Urban Tastes

The Washington Business Institute

dyeats — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 14:45:11 +0000

The Washington Business Institute dyeats Fri, 11/18/2022 - 09:45

“Better Jobs Are Open to Washington Business Institute Trained Office Help” reads a 1950 advertisement on display in Analog City: NYC Before Computers at the Museum of the City of New York. Analog technologies created new opportunities, but many individuals couldn’t access them without a fight.

WBI advertisement. New York Age, 1950

Brad Farwell/MCNY

From its founding in Harlem in 1930 until its closure in Union Square in 1980, over 5,000 Black Americans, the vast majority of them women, learned typing, stenography, and bookkeeping at the Washington Business Institute, affectionately known as WBI. WBI was one of the first, if not the first, schools in New York City to offer full business programs to any student regardless of race. WBI staff and students helped lead the movement to integrate clerical work across the city and region. These jobs became mainstays for many Black New Yorkers—and especially African American women—long denied entry into middle-class professions.

Many of the growing numbers of African American and Caribbean migrants to New York City saw incredible promise in the relatively high wages and prestige of clerical jobs. So much so that Harlem Renaissance painter Vertis Hayes placed an African American woman typist at the very center of the portion of his Pursuit of Happiness (1937) mural at Harlem Hospital. Similarly, Lutie Johnson, the central character of Ann Petry’s acclaimed novel The Street (1946), took typing courses at night at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 125th Street, where WBI was located from 1933 until 1967. In the novel, Johnson sees clerical work as an empowering way for a single mother to escape poverty and achieve the American Dream.

Vertis Hayes. Pursuit of Happiness. 1937. Image Courtesy Dylan Yeats.

WBI at 2105 7th Avenue on the northeast corner of 125th Street, 1939. Courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives.

In the first half of the 20th century, typist, file clerk, and stenographer positions were almost exclusively reserved for unmarried White women, as shown in the exhibition Analog City. Rae Feld, the daughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, founded the WBI after a school she taught typing for in Midtown refused to enroll African Americans in business courses. As the story goes, when Feld’s employer denied four African American women enrollment in February 1930, she quit and offered to teach the students on her own. With her father’s skeptical support, Feld rented two rooms on 125th Street and 8 Underwood typewriters. She named her nascent school after educational leader Booker T. Washington to signal that African Americans were welcome. 34 years later, when the Bronx chapter of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs awarded Feld the Sojourner Truth Award in recognition of her service to the community, she could boast that WBI changed the face of clerical work in New York.

WBI had to be more than simply a school that taught skills. WBI staff and students had to agitate for access to well-paying jobs. WBI staff and students supported, and were supported by, Harlem political and religious leaders like Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., State Assemblymen William T. Andrews and Hulan E. Jack, City Councilman Benjamin Davis Jr., Rev. James H. Robinson of the Church of the Master, and Rev. Dr. John W. Robinson of St. Marks. WBI staff and students participated in “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaigns to boycott and picket Harlem businesses that refused to hire African Americans. WBI staff and students also supported the efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and other groups to pressure Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to act on the lessons learned from the Mayor’s Commission on Conditions in Harlem after the riots of 1935. While White city leaders ignored most of the Commission’s recommendations for combating the devastating effects of segregation and discrimination, they did agree to dismantle some of the barriers in place against hiring African American administrators, clerks, typists, and stenographers in city agencies. Many applicants trained for these positions and prepared for civil service exams at WBI.

The Women of Harlem Say: Vote Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. July, 1944. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

WBI became a cultural center as well. The school was located in the very heart of Harlem, down the block from the Apollo Theater, across the street from the Hotel Theresa, and above Lewis H. Michaux’s African National Memorial Bookstore. Graduation ceremonies and alumni association dances served as important community events with speakers like activist Cyril Philip, Catherine E. Ricketts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Dr. Lawrence Dunbar Reddick, curator of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and History at the New York Public Library. WBI students – the vast majority of them women - formed literary societies, art clubs, and reading groups that organized orations, performances, fashion shows, and exhibits. WBI Manager Florence K. Norman founded the Lambda Kappa Mu sorority for business and professional women in 1937. Five years later, WBI alumni also helped form the George Washington Carver School in Harlem, which offered low-cost adult education to those unable to attend high school and college. WBI hired preeminent Harlem photographer Austin Hansen to document graduations and exhibited the early work of portraitist and muralist James Ira DeLoache.

