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The July 4th celebration included a reception and dinner, with featured opening remarks by Society President Gerard Drohan, Jr., and a keynote address by Brian G. Andersson, New York City Commissioner of the Department of Records and Information Services. A highlight of the evening was the delightfully distinctive toe-tapping music of the Banjo Rascals.
Thursday, May 22nd the Library Committee was pleased to invite Library and General Society members to an exciting discussion with author Lily Koppel about her book The Red Leather Diary. Ms. Koppel, a young writer from the NY Times, spoke to guests and answered questions regarding the work.
The Red Leather Diary is an evocative and entrancing work that recreates the romance and glitter, sophistication and promise, of 1930’s New York, bringing to life the true story of a precocious young woman who dared to follow her dreams.
Rescued from a dumpster on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a discarded diary brings to life the glamorous, forgotten world of an extraordinary young woman.
The evening was a fascinating examination of Ms. Koppel’s journey into the past and her quest to find the diary’s owner, her only clue the inscription on the frontispiece--"This book belongs to . . . Florence Wolfson." With a chance phone call from a private investigator, Koppel was led to Florence, a ninety-year-old woman living with her husband of sixty-seven years.
The CIP’s fourth Annual New York Round Table Writers' Conference was held April 13 and 14, 2008. The conference included presentations by groundbreaking new authors, Joshua Ferris and Charles Bock; two luncheons with keynote speakers, best-selling novelists Alice Hoffman and Lincoln Child; and revered editor Sol Stein; a Friday evening gala keynote interview with acclaimed author, John Berendt; as well as craft workshops and panel discussions. The two day event attracted writers of all levels from beginner to seasoned professional, and provided access to the nation's leading literary figures, including editors, agents, publicists, reviewers, and bestselling authors and publishers, speaking on the business and career of writing.
After the Wednesday, May 7th regular meeting of The General Society, members and guest including friends and family of Mechanics’ Institute graduates, were treated to a hot buffet dinner and a presentation by author Stanley Greenberg.
Mr. Greenberg showed photographs and discussed his book, Invisible New York - The Hidden Infrastructure of the City, a photographic exploration of the hidden and often abandoned infrastructure of New York City. Inaccessible and unknown to most New Yorkers, the structures and machinery captured in Stanley Greenberg's luminous black-and-white prints deliver the essential services that a city's inhabitants usually take for granted.
During a career that spanned six decades, the New York cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe (1768-1854) organized the trade’s first large scale operation by merging the various specialties associated with furniture production under one roof. In bringing Phyfe’s designs to life, his workshop crafted highly sophisticated wares that were sought after in the early nineteenth century for the dining rooms and parlors of the City’s elegant dwelling houses.
Barney Rosset, well-known throughout our publishing community as a champion of free speech, fought multiple landmark legal battles in order to publish uncensored versions of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and William H. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Grove Press became one of the bellwether cultural institutions of the 1950s and 1960s, introducing Americans to the writings of Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet, among many others. The evening will be devoted to using lessons of the past as a predictor of the future, and Mr. Rosset will be joined by surprise special guests.
In the Early 20th century in Queens, an unprecedented new community began to appear in the midst of farmland. A visionary developer, seeing an opportunity in the arrival of mass transit linking Queens to Manhattan, set out to build what was named Jackson Heights. Now a designated historic district for its architectural merit, the community is also one of the city's great melting pots. Resident historian Daniel Karatzas will show us the people and places of this groundbreaking neighborhood.
New York in 1823 was the third city in the United States to establish a gas manufacturing company, ushering in a new era in the history of artificial illumination. Although third in line to adopt gas light, New York rapidly became the center of the gas industry.
Vincent Plescia, Project Director for the conservation and restoration of the Merchant’s House Museum’s two nineteenth-century gas chandeliers, will discuss early New York gas companies, their relationships with the City, and gas lighting devices designed for consumers. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Merchant’s House Museum.
