April 24th sees the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Woolworth Building, at 233 Broadway. In 1913 the Woolworth Building was the tallest inhabited building in the world, and would remain so until the opening of the Chrysler Building, in 1929. The Milstein Division's collections include a series of photographs, taken by the photographer Irving Underhill, that chart the building's construction. This post looks at those photographs, and at the man who commissioned the building's construction, Frank W. Woolworth, and its architect, Cass Gilbert.

The term skyscraper, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, had been around for years before it was used to describe a "high building of many stories, esp. one of those characteristic of American cities." (O.E.D.) It was used to describe tall men, race horses, sailing ships, tall hats, big hits in baseball, and even tall stories. Seemingly anything deemed lofty in stature. Synonymous with cities in the United States, the early leaders in the development of the skyscraper was the city of Chicago. Between 1880 and 1900 a number of skyscrapers were built there, amongst them the first skyscraper, commonly thought to be William Le Baron Jenney's ten-story Home Insurance Building.

Iron and then steel frames, made the construction of very tall buildings possible, negating the necessity of the thick masonry walls of earlier buildings. With a sturdy, yet light steel frame buildings could be strong, tall, and elegant. It also meant that with relatively thin walls, and increased height a property developer might generate maximum profit from a small area of very expensive real estate. Technology at the end of the 19th century meant that skyscrapers could now be built as high as proportion would allow.

The first skyscraper in New York City was the Tower Building (Bradford Gilbert), built in 1889. More followed, including famously, the Flat Iron Building (1903), the Singer Tower (1908), and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower (1909). The Woolworth Building (1913) was the last of the great early skyscrapers built before the First World War. Construction of these tall buildings would not fully resume until the 1920s, with the golden age of skyscrapers, culminating in the construction of the Chrysler Building, and the 102-story Empire State Building (1931).

It seems appropriate that a man like F.W. Woolworth should be behind the construction of the Woolworth Building. He was keenly aware of the importance of image and brand, and he already knew where to locate a building for full effect. He had supreme business acumen, and appreciated architecture.

Woolworth was born in 1854, in the small town of Rodman, New York. He made his name with the Woolworth's chain of stores, originally selling items at 5 and 10 cents each. Woolworth started out working for other men, most significantly, William Harvey Moore, at his store Augsbury & Moore. In the fall of 1878, Moore's store in Watertown, New York had a 5-cent counter, laden with goods pre-priced at 5 cents. This was not a new idea, but was still something of an innovation. Instead of asking the store clerk to weigh out items, and then price accordingly, as was usual, the customer helped themselves. It was quick, convenient, had a high turnover, and required fewer store clerks to operate. Woolworth realized that what worked for one counter, could work for a whole store. In 1878 he borrowed $300 and opened "The Great Five Cent Store," in Utica, New York.

The store in Utica failed. Undeterred Woolworth opened a 5 and 10-cents store, on June 6, 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The shelves were stocked with attractive, but inexpensive everyday objects—pencils, red napkins, coal shovels, cake tins, boot blacking, police whistles—products designed to catch the eye, but not dent the pocket book, all priced at either 5 or 10 cents. The store was a success. Woolworth attributed this in part to "the thriftiness of the Pennsylvania Dutch." He opened other stores. Some failed, others, like one in Scranton opened in 1880, did not. As more stores opened, Woolworth developed a formula for identifying the best place to locate his businesses: a small town with a prosperous economy, on a busy high street, and in the commercial part of that town. Woolworth's stores caught on, and by 1910 F.W. Woolworth and Company had nearly three hundred Five and Ten Cent Stores, including branches on the up market Ladies Mile, around 5th and 6th Avenue, in Manhattan, and seven branches in the United Kingdom.

Woolworth's colleagues when he worked for William Harvey Moore described him as a poor salesman. He was, however, particularly good at buying, and made a number of trips to Europe, looking for goods to sell in his shops, beginning in the 1890s. While in Europe, Woolworth became enamored of the architecture he saw there. Gail Fenske has noted that "the monumentality and grandeur of Paris's boulevards [...] made a forceful; impression on Woolworth," especially Aristide Boucicaut's luxury superstore, Le Bon Marché (1867) designed by Louis Auguste Boileau, and the Palais Garnier (1861-1875), home of the Paris Opéra, designed by Charles Garnier—Woolworth was a keen opera buff. He was also tremendously impressed by the Houses of Parliament in London. He wondered at the cost of the building, whose Gothic exterior would influence the design of his own Woolworth Building.

Woolworth moved his operations to New York in 1888, and by the early 1900s was a very successful businessman. Originally with offices in the Sun Building, 280 Broadway, Woolworth decided to build his own headquarters. He may have got the idea to build a skyscraper watching the construction of the Singer Building, built in 1908 at 149 Broadway, through the window of his office in the Sun building. Woolworth himself said that he was given the idea to build a skyscraper when visiting Europe, where he was frequently asked about the Singer Building. He realized that the Singer Company had built not just a headquarters, but an international talking point. In 1908 Woolworth began talks with the Irving National Bank regarding the construction of a modest office building to house both companies' headquarters, which would eventually evolve into the world's tallest skyscraper, the Woolworth Building. Beginning in 1910 Woolworth began to take measures to get the building constructed, and within a few months had selected and bought a site, arranged the financing of the project, and chosen an architect.

Woolworth decided to construct his building on a block fronting 229 through 235 Broadway, one of New York's premier shopping thoroughfares, near to City Hall Park, opposite the Post Office. 229 previously had been the site of the American Hotel (1825-1866), managed in the 1830s by William B. Cozzens, a former Tammany Hall politico. The hotel was noted for its succulent dinners, with champagne as cheap and plentiful "as the Croton," and for the "fast young men" who stayed their, and lit their cigars with "dollar bank bills" (New York Times, April 6, 1866). 235 Broadway, was between 1821 and 1836 the home of Philip Hone, Mayor of New York (1826), and in 1851, included the office of The Dagguerran Journal, an early periodical dedicated to the art of photography. The block on which Woolworth built his skyscraper reportedly cost him half of the $13.5 million he paid for the entire project, which he famously paid in cash.

With City government growing, and 500,000 people a day streaming across the Brooklyn Bridge on their way to Manhattan, Woolworth saw the commercial potential of the skyscraper's location, with the building acting as a "giant signboard," advertising the greatness of his company, and as a way to make money, leasing floors to other companies, which would in turn raise the value of his real estate. On August 10, 1912, speaking to the Dry Goods Reporter, Woolworth said

Cass Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1859. His father was a surveyor for the United States Coast Survey. In 1864 the Gilbert family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where, in 1876, Cass began work at the office of local architect Abraham M. Radcliffe. He left Radcliffe's firm in 1878, to enroll in the architecture program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On graduation, in 1880 he visited Europe, to study and travel. On his return, Gilbert went work for the firm McKim, Mead & White, who had or were to design many New York landmarks, including Penn Station (1910, razed 1963), the Morgan Library & Museum (1900-06), Washington Arch (1892), and Brooklyn Museum (1895). McKim, Mead & White were exponents of an architectural style known as Beaux-Arts, which filtered classical Greek and Roman styles through the Parisian school École des Beaux-Arts, and of the City Beautiful Movement, a North American style of architecture and city planning that focused on beauty and monumental grandeur.

Gilbert, who had been Stanford White's assistant, returned to St. Paul in 1882, to set up an office with fellow architect James Knox Taylor. Gilbert and Knox completed a number of commissions together in Minnesota, including the Endicott building, which gained the architects a national reputation. In 1898 Gilbert moved his office to New York. In 1902 he received his first big commission, from the Office of the Supervising Architect, one James Knox Taylor, to build the U.S. Custom House, at 1 Bowling Green. Completed in 1907, the building combined Beaux-Arts and the City Beautiful Movement to great effect, and cemented Gilbert's reputation in New York.

When the two men met, in 1910 to discuss the contract to design a skyscraper, Woolworth was impressed by Gilbert's up front manner. At their meeting, the architect drew a sketch for the Woolworth Building, and jotted down some costs next to it. Typically architects at the time would agree to contracts before drawings were made. Gilbert realized that potential clients would be impressed by drawings, and would be more likely to award contracts to an architect who invested time and effort in that process before money was discussed.

Woolworth had already commissioned the construction of a number of buildings, including his mansion at 990 Fifth Avenue (1901-1927), and the impressive North Queen Street Woolworth store, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1901), that included 5 floors of office space and a theater above the store itself. Woolworth awarded the contract to Cass Gilbert. The photograph on the left, taken in 1931, is from the Library of Congress digital collections.

Originally Woolworth had intended to build a modest bank and office building for his company and his co-sponsors the Irving National Bank, but as the project went on, and the building was finished, it had grown in scope, and become the tallest occupied building in the world. Soon after it was completed Woolworth was to buy the Irving National Banks share of the skyscraper, reducing the bank's status to that of tenant.

The contract for constructing the Woolworth Building was awarded to the Thompson-Starrett Company, headed by Louis J. Horowitz. The company was in operation from 1899 until 1968, and was, along with the George A. Fuller Company, a pioneer in the construction of early skyscrapers in New York City. Thompson-Starrett's list of construction projects includes numerous historic buildings; the Equitable Building in Manhattan (1915), the former General Motors Building in Detroit (1923), the American Stock Exchange (1930), the City of New York Municipal Building (1914), Union Station, Washington, D.C. (1907), and the New York World's Fair New York State Pavilion (1964).

Construction began April, 1910, with the demolition of existing buildings on the site, and by August 26, 1911, the building's foundations were complete. Construction of the skyscraper's steel frame began August 15, 1911, and rose at the rate of 1½ stories a week, closely followed by the "brick layers attaching terra cotta cladding." By April 6, 1912, the steel frame had reached the thirtieth floor, the top of the main block, and the forty-seventh storey of the main tower by May 30. The topping out ceremony took place, as the last rivet was driven into the summit of the building on July 1, 1912. The building was completed, in record time, by April 1913. Gilbert's Custom House had taken 6 years to build. (Fenske, 186)

As the skyscraper went up New York newspapers (and hundreds nationwide) provided running commentaries on the building's ascent up and beyond the city's skyline. Not yet built, Woolworth's building had captured the public's attention, and was already generating enormous publicity. Woolworth decided to record the building's construction for posterity. He employed a commercial photographer, Irving Underhill, who had his studio on the corner of Broadway and Park Place, opposite the site, to document at regular intervals, the construction of the building. Underhill's photographs were sent out to Woolworth's stores all over the country, and can be seen in the gallery below.

Underhill's photographs below, views of City Hall Park and Broadway South, were taken in 1908 (top) and 1913 (bottom), and show the area before and after the construction of the Woolworth Building. The skyscraper dominates the landscape, and is so tall that the second photograph's horizon appears considerably lower than in Underhill's 1908 picture, an effort required to squeeze the building into the photograph's frame.

The opening ceremony, held by Woolworth, in Cass Gilbert's honor, took place on April 24, 1913. President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in the Whitehouse and 80,000 light bulbs came to life, illuminating the skyscraper, and there was a banquet on the 27th floor, attended by 900 guests.

