April 2012 Exhibitions N-Y Historical Society
REVOLUTION! THE ATLANTIC WORLD REBORN
Until April 15, 2012
The path-breaking exhibition Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn is the first exhibition to relate the American, French and Haitian struggles as a single global narrative. Spanning decades of enormous political and cultural changes, from the triumph of British imperial power in 1763 to the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, Revolution! traces how an ideal of popular sovereignty, introduced through the American fight for independence, soon sparked more radical calls for a recognition of universal human rights, and set off attacks on both sides of the Atlantic against hereditary privilege and slavery. Texts and audio guides are in English, French and Haitian Krèyol. Highlights on view:
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the original Stamp Act as it was passed by Parliament in 1765, setting off the riots that led to the American Revolution, on loan from the Parliamentary Archives, London, displayed for the first time outside the U.K.
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the only known surviving copy of the first printing of the Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804, National Archives, London), recently discovered and exhibited here to the public for the first time
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Napoleon's authorization to French negotiators to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States (1803, New-York Historical Society), as a direct consequence of the Haitian rebellion
MAKING AMERICAN TASTE: NARRATIVE ART FOR A NEW DEMOCRACY
Until October 21, 2012. Will be temporarily closed on May 1, 2, 3
Featuring fifty-five works from New-York Historical’s great collection, Making American Taste casts new light on both the history of American art and the formation of American cultural ideals during a crucial period from roughly the 1830s to the late 1860s. The exhibition includes the long-awaited debut after conservation of Louis Lang’s famed monumental history painting of 1862: Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment from the Seat of War. The painting is a centerpiece of our commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
FREEDOM NOW: PHOTOGRAPHS BY PLATON
Until April 29, 2012
This installation of large-scale images by the celebrated photographer Platon, gives the historic struggle of the 1950s and 1960s a stirring contemporary presence. Julian Bond—statesman, professor, writer and a leader in the Civil Rights movement—has written a personal introduction to the exhibition. Among the subjects of the photographs are the Little Rock Nine, whose attempt to enter Little Rock Central High School in 1957 became a national cause célèbre; Joseph A. McNeil and Franklin E. McCain, participants in the 1960 Greensboro lunch-counter sit-in; Southern Christian Leadership Conference members Joseph Lowery, Fred Shuttlesworth, C.T. Vivian and Andrew Young; Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee leaders James Lawson, Robert Moses and Diane Nash; Chris and Maxine McNair, parents of Denise McNair, murdered in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church; Black Panthers Kathleen Cleaver, Emory Douglas and Bobby Rush; Muhammad Ali; Harry Belafonte; Congressman John Lewis; and Jesse Jackson, Sr.
BEAUTIES OF THE GILDED AGE: PETER MARIÉ’S MINIATURES OF SOCIETY WOMEN
Rotation Two: March 13, 2012 – July 8, 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 EmelineWinthrop. The fragile and rarely exhibited portraits will be displayed in four-month rotations in a special new gallery designed for intimate viewing.
URBAN VIEWS: AMERICAN CITIES 1717-1986
Until April 22, 2012
This exhibition features large scale views of American cities. Throughout the centuries, cartographers and artists have been engaged in attempts to show the cityscape as a grandiose entity. This overall concept of the cityscape will feature works from the eighteenth century to the present, including maps, prints and photographs. The exhibition includes John Harris after William Burgis, A South Prospect of Ye Flourishing City of New York in the Province of New York in America(The Burgis View), 1717; Unknown Artist, An Exact Prospect of CHARLESTOWN, the Metropolis of the Province of SOUTH CAROLINA, 1762; John Bornet, The City of New York from Union Hill, N..J., 1853; the Thomas Air Views of New York City, 1935-1980; and Claude Samton’s Photomontage of Canal Street, 1986.
HARLEM BY CAMILO JOSÉ VERGARA
Until June10, 2012
1st rotation: Friday, February 17- Sunday, June 10
2nd rotation: Wednesday, June 13 – Sunday, September 16
This exhibition of photographs by Camilo José Vergara will be shown in two rotations: Harlem: The People and Harlem: The Place. Vergara’s images serve as powerful and poignant witness to the changes that have occurred over the past four decades in one of the most famous neighborhoods of New York City. Known as the capital of black America, Harlem is a place that has been home to many in the civil rights movement. However, this dynamic part of the city north of Central Parkis defined by not only its residents, but also by the physical environment; buildings, which, viewed repeatedly over time, have an organic quality of their own. The first installation (February 17 - June 10, 2012) is defined by the personalities and people of Harlem and the second cycle will focus upon the bricks and mortar; those buildings that tell their own stories.
PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS
DiMenna Children’s History Museum
Explore 300 years of New York and American history through the eyes and lives of children of the past! The DiMennaChildren’s History Museum is a museum-within-a-museum and occupies the New-York Historical Society’s entire lower level. It includes character-based pavilions, a children’s library, a Whiz Bang Quiz Machine, and interactive exhibits and games. The DCHM encourages children to identify with the people whose enterprise and creativity changed the course of our history. All ages can enjoy and learn in DCHM, but the exhibits are targeted at age 8-13.
The Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American History
Dedicated to telling the story of America through the lens of New York, this new gallery features such works as a piece of ceiling from Keith Haring’s “Pop Shop;” Here is New York, a rotating selection from the approximately 6,200 photographs taken by the people of New York City on September 11, 2001, and immediately afterward; History Under Your Feet, an educational scavenger hunt for visitors featuring our “history manholes;” and Liberty/Liberté, an installation by New York-based artist Fred Wilson. This permanent installation will provide an overview of New-York Historical’s diverse collections and orient visitors to the experiences and exhibitions waiting deeper in the Museum.
Treasures of Shearith Israel
Ongoing
In the midst of the American Revolution, two British soldiers broke into the Mill Street Synagogue and desecrated two Torah Scrolls. The place of worship was home to Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in North America, founded by a group of Sephardic Jews in 1654. Remarkably, the Torah scrolls survived the act of vandalism. One of them is displayed at the New-York Historical Society, on loan from Congregation Shearith Israel in the City of New York–The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
Other objects and documents from the incomparable collection of Congregation Shearith Israel (established 1654), including manuscripts, maps, liturgical treasures, and historical artifacts, will be featured in The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture.
The history of New York’s Jewish presence began in 1654 with the arrival of twenty-three refugees of Sephardic ancestry from Recife, Brazil. Soon after their arrival the group established a congregation, the first in North America. This foundation was the beginning of a rich legacy that has culminated in the growth of what is now one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, and, importantly, set the stage for the religious and ethnic diversity for which our city and nation are known.
INFORMATION HOTLINE:
(212) 873-3400
ONLINE INFORMATION:
www.nyhistory.org
