eight inches, Melvin was instantly smitten by such a physical specimen. ‘Sid was the Apollo of the Mountains, the best looking guy since silent movies,’ Brooks recollected in one interview. ‘He’d stretch himself out on a rock by the lake, and we’d all just look at him.’”
Although they were just casual acquaintances at first, the two would soon form a comedy team of writer and performer that helped make television an instant hit with the American public.
Mel Brooks is one of the most famous entertainers who cut their teeth in the Sullivan County Catskills, but he is just one of hundreds who performed at hundreds of hotels during the heyday of the Borscht Belt. Some of those men—and a few women—went on to become household names, while many others are long forgotten.
Long forgotten too, are many of the hotels that employed those entertainers, and that’s one reason why the ongoing Borscht Belt Historic Marker Project is of such monumental importance in preserving the heritage of the Mountains.
The project — spearheaded locally by photographers Marisa Scheinfeld and Isaac Jeffreys – will dedicate its seventh marker on Sunday, July 21 in Hurleyville, and the stories of Mel Brooks and his brief tenure at the Butler Lodge will likely be in the spotlight.
But Hurleyville was home to many hotels over the years, and although little remains of most of them, they all deserve to be remembered.
From the ill-fated Shindler’s Prairie House to the Majestic and the Morningside and the Paramount Manor, there were dozens of small and medium sized hotels in and around the hamlet, so even without the Mel Brooks connection, a historic marker in Hurleyville would be appropriate.
The marker dedication, scheduled for 1 p.m. in front of the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre, is part of a much larger celebration in the hamlet that day that will include an Author’s Row at the Morgan Outdoors shop at 234 Main Street from 2 to 3 pm.
The curated author and artisan line-up will feature a selection of Catskill authors, including this columnist, myself (Sullivan County Historian), as well as artists, books, art, and merchandise.
The Collaborative College High School at 202 Main Street will be hosting “Catskilland” from 1:30 to 4:30 pm, and organizers tout the slideshow as presenting “iconic Sullivan and Ulster County billboards documented for over six decades by Keller Signs, now part of the collection of the Sullivan County Historical Society.”
In addition, the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre will present a ticketed performance of Sam Sadigursky’s “Solomon Diaries” at 3 pm, and there is much more, with all the events except for the ticketed performance at HPAC free of charge.
It promises to be a real Happening in Hurleyville, with the history of Sullivan County sharing the main stage, so mark your calendars for Sunday, July 21.
MY FAMILY CONNECTION, JUST REDISCOVERED TODAY
Distant relatives owned The Luzon Lodge
in Hurleyville, NY. As my grandmother described it: The entire family got one room. The dining roOm had refrigerator boxes for each room, every family had one burner on the communal stove and the seating was in a booth for the entire family. This was in the 1920’s!! A joy for mom to go on vacation in the mountains! (I remember seeing the lodge in the 1970’s and it was in a sad state and closing down.)
CREDITS
John Conway will be one of the speakers at the dedication of the Borscht Belt Historic Marker in Hurleyville at 1 pm on Sunday, July 21, and will take part in the Author’s Row at Morgan Outdoors at 2 pm, as well.
Photos, from above: Mel Brooks and and Sid Caesar in the early 1950s (courtesy Mel Brooks); Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, 1952; and a Borscht Belt Historic Marker.
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.
BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO COLER AUXILIARY ON WEDNESDAYS, JULY 17, 24TH FROM 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M.
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INDOOR PUBLIC SPACES
IN MANHATTAN
FOR YOUR OWN
URBAN OASIS
NEW YORK UNTAPPED
PART 2
ISSUE # 1274
In Midtown, 6 ½ Avenue is a series of mid-block crosswalks from 51st Street to 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenue, connecting arcades within the dense buildings of Midtown. They are the unique children of the ongoing public-private love affair dotted around New York City called POPS, privately owned public spaces.
The David Rubenstein Public Plaza is one of our favorites, as we’ve seen this atrium go from a climbing wall with sparse activation to a true indoor public space. There are two vertical green walls, a cafe, and plenty of seating. And every Thursday, you are treated to live, world-class music.
If you go looking for this atrium, don’t head to Lincoln Center proper. Enter from either Broadway or Columbus Avenue, between 62nd and 63rd streets. The narrow entrance makes it easily missed, but there is a large overhang above the sidewalk to denote its existence.