A Landmark Preservation Commission report of 1983 describes the Woolworth Building as a 60-story skyscraper that rises 792 feet above street-level. It occupies the entire block front along Broadway, between Barclay Street and Park Place, and features a 30-story tower built on a 30-story base. Its construction consists of a steel frame, designed by engineer Gunvald Aus, and covered with masonry and Atlantic terra cotta, and features carving and decorative motifs that are Gothic in inspiration.

In 1913, superlatives and numbers abounded. The Wall Street Journal, from April 26, 1913, captures the mood, describing the building's vital statistics in detail:

It was built with bracing to protect against high winds, of a type that had previously been used in the construction of bridges. It has its own power plant (a first), barber shop, restaurant, doctor's office, and swimming pool. Gilbert designed the building in a U-shape, so that every office had access to daylight through one of 2,843 windows, with corridors running through the middle of each floor. The F. W. Woolworth Company, including Woolworth's own marble lined office, located on the 24th floor, occupied 1 ½ floors of the skyscraper until the company sold the building in 1998.

Gilbert included a three-storey high grand arcade entrance, with vaulted ceilings, and glass mosaic windows, and walls and floors made of marble imported from Greece and Italy. Frescos titled 'Commerce' and 'Labor', and a dozen marble busts, including one each of Gilbert and Woolworth adorned the lobby. The grand scale of the building, combined with its Gothic style, led clergyman Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, who attended the opening ceremony, to famously describe the building as "the cathedral of commerce." 

The Woolworth Building met with universal acclaim. Architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler wrote the text for a brochure privately printed by Woolworth, titled The Woolworth Building that praised the its 'gracious shape,' and labeled it "an ornament of the city." Julian Huxley, the English scientist, described the Woolworth building as "a fairy story, gigantically and triumphantly come to life." French art historian Andre Michel called it "an epoch making work," and Japanese architect Matusnosuke Moriyama told the New York Times that "worlds opinion of American architecture will be different now." (Landmark Preservation Commission, 1983).

It should be noted that although Dr. Cadman popularized the name, the first recorded instance of the Woolworth Building being dubbed the Cathedral of Commerce appears in the New York Times, April 27, 1913. Alan Francis, an English visitor to New York, interviewed in a peice for the New York Times, described the Woolworth Building as "a source of both astonishment and inspiration," though he was appalled by "the rubbish which is heaped about it." Not withstanding Francis's displeasure at the trash littered streets surrounding the building, he did go on to say "Perhaps the phrase which best expresses it is that it appears to be a cathedral of commerce." (SM12) 

Gail Fenske's book The Skyscraper and the City, a source of much of the information in this post, is the book about Woolworth Building. Detailed, and full of illustrations.

Landmark Preservation Commission reports on the Woolworth Building, available free online, include detailed descriptions of the building's architectural features, and biographies of Cass Gilbert and Frank Winfield Woolworth.

• Woolworth Building, first floor interior [PDF]
• Woolworth Building (exterior) [PDF]

Similarly the National Historic Landmark nomination form for the Woolworth Building is also available online:

• National Register Of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form [PDF]

New York Public Library's Art & Architecture Division has a number of materials pertaining to the history of skyscrapers, the Woolworth Building, Cass Gilbert, artists files, and the history of architecture. Included in that collection is The Woolworth Building, by the architecture critic Montgomery Shuyler, privately printed for Woolworth to distribute amongst friends.

See also the Library's Digital Gallery for images of the Woolworth Building, and maps of downtown Manhattan, that chart the days before, during, and after the construction of the Woolworth Building.

The Milstein Division's collections, in addition to Irving Underhill's photographic prints of the construction of the Woolworth Building, comprise books, digitized historic newspapers, pamphlets, clippings files, photographs, and postcards pertaining to the history of the Woolworth Building.

There are several texts from the period, about the Woolworth Building, available free online, including:

• The Cathedral of Commerce / Edwin A. Cochrane, with a forward by S. Parkes Cadman, 1916.
• Above the Clouds and Old New York / H. Addington Bruce, 1913. [a contemporary visitors guide].
• The Master Builders: A Record of the Construction of the World's Highest Commercial Structure / Hugh McAtamney, 1913.

Search the Library's online catalog:

• Woolworth Building (New York, N.Y.)

For 130 years, the Brooklyn Bridge has been an icon of the New York City landscape—longer if you account for the 13 years required to construct it. This beloved connection between boroughs is still in use while many of its contemporaries have been replaced or dismantled worldwide.

When the bridge opened in 1883, New York was a different sort of town. Also referred to as either the New York Bridge or East River Bridge until its official naming in 1915, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was built. New York and Brooklyn were still separate cities. Streetcars, horse drawn carriages, and elevated trains were the primary form of NYC transit. Electric light bulbs and phonographs were new, "sky-scrapers" were just becoming popular, and it was the first season of the New York Gothams, the baseball team that evolved into the New York (and later San Francisco) Giants.

Thousands attended the opening ceremony on May 24 of that year. Ships filled the East River for the occasion. U.S. President Chester A. Arthur and New York City Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the span to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. The New York Times ran several articles on the day, including "To-Day's Great Ceremony: Everything Ready For the Opening of the Bridge" and "The Building of the Bridge: Its Cost and the Difficulties Met With—Details of the History of a Great Engineering Triumph," along with several articles describing the bridge's construction (read them in the New York Times here). You can read all of the speeches given on opening day via Google Books, Project Gutenberg, Archive.org, or HathiTrust.

Building the Brooklyn Bridge came at a high price. An estimated twenty-seven to forty men died during its construction. Its designer, John Augustus Roebling, crushed his foot while conducting surveys for the bridge project—an injury that led to amputation of his toes and a tetanus infection which resulted in his death. Before his passing, he placed his son Washington Roebling in charge of the project. During this time, medical professionals discovered an entirely new affliction, decompression sickness—originally called caisson disease or "the bends," which workers digging out the huge caissons suffered en masse. Washington was affected by the bends to the extent that it kept him away from the bridge's construction site, which was ultimately overseen by his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, who was technically the first New Yorker to walk across the bridge.

On May 30, 1883, six days after the opening, a rumor that the crossing was going to collapse caused a stampede, which was responsible for crushing and killing at least twelve people. About one year later, on May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum held a famous publicity stunt that led a parade of 21 elephants over the bridge, which helped stifle doubts about its stability.

It didn't take long for the bridge to embed itself into American popular culture. Not long after its opening, a successful scam artist managed to "sell" the Brooklyn Bridge to several gullible victims. The expression "if you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you" has since become a fixture in American slang to highlight someone's naïvety.

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in the 1978 book The Great Bridge by David McCullough, and in the first PBS documentary film by Ken Burns. There are hundreds of items in the library catalog about the Brooklyn Bridge, ranging from children's picture books to adult picture books, and from middle school fiction to rare books of poetry. Images of the bridge abound in the NYPL Digital Gallery, including several photographs of its construction, stereoscopic views, and vintage postcards. Celebrate its anniversary with a stroll along the pedestrian walkway.

Between 1892 and 1954, over twelve million people entered the United States through the immigration inspection station at Ellis Island, a small island located in the upper bay off the New Jersey coast. There is a myth that persists in the field of genealogy, or more accurately, in family lore, that family names were changed there. They were not. Numerous blogs, essays, and books have proven this. Yet the myth persists; a story in a recent issue of The New Yorker suggests that it happened. This post will explore how and why names were not changed. It will then tell the story of Frank Woodhull, an almost unique example of someone whose name was changed, as proof that even if your name was changed at Ellis Island (it wasn't), it wouldn't have mattered. Confused? Read on...

The legend goes that officials at Ellis Island, unfamiliar with the many languages and nationalities of the people arriving at Ellis Island, would change the names of those immigrants that sounded foreign, or unusual. Vincent J. Cannato's excellent book American Passage: The History of Ellis Island explains why this did not happen:

Nearly all [...] name change stories are false. Names were not changed at Ellis Island. The proof is found when one considers that inspectors never wrote down the names of incoming immigrants. The only list of names came from the manifests of steamships, filled out by ship officials in Europe. In the era before visas, there was no official record of entering immigrants except those manifests. When immigrants reached the end of the line in the Great Hall, they stood before an immigration clerk with the huge manifest opened in front of him. The clerk then proceeded, usually through interpreters, to ask questions based on those found in the manifests. Their goal was to make sure that the answers matched. (p.402)

Inspectors did not create records of immigration; rather they checked the names of the people moving through Ellis Island against those recorded in the ship's passenger list, or manifest. The ship's manifest was created by employees of the steamship companies that brought the immigrants to the United States, before the voyage took place, when the passenger bought their ticket. The manifest was presented to the officials at Ellis Island when the ship arrived. If anything, Ellis Island officials were known to correct mistakes in passenger lists. The Encyclopedia of Ellis Island states that employees of the steamship companies,

…mostly ticket agents and pursers required no special identification from passengers and simply accepted the names the immigrants gave them. Immigrant inspectors [at Ellis Island] accepted these names as recorded in the ship's manifests and never altered them unless persuaded that a mistake had been made in the spelling or rendering of the name. Nonetheless the original name was never entirely scratched out and remained legible. (p.176)

Although it is always possible that the names of passengers were spelt wrong, perhaps by the clerk when the ticket was bought, or during transliteration, when names were translated from one alphabet to another, it is more likely that immigrants were their own agents of change. Cannato, for instance, suggests that people often changed their name in advance of migration. More commonly, immigrants would change their names themselves when they had arrived in the United States, and for a number of reasons.

Someone might change their name in order to make it sound more American, to fit in with the local community, or simply because it was good for business. There is at least one instance of a small businessman arriving in the United States from Eastern Europe changing his name, at least his public name, to something that sounded Swedish, because he had settled in a Swedish neighborhood in New York City. Immigrants would sometimes officially record their name change, when naturalizing for instance, but often, as there was no law in New York State requiring it be done, no official record of a name change was made. People would just start using a different name.

John Colletta, in his book They Came in Ships, describes the immigration process at Ellis Island in more detail:

[The] Inspector [in the immigration receiving center] had in has hands a written record of the immigrant he was inspecting and, asking the same questions over again, could compare the oral statements with it. The inspectors therefore, read the names already written down on the lists, and they had at their service a large staff of translators who worked along side them in the Great Hall of the Ellis Island facility. (p.12)

Contemporary descriptions of Ellis Island do not mention name changes at Ellis Island. A search of historical newspapers using the ProQuest Historical Database produces only one story about name changes written during the time that Ellis Island was in operation.

Leonard Lyon's entertainment column Broadway Potpourri, in the Washington Post of April 10th, 1944, states that Harry Zarief, "the assistant concert master for Morton Gould," and famously a father of quadruplets, had recently changed his name back from Friedman.

Friedman. His name originally was Zarief, but when his family arrived at Ellis Island the immigration inspector told him that Zarief was too complicated, and recorded his name as "Friedman." Many years later the "Friedman" was changed back to the original Zarief. (p.9)

There are hundreds of stories about the immigration inspection station in the newspapers of the time that do not mention names being changed. In a 1922 article, titled To Be or Not to Be American in the New York Times, journalist Elizabeth Heath describes a visit to Ellis Island, and the Great Hall where immigrants were processed.

