This photograph is taken of the original sculpture by Enid Bell (Palanchian) who gifted it to the Leonia Public Library in 1979. Enid Bell used hydrocal relief as the medium to sculpt two birds which look as if they are in flight (Bell Palanchian 1979).
The
sculpture, Birds, resides at the top of the Leonia Public Library’s rear
stairs where, on a busy day, hundreds of people pass by. The Leonia Public
Library welcomes all people, no matter their background. Likewise, St. John’s
University’s mission is to respect all people; this includes sharing our gifts
with others (St. John’s University 2019). The creator of Birds, Enid
Bell Palanchian, excluded none when displaying her work, implying that art is
not only for the wealthy.
This is the rotary switchboard which is found in the Hazleton Historical Society Museum. The dial switchboard came to Hazleton in 1954. All the original wiring and phone book is still intact.
The first manual switchboard came about in 1878 and Hazleton, Pennsylvania got its first dial switchboard in 1954. At 11:59pm on April 24the switchboard was up and running in this small town (The Plain Speaker 1954). The Bell telephone company decided to invest in this small town by opening up a building on W. Green St. in Hazleton; with the new switchboard, converting to dial service was costing them $1.5 million (The Plain Speaker 1954). According to Tom Gabos, who is the president of the Hazleton Historical Society Museum, “this switchboard came from the corner of W. Green Street, right across from where our library now is” (Tom Gabos, pers. comm, September 2019). This new technology that was coming to Hazleton was welcomed with open arms. Once word got around of the new switchboard technology, Hazleton was booming with people who wanted to see how this technology would work. By 1940, the population of Hazleton was just over 38,000 (City of Hazleton Pennsylvania, n.d.). By 1953, about 14,000 people were using telephone technology (The Plain Speaker 1954). This is a little under half of what the population was in Hazleton back in 1940.
(a newspaper clipping of William Harris’ weekly column “OFF AND ON” where he examines the plays both off and on broadway. The image and first review are from the play “Rum and Coca-cola” by Mustapha Matura”.)
This newspaper clipping of two men, one of which was holding a guitar quickly catches the eye due to the overtones of potential Blackface. However, after reading William Harris’ review, I discovered the work of Trinidadian playwright Mustapha Matura who used his experiences to craft powerful political commentaries. Matura first began writing and directing plays in London often tackling the ways Black people have been mistreated and abused throughout the Caribbean and the UK.
“Interurban Time Table, effective April 12, 1925”, Wait Station, Dekker Huis, Zeeland, Michigan. This is a prime example of the numerous opportunities West Michiganders had to travel outside of their communities.
From the turn of the 20th
Century until the mid-1920s, travel by rail was the best way for Midwesterners
to travel beyond their hometowns (Ellison 2019; Geberer 2019, 51; Jenison
Historical Association 2009, 2; van Reken 1998). The road conditions were so
poor during this time that the Dutch and German settlers of small towns such as
Jenison, Saugatuck, and Zeeland were essentially isolated from the larger
cities in the region (van Reken 1998, 77). The implementation of the electric
interurban not only provided the citizens of West Michigan access to the
diversity found in larger cities, but also gave them the opportunity to share
their values with others.
This folder contains a unique selection of clippings compiled by the late William Harris, a drama and dance critic who assembled a sizable collection of theater memorabilia. The contents of the folder consist of reviews and articles, as well as a half-page advertisement, of Art Buchwald’s debut play, Sheep on the Runway. The play was a comedy directed by Gene Saks at the Helen Hayes Theatre on West 46th Street in Manhattan.
As
“the most widely published American journalistic humorist of the second half of
the 20th century,” Art Buchwald was a writer unlike any other
(Biography Reference Bank 2007). Buchwald spent the majority of his career
writing a satirical column that, at one time, was syndicated in 550 newspapers
(Nilsen 1996, 80). His contributions to journalism earned him a Pulitzer Prize
in 1982 (Folkenflik 2007).
