About fifteen years ago, I visited Louisiana with my family. I wanted to see a few special things down there: New Orleans streets, restaurants, and cemeteries, of course. I wanted to eat crayfish. And I wanted to visit Morgan City, Louisiana. Why Morgan City? Well, Morgan City is named for Charles Morgan, a shipping and … Read more
In Saturday’s New York Times, in a front page article about Attorney General Andrew Coumo’s announcement of his candidacy for New York’s governorship, this was found: “Appearing in front of the former Manhattan courthouse named for Boss Tweed, the corrupt political boss of Tammany Hall, Mr. Cuomo told a crowd of supporters: “Unfortunately, Albany’s antics today … Read more
About ten years ago, I purchased a copy of Nehemiah Cleaveland’s walking tour of Green-Wood Cemetery, written about 1860. Cleaveland was Green-Wood’s first historian; I am its second. Now, I learned a few things from his walking tour about Green-Wood. I also learned some things about writing a walking tour. Never give instructions like this: … Read more
Whenever I visit Washington, D.C., I try to visit my favorite museums there: the National Portrait Gallery, National Building Museum, the American Art Museum, and the National Museum of American History. Sometimes I find “old friends,” items I’ve seen many times, on display; sometimes I come across things I’ve never seen before. During my visit … Read more
In the early years of our Civil War Project, circa 2003, we started Volunteer Research Days, in which our Historic Fund Volunteers came to the cemetery conference room one Saturday every month or so to search the cemetery records for information that might result in the identification of Civil War veterans who are interred at … Read more
This is another entry in the Green-Wood-connections-are-everywhere file. So, we go out for lunch in Santa Barbara, California, and can’t quite figure out how to get into the selected restaurant. Finally it occurs to us that access is through Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery. And who do you think is the featured artist in the … Read more
I just got back from California. Sue Ramsey, one of our Civil War Project volunteers, lives out in Santa Barbara, and invited me to come out and give presentations to the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society and the local Civil War roundtable. I did a slide show on our Civil War Project, one on Green-Wood, … Read more
Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charlie Ebbets, former owner of the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. Charlie put his name on Ebbets Field, the legendary home park of the Dodgers that was at Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place. It opened in 1913. I saw a game there, many years ago. It was torn … Read more
I was reading an article in The New York Times today: “No Casual Fans At World Series of Baseball Trivia.” The article was about the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), which has a membership of 6,000 baseball geeks, and its annual convention. Midway in the article, in a discussion about the aging of its … Read more
Today’s New York Times reports that the Obamas’ have made their choices, from several Washington museums, of the art that will be hanging in the White House during their occupancy. Take a look at the slide show of some of the highlights–two paintings by George Catlin and the patent model for Samuel Finley Breese Morse’s … Read more