Author: GY

The Radical Walloons: Amsterdam/New Amsterdam (Bowery Boys mini-series)

Post author By GY
Post date June 21, 2024
2 Comments on The Radical Walloons: Amsterdam/New Amsterdam (Bowery Boys mini-series)

A look at the New Amsterdam miniature and a scene of full-size Leiden

Our adventure in the Netherlands continues with a quest to find the Walloons, the French-speaking religious refugees who became the first settlers of New Netherland in 1624. Their descendants would last well beyond the existence of New Amsterdam and were among the first people to call themselves New Yorkers.

But you can’t tell the Walloon story without that other group of American religious settlers — the Pilgrims who settled in Massachusetts four years earlier.

All roads lead to Leiden, the university city with a history older than Amsterdam. Greg and Tom join last episode’s guest Jaap Jacobs, the author of The Colony of New Netherland, to explore the birthplace of Rembrandt, the historic botanical garden and a site associated with Adriaen van der Donck (whose “patroonship,” or manor, gives the city of Yonkers, New York, its name).

Then they visit with Koen Kleijn, art historian and editor-in-chief of history magazine Ons Amsterdam, who takes them on a journey through Amsterdam’s history — from the innovative story of its canals to the disaster known as Tulipmania, the 1630 speculative mania that set the stage for generations of stock-market shenanigans.

PLUS: A detour to Amsterdam Noord and a look at a miniature model of New Amsterdam, courtesy of the design and production team at Artitec. And while visiting the John Adams Institute — located inside the Dutch West India House — Tom and Greg come upon an old friend holding court in a fountain.

PLUS: Tom sustains an injury — from a bitterballen!

LISTEN NOW: THE RADICAL WALLOONS

The Artitec scale model of New Amsterdam, currently being completed in Amsterdam Noord. There are plans to bring this eleborate and beautiful to the United States so stay tuned!

Some little New Amsterdam soldiers under construction.

Among the historic places featured on this week’s show:

Leiden

Tom and producer Kieran at the Lazy Crazy Cafe, awaiting Jaap’s arrival

Burcht van Leiden

Rembrandt birthplace

Leiden Botanical Garden

Leyden University (This was the school bell you heard on the show)

Walloon Church of Leyden

American Pilgrim Museum

Dutch West India House

Copy of the Schagen Letter hanging on the wall here.

FURTHER LISTENING

Start with part one — Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: Empire of the Seas featuring Jaap Jacobs, who takes us around to several spots within the old medieval city — Centrum, including the Red Light District — weaving through the canals and along the harbor, in search of connections to New York’s (and by extension, America’s) past.

Then, listen to our interview with Russell Shorto, author of The Island At The Center of the World

The Lenape and other native peoples of the New York/Hudson Valley region would be both trading partners and adversaries of the Dutch, who claimed to have ‘discovered’ the land those people already lived upon.

The story of religious freedom during the New Amsterdam/Peter Stuyvesant plays a major role in this episode which features a visit to the John Bowne House:

Our original two-part series on New Amsterdam:

Tags Amsterdam, Rembrandt

American History Museums New Amsterdam Podcasts

Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: Empire of the Seas (New Bowery Boys Mini-Series)

Post author By GY
Post date June 14, 2024

The epic journey begins! The Bowery Boys Podcast heads to old Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to find traces of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement which became New York.

We begin our journey at Amsterdam’s Centraal Station and spend the day wandering the streets and canals, peeling back the centuries in search of New York’s roots.

Our tour guide for this adventure is Jaap Jacobs, Honorary Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the author of The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America.

Jaap takes us around to several spots within the old medieval city — Centrum, including the Red Light District — weaving through the canals and along the harbor, in search of connections to New York’s (and by extension, America’s) past.

You might see hints of this architecture in New York City but back when it was New Amsterdam, it also had canals!

