The Row House Reborn:Architecture and Neighborhoods in NYC, 1908-1929

The New York City Historic Districts Council is co-sponsoring a lecture on row houses at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue) on Monday, February 8 at 6:30 pm.

In the decades just before and after World War I, a group of architects, homeowners, and developers pioneered innovative and affordable housing alternatives. They converted the deteriorated and bleak row houses of old New York neighborhoods into modern and stylish dwellings.

Join Andrew S. Dolkart, author of The Row House Reborn: Architecture and Neighborhoods in New York City, 1908&#82111929, as he traces this aesthetic movement from its inception in 1908 to a wave of projects for the wealthy on the East Side to the faux artists’ studios for young professionals in Greenwich Village.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED

$6 tickets when you mention the Historic Districts Council!
*A two dollar surcharge applies for unreserved, walk-in participants.

To reserve your discounted ticket, please call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395 or e-mail [email protected] and mention HDC.

This Weeks Top New York History News

Thomas Cole Historic Site Seeks Paid Guides

Applications are now being accepted for Visitor Center Guides, a seasonal paid position from April 1 through October 31, 2010, at the Thomas Cole Historic Site. Responsibilities include welcoming visitors to the historic site and orienting them to the opportunities that are available to them including guided tours, the orientation film, and the educational kiosks. The Guide operates the visitor center front desk including the cash register, and sells tickets and shop merchandise. The successful candidate will have excellent people skills, as he or she will be a visitor’s first impression of the organization. Applications are due February 5th.

The hourly pay is $13.41, and the hours are Thursday through Sunday, 9:30am to 4:30pm, April through October. Please note: weekend work is required, and candidates must be available for the entire seven months. More information and an application can be found online.

Do not send applications to the Thomas Cole Historic Site directly. The application process is being handled by the National Park Service, and applications can only be accepted through USAJOBS.

The National Park Service will rank candidates based on their amount of training and work experience that relates to the position, therefore it is very important to include the exact dates of employment when you apply. For example, do not list the start date of a recent job as &#8220January 2009&#8243-. Instead, include the actual day, for example &#8220January 10, 2009.&#8221

See their EMPLOYMENT page on their website.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

Brooklyn Museum To Host Major Andy Warhol Exhibit

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade is the title of a major touring exhibition that will run June 18 to September 12, 2010 at the Brooklyn Museum (Robert E. Blum Gallery, 1st floor, and Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th floor). The exhibit is the first U.S. museum survey to examine the late works of American artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987). With nearly fifty works, the exhibition reveals the artist’s vitality, energy, and renewed spirit of experimentation. During this time Warhol produced more works, in a considerable number of series and on a vastly larger scale, than at any other point in his forty-year career.

It was a decade of great artistic development for Warhol, during which a dramatic transformation of his style took place alongside the introduction of new techniques. He continued to create his screen-printed portraits, but he also reengaged with
painting. In the late 1970s, Warhol developed a new interest in abstraction, first with his Oxidations and Shadows series, and later with his Yarn, Rorschach, and Camouflage paintings. His return to the hand-painted image in the 1980s was inspired by collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, and Keith Haring.
The exhibition concludes with Warhol’s variations on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, one of the largest series of his career. Andy Warhol: The Last Decade provides an important framework for understanding Warhol’s work by looking at how he simultaneously incorporated the screened image and pursued a reinvention of
painting.

The exhibit is being organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum. The exhibition was
curated by Joseph D. Ketner II, Henry and Lois Foster Chair of Contemporary Art, Emerson College, Boston. The Brooklyn Museum presentation is organized by Sharon Matt Atkins, Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum.

A catalogue published by Prestel accompanies this exhibition.

Tour: Milwaukee Art Museum, September 26, 2009–January 3, 2010- Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, February 14–May 16, 2010- Baltimore Museum of Art, October 17, 2010–January 9, 2011.

Photo: Andy Warhol at the Jimmy Carter White House during a reception for inaugural portfolio artists in 1977. Courtesy the National Archives.

State Archives Social Networking Pilot Project

The New York State Archives is participating in a New York State Education Department pilot project testing the value of social networking sites in the government environment. The Archives currently has posted videos, images and news updates to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The Archives is welcoming feedback either through the sites or via email at [email protected]. Here are the the various sites:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nys_archives/
http://www.facebook.com/nysarchives
http://www.youtube.com/nysarchives
http://twitter.com/nysarchives

2010 Meeting of the American Society for Ethnohistory

The 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Ethnohistory, will take place at the Lord Elgin Hotel, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on October 13 &#8211 17, 2010. The American Society for Ethnohistory (ASE) was founded in 1954 to promote the interdisciplinary investigation of the histories of the Native Peoples of the Americas. The ethnohistorical method, as it has come to be known, involves developing histories informed by ethnography, linguistics, archaeology, and ecology.

The theme for the ASE Ottawa 2010 is titled ‘Creating Nations and Building States: Past and Present,’ focusing on indigenous societies and their relations with expanding colonial and modern state structures of Canada, America, and Latin America. This general theme is intended to initiate discussions on the complex and often fractious relations between Native societies and expanding state structures in the Americas from contact onward.

Papers on instances of ethnogenesis, persistence and transformation of identity, culture and social structures over time are especially welcomed. Since the meeting is being held in Canada’s capital during the 125th anniversary of the second Metis provisional government and resistance movement at Batoche, the organizers are encouraging discussions and reflection on alternative models of indigenous nation building, displacement and violence in the interior, and the vast process of native exclusion in the construction of modern states.

The organizers invite proposals that speak to and think creatively about this year’s theme on the formation and transformation of both state and national entities, but they accept other ethnohistorical topics as well. Complete panel proposals with presenters, and chair are preferred, but individual paper proposals are also accepted.

