06 Friday Dec 2019
Posted in Federal Hall National Memorial
I was in the city at 8:00 this morning when across the street from Baruch College on 24th Street I saw this news flash on one of those kiosks one sees around the city. Thankfully I got my camera out in time to take a quick snap before the message flipped over. December 6, 1790 was the moment when the nation’s capital moved from New York City and Federal Hall to Philadelphia.
Enjoy the weekend.
02 Saturday Nov 2019
Posted in Federal Hall National Memorial, Founding Fathers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Incorporating New York (book manuscript project), Isaac Roosevelt
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Isaac Roosevelt, 1726-1794
The Journal of the American Revolution has uploaded my article about Isaac Roosevelt. I spent much of late summer and early fall working on this project and am happy with how it came out. It had been my loss goal for several years to write about Isaac and the specific “ah ha” moment came one August Saturday at Federal Hall when I was talking to one of rangers about prominent New Yorkers of the colonial, Revolutionary, and Early American periods. When we think of these eras we tend not to think of the Roosevelts, though they were very much prominent in local, national, and international affairs in these decades. That is what I tried to convey in this piece. Isaac Roosevelt was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s great, great grandfather.
I don’t want to give away too many details at the moment but I am preparing a submission to speak at a conference next year about interlocking familial aspects of the Early American and Civil War generations, focusing on one father, son, and grandson, the last of whom features prominently in my book manuscript Incorporating New York. If it comes to pass the Roosevelts, though not front and center, will feature as well. So often we hear that both sides in the Civil War, Union and Confederate, saw themselves as the inheritors of the Founders’ legacy. That is certainly true, but how and why is something we do not always hear about. We’ll see how the pitch to conference selectors goes. In the meantime, here is my biographical narrative of the life and times of Isaac Roosevelt, a founder of the State of New York, ratifier of the U.S. Constitution, and good friend of Hamilton, Jay, and others.
(image/FDR Presidential Library and Museum)
20 Sunday Oct 2019
Posted in Eleanor Roosevelt, Federal Hall National Memorial, Robert Moses
≈ Comments Off on Rainy Sunday winding down
I hope everyone’s weekend was good. Here was the scene yesterday at Federal Hall when Charles Starks spoke about the life and legacy of George F. McAneny. Few today know who McAneny was, but the public official and urban planner was one of the most influential figures New York City in the first half of the twentieth century. Among other things he helped turn Federal Hall into a national memorial. Starks did a good job capturing McAneny’s significance. Here we see the speaker showing an image of Robert Moses and his never-built Brooklyn-Battery Bridge. The reason that project never came to fruition was in part due to McAneny, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others.
It was so good to be in front of the public again. There is nothing like that interaction with a live audience, especially a curious audience. There was a big turnout for Open House New York, with some coming from Westchester for the day to take in Federal Hall and other venues sponsoring Open House NY events in the downtown area. There were many good questions, many of which I was able to answer and some that I was not. That is always humbling. At the same time it is also unavoidable. When it comes down to it, we know very little.
18 Friday Oct 2019
Posted in Federal Hall National Memorial
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If you are looking for something to do this weekend and live in the Greater New York area note that it is Open House New York weekend. The weather will be nice and there will be a lot going on around town. I know someone whose mother is coming in from Rhode Island so the two of them can hit some art galleries that are opening their doors just for the special, annual event that is OHNY. Federal Hall itself will be open tomorrow. Yours truly will be there for at least part of the day. It will be good to be back. In what certainly will be an informative presentation Charles Starks will be speaking about George F. McAneny, one of the most important and sadly forgotten New Yorkers of the twentieth century.
Whatever you do on your Saturday and Sunday, go out and get some.
06 Friday Sep 2019
Posted in Alexander Hamilton, Federal Hall National Memorial, George Washington's Mount Vernon
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It was a good day yesterday when I both downloaded the Hamilton soundtrack and found the Fall 2019 Mount Vernon program booklet in the mailbox. At Federal Hall this summer there were many patrons visiting the site either after or before going to see the Broadway musical. Most of them were not New Yorkers, but individuals and families from across the country who came to the city for the express purpose of attending. They are always fun to talk to, not least because they are so excited. Usually they do Federal Hall, Hamilton’s resting place in the Trinity Church cemetery down Wall Street, and the Grange in Northern Manhattan. A few of the more adventurous even take the trip to Weehawken to see the dueling, though from what I understand there is not much to see. Still, there is that notion of place. I’m listening to it right now as I wrap up my coffee.
Catalogs such as this one from George Washington’s Mount Vernon are coming, in the mail and online, from various places. With summer winding down and people returning from vacation, institutions are rolling out their fall programming.
30 Friday Aug 2019
Posted in Abraham Lincoln, Federal Hall National Memorial
≈ Comments Off on The ubiquitous Lincoln cent
People line up outside the Pine Street entrance of the NYC Sub-Treasury to buy the newly released Lincoln penny, August 2, 1909
The Lincoln penny is one of the most common, perhaps the most common, examples of American material cultural. It is so ubiquitous, such a part of our everyday lives, that we think nothing of it. The Lincoln one cent coin replaced the Indian Head, which had been in circulation for sixty years, from 1859, just prior to the Civil War, until 1909, the centennial of Lincoln’s birth. In the words of one observer writing in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in August 1909 during the coin’s rollout: “The new cent is a dignified and handsome coin, the head of Lincoln being particularly good and free from suggestion of caricature, which attended so many of the earlier attempts to picture the great but homely President.”