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Dutch settlement in North America, led by the Dutch West India Company, a trading and exploration arm of the thriving Dutch empire. So our first big questions begin there:

— What was the Dutch Empire in 1624 when New Netherland was first settled? Was the colony a major part of it? Would Dutch people have even understood where New Amsterdam was?

— What’s the difference between the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company?

— To what degree was New Amsterdam truly tolerant in terms of religion? Was it purely driving by profits and trading relationships with the area’s native people like the Lenape?

— The prime export was the pelts of beavers and other North American animals. What happened to these thousands of pelts once they arrived in Amsterdam?

— How central were the Dutch to the emerging Atlantic slave trade? When did the first enslaved men and women arrive in New Amsterdam?

— And how are the Pilgrims tied in to all of this? Had they always been destined for the area of today’s Massachusetts?

Among the places we visit this episode — the Maritime Museum, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s oldest building Oude Kirk, the Schreierstoren (the Weeping Tower) and many more

PLUS: We get kicked out of a convent! And we try raw herring sandwiches

LISTEN NOW — AMSTERDAM/NEW AMSTERDAM: EMPIRE OF THE SEAS

Our destinations in this episode:

1 Centraal Station
2 “The Crying Tower”
3 Oust East India House
4 Dutch West India Warehouse
5 Maritime Museum
6 Oude Kirk
7 Walloon Church in Asmterdam
8 Frens Haringhandel
9 Begijnhoff/Cloister
10 Rijksmuseum

Among the historic places featured on this week’s show:

Amsterdam Centraal Station

Schreierstoren/The Crying Tower

Oust East India House (Oude Hoogstraat 24)

Dutch West India Company Warehouse

The Dutch National Maritime Museum

Oude Kirk in the Red Light District

Walloon Church in Asmterdam

Frens Haringhandel

Begijnhof

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Over on Patreon, we released a series of daily shows while on the streets of the Netherlands. You can check out those shows — and the many other benefits of being a Bowery Boys patron — by supporting the show at Patreon.

FURTHER LISTENING

Interview with Russell Shorto, author of The Island At The Center of the World

The story of religious freedom during the New Amsterdam/Peter Stuyvesant plays a major role in this episode which features a visit to the John Bowne House:

Our original two-part series on New Amsterdam:

Tags Amsterdam, Henry Hudson, Holland, Netherlands, New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, Road Trip

New Amsterdam Podcasts

New Amsterdam Man: An Interview with Russell Shorto

Post author By GY
Post date June 7, 2024
2 Comments on New Amsterdam Man: An Interview with Russell Shorto

The Bowery Boys Podcast is headed to Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands for a very special mini-series, marking the 400th anniversary of the Dutch first settling in North America in the region that today we call New York City.

But before they go, they’re kicking off their international voyage with a special conversation — with the man who inspired the journey.

Chances are good that if your bookshelf contains a respectable number of New York City history books, we imagine that one of those is The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, written by Russell Shorto.

The best-selling book re-introduced the Dutch presence in America to a new generation of readers and revitalized interest in New York City history when it was published in 2004.

Kevin Baker (a recent guest on our show), penning the original review for the New York Times, proclaimed “New York history buffs will be captivated by Shorto’s descriptions of Manhattan in its primordial state, of bays full of salmon and oysters, and blue plums and fields of wild strawberries in what is now Midtown.”

And so before Greg and Tom begin their mini-series by speaking with Shorto about his classic book, his experiences in Amsterdam and his work with the New-York Historical Society, where he has curated a new exhibition New York Before New York: The Castello Plan of New Amsterdam.

Russell also gives Tom and Greg some tips on places to go and advice on how to explore Amsterdam’s old canals and corridors. Is it possible to find traces of New York City’s past in that city’s present?

And then — immediately after the interview — they head for the airport!

LISTEN NOW: NEW AMSTERDAM MAN

MORE INFORMATION ON OUR UPCOMING MINI-SERIES:

Bowery Boys New Amsterdam

Adventures in the Netherlands: Finding New York’s Dutch Roots

Post author By GY
Post date June 4, 2024

Announcing an epic new Bowery Boys podcast mini-series — The Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands. Exploring the connections between New York City and that fascinating European country, in honor of the 400th anniversary of the first Dutch settlement in this region.

