Blog posts by Allyson

Dipping into the Collection: Thall and Lopez family papers and photographs

Allyson

For this month's blog post we thought we might take a peek into the collection, looking at the Thall and Lopez family papers and photographs. The collection consists of documents, ephemera, and photographs related to several generations of the Thall and Lopez families of Canarsie, Brooklyn. Included in the collection are letters, photographs, account ledgers, blue prints, wills, deeds, stock certificates, Civil War infantry manual, Civil War currency, notes, newspaper clippings, electrification contracts, and assorted legal documents. It’s an interesting look at a family that has lived in…

Happy Black History Month

Allyson

   

Man carrying small boy on his shoulders at demonstration at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Anthony Geathers photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
Happy Black History Month! Today's Photo of the Week is from the Anthony Geathers photograph collection, which consists of about 66 images taken in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations throughout Brooklyn. This image depicts a young boy on a man's shoulder as they listen to people speaking at a demonstration at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Mr…

From the Vault: Ruby's Bar

Allyson

This From the Vault post was originally written by Julie May and published on May 13, 2013 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. This Photo of the Week was originally written and published by the Brooklyn Historical Society, so some terms and links may be out of date. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History…

Prospect Park Zoo

Allyson

Prospect Park Buffalo, Daniel Berry Austin photograph collection, Brooklyn Museum/Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
Today's Photo of the Week is from the Daniel Berry Austin collection. Austin was an amateur photographer whose subjects often included farms and landscapes. This photo, of one of the buffalo's at the Prospect Park Zoo, was taken in 1902. The Prospect Park Zoo opened in 1890. At the time it was known as The Menagrie. Of the original facilities in the park, the Deer Paddock, located near the present Carousel, was…

Telephone Booth: From the Vaults

Allyson

 

[Yard worker in a telephone booth], circa 1965, v1988.37.36, Anthony Costanzo Brooklyn Navy Yard Collection, v1988.37; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on October 4, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. In the not-so-distant past, telephone booths could be seen on…

When Disco Was King

Allyson

Patrick D. Pagnano photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
For this week's Photo of the Week we are rolling back the clock to 1980 and we're strapping on our skates for a cruise around the dance floor of the Empire Roller Disco on Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights. The indoor rink could accommodate 2,500 skaters and was reportedly so crowded that "if you fell, you didn't fall."  In February of 1980 Patrick D. Pagnano, the street photographer, was hired by Forbes Magazine to capture that moment.  “It…

Eugenie Fribourg: Nearly 99 Years in Brooklyn

Allyson

May is Jewish American Heritage Month and to celebrate I thought we could take a closer look at the Eugenie Fribourg Family Photographs and Ephemera Collection. It is comprised of materials relating to and documenting the family and professional life of Eugenie Merzbach Fribourg, a Jewish-American Brooklynite whose life spanned nearly the entire 20th century. She was born in 1908 and died in 2007, just weeks before her 99th birthday and the vast majority of her life was spent in Brooklyn.

Eugenie and Louis Fribourg, twins. Eugenie Fribourg collection.…

The Shot Heard Round the World

Allyson

 

Ralph Branca, 1952, DODG_0006; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
To celebrate the return of baseball season, today's Photo of the Week is of Ralph Branca, the man who became famous for what would be called The Shot Heard Round the World. Ralph Branca pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1944-1953 and then again in 1956. He also pitched for the Tigers (1953-1954) and the Yankees (1954). A three-time All-Star, he won 80 games for the Dodgers with a career high of 21 wins in 1947. In 1948 he…

Soup Season: The Syrian-Jewish Edition

Allyson

The Hidary and Abadi families. Older woman sipping soup at a soup pot in her kitchen. 1999. BJHP_0283z. Brooklyn Jewish History Project, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
It's Soup Season! Today's Photo of the Week comes from our Brooklyn Jewish History Project. This is Fritzie Abadi (Hidary) on a Syrian cooking day, testing her recipe. Fritzi (Frieda) was chef Jennifer Abadi's grandmother. Her cookbook-memoir, “A Fistful of Lentils: Syrian-Jewish Recipes from Grandma Fritzie’s Kitchen” (now in its new and revised…

Brooklyn Theater Fire: The Musical!

