The tradition of freak shows in Europe dates back to the sixteenth century. Medical “monstrosities” became standard components of traveling exhibitions. During the nineteenth century such shows caught the imagination of large viewing (and paying) audiences.
Human exhibits were presented for public entertainment and the parade of “freaks of nature” was a booming business. With the expansion of colonialism, the emphasis changed from physical to racial characteristics. Displays of exotic but “backward” populations (“human zoos”) became common in the 1870s in the midst of imperialist ambitions.
This social phenomenon also inspired a remarkable venture at the beginning of trade relations between the independent United States and Imperial China. P. T. Barnum may be considered the “father” of the American freak show, but he was not the first to sense its commercial opportunities.
Tea & Opium
Formerly named Canton City, Guangzhou has a long history as a trading port. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907) many foreigners settled in the city, establishing a network of commercial ties.
Muslim merchant Sulaiman al-Tājir (“Solomon the Merchant”) left a travelogue of his visit to the city in 851 in which he observed the strict control over the movement of foreigners and the steep rates being charged for imported goods. He pointed at the city’s sizeable Muslim community and commented upon local tea consumption. Solomon admired the quality of local porcelain.
Trade between China and Europe began during the sixteenth century. Portuguese and Spanish traders brought silver from the Americas in exchange for silks. Having settled in Macau, the Portuguese monopolized the early foreign trade with China.
In 1685 the nation’s legendary Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722) permitted Western merchants to trade in Canton, but their freedom of movement was limited. They could deal with the “Cohong” only, members of which were official representatives of the Emperor.
The “foreign devils” (European traders) worked out of rented offices called “factories” in a walled off part of the city that combined warehouses and offices with living quarters. Their vessels were required to anchor downstream on the Pearl River. The British East India Company soon dominated commercial dealings.
Payments were demanded in silver Spanish dollars minted from mines in the New World. As the Qing Imperial Court refused opening its internal market to foreign goods, Britain could not sustain its deficits and needed a substitute currency.
Opium appeared as a new form of exchange. Rapidly expanding through the 1800s, India-grown opium was traded illegally for bullion (“specie”) with local smugglers and reinvested in tea for importation to British and American markets.
Growing Anglo-Chinese friction over the practice started the First Opium War in 1840. Two years later, the defeated Qing Empire was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking (1842) that ceded Hong Kong to Britain, eliminated trading restrictions and opened five new ports to foreign trade.
Old China Trade
The British East India Company had long been selling Chinese goods to the colonists, but no American ship is believed to have had ever sailed beyond the Cape of Good Hope. Prior to 1783 Britain did not permit the colonies access to Asian markets.
The Company’s so-called East Indiamen were amongst the most powerful merchant ships ever built and dominated the trade routes. American contacts with China started after the Revolution when American merchants took over from the British.
During the uprising armed privateers, backed by the infant American government, had preyed on British commercial shipping. Their crews were ready to take on a new challenge.
The three-master Empress of China was built in 1783 as a privateer, but refitted for trade after the war. Leaving New York Harbor on February 22, 1784, she became what is believed to have been the first American vessel to enter Chinese waters.
Organized by Robert Morris (1734-1806), a financier from Philadelphia, and captained by former Philadelphian U.S. naval officer John Green, she returned to New York on May 11, 1785, after a round voyage of fourteen months and twenty-four days, opening up what today is known as the “Old China Trade.”
She also transported former army officer Samuel Shaw (1754-1794) to Canton who would act as the first American consul to China. This profit-driven venture acquired political significance.
The nation’s ability to access Canton was seen as a statement of the Republic’s independent intentions. The Empress of China marked the entry of America as a serious player into global trade markets.
(The next ship to engage in the China trade was the Experiment, a sixty-foot-long sloop captained by Stewart Dean of Albany. It left in the spring of 1785 for China, 14,000 nautical miles away.)
The Empress of China carried silver as trading currency and thirty tons of ginseng. A traditional medicine in China used for restoring strength to the infirm, American ginseng was found in abundance in the Appalachian Mountains.
Its export opened the Chinese market to merchants (other commodities were added in the process, including furs, metals, cotton and sandalwood). The Empress returned with a rich cargo of eight hundred chests of tea and a huge quantity of porcelain.
Canton ware is a cobalt blue and white porcelain, the ceramic recipe of which was a closely-guarded secret. Manufactured in Ching-Te Chen province (the “Capital of Porcelain”), plates and dishes were sent to Canton for decoration by professional artists who, working on an “assembly line,” painted a single element before passing it to the next workstation. The hand-painted subjects of tea houses, pagodas, foot bridges, meandering waterways, mountains and small figures were popular.
Porcelain was exported in large quantities by East India cargo ships, serving at the same time as ballast to keep the vessel stable. From 1784 to circa 1850, about two million pieces were exported to North America.
Canton ware was inventoried at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of President George and Martha Washington, in the late 1790s.
Flood of Imports
A few Chinese migrants may have crossed the Pacific during the first decades of trading contacts, but their movements were barely recorded. In 1847, a former cook on a packet liner named Ah Sue, opened a store on Cherry Street, Manhattan, selling tobacco.
He also ran a small boarding house renting rooms to sailors. Ah Sue set a pattern for fellow newcomers, although their number remained low. According to the 1875 census there were 157 Chinese immigrants living in the city of New York.