Washington Business Institute Alumni Association Journal, 1952

In a 1985 oral history, Feld explained why clerical skills were so important for many African American New Yorkers in the mid-20th century:

The story I always told the girls: whatever you get in here, nobody can take away from you. If you have to go back and clean, if you're cleaning with something in your head, you won't stay cleaning. Things will happen. World is growing. Things change. If you know how to type, you'll get a job.

While the political and social pressure WBI staff, students, and allies put on NYC employers throughout the 1930s to integrate their clerical staffs lay important groundwork, Feld remembered that it was World War Two that really broke open the field for her students.

The war effort required thousands and thousands of typists, stenographers, and bookkeepers. Nevertheless, racism continued to shape hiring practices. While most employers sought to employ those who could type at least 60 words a minute, WBI staff knew they needed to prepare their students to be twice as good and to type at least 100 words a minute or even 120 for especially prestigious positions. Some of this was because WBI staff knew students would be nervous demonstrating their skills, so they might type more slowly. However, they also knew that many White employers were looking for any excuse they could to not hire African Americans. As a result, WBI graduates earned a reputation for being superior typists and stenographers.

On display in Analog City is a 1961 IBM Selectric typewriter that visitors can try. Unlike the typewriters WBI graduates would have used in the 1940s, the Selectric utilized a spherical typing element that allowed for vastly increased speeds. Regardless, between breaking lines manually and the pressure needed to engage each letter, 120 words a minute on a Selectric is difficult. So, imagine typing at such a rate on a 1930s or 1940s machine under the scrutiny of a hostile hiring committee!

Selectric typewriter. Brad Farwell/MCNY

During World War Two and beyond WBI classes ballooned in size, graduating hundreds of clerical workers each year into stable middle-class jobs. WBI graduates went on to become the

first African American clerks hired at Governor’s Island, Brooklyn Army Terminal, Chase Manhattan Bank, Gimbel’s department store, and so on. As a result, the WBI alumni association, long guided by early graduate Vertella Valentine Gadsden, also became a powerful economic, cultural, and political force across the city and region.

WBI persevered in Harlem until 1967, when the space the school had rented since 1933 was demolished to make way for the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Federal Office Building. At a new location down in Union Square, WBI staff embraced emerging computer technology and a changing economic landscape. However, as the Selectric typewriter on display suggests, the shift towards new and eventually digital technologies increasingly changed the scope of job training. Given the need to revise their curriculum, and the fact that WBI no longer primarily served Harlem or African American communities, school leaders decided to sell the business in 1980.

Analog City illustrates the relationship between technology and society, and WBI’s 50-year history echoes that message. Technological developments did not automatically deliver opportunities equitably. Instead, WBI students seized their promise for their own purposes.

The history of WBI should be better known. But when WBI closed, many of its records were scattered. Gathering more information about WBI’s clearly remarkable and dynamic students will help document an important period in New York City and national history. It will also preserve hard-won lessons for another generation of students facing unequal access to technology and education today. If you have information about or a connection to WBI that you are willing to share, please contact the author at dylan.yeats@nyu.edu or on www.dylanyeats.com.

Dylan Yeats is a historian, curator, archivist, consultant, and tour guide based in Brooklyn. He is also the great-grandson of Rae Feld, founding Director of the Washington Business Institute in Harlem.

Related Exhibition - May 20, 2022 - January 8, 2023

Analog City

Uncover the array of tools, technologies, and lost professions that supported New York City as it exploded into a global metropolis in the pre-digital era.

Related Stories

From Photographs to Fingerprints

Summary

Analog technologies created new opportunities, but many individuals couldn’t access them without a fight. The Washington Business Institute operated from 1930–1980. It was there that over 5,000 African Americans, the vast majority of them women, learned skills to prepare them for working in an office environment.