Upstairs, in the great main hall of the building, the straggling crowd is skillfully split into a dozen long lines, each leading to the desk of an inspector. Before him is spread the manifest of the steamship company, giving the required information about each steerage passenger - religion, relatives in America, amount of money, source of passage money, literacy, occupation, and the positive statement that the candidate for admission does not believe or practice polygamy or anarchy. It is a seeming miscellany of information, but each item has a direct bearing on the legality of admission. (p.41)

A letter to the Chicago Tribune advice column The Legal Friend of the People, dated September 16, 1912 discusses name changes and an application for citizenship, and mentions Ellis Island.

After having lived in the United States for five years I changed the spelling of my name. When I made my declaration to become a citizen of the United States, about a year and a half ago, I gave my name as I now spell it. Will this cause any hitch in my taking out final citizenship papers six months hence? [...] I understand that all declarations of intention to become a citizen are forwarded to New York and verified by the records at Ellis Island. When it is discovered that my name, as I spelled it when I took out my first papers, is not on the books [the ships manifests] there, will this interfere with my taking out my final naturalization papers?

The advice given in reply:

On making the application for final papers, you should spell your name as in the original application. You have the right to change the spelling without a court process. (p.6)

The idea that names were changed at Ellis Island raises lots of questions. For instance, if names were changed, what happened to the paperwork? And if inspectors were charged with changing names, why are their no records of this? Where are the lists of approved names? Where are the first hand accounts, of inspectors and immigrants? If immigrants had name changes forced upon them, why did they not simply change their name back when they entered the country? Or, if they could not, where is paperwork describing the roles of Federal officials charged with making sure that names were not changed back?

All rather silly, perhaps. Yet the myth persists, almost exclusively in family lore. One explanation might be that we live in more enlightened times. People migrating to the United States no longer feel that they have to change their name to fit in, and so it seems strange that people would voluntarily change their name generations ago.

Marian L. Smith, in her essay American Names: Declaring Independence, suggests that another interpretation of the Ellis Island myth might be:

That an immigrant is remembering his initial confrontation with American culture. Ellis Island was not only immigrant processing, it was finding one's way around the city, learning to speak English, getting one's first job or apartment, going to school, and adjusting one's name to a new spelling or pronunciation. All these experiences, for the first few years, were the "Ellis Island experience." When recalling their immigration decades before, many immigrants referred to the entire experience as "Ellis Island."

There is always the exception to the rule. The clipping below is from the passenger list for the steamship S.S. New York, which arrived at the Port of New York, from Southampton, England, October 4th, 1908. It shows that a passenger's name has been crossed out and replaced with another, that of Mary Johnson. The clipping below that is from the United Kingdom Outward Passenger Lists and confirms that the passenger had described himself as Frank Woodhull, a clerk, and alien in the United States.

The S.S. New York's passenger list includes an addendum, a page titled Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry. This was a list of the names of passengers disembarking from the S.S. New York, who were detained at Ellis Island. The reason given for "Mary Johnson" being held for further inspection is that "she" was travelling as Frank Woodhull "in male attire." Mr. Woodhull proved that he would not be a financial burden on the United States, and was allowed to continue his journey to New Orleans.

The incident generated headlines in newspapers all over the country, and Frank Woodhull gave a number of interviews, where he told his story, a story that tells us much about the times. Here it is as told to the New York Times, October 5th and 6th, 1908.

My life has always been a struggle. I come of an English-Canadian family, and I have most of my fight to make all alone. Thirty years ago, when I was 20, my father died and I was thrown entirely on my own resources. I came to this country a young girl and went west to make my way. For fifteen years I struggled on. The hair on my face was a misfortune. It was often the subject of rude jest and caused me endless embarrassment. The struggle was awful, but I had to live somehow, and so I went on. God knows that life has been hard, but of the hardness of those years I cannot speak.

Then came a time fifteen years ago when I got desperate. I had been told that I looked like a man, and I knew that in Canada some women have put on men's clothes do men's work. So the thought took shape in my mind. If these women had done it why could not I, who looked like a man? I was in California at the time. I bought men's clothes and began to wear them. Then things changed. I had prospects. My occupation I have given here as canvasser, but I have done many things. I have sold books, lightning rods, and worked in stores. Never once was I suspected that I was other than Frank Woodhull. I have lived my life, and I tried to live it well. Most of the time I have been in California, but now I am going to New Orleans, where there are chances of employment. I have never attempted to take citizenship papers. I knew to do so would be either to reveal my sex or else become a law breaker. I have never been the latter. I did not know that there was a law against women wearing male attire in this State or I would have sailed to another port. My folks come originally from England and it had long been my wish to go there and take a look about. So with a measure of success the longing grew and I began to save up for my holiday. I went over in the steerage two months ago and returned the same way.

On October 8th, 1908 Woodhull returned from Europe, and passing through Ellis Island, as an alien, despite having lived in the United States for a number of years, was pulled to one side by an official who thought that he might have Tuberculosis. Erica Rand, in her book The Ellis Island Snow Globe, quotes an article that appeared in the New-York Tribune, describing "what happened when Woodhull was called for further examination:

[…] Woodhull told the surgeon "Oh, please don't examine me!" She pleaded. "I might as well tell you all. I am a woman, and have traveled in male attire for fifteen years." "(p.80)

Woodhull was brought before a Board of Special Inquiry at Ellis Island, who according to the New York Times, October 6th, declared him a "desirable immigrant [who] should be allowed to win her livelihood as she saw fit." (p.6)

Woodhull talked about how women were expected to behave, dress, and of the types of work open to them.

Women have a hard time in this world. They are walking advertisements for the milliner, the dry goods stores, the jewelers, and other shops. They live in the main only for their clothes, and now and then when a woman comes to the front who does not care for dress she is looked upon as a freak and a crank. With me how different. See this hat? I have worn that hat for three years, and it cost me $3. What woman could have worn a hat so long? Bah! They are the slaves to whim and fashion. What could I do when fifteen years ago I faced the crisis in my life? There was only housework to which I could turn.[…] Men can work at many unskilled callings, but to a woman only a few are open, and they are the grinding, death-dealing kinds of work. Well, for me, I prefer to live a life of independence and freedom.

The New York Times goes on to add that the individual identified at Ellis Island as Mary Johnson, was freed, to "face the world as Frank Woodhull." (p.6)

A thorough search of Ancestry Library Edition provides no clues as to Frank Woodhull's whereabouts after leaving Ellis Island, though the internet does include references to his settling in New Orleans, becoming an American citizen, and dying in 1939: citations are missing. Perhaps, after the furor, Frank decided to change his name, to avoid further publicity. This story illustrates one thing. Once Woodhull left Ellis Island, he was no longer obliged to be known as Mary Johnson, but was free to resume his life, complete with the name and identity of his choosing. Ellis Island could not impose a name upon him.

Copies of ship's manifests, or passenger lists, are avialable at New York Public Library, via the database Ancestry Library Edition.

If you would like to read more about Ellis Island, try searching for materials in the Library's catalog. You can use the following subject terms:

Ellis Island Immigration Station (N.Y. and N.J.)

Ellis Island Immigration Station (N.Y. and N.J.) -- History.

The Library's Digital Gallery includes many images of Ellis Island.

Aguilar Library, 1938 - Librarian w/ students. Want to know more about our current educational initiatives? See From the Collections to the Classroom by NYPL President Tony MarxWe have just shuttered the doors on our first Education Innovation @ NYPL Summer Institute. During this three week Institute, master teachers from NYC (and further afar) met curators from our Research Divisions, explored our Archives, and connected with members of our Strategy Department—all with the intention of addressing how we can better identify materials from our collections for use in the classroom, and how we can better connect these materials to teachers. The New York Public Library offers some of the best collections in the world. Our Digital Collections alone encompasses more than 700,000 images including historical photos, political cartoons, maps, and more that you can explore digitally. The challenge for us becomes—how do we curate this wealth of material in an accessible and efficient way for classroom use, especially to help meet Common Core State Standards?

Over three weeks, August 5th-August 23rd, this is exactly what the Institute teachers did. Each teacher choose a research topic to build a lesson plan around, and then explored our archives to uncover primary source materials to enhance their knowledge and teaching of this topic. In some cases, teachers discovered forgotten treasures in the archives. The teachers then collected these primary source materials into curated lists alongside complimentary secondary source materials. The next step was turning these lists into Texts and Task Units for Lesson Planning. Over the next few weeks we will roll out blog posts written by the teachers on their topics, which include topic descriptions, suggestions for lesson planning, and downloadable Texts and Task Units for each topic with information on text complexity and text dependent questions. Until then, check out their amazing annotated lists of primary and secondary materials on the following topics for classroom use:

Declaration of Independence - the documents, the signers, and the social and cultural history of the era—including many lesser known primary sources of the period such as colonial maps from both the British and French perspectives (Grades 9-12)

Double V Campaign: African Americans in World War II—Primary and secondary source resources describing the efforts of African-Americans to achieve victory in the war effort abroad, and in the civil rights struggle at home. This list gives particular focus to the role of the Pittsburgh Courier—then the highest circulating African American newspaper—in mobilizing this campaign, and in the role of women who joined the war effort through the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (Grades 9-12)

Grace Aguilar's American Journey - Did you know that the NYPL Aguilar Library, founded in 1886, is named for Grace Aguilar, a nineteenth century writer and feminist who never made it to the United States? Ever wondered, 'why?' This list gives teachers and students the resources to begin a common core-aligned research journey rebuilding the bridge between this influential nineteenth century figure (seen here on the right), and how and why her impact was still felt an ocean away in NYC more than 40 years after her death (Grades 11-12)

Latinos on Broadway - Resources to research Latino cultural contributions and developments to the American musical theater (Grades 9-12)

Reconstructing Reconstruction - A historical analysis of how twentieth century textbooks have changed in their teaching of Reconstruction. The list includes excerpts from early twentieth century textbooks and from more recent ones. Trends include the shift from the ‘Dunning’ school of thought – in which African Americans were seen as minimal or obstructionist players in Reconstruction – to the more modern view from the 1970s onwards, and the omissions in earlier textbooks of pivotal events, such as the Brooks-Baxter War in 1872 (on right) that ultimately led to the end of Reconstruction in Arkansas two years earlier than the rest of the country (Grades 11-12)

Kids in African-American Civil Rights Protests - describes three civil rights events in which children and young adults played pivotal roles including: the 1939 sit-in at the Alexandria, Virginia library; Claudette Covin's bus arrest in 1955 (nine months before Rosa Parks); and the Birmingham Children's March in 1963—also called the 'Children's Crusade' (Grades 6-8)

Immigration to Washington Heights, NYC: Immigration Then & Now - Using maps, first hand accounts, and secondary sources this collection of texts tracks changes over time in Washington Heights from the colonial period to present day (Grades 6-8)

Social Darwinism - A reading list for advanced high school students, or college students, on the historic use of Social Darwinism as a justification for European imperialism between 1871 and 1939; includes primary source materials on influential figures like Cecil Rhodes—founder of the Rhodes Scholarship, self professed beliver in the 'superior Anglo-Saxon race'—and the subject of this infamous political cartoon (on right) that depicted his vast colonizing plans for the African continent (Grades 10-12)

A Doll's House: A Social and Cultural History of the Era - Provides primary source historical background on women's lives as affected by property and marriage laws in the 19th century; commentary on women's education and role in society; and information on Norwegian feminists who influenced Ibsen. This list also looks at more recent responses to Ibsen's A Doll's House and sequels written to help explain the difficulty of a wife walking out on her husband and children as depicted in the play. (Grades 11-12)

Travel Journals and Depictions of the Mongol World - From Marco Polo to Ibn Battuta, this Social Studies list chronicles impressions of the Mongol imperial world as observed by early explorers (Grades 9-12)

African Americans and the American Revolution - Primary, secondary, and historical fiction titles (including Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson at right) representing African American participation in the American Revolution. List includes information on the social, political, and legal issues surrounding slavery, manumission, and military participation as a means towards emancipation at the time—from both the American and British perspectives; can be used for an English Language Arts (ELA) or Social Studies classroom (Grades 6-8)

If you have an orphan in your family tree, you may have to go through additional steps to find relevant genealogical records for the orphaned or adopted ancestor. Orphans originating in New York City are not uncommon because of the city's history with the Orphan Train movement.

