New York City | New-York Historical Society

Beer Here: Brewing New York's History

May 25 2012 - Sep 2 2012

To consider the fascinating yet largely anonymous legacy of beer brewing in New York City, the New-York Historical Society presents Beer Here: Brewing New York’s History. This exhibit surveys the social, economic, political, and technological history of the production and consumption of beer, ale, and porter in the city from the seventeenth century to the present.

Bar tray, 1900–1930. The New-York Historical Society, Gift of Bella C. Landauer, 2002.1.3205

In the past three decades, New York City has become an important center of craft and home beer brewing. While this phenomenon began only after President Jimmy Carter signed into law an act that legalized home-brewing, the growth of New York’s present beer industry also marks the resurgence of a long-standing tradition known to few outside the world of beer aficionados. Beer has been brewed in New York City and State since the days of its earliest European settlement, when it was a vital source of nourishment and tax revenues.

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Beauties of the Gilded Age: Peter Marié's Miniatures of Society Women

Nov 11 2011 - Sep 9 2012

Second Rotation: March 13, 2012 - July 8, 2012
Third Rotation: July 10, 2012–September 9, 2012
Between 1889 and 1903, New York socialite Peter Marié (1825–1903) commissioned portrait miniatures of women whom he believed epitomized female beauty. His collection of nearly 300 watercolor-on-ivory miniatures stands today as a vivid document of New York’s Gilded Age aristocracy. Beauties of the Gilded Age presents likenesses of many prominent women of the era, including legendary socialite Edith Minturn, athlete Edith Hope Goddard, and social activist Emeline Winthrop. The fragile and rarely exhibited portraits will be displayed in four-month rotations in a special new gallery designed for intimate viewing.

Fernand Paillet (1850-1918), Lina de Trobriand Post (1867-1951), 1890. Watercolor on ivory. New-York Historical Society, Gift of the Estate of Peter Marié, 1905.259

Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School

Sep 21 2012 - Feb 20 2013

Please note the closing date has been changed from February 21
After a national tour, the forty-five iconic works, including Thomas Cole’s five-part series The Course of Empire and other masterworks by Cole, John F. Kensett, Albert Bierstadt, Jasper F. Cropsey, Asher B. Durand and others will once again be on display at the New-York Historical Society. This exhibition showcases the extraordinary depth and richness of the New-York Historical Society’s landscape collections, especially paintings by artists of the Hudson River School. Rising to eminence in New York during the mid-nineteenth century, this loosely knit group of artists, together with like-minded poets and writers, forged a self-consciously “American” landscape vision and literary voice. Both were grounded in the exploration of the natural world as a resource for spiritual renewal and as an expression of cultural and national identity.

Thomas Cole (1801–1848), Catskill Creek, NY, 1845. Oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society, The Robert L. Stuart Collection, S-157

The Hudson River and the natural wonders along its banks had a long history of associations with earlier inhabitants, including Native Americans, the Dutch, and the British. Key battles of the American Revolution were fought along the river’s course. Such historical associations amid the evocative terrain of the Catskills, Adirondacks, and White Mountains enriched regional sites throughout the Hudson River Valley and New England, inspiring homegrown schools of painting and literature grounded in their scenery and history.

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Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York

Jun 21 2013 - Sep 1 2013

With his calligraphic brushstrokes and densely cluttered, multi-figured compositions, Reginald Marsh recorded the vibrancy and energetic pulse of New York City. In paintings, prints, watercolors and photographs, he captured the animation and visual turbulence that made urban New York life an exhilarating spectacle. His work depicted the visual energy the city, its helter-skelter signs, newspaper and magazine headlines and the crowded conditions of its street life and recreational pastimes.