Knowledge of the country therefore was limited, but the colonies were familiar with Chinese imports. From the mid-1600s onward, an array of products was imported from Canton.
Quantities of tea, silk and porcelain were available in these early years, both by legal and illegal means. Dutch smugglers were active in bringing tea to the colonies from Batavia. American pirates also circumvented the East India Company’s monopoly. The United States became hooked on tea.
The American China trade flourished after independence in spite of the risk of pirate attacks on bullion carrying ships. Merchants and investors were keen to explore the trade. The demand for Asian goods made the gamble worthwhile. It marked the beginning of America’s international trade.
Until the Treaty of Nanking it was a free trade arrangement whereby products were manufactured specifically for the American market. Production was based on a business model that relied upon the Chinese genius for imitation.
Having transported exclusive European items to Canton (shawls from Italy, tapestry from Belgium, perfume from France), replicas were churned out en masse by local manufacturers.
Selling cheaply produced items whilst pretending class and status, became a lucrative trading stratagem. Design theft in the Far East was stoked by American merchants. Boatloads of cargo made their way to the United States to satisfy the desire for oriental and exotic goods.
In 1832 a vessel named Howard returned to New York from China. Soon after, its owners placed its cargo up for auction. For the Carnes Brothers this had been a first foray into the Canton market. Up until then, they imported luxury goods from France. The emergence of an affluent urban middle class had prompted the venture. The surviving auction catalogue of the Howard shows an intriguing trend.
Absent were standard items that characterized the trade (teas, porcelain or jade). Instead, the merchants offered an assortment of “pongee” fabrics, silk shawls, decorated window blinds, fireworks, backgammon boards, snuff boxes, colored paper, walking canes, lacquered furniture and folding fans.
The Carnes Brothers aimed at creating a new market of fancy non-necessities to an emerging group of (female) shoppers. They also introduced a novel promotional ploy.
The Chinese Lady
Attempting to draw attention to their sales, the Brothers decided upon the strategy of exhibiting a young Chinese lady in a “home” decor of opulent furnishings. They approached Captain Benjamin Obear, whose ship Washington was setting sail for Canton, to arrange a deal on their behalf.
It is not known how and on what terms Obear persuaded the parents to part with their fourteen-year old daughter, but on October 17, 1834, a Cantonese youngster arrived in Manhattan.
Listed on the passenger list as “Auphinoy,” she was given the anglicized name of Afong Moy (her true name is unknown as are the details of her family background). The first reported female Chinese immigrant to the United States, she was treated as a commodity.
Her first “performance” took place in November 1834 at Obear’s Manhattan home at No. 8 Park Place. Seated in a throne-like armchair and dressed in silk, her bound feet were displayed on a stool (foot binding tales created enormous curiosity).
A lithograph of “The Chinese Lady,” produced in 1835 by Charles Risso and William R. Browne, recreated the settings of Moy’s presentation.
She was surrounded by a range of goods, lanterns, mirrors, curtains, wall hangings, paintings, vases, lacquer furniture and ornamental boxes – the sort of items that the Carnes Brothers were putting up for sale. The aim was strictly commercial.
Not only did New Yorkers enjoy a “meeting” with an exotic Chinese woman at her imagined residence, but they were also offered the opportunity to acquire elegant items for an affordable price.
Assisted by an interpreter, Afong would occasionally walk around the room and encourage visitors to make a purchase. The exhibition created excitement and journalistic attention.
As she represented a culture that was alien to Americans, thousands paid the entrance fee of fifty cents to see this “Unprecedented Novelty” (including Vice-President Martin Van Buren). Sales soared.
In January 1835, the exhibition was taken on tour. In Philadelphia she suffered the indignity of white doctors examining her feet (a violation of privacy in Chinese culture).
In March, she was presented to Andrew Jackson in Washington DC, the first American President to meet a Chinese person while in office. She visited Maryland and South Carolina, before returning to New York in June that year.
On arrival, a new manager by the name of Henry Hannington had taken over. He organized a whirlwind of tours for her. Over a period of six months she traveled over a thousand miles.
Back in Manhattan where Hannington ran his “Grand Moving Dioramas” at the City Saloon, an amusement house on Broadway, he transformed Moy’s role to an onstage “oriental” spectacle.
He made her display her unbound feet, eat with chopsticks and sing a Chinese song to audiences. His operations collapsed during the 1837 financial panic. Those responsible for Afong’s arrival had disappeared from the scene. By 1838, she entered a poorhouse in Monmouth, New Jersey.
She reappeared a decade later as an exhibit in P. T. Barnum’s American Museum, on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street, being reduced to a freakish spectacle of “otherness.”
Beginning in July 1847 at Niblo’s Garden in Manhattan, she began touring again, at times appearing on stage with Charles Stratton, better known as “General Tom Thumb” (a little person who would become a global celebrity).
Within a few years, she was replaced by a younger Chinese woman whose feet were even smaller than hers.
Chinatown
Moy’s last public exhibition took place on February 21, 1851, after which she disappeared from the public eye. There is no evidence that she ever returned to Canton; her name has not been traced in any census or death records.
The “interaction” between Moy and the public fed and formed early perceptions of Chinese culture, but to some observers such displays raised ethical questions about exploitation. Protests were voiced against the abusive manipulation of a young “disabled” foreign woman for commercial gain.
