This fall, we opened a powerful new exhibition Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow, which explores the struggle for full citizenship and racial equality that unfolded in the 50 years after the Civil War, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment. On September 7, to open the exhibition, we welcomed Dr. Brenda…

Written by Sophie Lynford, Acting Assistant Curator of American Art The term “Hudson River School” first appeared in print in 1879 in a review by the American art critic Earl Shinn. “Hudson River School” is an appellation that is still broadly applied to landscape paintings produced in the United States during the 19th century. Shinn,…

This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we celebrate centuries past and present civil rights leaders’ dedication to forging racial equality. Although we often associate the Civil Rights Movement with non-violent actions, not all its leaders championed civil disobedience. Some believed that the only way to end violent, institutionalized racial oppression was through armed resistance. Among…

Did you know that some Brooklynites fought for both sides during the American Revolution? When revolutionary rhetoric adopted an anti-slavery tone, Kings County residents renounced the “Glorious Cause” and sided the British in hopes of preserving their forced labor system. This week New-York Historical’s Bernard and Irene Schwartz Fellow Chris Minty is our guest blogger. In his…

Independent scholar Claire Bellerjeau made a miraculous discovery in the New-York Historical Society’s collections; she uncovered an unpublished poem likely written by Jupiter Hammon, the first published African American author in America. Hammon, who lived his entire life as an enslaved person, had four poems and three essays published in his lifetime. This sixth poem…

“Write right from left to the right as you see it spelled here.” Did you print your answer? If so, you got it wrong—it should have been written in cursive. “Spell backwards, forwards.” Did you include a comma? Wrong. Did you omit the comma? That’s wrong, too. These are only two of the 30 questions…

In today’s installment of our Black History Month celebration, we’ll be exploring Harlem. The first wave of African Americans landed in Harlem after World War I, when hundreds of thousands left the Jim Crow South in search of safety and opportunity. In 1914, only 50,000 blacks lived in Harlem, but by 1930, almost 205,000 had moved to…

In 2015, New-York Historical hosted the exhibition Freedom Journey 1965, which highlighted photographer Stephen Somerstein’s powerful images of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. The protest marked a watershed moment in civil rights history and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act just months later. During the five-day, 54-mile protest, 25,000 brave individuals—including luminaries like Martin Luther…

Today the New-York Historical Society’s newest exhibit, Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein opens to the public just in time for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 19. This exhibition features 46 stunning black and white and color photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March. In…