Find a Lecture

Category: "New York City History"

Click on a title to view information about each presentation, and to view the Speaker's contact information.

Showing 1 - 20 of 53   [next] [view all]

George Washington's Long Island Spy Ring

Elizabeth Kahn Kaplan, St. James
This colorful PowerPoint presentation reveals how Patriot spies gathered British military information, from Long Island to Manhattan, and delivered it to George Washington despite constant danger.

Brooklyn's Waterfront: The Maritime Provinces of Brooklyn

John B. Manbeck, Brooklyn
As island nations have grown into commercial centers because of water, so Brooklyn capitalized on its extensive deep harbors to develop into a major American port offering a diverse assortment of opportunities and experiences.

"Washington Crossing the Delaware": The Story Behind the Painting

Elizabeth Kahn Kaplan, St. James
This lecture provides an in-depth analysis of events culminating in Washington's pivotal victory at Trenton early in the morning of December 26, 1776, linked to Leutze's iconic painting.

Maggie Fox, Victorian America's Reluctant Spiritualist

Nancy Rubin Stuart, East Sandwich
How did a beautiful, upstate New York teenager becomes a national celebrity as co-founder of America's first Spiritualist movement?

From Tummler to Top Banana: The Influence of Yiddish Humor on American Culture

Kenneth Libo, New York
Sholom Aleichem, Boris Thomashefsky, and Molly Picon are great figures in Yiddish culture who have profoundly influenced American English, especially through classic comedy routines Dr. Libo shares with the audience.

Klezmer Music: From Old World to New World to Our World

Robert L. Cohen, Fresh Meadows
A musical journey through American and worldwide klezmer music - from the traditional style and repertoire to eclectic contemporary fusions with diverse American and world musical styles.

"Oh What a Charming City": New York City in Folk and Popular Song

Robert L. Cohen, Fresh Meadows
Take a musical guided tour in song of life and love in New York City, from the 18th century to today.

"They All Sang on the Corner": The Roots of "Doo-Wop" Rock 'n' Roll

Robert L. Cohen, Fresh Meadows
Explore the roots of street-corner group harmony singing ("doo-wop"), and hear how this music - from all five New York City boroughs - conveyed the poetry of inner-city life.

Brooklyn Bridge Forever: A Monument in Stone and Steel

John B. Manbeck, Brooklyn
The first bridge to connect the cities of Brooklyn and New York, the Brooklyn Bridge is a majestic work of art in stone and steel. It is also a practical conduit that proved crucial to New York City's growth and prosperity.

The Immigrant Saga: A Memoir of the Lower East Side & Early Jewish American Writers

Sanford Sternlicht, Syracuse
Where did they come from? Why did they leave their homes in Eastern Europe to sail the Atlantic to NYC? How did 1.5 million Jews adapt to, contribute to, and effect American society and culture?

The Land of Milk and Honey: From Henry Hudson to George Washington

Firth H. Fabend, Montclair
Contrast the Edenic beauty of the Hudson Valley when the early settlers discovered, it with the land as it was ravaged in the Revolution.

New York State: Four Centuries of Immigration and Migration

Peter Eisenstadt, Rochester
The history of immigration into New York State and the migration out of the state.

The New York Hall of Fame: 400 Years of Great New Yorkers

Peter Eisenstadt, Rochester
Explore New York State history through the biographies of important New Yorkers over the last four hundred years.

Celebrating the Manteo Sicilian Marionette Tradition in New York

Tony De Nonno, Brooklyn
Experience the legacy of puppeteers Mike and Aida Manteo, their children and grandchildren, a family bound together by a Sicilian folk tradition that spans a century in New York. On stage, Orlando woos Angelica in the court of Charlemagne, as the entire family works together to entertain audiences across America.

Gilded Age Psyches: A Tale of Victorians Run Wild

Robert Spiegelman, New York
From the American Revolution to the Indian Wars of the Wild West, the love story of John Adair and Cornelia Wadsworth is interlaced with the history of America's first 100 years. Follow this brilliant -- but haunted -- Victorian couple as they romance in Manhattan, hunt buffalo on the Great Plains, and found a Texas cattle empire.

Dying for Beauty: American Women's Quest for Acceptance

Harriet Davis-Kram, New York
In the mid and late nineteenth century, American women often brewed cosmetics in their kitchens, using ingredients from their pantries, gardens and sometimes from their local pharmacists. Results often had serious medical consequences.

New York City's Lower East Side: A Revolving Door for Immigrants

Thorin Tritter, New York
This lecture traces the waves of immigrants that have made the Lower East Side their home over the past 180 years, between 1820 and today.

Protest & Celebration: Community Murals in New York City

Jane Weissman, New York
For nearly 40 years, community murals, collaborations between artists and community groups, have enlivened and enriched New York City’s visual landscape.

Patroons and Plowmen, Pietism and Politics: Dutch Settlers in the Hudson Valley in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Firth H. Fabend, Montclair
In a presentation commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Firth Fabend has delighted audiences from there to the Dutch Consulate in Hong Kong, and back to Historic Hudson.

Cultural Pluralism in the Hudson Valley, c. 1750

Firth H. Fabend, Montclair
Many cultures competed for identity in the eighteenth-century Hudson Valley. Historian Firth Fabend describes the glue that allowed them to cooperate and find common ground.

Showing 1 - 20 of 53   [next] [view all]