The New-York Mirror refused to print any reference to the Chinese Lady and her “little feet.” The anger, however, was not directed against the men who profited from her appearances, but turned against a cultural system that allowed for women to be physically deformed.
It was believed, therefore, the duty of missionaries to bring the gospel to China. Lacking accurate information, stereotypes emerged of a stagnant Empire which allowed western authorities to justify imperialism as a “noble” quest to civilize that section of humanity.
Stock images would re-emerge during the economic hardships of the 1870s when, after a period of mass Chinese male immigration (and recruitment by mining and railway bosses), resentment against incomers raged in California in particular.
Large numbers of migrant workers fled the region and moved towards Manhattan. Settling in the surroundings of Mott Street, a new and vibrant district of immigrants emerged that would later be named Chinatown.
STOP BY THE RIHS TABLE ON SUNDAY AT RI DAY
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Illustrations, from above: Detail from Risso & Browne’s “Afong Moy, the Chinese Lady,” 1835 (New York Public Library); A reverse-glass export painting of Canton’s harbor and its European “factories,” 1805; Artist unknown, “The Production of Tea,” 1790-1800 (Peabody Essex Museum); Fan depicting the Empress of China on the far left, the only traced image of the ship, ca. 1784. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania); A collection of Canton ware. (Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, Hadley, Massachusetts); William John Huggins, “The Indiaman Asia,” 1836 (Royal Museums Greenwich); Risso & Browne’s “Afong Moy, the Chinese Lady,” 1835 (New York Public Library); and the Port Arthur Chinese Restaurant, at 7-9 Mott Street, ca. 1900, one of the first banquet halls of Chinatown
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 Neo-Gothic Trinity Building at 111 Broadway, next door to Trinity Church, was constructed around its bank vault in 1907! Today there is a bar and restaurant in that bank vault!
The 70-ton vault was commissioned in 1904 by the New York Realty Bank and constructed upstate in Hudson, NY before being placed on a barge and sailed down the Hudson River. Once it reached Lower Manhattan the vault was loaded on to railroad tracks, which were constructed just to get the vault up the hill from the bank of the river to the Broadway location. The vault still sits on these tracks to this date!
Designed by Francis H. Kimball, the Trinity and US Realty Building was constructed around the bank and rose to a height of 308-feet when it was completed in 1907. Adjacent to Richard Upjohn’s 1846 Trinity Church and inspired by its neo-gothic architecture, the skyscraper is actually two separate 21-story slab buildings that rise straight from the street with no setbacks – separated by Thames Street and only linked by a steel footbridge.
In 2006 the bank vault was restored to repurposed as Trinity Place, a bar and restaurant inside the former vault, giving the public an opportunity to see the historic site first hand. Trinity Place still houses both restored vault doors, one leading into the bar and the other into the restaurant, which was historically used as a secret meeting room for the board of directors and still has its original brass chandelier. The 5″ thick steel walls that surrounded the vault are still visible.
CAN YOU IDENTIFY THIS ISLAND CELEBRITY AND FRIEND?
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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.
VISIT THE RIHS TABLE AT THE RI DAY CELEBRATION THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 8th AT FIREFIGHTERS FIELD.
THE RIHS WILL BE DISPLAYING 50 YEARS OF ISLAND PHOTOS FROM RESIDENT AND FAMILIES.
WE WILL ALSO BE DISTRIBUTING BOOKS FROM THE NYPL. STOP BY OUR TABLE AND JOIN THE FUN!
JP MORGAN
23 WALL STREET
Thursday, June 5, 2025 NYCUrbanism Issue #1463
In 1869 J. Pierepont Morgan co-founded Drexel, Morgan & Co. with businessman Anthony Drexel, setting their vision on the southeast corner of Wall and Broad Street between Federal Hall and the New York Stock Exchange for their new headquarters. Three years later the bank paid $250,000 in gold for the site, setting records as the most expensive lot of that size in the world. Drexel, Morgan & Co. would hire architect Arthur D. Gilman to design a six-story French Second Empire style building clad in Vermont marble with a mansard roof and a prominent entrance on the chamfered corner topped with a sculpted pediment and two statues depicting Europe and America.
The entrance of the Drexel Building (left) with the original (top) and current Stock Exchangeb (bottom) across the street.
Current Stock Exchange
The building opened in 1873 with the bank designating the first floor as a banking hall with offices above. In 1882 the building was the center of attention when Thomas Edison flipped a switch, illuminating the structure with 600 electric lights. By the 1890s the renamed J.P. Morgan & Co. was the country’s most powerful investment bank, helping to transform the U.S. economy and financing some of the country’s strongest financial players including the U.S. Steel Corporation; the world’s first billion-dollar corporation and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which dominated northeast regional rail traffic during the first half of the 20th century.
The building would temporarily close on April 1, 1913, the day J.P. Morgan died, and less than a year later the Drexel Building would be demolished, with a new building rising on what had become the most valuable lot in the country, completed a year later. Designed by Towbridge & Livingston (architect of the 1912 Bankers Trust Building diagonally across the Street), the new unadorned limestone building that would replace Drexel was drastically smaller, only four stories tall, contradicting the cardinal rule of Wall Street development where taller buildings have always replaced shorter ones over time. Today JPMorgan Chase & Co. is one of the largest banks in the world.