There had been a move for several years under Theodore Roosevelt to improve America’s coinage. Roosevelt believed the United States needed a more dignified, aesthetically pleasing metal currency in line with the nation’s increasing role in world affairs. Roosevelt hired Augustus Saint-Gaudens and others to carry that out. Saint-Gardens created such masterpieces as the Double Eagle. The Lincoln penny was designed by Victor David Brenner, like Saint-Gaudens an immigrant who contributed greatly to our culture. The public demand for the Lincoln penny when it was first issued in August 1909 was intense.
This was the scene at the New York Sub-Treasury (Federal Hall) on August 2, 1909 as people lined up on the steps of the Pine Street entrance. The coins were rationed in New York City and elsewhere as people turned out to get the new issue. The U.S. Mint issued 25 million of the coins, but demand still outstripped supply. In mid-September someone broke into a Long Island post office and stole $5 worth of Lincoln heads. That doesn’t sounds like much but comes to 500 coins. Such stories were, if not common, not exactly unprecedented. Rumors were rampant of people selling them on the black market, if that’s what one wanted to call it, at above face value.
(image/National Park Service)
25 Sunday Aug 2019
Posted in Federal Hall National Memorial, George Washington, National Park Service
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This was the scene at Federal Hall yesterday as the NPS cultural resources staff cleaned the 1883 John Quincy Adams Ward statue of George Washington. Today they return to wax the bronze art work, which is stunning in detail.
18 Sunday Aug 2019
Posted in Federal Hall National Memorial
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Even before I moved to New York City one of my weekly rituals was buying the Sunday New York Times. I very rarely if ever purchase the hard copy any more because I have a digital subscription via my institution. Still, this morning I went to the local bodega after putting a load in at the laundromat to buy today’s edition. Since starting at Federal Hall in early June I have been reading the social media feeds of certain historians with whom I was unfamiliar until late spring. I have had to do so to expand my knowledge base. This week a few of them have been posting about having articles in today’s Times special section “The 1619 Project.” The special section, actually two sections, chronicles the various ways slavery and its aftermath have touched American society since 1619, the year of the founding of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. The short answer is that it touched essentially every aspect of American life, in ways one is probably not even always aware. The articles are a place to begin and hardly the last word. They will undoubtedly lead to discussion and further exploration from historians, educators, and those working in fields related to public history.
I have noticed too that “The 1619 Project” has drawn the ire of certain officials and commentators. Personally I have never understood that. One should never look away from the truth, whatever it may be. There is a great deal in various places online about this initiative but if one is interested in a place to start, begin here.
11 Sunday Aug 2019
One of the most rewarding things about volunteering with the Park Service, in addition to collaborating alongside the amazing rangers who work there, is meeting the public. Everyone visits a site bringing their own expectations to what they hope to get out of it. For some that means using the bathroom and leaving without saying a word, which is fine. Others however visit on some sort of mission or purpose. We had a few of these yesterday at Federal Hall. Here are two:
Two fellows came in from rural Pennsylvania in mid-afternoon. I showed them around and then got into a longer conversation with one of them. He told me had never thought much about history until earlier this year, when his sister discovered a trove of letters written by an ancestor who had served in New Jersey regiment during the Civil War. One thing led to another and after some digging he discovered that his family roots date back in the New World to the 1640s. This knowledge in turn led him to studying not just the Civil War but the Early American period. Thus he and his friend were making the rounds of various historic sites. They were on their way to Fraunces Tavern after Federal Hall.
He told me his son lives in Brooklyn and therefore he comes to the city frequently. So I quickly jotted the names of further historic sites in various boroughs he might try to see when time permits. I will never know if he follows through. Hopefully he will.
1989 presidential inaugral ticket
Later a man came in with his son and we too got into a conversation. As it turned out for decades, going back to the 1980s, he was a White House correspondent for a major newspaper syndicate. We got to talking about the evolution of the newspaper industry, which in turn led to a discussion of covering various historical events. I mentioned George H.W. Bush having been at Federal Hall in April 1989 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Washington’s First Inaugural. The man mentioned that the event had been part of a larger project that took place over that year starting in January called “From George to George.” The retired journalist had an extraordinary amount of institutional memory.
Stories like the above are just two examples of the things one only gets from being at the place itself. People, at least some of them, come in reflective and eager to share what led them to come and experience the thing for themselves.
(image/picclick)
10 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted in Federal Hall National Memorial
≈ Comments Off on My summer Saturday mornings
Every Saturday morning since early June my routine is the same. During my commute I have to come to street level to change trains and when I do I stop quickly to get a few things at the green market. I say a few things because that is really all there is time for. Plus, because I’m on my way to work and then have the reverse commute later in the afternoon, I can’t be lugging too much stuff anyways. Some produce and a half gallon of cider is usually about it. Here are two pictures I took quickly this morning before hopping on the train.
The Strawfoot 