The firm deadline for applications is April 15, 2010. Note the earlier than customary date of the conference as well as the earlier than usual deadline for the submission of proposals and abstracts. Applicants will be notified of the status of their proposals by June 15, 2010.

It is not necessary to register for the conference in order to have a paper or panel accepted. Once papers and panels are accepted, however, participants MUST register as an ASE member by August 1, 2010.

Click here for conference information.

Special Editor’s Session

The Editors and Editorial Board of Ethnohistory invite proposals for an invited Editors’ Session to be held at the 2010 meeting in Ottawa. They are looking for a session proposal that closely mirrors the theme of the conference “Creating Nations and Building States: Past and Present,” which involves representatives from several regions and disciplinary orientations exploring a common theme. The successful session proposal will be published as a special issue of the journal. Completed papers will be due within six months of the meeting. The session should consist of 6-8 papers. In order to for a session to be considered for the Editor’s Session, submit a session proposal, including a session abstract and abstracts of individual papers by the April 15th deadline. Be sure to check the box &#8221For consideration of the Editor’s Session.&#8221 Submissions not accepted for the Editors’ Session will be considered for inclusion in the regular program without prejudice.

Program questions should be directed to:
ASE Program Committee Chair
Professor Jean Francois Belisle
History Department
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 6N5
[email protected]
1-613-562-5800 #1293

Local arrangements questions should be directed to:
ASE Local Arrangements Committee Chair
Professor Nicole St-Onge
History Department
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1N 6N5
[email protected]
1-613-562-5800 # 1317

NYS Archives: Rights of Women in Early New York

The New York State Archives is providing teachers and students with online access to historical records that illuminate the history of women’s rights in New York State from its earliest days as New Netherland through the mid 19th century through it’s quarterly online Document Showcase program which highlights a topic from state history using records from the Archives.

Each Showcase includes sample documents, an historical sketch and links to educational activities for classroom use. The topics are based upon the State Education Department’s core curriculum for 7th and 8th grade social studies as well as special events of that quarter. The educational activities are created by a teacher and correlate to New York State learning standards. Each Showcase also provides links within the State Archives’ website for further information on the topic.

In addition, because many early documents are difficult to read, translations and transcriptions are provided where necessary. This quarter’s Document Showcase on women’s rights can be found on the Archives website at www.archives.nysed.gov, and includes an excerpt of a marriage contract from 1643, a petition by a widow’s sons that she be granted a letter of administration from 1670, a law excerpt from 1710 classifying women as equals of minors and those “not of Sound mind,” and a law excerpt from 1848 protecting the property of married women.

Photo: Excerpt from the Laws of New York from 1848, Chapter 200, allowing women to own and manage real property separate from their husbands. Courtesy the New York State Archives.

North Atlantic Conference on British Studies

The North Atlantic Conference on British Studies will meet in Baltimore, Maryland, from November 12-14, 2010. The Program Committee of the NACBS welcomes participation by scholars working on all aspects of the British empire and the British world. They invite panel proposals addressing selected themes, methodology, and pedagogy, as well as roundtable discussions of topical and thematic interest, including conversations among authors of recent books. North American scholars, international scholars, and graduate students are all encouraged to submit proposals to the NACBS Program Committee.

Strong preference will be given to complete panel or roundtable proposals that consider a common theme. Panels typically include three papers and a comment- roundtables customarily have four presentations. Individual paper proposals will also be considered in rare cases. Those with single paper submissions are strongly encouraged to search for additional panelists on lists such as H-Albion or at venues such as the NACBS Facebook page.

Applicants may also write to the Program Chair for suggestions ([email protected]).

Committed to ensuring the broadest possible participation of scholars in British Studies, the Program Committee will give priority to those who did not read papers at the 2009 meeting. Panels that include both graduate students and established scholars are encouraged, as are submissions with broad chronological focus and interdisciplinary breadth.

All submissions must be received by March 1, 2010. For details, directions, and online submission, see www.nacbs.org/conference.html or contact Lara Kriegel, Program Chair, at [email protected].

Photo: French Expansion and British Conquests in North America to 1763.

Virtual Vacations For Youth at Fenimore Art Museum

Young people will take a walk on the wild side this February as the Fenimore Art Museum presents &#8220Virtual Vacations.&#8221 Each day, children (ages 5 to 8) will be transported to faraway places using the Museum’s advanced video conferencing technology. The Museum will connect “live” with professionals from the Life Science Education Center at Marian College and The Toledo Zoo for entertaining and educational programs focusing on various types of animals. After each lesson, children will participate in a hands-on activity based on the theme of the virtual visit. Each “Virtual Vacation” will feature two live animals via video conferencing.

“Virtual Vacations” programs are designed for children ages 5-8 and take place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day (February 16, 17, and 18) at the Fenimore Art Museum. The cost per program is $15 for NYSHA members and $20 for non-members. Or attend all three &#8211 $40 for NYSHA members and $50 for non-members. Pre-registration is strongly recommended. To register, please call Karen Wyckoff at 607-547-1410.

Schedule:

Tuesday, February 16 &#8211 Catch Me If You Can: Why do some animals have scales, stripes, stingers, or spines? Join the Life Science Education Center at Marian College to explore how some of nature’s most amazing creatures protect themselves. We’ll even see some of the animals!

Wednesday, February 17 &#8211 Desert Dwellers: The Toledo Zoo takes participants to the desert! We’ll learn what a desert is and explore some of the fascinating animals that live there. Discover how living things have adapted to the arid conditions and temperature swings.

Thursday, February 18 &#8211 Animal Coverings: Join the Toledo Zoo and play a game to discover how animal groups are formed using similarities and differences. Live animals will help us learn the differences between the 5 classes of vertebrates: fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.