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Massachusetts Avenue Project: Growing Green

Authored by: Robin Smircina

The photo above is the sign taken at Massachusetts Avenue Community Park as part of the Massachusetts community Project on December 3, 2019. MAP is a community not for profit organization in downtown Buffalo, that prepares Buffalo youth for the global job market by teaching them leadership skills and job readiness while they work on the urban farm, the Mobile Market, and the kitchen.

The Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) began on Buffalo’s West Side in 1992 (MAP 2019). MAP has developed many programs since the time of its inception, including its Growing Green Program which began as a way to “address the growing land vacancy, high youth unemployment, and food security needs of the community (MAP 2019 “Our History Par 1”).” MAP is also involved in the Good Food Buffalo Coalition, The Good Food Purchasing Program, is a member of the Crossroads Collective, and supports the NYS Climate and Community Protection Act (MAP 2019). 

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Monographs Marking Change – Modern and Contemporary African Artists

Authored by Kris Juncker

This monograph on Victor Ekpuk is one of many volumes dedicated to Modern and Contemporary African artists in Smithsonian Libraries’ collections.

Janet Stanley, Librarian at the National Museum of African Art, has been actively collecting monographs dedicated to the lives and work of Modern and Contemporary African artists for four decades. Around 2013, Stanley began to maintain the annotated bibliography, “Monographs on African Artists,” online. The purpose of the collection is to communicate the important twentieth and twenty-first-century stories of artists who have a global impact.

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George Keith and the Growth of Quakerism

Authored by Kellie-Ann Ford

Image of George Keith’s Published Sermons, Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society, who has a copy on micro-film. An original can be viewed at the New York Historical Society

During the 17th century the Religious Society of Friends, better known today as Quakers, was founded. Unlike the Protestants, Quakers believed each person contained within them Divine Light meaning “all people, regardless of their familiarity with the Bible, might have access to grace” (Plank 2016, 523). For this reason, women could speak up, publish their writings and take part if they felt moved to do so (Tarter 1993), though, eventually the Meetings would become separated (Adams 2001, 660). Slavery and the treatment of Natives were issues taken up by early Quakers. While preaching in Barbados, Quakers were forced to take a moderate stance on slavery, after being accused of inciting rebellion and causing suspicion among the slave holders (Plank 2016, 517).

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Early Correspondence Between Henry Flagler and Bishop John Moore

Authored by Gemma Rose

Henry Flagler Correspondence on Hotel Alcazar Stationary, 1889

History

Featured above is a hand-written correspondence from Henry M. Flagler (1830 – 1913) to a Mr. Crawford inquiring about a good time to meet with the second Bishop of St. Augustine, John Moore. The note is written on the Hotel Alcazar stationary and is dated September 19, 1889. The document is owned by the St. Augustine Historical Society. Wally Martinsons who cataloged the item noted that this item was saved from destruction “by Neil Smith, Florida East Coast Railway (FECRy) Treasurer, on 03/1989. The documents were salvaged from the FECRy storage building on King Street then it was transferred to the City of St Augustine” (1990). Without his diligent efforts’ history would have been lost.

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YoungLives: Mentoring Teen Moms for Nearly 30 Years

Authored by Lauren Spain

Taken at YoungLives camp at Rockbridge, VA, Summer 2002. This photo shows teen moms, their children, and leaders enjoying a Fifties theme-night during their week away.

Young Life began as a ministry to teens in Texas in the 1930s (Young Life, n.d.). It went on to become a multinational organization in the effort to “go where kids are, win the right to be heard and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them” (Young Life, n.d.). Through fun club meetings and summer camps that in 2007 totaled 24 and reached over 100,000 teens a year (Lanker 2007, 15), Young Life strove to reach the many teens who were not part of a church.

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Teaching the ABCs of Race and Identity in Schools

Authored by Angelica Zamudio

Dr. Waller at her installation ceremony, where family, friends, former and current colleagues, plus the wider BC community, celebrated the beginning of her leadership at The Berkeley Carroll School as the first Black, female Head of School, and one that deeply understands progressive education.

C for Class. D for Difference. R for Race. An ABC of Equality is a children’s book addressing social justice concepts via the alphabet. Increasingly, grownups are exploring subjects related to equality with their children. Why? Because our world is changing. By 2060, no single racial majority will exist (Kotler, Haider, and Levine 2019, 6). Talking about race is thus imperative, and the earlier the better.

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Citizens Bank of Monroe: A Town of Monroe Staple for Over Fifty Years.

Authored By Mike Maggin

23 Lake Street in Monroe NY once housed the Citizens Bank of Monroe in Monroe NY. This was a staple of the town of Monroe for more than 70 years. Now it is an abandoned property but when this photo was taken in 1965 the Citizens Bank of Monroe was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

In 1915, the United States had 7,598 National Banks and 18,227 State Banks (FDIC.Gov 2014). One of the banks that opened that year was the Citizens Bank of Monroe located in Monroe NY. Though the building is no longer in use the bank is still talked about and remembered for its great customer service, it’s giant vault, and the ability to survive the run on banks in the 1930s. Many banks did not survive the banking panics that began in October of 1930 and lasted until Roosevelts national banking holiday in 1933 (Bordo and Landon-Lane 2010, 487). During this time over 8,000 commercial banks were part of the Federal Reserve System, but nearly 16,000 were not members, including the Citizens Bank of Monroe (Richardson 2013).

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Enid Bell’s Mission: Art for All

Authored by Carolyn Kosten

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.

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New York’s Early Publishers: The Harper Brothers through a Vincentian Lens

Authored by Cara Vincente

A page from Robert Ray’s Book of Deeds 1845-1848, showing the purchase of plot deeds at Green-Wood Cemetery by the Harper Brothers.

In an old, dilapidated book, found among a trove of yet-to-be processed archival material at Green-Wood Cemetery, the inevitable resting place of four famous brothers is revealed. James, John, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher Harper, the founders of the eponymous publishing house, Harper & Brothers, purchased four adjacent 300 sq. ft. burial plots in Green-Wood Cemetery in May of 1845.

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The Dial Switchboard: A Piece of Small-Town History in Hazleton

Authored by Gina Coticchio

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. 

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