![]() |
The "Charging Bull" and the "Fearless Girl," 8 Broadway, New York City |
the american past: NYC in focus
An American Studies take on New York City: exploring the city through its various forms, from images and novels to pop culture and social history.
Friday, April 20, 2018
Hey, girl, is that guerrilla art? The Fearless Girl, the Charging Bull, and the Public Square
Labels:
Alex Gardega,
Arturo Di Modica,
Charging Bull,
Fearless Girl,
Kristen Visbal,
New York Street art,
Occupy Wall Street,
Soho,
Wall Street
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz: Married at Last!
![]() |
"I love you, Lucille." |
It was November 30, 1940, and Desi Arnaz telephoned his boss at Manhattan's Roxy Theater at 153 W. 50th Street to explain just why he would not be appearing in the first of two shows he was scheduled for that evening. He was still in Greenwich, Connecticut. But he'd be back in New York that evening and ready to perform for the second show, he promised. And this time, the 25 year old band leader was bringing his wife!
Labels:
Desi Arnaz,
Desilu,
I Love Lucy,
La Guardia,
Lucille Ball,
Pierre Hotel,
RKO studios,
Roxy Theater,
Too Many Girls
Monday, November 27, 2017
Behind the Scenes in a Restaurant
![]() |
Public Space: the Exchange Buffet, NYC, 1920s |
In 1916, the Consumers League of New York City issued a study of 1,017 Women Restaurant
Employees. Titled, Behind the Scenes in a Restaurant, the study offered insight into the working conditions and ostensibly sought to bring about changes in laws regarding women working in the industry.
Employees. Titled, Behind the Scenes in a Restaurant, the study offered insight into the working conditions and ostensibly sought to bring about changes in laws regarding women working in the industry.
Labels:
Exchange Buffet,
Imitation of Life,
Mildred Pierce,
restaurants,
the Consumers League of New York,
waitresses
Monday, October 23, 2017
Alone at the Wheel: Driving in Manhattan
"The roadster glided through traffic as easily, gracefully as a fish swimming downstream, the first lights of evening sliding backward over the long, gray hood."
~ Winifred Van Duzer, The Good Bad Girl (1926)
Labels:
Auto Hotels,
Auto Inns,
Automobiles,
electric cars,
Katharine Hepburn,
manhattan,
new york city,
parking,
washington square,
Winifred Van Duzer
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Faith Baldwin of Brooklyn
![]() |
New York and the (Aspirations, Dreams) Lives of Women: Faith Baldwin |
Friday, June 23, 2017
Skyscraper Souls: Warren William and the Working Girl
![]() |
Warren William: Villain, City Dweller. |
In films, William was best known for playing a ruthless tycoon, a man who seeks money and power; a man who disposes of women easily and heartlessly, the kind of character who "made life his plaything," in the words of a trailer for his 1934 film, Bedside.
Many of his films portray New York City in the 1930s; a portrayal that offers a rather biased view of the metropolis: the city was a jungle, a trap, a den of immorality that dazzles and seems to promise everything, but ultimately only destroys.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Anonymous, New York: Ursula Parrott
![]() |
You are Here, Manhattan, 1929. Back Cover of Ex-Wife, Dell paperback edition. |
My husband left me four years ago. Why--I don't precisely understand, and never did. Nor, I suspect, does he. Now, in these waning days of 1929 when the world may be tumbling about our ears, that other catastrophe and its causes are matters equally inconsequential. ~ Ex-Wife, 1929
In 1929, a novel titled Ex-Wife was published by Jonathan Cape publishers. The book, published anonymously, "caught readers' fancy," and made the bestseller list. Many readers were shocked and astonished at the racy story of a woman who, divorced from her "heel" of a husband, takes up relationships with other men, along with a cocktail or two, and even takes up her own career!
She rooms with an artist friend in the Village, attends parties and "first nights" in the city, she shops, she pays attention to her clothes, perfume, and other details, and she loves to find love in the arms of a handsome male friend--RACY!
Who had written such a truly modern story of a young woman in 1920s Manhattan, navigating men, work, and the impact of the "Aspirin Age?"
Thursday, December 29, 2016
"Calling" in New York: A New Year's Day Tradition
Mrs. Pegu, and drawing-room, are all laid out in state to receive New Year's calls. Thirty-two young gentlemen make a brief appearance at the door, and recite the following shibboleth: "How d'ye do, Mrs. Pegu. Happy New Year. Can't stay a minute. Made seventy-six calls this morning; got thirty more to make. Adoo! Adoo!" The young gentlemen vanish, to be succeeded by others.
Labels:
calling,
christmas,
george washington,
new amsterdam,
new year's day,
new year's eve,
parlor
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Selling (Off) New York
Cardboard Cut-Outs?: The cast of Million Dollar Listing, New York |
Labels:
2008 crash,
housing crisis,
jeremiah moss,
luxury real estate,
million dollar listing new york,
new york city,
new york real estate,
selling new york,
the great recession,
there goes the neighborhood,
wnyc
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Hellward, New York? The Shimmy Dance and Other Indecencies
Dance, Daughters, Dance! 1928 |
By the time a young
actress danced in front of a three-way mirror and on table tops, shaking her
body as her bobbed hair bobbed and her scandalously short skirt swayed up and
down, the dance known as the "Shimmy" was almost a decade old.