Photo by Barret Doherty
Noted architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee originally designed the landmarked tower at 550 Madison, but its public garden atrium recently got a major upgrade designed by Snøhetta. This POPS is now a year-round garden where you can find many seating options among the lush plantings.
Admire the architecture of the New York Public Library’s 42nd Street branch as you seek respite from the heat. You can admire the marble-clad Astor Hall, stroll through the gift shop, and check out rare artifacts from the library’s collections in the Treasures Exhibit. Any New York Public Library makes for a great place to cool down.
I REMEMBER SOME BENCHES IN BACK OF RIVERCROSS. A GREAT PLACE TO SIT AND CONTEMPLATE THE WORLD. WHERE DID THE BENCHES GO?
CREDIT
SECRET NEW YORK JUDITH BERDY
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.
BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO COLER AUXILIARY ON WEDNESDAYS, JULY 17, 24TH FROM 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M.
CONTACT US PRIOR TO ARRIVAL AT 917 744 3721
INDOOR PUBLIC SPACES
IN MANHATTAN
FOR YOUR OWN
URBAN OASIS
NEW YORK UNTAPPED
ISSUE # 1273
Thanks to zoning initiatives, in which the city grants buildings the rights to additional air space (i.e. taller buildings) in exchange for indoor and outdoor public areas, there are quite a few indoor public access areas in the least likely of locations. If you’re looking for a unique meeting spot, want to have a nice quiet lunch, or simply get some “me” time, stop in at one of these indoor public spaces in Manhattan.
A heat wave is here in New York City, with high temperatures forecasted to reach nearly 100 degrees. You can locate the nearest cooling centers here and take refuge in these public places that bring the outdoors in.
This indoor enclosed public space in the Financial District is a spacious atrium replete with fake grass and picnic benches and also includes an outdoor public space on Water Street. Large and spacious, it features plenty of tables and chairs, a food kiosk, two restrooms, an exhibition space, a retail space, and an elevated platform for public events and performances. The outdoor space has benches and trees. This POPS, or Privately Owned Public Space, was recently the site of a memorial for the loss of another POPS location, 60 Wall Street.
Continental Plaza is located at 180 Maiden Lane (between Front and South Streets). Take the 2/3 to Wall Street; 4/5 or J/M to Fulton Street
In one of the plushest atriums, there are literally birds flying around you, singing and chirping. One would be hard-pressed to remember that you’re only a few blocks away from one of the world’s busiest intersections: 57th Street in midtown Manhattan. There are sandwiches, coffee, and free Wifi available for one of the most relaxing hours you will spend! There is also an entrance from here into Trump Tower, should that strike your fancy. Another perk: this building is filled with great art, not only inside the atrium, but the entrance lobby of the building has work by Kenny Scharf, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Jeff Koons.
The IMB Plaza is located at 590 Madison Avenue (at 57th Street). Take the 4/5/6 or N/R to 59th Street.
Photo Courtesy of Brookfield Place
The atrium was severely damaged in the September 11th attacks, as almost all the glass panes were blown out by the dust clouds, but it was rebuilt in 2002. Overlooking New York Harbor, this space is home to several yearly events programs and regular indoor art installations. Brookfield Place is also home to a few great food courts, including Le District and Hudson Eats.
Brookfield Place is located at 220 Vesey Street (West of West Street). Take the E train to World Trade Center.
The public space inside One Bryant Park is always a nice stop, with its large, arched sculptural plantings and double-height ground floor. Located on the corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, the LEED Platinum-certified skyscraper also has some hidden secrets thanks to innovations from the Durst Organization: a rooftop bee farm (we’ve visited and even tried the honey!) and you can actually change the colors of the spire. Remember this spot if you find yourself near Times Square and need somewhere to cool off or seek refuge.
Take the B/D/F/M or 7 to Bryant Park.
VISITORS LOUNGING ON A COOL, SHADED LAWN JUST SOUTH OF THE SUBWAY STATION
CREDITS
SECRET NEW YORK JUDITH BERDY
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.
Feeling lunar and otherworldly?! This special exhibit at The Intrepid Museum pays homage to the history of the Apollo program and tells the tale of NASA’s current Moon to Mars campaign. Through interactive media, photographs, and rarely-seen artifacts directly from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center® archives, visitors can learn more about the infamous Space Race with the Soviet Union and all the people and technology behind this fascinating sector of science. Learn more about the “Apollo: When We Went to the Moon” exhibit here.
