The Brooklyn Historical Society

Programs: School programs brooklyn historical society serves over 14,000 pre-k - grade 12 students, teachers and adults annually (80% from title i schools) through tours, in-class & afterschool programs, digital curricula, youth internships, and teacher professional learning workshops that connect brooklyn events to u. S. And world history. Since 2011, bhs has also partnered with the brooklyn navy yard development corporation to lead student, teacher, and afterschool programs at bldg 92 in social studies and stem (science, technology, engineering, and math) topics, including labor and industry, sustainability, and innovation. Brooklyn historical society education programs empower children, youth, teachers and families to participate in the interpretation of brooklyn history as they build critical thinking skills that will shape their present. Education programs are grounded in bhs's unique and resonant primary source materials, dated between 1620 and 2016. In these collections students and teachers find myriad case studies to enhance, enliven, and broaden their understanding and teaching of american history narratives and stem subjects from pre-k to grade 12.

museum and collectionsbrooklyn historical society is the only cultural institution in brooklyn that maintains a permanent oral history program. Begun in 1973, brooklyn historical society's oral history collections now include over 1,200 interviews. Through an integrated description program with the library & archives, these oral histories bring the voices of history to broad audiences through exhibitions, digital humanities projects, k-12 and post-secondary curricula, public programs, and via the bhs blog and flatbush + main podcast. The collections provide a wealth of historical evidence about the lives of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century brooklyn residents, and reveal how diverse individuals and communities have sought to preserve vital social, political, religious, and cultural traditions as brooklynites, new yorkers, and americans. The collections contain interviews conducted in english, spanish, cantonese, and mandarin, with narrators born as early as 1880. Recording the voices of today's and yesterday's brooklynites is just one of the ways that bhs fulfills its mission to make the vibrant history of brooklyn tangible, relevant, and meaningful for today's diverse communities, and for generations to come. Brooklyn historical society's oral history collecting has always been forward thinking. The institution's first oral history initiative, the puerto rican oral history project (1973 - 1975), was the first large-scale puerto rican studies project undertaken in the u. S. Mainland. Bhs began documenting the effect of the aids crisis on brooklynites in 1992, the year aids became the number one cause of death for u. S. Men ages 25 to 44. Bhs did not shy away from exploring racial dynamics of the neighborhood of crown heights in 1993, barely two years after what became known as the crown heights riot in 1991. In 2011, bhs launched crossing borders, bridging generations, which explores the history and experiences of mixed-heritage people and families in brooklyn and opens up space for racial justice dialogues. And in 2016, bhs returned its attention to crown heights with voices of crown heights, a multi-year oral history project in partnership with weeksville heritage center and the activist organization brooklyn movement center, to explore crown heights's continued national significance in conversations on ethnic relations, racial justice, and urban renewal.

library and archivesbrooklyn historical society houses a world-renowned archives and special collections library on the second floor of its landmark building. A designated interior landmark, the othmer library's magnificent reading room, with its stained glass windows and carved wooden columns, transports the visitor to an earlier era. The library & archives department collects, preserves, and makes accessible one of the most comprehensive collection of materials related to brooklyn's history and culture. Its holdings include over 33,000 books, 1,600 archival collections, 1,200 oral history interviews, 50,000 photographs, 8,000 artifacts, 300 paintings, and 2,000 maps which document the commercial, residential, community, and civic development of the borough. The collections foster new and cutting-edge scholarship; support public learning and research; and enrich bhs's exhibitions, educational activities, and public programming. The arnie goldwag congress of racial equality collection (arc. 002) sheds new light on the issues, tactics, and constituencies of the civil rights movement in the north. Flyers, press releases, newspaper clippings, and many other materials document struggles over employment discrimination, housing discrimination, neighborhood conditions, and more. Brooklyn historical society's slavery pamphlet collection (call numbers: pamp aass-1 - pamp wolfe-1) includes eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pamphlets relating to slavery. The collection comprises approximately 27 file boxes and contains over 1,000 unique items. The majority of these items are transcriptions of political speeches (usually made by united states congressmen), sermons, or reports of anti-slavery or colonization societies. The speeches primarily occurred in the period leading up to and including the united states civil war, or between 1845 and 1865. The speeches often represent the speaker's views on slavery, specifically in regards to issues of the day, e. G. Causes of the civil war or whether or not slavery should be expanded to new u. S. Territories. The remainder of the collection is made up of various odds and ends, including broadsheets, a census report, novels, newspapers, scrapbooks, etc. The jasper danckaerts and peter sluyter journals, 1679 - 1683 (1974. 024), written by dutch ministers jasper danckaerts and peter sluyter, describe two visits to the american colonies, including brooklyn and new york, during the period 1679 to 1681 and the year 1683. The journals are written entirely in dutch.

exhibitions [general]:exhibitions at brooklyn historical society reveal brooklyn's sometimes quirky, always powerful past, connect brooklyn's multilayered history to the history of our nation and to issues that continue to shape the borough today. Bhs has five galleries featuring long-term and rotating exhibitions. Public programming series also accompany many exhibitions, and additional online resources allow visitors beyond the greater new york city area to explore these stories. Exhibitions at bhs have featured photographs chronicling superstorm sandy, explored a contested history through the voices of vietnam veterans, examined the legacy of the brooklyn dodgers and its fans, and chronicled the experiences of brooklynites on the battlefield and the homefront during the civil war. Empire stores and bhs dumbo:in the late 1860s, a brick warehouse complex was constructed along the dumbo waterfront. Over the years, it housed countless tons of coffee, sugar, molasses, animal hides, and many other commodities when brooklyn was one of the largest commercial waterfronts in the world. Since the mid-twentieth century, empire stores has stood empty and shuttered, a symbol of brooklyn's deindustrialization. In 2013, brooklyn bridge park and midtown equities announced plans for an adaptive reuse of the former warehouse. The site, sections of which opened in summer 2016, includes restaurant, retail, and office space. As part of the empire stores renovation, 3,200 square feet will be the home to a satellite campus of bhs, named brooklyn historical society dumbo. Following an inaugural photography exhibition which opens in the spring of 2017, the space will house the major long-term exhibition, waterfront, chronicling the history of the brooklyn waterfront. The exhibition will open in december 2017. A gift shop is also planned for the space. Public programs:interviews with authors and luminaries, documentary film screenings, panel discussions on current events, archive talks, - as often as three or four times a week, brooklyn historical society offers robust and varied public programs that bring new and diverse audiences to our home on pierrepont street. Speakers have included bryan stevenson, drew faust, andrew solomon, henry louis gates, ken burns, and roxanne gay. Panel discussions have explored hunger in america, muslim-american women, millennial feminism, and the use of force in prison. Academy award-winning and emmy award-winning documentarians have presented their work. Race and racism have been explored in programs like race: the power of an illusion and talking white privilege. In collaboration with the library & archives staff, regular tales from the vault programs examine our collections. And in 2015, a new series of monthly free fridays opens the museum to the public from 5pm to 9pm, with thematic activities throughout the building. Programs often support current exhibitions and institutional initiatives. In connection with brooklyn abolitionists: in pursuit of freedom, we offer evenings that delve into contemporary activism. In support of personal correspondence: photography and letter writing in civil war brooklyn, discussions explored veterans' issues. Programs have been jointly developed around bhs's oral history project, voices of crown heights. And in cooperation with the development department, evening programs are combined with fundraisers, like a conversation with vernon jordan. All of these thoughtful public programs provoke, engage, and entertain visitors of all ages and cultural backgrounds. They are programmed on a tri-annual basis, and are offered at little or no cost (unless a fundraiser).