This was Joan Crawford in
the Academy Award nominated film, Our Dancing Daughters
(1928). Crawford epitomized the flapper-dancer-modern-woman of the Jazz era.
She may have brought the popular Shimmy dance to the (somewhat respectable)
silver screen, but she also tamed it in many ways. The Shimmy had actually
emerged a decade earlier, in the months after the end of World War I. And
it caused an uproar.
Labels:
coney island,
dance halls,
ellen o'grady,
elsie janis,
joan crawford,
the shimmy dance,
volstead act
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Color of Postwar New York
Walking, 1956, Saul Leiter, Howard Greenberg Gallery (most of the Leiter images used here are from the same source) |
Labels:
color photography,
edward steichen,
film noir,
helen levitt,
leave her to heaven,
man in a grey flannel suit,
postwar new york,
rope,
saul leiter,
street photography,
todd haynes,
vivian maier
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Windows, Shopping, and Christmas Past, NYC
Christmas Card Display: the observed and the observer |
From any recent study of New York the
visitor from another planet would conclude that our observance of
Christmas consisted chiefly in unusual practice and encouragement of the
art of shop-keeping. Broadway and the other shopping streets
have been for many days a vast fair, crowded with customers till long
past the dinner-hour, and late at night, no doubt, the shopmen went out
and bought from each other, for there is no resisting the contagion.
When one has bought what he desires, there is a fine pleasure in
leisurely strolls through the shopping quarter.
J. E. Learned, "Christmas Streets," New Outlook, December 1892
Ah, Christmas!
Late 19th century and early 20th century images depicting Christmas in New York from the Library of Congress collection can be divided (roughly) into two types: those showing activities related tocharities (Salvation Army, soup kitchens, orphanages, et al) and those showing shoppers on the street.
Labels:
Christmas shopping,
department stores,
edward bernays,
sister carrie,
street photography,
theodore dreiser,
window shopping
Monday, November 9, 2015
General Pershing's Welcome in New York City, 1919
![]() |
General Pershing salutes New York |
General Pershing had commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I. He left the United States in June 1917, just months after the U.S. declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917. He would not return for more than two years.
Labels:
369th infantry,
central park,
harlem hellfighters,
henry johnson,
john hylan,
john pershing,
kidron,
madison square,
micheline resco,
ss leviathan,
thomas hastings,
victory arch,
waldorf,
world war one
Friday, August 14, 2015
August 14, 1945: Times Square and a Couple of Kisses
![]() |
You must remember this.... |
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
One Night at Sherry's: James Hazen Hyde Has a Ball (and Some Cake)
Hyde was the prototypical dandy of turn-of-the-20th-century New York. His clothes were made in Paris (a city that he loved and visited frequently). He was enormously fond of horses and coaches (and once raced, with Alfred Vanderbilt,--by coach!--from Philadelphia to New York City).
Labels:
celebrities,
equitable life building,
james hazen hyde,
jp morgan,
sherry's restaurant,
step and repeat,
the 400
Friday, July 10, 2015
Signs of the Time: Federal Art in NYC
Music Contest Poster, Estelle Levine, Artist, Federal Art Project, Library of Congress
Over the course of just a few golden years, from about 1935 to 1939, in New York City, the work of those artists was visible everywhere, from the theater marquees advertising a production to posters displayed on the streets.
Labels:
berneice abbott,
burt lancaster,
federal art project,
federal theatre project,
harlem,
john houseman,
lafayette theater,
orson welles,
studio 54,
WPA
Monday, April 13, 2015
Street Scenes: Cropping Into History
On Fifth Avenue: A cropped image, c. 1900. (See Full Size Image Here.) |
I spend a lot of time looking through visual archives to find images to use in my research and my design work. One of my favorite archives to peruse is the Library of Congress (LOC). The LOC happens to hold one the best collections of American images: roughly 25,000 glass negatives and transparencies made by the Detroit Publishing Company (DPC).
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
The Washingtons in New York: The Nation, the Publick, and the Enslaved
George: "Mary, Please come with me to New York!" (Illustration by Norman Rockwell, 1932) |
On
April 23, 1789, just one week before being sworn in as the first
president of the United States, George Washington and his staff settled
into the country's first executive mansion, located at 10 Cherry Street in New York City. For nearly two years, before being moved to Philadelphia, the
seat of the U.S. government would be located in New York City; and
Manhattan would be home to the President and First Lady. The new nation was just starting to recover
from the long years of war, and nowhere was this better in evidence than
in Manhattan.
|
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Owners of America, NYC
"By their banks ye shall know them," Alfred Henry Lewis |
Accompanying the article were images of the Manhattan homes of the "owners."