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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 309-foot New York World Building (officially known as the Pulitzer Building) was the tallest skyscraper in the world when it opened in 1890. Located on Newspaper Row (today’s Park Row) across from City Hall and next to the Tribune, Times, Herald, and Sun newspaper buildings, it served as an office building and vertical factory, with newspaper production starting in the tower’s dome – under the publisher Joseph Pulitzer’s direction – with photoengraving, editorial and reportorial staff meeting and compiling photographs and news stories in the sun-light upper floors. Production then traveled down to the linotype composing room, then to the giant presses in the cellar, where newsprint paper making machines printed 48,000 8-page papers per hour. Paperboys waited outside on the curb for the cut, pasted and folded papers to be distributed.
Designed by architect George B. Post (NY Stock Exchange) the skyscraper featured an ornate red sandstone facade. The dome at the top of the world housed a public observation deck where visitors could ascend a flight of stairs to a cupola where they would be greeted with a 360-degree view of the city.By the mid-19th Century, the newspaper buildings had moved from Park Row, with the Herald going to 34th Street (Herald Sq) and the Times going to 42nd Street (Times Sq). But in January of 1953, the New York Times reported the fateful news for the World Building, which neighbored the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge: “The doom of the historic World Building at 63 Park Row was forecast yesterday as the City Planning Commission approved a $5,266,000 plan drafted by Manhattan Borough President Robert F. Wagner Jr. for rearrangement and reconstruction of the street system at the Manhattan plaza of the Brooklyn Bridge.”
In 1955 the building was demolished to make way for an on-ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge. The iconic Tribune Building next door would also be demolished to make way for the Brutalist Pace University
World Building elevation drawing
World Building demolition, 1955. Tribune Building on the right before demolition.
THE BIRDS ARE LONG GONE
TIME TO CLEAN OFF THE BLACKWELL HOUSE NEST AND BIRD DROPPINGS!
CREDITS
NYCURBANISM
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.
Defining a New Era for American Women: The New York Woman Magazine
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 New-York Historical Blog Issue #1461
The 1930s was a time of immense change for American women. This was especially true for women working in New York City, who saw their professional, economic, and social opportunities rapidly expand during this decade.
Historians predominantly characterize the 1930s in the United States as an era of economic turmoil due to the Great Depression. Nevertheless, women joined the urban workforce in unprecedented numbers. The rate of working women rose to 24%, with nearly 50% of single women in employment. In New York alone, there were 13 million women employed by the end of the decade, compared to 10.5 million in 1930. The majority of these women worked in clerical jobs in the rapidly expanding American corporate sector or in teaching and nursing. Some trailblazing women also achieved careers in law, finance, publishing, and politics.
American cities thus became hubs of opportunity for ambitious—mostly single—women. Indeed, 1930s New York embodied the exciting, liberating possibilities that the modern metropolis could hold for American women, as the epicenter of commercial, technological, cultural, and social innovation in the United States.
The New York Woman captured the emergence of the urban career woman as a defining figure of modern New York. The magazine became one of the best-selling publications of the 1930s. Written and “edited for the women of metropolitan New York,” the magazine sold out within 24 hours when the first issue hit the shelves on September 9, 1936.
Published weekly on Wednesdays, The New York Woman catered to the urban career woman’s interests in:
“LOVE – MARRIAGE – POLITICS – PERSONALITIES – SOCIETY – MOVIES – THEATRE – DANCING – FASHION – BEAUTY – COOKING – DECORATING – WHERE TO BUY – WHAT TO DO – HOW TO HAVE FUN!”
Copy from the inaugural issue of The New York Woman, September 9th, 1936. The New York Historical.
While attending to conventionally ‘feminine’ topics of fashion, dating, and beauty—topics that still dominate contemporary women’s magazines—The New York Woman’sinclusion of detailed articles on politics, career advice, and financial management underline how women’s lives were being reshaped during the 1930s. Rather than presenting a principal concentration on housekeeping and domestic affairs, as women were gaining access to professional institutions and the public sphere of the modern metropolis, The New York Woman reflects how magazines began to offer more diverse content to women readers, which better reflected the new realities of their urban lives.
The magazine’s weekly column, “Soundings: Opinions of the New York Woman,” printed select readers’ correspondence with the magazine editors, covering topics ranging from whether America should join the Second World War to whether it was ‘proper’ for single women to drink alcohol at bars in the city. The publication also offered profiles of prominent career women in New York, many of whom worked in traditionally male-dominated industries. These ranged from Judge Justine Wise Tulin, the first New York woman to hold a judicial post higher than a magistrate, to women working as political advisors on the 1936 Presidential election campaigns
“9 to 5…five to nine.” Profile of Barbara Schaffa, a woman “typical of the girl all busy men desire; the smart, self-sufficient secretary,” in the October 7, 2025 issue of The New York Woman. The New York Historical.
While detailing the latest fashion trends through exquisite watercolor illustrations in its weekly feature, “Today Along Fifth Avenue,” TheNew York Woman challenged many reductive myths around style and beauty. Its writers questioned the youth-centered ideas of beauty and glamour that had defined the 1920s flapper era. Instead, in such articles as Inez Calloway Robb’s “40 Becomes ‘The Fashionable Age,’” The New York Woman profiled Wallis Simpson, arguing that women of all ages could embody the glamour and excitement of modern America.
