Historical News and Views from the Empire State
This list of upcoming events on Long Island is provided by Long Island Historical Societies and it’s membership. This notice is sent twice a month, on or around the 1st and the 15th of each month.
For information on becoming a member of LIHS and having your event listed here, email membership@lihsocieties.org. [Read more…] about Upcoming Events At Long Island Historical Societies
Fire Island is more than a barrier beach. Over the years, this ever-changing stretch of sand between Long Island and the Atlantic Ocean has been a haven, a hunting ground, a retreat, and a source of endless fascination.
Fire Island is also the theme of our 100th episode of the Long Island History Project. [Read more…] about Fire Island: Long Island History Project’s 100th Podcast
Pottery was once an important economic driver on Long Island, with readily available clay along the North Shore providing the basis for a profitable industry.
Local collector Mark Smith has made a particular study of one such concern, a business in Huntington that spanned most of the 19th century and into the 20th.
In this episode of The Long Island History Project, Mark relays the history of Brown Brothers (and their Huntington successors and predecesors) using his private collection of pottery as illustration. [Read more…] about Long Island’s Brown Brothers Pottery Podcast
Long Island has a long and complicated history with alcohol stretching back to the first Dutch settlers. From early distilleries and breweries on the western end of the Island to the emergence of temeperance societies in Sag Harbor, alcohol has played a continuing role in the life of the people.
The culmination came in 1920 when Prohibition went into effect. For the next thirteen years, the manufacture, sale and distribution of intoxicating liquours was probibited. Until Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Long Island was in for a wild time as rum runners vied with the coast guard, police raided speakeasies, and every person had to decide for themselves how they would handle the challenges and opportunities that arose. [Read more…] about A Long Island History of Alcohol
The National Park Service (NPS) has released findings and a follow-up corrective action plan for the December 2018 visitor center fire at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, NY. The loss of the visitor center impacted the staff and operations at the park, as the building housed many aspects of park operations including staff, historic house tour ticket sales and a bookstore.
The NPS investigation into the cause of the fire was inconclusive, however they concluded that there did not appear to be any indications that it was intentionally caused. Several accidental causes of the fire were considered, including furnace malfunction, original equipment installation issues and storage practices. The report says the building had a monitored fire detection and alarm system and portable fire extinguishers and Park leadership and staff followed applicable NPS structural fire policies. [Read more…] about Sagamore Hill Fire Findings Released By Park Service
Native women in nineteenth century Long Island communities integrated work into the daily rhythms of their home. These women persisted – and in some cases, thrived – in the face of severe challenges and tragic conditions. They grew crops in gardens, raised chickens, took in washing, did reproductive labor, kept boarders, and performed vital cultural work.
While their labor is largely absent from census records, evidence can be gleaned from the childhood memoir of an elite white woman from a prominent landowning family. Sunny Memories of Mastic was written by Sarah “Sadie” Floyd Turner in 1886. In her memoir, Turner recounted childhood memories beginning with her arrival at her grandfather’s estate in 1843. [Read more…] about A Long Islander’s Depictions of Unkechaug Women
Michael T. Keene’s new book New York City’s Hart Island: A Cemetery of Strangers takes a look at Hart Island, where more than one million bodies are buried in unmarked graves, just off the coast of the Bronx in Long Island Sound.
The islands first public use was as a Civil War prison and United States Colored Troops training site and later a psychiatric hospital. The island became the repository for New York City’s unclaimed dead. It’s mass graves are a microcosm of New York history, from the 1822 burial crisis to casualties of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and victims of the AIDS epidemic. Important artists who died in poverty have been discovered buried there, including Disney star Bobby Driscol and playwright Leo Birinski. [Read more…] about A Cemetery of Strangers: NYC’s Hart Island
In the United States, the first witch trial is believed to have occurred in Springfield, Mass., in 1645. A fervor for hunting witches led to an increase in prosecutions in New England, and New York, in the 1650s and 1666s. Women would be accused of witchcraft within New York’s colonial borders into the mid-1700s. Some of these trials would have a lasting impact on the colony and the country.
The 1650s was not an easy time to be a woman, especially if a neighbor held a personal grudge. In East Hampton, Long Island in 1657 Elizabeth “Goody” Garlick was accused of witchcraft, after 16-year-old Elizabeth Gardiner Howell became ill and suffered fevered dreams and delusions. [Read more…] about Witchcraft Claims In East Hampton, Long Island
The Oyster Bay Historical Society has announced a staged reading of “Salt Water People” by American Lore Theater has been set for Sunday, November 3rd, at 2 pm. This event is part of the Waterfront Heroes exhibit, celebrating those who preserve New York’s maritime heritage.
The play, by Jake Rosenberg, loosely based on Peter Matthiessen’s book, Men’s Lives, focuses on the plight of the Baymen of Long Island, and of the Bonackers, descendants of one of the oldest European settlers on Long Island, and their unique and rapidly fading American English dialect. [Read more…] about ‘Salt Water People’ Explores Baymen’s Lives on Long Island
The new book Cove Neck: Oyster Bay’s Historic Enclave (The History Press, 2019) by John E. Hammond and Elizabeth E. Roosevelt, looks at the village of Cove Neck in Long Island.
Looking out over the majestic waters of Oyster Bay, the village of Cove Neck has played an outsized role in the history of Long Island and the nation. [Read more…] about Cove Neck: Oyster Bay’s Historic Enclave