The history of Books & Culture through one writer.

Crayons, lights, and the boyhood of poet Pablo Neruda.

Previewing the Jan/Feb issue.

It has been said that “politics is a blood sport.” Even so, American politicians are expected to have some sense of humor, to be able to take a joke at their expense—at least under well understood terms of engagement. In New York City, those terms have included the annual political roast written, produced and performed...

The post Freedom of the Press . . . To Lampoon! appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

When Alice Foote MacDougall (1867-1945) began her coffee roasting and retail business in 1907, she did so under the more ambiguous name A. F. MacDougall. She knew that some of her customers and even some of her suppliers didn’t like the idea of a woman in business, so she let people make their own assumptions...

The post Alice Foote MacDougall, Queen of the Coffee Shop appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

“125th Street, Harlem’s principal shopping center, ranks with the best retail streets in the city.” So states a 1940 broadside flyer in the New-York Historical Society’s collections. This description of Harlem’s main retail artery, also known as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard,  has a timeless sound, even as the struggle to make it equitable in terms...

The post Shop 125th Street! appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Among the odder holdings of our Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections are two albums of pictures taken at a Halloween party given by one Alan Lloyd Wolfe (Album File, PR-0020-359.1 and 359.2). Why odd? For one thing we don’t know much about Mr. Wolfe other than that he lived from 1889 to 1970....

The post Mr. Wolfe’s Halloween Howl appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

For much of the 19th century, New York City’s public transportation was racially segregated, and African Americans were forced to ride on specially designated horse-drawn street cars.  Newspapers documented acts of resistance to these policies of segregation by members of the African American community, some of whom took the street car companies to court. Three examples are cited here. On Sunday,...

The post Before Rosa Parks: Segregation on New York City Street Cars appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

A recent acquisition by the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at N-YHS sheds light on the early history of African American freemasonry. The twelve-page, handwritten Proceedings of the Convention of the Grand Colored Lodge, dated 1845, outlines the intentions of the members of three African American masonic lodges to unite under the auspices of one “Grand Lodge.”...

The post African American Freemasonry and New York’s Grand Colored Lodge appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner it’s perfect timing for an addendum to this post from a few years ago. It discussed the largely overlooked reality that many nineteenth century Irish immigrants spoke Irish, some exclusively. As it turns out, a curious exchange has turned up in a journal kept by the Irish Quaker merchant, Jacob Harvey,...

The post “In his native tongue”: A Fleeting Glimpse of the Irish Language in 19th Century America appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

On July 3, 1776, the Continental Congress authorized privateering on the high seas. Essentially, any private citizen who obtained a Commission of Marque and Reprisal would be permitted to capture British ships. A common warfare tactic since the Middle Ages, the intent of the act was to weaken the enemy at sea while trading confiscated...

The post Gustavus Conyngham: American Privateer appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Five women huddle around an apartment table on January 18, 1923. Some balance babies on their laps. Older children look on. One boy in a knitted cap stares at the camera, more interested by the photographer than by what the ladies are doing. They seem to be copying in notebooks the exemplars from a portable chalkboard...

The post Becoming American: The Education Committee for Non-English Speaking Women appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Happy October everyone! Halloween is upon us which means it’s time to pick out a costume. The Costume Ball Photograph Collection (PR 223) is the perfect collection to inspire your choice. The collection contains photographs and mounted clippings of members of high society attending New York balls from 1875 to 1932. The New-York Historical Society Collection of...

The post Halloween Costume Inspiration from the Gilded Age appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Could a subway station have a grand piano, chandeliers, and a fountain with goldfish to boot? Alfred Ely Beach certainly believed so in the years following the Civil War, and, in fact, he was not deterred in creating such a subway, one that debuted 150 years ago, on February 26, 1870. Beach (1826-1896) was an...

The post Beach Pneumatic Transit: The 1870 Subway That Could Have Been? appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

From the title Scholars and Gentlemen, one of the essential histories written about the New-York Historical Society and that dates from the 1980s, one might get the wrong impression, that only men played a role in the life of the institution over the course of its 216 years. Yet many women have played significant roles...

The post Martha Lamb: New-York Historical Society Pioneer appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Will we ever get back to watching baseball at Yankee Stadium? It is a fair and frustrating question. Perhaps, as therapy, it helps to go back in time before Yankee Stadium (either the original or the newer one) was even there.  We get this view from the Subway Construction Photograph Collection, and some parts of...

The post Before Yankee Stadium: The View from the Subway Construction Photograph Collection appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

A Mathematica issue brief synthesizes new and recent evidence on how the two cities’ beverage taxes affected purchases, consumption, and the retail environment.

Early fatherhood can have negative effects on the outcomes of young men, reducing the number of years of schooling they receive and their likelihood of graduating from high school.

Mathematica researchers partnered with key clients and contributed to a number of projects that will be presented at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting and Expo in Philadelphia from November 2 to 6.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) seeks comments on performance measures used for the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grant program.

Despite recent improvements in the overall job market, many individuals – including many individuals with disabilities – continue to face obstacles to gainful employment and economic independence.

Updated nutrition standards called for in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA) have made school meals significantly healthier, according to a recent article.

Deeb, Lara, 1974- author

Ismail, Ahmad Fareed, author

Bianchi, Raoul V., author

Noble, Arthur Henry

McCormack, Donna

Mostafanezhad, Mary, author

Ghosal, Sujit

Shirke, Gajanan, author

Bunten, Alexis C

International Tourism Studies Association Biennial Conference (4th : 2012 : Bali, Indonesia)

Menzies, Ian, author

Truong, Thuy-Huong