library - New-York Historical Society

Not every piece of mail comes in an envelope. Imagine being the postal worker processing this piece of fan mail! This coconut was addressed and mailed to comedian Bob Hope in 1944, stamped with only 17 cents of postage. Visit the Museum this weekend to explore the exhibition "So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II." Learn more: https://bit.ly/365YUeT... Coconut, 1944; Courtesy of the National Naval Aviation Museum.

The history of women’s activism over the past 200 years is the story of countless, courageous individual women. Some of these women’s names may be familiar to us, but many Black women’s stories were deliberately left out of a narrative that prioritized the feats of white women who wrote the first draft of their story. Explore the critical contributions of a group of Black women: Maria W. Stewart, the Rollin sisters, and Dorothy Bolden. Read more here: https://bit.ly/39Pa1eE LAST CHANCE: Our exhibition "Women March" closes this Sunday!

The city that never sleeps Wishing you all a good weekend, ushered in by this electrifying night view ca. 1910-1922 by William D. Hassler.

OPENING TODAY: "So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II" highlights the legendary performer and his unique role during World War II entertaining troops overseas. Hope was always working on several projects at once. In September 1943, Time magazine called him a performer who scarcely takes time out to live. During the war years, he hosted a weekly radio show, starred in several films each year, performed at charity events, hosted the Academy Awards, and continued... to tour the world during his time off. The exhibition is on view through September 5, 2021. Visit to explore the showas well as the companion exhibition, The Gift of Laughter. https://bit.ly/365YUeT Hope in the Marshall Islands, 1944, Courtesy of the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation Collection, World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum See more

When #NationalHatDay falls on a #FashionFriday we have to showcase a few show-stopping looks from our collection. Can you guess the famous figures behind these charming chapeaux? Click on each image for their story. If you guessed any of these correctly, well thenhat's off to you! Browse more in our online collections: https://bit.ly/39QWuSL

You know the famous story of Rosa Parks, but what about her activism beyond the bus boycott? Parks was born #OnThisDay in 1913. Read more from #WomenAtTheCenter.

Penn Station's Moynihan Train Hall opened on New Year’s Day this year and so, of course, we're feeling nostalgic about the old Penn Station. The McKim, Mead, and White Beaux Arts masterpiece was controversially demolished in 1963. Its brief 53-year life was filled with highs and lows. The concourse featured a magnificent modern arched steel and greenhouse-like glass roof, with a large clock hanging overhead. Below, 21 tracks served 11 platforms, accommodating up to 14...4 trains per hour. The original terminal had 84 granite columns and the central waiting room (which was a block and a half long) held the title as the largest indoor space in the city. Running perpendicular to Penn Station’s main waiting hall was an arcade lined with a pharmacy, soda counter, and all kinds of shops. Its demolition spurred the passage of the 1965 New York Landmarks Law. See more

Join us on Zoom later this month for an interactive night of cocktails, comedy, and a Jazz Age murder mystery about the mysterious death of a Russian gangster. Whodunit? Help us crack the case!

A ticket to impeachment from our collection President Andrew Johnson became president after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He was the first U.S. president to be impeached. His trial in the Senate was open to the publicthough only a limited number of daily tickets were available. They were color-coded for the different days. In Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict, allowing Johnson to serve out his term. ... You can see another ticket of a different color from recently posted to Smithsonian's feed. Check it out! See more

Halloween looks a little different this year but we will continue to share some Halloween delights (not frights) with you and your family! Explore our family-friendly online Halloween programs and activities: https://bit.ly/3of1iHG

