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Written by Claire L. Lanier During the heated 2016 election, New York artist Matthew “Levee” Chavez famously started the “sticky note project” in the Union Square subway station in Manhattan. Armed with nothing more than some pens and sticky notes, Levee encouraged passersby to write down their emotions surrounding the election and post them on the...

The post Preserving History, One Sticky Note at a Time appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

written by Marci Reaven, Vice President for History Exhibitions In April 1789, when George Washington swore to uphold the Constitution as the first president of the United States, only 11 of the 13 states had voted to join the new union. North Carolina did not ratify the Constitution until that fall, and it took until the...

The post George Washington’s Letter to Jewish Americans appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

by Claire L. Lanier This spring, in conjunction with The Presidency Project, the Museum is offering a series of twelve public programs exploring the American presidency – what it means, who did it well, who did it not so well, how different interpretations of the presidency have manifested the current functioning of the office, and...

The post Presidential Power Program Series: Looking at what it means to be president appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Sophie Lynford, Acting Assistant Curator of American Art The term “Hudson River School” first appeared in print in 1879 in a review by the American art critic Earl Shinn. “Hudson River School” is an appellation that is still broadly applied to landscape paintings produced in the United States during the 19th century. Shinn,...

The post Beyond the Hudson: The Singular Achievements of Robert Scott Duncanson appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Kelly Morgan Before America’s entry into World War I in 1917, citizens significantly debated whether the United States should remain neutral. Artists contributed to this national conversation through their artwork. Consequently, the government depended on these artists in a variety of ways. From garnering support from the American public to ascertaining information from...

The post Mobilizing the Military: Enlistment Posters in World War I appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Kelly Morgan In this final installment of the propaganda posters series, we’ll be examining the mobilization of the home front through Liberty loan drives and through manufacturing by appealing to the labor force, immigrant groups, and citizens unable to serve in the military or Red Cross. All posters discussed in this post are...

The post “Together We Win”: Unifying the Home Front appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Kelly Morgan, N-YHS Intern, Ph.D. candidate, Drew University Propaganda posters weren’t the only means of transmitting popular sentiment to the American public during World War I. Sheet music, both for popular songs and songs never even recorded, were ubiquitous in American homes. In the early 20th century, even the most popular songs sold...

The post “Over There”: Sheet Music and Propaganda during World War I appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Louise Mirrer, President and CEO, New-York Historical Society I was born in 1953, three months before the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War. My uncle, a U.S. soldier stationed in the Philippines, came home to New York that summer, bearing souvenirs. Among them was an exquisite embroidered silk kimono. A...

The post Bringing It All Back Home: The Vietnam War in Public History and Personal Memory appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Sunday, September 17 marked the 228th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, a day commonly honored as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day—acknowledging the role not only of our founding document but also of the citizens who live by it. How special, then, that one day after this noteworthy anniversary, we welcomed more than...

The post “Live Your American Dream”: Celebrating 200 New U.S. Citizens appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

It’s not every day you welcome the NYPD Bomb Squad into your museum…but that’s what happened recently at the New-York Historical Society! This week, we’re opening our groundbreaking new exhibition, The Vietnam War: 1945-1975, exploring the causes and consequences of one of the most divisive and controversial events in American history. The expansive exhibition features...

The post Scanning Bomblets: NYPD Bomb Squad Visits the Museum appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

On Tuesday, October 24, the New-York Historical Society hosted its first Frederick Douglass Council event. The program — a look at the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia — welcomed Dorothy E. Roberts as the guest speaker and featured Brent Staples as a moderator. Dorothy E. Roberts is an award-winning professor who has...

The post Program Recap: Loving v. Virginia appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Contrary to our notions of a Thanksgiving feast, the first harvest celebrated by the Pilgrims with the Wampanoag in 1621 did not focus on roast turkey. According to the one preserved written account, the menu pivoted around duck, venison, seafood, and corn. Turkey only became part of the annual Thanksgiving ritual after 1863, when Abraham...

