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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.

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 Our last post explored the biography of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, the doyenne-turned-activist we believe commissioned this plate’s manufacture. Today we explore the first of two likely scenarios where this and similar plates may have been used: The suffrage conferences Alva organized at Marble House, her Newport estate, in 1909 and 1914....

The post Suffrage on the Menu, Part II: The Marble House Conferences of 1909 and 1914 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 Debra Schmidt Bach, Curator of Decorative Arts The New-York Historical Society recently acquired a pair of custom-made boots created for actor Kevin Smith Kirkwood for his role in the hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots, which tells the story of Charlie Price, a young Englishman who inherits his family’s failing shoe factory. While trying...

The post Heels and History: What sparkly, red platform boots tell us about American culture 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.

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 Tuesday, November 14, the New-York Historical Society hosted a discussion, “A Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition.” This Frederick Douglass Council event featured Manisha Sinha as the guest speaker and Eric Foner as the moderator. Manisha Sinha, a James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut, is...

The post Program Recap: The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Toy drives are a beloved feature of the holiday season, and have been for over a century. In New York City, women have long been at the center of efforts to care for poor and orphaned children. In 1806, Elizabeth Hamilton (yes, that Eliza) was one of the founders of the Orphan Asylum Society of...

The post Toy Drives and Women’s Charitable Work in New York City appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

On December 15, 2017, the Center for Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society hosted a Salon Conversation titled “Women of the Village.” A hearty crowd filled the Museum’s fourth-floor Skylight Gallery on a snowy Friday evening for a tour of Hotbed in the Joyce B. Cowin Women’s History Gallery, followed by a conversation between Scholarly...

The post Event Recap: Women of the Village with Blanche Wiesen Cook and Lara Vapnek 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This fall, we opened a powerful new exhibition Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow, which explores the struggle for full citizenship and racial equality that unfolded in the 50 years after the Civil War, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment. On September 7, to open the exhibition, we welcomed Dr. Brenda...

The post Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow: “It Is About What We Remember” 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

May 3, 2019, is an auspicious day in music history. It would’ve been the 100th birthday of Pete Seeger, the late, legendary singer-songwriter and one of the pioneers of American folk music. Seeger, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 94, had an incredible career that stretched from his early days in the 1940s...

The post Pete Seeger at 100: How the Folk Legend Built a Sailboat to Help Revive the Hudson River 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 - NK9288.T46 2015

Rotch Library - JQ1850.A91 T75 2015

Rotch Library - SF450.K43 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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