New-York Historical Society

👶 You could *drop your children off* at this now-bygone department store while you shopped 🛍️ Samuel Klein opened his Union Square store in 1906. Kleins’s flagship location sold everything from clothing to furs, jewelry, and pet supplies. A painting by Anne Eisner shows the exterior of a dressing room at Klein’s—identified in the title as a woman’s sacred space. Department stores provided a pathway for women to disrupt social convention by leaving the home and pushing, unescorted, into public space. See more in "Lost New York." https://bit.ly/4aBuX5B 🎨 Anne Eisner, Klein's Outer Sanctum, ca. 1934–38, Oil on canvas; Gift of Christie McDonald.

#OnThisDay in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act to enforce the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 15th Amendment (ratified in 1870) prohibited states from denying any male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” However, in the years after the amendment various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were the most significant civil rights bills since Reconstruction. These laws signaled the end of legalized Jim Crow, though the struggle for equality and full citizenship continues. This photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson shows an earlier talk with Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, and James Farmer on December 3, 1963. Learn more in our "Meet the Presidents" gallery. https://bit.ly/2vnWLvF 📷 LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto

🤯 🌊 The world is your oyster—and *HALF* the world’s oyster population once thrived in the Hudson River system. ⁣ ⁣ Because oysters suck in seawater to extract the nutrients, they filter the water as they eat. The harbor’s original oyster population could clean its waters in just a few days.⁣ (#FunFact: One oyster filters up to 50 gallons of water a day.) ⁣ New York began losing its oyster beds to overharvesting in the early 1800s. Staten Island’s were the first to go, but, in the 1820s, the introduction of seed oysters from the Chesapeake Bay revived them. African American oystermen cultivated and worked the oyster beds, doing well enough to support a growing community in Sandy Ground—home to 50 households by the 1890s. Oyster cultivation sustained Staten Island’s beds until pollution overwhelmed them in the first quarter of the 20th century.⁣ Today, Billion Oyster Project is restoring oyster reefs to New York Harbor in collaboration with New York City communities.⁣ To learn more for #NationalOysterDay you can browse our online exhibition Hudson Rising: https://bit.ly/3JA96iq 📷⁣ 1) Herman A. Blumenthal, Fishermen in a boat with harvested oysters, ca. 1920.⁣ 2) Robert L. Bracklow, Dorlon's on wheels' mobile oyster vendor, ca 1890-1900.⁣ 3) Gluttony Collection oyster plate, ca. 2007, Glazed porcelain; Gift of Virginia Sin.

One of the greatest tourist guides in Hudson River history, William Wade’s panoramic map guided steamboat and armchair travelers alike along a 138-mile route. It marked thousands of points of interest, from buildings to historical landmarks and natural features. These included the brewery of Matthew Vassar, who would later found Vassar College; Sing-Sing prison, then only nineteen years old; George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters in Newburgh; the site of Alexander Hamilton’s fatal duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, NJ; and Ellis Island, forty-seven years before it opened its doors to immigrants. Click through selected sections here and explore the full image for yourself in an installation at the Museum—on view through August 18, 2024. https://bit.ly/4c7bA4j 🚨 Please note: The Museum is closed today and tomorrow but will reopen for regular hours this Sunday, August 4th.

New Yorkers still mourn the destruction of the original Penn Station. #PennStation's demise led to the 1965 New York Landmarks Law, which has protected more than 38,000 historic buildings around the city from destruction. This commission saved Grand Central Terminal from proposed destruction in 1968. Learn more about the city's lost—but not forgotten—places and spaces in the exhibition "Lost New York." https://bit.ly/4aBuX5B

"New York City residents have always cherished their pets, and the New-York Historical Society is here to document that." Mark your calendar for October 25, 2024 for the special exhibition "Pets and the City." https://bit.ly/3SrCNYE

This “historical pageant" requires a closer look. In 1909, New York commemorated the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the Hudson River. The statewide Hudson–Fulton Celebration festivities included a parade with 54 floats, documented in photos, souvenirs, and watercolor designs from our archives. The parade's floats were escorted by groups that drew on romanticized ideas of Native cultures for their symbols and customs, and even dressed in redface. Artist-in-residence Beatrice Glow reimagines the parade with a series of new float designs created in collaboration with nine artists, scholars, and activists whose heritages were impacted by Dutch colonialism. Glow asked, "What kind of commemoration do we co-create to tell a fuller story and furthermore, reimagine the solidarity-filled future that we urgently need?" Her resulting sculptures—created in virtual reality, 3D printed, and meticulously handcrafted—are on view in the exhibition "Beatrice Glow: When Our Rivers Meet." See it before the show closes on August 18, 2024. Learn more: https://bit.ly/46kxHTO

Did you know that the first #Paris Olympics were also the first #Olympics where women were allowed to compete? In the 1900 Paris games, women could participate—but out of 997 athletes only 22 were women! And they could only compete in sports that were deemed “feminine.” Women’s participation increased slowly over the years. Decades later, in the 1924 Olympics (also held in Paris), you can see that the Olympics were still mostly a celebration of male athletes. Click through to see materials from the 1924 Olympics in our Patricia D. Klingenstein Library collections. Taking matters into her own hands, French athlete and sports advocate Alice Miliat (1884-1957) organized a game for female athletes. The Women's World Games (which welcomed 77 athletes from 5 countries to Paris in 1922) ultimately pressured the Olympics Committee to include women in more events in the official games. In this year’s summer Olympics women will be equally represented for the first time!

The one and only Edward Hopper 🤩 Hopper was born #OnThisDay in1882 in Nyack, New York. The artist is best known for his enigmatic scenes evoking loneliness. This is a preparatory drawing for one of Hopper’s most famous etchings showing a couple traveling on an elevated train at night. The couple seem deep in conversion, but the woman appears distracted as she gazes out the window—an attitude that adds to the sense of psychological tension. See this work and more on view in "From Paul Revere to Edward Hopper: Treasures from the Leonard L. Milberg Collection"—on view through October 27, 2024. https://bit.ly/3XMl29R 🎨 1) Edward Hopper, Night on the El Train, 1918, Charcoal on paper. Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Leonard L. Milberg. © 2024 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. 2) Installation view.

🌱 Before Central Park was the area you enjoy today it was a community of African American property owners known as Seneca Village. ⁣ ⁣ Seneca Village existed from 1825 through 1857 between 82nd and 89th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues. By the 1840s, it had become a multi-ethnic community of African Americans, Irish and German immigrants, and perhaps a few Native Americans. In 1855, the New York State Census reported approximately 264 people living in the village. There were three churches, as well as a school and several cemeteries. ⁣ ⁣ Lower Manhattan, where most New Yorkers lived, had become overcrowded and unsanitary. Many affluent and civic-minded citizens were concerned that commerce and industry were taking over. They were also displeased that communities of poor immigrants were changing the character of downtown. As a result, they proposed that a large park be built. #OnThisDay in 1853, the city government authorized taking the land to lay grounds for a public park. All village residents were forced to vacate beginning in 1856. Learn more about the lost spaces and places in our special exhibition "Lost New York"—on view now. https://bit.ly/4aBuX5B ⁣ 📷 Map of the area later bounded by 81st and 86th Streets, Central Park at the proposed 6th Avenue, and Columbus Avenue, Manhattan, ca. 1836, Pen and ink, watercolor, pencil on paper.