In February 1969, the Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters wrote “The Ten Demands” to Barnard College President Martha Peterson, pictured above. Based off of their experiences on campus, their demands were: curriculum that includes Black studies across the board, nationwide recruitment of Black students, flexible financial aid policies, library materials that are about Black studies and culture, an orientation program by and for Black students, revamping the “Special Students” program, a Black-only study space on campus, selective living for Black students, Soul Food in the cafeteria, and an end to the policing of Black bodies on campus.
Amid the
backdrop of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, Black college students
paved the way for campus protests across the United States in the 1960s. Due to
an increased presence of Black students at primarily white institutions (P.W.I.s),
a number of systemic issues and needs were cropping up. This included
recruitment and retention, financial aid, racially sensitive support services,
culturally competent curriculum, and social facilities (Gamson, Peterson, and
Blackburn 1980, 260). Colleges became hotbeds of activism as Black students
fought against institutional racism and stood in solidarity with local
community organizers (Biondi 2012). In the late 1960s, Morningside Heights was
no stranger to Black student organizing. In spring 1968, students at Columbia
University, Barnard College’s brother school, had organized protests against
the white supremacy of the institution (Bradley 2003). The events of that protest
directly led to the founding of the Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters
(B.O.S.S.), whose goals were to center Black women’s issues on campus
(Rosenberg 2004, 241).
Now known as the National LGBTQ Task Force, the image above is of a handwritten note welcoming Bill Bordeau into the National Gay Task Force, and a business card sized membership card.
Authored by Kathleen Daly
At a time when there was a great deal of political and cultural turmoil there was one local New York City man who was a vocal activist for gay rights. Affiliation of any kind with a group like the National Gay Task Force was polarizing for some, especially when this was a time when the American Psychiatric Association, or APA, still had homosexuality classified as a mental illness. In the publication of the original Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, in 1952, as well as in the second version, “individuals were labeled sick because they did not fit in, not necessarily because they felt afflicted, in pain, or under any kind of mental stress” (Dunn 2017, 183). The stigma that homosexuals had to live under was codified under the guidelines of mental health diagnoses and it took a great deal of fighting back from many groups inside the APA, and a few outside as well, to get those definitions removed finally in late 1973. Other legal definitions and laws changing, such as the case of 1964’s Civil Rights Act and the fallout within the homosexual community (Bruce 2016, 46-47) gave rise to many people within it wishing to take further action. Continue reading →
Burroughs Building, by Jurgen Frederick Huge (1809-1878); 29 ¼” H x 39 ½” W; 1876. This highly stylized ink and watercolor shows the Burroughs Building in 19th Century Bridgeport, located at the SW corner of Main and John Streets (currently the site of City Trust building). The building eventually housed the Bridgeport Public Library on the second and third floor in starting in 1888 until the current Burroughs Library structure was opened at 925 Broad Street in 1927.
Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1809, Jurgen Frederick Huge immigrated to the United States, particularly Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age of twenty-one. The year was estimated to be 1830, although records officially claiming Huge in directories first appear in 1862 (“Jurgen Huge”, n.d.). Many German citizens immigrated to the United States in the early to mid-nineteenth century as they, “were forced to endure land seizures, unemployment, increased competition from British goods, and the repercussions of the failed German Revolution of 1848” (“Immigration”, n.d.). The port of Hamburg was known as “the Gateway to the World” as over five million European immigrants used the port travel across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the “land of plenty.” Many opportunities were waiting for those willing to make the ship-ward journey (“Genealoger”, n.d.). Continue reading →
A certificate of passage on the last Northbound passenger train of the “Put” on May 29th, 1958. The Putnam line ran from Brewster in southern Putnam County down to the Bronx for about 80 years. This small document, located in the Yorktown Museum at Yorktown Heights, an old station along the line, is only a testament to the once expansive railway that ran right through the center of Westchester County (above).