From the 1850s to the 1920s, the Orphan Train Movement was an organized effort to transport children from overcrowded cities, such as New York City, to foster homes across the country. An estimated 250,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children were relocated, particularly to 'pioneer' states such as Indiana, Kansas, and Nebraska, though the trains made stops in 45 states as well as Canada and Mexico. The beginning of the Foster Care movement, which grew out of the Orphan Train's "free-home-placing-out" idea, ended the Orphan Trains. Of course, not all children's care institutions took part in the Orphan Trains, and not all orphans were shipped out of New York City.

To get started in researching an orphan in your family tree, use Genealogy Insider's Tips For Researching Orphaned Ancestors or Rootsweb's Guide for an Adopted or Orphaned Ancestor. Another helpful resource is Waifs, Foundlings and Half-Orphans: Searching for America's Orphan Train Riders by Mary Ellen Johnson; peppered with personal stories, this book is most useful for its research tips at the end of each section. Cyndi's List of Orphan Train Resources includes census resources and links to several localized Orphan Train Societies. The New York State Library: Genealogy for Adoptees website includes search strategy materials, helpful organizations, and information regarding open records searching for adoptions. Adopting.org's First Steps Guide is generally aimed towards adoptees seeking birth parents, but also contains tips useful to genealogy research.

The New York charity institutions involved in the Orphan Train movement include The Children's Aid Society, the New York Juvenile Asylum (now called Children's Village), the New York Foundling Hospital, and the Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York. The records of these various institutions are not all kept in the same locations. You can use Adoption Agencies, Orphanages, and Maternity Homes: An Historical Directory by Reg Niles, a state-by-state guide to help you identify a relevant agency. Once you have identified the potential agency or orphanage, search ArchiveGrid for the location of their records. The National Orphan Train Complex Research Resources has an address list of various local agencies for vital records and institutional records, includes the archival locations for most of the major NYC orphanages. Family Tree Magazine also compiled a list of Orphan Record Repositories. The NYPL holds the records of two orphanages: Howard Orphanage and Industrial School records and the Riverdale Children's Association Records (formerly known as the Colored Orphan Asylum in New York City, the first institution in the United States dedicated to the care of African American children). Genealogical Resources in New York edited by Estelle M. Guzik also details the locations of many of the records of New York orphanages and children's care agencies.

For further information on the history of Orphan Trains:

Extra! Extra! The Orphan Trains and Newsboys of New York / by Renée Wendinger

Orphan Train Riders: A Brief History of the Orphan Train Era (1854-1929) / Tom Riley

Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children he Saved and Failed / Stephen O'Connor

Orphan Trains & Their Precious Cargo: The Life's Work of Rev. H.D. Clarke / compiled by Clark Kidder

Journeys of Hope: Orphan Train Riders: Their Own Stories / edited by Mary Ellen Johnson

The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America / Marilyn Irvin Holt

The Orphan Trains[videorecording] / Edward Gray Films, Inc., WGBH

If you are interested in genealogy research in the Milstein Division, we are located in Room 121 of the Stephen A Schwarzman Building, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. To get a better idea of our services, holdings, and genealogical methods, please explore the Conducting Research portion of our division's website, including our Frequently Asked Questions and blog posts, as well as links to free genealogical online resources. You can explore the library's catalog if you would like to search for specific holdings in the library collection.

Aguilar Library, 1938 - Librarian w/ students. Want to know more about our current educational initiatives? See The ABC of Education: Why Libraries Matter by Maggie Jacobs, Director of Educational ProgramsWe have just shuttered the doors on our first Education Innovation @ NYPL Summer Institute. During this three week Institute, master teachers from NYC (and further afar) met curators from our Research Divisions, explored our Archives, and connected with members of our Strategy Department—all with the intention of addressing how we can better identify materials from our collections for use in the classroom, and how we can better connect these materials to teachers. The New York Public Library offers some of the best collections in the world. Our Digital Collections alone encompasses more than 700,000 images including historical photos, political cartoons, maps, and more that you can explore digitally. The challenge for us becomes—how do we curate this wealth of material in an accessible and efficient way for classroom use, especially to help meet Common Core State Standards?

Over three weeks, August 5th-August 23rd, this is exactly what the Institute teachers did. Each teacher choose a research topic to build a lesson plan around, and then explored our archives to uncover primary source materials to enhance their knowledge and teaching of this topic. In some cases, teachers discovered forgotten treasures in the archives. The teachers then collected these primary source materials into curated lists alongside complimentary secondary source materials. The next step was turning these lists into Texts and Task Units for Lesson Planning. Over the next few months we will roll out blog posts written by the teachers on their topics, which include topic descriptions, suggestions for lesson planning, and downloadable Texts and Task Units for each topic with information on text complexity and text dependent questions. Until then, check out their amazing annotated lists of primary and secondary materials on the following topics for classroom use:

Declaration of Independence - This list provides links to the documents, the signers, and the social and cultural history of the era, including several lesser known primary sources of the period such as: colonial maps from both the British and French perspectives depicting territorial points of contention; information on the individual signers; and historical prints (such as the one at the right) that depict the Declaration as not just a document, but as the event that its signing and announcement was. This list also includes a link to a transcription of the Declaration of Independence that can be used as a class handout; this provides for ease of use in the classroom, and an accesible way for students to begin to interact with this seminal text. After all, the Declaration was intended to be read aloud (Grades 9-12)

Double V Campaign: African Americans in World War II—Primary and secondary source resources describing the efforts of African-Americans to achieve victory in the war effort abroad, and in the civil rights struggle at home. This list gives particular focus to the role of the Pittsburgh Courier—then the highest circulating African American newspaper—in mobilizing this campaign, and in the role of women who joined the war effort through the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'World War II and the Double V Campaign' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance tasks for a Social Studies Unit (Grades 10-12)

Grace Aguilar's American Journey - Did you know that the NYPL Aguilar Library, founded in 1886, is named for Grace Aguilar, a nineteenth century writer and feminist who never made it to the United States? Ever wondered, 'why?' This list gives teachers and students the resources to begin a common core-aligned research journey rebuilding the bridge between this influential nineteenth century figure (seen here on the right), and how and why her impact was still felt an ocean away in NYC more than 40 years after her death. This list not only provides suggestions on how to research this particular topic, but also gives direction on how to develop benchmarks for classroom informational literacy consistent with Empire State Information Fluency Continuum. Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'Grace Aguilar's American Journey: A Common Core-aligned Research Experience' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance tasks (Grades 11-12)

Latinos on Broadway - Resources to research Latino cultural contributions and developments to the American musical theater. This list includes information on such iconic figures as Carmen Miranda, Rita Moreno, and Chita Rivera, as well as providing historical background through primary and secondary sources from the 19th and 20th century on Latin culture and depictions on Broadway and in popular culture - with particular focus on West Side Story. This list provides resources for not only an arts and music education, but also asks questions about race, identity, and citizenship very relevent for a Social Studies classroom as well (Grades 9-12) 

Reconstructing Reconstruction - A historical analysis of how twentieth century textbooks have changed in their teaching of Reconstruction. The list includes excerpts from early twentieth century textbooks and from more recent ones. Trends include the shift from the ‘Dunning’ school of thought – in which African Americans were seen as minimal or obstructionist players in Reconstruction – to the more modern view from the 1970s onwards, and the omissions in earlier textbooks of pivotal events, such as the Brooks-Baxter War in 1872 (on right) that ultimately led to the end of Reconstruction in Arkansas two years earlier than the rest of the country (Grades 11-12)

Kids in African-American Civil Rights Protests - this list focuses on civil rights as seen through the lens of children and young adults. This list centres on three civil rights events in which children and young adults played pivotal roles including: the 1939 sit-in at the Alexandria, Virginia library; Claudette Covin's bus arrest in 1955 (nine months before Rosa Parks); and the Birmingham Children's March in 1963—also called the 'Children's Crusade.' Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'Little Lionhearts: Young People in African-American Civil Rights Protests' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance task (Grades 6-8)

Social Darwinism - A reading list for advanced high school students on the historic use of Social Darwinism as a justification for European imperialism between 1871 and 1939. This list includes primary source materials on influential figures like Cecil Rhodes-founder of the Rhodes Scholarship, self professed beliver in the 'superior Anglo-Saxon race' and the subject of this infamous political cartoon (on right) that depicted his vast colonizing plans for the African continent-along with secondary sources. Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'The Role of Social Darwinism in European Imperialism' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance task (Grades 9-12)

A Doll's House: A Social and Cultural History of the Era - Provides primary source historical background on women's lives as affected by property and marriage laws in the 19th century; commentary on women's education and role in society; and information on Norwegian feminists who influenced Ibsen. This list also looks at more recent responses to Ibsen's A Doll's House and sequels written to help explain the difficulty of a wife walking out on her husband and children as depicted in the play. This list has been compiled to align ELA literature curriculum to common core standards emphasizing review of primary sources-reading non-fiction- looking at literary works as the result of an author's point of view placed in a context of other contrasting views-and seeing works in their historical and social contexts (Grades 11-12)

Travel Journals and Depictions of the Mongol World - In 1326, Ibn Battuta began a pilgrimage to Mecca that ended 27 years and 75,000 miles later. His engrossing account of this epic journey provided vivid scenes from Morocco, southern Russia, India, and elsewhere - including China. His writings, along with those of Marco Polo, were some of the first historical depictions and primary source documents (outside of Asia) describing the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368). From Marco Polo to Ibn Battuta, this Social Studies list chronicles impressions of the Mongol imperial world as observed by early explorers (Grades 9-12)

Immigration to Washington Heights, NYC: Immigration Then & Now - Using maps, first hand accounts, secondary sources, and historical fiction this collection tracks changes over time in Washington Heights, NYC from the colonial period to present day. List begins with Washington Heights' history - its original inhabitants, its colonial ties to George Washington (seen on right), its modern connections as a haven for German Jewish populations fleeing the Holocaust - and leads right up to present day. This list also directly ties into the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum Standards as it encourages students to approach their work with the following standards in mind: 'we are thinkers', 'we are explorers', and 'we are citizens.' Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'New York, Then & Now: Immigration to Washington Heights/Inwood' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance tasks for a Social Studies-infused English Language Arts Unit (Grades 6-8)