The “Today Along Fifth” feature, in the October 7, 1936 issue of The New York Woman. The New York Historical.
“40 Becomes ‘The Fashionable Age,’” featuring a profile of the American socialite Wallis Simpson, in the October 7, 1936 issue of The New York Woman. The New York Historical.
The magazine also ran features on a range of topics relating to life in the Big Apple. These included articles designed to improve domestic life. Readers could browse reviews for appliances tailored to cooking in a small apartment kitchen, guides to New York nursery schools, fashionable color schemes for decorating an apartment, and advertisements for new apartment buildings in the city (from the Savoy Plaza to the El Dorado). New York nightlife was another prominent topic. Notable features surveyed fun things to do in New York for less than $5, lists of the best restaurants and bars to visit on a Saturday night, reviews of new Broadway shows and movies, and ideas for quick but tasty dinners to cook for guests.
“She knew what she wanted!” Making the case for the new woman in the October 7, 1936 issue of The New York Woman. The New York Historical.
The New York Historical’s collection of The New York Woman magazine offers fascinating insight into New York women’s aspirations, ideas, concerns, and daily lives in the 1930s, and illuminates how American women’s lives were changing rapidly during this decade. Whereas magazine readership is waning in the twenty-first century, this collection underlines the centrality of magazines to early-20th-century American culture. As The New York Woman declared to its readers: “To live successfully in New York, read The New York Woman.”
PRIDE FLAG RAISED OVER MAIN STREET
CREDITS
Written byDr. Angelica De Vido. De Vido is the 2024-2025 Mellon Foundation-Robert David Lion Gardiner Fellow at The New York Historical.
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.
Monday, June 2, 20-25 Untapped New York Nicole Saraniero Issue #1460
One of the best ways to enjoy the warmer weather in New York City is to get outside and see some art and attend art-related events! This June, you’ll find larger-than-life flowers, a museum on wheels, a celebration of pigeons, and more:
“Irises on Yellow Columns” by Graphic Rewinding at Van Gogh’s Flowers, Courtesy of New York Botanical Garden
The iconic van Gogh paintings of irises and sunflowers come to life in this year’s summer exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden.Flourishing floral displays and large-scale interactive artworks fully immerse you in van Gogh’s timeless masterpieces. Learn more about the exhibit from one of the artists who worked on it, here!
The city’s biggest pop-up photography event will hit all five boroughs this June! Photoville returns for its 14th year with over 80 international exhibits that highlight the work of photographers from right here in New York City and nations across the globe. The photo festival’s signature shipping container galleries will be on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park while satellite exhibits can be seen at Barretto Point Park, Bella Abzug Park, the Seaport, Alice Austen House, and many other locations. One special exhibit to look out for is Early Distant Warning. It features large photographs frozen in large ice blocks that will gradually melt throughout the day to reveal Louie Palu’s photographs of the Arctic. See it at Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 7th from 1:30-7pm!
Did you know there is a National Pigeon Appreciation Day?! Well, the High Line is celebrating with Pigeon Fest, in honor of Iván Argote’s 17-foot-tall aluminum pigeon sculpture Dinosaur currently on view at the Spur. This full-day festival will feature free public programming including pigeon-themed carnival games, family-friendly art workshops, a Pigeon Impersonation Pageant, panel discussions, and a concert presented in collaboration with the Birdsong Project
Gardens of Renewal by Lily Kwong, Photo Courtesy of Madison Square Park
The winding pathway of this living installation provides opportunities for play, learning, self-reflection, and ecological awakening. Created by artist Lily Kwong in collaboration with the Madison Square Park Conservancy,Gardens of Renewal “explores the ecological potential of the built environment while underscoring the political urgency of the climate crisis.” In the Meditation Garden, visitors follow a spiral path surrounded by gorgeous flowers, herbs, and other native plants, with endangered and rare specimens at the center. On Sparrow Lawn, the Children’s Garden offers a library, stage, and play structures that promote adventure, creativity, and ecological awareness.
The installation is accompanied by a series of conversations, performances, and educational programming for children of all ages. QR codes scattered throughout the gardens offer supplemental digital materials, including an illustrated field guide plant list, a meditation, and a customized playlist.
14th Street Busway, between Broadway and University Place, Union Square
New York-based visual artist Yuke Li has transformed a bland busway into a vibrant 7,500-square-foot mural. Union Square Partnership’s fifth annual street mural was completed with the help of volunteers who spent five days bringing Li’s vision to life. Turning Point “honors Union Square’s role as a place that facilitates the movement of people, whether gathering, dispersing, or embarking on new journeys.” This movement and flow are represented by retro-inspired abstract shapes painted in bright colors.
Monumental 20-foot screens have taken over six acres of land on Manhattan’s east side next to the United Nations. This photography and video project takes an optimistic approach to the future of America on the occasion of our nation’s 250th anniversary. Spread out along a winding path, viewers will uncover the stories of over fifty everyday Americans captured on film by award-winning local filmmaker and photographer Daniella Vale. Each subject shares their thoughts on liberty, democracy, and what it means to be American.