Reaching from the High Bridge area of the Bronx up and Brewster in Putnam County, the Putnam line is an old, and possibly forgotten part of history. In 1869, a group of Boston and New York investors sought to connect the two cities via a railway chartered a third set of tracks between the current Hudson and Harlem lines leaving New York City (Kelley 2005). This venture came to fruition in December of 1880, when the fifty-eight miles of track, serving towns that didn’t have immediate access to railways and passengers were able to use the new line by 1881 (Kelley 2005). However, the economic strain that existed on the Putnam line since its beginnings never really disappeared, despite its success as a passenger train. It was passed between companies, shifted around in purpose, and eventually the connection to Boston was removed by rival railways (Kelley 2005). By 1913, the line had undergone several administration changes before finally falling into the control of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, where it gained the name of ‘Putnam Division’.
In its early days, the Putnam Division was a well used rail line by the many growing towns along its path, providing new opportunities to workers and commuters. Daniel R. Gallo states in an interview that “between 1950 and 1955, the population between Ardsley and Yorktown Heights tripled” due to the use of the Putnam line, which allowed for easy travel between the Westchester County towns and New York City (Strauss 1981). Many of the stations along the Putnam Railway were close to parks and attractions, such as the Lincoln Station and Tibbetts Brook Valley, which in 1927 was developed into a park with swimming pools and walking trails (Brause 2007).
Finally, the financial strain of “The Old Put” lead to its eventual closing in 1958. By its seventy-ninth year of toting passengers, the train line had dwindled to around 300 and was accruing annual deficits of up to $400,000 (Folsom 1958). On its final passage north, Train 947 left the Bronx at 5:47 PM and arrived in Brewster at 8:37 PM: a total of five hundred passengers had boarded the train, celebrating and mourning the last ride of “The Old Put” (Folsom 1958; Kelley 2005). The oldest passenger was 81-year old Henry H. Wells, former Mayor of Brewster, the youngest a 12 year old Michael Fox of North Salem; it carried a variety of passengers from railway workers, schoolchildren, and even bankers (Folsom 1958). Despite the discontinuing of service for “The Old Put”, the party commuters and locals had left potent memories in all involved. This unplanned event demonstrates a small scale of the Vincentian desire to create “global harmony” in the world, and that it is possible for strangers to live harmoniously (“Our Mission” 2019).
Although the passenger train had come to an end, the freight division of the Putnam line ran until 1981. The five stations along the passenger lines that remained, in Elmsford, Briarcliff Manor, Millwood, Yorktown Heights, and Mahopac, were maintained and used as libraries, museums, parks, offices, and even restaurants through the years (Strauss 1981). Various blog posts, outlining the echoes of the train on the land, and books, such as “The Putnam Division” by Daniel R. Gallo, that record its history keep the memory of this railway alive (Strauss 1981). Today the abandoned rail line is actively used as walking trails, parks, and history trails for those interested in learning more about the “Old Put” and its travels.
Written in 1866, The Albert N’Yanza: Great Basin of the Nile and Exploration of the Nile Sources, gives an account of Samuel White Baker and his Team’s exploration of central Africa. This two-volume set is currently held at Liberty Hall Museum in Union, NJ.
The Albert
N’Yanza, or Lake Albert, lies on the border of Uganda and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and is one of the great lakes of Africa. It has long been
an object of fascination and exploration. The presence of books like The
Albert N’Yanza: Great Basin of the Nile and Exploration of the Nile Sources
serve to highlight how celebrated these explorers were. Throughout these
narratives there is a common theme of seeking greatness and disregard for the
indigenous people. For example, Baker names Lake Albert “in memory of the late
illustrious and lamented Prince Consort”(Baker 1866, II). Naming “discovered”
landmarks was quite common among explorers. In addition, Romolo Gessi remarked
several times in his account of circumnavigating the Albert N’Yanza that people
would flee their villages with their belongings as they approached (Gessi 1876,
51-54). This is most likely from fear of whom these new arrivals could be and
what they planned on doing. There is a much darker history surrounding the
history of exploration in Africa and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
specifically.