African Americans and the American Revolution - Primary, secondary, and historical fiction titles (including Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson at right) representing African American participation in the American Revolution. List includes information on the social, political, and legal issues surrounding slavery, manumission, and military participation as a means towards emancipation at the time—from both the American and British perspectives; can be used for an English Language Arts (ELA) or Social Studies classroom.  Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'Two Wars: African Americans, Emancipation, and the American Revolution' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance tasks (Grades 6-8)

Slavery in the United States & the Underground Railroad to Canada - This list includes primary and secondary sources (such as this historical photo at right of former slaves who settled in Ontario, Canada), as well as works of historical fiction that represent multiple perspectives on slavery in the United States and those slaves who traveled via the Underground Railroad to Canada. This list aks the question: 'what next?' So much is written about the Underground Railroad - both now and during its historical time period (Uncle Tom's Cabin, for example, sold 300,000 copies in 1852) yet much less is written about what happened to these slaves after they made their way North, South, or through the multiple other terminus points of this intangible 'railroad.' Want to use this list in your classroom? See our blog post, 'Slavery and the Underground Railroad' for more details including a common core-aligned Texts and Task Unit with text complexity, text dependent questions, and recommended performance tasks (Grades 6-8)

Want to learn more about upcoming educational projects and projects at NYPL? See From the Collection to the Classroom by NYPL President Tony Marx

By 1900, New York City and the United States were undergoing waves of dramatic, traumatic change. Industrialization, Reconstruction and a surge of immigrants from across the globe were remaking every aspect of life, from transportation to education, leisure, labor, race relations and the status of women. One response to the dislocations and turmoil of this era was the reform efforts that we now classify as the “Progressive Movement.”

Grace Aguilar did not participate in this movement. She had been dead for nearly sixty years, laid low by illness at the age of 31 after a short but prolific life. She was not an American and never traveled to the U.S. Her name, however, was evoked across Greater New York in social clubs and lodges, literature, editorials and religious mediations, and in the explosive growth of a small ecosystem of libraries stretching from lower Manhattan to the newly constructed tenements around East 110th Street, what is now East Harlem or El Barrio. The lesson described below began from questioning the apparent lack of connection between this an obscure British writer of Sephardic Jewish descent and one of the quirkiest library buildings in the New York Public Library system—the Aguilar Library. Why is a library branch building in East Harlem named after a British woman who never even visited the United States?

Grace Aguilar & the Aguilar Library: Images from the NYPL Digital CollectionsIt was not yet apparent to me that the woman and the library had a powerful link, a bridge of memory that was now invisible, but palpable and discernible with the right tools. The New York Public Library’s resources and holdings, helped me create a common-core aligned series of texts, questions and research tasks that can guide students in grades 11-12 (or adults), rebuild this bridge between past and present – woman and community – writer and readers. These sources are in a variety of formats to accommodate all kinds of minds and learners, including English Language Learners (ELLs). They are mostly primary sources of the era, plus some secondary supplements, to flesh out the ghosts of the past, and reflect and build upon.

In particular, this grouping of texts asks:

This lesson consists of 10 documents—both primary and secondary sources—for students to compare and contrast in a meaningful evidence-based inquiry manner consist with both the Common Core State Standards and the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum . The subject area for this lesson is Social Studies/Information Literacy 'The Progressive Era.' In terms of grade range and as per scope and sequence, this lesson is ideally suited for Grades 11-12. The materials, however, can work for more than one grade range – as well as for Adult Education. They would change or could be adapted to meet the needs of different English proficiency levels by shortening, paraphrasing, or eliminating some of the 'wordier' samples.

Regardless, the thinking behind this remains complex and follows the six-phase model for the inquiry cycle of learning developed by Barbara Stripling (2003), in which "inquiry is recursive and cyclical, with learners going back and forth between the phases of inquiry to resolve new questions and complexities as they arise." This process has learners connecting, wondering, and investigating material, and then constructing, expressing, and reflecting on their discoveries and conclusions—with conclusions opening the door to future discoveries and inquiry.

Stripling Model of Inquiry (2003): six-phase model for the inquiry cycle of learningStudents can begin exploring this topic as they compare and contrast two primary sources: Grace Aguilar’s portrait and the bulletin of the Aguilar Free Library Society. What is the connection? Document #1: Grace Aguilar's portrait. This portrait was widely disseminated across the British Empire, Europe, and the US. Idealized femininity and intellectual character merge in the face of a young author who would be dead at age 31

Document #2: "THE CITY: A Meritorious Institution Aguilar Free Library, Children's ..." The American Hebrew (1879-1902); June 2, 1883 (primary source) accessible through ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922) June 2, 1883 pp. 151. Additional library bulletins to consider (not available digitally) include documents of The Aguilar Free Library Society (viewable at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Main Reading Room 315).

Next steps: having begun to ask the question 'why?' there was a connection between Grace Aguilar and the Aguilar Library, students can begin examining the remainder of the documents with the following questions in mind:

Document #3: Poem: The Wanderers by Grace Aguilar, 1845 (primary source).

Aguilar's interpretation of Hagar and Ishmael's exile and danger in the wilderness is a metaphor for the vulnerable and dispossessed – Jewish, female, or otherwise. A daring midrash by a woman who, by virtue of her sex, was not initially encouraged to comment on theology. It is also a pro-emancipation document; Hagar was perceived as an African slave in England during this era.

Document #4: “Grace Aguilar” biographical entry from the Jewish Women’s Archive (secondary source).

This online biography, from the Jewish Women's Archive, is essential for understanding Aguilar's contributions to literature, liturgy, philosophy, education, and social reform. Her advocacy of women, Jews, and other outsiders in 19th century life was not unique, but was notable and far-sighted. Includes current bibliography.

Document #5: Atlas of NYPL: neighborhood of the future NYPL Aguilar Branch, 116th and Lexington Avenue, 1897 (primary source) Nonfiction atlas. This Bromley map series was produced the year after the creation of the 116th Street A.F.L.S. Derived from actual surveys and official plans, show the explosive growth of immigrant neighborhoods such as East Harlem by visually describing available housing stock and density, thus making the case for more social and educational services. Even more powerful when used in tandem with census records.

Document #6: US Census Records, 1900 pp. 50-52 (primary source)

Census 1900 - From NYPL Study Guide: East Harlem (pp. 43-62)Document #7: Encyclopedia of New York City (primary and secondary source)

(Text can be excerpted for class use) This text combines both primary and secondary source evidence to give an overall comprehensive portrait of Greater New York and East Harlem at the turn of the 20th century. It also links the Lower East Side’s tenements and inhabitants with East 110th Street. Students will need to understand the differences between a primary and secondary source and why this text (though it includes primary source material) is a secondary source.

Now back to the library! Document #8: Photograph of Aguilar library reading room from the NYPL Digital Collections (below) with open shelving, children and adult patrons (primary source)

The Aguilar Library: image from the NYPL Digital CollectionsDocument #9: Streetscapes/Aguilar Library, 174 West 110th Street; A Library Branch That Wasn't Designed by the Book (secondary source)

Document #10: “Emma Lazarus in Relation to Jewish Thought” The American Hebrew (1879-1902); Dec 9, 1887 (primary source)

The American Grace Aguilar? This review of Lazarus' mission and importance aligns her explicitly with Grace Aguilar, and the Aguilar Free Library. Each woman will leave her own "monument;" students can explore what they are and their legacies for today.

Culminating Tasks can consist of one or more of the following (below). They can accommodate different groups of ages, English proficiencies, or settings. There is also a direct local and community history application.

Find a landmark in your neighborhood – a street, building, statue, or historic site – and research the origins of its name. Using the inquiry process modeled through this research process you have just experienced, build your own bridge between the name and the place – past and present. Write a well-crafted research paper that shows how you assembled the evidence to build that bridge. In the 21st century, a digital map can be worth 1,000 words. Using the NYPL Map Warper or other internet/social media platforms, create and fill in the details of your own neighborhood’s map. You can also take photos and pin them onto Google Earth, literally “putting flesh on the bones” of a neighborhood map or street grid. Write 2-3 line captions for each photo, using as many languages as you feel should be included. When the original patrons of the Aguilar Free Libraries came to the US, they struggled with the need to fit in (and get ahead) vs. the need to remember and retain their heritages and cultures. How has this struggle played out in your own life and the history of your family? What do you need to keep and what do you want to lose? Draw upon the themes explored by Grace Aguilar and write a well-crafted, thoughtful response. Use any literary form or device that you feel will help your voice be heard with the most clarity and power.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.3 Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10). 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8 Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information. 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.10 By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

All the above ten documents and texts are compiled in NYPL Classroom Connections Texts & Tasks Unit - for Common Core Lesson Plans: Grace Aguilar’s American Journey Gr. 11-12 (PDF). This Texts and Task unit can be used for lesson planning or to supplement and enhance current lessons. This Texts and Task Unit includes information on text complexity, text dependent questions, and a recommended performance task for this unit aligned to Common Core State Standards and the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum.

Grace Aguilar's American Journey: Texts & Tasks Unit for Common Core lesson planning (click to view downloadable PDF)

Common Core and the Information Fluency Continuum (IFC)

The cycle of inquiry - possible future discoveries starting from this topic

Emma Lazarus and Grace Aguilar

New York & the NYPL: Then and Now

Feel free to add additional reading suggestions and educational resources in the comments below.

Danielle Lewis is Librarian, Learning Center Specialist and Instructor of French at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Washington Heights. She also supervises the school’s Library Squad, Book & Film Club, and its literature and art journal. Danielle began her teaching career as an NYC Teaching Fellow and has taught ESL, Social Studies, English, French, and interdisciplinary studies at LIU, the NYCDOE and FIT-SUNY where she is an adjunct instructor. She also has a background in grant writing, program development, community outreach and classical voice performance.

A native New Yorker, Danielle is an associate organizer of the NY Librarians Meetup and is active in the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), the American Association of School Libraries (AASL), and the American Jewish Library Association’s Mentoring Committee (AJL). She holds a B.A. in History from Oberlin College, an M. Ed. from Long Island University, and is currently completing her MLS online through SUNY Buffalo. She can be found across the five boroughs making and listening to music, volunteer tutoring, taking pictures, and browsing the bookstores.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”—Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

The American Revolution symbolizes a critical moment in the history of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence is the key symbol of that moment. With its rhetoric of freedom and equality, the Declaration of Independence inspired the colonists to courageously fight for their rights. While the colonists celebrated their victory from Great Britain’s rule, the African Americans who helped achieve that victory were still enslaved. As Alan Gilbert contends in his seminal work,Black Patriots and Loyalists, there were “two wars being waged at once: a political revolution for independence from Britain and a social revolution for emancipation and equality.”

The narrative of the African American experience during the American Revolution is missing from many secondary classrooms in the United States. Fortunately, an interest in the subject has been ignited by the work of Young Adult authors such as Laurie Halse Anderson. Anderson’s novels Chains: Seeds of America (2008) andForge: Seeds of America (2010) have become popular among adolescents and secondary school teachers alike. Both novels vividly portray the heroism of African Americans during the American Revolution, and are a good way to introduce the topic in the secondary classroom.