Thumbnail

Stories_2022.011_Image1

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

“Madame” Demorest—The Woman at the Top of a 19-Century Fashion Empire

sjohnson — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 17:45:24 +0000

“Madame” Demorest—The Woman at the Top of a 19-Century Fashion Empire sjohnson Wed, 04/15/2020 - 13:45

In the Museum’s exhibition New York at Its Core, visitors can virtually “meet” New Yorkers from the city’s past, including those who contributed to the industries that still define the city’s reputation today. One of those New Yorkers is Ellen Curtis “Madame” Demorest, a pioneering and creative New York entrepreneur, who, with her husband William, created a massive fashion empire in New York City in the middle of the 19th century. It was an empire built on two burgeoning industries in New York City—magazine publishing and fashion. And it rested on an innovation that played on the aspirations of middle-class women who wanted to look like the stylish upper-class women of the fashion capitals of Paris, London, and New York City itself, giving them the tools to literally refashion themselves.

Ellen Demorest holding a copy of Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions, undated. Engraving by Capewell & Kimmel from a photograph by Gurney. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, New York Public Library

In many ways, reading a fashion magazine in the mid-19th century wasn’t that different from reading one today—the pages are full of beautiful clothes, helpful advice, and interesting stories. One of the most popular magazines of the 1860s was Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions. Calling itself “The Model Magazine of America” it also boasted “Splendid Engravings, Original Music, Mammoth Fashion Plates, Entertaining Poems & Stories, Valuable Recipes, Full Size Fashionable Patterns & Other Valuable Novelties.”

Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions, April 1865 Archive.org

Advertisement for Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions, April 1865. Archive.org

And, just like today, considerable space was given over to paid advertisements (allowing publishers to lower the price of the magazine and increase circulation). At the back of an 1865 copy of Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashion, sprinkled in with advertisements for Tiffany & Co., Steinway & Sons pianos, and several different home sewing machines, are also advertisements for “Mme. Demorest’s Lilly Bloom for the Complexion,” “Mme. Demorest’s Everlasting Perfume,” “Mme. Demorest’s Superior French Corsets,” Mme. Demorest’s Sewing Ripper,” and even, “Mme. Demorest’s Spiral Spring Bosom Pads,” for “those who require some artificial expansion to give rotundity to the form.” It was no mistake that the Madame’s products were advertised in the pages of her very own magazine. It was, in fact, the point.

Advertisement for Mme. Demorest’s Lilly Bloom for Complexion, April 1865. Archive.org

Advertisement for Mme. Demorest’s Everlasting Perfume, April 1865. Archive.org

When the Demorests opened their first shop, Madame Demorest’s Emporium of Fashions, on lower Broadway in 1860, New York’s reputation for elegance and style in women’s fashion was already well established. Just ten years earlier, in his American Notes Charles Dickens remarked, “Heaven save the ladies, how they dress! We have seen more colors in these ten minutes, than we should have seen elsewhere in as many days. What various parasols! What rainbow silks and satins! What pinking of thin stockings, and pinching of thin shoes, and fluttering of ribbons and silk tassels, and display of rich cloaks with gaudy hoods and linings!”

Michele Gordigiani. "Mrs. Cornelia Ward Hall and Her Children," 1880. Oil on canvas. Museum of the City of New York, 61.155.1

By the 1870s the Demorests’ Fashion Emporium was located at 17 East 14th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway—at the heart of a district that became known as “Ladies’ Mile.” Up Broadway at 20th Street was the department store Lord & Taylor (then at its second location), farther down Broadway, at the 10th Street, was A.T. Stewart’s Cast Iron Palace, and Siegel Cooper was up on 18th Street and Sixth Avenue. The relatively new activity of “shopping” was becoming an acceptable way for well-dressed women to stroll, unchaperoned, along the streets of Ladies’ Mile, seeing and being seen.

