Category Archives: Exhibitions
Interview With Claire Yaffa, Photographer of Children With AIDS: Spirit and Memory
On June 7, AIDS in New York: The First Five Years opens at the New-York Historical Society. The new exhibit will explore the impact the epidemic had on personal lives, public health, and politics from 1981-1985. The companion exhibition Children With AIDS: Spirit and Memory. Photographs by Claire Yaffa will feature twenty photographs by the acclaimed [...]
Duke Ellington Wants You To Buy War Bonds
In April 1945 VE Day was on the horizon, but victory in the Pacific was still a ways away. In an effort to keep the American public buying War Bonds after victory in Europe, the US Treasury Department set up the “Mighty Seventh War Loan” drive. The slogan “Now—all together” as well as the central theme [...]
Audubon’s Work Becomes Feathering For Rats Nests
Our current exhibition Audubon’s Aviary: Part 1 of the Complete Flock is now open, and everyone is loving the collection of original watercolors displayed throughout the second floor. But did you know that the exhibition also features some lesser-known Auduboniana? One of our favorites is this Meiji Period (approximately 1868-1912) woodcut depicting John James Audubon. Audubon [...]
Jacob Lawrence And WWII Integration
In 1943 America was deep into WWII oversees, but was also fighting a battle of inequality. The “Double V” campaign waged by many African Americans insisted that if they were to be fighting for their country abroad, they deserved equal rights at home. The Red Cross was segregating blood, and troops were not allowed to [...]
From WWII to Hurricane Sandy: New-York Historical’s Public Service
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, New York mobilized for war, and the New-York Historical Society was no exception. As the city braced for possible enemy attack, the New-York Historical Society took precautions to protect the collection as its staff members departed for the Armed Forces and defense factories. Nine New-York Historical Society staff members [...]
Tracking Time
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and our new exhibition, The Dream Continues: Photographs of Martin Luther King Murals by Vergara, we present “Tracking Time,” written by photographer Camilo Vergara. Here, he speaks about his decades of documenting America’s poor urban communities, and how he became a “builder of virtual cities.” For more than [...]
New York’s Gilded Age, In The Spotlight Again
It recently came to our attention that Julian Fellowes, creator of the BBC hit show Downton Abbey (what did everyone think of the third season premiere?), is setting his sights on New York’s Gilded Age for his next show. The Gilded Age was a remarkable time of growth in America, taking place roughly from the [...]
