Panoramas are all about spectacle, and the biggest spectacle in New-York Historical’s current exhibition Panoramas: The Big Picture is Claude Samton’s 1986 photomosaic of Manhattan’s Canal St. An immersive work that runs the whole length of one of our galleries, Canal Street is made up of about 2,000 individual photographs that Samton shot and then…

Tycoons love to survey their empires. And in the 1870s, that empire was San Francisco. The city was in a period of ravenous growth fueled by mining discoveries like the 1848 Gold Rush and the Comstock Lode, and the first transcontinental rail line, a feat that made the men behind the Central Pacific Railroad—Mark Hopkins,…

Billy Eckstine drove his fans wild. Nicknamed Mr. B, the dashing singer had a voice that was described as a “suave bass-baritone” and a stage presence that, for a time at least, rivaled Frank Sinatra’s. By 1949, Eckstine was a genuine pop sensation—the New York Times reported that he even outsold Sinatra at New York’s…

The New-York Historical Society was founded on November 20, 1804. To celebrate our birthday, we’re taking a look back on the construction of the New-York Historical Society’s permanent home at 170 Central Park West. Before settling along the park, New-York Historical lived at seven other locations around the city between 1804 and 1908. Here’s a…

Nursing, which as a profession has long been associated with women, offered opportunities not only for education and employment, but leadership. Long before American women could vote, they were able to influence public policy, often through professional organizations, such as those formed by nurses in the early 20th century. Student Nurses in the Orrin Sage…

Toy drives are a beloved feature of the holiday season, and have been for over a century. In New York City, women have long been at the center of efforts to care for poor and orphaned children. In 1806, Elizabeth Hamilton (yes, that Eliza) was one of the founders of the Orphan Asylum Society of…

Pennsylvania Station is finally getting much-needed renovation, but no amount of construction will bring back the bygone Beaux-Arts architectural magnum opus of the 20th century. Designed by McKim, Mead, & White, the original terminal opened in 1910. It boasted 84 granite Doric columns and its monumental architecture echoed the great spaces of Ancient Rome. The…

Hudson-Fulton Celebration began 106 years ago this week. Starting on September 25, 1909, over a million New Yorkers and tourists enthusiastically joined in the two-week festivities to commemorate the tricentennial of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the river that now bears his name and the centennial of Robert Fulton’s invention of the steamboat. An exclusive committee…

This Summer, we welcomed a recent work by influential artist Ed Ruscha into our collection. Born in 1937, Ruscha is an America-born conceptual artist, whose oeuvre—photographs, collages, paintings, and books—spans nearly seven decades, and reflects his personal fascination with language and American popular culture. A self-proclaimed Luddite, Ruscha declared in a 2013 New York Times interview,…