February 2012 Exhibitions Announced At N-Y Historical Society

New York's first museum, the New-York Historical Society, was born in the aftermath of revolutions-in America, France and Haiti-that reverberated like rolling thunder back and forth across the Atlantic, with consequences that are still felt today. 

NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY is locaedt at 170 Central Park West, New York, N.Y. (212) 873-3400 www.nyhistory.org

EXHIBITIONS for February 2012

TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS:

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:

·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.

·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

·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 April 1, 2012

Featuring fifty-five works from New-York Historical's great collection, Making American Taste will cast 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 Sea of War. The painting is a centerpiece of our commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

FREEDOM NOW: PHOTOGRAPHS BY PLATON

Until April 15, 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

Until November 11, 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 will present likenesses of many well-known women of the era, including legendary actress Maude Adams, First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland, artist Lydia Emmet, and the doyenne of etiquette, Emily Post. 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 June 17, 2012

This exhibition will feature 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 18th century to the present, including maps, prints and photographs. The exhibition will include 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; a manuscript map of the Hudson River, 1721; Eadward Muybridge's Panorama of San Francisco, 1877; the Thomas Air Views of New York City, 1935-1980; and Claude Samton's Photomontage of Canal Street, 1986.

REMEMBERING 9/11

Until April 1, 2012

The exhibition presents a selection of photographs taken by professional and amateur photographers in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center (Originally collected in the independent exhibition here is new york: a democracy of photographs), it includes letters written to police officers and firefighters; objects that were placed in makeshift shrines around New York; images and texts from the New York Times "Portraits of Grief" series; photographs of the Tribute in Light; and drawings of the National September 11 Memorial, designed by architect Michael Arad with the assistance of landscape architect Peter Walker.

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 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.

PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS

DiMenna Children's History Museum

The DiMenna Children's History Museum is the first museum dedicated to bringing American history to life through the eyes of children.

Kids of all ages can become History Detectives and:

• deliver a presidential address at the First President kiosk

• use the Historical Viewfinder display to see how sites in New York City have changed over time

• go to the polls at the Cast Your Vote pavilion

• add their voices to the DiMenna Children's History Museum at the installation You Are An American Dreamer, Too.

A series of biography-based pavilions and interactive elements are a major component of the Children's History Museum. These stories of young New Yorkers from different historical periods offer a way for today's children to make a compelling connection to the past and develop an understanding of the history of New York City and the nation.

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.

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS:

The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision

Columbia Museum, Columbia, SC
Until April 1, 2012

Curated by Linda S. Ferber, Senior Art Historian, the New-York Historical Society has organized an exhibition drawn from the rich collections of nineteenth-century American landscape painting. Nature and the American Vision: Masterpieces of the Hudson River School will include forty-five iconic works including Thomas Cole's five-part series: The Course of Empire and other masterworks by Cole, John F. Kensett, Albert Bierstadt, Jasper F. Cropsey, Asher B. Durand and many others.

INFORMATION HOTLINE:

(212) 873-3400

ONLINE INFORMATION:

www.nyhistory.org

MUSEUM AND STORE HOURS:

Tuesday - Thursday: 10 am-6 pm
Friday: 10 am-8 pm (pay as you wish from 6 pm-8 pm)
Saturday: 10 am-6 pm
Sunday: 11 am-5 pm

MUSEUM ADMISSION:

Adults - $15
Teachers and Seniors - $12
Students - $10
Children (7-13)- $5
Children (under 7) -free