Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of New York City’s mayor since the 1940s, but its history goes back much farther than that. It was named for Archibald Gracie, the wealthy merchant who built the house in 1799 as his private residence at what is now East End Ave. and East 88th St. New-York Historical has its…

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, perhaps it’s no surprise that alcohol sales are booming. With many of us confined to our homes (if we’re lucky), braving commutes to carry out essential work, or simply trying to figure out how to make a mask out of your last pair of clean underwear, there seems to be no…

What can history museums do during an epidemic? Like many institutions across the globe, the New-York Historical Society is temporarily closed to help contain the spread of COVID-19. And like so many New Yorkers, our curators and librarians are preoccupied with concern for their loved ones and grief over what’s happening in our beloved city….

When Ulysses Grant Dietz’s older brother gave him a wedding cake topper for Christmas in the early 2000s, he meant it mostly as a gag gift. Made of molded plastic, the topper features two tuxedo-clad men linking arms under a flower-bedecked bower. On the underside, it’s stamped with the words “Adam & Steve.” The topper’s…

The New-York Historical Society Museum wants a wedding cake topper. Not just any cake topper: a same-sex version with two men or two women that speaks to the titanic shift in American culture that happened when gay marriage was legalized at the federal level in 2015. So if we’re so eager, why not just buy…

John Hancock needed a check-up. New-York Historical’s portrait of the famed signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first governor of Massachusetts is on view as part of the exhibition Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere. However, before it gets installed, the Museum’s Paintings Conservation Lab wanted to learn more about it. New-York Historical actually knows very…

Dear Ms. Markle, We have learned that you will soon be cramming (or as they say in the UK, “swotting”) for the British citizenship test, an exam that is typically flunked by one-third to one-half of all applicants. To pass the test, you will have to correctly answer 75 percent of 24 questions, like How…

One of the highlights of our North Gallery in our 4th-floor Luce Center, which reopened last April, is the magnificent painting Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. from the Seat of War, painted by Louis Lang (1812-1893) in 1862. The painting depicts the regiment marching off the ship and into the Battery in Lower Manhattan, welcomed by…

Our groundbreaking exhibition The Vietnam War: 1945–1975 is now in its fourth month on display. As its name implies, the exhibition begins the story of the Vietnam War at the end of World War II—but don’t be misled into thinking the exhibition ends when the troops were called home in 1975. It actually continues into…