Entrance to Siegel Cooper, 6th Avenue near 18th St., 1900. Photograph by Byron Co. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.18072

These same styles seen on the streets of Ladies’ Mile could also be found in beautifully detailed, often hand-colored fashion plates in magazines published by Ellen and William Demorest. The couple eventually published five separate periodicals, reaching a combined circulation of over one million. The flagship publication, Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions, started in 1860 as a quarterly magazine. By 1865 it was monthly and called Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashion; eventually it became simply Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. The couple’s other publications included titles like Mme. Demorest’s What to Wear and How to Make it.

Hand-colored fashion plate, depicting (left to right) a bridal gown, a mourning dress, a daytime housedress, an evening gown, and a ridding dress, from Mme. Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions, 1862. Archive.org .

But, Ellen Demorest’s true innovation, hinted at in the title of that last magazine, was not her store, nor her magazines. Instead, it was her dress patterns—she was the first to successfully mass produce, market, and sell paper dress patterns directly to consumers. The patterns were included as foldouts inside the magazines as well as sold on their own, by the Demorests themselves, or through agents. The success of the pattern business was built on the increasing availability of home sewing machines, and the promise that home sewers, or small-time dressmakers, could make their own copies of the fashions normally out of reach of all but the wealthiest women.

Domestic Sewing Machines company, 849 Broadway, 1870, lithograph by Louis Maurer. Museum of the City of New York, 48.230.4

The patterns also extended the couple’s reach—agents selling patterns could be found other in American cities, where local dressmakers, as well as home sewers, used their patterns to produce the latest styles. In their own hyperbolic language, “Mme. Demorest’s Reliable Patterns, in illustrated envelopes, have become a necessity, and scattered broadcast through the medium of a thousand agencies, are within the reach of every one, at a merely nominal price, wherever civilization extends.” One advertisement even bragged, “so general is their use that, besides English and French, the directions are printed in Dutch, Portuguese, German, and Spanish.” Demorest’s patterns were so innovative that they won several prizes at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. That year, the Demorests distributed three million patterns through 1,500 agencies.

Trade card advertising Mme. Demorest’s Reliable Patterns, ca. 1880. Museum of the City of New York. 40.275.172

The Emporium, magazines, and dress patterns made up a three-pronged strategy aimed at a new kind of consumer. The text of an 1878 issue of Mme Demorest’s What to Wear and How to Make It (published by J.J. Little, where William Demorest was a partner), gives us a clue as to who Madame Demorest thought her customers were. An article titled “Notes on Ocean Travel” begins, “The Paris Exposition will undoubtedly attract large numbers of people from all quarters of the globe, and those of our readers who are anticipating, with mingled feelings, their first passage across the Atlantic will doubtless be grateful for some information about those numberless details, which, if properly attended to, will conduce so much to their comfort.” It goes on to give practical advice on how to choose a steamer, when to book a ticket, and what baggage to carry, but also, of course, descriptions and illustrations of the dresses her reader should bring—“Traveling dresses should be short,” the text reads, “and new.” She thought of her customers as women who had just enough disposable income and leisure time to travel to Europe, not frequently, but for the very first time for a very special occasion. Or at least, women who thought of themselves as the kind of women who could.

Trade card (front) advertising all elements of the Demorest’s fashion empire: patterns, the Emporium, and magazines, 1879. Museum of the City of New York. F2012.99.109

Trade card (back) advertising The Demorest’s Fashion Emporium, 1879. Museum of the City of New York. F2012.99.109

Demorest may also have had in mind a strong-willed woman somewhat like herself. Ellen Curtis was born in Schuylerville, New York, near Saratoga Springs, a summer destination for the fashionable leisure class since the 1820s. Saratoga was described in an 1865 edition of Demorest’s Monthly Magazine, as a place where “for a few weeks or months, these ordinary dull and commonplace villages and hamlets…present the spectacle of a grand reunion of wealth, fashion, and beauty out of doors.” At 18, with the help of her father who owned a men’s hat factory, she opened a successful hat shop there. By the time she met and married William Jennings Demorest, a widower who owned a dry-goods shop in New York City, she was 34, an unconventional age to be married for the first time. “Parents,” she once said, “teach your daughters some remunerative business. Select for them as you do for your sons.”