PRIDE EXHIBIT OPENS AT RIVAA
FEATURING WORKS BY 23 ARTISTS OPEN THRU THE MONTH (CHECK FOR DATES)
THOM HEYER INTRODUCES THE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AT OPENING ON SUNDAY.
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UNTAPPED NEW YORK NICOLE SARANIERO 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 Queens-bound F train platform of Delancey and Essex Street Station features three cherry tree murals as well as several smaller cherry mosaics. Created in 2004 by the Shanghai-born and New York City-based sculptor Ming Fay, “Delancey Orchard” glass mosaic is an allusion to the farm land that once belonged to a Loyalist family.
Up until the Revolutionary War, the family owned a 300-acre farm which stretched from the East River to the Hudson (having sided with the British during the Revolutionary War, James’s assets were confiscated by the authorities).
Located on what is today Orchard Street, the pride of the Delancey farm was a cherry grove. When the property was divided up among smaller landowners who were eager to remove all reminders of a British past, the orchard was destroyed.
There are other memories of a cherry culture. In the midst of the Inwood neighborhood, surrounded by towering apartment block at the corner of Broadway and 204th Street, stands a two-story Dyckman Farmhouse Museum that was built in 1784 by William Dyckman. Family members too took pride in their orchards (a cherry tree in the backyard may be a survivor from the original fruit garden). The dark “Dyckman Cherry” was a sought after species in its day.
Today, there are plenty of reminders of Manhattan’s passion for cherries (including a classic cocktail). The history of the fruit’s introduction and cultivation runs parallel to the city’s foundation and expansion.
Cherry Cultivation
Sweet cherries originated in the fertile lands of the region between the Black and Caspian Seas and were most likely brought to Europe by birds. Mentioned by Theophrastus in his History of Plants (3rd century BC), the author claims that the Greeks had been the first to grow cherries.
The Romans continued the tradition by cultivating the fruit on a larger scale. Their conquering armies brought trees with them to newly occupied territories; by the first century AD cherries were grown throughout Europe.
Early production was limited to personal consumption or local trade. One of the first known commercial cherry orchards was established in the Rhine Valley in the fourteenth century. By the sixteenth century farmers in the Low Countries were praised for their agricultural expertise.
As early as 1556 physician Gheraert Vorselman published Eenen nyeuwen coock boeck (A New Cook Book), the earliest Dutch compilation to include recipes for salads and vegetable dishes. Fruit was widely available, but cherries remained a symbol of wealth and privilege. It was not until the Renaissance that they became more widely available.
Throughout the seventeenth century the Dutch and Flemish enjoyed the reputation of being the best-fed populations in Europe. Domestically they produced a rich diet of bread, butter, cheese, fruit and vegetables. Techniques of preserving food were also well advanced. Settlers from the Low Countries in Manhattan brought with them the experience of growing fruit and veg as well as a passion for gardening.
The first colonials in the region were transient traders, not home makers. Actual settlement did not begin until Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan Island, but frequent hostile confrontations prevented land management until Peter Stuyvesant took over as Governor in 1647. According to records of that year, the latter planted an apple tree brought over from the Netherlands on the corner of what is now Third Avenue and 13th Street.
Stuyvesant was a farmer and a soldier. In 1651 he purchased the land from the West India Company (WIC) that would become known as the Stuyvesant Farm or Great Bowery. He did not live there until the English took possession of New Amsterdam in 1664. Having retired from politics, Peter devoted his energy to agriculture.
Using slave labor, his orchards and gardens were well kept according to contemporary accounts. Part of the original purchase, mainly along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue, remained in the hands of Governor’s descendants until the death of Peter Winthrop Rutherfurd Stuyvesant in 1970.
Cherries in New Amsterdam
In 1622, a resident of Amsterdam named Nicolaes Van Wassenaer began to publish (at intervals) a Historisch verhael (historical account) of events in New Netherland. His reports were based on facts supplied by officials of the WIC, communications from settlers in the colony, and rumors that were spread by sailors and former Company employees.
In December 1624, Van Wassenaer reported on the abundance of edibles in the colony, including plants and wild fruit. He made one specific exception: “Cherries are not found there.”
Sweet cherry cultivation in North America began at some time after the arrival of Europeans. Early settlers brought cherry pits with them to plant in their gardens. Cherry trees appeared in the settlements of Virginia and Massachusetts and they were a feature in the gardens of French newcomers in their Midwestern outposts.
The Dutch introduced cherries to New Netherland. One of the earliest instances of their cultivation was recorded in the Hudson Valley during the late 1600s.
There are two versions on the origin of the names Cherry Hill and Cherry Street (established in colonial times to run from the intersection of Pearl Street and Frankfort Street in Lower Manhattan).
Born in Amsterdam in August 1611 into a family of Huguenot descent (the French name was Prévost), David Provoost made his first journey to New Netherland in 1624 as a thirteen year old, two years before the island of Manhattan was purchased from Native Americans. He returned in April 1639, a married man working in various diplomatic functions for Governor Willem Kieft and the WIC.
Provoost was the original grantee of a considerable parcel of land in New Amsterdam. Having cleared the land, he built a farm house near the East River shore at a point which is believed to be in the interior of the block between the modern Pearl and Water Streets, Dover Street and Peck Slip.
