Blog posts by Liza

POTW: Funny Face's Dental Maintenance

Liza,

All smiles, 1951, gelatin silver print, CONE_0280; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
 This Photo of the Week captures the fresh and delightfully-eerie grin of “Funny Face” as his iconic pearly whites get a fresh coat of paint from Tom “Skippy” Campagna in 1951. This grinning gentleman was introduced to Brooklyn in 1897 as the mascot of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island. His name is a play on the park’s tagline “Steeplechase - The Funny Place.” Interested in seeing more photos from…

POTW: Fresh Air and a Sandwich

Liza,

[Elderly woman standing on boardwalk], 1974, gelatin silver print, HERZ_0104; Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
 This Photo of the Week celebrates an unnamed woman who stared cold weather and Irving Herzberg (photographer) in the face and let them know that neither would stand in her way of fresh air and a sandwich. The photograph was taken in November 1974 along the Coney Island boardwalk, an excellent time and place for an off-season stroll, a chic headscarf, and a breezy lunch…

What Happened to Concert Grove?

Liza,

[View of Concert Grove from Cleft Ridge Span], 1874-1915, photographic postcard, V1973.4.1136; Postcard collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
 One of Prospect Park’s many great features is its free summer concerts. Today, these concerts are held at the Lena Horne Bandshell, which has hosted musical performances annually since 1979. In fact, free musical performances were part of the park’s original plans. All the way back in 1866, when Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux took over the park's design, they…

POTW: Decorated Book Covers of a Tragic Author

Liza,

Paul Leicester. Love Finds the Way. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1904. Cover design and interior decoration by Margaret Armstrong.
 This Photo of the Week takes a look at the author behind some of our most decorated book covers, Paul Leicestor Ford. Ford was an acclaimed editor, biographer, novelist and historian in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was also a Brooklynite. He was born in 1865 at 97 Clark Street, later lived at 177 Remsen Street, and eventually left for Manhattan’s 37 East 77th Street with his new bride, Grace Kidder, in…

POTW: Dog Days of Summer as a Pierrepont Pup

Liza,

Garden behind 1-3 Pierrepont Place, Brooklyn Heights, 1877, photographic print, V1972.1.898; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
 This Photo of the Week celebrates the dog days of summer with a pup lounging in a lush bed of grass. Whether you love the heat or are pining for a crisp fall breeze, we can all appreciate this dog's sun-drenched rest as the shadows of the trees lengthen across the lawn. This particular lawn lay behind 1 Pierrepont Place in Brooklyn…

POTW: Trio at the Beach

Liza,

Charles Rudoy family. Two young men and a young woman sitting on a pier at the beach, [1915?], photograph, BJHP_0503; Our Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
In the spirit of enjoying the warmer weather, this Photo of the Week celebrates a summer trip to the beach. A trio poses after a dip at an unidentified beach, presumably in Brooklyn, around 1915. Left to right are William Winston, Molly Ellerstein, and an unnamed friend. Sitting on a sandy pier in wet tights and a mid-length dress (bathing…

POTW: Canine Fitness Month

Liza,

[Two dogs and a cat], [190-?], gelatin silver print, AUST_0545; Daniel Berry Austin photograph collection, Brooklyn Museum/Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
 This Photo of the Week celebrates Canine Fitness Month with a breed not typically known for its agility, stamina, or physical prowess: the pug. Initially bred as palace dogs to Chinese emperors, the pug later became the mascot of the Netherland’s royal House of Orange in the 1500s. With the Dutch connection, one may wonder if Brooklyn’s early European settlers…

POTW: Viele's Original Prospect Park

Liza,

Plan for the improvement of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1861, cartographic print, B PP-1861.Fl c.2; Map Collections, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
 In 1859 the legislation was passed to establish a sprawling public park in Brooklyn. In 1861, Egbert Viele published the first accepted plans for the park, which are captured in this Photo of the Week. The plans resemble the Prospect Park we know today, but with some very noticeable differences.  Today’s park is encompassed by Grand Army Plaza in the north,…

The Greatest Fair Ever Held

Liza,

The Jewish Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y., [191-?], postcard, V1973.4.384; Postcard collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Prior to the 20th century, the state of medical care for Jewish Brooklynites was dire. The closest Jewish hospitals were a long trip into Manhattan and overcrowded, while local hospitals could not meet religious requirements (e.g. kashrut: Jewish dietary laws). The result was that many Jews went without lifesaving care. However, on November 9, 1901, the State Board of Charities approved the incorporation…

Front cover, spine, and back cover of an arsenic green book cover

POTW: Poison Books

Liza,

Front cover, spine, back cover of First Impressions of the New World of Two Travelers from the Old, in the Autumn of 1858.
Many of the endsheets and title pages of the Center for Brooklyn History’s books are inscribed with holiday greetings, indicating that they were once given as gifts during the winter season. No harm ever came from gifting a book, right? Well, that depends on whether or not the book is bound in highly poisonous arsenical green pigment. In this Photo of the Week, we take a look at one such poisonous book in the collection:…