LISTEN TO A SNEAK PREVIEW HERE:

Simply put, you don’t get New York City as it is today without the Dutch who first settled here 400 years ago. The names of Staten Island, Greenwich Village and the Bronx actually come from the Dutch.

The names of places like Brooklyn and Harlem derive from actual Dutch cities and towns.

Even our own podcast name — Bowery Boys — comes from the Dutch! (Bowery comes from the Dutch bouwerij for farm. Yes technically that makes us “farm boys.”)

Starting this Friday, and over the course of several weekly shows, we’ll dig deeper into the history of those Dutch settlements in New Amsterdam and New Netherland — from the first Walloon settlers in 1624 to the arrival of Peter Stuyvesant.

But we’ll be telling that story not from New York, but from the other side of the Atlantic, in the Netherlands.

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A post shared by The Bowery Boys Podcast (@boweryboysnyc)

We’ll be walking the the streets of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, searching for clues of America’s early history. And along the way we’ll be joined by acclaimed Dutch historians, journalists and tour guides.

While much of our series was recorded in Amsterdam — tracing the paths of Henry Hudson, Peter Stuyvesant and the beginnings of the Dutch West India Company — we’ll also take the show on the road (or the canal, as it were) to Leiden, Utrecht, Haarlem and more.

That’s the Bowery Boys, Adventures in the Netherlands.

Coming soon. Subscribe to the Bowery Boys podcast so you don’t miss a show.

And support the Bowery Boys on Patreon to listen to daily dispatches from our journey. And those are available now.

Tags Dutch, New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, Road Trip

American History Lenapehoking New Amsterdam

The Lenape Nation: Past, Present and Future

Post author By GY
Post date May 24, 2024
2 Comments on The Lenape Nation: Past, Present and Future

Consider the following show an acknowledgment – of people. For the foundations of 400 years of New York City history were built upon the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape, the tribal stewards of a vast natural area stretching from eastern Pennsylvania to western Long Island.

The Lenape were among the first in northeast North America to be displaced by white colonists — the Dutch and the English. By the late 18th century, their way of life had practically vanished upon the island which would be known by some distorted vestige of a name they themselves may have given it – Manahatta, Manahahtáanung or Manhattan.

But the Lenape did not disappear. Through generations of great hardship they have persevered.

In today’s show we’ll be joined by two guests who are working to keep Lenape culture and language alive throughout the United States, including here on the streets of New York

— Joe Baker, enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians and a co-founder of the Lenape Center, an organization creating and presenting Lenape art, exhibitions and education in New York.

— Ross Perlin, linguist and author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York

LISTEN NOW: THE LENAPE NATION

FURTHER LISTENING

For more information on the subjects discussed in today’s show, visit the Lenape Center and the Endangered Language Alliance.

Joe Baker discusses the cultural significance and history of indigenous seeds and the jewelry they created in this video from the Brooklyn Public Library:

Ross Perlin discussing his book Language City:

In June: A globetrotting Bowery Boys Podcast mini-series adventure

Post author By GY
Post date May 22, 2024

Tom and Greg are out on the road again — and this time, they need their passports. The Bowery Boys are currently recording material for an EPIC new mini-series which will begin arriving to your podcast feeds in June.

To get the details now and to follow their adventures, become a supporter on Patreon at any level to get DAILY PODCAST updates this week on their progress investigating an important era on American history — from a unique vantage overseas.

More details in the next couple weeks. But join them on Patreon today to get these extra-special — and jet-lag influenced — reports from the road.

