The summer is on at Governors Island

31 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Governors Island

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The Staten Island ferry with the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, 10:00 yesterday

It was like New Years all over again when I took the ferry to Governors Island for another volunteer orientation yesterday. I was actually there last Sunday, but the orientation is when you see many folks all in one place since the following season. It was good seeing some old friends and also meeting new people with whom I will be working over the summer.

This year I will be focusing on a few specific things. I am going to do some Interp on the Military Service Institution, the YMCA, and the II Corps Building. There is well over a century of history to work with there. I am also hoping to prove or disprove an urban legend I once heard from two returning Coast Guard personnel about President Franklin Roosevelt and a visit he made to the island as commander-in-chief. I don’t want to give it away, but I can find documentation of something these two men told me, it will make for a great story. We’ll see what happens.

Orientation under one of the shade trees in the Fort Jay courtyard

This cannon is on loan from another site for the summer.

The scaffolding is going up around the eagle atop the Fort Jay sallyport. The sandstone sculpture in over two centuries old.

The island is open seven days a week until the end of September, with a full compliment of Park Service activities every day. Visit your national parks.

The Roebling Museum

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Museums

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The Roebling Museum opened in 2009 and is easily reachable by public transit.

I had an enjoyable and productive meeting in downtown Brooklyn early this afternoon with the director of the Roebling Museum. As its name indicates, the museum honors the legacy of the family who built the Brooklyn Bridge. I have always known how important John A. Roebling and his son Washington were. However, it was not until visiting the museum a few weeks ago that I grasped the family’s true significance. At one time their factory outside Trenton, New Jersey manufactured 80% of the wire used in the United States. That wire was strung on telegraph and telephone poles, elevators (Otis was a huge customer), electric cords & cables, bridges, and just about anything else one can imagine that required wire.

Today’s meeting was the product of that visit to the museum. A friend and I had a tour with a very engaging and knowledgeable docent. In the course of the conversation I mentioned the possibility of myself volunteering in some capacity. It seems I will now be writing a little content for the museum’s social media platforms and perhaps eventually work my way up to a walking tour. The Roeblings are fascinating and played key roles in many of the nation’s most important event. Washington himself was an officer in the Union Army. There are additional Interpretation opportunities regarding immigration, labor, the World Wars, and the eventual collapse of the manufacturing sector within the United States, to name just a few things. These are some of the stories I hope to tell.

Volunteering with the museum is a good fir for me because I can contribute in a modest way without taking away from the many other projects I am involved with at the moment. I would like to learn more about science and engineering as well.

As for the museum itself, I should note how easy it is to reach via mass transportation. One can get there very easily from New York or Philadelphia Penn Station to Trenton, followed by a fifteen minute train ride on the River Line. For those who drive, it is near the turnpike. It is definitely worth the time.

Memorial Day 2015

25 Monday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Leonard Wood (General), Monuments and Statuary, New York City, Theodore Roosevelt Jr (President)

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A few years ago during Open House New York weekend a friend and I went to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park hoping to get a glimpse inside. We did not, as it turned out to be closed. This monument was completed in 1902 after decades of the sausage-making inherent in constructing such public memorials. Fundraising efforts dated back to at least 1882. Officials nearly chose 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, the site where the statue of William T. Sherman now stands. Oddly the Sherman statue, dedicated on Memorial Day 1903, was originally intended for Riverside Park but Sherman’s family did not want it so close to Grant’s Tomb.

The New York Times noted this past Thursday that Riverside Park Conservancy is pushing for a major renovation. The last major rehabilitation came in the early 1960s during the Civil War centennial.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was part of the fabric of New York City Memorial Day ceremonies for decades, and still is to a degree. There were 700 Grand Army of the Republic veterans in attendance on Memorial Day 1914. Archduke Ferdinand was killed just a few weeks later and the Great War was soon on. The following year Leonard Wood, then commanding the Department of the East at Governors Island, pointedly made an appearance. I say pointedly because he, Theodore Roosevelt and others were advocating strenuously for American preparedness, a sentiment that did not endear the general to the Wilson Administration.

Lieutenant Colonel Theodore (Ted) Roosevelt, veteran of the Great War and a founder of the American Legion, led the Great War contingent at the 1919 Memorial Day ceremony held at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Present that day were veterans of the WW1, the Spanish-American War, and the dwindling contingent from the War of the Rebellion. Ironically Governor Al Smith reviewed the troops that Memorial Day; Roosevelt ran unsuccessfully against Smith five years later in the 1924 governor’s race.

I really hope the conservancy can raise the funds to rehabilitate this important part of our city’s and nation’s history.