POTW: Weird Scenes along the Beach

Liza,

Storm of October 11, 1896, 1896, scrapbook, V1974.022.4.164; Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
In this Photo of the Week, we remember the storm that hit the south Brooklyn coast on October 11, 1896. To quote the Brooklyn Eagle, it was “a Remarkable Atmospheric Disturbance” that buried the old Brighton Beach Race Course under tons of sand, cut new channels to Sheepshead Bay, and left “Wierd [sic] Scenes Along the Beach.”One of the remarkable scenes along Brighton…

POTW: National Oyster Day

Liza,

[Collection of oysters attached to a pipe, false teeth, golf ball, and rubber ferrule, belonging to Frank Seerveld of Great South Bay, Long Island], 1938, Brooklyn Daily Eagle collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
This Photo of the Week honors National Oyster Day, August 5, with a slew of images, advertisements, a recipe, and a dispute that document bits of the Brooklyn oyster's story. Many of us have heard the legends of oysters the size of dinner plates (how does one actually go about eating that?), but have you…

POTW: A Mournful Ouroboros

Liza,

Bracelet, [1875-1900], M1990.53.6. Fred Hoyt family research collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
 This black beaded bracelet is shaped like a coiled snake swallowing its own tail, which is an image known as an ouroboros. The ouroboros symbol can have many meanings, but this one, created during the late 19th century, represents the eternal cycle of life and death. The bracelet’s color, materials, and symbolism identify it as an article of mourning jewelry. Victorian mourning culture was strictly regulated, with…

POTW: A Peek Inside Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital

Liza,

Bklyn Eye & Ear Hospital, [189-?], photographic print, V1972.1.804; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Public Library.
Beware letting a photographer document your medical procedures lest it end up in a future form of communication we have yet to imagine. This Photo of the Week, taken around 1890, is one of five scenes captured inside the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital around 1890, possibly for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Here a doctor administers anesthesia to a patient in what…

Margaret Armstrong, Alice Morse, and the Decorated Cloth Book Cover

Liza,

 In the 1880s, two New Yorkers burst into the competitive scene of cloth book cover design: Margaret Nielson Armstrong (1867–1944), a Manhattanite, and Alice Cordelia Morse (1863–1961), a Brooklynite. They became two of the major forces behind the art's golden age, which lasted from about 1880 to 1910. Fourteen of their works are on display at the Center for Brooklyn History, now through June 2024.

Left: Van Dyke, Henry. Days Off. Scribner's Sons, 1908. Cover design by Margaret Armstrong. Right: Ford, Paul Leicester. Tattle Tales of Cupid. Dodd, Mead…

Black and white photograph of Fort Greene Park in the snow

POTW: Midwinter Remembrance

Liza,

[Fort Greene Park], 1926, gelatin silver print, PARK_0111; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
As we enter midwinter, take in this snowy Photo of the Week of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park from 1926. This monument was created by Stanford White and Adolph Alexander Weinman in 1908. It memorializes the roughly 11,500 captives who died aboard British prison ships in Brooklyn’s Wallabout Bay during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). The conditions on the ships were…

POTW: World Wildlife Day & the Pigeon

Liza,

Man with pigeons, 1990, gelatin silver print, COHEN_0166; George Cohen photograph collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
December 4th marks World Wildlife Day, which the United Nations describes as “an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people.” When thinking of Brooklyn wildlife, the first that comes to mind might be the pigeon. This bird certainly does not require conservation efforts today, and…

Halloween Inspiration

Liza,

 

[Gregg Chapel], [191-?], photographic print, GREGG_0008; Gregg Chapel photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History. 
Tis the season to get your Halloween costumes ready! Need inspiration? Perhaps this haunting Photo of the Week can assist. Here we have six children dressed as what appear to be bears, bunnies, and…perhaps baby birds? Shrubbery? Stumps? Whatever they are, we hope they inspire you.  This image is believed to have been taken during the 1910s at the Gregg Chapel at 190 4th Avenue. The…

International Lifeguard Appreciation Day

Liza,

[Six orphan children in wading pool], 1951, gelatin silver print, SWEL_0523; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
  Celebrate International Lifeguard Appreciation Day (July 31) with this Photo of the Week, which ran in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on August 20th, 1951. The original caption reads “Maxie, the lifeguard at the Infants Home of Brooklyn, whistles while he works.” The accompanying blurb continues, saying, “When it comes to expert protection of life, leave it to four-year-old Maxie. He is the…

POTW: A Horse-Drawn Toilet

Liza,

[Six horses pulling a Ronalds & Johnson Co. bathroom display], circa 1905, photographic print, ARC_202_Box_20_Folder_3_001_r. Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
  This Photo of the Week* highlights what at first seems to be a perfectly ordinary horse-drawn carriage. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the team of six is not drawing a carriage, but rather a toilet.
Contrasted detail of ARC_202_Box_20_Folder_3_001_r.
Ronalds…