Prices: $36
Where: The Intrepid Museum (Pier 86, W 46th St)
Open through August 25 2024
What is “women’s work” anyway? In this new exhibition consisting of about 45 objects, it demonstrates how “women’s work” (historical trends encouraging women to take certain jobs) defies categorization. Items like medical kits and military uniforms are on display, proving just how essential women’s labor efforts have been to the backbone of American society. While celebrating the strides society has made in equality over the years, the exhibit simultaneously shines light on inequalities that still persist today. Learn more here.
Price: $13-$24
Where: New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park West)
Open through July 21, 2024
To celebrate 100 years of the Museum of the City of New York, they’re showcasing a brand new exhibit that explore ours beloved city across all art forms. Through both famous and lesser-known depictions of New York in film and television, visual and performing arts, music, poetry and literature, and even fashion, the exhibit showcases the magic of NYC and what makes it so special. We’re talking everything from an interactive installation of songs inspired by each borough to an immersive 16-screen experience drawn from hundreds of movies about the city made over the past century. It’s the ultimate New York homage.
Where: Museum of the City of New York (1220 5th Ave)
Open now
Take a journey of self-discovery at this groundbreaking and interactive art experience in SoHo. Consisting of a multi-sensory environment where your presence becomes part of the art, the mind-bending installations and digital creations here invite you to explore mind, body, and reality. There’s also an INTER_planetary section of the exhibit that explores Earth’s elements like ether, earth, water, air and fire. This storytelling experience that spans visual, spatial, audio, and experiential elements simply cannot be missed!
Happening on select weekends is a Ghost Stories tour, an interactive tour of all things frightful in the Metropolitan Museum of Art! Get ready to travel across time and cultures to see things like Flying Dutchmen and funerary masks, still life art and sculptures from Egypt, Europe, and beyond. Plus, you’ll even hear some ghoulish stories about the museum itself… Do you have what it takes to make it through the Ghost Stories tour?
BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO COLER AUXILIARY ON WEDNESDAYS, JULY 17, 24TH FROM 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M.
CONTACT US PRIOR TO ARRIVAL AT 917 744 3721
VISITORS LOUNGING ON A COOL, SHADED LAWN JUST SOUTH OF THE SUBWAY STATION
CREDITS
SECRET NEW YORK JUDITH BERDY
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.
Light Line recreates Jenny Holzer’s iconic landmark 1989 installation at the Guggenheim, filling the famous rotunda with scrolling texts, featuring selections from her iconic series, such as “Truisms” and “Inflammatory Essays.” Plus, there’s plenty more of Holzer’s works from the 1970s to the present day, including paintings, stone pieces, and more. Learn more about the exhibit here!
Appropriately ranging from Edward Hopper to Paul Revere, this exhibit showcases more than 140 prints, drawings, and watercolors depicting America’s long history. It offers a glance at all aspects of “the American experience” including early 18th-century portraits of Indigenous leaders, picturesque views of towns and cities, inspiring landscapes, and dramatic images of historic events. Learn more about the exhibit here!
Prices: $24
Where: New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park W)
Open through September 8, 2024
Step into a wonderland full of posters, yes posters, that all promote the greatest city on Earth…New York City! Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters is a collection of over 80 posters curated by the internationally recognized authority on vintage posters Nicholas D. Lowry paying homage to the Big Apple. The 19th and 20th century travel posters used to market NYC depict the thriving metropolis, the hustle and the bustle, the bright lights and the imposing structures that still shine through all these years later. It’s a love letter to the city…through the eyes of vintage travel posters. Learn more about the exhibit here!
Prices: Free – $12 depending on day
Where: Poster House (119 W 23rd St)
Open through August 11, 2024
This retrospective exhibit on pioneering artist, curator, and theorist Amalia Mesa-Bains is currently ongoing at El Museo del Barrio. It features over 40 works, touching on intersectional feminist themes, environmentally centered spirituality, and cultural diversity to counter the racist and gendered erasures of colonial repression. The Chicanx artist’s 3 decades of work (much of it anyway) are on display together for the first time. Learn more about the exhibit here.