In order to fully understand the role of African Americans during the American Revolution, it is important to read and critically analyze the primary and secondary sources about that era. The texts selected for this Gr. 6-8 instructional unit lend themselves to the type of critical analysis required by the Common Core State Standards. The texts include a slave petition, poetry, and images that offer students a deeper understanding of the African American fight for emancipation and equality during the American Revolution.

Three of the focus questions for this instructional unit are:

What issues did the Declaration of Independence fail to resolve? What are some of the ways in which African Americans participated in America’s fight for independence? How did African Americans advocate for their freedom during the American Revolution?

The following texts and tasks can be used for Gr. 6-8 in both English Language Arts and Social Studies (Scope & Sequence, Grade 7, Unit 2: Colonial America and the American Revolution).

Teachers can use the following texts to introduce the topic of African American participation in the American Revolution.

Non-fiction:

Both texts are especially useful because they discuss the reasonswhy many African Americans became Loyalists and fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War.

Fiction:

Primary Sources:

Additional Primary Sources:

All of the above texts are compiled inTexts and Tasks Unit for Lesson Planning-Gr. 6-8—African Americans and the American Revolution—English Language Arts/Social Studies. The unit includes more text-dependent questions, culminating tasks, and specific information regarding text complexity.

Literature

History/Social Studies

All the above ten documents and texts are compiled in NYPL Classroom Connections Texts & Tasks Unit - for Common Core Lesson Plans: African Americans and the American Revolution Gr. 6-8 (PDF). This Texts and Task unit can be used for lesson planning or to supplement and enhance current lessons. This Texts and Task Unit includes information on text complexity, text dependent questions, and a recommended performance tasks for this unit aligned to Common Core State Standards for both Literature and History/Social Studies.

African Americans & the American Revolution: Texts & Tasks Unit for Common Core lesson planning (click to view downloadable PDF)

Feel free to add additional reading suggestions and educational resources in the comments below.

Lakisha Odlum is a native New Yorker, and received her education from St. John’s University and Teachers College, Columbia University. She has taught Literature and Composition for nine years on the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels. She currently teaches middle school English Language Arts in Queens, NY, and is passionate about creating learning opportunities that are rigorous, engaging, and most importantly, fun!

Part 2 of a guest post for Ladies and Gentlemen... The Beatles, by Russ Lease. Read Part 1.

On September 14, 1994, my world changed again. I found myself in the unlikely position of being one of the last two bidders in a London auction for one of the most significant pieces of Beatle memorabilia ever sold. It was being described as possibly the Beatles front logo bass drum head from the band’s historic debut performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February, 1964. I say possible because up to that time, no one had done the research necessary to confirm its history and Sotheby’s was understandably unwilling to go on record as authenticating the theory. My pre-auction investigation seemed to indicate that six or seven different logo skins had been used over the years and, indeed, preliminary measurements using Sullivan photos strongly suggested what looked to me like an exact match with the head about to be sold. Three weeks of intense photographic study and numerous long distance calls later I was reasonably convinced, ready to roll the dice and go for it. My hunch was that because of several other high profile items in the sale, most notably the recently uncovered original Sgt. Pepper drum head (though the Beatle logo head carried a more valuable appraisal), and the slight initial skepticism over the Beatle skin’s authenticity, might somewhat overshadow some of the bidding interest.

After ‘maxing out’ on what financially would have to be my last bid, I held my breath. Seconds dragged on like hours as I again waited, hoping no one would up the ante. Finally, the sound of the hammer banged down confirming my new purchase at $43,000. ‘Oh my God, is it really mine?’ For many hours and days later it seemed hard to believe. It still does.

Upon taking physical possession of the piece, my mind was set on two objectives. The first was to prove to myself that the drum head really was what it appeared to be. And number two, proving to the collecting world in general that this was, in fact, the Sullivan show drum head. This started an eight year obsession concerning not only my new acquisition, but also exactly how many other logo drum heads did Ringo use? Why and how often were they changed and what were the histories of each? The research I’ve done over the years documenting the other six Beatle logo drum heads is another article in of itself for another time.

With the skin now in my hands, my apprehension was shortly changed to jubilation when a photograph fell into my hands providing the evidence I was looking for. On Tuesday, February 11, 1964 (two days after their debut on Sullivan), the Beatles traveled down to Washington D.C. to perform at the Washington Coliseum. The photo in question was taken this night and was one of the closest and best pictures of the head I had seen up to that point. The angle and sharpness were such that every scrape, scratch, scuff, and brushstroke of the head that appeared on the photo was also minutely evident on the drum head in my hands. In addition, Sotheby’s top expert, Stephen Maycock, assured me that the provenance or chain of possession from the beginning was impeccable because the skin had been sold by them initially ten years prior, in 1984, and was now in the possession of just its third owner.

The head was first consigned for auction in 1984 by someone within the Beatles inner circle (whose identity will not be revealed). It was purchased by an Australian restaurateur named George Wilkins for just under $9000. Wilkins used the artifact for display purposes in his restaurant before reconsigning the head back to Sotheby’s in 1994.

The current overall condition of the Remo Weather King head is very good. It is a 20” coated Mylar Ambassador with very slight cracking in the joint where the Mylar is fused to the aluminum ring, but nothing too serious. You can still see the faint pencil marks where a straight edge was used for letter alignment. None of the original pencil markings were ever erased off. The front of the head definitely shows some use. More so even than one would expect considering its short public tenure of two weeks. It exhibits the usual scuffs and scraps of being packed and unpacked and we know that most of these imperfections occurred during the actual first American visit because many of them show up in photos from the time. Most interesting would be a half-circle scrap starting at the top of the “B” and traversing through the “e” and into the “a”. If you complete this arch in full, you get a near perfect 14” circle. It appears that at some point when Mal Evans (Beatle equipment manager) was breaking the kit down, Ringo’s 14” hi-hat cymbal was laid on top of the flat lying bass drum, causing the scrape. This had to happen during the first Sullivan performance because the scrap shows up in the Washington Coliseum show photo I mentioned earlier.

When I took possession of the head in 1994, just the head itself was displayed in a sealed acrylic depth frame for hanging on a wall. It looked ok, but lacked the familiarity in your mind that you associate with the head on the Sullivan show. I thought it should be mounted on the front half of a Ludwig Oyster Black bass drum that would look as close as possible to the original drum that held it thirty years earlier. I called the Ludwig Drum Company to see if they could build me such a drum. After speaking to Jim Catalano about the project, I was referred to renowned vintage drum restorer, Jack Lawton, of the Lawton Drum Company in Sunbury, Pa. Lawton is quite familiar with the Oyster Black Pearl used by Ludwig back in the ‘60s. In fact, Lawton had reintroduced that finish (now called Black Oyster) in 1992. The material stopped being made in the 1960s, so Lawton placed a call to the plastic’s original manufacturer in Italy and asked the company to reproduce the pearl, graying shade, and texture. They did and proceeded to sell him 400 pounds of the stuff for his own use. Ever since, companies like Ludwig have recognized Lawton as one of the nation’s finer restorers of classic drums.

The drum Jack used was an old 14x20 Champagne Sparkle shell manufactured by Ludwig in the mid-'60s. The original finish was stripped off and the shell was then cut in half. The inside was sanded and painted white, and the outside was recovered in '60s style Black Oyster Pearl. The original hardware was then cleaned up and reinstalled on the shell. A new black inlaid bass drum hoop now holds the vintage drum head in place. Jack was unaware of the price paid for the head when it came time to mount the skin on the shell. After a bit of a struggle, the tight fitting head finally went on. When Lawton was later told of its value (many times that now), he nearly went into cardiac arrest.

The Beatles’ Sullivan drum head is an icon of our generation. It is the only Beatle logo drum head to appear on any of their album covers (it can be seen on four) and, because of the Sullivan show notoriety, it is generally regarded as the most famous of the seven. It has been exhibited in Washington museums and on occasion at Jack Lawton’s annual Pennsylvania Drum Show. It recently completed a 1½-year stint at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and will no doubt be back at some point in the future.

--

Russ Lease, of Columbia, Md., has been collecting one-of-a-kind Beatle memorabilia for well over twenty years and has built an extensive collection with collection partner, Ron Wine of Hanover, Pa. Russ also does consulting work for some of the major auction houses. Russ can be contacted by email at russlease@comcast.net or via his website at www.beatlesuits.com

The NYPL Milstein Division of United States History, Local History & Genealogy recommends our favorite, most readable, most memorable New York City nonfiction. These are the true stories of New York that engaged us, that intrigued us, and that we thought you might like to read as well.

97 Orchard: An Edible History Of Five Immigrant Families In One New York Tenement Jane Ziegelman

Explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New York's Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century—a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life. Through the experiences of five families, all of them residents of 97 Orchard Street, she takes readers on a vivid and unforgettable tour, from impossibly cramped tenement apartments down dimly lit stairwells where children played and neighbors socialized, beyond the front stoops where immigrant housewives found respite and company, and out into the hubbub of the dirty, teeming streets.

Staff says: "Food history and New York seamlessly woven together in a easy-to-read yet meticulously well researched book. I learned not only about the foods that certain immigrants ate, but how this changed over time, how Americans viewed 'foreign' cuisines over many different eras, and how this was a description of New York history and not just a reflection of imported appetites."

American Passage: The History Of Ellis Island Vincent J. Cannato

A chronicle of the landmark port of entry's history documents its role as an execution site, immigration post, and deportation center that was profoundly shaped by evolving politics and ideologies.

Staff says: "The history of the island and the immigration station, and also of immigration policies in NY and the US. This book is well researched, scholarly and a very easy read. If you only read one book on Ellis Island, then this is it!"

The Battle For New York: The City At The Heart Of The American Revolution Barnet Schecter

Provides a dramatic account of the seminal role played by New York City during the American Revolution, from its September 1776 fall to the British under General William Howe, through years of occupation, and beyond, interweaving illuminating profiles of the individuals on both sides of the conflict with a study of the cultural, political, social, and economic events of the eighteenth century.

Staff says: "It sticks in the mind, especially for the quality of the research and the tour of today's New York in light of the events of history."

The Big Oyster: History On The Half Shell Mark Kurlansky

For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city's economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham's most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city's congested waterways.

Staff says: "Lots of good NYC history in there along with the fascinating world of food history and bivalve science."

Dark Harbor: The War For The New York Waterfront Nathan Ward

Traces the historical influence of the Mafia on New York's waterfront, drawing on the investigative series of New York Sun reporter Malcolm "Mike" Johnson into the region's racketeering, violent territorial disputes, and union corruption.

Staff says: "The real story behind the film On the Waterfront. I also get annoyed when films are historically inaccurate for the sake of plot, ending, etc when the truth is probably just as exciting: see Bridge On The River Kwai. Well researched, and exciting."

The Great Bridge: The Epic Story Of The Building Of The Brooklyn Bridge David McCullough

Evaluates the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge as the greatest engineering triumph of its time, citing the pivotal contributions of chief engineer Washington Roebling and the technical problems and political corruption that challenged the project.

Staff says: "A favorite that everyone knows for good reason!"

