Barker Library - VM149.D36 2015

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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.

by Jean Tanis The need for the Electoral College in our electoral process has long been debated, particularly after heated political contests as we saw in 2016. But despite wide discussion, this complicated system still remains murky to many Americans. What exactly is it? How was it developed? And why do some insist it stay...

The post The Evolution of the Electoral College appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Ina R. Bort Recently acquired by the New-York Historical Society, this small plate adorned with the “Votes for Women” slogan is linked to Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, a notable New Yorker whose fascinating, improbable life trajectory began as a society doyenne and ended as suffrage activist. This, the first of three posts, explores perhaps the...

The post Suffrage on the Menu: Traces of the Life and Legacy of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Written by Ina Bort In our last two posts, we explored the life of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and dropped in at her Marble House suffrage conferences in Newport, where “Votes for Women” plates like this one may very well have been used. But it may be that these plates were instead (or also) used—that is,...

The post Suffrage on the Menu, Part III: Alva’s Political Equality Association Lunchroom 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.

In July 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives designated the second week of September as National Arts in Education Week. This annual celebration showcases and promotes the positive impact of arts education across the nation and its power to transform student learning. At the New-York Historical Society, arts education is a pillar of our educational mission. The...

The post National Art in Education Week: Meet the Art Educators of the Institution 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.

You have to think a little before you realize they want to talk peace and get ready to fight. – Crystal Eastman Benedict, chair of Woman’s Peace Party, in “Women Ridicule Security League,” The New York Times, June 6, 1915 The outbreak of World War I in Europe launched competing movements for “preparedness” and peace...

The post Crystal Eastman and the Women’s Peace Movement 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.

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.

Our groundbreaking exhibition The Vietnam War: 1945–1975 is now in its fourth month on display. As its name implies, the exhibition begins the story of the Vietnam War at the end of World War II—but don’t be misled into thinking the exhibition ends when the troops were called home in 1975. It actually continues into...

The post “Where have all the comments gone?”—Visitor Thoughts on the Vietnam War appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Dear Ms. Markle, We have learned that you will soon be cramming (or as they say in the UK, “swotting”) for the British citizenship test, an exam that is typically flunked by one-third to one-half of all applicants. To pass the test, you will have to correctly answer 75 percent of 24 questions, like How...

The post A Letter to Ms. Meghan Markle: Advice from America to a New British Royal 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.

As October 31 draws near, ghosts appear in New York windows, and cobwebs creep over city bushes. Crisp leaves heap in piles along sidewalks where wrinkled gourds line up to watch crunchy commutes. All across the state New Yorkers still “inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative, to dream dreams,...

The post History and Halloween: John Rogers’ “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 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.

This week, the New-York Historical Society turned 214! To celebrate our birthday we’re taking a look back on the construction of the New-York Historical Society’s permanent home at 170 Central Park West. Before settling along the park, New-York Historical lived at seven other locations around the city between 1804 and 1908. Here’s a retro map...

The post Happy Birthday, New-York Historical Society! appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Phoebe Snow lives up to her surname. She has pale skin and is dressed entirely in white. From the pristine ostrich plumes that adorn her hat to the spotless boots that protect her feet, Phoebe Snow is obsessively, almost compulsively, clean. She’s also a fictional character, invented by an advertising firm in an early push...

The post Meet Phoebe Snow, the Fictional Woman Who Gave Glamour to Train Travel—and Coal?! appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Most Christian and Jewish Americans, reading about Christ’s resurrection or the Jewish exodus from Egypt during the upcoming Easter and Passover holidays, will not consider the Bible to be an American book. And yet, the Bible was our first American book; its earliest printings, translations, and interpretations reflected the experiences of the first Europeans to...

The post The Bible, America’s First Book: ‘In God We Trust’ at New-York Historical appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Every year on April 22, people around the world pause to rally for the planet. Earth Day has become a global event, part demonstration, part celebration, as concerned citizens lend their support to a natural world that’s increasingly in peril. That sense of urgency was there from the very beginning: April 22, 1970, marked the...

The post Scenes from the First Earth Day: Photos from the 1970 Rallies in New York City appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

The champion racing yacht Marietta set sail from Pier A in lower Manhattan on the chilly late morning of September 22, 1897. Mrs. Edith Gifford was aboard along with fellow members of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs (NJSFWC) and their male allies from the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society (ASHPS). This...

The post The Palisades in Peril: Meet the Forgotten Women Who Fought to Save the Great Cliffs of the Hudson River appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Rotch Library - NK9288.T46 2015

Rotch Library - JQ1850.A91 T75 2015

Rotch Library - PN1997.2.J86 2017

Rotch Library - TR113.A3 F733 2015

Hayden Library - QB843.P8 I58 2018

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Hayden Library - QB500.5.S47 2017

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Hayden Library - QB641.F76 2018

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Hayden Library - QB758.5.C46 C456 2018

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Hayden Library - QB529.I67 2018

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