(image/Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “Soldiers’ and sailors’ Monument, Riverside Drive, New York.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-8d55-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99)

William Zinsser, 1922-2015

23 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Ellis Island, Those we remember, Writing

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In a piece about Ellis Island, William Zinsser famously took up the 300 word challenge to prove that a write need not be verbose to convey his message.

In a piece about Ellis Island William Zinsser famously took up the 300 word challenge to prove that a writer need not be verbose to convey his message.

The world became a smaller place this month with the passing of William Zinsser. A memorial service was held in his honor yesterday here in the city. I wrote about Zinsser way back in 2011 when he was still writing his weekly column for The American Scholar. Then in his late eighties, he was crafting 700 word pieces of grace and elegance on any topic he chose every Friday. A year after I wrote the vignette, Zinsser–then in his 90th year–won a National Magazine Award for digital commentary; he had mastered the internet just as he had mastered writing for newspapers and magazines in the heyday of periodical publishing in the middle of the twentieth century. The reason he stayed relevant is that he never strayed from his core belief: simplify your writing and thereby find your humanity.

I could go on, but won’t. Here is the homage I wrote in March 2011:

For several years in the mid-2000s I collaborated with two teachers and a librarian on a writing and research module at a local high school. The four of us taught the basics of scholarship to a group of Advanced Placement English and History juniors. The final assignment was a five-six page paper. I continually stressed the importance of writing clearly and concisely. We kicked things off each term with a reading and discussion of George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.” One school year, when the budget permitted, we distributed copies of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style to each student that were theirs to keep. Most students eventually “got it,” but I was always struck by how tenaciously some clung to the belief that pretentious, ornate prose was the way to the teacher’s heart and a good grade. In his most recent “Zinsser on Friday” posting, the incomparable William Zinsser recounts a challenge once posed to him by an editor: submit a travel piece not to exceed 300 words. Not wanting to stray too far from home, he selected a certain island “a mere subway and ferry ride away.” Read the results.

(Note that the link immediately above is now dead. Because The American Scholar may link to it again, I am going to leave it there. Here is the Ellis Island piece.)

(image/Library of Congress; permalink: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501086/)

The Roosevelts’ Bowling Green

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in New York City, Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace (NPS)

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Bowling Green, looking North. The Cunard Building I wrote about the other day is on the left in the background.

Bowling Green, looking north. The Cunard Building I wrote about the other day is on the left between the truck and the bus.

One thing I always conveyed during my tours at the Roosevelt Birthplace was how far back the family goes here in the city. The Roosevelts trace their New York City roots back well over three centuries. Here is an example of that. I took these two images, one looking north and one south, of Bowling Green the other day. Most early New York City life took place in this vicinity. The Roosevelt & Son hardware concern, founded in the 1790s, was near here. Johannes Roosevelt, the patriarch to whom the Oyster Bay Roosevelts trace their lineage (as opposed to his brother Jacobus, who began the Hudson Valley Roosevelt line), was in business around these parts even earlier. Johannes was born around 1689 and worked as a merchant providing goods and services for the shipping industry.

Bowling Green, looking South. That is the Custom House in the distance.

Bowling Green, looking south. That is the Custom House in the background.

Bowling Green is called bowling green for a logical reason: people bowled here. Decades prior to the American Revolution Johannes and two associates received a public concession to operate and maintain this space. The nominal fee was one peppercorn a year.

The Cunard Building

17 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Beatles, Lusitania, New York City

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I was down on Lower Broadway the other day and took a few minutes to take these photographs of the Cunard Building. As the plaque indicates this edifice was constructed after the First World War and thus obviously after the sinking of the Lusitania. It’s strange how such events, tragic as they are, don’t prevent the world from continuing; officials announced this construction project in February 1918 while the war was still going on and very much hanging in the balance.

It is important to remember how long the transatlantic passenger shipping industry existed. It lasted well into the 1950s and even early 60s until the arrival of wide-scale and economical airline passenger travel. John Lennon’s father, Alfred Lennon, was a so-called Cunard Yank, a man who saw the world working shipboard. For years he was a waiter on different ships, entertaining passengers with his humor and singing voice. When the Beatles came to America in 1964 they flew in to JFK. The rotting piers were a fixture of the NYC waterline until just 10-15 years ago when city officials and urban planners figured out how to re-purpose them.