Allyson

[Mid Flame and Smoke, undated]. THEA_0011. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
On this day, December 5th, 1876, the Brooklyn Theater, on the corner of Washington and Johnson Streets caught fire. This was a terrible tragedy, and close to 300 people lost their lives. You can read more about that tragedy on our The Brooklyn Theater Fire of December 1876: a community's response post. Instead, today's post is inspired by J.W. Turner, singer/songwriter, who took that tragedy and turned it…

The Elephantine Colossus

Allyson

Elephantine Colossus], circa 1893, Illustration, V1972.1.1090; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
This From the Vault post was originally written by Dan Brenner and published on November 6, 2019 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to our Center for Brooklyn History newsletter.   The Elephantine Colossus was an elephant-shaped hotel attraction located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Coney Island from 1885 through…

Jacob Mann Photographs

Allyson

 

Sunrise on Brighton Beach, 2009, 2010.008.2; Jacob Mann photographs, 2010.008; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
  This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on February 28, 2018 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. Brooklyn Historical Society is fortunate to have several fine art photographers represented in the photography…

Kindergarten Class at Fort Greene Park

Allyson

[Kindergarten class at Fort Greene Park], circa 1910, V1981.284.32, Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, v1981.284; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
This From the Vault post was originally written by Tess Colwell and published on September 20, 2017 by the Brooklyn Historical Society. To see the latest Photo of the Week entries, visit the Brooklynology blog home, or subscribe to the Center for Brooklyn History newsletter. No matter the decade or time period, it sure is challenging to keep kindergarteners…

Jamel Shabazz's Portrait of Louis Reyes Rivera

Allyson

Louis Reyes Rivera. SHBZ_0092. Jamel Shabazz photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
For this Photo of the Week, we are highlighting the work of Jamel Shabazz, a Brooklyn photographer who picked up his first camera at the age of fifteen. Shabazz says his goal is to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture. While having incredible range, Shabazz is often most known for documenting the people of Red Hook, Brownsville, Flatbush, Fort Green, Harlem, the Lower East Side and Bronx's Grand Concourse.…

The Evolution of Thought: Work by Lucille Fornasieri Gold

Allyson

Boys with butterfly, 1975, Photographic print, V2008.013.1; Lucille Fornasieri Gold photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
This week's Photo of the Week highlights the work of Lucille Fornasieri Gold, a Brooklyn photographer. She started photographing with a Leica camera in 1968, while her children were in school. She would develop and print in the kitchen darkroom of her home in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. When she moved, she lost her darkroom and while her negatives were processed, they remained unprinted for…

Eubie Blake and the Legitimization of the Black Musical

Allyson

Eubie Blake. 1954. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History ​​​​​​ ​​​​
His father called him Bully. His mother called him Wally. Neighbors called him Mouse. Relatives called him Eubie. And Eubie was the one that stuck for James Herbert Blake.  Happy Black History Month, Brooklyn fans! Today we're going to spend time with the American pianist, lyricist, and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music, Eubie Blake. Not orginally from Brooklyn, but a resident, Eubie Blake was born February 7, 1887…

Hell's Gate Explosion

Allyson

Explosion at Hell Gate, [1880], Lantern Slide, V1974.7.121. Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
On October 10, 1885 the ground in Princeton, New Jersey shook. There was no great earthquake. It was, instead, the largest planned detonation prior to the atomic bomb. In order to clear obstacles from Hell Gate - a narrow tidal strait in the East River -- and free up ship traffic the US Army Corp of Engineers started blowing up several obstructions in the waters. This…

The Restoration of Endale Arch

Allyson

View of Prospect Park's Endale Arch, cobblestone path, street lamp, several park benches, and portion of park beyond. Endale Arch, 194-?, gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photograph collection, PARK_0166. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
  This photograph, aside from being an excellent candidate for the liminal spaces Twitter account, depicts the view that park-goers would have seen when exiting the Endale Arch and entering the Long Meadow. It is located under Park Drive, which at construction, would…

A (Maybe) Brooklyn Haunting for Spooky Season

Allyson

 

Litchfield Villa, HERZ_0213. Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  Each day on my walk to work I pass the Litchfield Villa, admire it for its Italianate style architecture, glance at the dance class that is usually taking place on the front lawn and continue on my way.  It was designed and built in 1854 by Alexander Jackson Davis, a prominent architect for Edwin Clark Litchfield, a railroad and real estate developer. He's the one who turned a small creek into Gowanus…

Inman's Vaudeville

Allyson

[Inman's Casino], 1946, CONE_0451. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs. Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.ption
This week's photo is of Inman's Casino, which was located on the Bowery of Coney Island. The Bowery was south of Surf Avenue and ran from Jones Walk to West 16th Street on the east side of Steeplechase Park. Its main drag, known as Ocean Avenue until around 1905 and as Bowery Lane thereafter, ran parallel to Surf Ocean. The Vaudeville opened prior to 1900, and claimed to cater to women and children. But if this…