Museums Planes Trains and Automobiles Podcasts

A History of the New York City Subway — from A to Z (and 1 through 9)

Post author By GY
Post date May 10, 2024

Routes of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, 1924. Courtesy LIbrary of Congress

The New York City subway system turns 120 years old later this year so we thought we’d honor the world’s longest subway system with a supersized overview history — from the first renegade ride in 1904 to the belated (but sorely welcomed) opening of one portion of the Second Avenue Subway in 2017.

New Yorkers like Alfred Ely Beach had envisioned a subway system for the city as early as the 1870s. Yet years of political delay and a lack of funding ensured that dreams of an underground transit would languish.

It wasn’t until the mid 1890s that the city got on track with the help of August Belmont and the newly formed Interborough Rapid Transit.

Inside the brand new City Hall station 1904 (Library of Congress)

We’ll tell you about the construction of the first line, traveling miles underground through Manhattan and into the Bronx. How did the city cope with this massive project? And what unfortunate accident nearly ripped apart a city block mere feet from Grand Central Station?

You’ll also find out how something as innocuous sounding as the ‘Dual Contracts’ actually became one of the most important events in the city’s history, bringing the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company into the mix and creating new underground passages into Brooklyn, the Bronx and (at long last!) Queens.

One of New York’s Budapest-inspired kiosks, pictured here 1917

Then we’ll talk about the city’s IND line, which completes our modern track lines and gives the subway its modern sheen.

Through it all, the New York City subway system is a masterwork of engineering and construction. In particular, after listening to this show, you won’t look at the Herald Square subway station the same way again.

Today’s episode is a remastered and reedited edition of two 2011 Bowery Boys podcasts, featuring newly recorded material to take the story to the present day.

LISTEN NOW: History of the New York City Subway

A 1906 postcard showing — a subway tunnel. Demonstrates what a novel view this was in 1906. (NYPL)

Images from Greg’s recent visit to the New York Transit Museum. Visit the Downtown Brooklyn museum or the gallery in Grand Central.

FURTHER LISTENING

Tags New York City Subway

Neighborhoods Planes Trains and Automobiles Podcasts

Up and Down Park Avenue: New York City History with a Penthouse View

Post author By GY
Post date April 26, 2024

The story of a filthy and dangerous train ditch that became one of the swankiest addresses in the world — Park Avenue.

For over 100 years, a Park Avenue address meant wealth, glamour and the high life. The Fred Astaire version of the Irving Berlin classic “Puttin’ on the Ritz” revised the lyrics to pay tribute to Park Avenue: “High hats and Arrow collars/White spats and lots of dollars/Spending every dime for a wonderful time.”

By the 1950s, the avenue was considered the backbone of New York City with corporations setting up glittering new office towers in the International Style — the Lever House, the Seagram Building, even the Pan Am Building.

But the foundation for all this wealth and success was, in actually, a train tunnel, originally operated by the New York Central Railroad. This street, formerly known as Fourth Avenue, was (and is) one of New York’s primary traffic thoroughfares. For many decades, steam locomotives dominated life along the avenue, heading into and out of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Grand Central (first a depot, then a station, eventually a terminal).

However train tracks running through a quickly growing city are neither safe nor conducive to prosperity. Eventually, the tracks were covered with beautiful flowers and trees, on traffic island malls which have gotten smaller over the years.

By the 1910s this allowed for glamorous apartment buildings to rise, the homes of a new wealthy elite attracted to apartment living in the post-Gilded Age era. But that lifestyle was not quite made available to everyone.

In this episode, Greg and Tom take you on a tour of the tunnels and viaducts that helped New York City to grow, creating billions of dollars of real estate in the process.

LISTEN NOW: UP AND DOWN PARK AVENUE

Park Avenue, looking south of 36th Street, 1900-1905 Library of Congress

Park Avenue and 94th Street, Library of Congress

Park Avenue, late 1800s, Musem of the City of New York

Park Avenue, after St Bart’s came along in 1918 but before these lovely pedestrian areas were destroyed in the late 1920s.

