May 16th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
Yesterday, “A Beautiful Way to Go: New York’s Green-Wood Cemetery,” opened at the Museum of the City of New York. The exhibition is a celebration of Green-Wood’s extraordinary 175 years. It is a great opportunity to educate the public about the cemetery’s history (by the 1850s, Green-Wood was attracting half a million visitors a year [...]
April 25th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
Hurricane Sandy, with intense winds across Green-Wood’s 478 acres a few months ago, toppled, snapped off, and broke into pieces about 300 of our 8000 trees. Now, in order to make amends, and at the same time bring to fruition several long-anticipated tree-planting projects, Art Presson, Green-Wood’s superintendent of the grounds, has gotten to work [...]
April 25th, 2013 | by admin | published in Uncategorized
A play with music based on a 1915 classic, in Green-Wood by moonlight…
April 18th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
Recently, I came across an online item for sale. Here’s what it looks like: Not very impressive on the outside. But, on the inside . . . It was described by the seller as follows: An original and very ornate one of a kind MEMORIAL book prepared by the BROOKLYN CITY GUARD, an early Militia [...]
March 21st, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
This is a guest blog by Benjamin Feldman, a great Green-Wood and New York City enthusiast who is the author of “Butchery on Bond Street: Sexual Politics and the Burdell-Cunningham Murder Case in Ante-Bellum New York” and “Call Me Daddy: Babes and Bathos in Edward West Browning’s Jazz-Age New York.” Ben blogs at The New [...]
March 14th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
The Green-Wood Historic Fund recently lent a magnificent bronze of Civil War Brigadier General Thomas Sweeny to the exhibition, “American Heroes in Bronze: The Artwork of James E. Kelly,” at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum in Morristown, New Jersey. You will find more on Sweeny’s fascinating story, from an earlier blog post, here. As the museum [...]
March 5th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
This Friday, the much-ballyhooed 3D movie, Oz The Great and Powerful, a prequel to the classic 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz,” opens across the country. It stars James Franco as Oz. Here’s the video trailer. Which, of course, reminds us that veteran actor Frank Morgan reached the pinnacle of his career when he played [...]
February 26th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
Ever on the watch for items for our Green-Wood Historic Fund Collections, I recently came across this photograph. And, after doing some research, I purchased it for Green-Wood. That name–Alexander Saeltzer–rang a bell for me–I am quite the fan of 19th-century New York City architecture and architects. So, I did some research. It turns out [...]
February 24th, 2013 | by admin | published in Uncategorized
Historical Background Established in 1838 as one of America’s first rural cemeteries, Green-Wood Cemetery soon developed an international reputation for its magnificent beauty and quickly became the fashionable place to be buried. Among the 560,000 permanent residents are such notables as Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Charles Ebbets, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Horace Greeley, and [...]
February 19th, 2013 | by Jeff Richman | published in Green-Wood Historian Blog, Uncategorized
Pitchers and catchers have reported for spring training. Baseball is in the air! And, earlier this month, an 1865 photograph of a baseball team sold at auction in Biddeford, Maine, for a $92,000 ($80,000 was the top bid; with buyer’s premium, the total for the buyer to take it home was $92,000). Now, that was [...]
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