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Twenty Cent Movie, 1936. Egg tempera on composition board, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase 37.43 © 2011 Estate of Reginald Marsh / Art Students League, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Reproduction, including downloading this work, is prohibited by copyright law without written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

His subjects were not glamorous or affluent New Yorkers, but those in the middle and lower class—Bowery bums, burlesque queens, Coney Island musclemen, park denizens, subway riders and post-flapper era sirens. Marsh was fascinated by the crass glamour, gaudiness and sexuality these city inhabitants exhibited in public, as well as by the humanity expressed by those living under severe economic and social duress.

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WWII & NYC

Oct 5 2012 - May 27 2013

The Second World War (1939–1945) was the most widespread, destructive, and consequential conflict in history. WWII & NYC is an account of how New York and its metropolitan region contributed to Allied victory. The exhibition also explores the captivating, sobering, and moving stories of how New Yorkers experienced and confronted the challenges of “total war.”
Want to see everything—from lectures to films to behind-the-scenes stories—related to WWII & NYC? Click here to visit the WWII & NYC site!

Irving Boyer, Prospect Park, ca. 1942–1944. Oil on academy board. The New-York Historical Society, Gift of Selwyn L. Boyer, from the Boyer Family Collection, 2002.49

When war broke out in 1939, New York was a cosmopolitan, heavily immigrant city, whose people had real stakes in the global conflict and strongly held opinions about whether or not to intervene. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the U.S. into the war, and New York became the principal port of embarkation for the warfront.

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Brooklyn Revealed

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Brooklyn Revealed offers a photographic tour of Brooklyn, through which visitors will learn about individual neighborhoods as well as the origin of more than 100 Brooklyn street names. The photographs, all of which come from the collections of the New-York Historical Society's Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, are paired with historical descriptions researched and written by New-York Historical's librarians. In instances where information about a specific street is inconclusive, visitors to the site are invited to submit their own ideas about how the street got its name. Visitors are also encouraged to submit the names of streets not included on the site.

Click here to view the full collection.

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Architectural Collections

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The Society's architectural collections include drawings, blueprints, renderings, photographs, correspondence, and business records. Most significant are its large holdings for individual architects or firms, including (in chronological order) John McComb, Jr.; Calvin Pollard; Alexander J. Davis; John B. Snook; George B. Post; McKim, Mead & White; and Cass Gilbert. These architects were all active in Manhattan and New York City buildings predominate, but their work includes many structures outside the city. More than 150 other locally and nationally prominent architects and engineers are also represented, generally by 10 or fewer drawings.

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Photograph Collections

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The extensive photograph collections are particularly strong in portraits and documentary images of New York-area buildings and street scenes from 1839 to 1945, although contemporary photography continues to be collected. The bulk of these images are arranged by location, or, for portraits, by sitter. Both professional and amateur photographers (many unidentified) are represented.

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Professional Development Offerings

Professional Development

Professional development workshops are available on-site at the New-York Historical Society or museum staff can come to schools. Book one of the below content-based programs for your group of teachers today! All programs can be crafted as a two-hour workshop or extended to a half- or full-day program.

To schedule training for your school or for more information, contact us at teacherPD@nyhistory.org.

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Landmarks of New York

Apr 30 2009 - Jul 12 2009

An exhibition of 83 photographs documenting some of the most significant buildings and public parks in New York City will be on view at The New-York Historical Society from April 30 through July 12, 2009, in the exhibition Landmarks of New York. The exhibition has traveled to 82 countries under the sponsorship of the United States Department of State since 2006 and is now coming home to New York for its final showing. The photographs in the exhibition will then enter the collection of the New-York Historical Society, through a donation from the exhibition's curator, Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel.

Brooklyn Bridge, 1867-83 Designated as a landmark August 24, 1967 Photograph by Laura Napier New-York Historical Society

An exhibition of 83 photographs documenting some of the most significant buildings and public parks in New York City will be on view at The New-York Historical Society from April 30 through July 12, 2009, in the exhibition Landmarks of New York. The exhibition has traveled to 82 countries under the sponsorship of the United States Department of State since 2006 and is now coming home to New York for its final showing.