Price: Pay as you wish
Where: El Museo del Barrio
Open now
Explore 60 million years of elephant history at this upcoming exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History! The Secret World of Elephants is set to include life-size models, fossils, and casts of these beloved creatures to illustrate elephants’ size, as well as videos and interactive exhibits to introduce visitors to these massive mammals’ incredible abilities!
Price: $28
Where: American Museum of Natural History (200 Central Park Ave)
Open through October 31, 2024
This climate change-focused exhibit on Governors Island is the brainchild of Jenny Kendler, whose new activation features intimate, delicate works—all displayed in the cavernous, subterranean magazine of historic Fort Jay, a star-shaped fortification built on Governors Island between 1775 and 1776. Visitors can get up close and personal with pearl sculptures grown inside oysters, bells rung by fossilized whale ear bones, a crystalline whale eye cast of sea salt and human tears, glass vials filled with oil from long dead whales, and a human nervous system meticulously strung from thousands of tiny pearls.
It’s meant to serve as commentary on oysters and whales as central players in an ecological entanglement between human and nonhuman beings, waterways, and flows of capital. Learn more about the exhibit here!
Prices: Free
Where: Governors Island National Monument
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CONTACT US PRIOR TO ARRIVAL AT 917 744 3721
47 YEARS AGO TONIGHT THE CITY WENT DARK LIVING ON THE ISLAND, LESS THAN A WEEK, IT WAS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO MEET MY NEW NEIGHBORS
CREDITS
SECRET NEW YORK JUDITH BERDY
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.
145 East 57th Street, 3rd FL. NY, NY 10022 Tel: 212.223.1059 Fax: 212.223.1937
Frida Kahlo’s face has been captured countless times on film and canvas, by herself and by others. With flowers in her hair and her signature dark unibrow, Frida’s striking portrait is an indelible image of the 20th century. Self-portraits account for a large portion of Kahlo’s paintings and she has been photographed by family, friends, lovers, and famous photographers throughout her life. In a new photography exhibit at Throckmorton Fine Art, FRIDA KAHLO: Forever Yours…, visitors can peer into the artist’s portrait in nearly 50 rare and never-before-seen images that capture Kahlo from age two to just before her death at 47.
Kahlo spent most of her life, from 1907 to 1954, in Mexico City. She began painting self-portraits in 1925 while recuperating from a severe bus crash that put her in the hospital for weeks. Kahlo created around 200 still lifes and portraits throughout her life. Today, she is remembered as an artist, a political activist, and a feminist. Her work can be seen at such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art in New York where it hangs among masterpieces by Salvador Dalí and René Magritte.
Many of the images on display in this new exhibit come from founder Spencer Throckmorton’s extensive personal collection of Kahlo portraiture. He’s amassed nearly 200 portraits over the past 50 years. Throckmorton’s fascination with Frida Kahlo began on a trip to her hometown of Mexico City in 1977.
“A friend introduced me to Cristina Kahlo, Frida’s grand-niece, who was selling a photograph by Manuel Álvarez Bravo of Frida with a globe,” Throckmorton shared with Untapped New York, “I bought it, then started researching her. I read Hayden Herrera’s book Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo and just fell in love with her. I met her friends, neighbors, and family. And anywhere I could find a picture of Frida, I bought it at flea markets, auctions, everywhere. Once I started, pictures just started coming to me. It was almost magical. Then in the ‘80s, I found two lost paintings of Frida’s – one signed and one not.”
Throckmorton mounted a show of his photographs in 2015, but since then has collected even more. For the current exhibit, he shares fifteen never-seen-before shots. These shots show Frida in a variety of different scenarios between 1930 and 1944.
The portraits on display show Frida in casual intimate moments and staged poses. In a never-before-seen series of black and white shots by her friend Rosa Cavarrubias, Frida lies in the grass, shading her eyes from the sun. Covarrubias, the wife of artist Miguel Covarrubias, was taught photography by Man Ray in Paris. In other images Frida is seen watching an eclipse, smoking a cigarette, kissing her husband Diego Rivera. In many, she gazes straight into the lens, or just out of frame, wearing a contemplative and enigmatic expression.
These moments were captured by noted photographers like Fritz Henle, Lucienne Bloch, Bernard Silberstein, Leo Matiz, Gisele Freund, Manuel Álvarez Bravo and his wife Lola Álvarez Bravo (one of Frida’s lifelong friends), Leon de Vos, Edward Weston, and Sylvia Salmi, a female photographer who also photographed other artists and intellectuals of the time including Albert Einstein, Diego Rivera, and Leon Trotsky. Photographs by people close to Frida, like her father Guillermo Kahlo, also feature in the installation. Guillermo was a well-known photographer in Mexico City.