The post Talking Turkey and John James Audubon appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Thanksgiving in the modern-day American consciousness often evokes images of turkeys, balloons, pumpkin pies, and, of course, the inevitable reference to the Pilgrims. More than any other Thanksgiving icon, the Pilgrim emerged as the exemplary American success story: religious refugees banned from openly practicing their brand of Protestantism and desperate to retain their English identity....

The post “Pilgrims Going to Church”: Thanksgiving and the Pilgrim in Public Memory appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

On December 6, 2017, the New-York Historical Society hosted a lecture featuring distinguished historian Stephen Kotkin. Stephen Kotkin, author of the book Stalin: Waiting For Hitler, 1929-1941, explored Joseph Stalin’s forced industrialization of the Soviet Union and assessed his relationship with Hitler’s Nazi Germany during World War II.  When Kotkin took the stage, he opened...

The post Program Recap: Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

This year we opened the Center for Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society, the first institution of its kind within the walls of a major U.S. museum. Since then, we’ve been sharing the stories of formidable women whose courage, activism, and determination in the face of resistance inspire us all. It’s been a busy year! A...

The post Women at the Center: Celebrating Our First Year at the Center for Women’s History appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Nursing, which as a profession has long been associated with women, offered opportunities not only for education and employment, but leadership. Long before American women could vote, they were able to influence public policy, often through professional organizations, such as those formed by nurses in the early 20th century. Student Nurses in the Orrin Sage...

The post Finding Women in the Archives: Student Nurses appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Currently, only 13 percent of the historical figures in history textbooks are women. Why does this matter? As one teacher put it, in his response to our national survey: “You can’t be what you can’t see.” Girls and young women make up more than half of K-12 students and college undergraduates. If women are considered...

The post “You Can’t Be What You Can’t See”: Teaching Women’s History appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Women in New York City have a long history of taking to streets and stages to make their voices heard. The suffrage parades of the 1910s captured the attention of the city and helped convince men that women were engaged citizens who deserved the right to vote. This past weekend, 200,000 women and men again...

The post Women Marching, Then and Now appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

No visit to Hotbed, the exhibition currently on view in New-York Historical’s Joyce B. Cowin Women’s History Gallery, is complete without a stop in the “nickelodeon,” our re-creation of an early movie theater. Inside, visitors can see excerpts from the pro- and anti-suffrage films that proliferated in the early 20th century. However, you may be...

The post Finding Women in the Archives: “Ladies without escorts cordially invited” appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

If you’ve ever visited the New-York Historical Society, you’ve probably enjoyed saying hello to (or even taking a selfie with!) our Frederick Douglass statue outside our 77th Street entrance. While we’re thrilled to celebrate his work every day as he welcomes visitors to the Museum, we’re especially excited this year to celebrate his life and...

The post Family, Legacy, and Citizenship: Celebrating Frederick Douglass at 200 appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

What do diversity and inclusivity mean in a museum-based digital interactive installation? This question was central to the design of our Women’s Voices exhibit, a wall of touchscreens that allow visitors to explore individuals, groups, and events spanning New York State and City women’s history. Our goal was to balance the appeal of biographies while...

The post Listening to Black Women’s Voices appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Americans have a long history of advocating for their rights and principles. With our Women and the American Story (WAMS) curriculum, teachers can trace this narrative of activism through the women reformers of the 1800s who worked for social change alongside and apart from men—inspiring their students, both boys and girls, to be engaged citizens...

The post The Edmonson Sisters: Teaching Black Women’s Activism in the 19th Century appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Last year at the New-York Historical Society, we opened the Center for Women’s History—the first initiative within the walls of a major U.S. museum dedicated to sharing the untold stories of women throughout American history. It’s been an honor to share stories on the life and legacies of leaders, from Billie Jean King to Harriet...