Park Avenue 1927, Department of Transportation

“Photograph shows cars moving along Park Avenue as the road heads towards the tunnels of the Helmsley Building, known then as the New York General Building. Building construction visible to the right. St. Bartholomew’s Church slightly visible on left.” Library of Congress, 1959

FURTHER LISTENING

Listen to these related Bowery Boys episodes after you’re done listening to the Park Avenue show:

The Story of Flushing: An Epic History of Queens Old and New

Post author By GY
Post date April 12, 2024
1 Comment on The Story of Flushing: An Epic History of Queens Old and New

Few areas of the United States have as endured as long as Flushing, Queens, a neighborhood with almost over 375 years of history and an evolving cultural landscape that includes Quakers, trees, Hollywood films, world fairs, and Asian immigrants.

In this special on-location episode of the Bowery Boys, Greg and special guest Kieran Gannon explore the epic history of Flushing through five specific locations — the Bowne House, Kingsland Homestead (home of the Queens Historical Society), the Lewis Latimer House Museum, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and a downtown dumpling restaurant named Old Captain’s Dumplings.

The Bowne House circa 1825 from an old colorized postcard

Built on the marshy banks of Flushing Creek, the original Dutch village of Flushing (or Vlissingen) was populated by English settlers, Quakers like John and Hannah Bowne whose home became one of America’s first Quaker meeting places — and the site of a religious struggle critical to the formation of the future United States.

By the early 19th century, Flushing was better known for its tree and shrub nurseries which would introduce dozens of new plant species to North America.

After the Civil War, Flushing became a weekend getaway and commuter town for the residents of western Long Island. The former civic center of town — the 1862 Flushing Town Hall — is still a vibrant performance venue today.

Inside the Kingsland Homestead, with an image of the house before it was a museum

The creation of the borough of Queens in 1898 brought surprising changes to Flushing — from the arrival of the early silent-film industry to the development of new parks and highways (thanks to our old friend Robert Moses).

But the most stunning transformation of all came after 1965 when American immigration quotas were eliminated and Flushing gained thousands of new residents from China, Taiwan, Korea, India and other South Asian countries.

Featuring interviews with Elise Helmers and Emily Vieyra-Haley from the Bowne House, Jason Antos from the Queens Historical Society, Kyle Supley from Bowery Boys Walks and Flushing food guide Owen Tan.

LISTEN NOW: THE STORY OF FLUSHING

For more information on our guests, visit the links below:

Bowne House
Flushing Quaker Meeting House
Lewis Latimer House Museum

Jason Antos, Queens Historical Society

To book tours with Kyle Supley

New York Worlds Fair Tour
Under the High Line: Exploring Chelsea

To book a Flushing food tour with Owen Fan

Urban Passer
Trip Advisor/Flavors of Flushing

Mayor La Guardia’s message about the Bowne House, recorded in the parlor

And the Bowne House was the subject of an excellent episode of Treasures of New York which features Emily — and the parlor crutch!

Bowne House in the 19th century when in fact the Bownes and Parsons still lived there.

Flushing Town Hall on Northern Boulevard, 1900

As Jason revealed in the show, Flushing went through a building resurgence in the 1960s, leading to a larger-than-average representation of modernist, even somewhat Brutalist architecture in places.

Old Captain’s Dumplings, 135-23 40th Rd. Like so many restaurants in New York, the non-descript facade does not prepare you for the delicious food served inside.

*Unity* by Shanice Figeroux, on 31st Road in Flushing

Seen in Flushing-Meadows Corona Park. Are the former salt marches returning to claim Robert Moses’ park?

Flushing is a national landmark of religious expression. There are dozens and dozens of houses of worship here. Just a few that I managed to see:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

FURTHER LISTENING

Mysterious Stories Newspapers and Newsies

The Earthquake of 1884! A few parallels to today’s quake

Post author By GY
Post date April 5, 2024
2 Comments on The Earthquake of 1884! A few parallels to today’s quake

New York City in 1884. Imagine this place furiously quaking!