When we visited the display, a series of portraits by Nickolas Muray, one of Frida’s lovers, stood out. They were taken on Kodak color film sent to Muray by the company. He had to send the film back to Kodak, and the photographer’s estate didn’t regain possession of the photographs he took until decades later. Once the images were returned, about 30 prints were made with the help of an expert who still knew how to develop that particular type of film. Those rare prints are now on sale at Throckmorton Fine Art.
On our trip to Throckmorton Fine Art, NorbertoRivera, Throckmorton’s Director of Photography, took us behind the scenes to see even more images kept in storage. He pulled open large drawers from towering rows of file cabinets. Inside, the drawers were bursting with images of Frida.
Along with the dozens of images on display, visitors to Throckmorton Fine Art will also find an embroidered Mexican blouse worn by Frida that she later gifted to a friend. There are also some examples of Frida’s work on display including a 1953 gouache entitled “The Laugh,” pencil drawings, and other small works. Books that contain photographs from the collection, including the 40th edition of the Taschen monograph Frida Kahlo, are also on view.
See all of these fascinating items for yourself and gain expert insight when you join Untapped New York Insiders for a tour of FRIDA KAHLO: Forever Yours… with Spencer Throckmorton on July 25th. The exhibit is on view through September 28th, 2024.
INSIDE THE HALLS OF JUSTICE THE ROTUNDA OF 60 CENTRE STREET DISCOVERED WHILE IN THE BUILDING TO ARRANGE JURY DUTY
CREDITS
UNTAPPED NEW YORK THROCKMORTON FINE ART JUDITH BERDY
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.
On July 13, 1902, painter Robert Henri took a day trip to Far Rockaway. Unlike more raucous Coney Island, this easternmost stretch of the Rockaway Peninsula had become a popular seaside destination for New Yorkers seeking peaceful relief from sweltering urban heat.
After sketching a scene of visitors streaming from a bathing pavilion to the beach, Henri “described his idea for the final oil in his diary: ‘blue sky. sun yellow pavilion…tel[ephone] pole brilliant colors of people on beach, walk and in pavilion. blue strip of sea,’” states the 1994 book, American Impressionism and Realism, per Sothebys.com.
The above painting is the final oil, simply titled “At Far Rockaway.” Henri at the time was moving away from Impressionism to a more realist style. But this rich landscape has an Impressionist feel—the pops of color from the parasols, hats, and willowy bathing dresses as well as the contrast of blue hues in the sky and ocean.
The visitors are mostly female; the contours of the sand appear like a soft embrace. American flags, perhaps leftover from the Fourth of July, wave in the breeze before a placid “blue strip of sea,” as Henri put it.
“Painted four years after the Rockaways were officially absorbed into the City of Greater New York, “At Far Rockaway” depicts the elevated boardwalk, a main attraction in the area, or one of a number of popular bathing pavilions offering comfort and shade to beachgoers,” stated Sotheby’s, which called the painting a “celebration of modern seaside leisure.”
“Painted four years after the Rockaways were officially absorbed into the City of Greater New York, “At Far Rockaway” depicts the elevated boardwalk, a main attraction in the area, or one of a number of popular bathing pavilions offering comfort and shade to beachgoers,” stated Sotheby’s, which called the painting a “celebration of modern seaside leisure.”
SUMMER BUNGALOWS WERE A GREAT PLACE TO STAY DURING THE HEAT OF SUMMER IN THE ROCKAWAYS
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.
When I moved to the Island 47 years ago last Sunday, I was introduced to Astoria shopping by my friend Arlene Atkinson. We learned to take the Q102 bus and visit the Greek, French, Italian and other shops in the neighborhood.
This morning I returned for the first time in a while (aside from trips to Dollar Tree at Broadway and 31st Avenue). The Q102 runs the route with a few modifications for monster construction around Queens Plaza.
Trade Fair was my first stop (after Dollar Tree and a stop for coffee). Its aisle are full of exotic imports, many from the Middle East.
The aisles are well stocked and some prices are the same as Foodtown. The advantage is a great selection of ethnic foods, a wonderful deli and salad bar. Also, wandering the aisles and discovering old favorites.