Four glass artisans, whose workshops restore period glass and produce original designs for today, gather to exhibit and discuss their work: Charles Flickinger, bent glass for lighting, restoration, cabinetry and architecture (www.flickingerglassworks.com); Michael Davis, blown glass for historic reproductions and replication (www.michaeldavisglass.com); Victor Rothman, stained glass conservation; and Tomas Tisch, wheel cut and engraved glass(www.tomastisch.org).
Michael Jensen has been at the forefront of electronic publishing, working with Johns Hopkins University Press, and University of Nebraska Press before becoming Director of Strategic Web Communications for the National Academies and National Academies Press. He will discuss the future of the book industry and reflect on the role of books in a landscape where the web enables organizations to offer "more than 3700 books (more than 650,000 pages) from the National Academy of the Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council fully browsable and searchable online for free."
For many decades urban homesteaders have transformed New York City communities, restoring neglected buildings, bringing new life and value to neighborhoods. Nowhere has this transformation been more startling than at Harding Park in the Bronx, where what began in the 19th century as a seasonal summer encampment now boasts year-round homes with waterfront views of Manhattan. Nestor Danyluk will take us there and introduce us to the tenacious Hispanic residents whose vision and sweat made it possible.
One hundred years ago, Frederick Taylor and his followers developed “scientific management,” a program to organize and measure work processes to increase productivity. Join Eric Breitbart for a screening and discussion of his classic documentary film, which includes historical footage of the first “time and motion studies,” a first step in converting skilled craft processes into unskilled assembly line work.
After a 17-year career at Hyperion, Robert Miller chose to pursue something new with HarperCollins. This venture, Harper Studio, aims to "effectively publish books that might not otherwise emerge in an increasingly 'big book' environment, an environment in which established authors are under enormous pressure to top their previous successes, while new authors are finding it harder and harder to be published at all."
Jason Epstein has been one of the most consistently creative innovators in American book publishing. In addition to being the founder of Anchor Books, co-founder of The New York Review of Books, and former editorial director at Random House, he is credited with responsibility for the original trade paperback format. He is also the founder of The Readers Subscription, and On Demand Books, creator of Espresso Printing technology, among other innovations.
Miller and Epstein will discuss what contemporary publishers may bring to the next generation of readers and presses.
New York City's Lower East Side has famously been home to waves of immigrants of varying ethnicities. As the neighborhood gentrifies, it draws visitors not just to its shops and restaurants, but also to its history of remarkable people, "yearning to be free" and their struggles and successes. Historian and writer Joyce Mendelsohn draws these stories out of the 19th century tenements, synagogues and settlement houses that still shape the character of this changing community.
With the hope that this series of conversations itself may have added to the amazing breadth and diversity of experience of the participants, the series will conclude with an open-mike symposium, inviting members of the audience to join us in revisiting and revising how we imagine the road ahead.
One of the most dramatic events of 1776 occurred at the Billopp House on the South Shore of Staten Island. There, American patriots met with the British in an effort to gain independence without bloodshed. Almost two centuries later residents of the nearby town of Tottenville fought another kind of battle - to save the legendary house. Historian Barnett Shepherd will lead our armchair tour of this venerable site, now known as Conference House, and other historic but threatened places in this southernmost New York City community.
Known for his empathy, humor and hope, Jonathan Schell is The Nation’s peace and disarmament correspondent. His latest book, The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger, will be published in November. The book examines threats posed to the world by nuclear power and continuing arms development. Mr. Schell will share excerpts from the book and discuss disarmament, the promise of peace and the state of the anti-war movement today.
Tuesday October 16, 2007, 6:00 pm New York Brownstones: Icons of a Great CityThe author of the indispensable Bricks and Brownstone was described by The New Yorker as the "consummate authority" on this iconic building type. His recent research has uncovered many surprising facts and long-forgotten historical photographs. Mr. Lockwood will discuss the evolution of the New York row house from the 1820s onward, describe the daily lives of their occupants, and illustrate how brownstones were designed, built, and sold 100 to 150 years ago.
