Notes from the podcast (#129): Manhattan’s Chinatown
Casual posing at the opening of Doyers Street, circa 1900. (LOC)I'm so relieved that we finally got to cover a proper New York neighborhood on the…
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September 28, 2011
Reading about Chinatown in classic books like 'Gangs of New York', one gets a sense that certain mysteries and legends about the neighborhood were already firmly in place. And nothing of these gauzy preconceptions arose to the public consciousness more than the problem of…
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Casual posing at the opening of Doyers Street, circa 1900. (LOC)I'm so relieved that we finally got to cover a proper New York neighborhood on the…
Meet Afong Moy, the Chinese teenager who became the most famous Asian person in America in the 1830s. I would not exactly call her notoriety enviable.There's…
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Above: Mayor LaGuardia presenting his weekly WNYC radio show from Gracie Mansion. He would carry on the tradition at his Riverdale home.Fiorello LaGuardia, among the greatest…
Mr. Seward, with the best seat in the park in 1934. He does seem awfully thin though, almost like a certain president. (At least, some people…
Thanks to everybody who came out on Saturday for our reading at Swift Hibernian Lounge, as part of the 4th Annual Lit Crawl. Swift makes for…
A depiction of Central Park from 1864. The conspirator's cottage hideout would have been near the southeast corner. (Courtesy NYPL)The year 1864 wasn't as pivotal to…
Continuing with the theme of '1864', here's a revised and expanded version of an article I wrote back in 2009 on the man who was mayor of…
Above: City Hall in 1900 (Courtesy NYPL)Never have I been more elated to write about a City Council meeting.At the start of the 19th century, city…
The place to be one hundred years ago today was Greeley Square, that bustling public space just south of 34th Street from Herald Square. Thousands of…
The New York Times this morning had an intriguing story about a unfortunate fellow who plays for the Chicago White Sox named Adam Dunn -- nicknamed…
A 1940s antique store carries more than dusty lamps in the summer superhero film, 'Captain America: The First Avenger," which transplants its hero's origins from the Lower…