Eat The City: A Tale Of The Fishers, Trappers, Hunters, Foragers, Slaughterers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Beekeepers, Winemakers, And Brewers Who Built New York Robin Shulman

Traces the experiences of New Yorkers who grow and produce food in bustling city environments, placing urban food production in a context of hundreds of years of history to explain the changing abilities of cities to feed people.

Staff says: "This interesting collection of micro histories tells the story of such New York food industries as beekeeping, fishing, urban farming, brewing, winemaking, and butchering. The author profiles people currently involved in each industry and then traces the origin, rise, usual fall, and then resurgence of that field. It was fascinating to learn about the methods of the different food industries within the unique environment of New York City."

Five Points: The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, And Became The World's Most Notorious Slum Tyler Anbinder

Details the notorious neighborhood that was once filled with gaming dens, bordellos, dirty streets, and tenements, that welcomed such visitors as Charles Dickens and Abraham Lincoln, and brings to light the hidden world that existed beneath the squalor—a world that invented tap dancing and hosted the prize-fight of the century.

Staff says: "An accessible and broad work looking at the notorious downtown slum's population and sociology."

The Island at the Center of the World: the Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America Russell Shorto

A history of the Dutch role in the establishment of Manhattan discusses the rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic, focusing on the power struggle between Holland governor Peter Stuyvesant and politician Adriaen van der Donck that shaped New York's culture and social freedoms.

Staff says: "The book is well-researched, the stories are well-told, and it will flesh out that point of history that most people only remember as song lyrics: 'Even old New York was once New Amsterdam…'"

Just Kids Patti Smith

In this memoir, singer-songwriter Patti Smith shares tales of New York City: the denizens of Max's Kansas City, the Hotel Chelsea, Scribner's, Brentano's and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with a young man named Robert Mapplethorpe—the man who changed her life with his love, friendship, and genius.

Staff says: "I rather enjoyed the descriptions of Patti and Robert are discovering New York, especially Brooklyn, together. She writes prose like a poet, with detail and care and without an overabundance of imprecise words."

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, And The Battle For The Soul Of A City Jonathan Mahler

A kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City in 1977, The Bronx Is Burning is the story of two epic battles: the fight between Yankee Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch for the city's mayorship. Buried beneath these parallel conflicts—one for the soul of baseball, the other for the soul of the city—was the subtext of race.

Staff says: "During the 1977 World Series, Howard Cosell really did say "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is burning" as flames licked up in the distance from Yankee Stadium. 1977 was the crux of the "bad ol' days" of New York City—white flight had taken its toll; unemployment was outrageous for everyone, but close to 80% for young blacks and hispanics; infrastructure was in disrepair; crime was outrageous. This was the New York that inspired movies like "Death Wish" and "The Warriors." NYC had bottomed out in 1977 and this is the history of that fateful year."

Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York Luc Sante

Luc Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city's slums; the teeming streets—scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent feature of the cityscape.

Staff says: "This book sparked an interest in shady urban histories for me. Now that I know a lot more about the city and the context of the time frame, I even read it again. Fun, even if sensationalistic."

Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin people of New York Evan T. Pritchard

A comprehensive and fascinating account of the graceful Algonquin civilization that once flourished in the area that is now New York.

Staff says: "New York history from the Native point of view, and it will make you confront every sentimental myth you may have heard before. Everyone should read it."

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Deborah Blum

The story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

Staff says: "Absolutely fascinating. I was surprised when I found myself at the end already. Unlike a modern forensic science drama on TV, the chemistry is all there—yet still readable and interesting. The era (late 1910s-mid 1930s) and setting are both equally captivating. So many times I thought I knew something that I clearly didn"t. This book taught me tons and still read quickly like a mystery novel, only the mysteries were all actual cases and hence more interesting than usual literary invention."

Up in the Old Hotel Joseph Mitchell

Saloon-keepers and street preachers, gypsies and steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady and a 93-year-old "seafoodetarian" who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades. These are among the people that Joseph Mitchell immortalized in his reportage for The New Yorker and in four books—McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret—that are still renowned for their precise, respectful observation, their graveyard humor, and their offhand perfection of style.

Staff says: "Mitchell, in an incredibly vivid writing style, tells the tales of some of the people he met in NYC in the '20s - '50s. The people are the history of New York."

Do you have a favorite NYC nonfiction book that we missed? Let us know in the comments!

A story from NPR's blog, The Lost Village in New York City, about Seneca Village, describes how historians have been unable to trace any of the descendants of the people who lived there. Anthropologists Diana Wall, Nan Rothschild, and Cynthia Copeland of the Seneca Village Project want to hear from "anyone who has heard family stories or has other reasons to believe that he or she is a descendant of residents of Seneca Village": see the post for contact details. One of the commenters, below the article, asks that they be provided with the names of the residents of the village, so that they might do some research of their own. A great place to start researching Seneca Village is here at the Library.

Searching for descendants of the people who lived in Seneca Village would perhaps make a great crowd sourcing project, one that utilizes the skills of thousands of genealogists and family historians out there, especially those with African-American or Irish ancestry. Could the historians benefit from the skills of amateur researchers in the way that astronomers and paleontologists have? Maybe! Perhaps you have been researching your family history and have already traced a link, but did not yet know?

Solving this puzzle is difficult, to say the least, but the records are out there, at least up to a point. A genealogy database like Ancestry Library Edition or HeritageQuest has censuses (state and federal) from 1790 through 1940, and city directories, amongst other things: NYPL provides free access to both databases. Family Search (free online) has lots of NY state and NYC records online, including New York Land Records, 1630-1975 (property deeds (a.k.a. conveyances) and mortgages, etc.), and the Municipal Archives has Real Estate Tax Assessment records on microfilm). The Map Division here at NYPL has, well, maps of Manhattan, and Central Park!

Obviously historians have already consulted these sources, but a second pair of eyes never did any harm. And genealogists do like a challenge! If you have research tips, suggestions, or stories, please post in the comments section of this blog post.

Maybe start with the property records? This page, from what is known as a Land Conveyance Grantor index, shows John and Elizabeth Whitehead selling land to various people and churches, land that would become Seneca Village. You can use the Liber and Page numbers to explore the Conveyances themselves.

As a web developer who works on a screen and an illustrator that works on paper, I have always admired those who could paint big—often on impossibly large and inconveniently placed walls—only to be erased in a matter of weeks or days. The ephemeral nature of street art is what makes it simultaneously appealing and frustrating as a viewer. However, Google Maps recently rolled out a feature allowing users to go back in time on its Street View. I immediately thought to check out the well-known wall on Bowery & Houston and found that Google captured the painted wall dating back to 2007. Here's a sampling from 2007 to present. I added a few images of the wall that I found while perusing the web to fill in some of the gap years that Google didn't capture.

Next, since the images of the walls were taken from different angles, I built a very basic web tool to align them by defining each of their four corners to be used as control points.

As more and more digital materials become available from the library and beyond, we will need to continue to ask what we should be remembering and what tools we can build to surface topics of interest and encourage conversations around them.

All the code for this tool is publically available here.

Sometimes, in order to track down a photo of a certain place in a certain era, you will need to know the name of a photographer that was known for his or her work in those circumstances.  Berenice Abbott, Lewis Hine, Percy Loomis Sperr, Jacob Riis, Edward Steichen, Walker Evans, Weegee, Garry Winogrand, Leonard Freed, Diane Arbus, and Alice Austen are among examples of people who photographed New York City profusely. Their photos may be easier to locate by searching for their names rather than by what is depicted in their works. Books such as Cityscapes: A History of New York in Images are useful for identifying famous New York photographers and the time periods in which they worked. Use the Photography Division’s Prints & Photographs Online Catalog to search for photographers by name in addition to the library’s regular catalog. The Wallach Division of Art, Prints, & Photographs can provide assistance in researching particular photographers.

There are several institutions that are renowned for their photo archives and have rich collections of New York City images. In addition to the NYPL, you may want to reach out to the following organizations:

Ultimately, the strike only lasted several days, though it left a lasting impression with the local papers and the Parks & Playgrounds Association President, who seemed quite disappointed with the playground strikers. In a response to their public apology, this president replied, “the success of the Bronx playground must depend upon boys like yourselves who have the manliness to admit when they have made a mistake.”

And what were Mr. Brown’s charges? He led children on unauthorized expeditions throughout all parts of the city. This may explain why the children were so unwilling to accept his departure. The children did, however, partially succeed in having their play leader’s status placed under “serious reconsideration.”

Further information on the history of New York City playgrounds can be found through historical newspapers, accessible through the NYPL databases: Proquest Historical Newspapers, America's Historical Newspapers, and others. 

Books and other relevant publications can be found through the NYPL Classic Catalog, under the subject headings: Parks -- New York (State) -- New York., Play -- New York (State) -- New York., Playgrounds., and Children -- New York (State) -- New York -- Social conditions. 

For photographs of NYC playgrounds, the NYPL Digital Collections can be searched by the topics: Playgrounds -- New York (State) -- New York, Children playing outdoors -- New York (State) -- New York, Boys -- New York (State) -- New York, and Girls -- New York (State) -- New York. 

The Museum of the City of New York Collections Portal also holds a wealth of playground photographs. 

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation also provides historical details of NYC playgrounds and parks, photographs included.

Now through January 31, come visit the NYPL’s exhibit "Somebody Come and Play:" 45 Years of Sesame Street Helping Kids Grow Smarter, Stronger, and Kinder at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Address of the Roman Catholics to their fellow citizens of the city and state of New York. New-York, 1840.

Andrews, Charles C. The history of the New-York African free-schools, from their establishment in 1787, to the present time : embracing a period of more than forty ... New York, 1830. 145pp.

Boese, Thomas, Clerk of the Board. Public education in the city of New York: its history, condition and statistics. New York, 1869.

Bourne, William Oland. History of the Public School Society of the City of New York: with portraits of the presidents of the Society. NY: Wm. Wood & Co., 1870 . Arno Press, reprint 1970.

Cannato, Vincent. The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York. NY: Basic Books, 2001.

Clinton, Dewitt / Campbell, W.W. (ed.) The life and writings of De Witt Clinton. NY: Baker and Scribner, 1849.

A compilation of the laws relating to common schools, applicable to the city and county of New-York, New-York: Press of M. Day & Co., 1842.

Dolan, Jay P. The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, 1815-1865. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.

Dodd, Bella V. School of Darkness. NY: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1954.

Dunshee, Henry Webb. History of the school of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in the city of New York: from 1633 to 1883. NY: Print of the Aldine Press, 1883.

Edgell, Derek. The Movement for Community Control of New York City’s Schools, 1966-1970. Lewiston, NY; Ontario; Wales: Edwin Mellen Press, 1998.

Education of Negroes in New York: research studies / compiled by workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in New York City, for "Negroes of New York" (1937-1940).

Eltonhead, Marion. “Early Days of Schools and Schoolmasters in Old New York.” Valentine’s Manual of Old New York. 1924.

Fernow, Berthold (ed.) The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674 Anno Domini. Baltimore : Genealogical Pub. Co. 1976.

Free School Society of New York. Manual of the Lancasterian system, of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and needle-work, as practised in the schools of the Free-School Society of New-York. NY, 1820.

Free School Society of New York. On the establishment of public schools in the city of New-York. New York, 1825.