New York has never suffered severely from the effects of an earthquake. Most recently, the one felt in 2011— reportedly of 5.8 or 5.9 magnitude, centered around Virginia and affecting many Northeast metropolitan areas — ranks quite high on the list of tremors felt here.

There’s no way to compare that local event to the really early quakes, as the Richter scale was only created in 1935. But quakes have hit the city as early as December 18, 1737, when a guesstimated 5.2 rattled holiday chimneys.

But an equally dramatic tremor that hit on Sunday, August 10, 1884, has a few parallels to the one experienced today.

“No Damage Done But Queer Sensations Experienced” reported the New York Tribune the next day.

From the Sun: “An Earthquake Shakes Us.” The tremor occurred at 2:07 pm “by the City Hall clock” in a couple separate waves.

Few New Yorkers living in 1884 would have ever experienced an earthquake in an American city. Some ran to their windows expecting to see a runaway horse car. Others standing under the newly built elevated railroad thought the train was arriving.

Those stopped on the street felt something beneath their feet and became starkly confused. Eventually some people left their homes and collected in parks, such as the assemblage the Tribune reports formed outside of City Hall.

Today we feel a rumbling and just assume the subway, which wasn’t built yet in 1884 (outside of the short lived pneumatic tube, of course).

There was some damage reported to homes in the Lower East Side, and some residents — being mostly immigrants, perhaps more in tune to the dangers of tremors in their home lands — rushed out into the street with their furniture. A few horse stables shook open and their residents fled into the streets.

Apparently, those in the poshest hotels felt it strongly, or at least announced to reporters that it had rattled them so.

At the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a clerk described, “On the upper floors the guests say that the oscillations were marked” and reported a rattling of the chandeliers. Apparently, an admired set of colored drinking glasses at the Astor House was thrown from its nook and smashed on the floor.

Rumors spread. Some thought the west side gas works on 14th Street had exploded, while others circulated that dynamite had gone off in the Hell Gate.

A “mouldy headed orator” in Harlem — near one of New York’s natural fault line at 125th Street — proclaimed that Manhattan was built upon a rock shelf that had been abruptly brushed by a passing whale, the tremors caused by its flapping tail.

The sensation of the tremor seemed to be felt almost at random; for instance, those living along the Hudson reporting it rattling dishes, while tourists atop the newly built Brooklyn Bridge barely felt a thing. Some electrical services were briefly disrupted, as was telegraph service. (That’s a lot of extra dots and dashes, I suppose.)

On First Avenue, a drunken afternoon reveler ran out of a local saloon “and hurrahed for earthquakes and for social revolution.” Uptown at the Hoffman House, a California businessman quietly said to his friend, “Well, if everything in New York wasn’t nailed down I should say that we are having an earthquake.”

According to the New York Sun, an aftershock was felt the following afternoon in Far Rockaway, as well as parts of New Jersey.

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN 2011 but it’s just as pertinent for today’s earthquake (April 5, 2024)

Tags disasters, earthquake

Gilded Age New York The Gilded Gentleman Women's History

What did Mrs. Astor Wear (Under There)? The Story of Gilded Age Undergarments

Post author By GY
Post date April 2, 2024

A model wearing 'the Thylda corset', from the French publication Les Modes, October 1908

Fashion historian and author, Dr. Elizabeth L. Block returns to The Gilded Gentleman podcast for a truly “undercover” investigation.

This time, Liz joins Carl to take a look at the world of corsets, bustles, straps and stockings all of which comprised the undergarment engineering to make the glorious gowns by Worth and other designers appear as glamorous as they did.

In addition to architecture and food, it is fashion of the Gilded Age that always elicits comments and sighs at the very beauty and craftsmanship of the great gowns that swept by on ballroom floors.

But the stunning and costly gowns, whether for a ball or for wear during the day, required a complex combination of undergarments to not only make the wearer feel comfortable but to give the outer clothing its required shape.

