Authored by Sara Alcorn
Car Bumper Sticker from the Bellmore Historical Society celebrating the Tricentennial of the Bellmores, New York, 1976.
As the United Sates of America was welcoming their bicentennial independence, a small town on Long Island was gearing up to celebrate the three hundredth birthday of their community with pride and public service.
Authored by Samantha Duffy
Title page of a 6-page set of Racing Rules, approved in 1963. This is from the Great South Bay Scooter Club collection, currently located at the Brookhaven Free Library
When the temperature drops, and sleeves get longer, most people retreat to the comfort and warmth of their homes, to hibernate for the cold winter. But if you are one of the many ice boat racers out here on eastern Long Island, the freezing temperatures bring more than the holiday spirit. In fact, it can only mean one thing; another season at the Bellport Bay Yacht Club[1]. Meeting every first and third Tuesday of the months November-March[2], giddy ice boat enthusiasts gather to race, on the Great South Bay, located at the end of Bellport Lane in Bellport. Although the evolution of how ice boats came about is not well documented, the rich history of the Great South Bay Scooter Club is making its way into being digitally accessible for all to see. As early as 1900, ice boats and scooters were used, though at that point in time almost strictly for hunting and sport[3]. The very first organized scooter race took place in Patchogue in February of 1903. In 1904, the Bellport Scooter Club was organized and later oversaw the organization of other scooter clubs across Long Island[4]. From there, the Bellport Bay Yacht Club offered their building to the Scooter Club for the winter months. Since then, the club, and what seems like the entire village of Bellport, have enjoyed that space from 1922, on[5].
Insurance Maps of the Borough of Queens, City of New York, Volume Two, published in 1915 and digitally reproduced on the NYPL Map Warper according to a CC0 1.0 license.
Authored by Maddy Vericker
The NYPL Map Warper is a collection of New York-area maps and atlases that have been digitized and published online under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license.[1] The coolest thing about the Map Warper tool is that it is also a crowdsourcing project that relies on volunteers to pin old maps to modern satellite maps, a process called georectification.[2] Exploring the maps that populate the website reveals much about the history of a city that is constantly evolving, and in researching the Sanborn Map Co.’s Insurance Maps of the Borough of Queens, City of New York, Volume Two,[3] these changes are even more apparent. Continue reading
Authored by Kevin Quinn
Farmingdale State College “Modern Community syllabus,” page 1, circa 1948.
“Modern Community in 1950”
As part of an Academic Service-Learning project, I was tasked with cataloging textbooks and notebooks donated by an alumnus of the 1950 class at Farmingdale State College. The donor of the material was Mr. Benjamin P. Vecchio, a graduate of the Building Construction (BC) program at LIATI. At LIATI, students were either part of the Agricultural College, or the Technical College. As a student in BC, Mr. Vecchio was a part of the Technical College that, according to a campus map[1], made its home on Conklin Street in Farmingdale, NY, away from the Main Campus. The history of the Technical Campus is interesting because the ‘Central Hall’ building used to be known as the Nazareth Trade School, a home for Orphans between 1900 and 1940.[2] “It was held at the old tech area which was on Conklin Street. All the classes were there, none of them were here, except sports, sports were here, but the rest were over there.”[3] Continue reading
Authored by Michael Bartolomeo
The Prophet, Vol. 2 No. 1. October, 1967.
St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School was founded by the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 1966 as part of a project to construct three diocesan high schools on Long Island, New York. With the objective of providing students the opportunity for a holistic Catholic education, its mission has long been one grounded in the core Vincentian values of Truth, Love, and Respect through a spirit of “accountability, trust, and justice […] tempered with compassion and understanding” (Mission Statement 2013). Continue reading
Authored by: Andrea Gatins
Matilda Joslyn Gage. This image has not been watermarked due to copyright restrictions. This image should not be altered in any way, and utilized for educational purposes only.
Matilda Joslyn Gage can simply be described as a women’s rights activist, and a significant figure in the women’s rights movement. Born in 1826, this woman dedicated her life to fighting for women’s freedom whether it was the right to vote, or general women’s equality. To jump-start her fight for women’s freedom, while Gage wasn’t able to attend the notable Women’s Right’s Convention in Seneca Falls, NY, she attended and addressed the third national convention in Syracuse in 1852 (Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation 2009, par. 3). To further her fierce dedication, Gage is credited as one of the founding members and leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association, and the Women’s National Liberal League (Hall 2002, 161). Continue reading
Authored by Rio Aucena
Archbishop Oscar Romero (giant puppet) from the Bread and Puppet Theater’s new production, The Nativity, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.
When historical pictures are unearthed, these items not only tell us about our past but connects us together as a community. Some of these go a step further and leave messages that inspire and instill worthwhile values such as love, respect and service.
While perusing Marymount Manhattan College’s William Harris Papers, an image of a giant puppet caught my attention. Equally attention-grabbing was the note attached behind the black and white photograph stating the snapshot was from the Bread and Puppet Theater’s new production entitled, “The Nativity, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.” With such a curious theater group name and an interesting production subject, my interest was piqued.
Authored by Danielle Griffith
St. Albert Hall Inscription
Introduction
This inscription, Deus Scientiae est Dominus, translates to “God is the Lord of knowledge”. Artists Ferrenz and Taylor created the inscription that is located at St. John’s University’s Queens campus. It is inscribed outside of St. Albert Hall, which was built in 1956. St. Albert Hall houses the science department. St. John’s University made no mistake in carefully choosing the name of the hall where the science department is housed or the inscription on the building. Each was chosen carefully to depict a powerful, unified message. Continue reading
Authored by Erika Wilson
Clipping of the play to be performed at the Biltmore Theatre
The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds was written by Paul Zindel. His novel received a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 and eventually became a popular Broadway performance. Some of the advertisements and review clippings from various Broadway performances of the play are archived in the William Harris Papers at Manhattan Marymount College. An impressive collection of 96 scripts, 4,450 folders of clippings and a collection of photographs gathered by Mr. Harris during the decades of the 1960s to the 1990s (Manhattan, 2016).
Authored by Emily Lacey
Article written by unsourced author from the Staten Island Advances February 1, 1965 issue on Dr. King and his arrest in Selma, Alabama
Collection:
Microfilm was never something I had given any thought to throughout my research endeavors. So, when the opportunity arose to learn how to use it, and work with a collection of it, I was interested. Microfilm is interesting, in that during its prime it was an innovative way to house a large amount of materials. The New Dorp Library has an extensive collection of microfilm, every newspaper edition from the Staten Island Advance from 1964- 2008 is housed in filing cabinets, and reels of film for public use. The front page of a February 1, 1965 paper stood out to me, not because of the headline article, but because to the left with two small column was an article on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. being arrested in Selma. This little article, along with a follow up equally as short on page 9 was what the paper had representing this historic time.