Labels:
alfred henry lewis,
andrew carnegie,
cosmopolitan magazine,
j.p. morgan,
muckrakers,
new york mansions
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Jackie, A New Yorker
![]() |
Jack and Jackie Greet New York, 1960 |
Labels:
Carlyle Hotel,
central park,
Clint Hill,
Edith Beale,
Gail Sheehy,
Gracie Square,
Grand Central Station,
Grey Gardens,
Jackie Bouvier,
Jackie Kennedy,
JFK,
Schrafts,
Theodore White
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Take a Walk: Time Traveling Through the City Streets
Time Traveling on the Upper West Side, 1971 (click text here to go to film) |
Take a Walk
New York is made for walking. And it's a city that lends itself to image making, from still photography to home movies. To see the city from a "common" or everyday point of view seems both literally and figuratively quite pedestrian. But with the passage of time, that point of view becomes magical, offering viewers the opportunity to time travel and walk through the streets of Manhattan in another era.
Labels:
amateur films,
fashion,
street photography,
the world the flesh and the devil,
upper west side,
walking in new york
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Bright Lights, Big City: Early 1980s New York
![]() |
The Write Crowd: McInerney, Janowitz, Ellis, 1980s, NYC |
Labels:
bright lights big city,
east village,
ed koch,
gentrification,
hyper-gentrification,
jay mcinerney,
lower east side,
odeon,
yunnies,
yuppies
Friday, August 15, 2014
Coney Island on Their Mind
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
The Beauty of the Miniature: Helena Rubinstein in New York City
![]() |
Madame Helena Rubinstein |
Helena Rubinstein (1870-1965) was a revolutionary force in the world of beauty. She was an entrepreneur, a businesswoman, and a marketing genius. During a long and successful career that spanned six decades and made
her one of the richest women in the world, Rubinstein operated salons
all over the world and launched scores of products that were sold globally. She was a magnificent purveyor of the idea that
all women can find personal satisfaction through the pursuit of beauty.
Labels:
beauty salon,
cosmetics,
fifth avenue,
helena rubenstein,
Park Avenue
Thursday, March 20, 2014
A Decisive Moment: Marilyn Monroe in New York
![]() |
Marilyn Monroe: The City at Her Feet |
Labels:
actors studio,
ambassador hotel,
arthur miller,
billy wilder,
ed feingersh,
edward r murrow,
george barris,
joe dimaggio,
marilyn monroe,
sam shaw,
seven year itch,
sutton place
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
The Chrysler Building: A Symbol of the Times
![]() |
1931: A Dazzling New York Skyline of Architects |
Photo: L-R:
A. Stewart Walker (Fuller Building), Leonard Schultze
(Waldorf-Astoria), Ely Jacques Kahn (Squibb Building), William Van Alen
(Chrysler Building), Ralph Walker (1 Wall Street), D.E.Ward
(Metropolitan Tower), Joseph H. Freelander (Museum of New York).
At the Beaux-Arts Ball held in New York City on January 23, 1931, the party was not to be topped...but some of the attendees were!
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Thanksgiving Day Menus & Traditions: New York City
Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel New Yorker, at the height of the Great Depression, cost $2.25.
Guests could not only choose turkey as an entree, but also lamb, lobster, or beef. Sardines, baked grapefruit, and "whipped" potatoes also appeared on the hotel's holiday menu. The Art Deco hotel, located at 481 Eighth Avenue, had opened in 1930.
Labels:
benjamin franklin,
hotel manhattan,
hotel new yorker,
plaza hotel,
savoy-plaza hotel,
thanksgiving,
trinity church,
waldorf-astoria
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Dustin Hoffman's New York
![]() |
Dustin Hoffman, New York City, 1969: An Actor's Actor. Photo by John Dominis |
In many ways, Dustin Hoffman can be seen as a quintessentially New York actor (despite having been born and raised in California). Many of the films Hoffman made through the late 1960s and 1970s not only captured the American zeitgeist, but also created a portrait of New York City. Hoffman, himself a resident of the city from roughly 1958 until 2002, lived through many changes New York underwent and his films capture those changes.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Mid-Century Modern: Inside the Mad Men's Living Room
![]() |
Places! Don & Meagan Draper's NYC apartment, c. 1968 |
Labels:
1968,
9/11,
Best of Everything,
I Love Lucy,
Mad Men,
Park Avenue,
Rona Jaffe,
rosemary's baby,
the dakota
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Summer Retreats: New York Style
"By
the way, old chap, what do you people do in New York when
summer comes?"
"We get out," Miss De Peyster broke in . . . "New York is
simply deserted in summer. There is not a soul in town."
Rupert Hughes, The Real New York (1905).
Rupert Hughes, The Real New York (1905).
Labels:
annie hall,
brighton beach,
central park,
coney island,
dog day afternoon,
dreamland,
luna park,
manhattan beach,
niblo's garden
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Mary Lincoln in New York
“It is imperative that I should do
something for my relief, and I want you to meet me in New York, between the
30th of August and the 5th of September next, to assist me in disposing of a
portion of my wardrobe." Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
How the Other Half Lived ...and Lives
![]() |
"Bandit's Roost," Richard Hoe Lawrence, c. 1890, Museum of the City of New York |
Labels:
affordable housing,
How the Other Half Lives,
Jacob Riis,
lower east side,
Manhattan cost of living,
Tenements
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)