Investors purchased this site at 25 Broadway across the street from Bowling Green for $5 million in July 1919 currency and spent the same amount on the 48,000 square foot building. The construction went quickly; Cunard and other tenants took occupancy in July 1921. Investors purchased the building in 1962. Cunard remained as a tenant for a few more years and left around 1970, not that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

(bottom image/The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “The Cunard Building, New York” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1860 – 1920. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-aecd-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

In Flanders Fields

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Memory, Monuments and Statuary, New York City

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It has been a busy week, thus the lack of posts. Yesterday I did manage to get to DeWitt Clinton Park on 52nd Street and 11th Avenue for the annual In Flanders Fields commemoration. I ran into Mark Levitch from the World War 1 Memorial Inventory Project at the ceremony. He told me he now has about 2,000 of the nearly 10,000 Great War monuments across the country inventoried. Remember, he is looking for volunteers if one is interested in playing amateur historian. He is doing some interesting and important work. There were many folks there from last week’s Lusitania event as well.

The In Flanders Fields doughboy, sometimes called the Clinton doughboy, is just one of the dozens of Great War monuments here in New York. The sculptor Burt W. Johnson, was the brother-in-law of Louis St. Gaudens. The former U.S. ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, dedicated the monument in 1930. (Sixteen years earlier Gerard defeated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination in the 1914 U.S. Senate race in New York; Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson Administration at the time.) Yesterday’s program was not a centennial program per se; they do this program every year. Some regular attendees did tell me though that yesterday’s attendance was twice the average because of the 100th anniversary of the war.

Here are a few pictures.

Sunday morning coffee

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Great War centennial, Jazz, Lusitania

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Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of James Reese Europe, the bandleader of the 369th Harlem Hellfighters. His death is an unpleasant story: after surviving the horrors of the Great War he was stabbed backstage in the dressing room at a show in Boston by the drummer in his band. I have always suspected that post traumatic stress disorder played a role in the incident. I am involved in a project regarding Europe and the 369th which, if it comes to fruition, I will discuss here on the blog. Until then, I won’t say too much. Europe’s premature death in May 1919 meant that he was not to be a fixture in the Twenties jazz scene. He very much would have been the equal of Sidney Bechet, King Oliver and even Louis Armstrong.

Reese grandson, great-grandson and other descendants were on hand at the Lusitania commemoration last Thursday here in New York. I spoke to them during the reception and can attest that they inherited the charisma and magnetism for which James Europe himself was known. Great grandson Rob is today a bluesman and provided the entertainment at the reception.

Rob Europe playing at Pier A

Enjoy your Sunday.

(top image/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “On patrol in no man’s land” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1919. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/7f1c4fdc-9934-b830-e040-e00a180619d8)

Remembering VE Day

08 Friday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Lusitania, WW1, WW2

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Danes in Copenhagen read of the end of the Second World War, 8 May 1945

At the reception after the Lusitania ceremony yesterday a few of us got to talking about the anniversary that would take place the following day. Today, 8 May 2015, is the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe: VE Day. After more than thirty years of war and bitter peace, the fighting was finally over.

There were many excellent speakers at yesterday’s program. One of the most poignant was Bernd Reindl, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mr. Reindl’s eloquent words, even his very presence, were a reminder of how far things have come over the past seven decades. He reminded the audience of the current strength of the Atlantic alliances and how much Europe and the United States share in common. These are lessons and words of comfort that can get lost when one looks at all the strife and crises facing our world today.

Consul Mr. Bernd Reindl speaks at the ceremony in New York remembering the Lusitania, 7 May 2015

(top image/National Museum of Denmark, uploaded by palnatoke; via Wikimedia Commons)

Remembering the Lusitania

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Great War centennial, Lusitania, Memory, Monuments and Statuary

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This morning I had the good fortune of attending the World War 1 Centennial Commission’s commemoration for the Lusitania. Here are a few pics.

The event was at Pier A on the Battery. This space was refurbished about six months ago and is beautiful. I learned today the the clock tower dates to 1919 is reputedly the first permanent Great War monument constructed in the United States.

Wreaths from different nations. It is important to remember the international aspects of the Lusitania tragedy. Commemorations were taking place all around the world today, often at the same time as this event here in Manhattan at 10:00 am.

Consul General Ms. Barbara Jones of Ireland was one of the speakers. One must remember that the Lusitania was about twelve miles off the coast–easily within sight distance–of Ireland when she was struck. Many local fisherman and others were first responders.

Deputy Consul General Mr. Nick Astbury of Great Britain was another speaker.

Here are the various diplomats, descendants of Lusitania survivors, Cunard representatives, and others at the time to throw the wreaths.

Attendees were welcomed to throw individual flowers.

When it was over forty-five minutes later, there was a reception inside Pier A. The Fire Department marked the event by sailing past.

The Strawfoot

~ a New Yorker's American History blog

Monthly Archives: May 2015