The post Leaders Among Us: Inspiring Women on Inspiring Women appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

One of the highlights of our North Gallery in our 4th-floor Luce Center, which reopened last April, is the magnificent painting Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. from the Seat of War, painted by Louis Lang (1812-1893) in 1862. The painting depicts the regiment marching off the ship and into the Battery in Lower Manhattan,...

The post Putting the “Fight” in the “Fighting 69th”: Louis Lang and the Historic Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

This past February, we brought history and technology together for our first cohort of Tech Scholars. Throughout this one-week program, we welcomed a group of 15 high school students from across the city to design and build their own websites to exhibit their research on notable events and figures in women’s history.   The group of...

The post Technology + Teens: Introducing N-YHS Tech Scholars appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

One of the highlights of our North Gallery in our 4th-floor Luce Center, which reopened last April, is the magnificent painting Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. from the Seat of War, painted by Louis Lang (1812-1893) in 1862. The painting depicts the regiment marching off the ship and into the Battery in Lower Manhattan, welcomed by...

The post Resurrecting the Regiment: The Return of Louis Lang’s Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, and Robert F. Kennedy on June 6, 1968, our exhibition Rebel Spirits: Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. showcases photographs and artifacts honoring these visionary leaders who irrevocably changed the United States. Sixty images taken by some of the...

The post Remember Dr. King Through Sculpture appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

This spring, the Tech Commons @ N-YHS welcomed our second cohort of Tech Scholars. Young women grades 9-12 from four of the five boroughs came every day for a week to the Tech Commons to explore the intersections of women’s history and web development. The group was tasked with building websites to share not only...

The post Spring Tech Scholars Explore Women’s History appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

We are building a research railroad! In 2017 the New-York Historical Society received a special grant to begin the enormous task of cataloging the Jerni Collection in an effort share its wonders with the greater public. These funds come from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Founded in 1996, IMLS serves as an...

The post Laying Tracks: Behind the Scenes of the  Jerni Collection Cataloging Project appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Revolutionary War hero, treasury secretary, founder of the Bank of New York, architect of America’s financial system—Alexander Hamilton’s accomplishments are too numerous to list. In his lifetime of just 47 years, Hamilton helped secure America’s freedom and shaped the contours of the young republic in its earliest days. The Bank of New York (now BNY...

The post Alexander Hamilton: New York City’s Financial Founding Father appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

If you were watching television in the 1990s, you are probably familiar with the jingle “the touch, the feel, of cotton. The fabric of our lives.” In many ways, cotton has also long been the fabric of our country. Many correctly associate the growing of cotton in the United States with the institution of slavery....

The post From Cotton Fields to Laundry Strikes: Black Women’s Labor During Reconstruction and Jim Crow appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

It is fitting that the exhibition Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow coincides with Betye Saar: Keepin’ It Clean, for it is the legacy of Jim Crow that the contemporary artists Betye Saar tackles. Black Citizenship begins with the struggle for equality during the tumultuous years of Reconstruction and ends with the late-19th and 20th century...

The post Betye Saar: Reclaiming the Legacy of Jim Crow appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

The late, legendary Pete Seeger knew how to sing for a cause. Throughout his career, he performed, rallied, and wrote music for labor rights, civil rights, and the end of the Vietnam War. He was also deeply involved in the environmental movement, particularly when it came to the Hudson River. A longtime resident of Beacon,...

The post Celebrating Pete Seeger: A Producer and Friend on How the Folk Legend’s Music Changed the World appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

The first Bible to be printed in America was special for many reasons, but perhaps the most remarkable is this: It was translated into a language that most English colonists couldn’t read. A Geneva Bible, it was printed in Natick, an Algonquin language spoken by the Massachusett people who lived on the land surrounding the...

The post The Fascinating Story of the First American Bible, a Native American Language Translation from 1663 appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Rotch Library - JQ1850.A91 T75 2015

Hayden Library - QB843.P8 I58 2018

Hayden Library - QB500.5.S47 2017

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