Monthly Archives: December 2018

Sunday morning coffee

09 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in Heritage tourism, Incorporating New York (book project), Louisa Lee Schuyler, Theodore Roosevelt Sr (Father)

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Louisa Lee Schuyler was a great granddaughter of both Philip Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton. She died in 1926 and is buried an hour north of New York City in Sleepy Hollow.

A friend and I traveled north of the city yesterday to visit Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Neither of us had been there before and were not sure how it would work out logistically in terms of the distance from the train station, the size of the cemetery itself, how hilly it might be, and that sort of thing. We did not leave super early, as Sleepy Hollow is just an hour away from Grand Central. We caught 10:20, by which time the station was packed with people out enjoying the holiday season. We had a big checklist of potential headstones to visit, but only saw some of them because of the size of the cemetery. The one I was determined to see however is the one above: Louisa Lee Schuyler. Miss Schuyler was one of Theodore Roosevelt Sr.’s best friends; the two worked hand-in-hand on philanthropic endeavors for years until his untimely passing at age 46 in 1878. She carried on for almost another half a century until her own passing in 1926. They are two of the main characters in my book manuscript about Civil War Era New York City.

After trekking through the cemetery for a few hours my friend and I ventured to Philipsburg Manor, where the staff gave us recommendations on where to get lunch in Neighboring Tarrytown and helped us call a cab. They weren’t wrong about good restaurants on Main Street.

I am not going to go into the details today but will say here that, while also enjoying the holiday season, I have been laying the groundwork for some 2019 projects. Next summer I hope to spend a fair amount of time exploring Old New York in the Hudson Valley and making some connections to local and national history. The Colonial and Early American Periods are things I actually know very little about. Though I do explore the early years of European settlement a little bit in Incorporating New York I intend to explore the topic more thoroughly, including how it relates to the Hamiltons, Roosevelts, Schuylers, and other leading families.

 

George H.W. Bush, 1924-2018

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in Federal Hall, George Washington, Those we remember

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President George H.W. Bush (standing illegibly on center platform) at Federal Hall, April 30, 1989. The white specks are not snow but confetti to celebrate the bicentennial of George Washington’s First Inaugural.

Let me be the first to acknowledge that the image here is not the clearest. I wanted to share it however not for its clarity but for its historical significance: in the middle of the image, admittedly impossible to make out, is President George H.W. Bush. This New York Times photo was taken at Federal Hall on Wall Street on April 30, 1989. The occasion was the bicentennial of George Washington’s First Inaugural, which had taken place on the same spot two hundred years earlier. I wanted to share t because today is the day of mourning for the 41st president.

Coupled with the death of John McCain earlier in the year it seems that 2018 really is the end of something, the end of what I am exactly not certain, but the end of something nonetheless. Watching Bob Dole struggle to attention to pay his respects in the Capitol rotunda was profoundly moving. I don’t idealize the past or political figures–I spend half my time telling students not to look away or respond cynically to the sausage making that is baked in to the process. I agreed and disagreed with various aspects of each of these three men’s choices. That said, at their best they represented something better and larger than themselves. Notions of service, grace, kindness, civility, and respect for others. Wherever we are on the spectrum, it is something to think about on this national day of mourning.