Museums
New York’s First Art Museum: The City Hall Rotunda
The Metropolitan Museum of Art contains a very unusual piece of art tied to the early history of City Hall. In fact, this piece is responsible…
Articles
History, stories, and deep dives from the Bowery Boys.
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Bowery Boys Bookshelf‘The House on Henry Street’: A new book on the mothers of modern activism
October 13, 2020
If you're looking to read something about the possibility of doing absolute good in the world, then a story about the Henry Street Settlement is a good place to start. The Lower East Side settlement house, founded by Lillian Wald in 1893, became not…
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Bowery Boys Bookshelf
American Daredevil: A New Book on Comic Book Anti-Fascist Lev Gleason
Comic books were invented in New York City during the 1930s, the product of a low-key publishing trade combining the popularity of newspaper comic strips with…
American History
Remembering the Wall Street bombing of 1920
On a usual day, lunchtime down on Wall Street today is chaotic mess of brokers and bankers on cell phones, tour groups, messengers on bikes, police…
American History
The United States Capitol Dome was built in the Bronx
In the fall of 1783 Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence, helpfully suggested in a letter to the Continental Congress that his own bucolic…
Neighborhoods
A look back at Lord & Taylor’s splashy move to Fifth Avenue in 1914
UPDATE FOR 2020: It was announced today that Lord & Taylor, America's first department store, has announced it will go out of business after 193 years.…
Neighborhoods
Nostalgia for Astoria Pool, an early Robert Moses project with a high diving, Olympic-sized history
Astoria Pool is the largest venue for swimmers in New York, outside of the Hudson and East Rivers and, of course, the ocean. Its location in…
Amusements and Thrills
Circus activism: Barnum’s female stars demand right to vote
Women received the right to vote 100 years ago today with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Tens of thousands of women…
Neighborhoods
H.P Lovecraft’s very bizarre hatred of Red Hook and Brooklyn Heights
Howard Philip Lovecraft — aka H.P. Lovecraft — was born 130 years ago this week (on August 20, 1890) in Providence, Rhode Island. The pulp-fiction storyteller, known for…
Bowery Boys Bookshelf
‘The Vapors’: How an Arkansas spa town became a New York gangster paradise
Owney Madden was one of New York's most infamous gangsters, a bootlegger and murderer who seemed to cross paths with every major cultural marker of the…
Amusements and Thrills
Come to the Airdome! Over 100 years of outdoor movies in NYC
It may be some time before we all get to truly enjoy the inside of a movie theater again. Hopefully soon! But outdoor movies -- in…
Bowery Boys Bookshelf
‘Lady Romeo’: The unconventional life of actress Charlotte Cushman
Without moving images or sound recordings to guide us, it can be hard to imagine the lives and careers of famous theater actors from the 19th…
Amusements and Thrills
The Bowery Boys New York City swimsuit edition, 1880-1920
The notion of organized 'ocean bathing' -- actually going into the water for health, relaxation and enjoyment -- was really a 19th century invention, first popularized…