There he created a small orchard that was long remembered as the “Cherry Garden.” Although Provoost later moved to Long Island (he died in Breukelen = Brooklyn; his grandson was the 24th Mayor of New York; his great grandson became the city’s first Bishop), his orchard was commemorated when the area was given the name Cherry Hill.
Other historians argue that Cherry Street was named for the seven-acre orchard that was owned by Goovert Loockermans, a wealthy merchant who was a representative of the Amsterdam trading firm Gillis Verbrugge & Company in the 1660s.
Loockermans was said to produce the best cherries in town. The orchard was lost in 1672 when his heirs sold the land for sixty dollars to the brewer Richard Sackett who turned the land into a beer garden and bowling-green known locally as Sackett’s Orchard.
Cherry Street Elite
By the second half of the eighteenth century Cherry Hill was becoming a fashionable area that attracted both moneyed families and entrepreneurs.
In 1786, Founding Father and merchant John Hancock had moved into the property at 10 Cherry Street; New York City’s first Governor DeWitt Clinton resided nearby on Pearl Street. In April 1818 clothing retailers Brooks Brothers opened their first shop there.
The residence at 7 Cherry Street, the home of Samuel Leggett (1782-1847, President of the New York Gas Company), was the first house illuminated with gas lamps in 1825. Close by stood fashionable Franklin Square, a chosen hub of the city’s elite lawyers and financiers.
The trend to settle in the area had been set by Walter Franklin, a Quaker merchant and importer of goods from China and the South Seas who had been actively involved in the American Revolution, first as a member of the Committee of One Hundred (opposing the laws of the British Parliament) and then as a representative of the first New York Provincial Congress (formed in 1775).
Having amassed a fortune, Franklin retired from business and built an elegant Georgian style mansion at the northeast corner of Pearl and Cherry Streets. Erected in 1770, it was considered to be one of the finest homes in the city. He subsequently married a young Quaker “milkmaid” by the name of Maria Bowne. The couple had two daughters.
Walter died in June 1780. When some six years later Maria remarried Samuel Osgood, a Massachusetts politician and lawyer who had recently settled in the city of New York, the family continued living in the Cherry Street Mansion (the pair needed the space as they would have six more children).
Osgood had fought his way through the Revolution, having participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. He also saw action during the Siege of Boston. By the end of the war he had attained the rank of Colonel. In 1785 he moved to New York to take on the position of Commissioner of the Treasury. Walter Franklin’s mansion became known as Osgood House.
Presidential Palace
On April 14, 1789, the Electoral College informed George Washington at Mount Vernon that he had been unanimously elected First President of the United States. Nine days later he arrived in New York, then the nation’s capital, for his inauguration. It was Washington’s first trip to the city since the end of the Revolutionary War and he was given a hero’s welcome as both a victorious General and newly-elected President.
For the triumphal voyage a special barge had been constructed with thirteen oars on both sides (dressed in white, all oarsmen under command of coxswain Thomas Randall were New York pilots). Thousands of people packed the waterfront between the Battery and Wall Street to greet the barge on arrival. Governor George Clinton met the President as he landed at Murray’s Wharf.
In preparation for his arrival in Manhattan, Congress had made considerable effort to find a suitable property that would serve as “Presidential Palace” (the term remained in circulation until the White House was built).
They finally agreed on the lease of Osgood House. Housing the President, his family and household staff, 1 Cherry Street became the first seat of the federal government’s executive branch.
It was from here that in October 1789 the President penned his first Thanksgiving proclamation, setting aside – as a cherry on the cake – a Thursday each November as a national holiday.
It soon became clear that the Cherry Street mansion was too small to function both as a Presidential residence and a workplace. When Comte de Moustier, French Minister to the United States, vacated the large four-story Alexander Macomb mansion at 39/41 Broadway on his return to France, the property was made available to the Washington family and staff. They moved into their new residence in February 1790.
Osgood House was demolished in 1856. In spite of its historical pedigree, the district had by then changed dramatically and devolved into a neighborhood of overcrowded tenements, paralleling the decline of nearby Five Points. Quaker John Franklin had initiated the rise of Cherry Street. The name of another Friend is associated with its demise.
In 1850/1 a “model tenement” named Gotham Court was opened at 38 Cherry Street. It comprised two rows of six tenement blocks, each five stories high, standing back to back. The complex was built by the Quaker philanthropist Silas Wood for the purpose of improving the life of local residents and immigrants who occupied dreadful “rookeries” in the district. It did not stop the area’s rapid decline.
In 1862, a sanitary official reported rampant infectious disease and high child mortality in the properties. Jacob Riis in How the Other Half Lives (1890) described Gotham Court as one of the “worst tenements along the East River.”
For Riis, the block stood as a symbol of Manhattan’s squalid living conditions. The court was demolished seven years after publication of his book; the rest of the area would follow. Cherry Hill was erased from the map. In its place would rise the Alfred E. Smith Houses.
ON ASCENTION REMEMBERING THOSE BURIED ON HART ISLAND
ON THIS HOLIDAY, MAY 29TH, A GROUP OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY REMEMBER THOSE BURIED ON HART ISLAND AT THE MUNICIPAL CEMETERY. THIS YEAR THE WEATHER DID NOT PERMIT THE SERVICE TO BE HELD ON THE ISLAND. IT WAS HELD AT GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON CITY ISLAND.