A block east of Trade Fair this half-block long apartment house is being completed. These six story housing is popping up all; over Western Queens, replacing one story tax-payers.
The Berry Fruit Market is still on the same corner with lots of fresh produce. Being Monday morning, the staff was busy putting out fresh produce. A shop reflecting the times when we went to the green-grocer every few days.
All kinds of restaurants proliferate in the neighborhood. A vast variety a 20 minute Q102 ride from home.
Still on the corner of 31 Street and Broadway, Parisi Bakery with the aroma of fresh bread wafting to the sidewalk.
While waiting for the Q102, the scene was looking into the recently renovated Broadway N /W subway station with it glass artwork. The building across the street has a sign “2nd Avenue” a relic of days past.
Since it took a while for the bus to arrive, I studied the architectural detail of the building: decorative details on the far wall and ornate ironwork on the fire escapes.
The Walkins Bakery is long gone along with the French Butcher Shop. Many of the discount stores are gone with new buildings including a Compass Real Estate office and a Food Emporium. Still worth the visit!!!!
ASTORIA PARK POOL, BUILT FOR THE OLYMPIC TRIALS FOR THE 1936 BERLIN OLYMPICS. RECENTLY RESTORED AND NOW OPEN WITH A GRAND VIEW OF THE TRIBORO.
CREDITS JUDITH BERDY
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 village of Red Hook (Roode Hoek = Red Corner) was established by Dutch colonists in 1636 and named after the locality’s red clay soil. Two decades later its community became part of Brooklyn.
During the 1650s, settlers brought over ovens from the Low Countries to supply fellow colonists with household vessels. Manhattan’s production of red earthenware is thought to have begun with Dirck Claesen, a potter based in the New Amsterdam settlement.
Born in Leeuwarden, Friesland, he had arrived in New Netherland in 1653. As early products resembled objects produced at home, it is difficult to differentiate between local products and imports.
The expansion of the city of New York after the Revolution boosted the need for household earthenware and helped sustain local potters. Their numbers increased once mass migration from Europe was set in motion. Amongst the newcomers were many English potters who settled in Brooklyn and revitalized the industry.
The Six Towns
The “Potteries” is a collective name for six towns in Staffordshire (Stoke-on-Trent, Longton, Fenton, Hanley, Burslem and Tunstall) where during the Industrial Revolution the ceramic industry boomed. The availability of clay, coal and clean water from the River Trent meant that manufacturers had ready access to vital resources.
In 1770, Josiah Spode was the first Staffordshire potter to develop a viable method of manufacturing blue and white ceramics. His son Josiah II worked out the formula for bone china. Having opened a showroom in London in 1778, porcelain became popular amongst the city’s wealthy elite.
Although preceded by Josiah Wedgwood, Spode’s enterprise set a standard that was followed by the likes of Minton, Copeland and Ridgeway. Railway expansion in the 1840s increased distribution and soon there were over two hundred “potbanks” in operation, employing some 50,000 people.
With growing demand at home and abroad, manufacturers built larger ovens with little consideration for their workers. Factories were divided into workshops where skilled laborers were paid on “piece-rates,” their earnings depending on the number of pots produced. Child labor was common.
The kilns created a permanent haze of black smoke and turned the six towns into a polluted wasteland. Poor conditions caused ill health. Silicosis or “potter’s rot” was a common disease.
By 1824, potters had gained the right to organize into unions and negotiate conditions of employment. Forward steps were made, but by the mid-1830s the relationship between employers and workers worsened.
In 1836 the National Union of Operative Potters called out a strike that lasted for twenty weeks until starvation forced members to return to work. The walkout was followed by a recession in the early 1840s. Unemployment rose sharply and factory owners invested in machinery to reduce the wage bill. Skilled workers competed with each other for a diminishing number of jobs at low wages.
In 1843 a new union of potters was founded which, instead of confrontation, suggested a scheme to reduce surplus labor and improve the bargaining position of remaining workers.
The union supported emigration to the colonies. In April 1845 a polemical poem entitled “The Pioneers Song” appeared in the weekly newspaper The Potters’ Examiner, published in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, calling for English potters to forsake the tyranny of their employers and move to America.
The final verse reads:
But away with the pain – we shall see them again! We are only preparing a way for the rest: Then blow! Breezes blow! As onward we go- The Potters shall yet have a home in the West!