Tuesday October 30, 2007, at 6:00 pm Words on the Street: From the Sidewalk to the SkyPaul Shaw, calligrapher, typographer and design historian, reveals another dimension to architecture through an illustrated lecture on environmental lettering in New York. Learn more about the skills and artistic considerations necessary to select, design and create letters in stone, neon, paint, and other materials for buildings by looking at examples throughout the city.
Tuesday November 13, 2007, 6:00 pm The Piano: Hammer and HandsMusic by The Orfeo Duo: Ishmael Wallace, piano; Vita Wallace, violin
This program is a tribute to the many piano makers and manufacturers in New York’s past. Benjamin Treuhaft will take apart The General Society’s 1883 Weber grand piano and demonstrate how its mechanisms differ from those of Steinway, Weber’s rival piano manufacturer. Following this demonstration, The Orfeo Duo will offer music played by New Yorkers in their homes in the 1880s.
Join us for the first public screening of Up From Zero, a documentary film produced by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2003 as a record of the cleanup work at Ground Zero. The film includes interviews with workers from the site.
Tuesday January 22, 2008, 6:00 pm Capitalist CastlesThe city’s most affluent 19th century barons commissioned its most accomplished architects, designers, and craftspeople to build and embellish their homes. Professor Broderick, author of a new monograph on architect Stanford White, will take us inside these now vanished landmarks, where we will also get to know their creators and marvel at the extravagance of their lives as an art form.
Tuesday January 29, 2008, 6:00 pm The Nation: Diary of a Mad Law ProfessorPatricia J. Williams, a professor of law at Columbia University and a MacArthur Fellow, writes The Nation monthly column, "Diary of a Mad Law Professor." Her provocative, lively pieces astutely examine ongoing legal, political, moral and cultural issues. Professor Williams will talk about her column and the new genre of legal writing that she has introduced to America.
Tuesday February 19, 2008, 6pm The Suburban Option: Garden Apartments in 20th Century New York CityThe garden apartment, so familiar and ubiquitous today (except in Manhattan!), was a new building type that transformed the urban landscape and the lifestyle of an emerging middle class. In the early 20th century a number of the city’s most influential activists and intellectuals lived in these complexes. Dr. Kroessler leads the effort to bring appreciation and protection to these important, and still treasured, but threatened homes.
Tuesday February 26, 2008, 6:00pm The Nation: Reflections from the EditorKatrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, America's oldest weekly magazine, will reflect on the magazine’s 142-year history and offer her views on the role of The Nation in turbulent political waters. Ms. vanden Heuvel will share some of her plans for the growth of the magazine and discuss the challenges facing print media in the new electronic frontier.
Tuesday March 4, 2008, 6:00 pm Metalworkers for a New CenturyThe restoration of the torch on the Statue of Liberty was the first of many restoration projects in New York City by Jean Wiart and his crew of classically-trained metalworkers. This lecture will illustrate how “old trades produce products of great worth,” both in the creation and the restoration of metalwork, in public and private buildings in America.
Tuesday March 11, 2008, 6:00pm New York City Housing FuturesWith the city’s real estate booming as never before, the challenge of housing 21st century New Yorkers is daunting. The city estimates that we will need 265,000 more housing units by 2030. Assistant Commissioner Chanda will outline the Bloomberg administration’s housing initiatives as part of its comprehensive plaNYC. Where will this new housing go, what will it look like, and who will be living there?
Tuesday March 25, 2008, 6:00pm The Nation: Politics at the Center of the StormA pioneering political blogger with The Nation’s “Online Beat” and the magazine’s Washington correspondent, John Nichols is one of America’s most respected political writers and experts on impeachment and the constitution. Mr. Nichols will share stories from the center of the political world, describing life as a Nation correspondent and offering his insights into the 2008 election.
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