The history of Books & Culture through one writer.

The Summer 2013 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review.

Previewing the Jan/Feb issue.

The Englewood Review of Books.

A reissue of Simenon’s great series.

Last year, I wrote about how to schedule Jekyll posts using Netlify and AWS Lambda[^1]. I used that approach from the moment I wrote that blog post up until today. What changed? In the past year, GitHub has introduced GitHub Actions[^2], a way to run container jobs triggered by different GitHub events. One of those...

Sometimes when catalogers examine a book, we find that parts of its structure use recycled materials from other books. These materials are often invisible, hidden away under outer coverings of paper or leather, and revealed only when an item is damaged or taken apart for conservation. But sometimes, the entire outer cover itself is made from...

The post Rare Books Revealed: Parchment Repurposed appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

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.

Though not yet recognized nationally, today is American Eagle Day, the anniversary of the eagle’s inclusion on the Great Seal of the United States on June 20, 1782. Despite also becoming our national emblem in 1789, for decades at the end of the last century the eagle was in dire circumstances. The effects of DDT...

The post “Undaunted, defiant & unsubdued”: The American Eagle appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Preparation for the highly anticipated exhibit, Harry Potter: A History of Magic, has been underway in several of the museum’s departments, including conservation. Our role in an exhibit such as this is huge: we assess artifacts selected for display, make necessary repairs, and monitor the items during the exhibition for exposure to light as well...

The post Aesthetics Considered appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

While the collections of the New-York Historical Society’s Patricia D. Klingenstein Library contain many oddities acquired over a long period of time, none is, at first blush, stranger than our oldest printed book: a copy of the Moralia of Pope Gregory the Great, printed in Basel in 1496. Why strange? Because in collections shaped largely...

The post Treasure Trove: Our Oldest Printed Book appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

While working on the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library’s hidden collections cataloging project, I’ve found some examples of the different methods authors and printers used to fix small errors in a text after an item was printed. Shown below are a few examples of the corrections that were made directly to the page. In the first...

The post Rare Books Revealed: Text Corrections in Printed Books appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

As a present of sorts, in honor of what would have been his 160th birthday, here are some sheet music covers depicting Theodore Roosevelt, who was born in Manhattan, at 28 East 20th Street, on October 27, 1858. Probably no American president has gazed out from more sheet music covers than TR, whose rough-riding exploits and...

The post Happy Birthday, Teddy Roosevelt! appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

This Sunday will be the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, a war that remains etched in the collective memory for the physical and psychological toll wrought on those who lived through it. With that in mind, it seems fitting to mark this occasion through the words of a soldier who...

The post “The Good Lord protected me”: A soldier’s letter on the Meuse-Argonne Offensive appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson, better known to the world as Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball–he broke the color barrier when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947–was born in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919. In his ten-year Major Leagues career Robinson participated in six World...

The post Happy Hundredth, Jackie Robinson! 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.

Set to commence on January 17, 1920, the great social experiment of Prohibition had already begun with a “dry run” for Americans adapting to the restriction of alcohol inspired by World War I. That was followed by a full year anticipating the event through the process of Constitutional amendment and the passage of enforcement legislation...

The post Now on View–“Padlocked”: New York’s Prohibition Years appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

“Dear Gellatly, Did you leave a pair of dark leather gloves here? Church.” Writing to his friends, the artist Frederick Stuart Church (1842-1924) was a man of few words. Most of his letters were full of casual thoughts, questions and updates on the weather. Known for his love of animals, Church enlivened his letters with colorful cartoons...

The post Bears and Pie: The Illustrated Letters of Frederick Stuart Church appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

The story of one of New York’s brightest and most dedicated physicians is often eclipsed by his reputation as America’s first wood engraver. Both stories, however, are tied together in a biography of tragedy, strife, hope, and renewal. Alexander Anderson (1775-1870) was not only a doctor and an artist, but a man of great sentiment,...

The post “Of Some Consequence.” Alexander Anderson: Distinguished Doctor, Accomplished Artist appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

August 26th is National Dog Day! What better way to celebrate than by sharing a unique,  dog-centric artifact from our library.   This daguerreotype of an unidentified dog (PR-012-2-263)  has the formality of a portrait. The animal’s pose and eye contact with the camera (and us as viewers) personifies it. One of our ongoing preservation projects includes rehousing...

The post Puppies Preserved! 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.