Now Open: "Dreaming Together" is our first collaborative exhibition with Asia Society New York, drawing connections between our two collections under shared themes. Book your ticket to visit today and this weekend!: https://bit.ly/2RUxSj7 The interdisciplinary artist collective teamLab created this work after the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan. In the animation, the Japanese character for life grows into a branch that turns in space and m...oves through time. It withers and blooms in an endless cycle of decay and renewal. #AsiaSocietyTriennial teamLab (Collective formed in 2001 in Tokyo, Japan), Life Survives by the Power of Life, 2011, Single-channel digital work; calligraphy by Sisyu, Duration: 6 minutes, 23 seconds; Asia Society, New York: Gift of Mitch and Joleen Julis in honor of Melissa Chiu, 2015.14; Video still courtesy the artist teamLab, courtesy Pace Gallery

What's this? A packed house for "Faust and Furious"? The Metropolitan Opera House (aka "the Old Met") at 1411 Broadway (39th St) opened #OnThisDay in 1883 with a performance of Faust. The opera house was designed by architect J. Cleaveland Cady. Its interior was redesigned by the architectural firm Carrère and Hastings after a fire in 1892. ... The opera house had a Golden Horseshoetwo tiers of boxes occupied by the 70 original stockholders. Wealthy patrons were on display, as sight-lines often made it easier to see other audience members than the stage. The five-balcony auditorium could house 3,389 people. The @MetOpera decided to relocate to @LincolnCenter in the 1960s. The old opera house was demolished in 1967 and replaced with a 40-story office building. (1) Opera House interior, n.d. Gelatin silver photograph. 70327 (2) J.S. Johnson, Metropolitan Opera, west side of Broadway, north of 39th Street, ca. 1886. Geographic File 57915 See more

Look on the bright sideno, really it's SO BRIGHT outside. Enjoy today's surprisingly sunny weather! You can leave your tanning reflector at home. You won't need it to soak up the sun. Frederick Kelly, August 23, 1963, PR 246, Image 87711d.

Time to read the writing on the wall(paper)? During the Civil War, newspapers were printed on, well, anything but newsprint. As war waged in the 1860s, warships blockaded Confederate statesand virtually all the paper mills were in the north. Newspaper editors, particularly those in southern coastal states, reached for whatever was availableincluding bolts of wallpaper and tissue paper. Read more #FromTheStacks: https://bit.ly/35etimb

We’re breaking open that iconic image of American art, putting it in dialogue with Asian and Asian American art. Wendy N. E. Ikemoto, curator of American art Visit us this Friday for the opening day of "Dreaming Together," our collaborative exhibition with Asia Society New York. ... The Wall Street Journal explores more from the #AsiaSocietyTriennial.

Live, Jimi Hendrix was a combination of the ultimate trickster and the ultimate technician with great emotional ability. There was nobody close to him. concert promoter Bill Graham Grab your tickets to #BillGrahamRocks this weekend. https://bit.ly/36nsJFK

Don't forget to #LookUp every once in a while! In 1950, Arthur W. Grumbine snapped this image of a cluster of penthouses "high up in the sky along 5th Avenue." Can you identify the building based on this detail? #CityViewSunday

Augusta Savage was the only Black woman commissioned for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Today is both #WorldSingingDay and #BlackPoetryDay. Savage's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" represented Black contributions to music and drew inspiration from the poem and hymn, written by brothers James Weldon Johnson and Rosamond Johnson and known today as the Black National Anthem. The original 16-foot sculpture featured the Black youth who popularized the song. Unfortunately, ...Savage lacked both the funds to cast it into bronze and the space to store it. Like many pieces from the World’s Fair, the sculpture was destroyed when the exhibition ended. It survives only in the form of souvenir replicas like the one on view on our first floor. Stop by and see it in person!

Beards: They grow on you. So much so that it's unusual for us to see an image of Abraham Lincoln without one! On October 15, 1860, 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard. ... She wrote, "I have yet got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President." Alexander Hesler, June 1860 / Matthew Brady, 1864

We do everything that the brothers do. The only thing that we do that they don’t is have babies. For the close of #HispanicHeritageMonth our Center for Women's History takes a closer look at the feminist activism within the revolutionary Puerto Rican organization the Young Lords. Read more from #WomenAtTheCenter: https://bit.ly/2SXuaFX