Kahlenberg, Richard D. Tough Liberal. NY: Columbia University Press, 2007.

Kilpatrick, William Heard (1912) The Dutch schools of New Netherland and colonial New York.

Memorials presented to the Legislature in the session of 1823 praying the repeal of the section of a law granting peculiar privileges to the ... New York, 1823.

Mohl, Raymond A. “Education as Social Control in New York City, 1784-1825.” New York History, Vol. 51, No. 3 (April 1970), pp. 219-237.

New York Panorama. Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration in New York City. NY: Random House, 1938.

The New York State Association of Independent Schools.

Pantoja, Segundo. Religion and Education among Latinos in New York City. Boston: Brill, 2005.

Podair, Jerald E. The Strike That Changed New York. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Pratt, John W. “Religious Conflict in the Development of the New York City Public School System.” History of Education Quarterly. Vol. 5, No. 2, Jun, 1965.

Public School Society of New-York. An address of the trustees of the Public School Society in the city of New-York to their fellow citizens, respecting the extension of their ... New-York, 1828.

Public School Society of New-York. Dissolution of the Public School Society of New-York: being the report of the committee appointed to make the necessary arrangements et. al. NY: Commercial Advertiser, 1853.

Ravitch, Diane. The great school wars, New York City, 1805-1973; a history of the public schools as battlefield of social change. NY: Basic Books, 1974.

Stokes, I.N. Phelps. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. NY: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.

Sutton. R. Debate before the Common Council on the Catholic petition respecting the common school fund and the public school system of education in New York City. NY Freeman’s Journal, 1840.

Sutton, R. The important and interesting debate on the claim of the Catholics to a portion of the common school fund: with the arguments of counsel before the Board of Aldermen of the city of New-York. NY Freeman’s Journal, 1840.

Teachers' manual to be used in the Catholic schools of the New York diocese

The Tribune Monthly. “The public schools of New York; a complete description and history of each public school in the city, with the names of the commissioners of education, school inspectors and trustees, principals and teachers and of many present pupils, forming the only accurate and complete account in existence of the New York public schools ...” 1896.

Van Vechten, Emma. “Early Schools & Schoolmasters.” Knickerbocker Press. Half Moon Series, 1898.

United Federation of Teachers 1960-2010.

Many other genealogy handbooks found through the library’s catalog include information on historical newspaper research.

A few months ago, the NYPL Milstein Division of United States History, Local History & Genealogy put our collective local history obsessive minds together to bring you a list of our favorite NYC non-fiction books. Now we reveal our favorite New York documentaries. These documentary films best depict New York, either in moments or over lengths of time, providing a capsule of a New York experience.

Battle For Brooklyn The story of a reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for a professional basketball arena and densest real estate development in U.S. history.

Milstein says: “Although fairly one-sided, it’s a prime example of big projects versus residents that is so common in NYC.”

Bill Cunningham New York Documentary on New York times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, Cunningham "has been chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns 'On the Street' and 'Evening Hours."

Milstein says: “Bill succeeds in his classic paradox New York lifestyle only after riding a bike around town for 60 years and spending every Sunday in church. He is paid to follow the nightlife of tastemakers but is mortified by elite treatment and wears a blue janitor’s smock from the hardware store. He lives in a rent control studio in Carnegie Hall two blocks from the highest retail rents in the world. “I don’t touch money,” says Bill. New York has a habit of using small parts of itself as a stunt double for the universe, and the city needs Bill Cunningham to take pictures of it.”

Blank City In the late 1970s to the middle 1980s, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood. Documents the history of "No wave cinema" and "cinema of transgression" movements.

Milstein says: “A vivid portrait and love letter to a time when artists could afford to work and play in Manhattan. Makes you nostalgic for a grittier version of the Lower East Side.”

Capturing the Friedmans The Friedman's seem to be a typical family from affluent Great Neck, Long Island. One Thanksgiving, as the family gathers for a quiet holiday dinner, a police battering ram splinters the front door and officers rush inside. The police charge Arnold and his son Jesse with hundreds of shocking crimes. As police investigate, and the community reacts, the fabric of the family begins to disintegrate, revealing questions about justice, family and finally the truth.

Milstein says: “Absolutely disturbing and yet absolutely fascinating. You will really question what is true and what is fabricated.”

Dark Days Documentary about a community of homeless people living in a train tunnel beneath Manhattan. Depicts a way of life that is unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above: in the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as 25 years.

Milstein says: “This is like a peek into a secret and sad world that you would never have permission to enter. It will make you redefine the word ‘community’.”

Grey Gardens Portrait of the relationship between Edith Bouvier Beale and her grown daughter, Little Edie, once an aspiring actress in New York who left her career to care for her aging mother in their East Hampton home, and never left again. The aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis feed their cats and raccoons and rehash their pasts behind the walls of their decaying mansion, Grey Gardens.

Milstein says: “A dark study of an overly codependent relationship in hovel that should be a castle.”

Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer Photographer Jamel Shabazz has documented urban life for more than 30 years and has covered the growth of hip-hop in New York City since the 1980s. The documentary "Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer," is a portrait of his life, career, and impact as a photographer, educator, and visual artist.

Milstein says: “Just as much as Shabazz’s iconic books of photographs, Back in the Days, A Time Before Crack, and The Last Sunday in June, this film transports you to his NYC, an under-represented beauty of black families, B-Boys, Black Muslims, and street bravado.”

Man on Wire On August 7th, 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between the New York World Trade Center's Twin Towers. After dancing for nearly an hour on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail, before finally being released.

Milstein says: “This feat and this story portrayed the WTC Twin Towers in a way I had never pictured them before. And a tightrope walker as your storyteller - I would not have envisioned that but I’m glad to see the vision manifested.”

Manhatta Photographer Paul Strand and painter Charles Sheehan filmed Manhatta in 1921. An 11-minute documentary, it explores photography using the medium of cinema, and is also a tribute to Manhattan. The film consists of 65 shots of various views of the city. The camera is static. Movement comes from within the picture frame, from people, cars and trucks, trains, tugboats, passenger liners, and from the steam and smoke they produce, nearly all at a distance, rendered somehow impersonal. Skyscrapers and bridges dominate. The film begins with a shot of the skyline, seen from the East River, then the Brooklyn Bridge, before moving to a shot of commuters streaming out of the Staten Island Ferry. For the most part we cannot see their faces. Next we see a shot of Trinity Church Cemetery, followed by a view of the large blank windows of an office building, dwarfing the people walking by. Next a shot of the Woolworth Building, the Cathedral of Commerce. We see some views at street level, of people on the sidewalk, on their way to work, and so on. But mostly the shots are from above, or at a distance. The camera shows construction workers in silhouette, part of the skyline. We see the rooftops and their chimneys and water towers, the windows of skyscrapers, and further on, the horizon, the sun setting over the Hudson.

Milstein says: “The film is modern, at times abstract, almost surreal. Interstitial titles quote Walt Whitman, lines which precede and underpin the shots that follow. The film is both modern and sublime, a large scale tribute to Manhattan. It does not concern itself overly with individual people, rather the monuments they build. Manhatta does not seem overtly political. It does not explore the down sides to industrialism, technology, capitalism, and modern living, tropes popular in modernist works. Yet one cannot help but think of the cinematic passages in Manhattan Transfer, a very political, and modern text. I feel sure that the book's author Jon Dos Passos must have seen Strand and Sheehan's film.”

Mulberry Street Born in the Bronx and raised in upstate New York, Abel Ferrara started his professional film career on Mulberry Street in 1975. For the past year he's been living on the block, and the feast of San Gennaro is the subject of his new film. While he has used this location for a few of his features, this time it's the star of the film.

Milstein says: “A week in the life of Little Italy's San Gennaro Festival, directed by the O. Henry of Fear City, Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Driller Killer). A sausage-and-peppers homage to New York street life and ethnic pride which still haven't gone the way of subway tokens, Howard Johnson's, and smoking in bars. Plus the brief appearance by a Frank Vincent bubble-head doll.”

New York: A Documentary Film - Ric Burns An eight-part, 17½ hour, American documentary film on the history of New York City.

Milstein says: “This series was a big deal for me when I immigrated and all I knew was Ramones, Seinfeld, Taxi, Madonna, Hip Hop and bagels. It's a great introduction to New York History.”

On the Bowery 1956 American docufiction film directed by Lionel Rogosin. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film chronicles three desperate days in a then impoverished lower Manhattan neighborhood, New York's skid row: the Bowery. It is the story of Ray (Ray Salyer), a railroad worker, who drifts on to the Bowery to have a drunken spree after a long bout of laying tracks and then falls in with a band of drunks.

Milstein says: “This is not strictly a documentary despite being nominated for ‘Best Documentary feature’. It is however amazing footage of the Bowery in the 1950s. It’s footage New Yorkers should see, especially if they’ve ever walked along today’s more upscale version of the iconic street.”

Page One: Inside the New York Times This documentary chronicles the transformation of The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk, as the Internet redefines the media industry by surpassing print as the main source of news.

Milstein says: “As New Yorkers, the Grey Lady is ours. There is no better paper to observe in this changing era of news than this one.”

Paris Is Burning Behind-the-scenes story of the fashion-obsessed New Yorkers who created 'voguing' and drag balls, and turned these raucous celebrations into a powerful expression of fierce personal pride.

Milstein says: “An absolutely perfect time capsule of the late 1980s in the NYC drag scene. The director lets the subjects explain themselves instead of trying to superimpose definitions on an underrepresented group of fascinating frolickers.”

Public Speaking Wise, brilliant, and funny, Fran Lebowitz hit the New York literary scene in the early '70s when Andy Warhol hired the unknown scribe to write a column for Interview magazine. Today, she's an acclaimed author with legions of fans who adore her acerbic wit. Public speaking captures the author in conversation at New York's Waverly Inn, in an onstage discussion with longtime friend and celebrated writer Toni Morrison, and on the streets of New York City.

Milstein says: “The director of Goodfellas profiles NYC writer and personality Fran Lebowitz, whose machine-gun wit and opinions, like the wiseguys, blow people's heads off. Fran talks in fast punchlines and her New York story is inter-spliced by an abundance of footage recounting the post-war legacy of New York artists and intellectuals, including James Baldwin debating William F. Buckley and Serge Gainsbourg's 1964 video for "New York USA."

Style Wars Exploration of the subculture of New York's young graffiti writers and break dancers, showing their activities and aspirations and the social and aesthetic controversies surrounding New York graffiti. Dramatizes conflicts between graffiti artists and the city, as well as among the graffiti artists themselves.

Milstein says: “Another perfect time capsule. Mid ‘80s breakdancing and graffiti art all set in their natural backdrop of the NY transit system. Anyone interested in hip hop or street art should see this.”

Do you have a favorite NYC documentary? Let us know in the comments!

Materials on other historic New York City holidays and celebrations can be found through the following subjects:

Historical newspapers with first hand accounts of Evacuation Day celebrations are searchable through the Proquest Historical Newspapers and America’s Historical Newspapers databases.

Search the HarpWeek database for Evacuation Day illustrations and articles featured in the Harper’s Weekly magazine.

The U.S. History in Context database also includes primary sources, reference sources, academic journals, magazines, and newspapers relevant to Evacuation Day.