Ceramics may not have figured on a priority list of crafts in America at the time, but urbanization and the push westward had increased consumer demand. The discovery of raw material deposits opened up the potential of a viable industry. The 1840s saw a sustained period of potter migration from the Potteries to the United States.
Beauties of America
Prior to the Revolutionary War, colonists imported mass produced earthenware from English potteries. In spite of trade interruptions the pattern was continued after independence. Entrepreneurs at Staffordshire factories promoted patterns that would appeal to American patriots. White items of pottery were decorated with transfer-printed scenes of New York and other cities, portraits of the Founding Fathers and coats of arms from the new states.
In September 1822, Hanley potter John Ridgway sailed to Boston, Massachusetts, where he began a two-month tour in order to procure American prints and views and establish relationships with local ceramic merchants. On his return he began the process of creating his “Beauties of America” dinner service by transferring twenty-two views and landscapes onto plates, dishes, gravy boats, etc.
Burslem-born Andrew Stevenson ran the Cobridge Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. An enterprising character he set out to seek a market niche in New York City. In January 1823, he sailed on the packet ship James Cropper from Liverpool with a consignment of earthenware. Later that year, Spooner’s Brooklyn Village Directory listed Stevenson as a “China & earthenware Manufacturer / Address Mansion House, Brooklyn Heights / Store 58, Broadway, New York.”
The business did not last long. In November 1823, the New York Gazette and General Advertiser supplied details of a sale at the above address of an assortment of china, earthenware and glass. From Brooklyn Heights Stevenson had enjoyed a view of the city which, on his return to Cobridge, served as inspiration for printed patterns on plates and dishes – New York in Staffordshire blue.
Greenpoint
Located at Brooklyn’s northernmost point, Greenpoint was an industrial site that would become associated with shipbuilding, but the first firms here were practitioners of the so-called “five black arts.” Glass and pottery makers, printers, refiners and cast-iron producers were so named because of the toxic fumes they produced. Smokestacks were a feature of Brooklyn’s skyline.
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, there were at least a dozen potteries operating here. Many of the entrepreneurs and workers were English-born. This was a case of chain migration, the socio-economic process by which migrants from a particular place follow others from that area to a specific destination. Greenpoint was turned into Little Staffordshire.
Although modellers brought along popular English styles and motifs (such as Toby jugs), they quickly incorporated local flowers, trees, fish and animals in their pottery designs. Niagara Falls inspired waterfall scenes. In addition to utilitarian pieces, they began to produce “Fancy” ceramic pieces in a variety of styles, glazes and materials.
In 1848, a migrant by the name of Charles Cartlidge set up a works in Freeman Street. Born in 1800 into a Burselm family of potters, he manufactured tea sets, pitchers, bowls, door knobs, buttons, cane heads, inkstands and cameos. His brother-in-law Josiah Jones modeled “busts of celebrated Americans” in what the firm always described as bisque (white unglazed) porcelain.
Cartlidge engaged talented painters to decorate the firm’s products. One of these artists was Elijah Tatler who had served an apprenticeship at Minton in Staffordshire. After Cartlidge closed the factory in 1855, he would establish his a decorating business in Trenton, New Jersey.
In 1853 Longton-born William Young, also a former employee at Cartlidge, settled in Trenton producing decorative hardware and household crockery. During the 1860s, several potteries were ranged along the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
Two years after closure of Cartlidge’s pioneering firm, German-born William Boch founded a pottery in Greenpoint. He produced Rococo-style pitchers as well as household ceramics and ornamental figures. Boch displayed his wares at Manhattan’s spectacular Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1853. But, as with Cartlidge, the firm ran into financial difficulties and passed into the care of a stock company. At the outbreak of the Civil War, a new owner took over.
Patriotic Pottery
Thomas Carll Smith had started his career in New York as a builder. A wealthy man at a young age, he had funds to invest. Although without experience in pottery and in spite of the high rate of failure in the trade, Smith decided to proceed.
In 1863, suffering from ill health, he traveled to Europe to recuperate and embraced the opportunity to visit the French porcelain factory of Sevres and some potteries in Staffordshire. He engrossed himself in the minute details of porcelain making.
