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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.

Become a part of history! We’re collecting signs, posters, banners, sashes, buttons, flyers, and other ephemera–and the stories behind them–from the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., and any recent nationwide protests, including the women’s marches in January 2017. Do you have something you’d like to donate to our permanent collection? Contact our curatorial team at responses@nyhistory.org. Please...

The post Donate Items from Inauguration, Women’s Marches, and Nationwide Protests appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

by Ted O’Reilly, Curator & Head of the Manuscript Department As part of the New-York Historical Society’s Presidency Project, the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library is displaying a selection of documents highlighting the earliest moments of the American presidency. Included are a leaf from the notes of Rufus King at the Constitutional Convention (a very rare...

The post The Origins of the American Presidency 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 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 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 Last week we looked at a few selections of World War I propaganda posters promoting enlistment culled from the New-York Historical Society. This week, we’ll examine how the posters called on women to support the war effort and utilized female imagery both for the purpose of enlisting soldiers and for their...

The post Christy Girls and Woman Workers: The Depiction of Women in World War I Posters appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

On September 1, 1939, in New York City, the World’s Fair was in its opening months of presenting an imponderable “world of tomorrow” to the wonder of the exposition’s visitors. At the same time in Europe, Hitler was setting in motion events that would constitute the very real underpinnings of a modern epoch. Standing then on...

The post America’s Crown Jeweler 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Formerly reserved for royalty, the red carpet has been a Hollywood fixture since 1922, when Sid Grauman hosted the premiere of Robin Hood at his Egyptian Theater. The film starred Douglas Fairbanks, the “First King of Hollywood.” Today, the red carpet is synonymous with the Academy Awards, and the parade of stars outside the theater...

The post The Red Carpet, Then & Now 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.