In this fascinating episode, Dr. Elizabeth Block joins Carl for a discussion that includes insight into not only what garments were required, but also just how they were made and how they were worn.

You may be surprised at just how comfortable and wearable some undergarments actually were. Liz and Carl’s discussion also includes a look at such curious accessories as the “lobster bustle” and even a corset for men.

LISTEN NOW: GILDED AGE UNDERGARMENTS

Black History Health and Living Museums

The Moores: A Black Family in 1860s New York

Post author By GY
Post date March 29, 2024

Tom visits the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side to walk through the reconstructed two-room apartment of an African-American couple, Joseph and Rachel Moore, who lived in 1870 on Laurens Street in today’s Soho neighborhood.

Both Joseph and Rachel moved to New York when they were about 20 years old, in the late 1840s and 1850s. They married, worked, raised a family – and they shared their small apartment with another family to help cover costs.

Their home has been recreated in the Tenement Museum’s newest exhibit, “A Union of Hope: 1869.” The exhibit recreates what their apartment may have looked like – and it also explores life in the 8th Ward of Manhattan, and, specifically, within the black community of the turbulent and dangerous decades of the 1850s and 60s.

This is the first time the museum has recreated the apartment of a black family – although, as you’ll hear, the museum’s founders had long planned for it. And the exhibit is also the first time the museum has recreated an apartment that wasn’t housed in one of their buildings on the Lower East Side, but in another neighborhood.

So, just who were Joseph and Rachel Moore? And how and why did the Tenement Museum choose to put them at the center of their new exhibit?

LISTEN NOW: A BLACK FAMILY IN 1860S NEW YORK

FURTHER LISTENING

The Gilded Gentleman Writers and Artists

The Age of Innocence: Celebrating Edith Wharton’s Masterpiece Novel

Post author By GY
Post date March 22, 2024

Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is a perfect novel to read in the spring — maybe it’s all the flowers — so we are presenting to Bowery Boys listeners this marvelous literary-themed episode from the Gilded Gentleman.

The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s most famous novel, an enduring classic of Old New York that has been rediscovered by a new generation.

What is it about this story of Newland Archer, May Welland and Countess Olenska that readers respond to today?

Noted Wharton scholar Dr. Emily Orlando joins Carl Raymond on The Gilded Gentleman podcast to delve into the background of this novel, take a deep dive into the personalities of the major characters and discuss what Wharton wanted to say in her masterpiece.

Edith Wharton published The Age of Innocence at a very important moment in her life.

When the novel came out in 1920, she had been living in France full-time for nearly 10 years and had seen the devastating effects of World War I up close.

Her response was to look back with a sense of nostalgia to the time of her childhood to recreate that staid, restrictive world of New York in the 1870s. A world that, despite its restrictive, social cruelty, seemed to have some kind of moral center (at least to her).

But it was a world in which Wharton, as a creative woman, could not live and work in. And so she transferred her life in stages to France.

Listen today: The Age of Innocence with Dr. Emily Orlando

And subscribe to the Gilded Gentleman podcast for more fabulous tales of the Gilded Age. Find Carl on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, Simplecast or any place you get podcasts.

Orlando in front of Edith Wharton’s residence

Looking for more Edith Wharton listening? Here are a few podcast from The Gilded Gentleman and Bowery Boys catalog for you to dive into:

Amusements and Thrills Sports Those Were The Days

The New York Game: Baseball in the Early Years

Post author By GY
Post date March 15, 2024

The original Mets who played at the Polo Grounds.

Baseball, as American as apple pie, really is “the New York game.” While its precursors come from many places – from Jamestown to Prague – the rules of American baseball and the modern ways of enjoying it were born from the urban experience and, in particular, the 19th-century New York region.

The sport (in the form that we know it today) developed in the early 1800s, played in Manhattan’s many open lots or New Jersey public parklands and soon organized into regular teams and eventually leagues. The way that New Yorkers played baseball was soon the way most Americans played by the late 19th century.