On his return he renovated the factory which he named the Union Porcelain Works (UPW) and invested in the plant’s modernization. He acquired a quarry in Brachville, Connecticut, to secure the supply quartz and feldspar. Located at 300 Eckford Street, UPW became the main manufacturer of porcelain tile, door knobs and fireplace ceramics, a position it held well into the 1920s when the factory was finally closed.
But Smith had bigger dreams. His ambition was to compete with the quality china of Limoges or Meissen. Unwilling to copy European motifs, he resolved to use only original designs and create typical American patterns.
In 1874 he offered a job to sculptor Karl Müller to design wares for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Born in Germany about 1820 and trained in Paris, Müller had moved to the city of New York in the aftermath of the 1848 political unrest. Smith admired his work.
Müller’s designs at the Exhibition attracted keen interest. His most notable contribution was a pair of large Century Vases, each covered with a profusion of historical and patriotic scenes. Bison heads serve as handles; a portrait of George Washington embellishes each side; and six biscuit-relief panels around the base depict historical events.
By producing uniquely themed china, UPW shaped a stylistic tradition that set the tone for future developments. The 1876 Centennial spurred on a vogue of collecting Americana. People sought out items memorizing the early years of the Republic, from furniture and silver to ceramics with patriotic themes.
Pioneering Pottery
Decorators were elite artisans in porcelain manufacturing as the work required both artistic talent and the skill to paint with enamels. Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Edward Lycett was apprenticed aged twelve at Copeland & Garrett, the former Spode manufactory in Stoke-on-Trent.
In 1852, he joined Thomas Battam’s renowned decorating firm in London. He created classical figures and cameo medallions as well as flowers, birds and fish in a palette that was characteristic of the finest china painting in England.
Lycett was one of many Staffordshire craftsmen who made his way to New York in search of new challenges and better prospects. He settled in Greenpoint in 1861 where he worked to order, sometimes alone and on other occasions in partnership, decorating a range of wares in a variety of styles, from ornate dinner services to bar pitchers, building a growing name for himself. In 1866 he was commissioned by President Andrew Johnson to paint a china set for use in the White House. His reputation rocketed.
In 1884, eager to experiment with the aesthetics of design, he accepted an invitation by Bernard Veit, part owner of the Faience Manufacturing Company, to take up the role of Art Director. French faience (tin-glazed earthenware) and Limoges wares had been fashionable ever since the Centennial Exposition.
It inspired the name of the company and served as models for wares produced at the Brooklyn factory and sold at Veit & Nelson’s showrooms in Lower Manhattan. But the public’s taste was changing, becoming more focused on Royal Worcester or Crown Derby porcelain. Lycett was appointed to facilitate the change towards the creation of art pottery.
Within two years of his arrival, he transformed the Faience Manufacturing Company’s artistic agenda. Edward specialized in large bulbous vases and ewers decorated with an eclectic mix of Japanese and Islamic influences that reflected the “cult of beauty” associated with the Aesthetic Movement.
Imposing size and complex in decoration, his designs of the 1880s exhibited an American inspiration that distinguished them from those by European art potteries. They were sold in elite art emporiums, including Tiffany & Company. He set a new standard of excellence in ceramics.
The high cost of producing labor-intensive art ceramics for a relatively small market was not sustainable. In 1890, the Faience Manufacturing Company ceased production. Lycett retired, but his legacy endured.
In 1895 historian Edwin Atlee Barber (author of Marks of American Potters in 1904) described him as “The Pioneer of China Painting in America” and the label stuck. He stood out as a gifted craftsman in Brooklyn’s Little Staffordshire community.
2006 BRAND NEW BUS #3 Judith Berdy
CREDITS NEW YORK ALMANACK
Illustrations, from above: A detail from Andrew Stevenson’s platter “New York from Heights near Brooklyn,” a Staffordshire blue roast dish from ca. 1825 (Brooklyn Museum); Middleport in the Potteries, Staffordshire, from above; 20th century workers in the casting room Middleport pottery, England; Andrew Stevenson’s plate showing the 1816 Alms House in New York City on the banks of the East River; the Cartlidge Porcelain Works at Greenpoint, “drawn from memory by Mr. C.W. A. Cartlidge”; a William Boch pitcher decorated by F.K.M. Kropp, 1850s (Brooklyn Museum); a Karl Müller vase, ca. 1876 (Brooklyn Museum); and a Edward Lycett covered vase, ca. 1887 (University of Richmond Museums).
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.