Hart Island in the mist, just 5 minutes from City Island
Grace Episcopal Church is a lovely landmark on City Island
The Chapel’s stained glass window celebrates those who went to sea in this waterfront community.
Canon Kevin Maroney who celebrated the memorial service.
WANTED
FOR OUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
“KEEPING HISTORY ALIVE”
PHOTOS OF THE ISLAND, THE PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS THAT MADE OUR COMMUNITY FROM 1975 TO TODAY.
SEND US YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIFE ON THE ISLAND FOR OUR EXHIBIT DURING OUR CELEBRATION STARTING JUNE 7.
CONTACT JBIRD134@AOL.COM FOR DETAILS.
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK 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.
Stephen Catullo’s dedication as CEO of Coler for 40 months has left an indelible mark.
Arriving during the pandemic’s end, he and his staff tirelessly worked to engage residents in planning and implementing facility improvements. Projects included new bed curtains, overbed tables, nightstands, and more, directly benefiting residents.
Coler has specialties including short term rehabilitation, memory care units, nursing home and palliative care.
Hallways were transformed with fresh paint and lighting, bringing vibrant colors to previously drab walls. Every project involved collaboration between residents and staff, enhancing patient care and inspiring new ideas.
The wall display proudly lists numerous achievements, including vital infrastructure upgrades to meet current safety standards.
Stephen Catullo will be missed, but his legacy of continuous improvement will help Coler maintain its 5-star CMA Nursing Home status.
Mr. Catullo hosted a thank you for staff today, recognizing that all achievements could not be made without team efforts and management support.
An award went to departments, leaders, and individuals for making ‘Coler is the Place to be.’ The Therapeutic Recreation Department staff has provided exceptional programs, activities, and entertainment for all resident units.
Jovemay Santos, Director of Therapeutic Recreation and Judith Berdy stand before a wall of achievements.
COLER WANTS YOU!
Coler is always in need of volunteers. Two areas are the Auxiliary, the fund raising organization who raises money to support activivities that the hospital cannot pay for such special events, providing holiday gits and tours and amenities. The Community Advisory Board meets monthly with Administration and Department heads to discuss issues and the operation of the facility.
A while back Coler and the community were shown images of a 10 foot wall and berm that was planned to surround Coler to protect it from future flooding. After an outcry from Coler residents and islanders the project went to back to the drawing board. To date no revised plan has been disclosed. Is that good or bad news?
UPPER LEVEL AS I WAS ENTRANCED BY THE IRONWORK
DO YOU REMEMBER THE TOKEN BOOTHS AT THE TRAM STATIONS?
WANTED
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PHOTOS OF THE ISLAND, THE PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS THAT MADE OUR COMMUNITY FROM 1975 TO TODAY.
SEND US YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIFE ON THE ISLAND FOR OUR EXHIBIT DURING OUR CELEBRATION STARTING JUNE 7.
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.
As Memorial Day approaches, we are looking back at a 1923 plan for a never-built war memorial in Central Park. In November 1918, at the close of the First World War, Mayor John H. Hylan created the Committee on Permanent War Memorial, which was tasked with producing a plan for an appropriate monument. In 1923, a design from landscape architect Thomas Hastings of the firm Carrère and Hastings was accepted by the Committee and presented in a report to the Mayor and the Board of Estimate. A copy of this publication (see below) is housed in the Municipal Library.
The plan, which was approved by the Department of Plants and Structures, the Art Commission, and the Department of Parks, called for a permanent memorial in Central Park between 79th and 86th Streets on the 37-acre site of the lower reservoir of the Old Croton system, which had been superseded by the Catskill Water System (see map below).
The Report of the Mayor’s Committee on Permanent War Memorial, Plate I: General Map of the Central Park, New York City. NYC Municipal Library.
Along with removing the reservoir walls, the plan called for a long lagoon bordered by trees on either side, “similar to the one in the Mall in Washington, which leads to the new Lincoln Memorial.” The monument itself would be reflected in the water approach and feature statues representing allegorical or historical features of the “Great War,” along with war relics and inscriptions (see below).
The Report of the Mayor’s Committee on Permanent War Memorial, Plate VI: Perspective of Lagoon and Memorial. NYC Municipal Library.
Though $300,000 was initially allocated by the Board of Estimate under Mayor Hylan, the project met with a storm of protest from civic groups opposed to any encroachment of public park space. By 1927, the new Mayor, Jimmy Walker, rescinded the former allotment in a cost-cutting measure, and the plan stalled completely. The space that had been designated for the war memorial is now occupied by the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond.
Lauren Gilbert is Director of the Municipal Library.
THE VIEW FROM THE TINTED ROOF OF A TESLA WHILE STUCK IN TRAFFIC ON THE 59th ST. BRIDGE
UPPER LEVEL AS I WAS ENTRANCED BY THE IRONWORK
DO YOU REMEMBER THE STRECKER LAB IN 1999?
WANTED
FOR OUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
“KEEPING HISTORY ALIVE”
PHOTOS OF THE ISLAND, THE PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS THAT MADE OUR COMMUNITY FROM 1975 TO TODAY.
SEND US YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIFE ON THE ISLAND FOR OUR EXHIBIT DURING OUR CELEBRATION STARTING JUNE 7.
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.
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.
14th Street Busway, between Broadway and University Place, Union Square
Open through July 31st