But it wasn’t until the invention of regular ball fields – catering to paying customers – that baseball became truly an urban recreational experience. And that too was revolutionized in New York.

Just in time for spring and the new Major League baseball season, Tom and Greg are joined by the acclaimed Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City to discuss the early history of the sport and its unique connections to New York City.

This show is truly the ultimate origin story of New York baseball, featuring tales of the city’s oldest and most legendary sports teams – the Yankees, the Dodgers, and the Giants. AND the New York Metropolitans – a different team than today’s Mets located in Queens.

Where was baseball played? Kevin shares the secrets of New York baseball’s earliest venues – from the many Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn

This is a true five-borough origin story! With stops at Hilltop Park (Manhattan), Yankee Stadium (Bronx), Fashion Race Course (Queens), Washington Park (Brooklyn), and St. George Cricket Grounds (Staten Island) among many other sites.

FEATURING the surprising link between baseball and Boss Tweed and his notorious political machine Tammany Hall

PLUS How did segregation distort the game and where did Black ballplayers play the sport? What was baseball like before Jackie Robinson?

LISTEN NOW: THE NEW YORK GAME

Fashion Race Course in Flushing, Queens, from The Clipper of July 24, 1858 (and via John Thorn/Our Game)

Many hatted men at the Polo Grounds, 1911 (Library of Congress)

Elysian Fields in Hoboken, the site of America’s first baseball games (NYPL, image from Booth’s History of New York)

The entrance to Hilltop Park, 1912 (Library of Congress)

Washington Park taken September 13, 1911 from the intersection of 4th Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, 1923 (Library of Congress)

The crowd outside Ebbets Field for Game 1 of the 1920 World Series, the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Cleveland Indians.

FURTHER LISTENING

Aarrgh Privateers and Pirates! Join Greg for the special book event with Eric Jay Dolin

Post author By GY
Post date March 13, 2024

PRIVATEERS, PIRATES AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Tuesday, March 26, 6:30pm at the New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park West)

The story of the founding of the US Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that were critical to victory.

Privateers were privately owned vessels, mostly refitted merchant ships, that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war.

The men who owned the ships, as well as their captains and crew, would divide the profits of a successful cruise, although some Americans viewed them as cynical opportunists whose only aim was loot.

In his book Rebels at Sea, Privateering in the American Revolution, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin explores the historical distinction between pirates and privateers, showing that the latter were as patriotic as their fellow Americans, and that they greatly contributed to the war’s success.

Eric will be joined in conversation by Greg Young, co-host of the podcast The Bowery Boys. After the talk, Eric will sign copies of his book.

GET TICKETS HERE

$35 (Members $25)

You can also livestream the event. Get access here.

LISTEN NOW: THE RADICAL WALLOONS

Rembrandt birthplace

Leiden Botanical Garden

Leyden University (This was the school bell you heard on the show)

Walloon Church of Leyden

American Pilgrim Museum

Dutch West India House

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LISTEN NOW — AMSTERDAM/NEW AMSTERDAM: EMPIRE OF THE SEAS

Our destinations in this episode:

Among the historic places featured on this week’s show:

Dutch West India Company Warehouse

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LISTEN NOW: NEW AMSTERDAM MAN

MORE INFORMATION ON OUR UPCOMING MINI-SERIES:

LISTEN NOW: THE LENAPE NATION

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LISTEN NOW: History of the New York City Subway

FURTHER READING FROM THE WEBSITE

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LISTEN NOW: UP AND DOWN PARK AVENUE

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LISTEN NOW: THE STORY OF FLUSHING

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LISTEN NOW: GILDED AGE UNDERGARMENTS

LISTEN NOW: A BLACK FAMILY IN 1860S NEW YORK

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Listen today: The Age of Innocence with Dr. Emily Orlando

Looking for more Edith Wharton listening? Here are a few podcast from The Gilded Gentleman and Bowery Boys catalog for you to dive into:

LISTEN NOW: THE NEW YORK GAME

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