In later years, she prided herself on being both a business owner and an employer of women, including African-American women, whom she treated as equals among her staff. Her views on this subject were so strong that she once got into a heated, days-long debate in the Letters to the Editor section of The New York Times on the subject of “Women’s Work and Wages.” She began her first letter with the biting words: “Inasmuch as you are not a woman, and do not, to any extent, employ women, allow one who is, and does, to reply…”

Demorest’s independent spirit could be seen in her magazine as well. In addition to reporting on the latest fashions, she published writing by Louisa May Alcott, Julia Ward Howe, and the journalist Jane Cunningham Croly, who wrote under the pseudonym Jennie June from the magazines’ beginnings in 1860 through 1887. Croly, an interesting figure in her own right, used her columns to champion women’s accomplishments and causes.

In 1868 Demorest joined Croly in founding the first professional women’s club in New York, called Sorosis, in response to Croly’s frustration at being shut out of an all-male reception given by the New York Press Club for Charles Dickens. The following year, Sorosis held a tea for that very Press Club at Delmonico's, which was, according to Demorest’s Monthly Magazine “unique in the annals of entertainments, the ladies paying the bills, and making the speeches in response to the toasts, while the gentlemen sat still and looked on.”

When Demorest stood to speak, she made a case for the right of women to speak in their own voices, “We charge” she said, “that man as monopolized the right to declaim, lecture, preach, or speak in all forms known as public speaking.” Her speech (as reprinted in Demorest’s Monthly Magazine) also managed to sum up her philosophy. She outlined the ways in which women’s lives were circumscribed by their relationships to men: fathers, and then husbands who have, “claimed the monopoly of all money, personal property, &c. that marriage professedly makes of joint ownership,” before concluding, in words as provocative as they were self-serving: “why wonder that she learns to smile at suggestions of extravagance in dress, and adds another yard to her train, or buys a more expensive set of lace for the next party, and sprinkles gold-dust over her glossy hair? She is none the poorer for the outlay, for ordinarily a wife owns only her own wardrobe.” Indeed, it was that outlay that made Ellen Demorest a successful businesswoman, at a time when that distinction was rare.

Related Exhibition - Ongoing

New York at Its Core

What made New York New York? Follow the story of the city’s rise from a striving Dutch village to today’s “Capital of the World,” and consider its future in our changing world.

Summary

"Meet" Ellen Curtis “Madame” Demorest, a pioneering and creative entrepreneur featured in the exhibition "New York at Its Core." Along with her husband William, she created a massive fashion empire in New York City in the middle of the 19th century.

Thumbnail

Stories_2020.04.15_Image9

Notable New Yorkers

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

MCNY Madness Challenge 2020

tdawson — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 13:00:00 +0000

MCNY Madness Challenge 2020 tdawson Mon, 03/23/2020 - 09:00

Many of us may miss checking NCAA brackets right now, but the Museum has come up with our own competition to keep the madness alive. For the inaugural #MCNYMadnessChallenge, we’ve selected eight contenders in four categories—Landmarks, Architecture, Culture, and Sports—and you can vote to determine what makes New York New York.

Voting will take place in three rounds from March 23–31, and we'll be updating the progress daily, so follow along to see the results.

How to vote:

Follow us @MuseumOfCityNY on Instagram and Twitter.
Check our Instagram Story and Twitter weekdays at noon to vote in our social media polls.
You'll have 24 hours to make your pick, and you can see live results below.
Winners will be posted the next day.

Round 1, Match 1: Landmarks

Two iconic attractions, Central Park and Times Square, kicked things off.

Winner: Central Park

Round 1, Match 2: Culture

Two cultural phenomenons, Hip-Hop and Theater, go head to head.

Winner: Hip-Hop

Round 1, Match 3: Sports

Two popular sports teams, The Knicks and The Yankees, compete to win.

Winner: New York Yankees

Round 1, Match 4: Architecture

Which of these two classic skyscrapers—the Flatiron Building or the Chrysler Building—is more quintessentially New York?

Winner: Chrysler Building

Semi-Finals: Central Park vs. New York Yankees

These two New York City icons battle it out in the first match of our second round.

Winner: Central Park

Semi-Finals: Chrysler Building vs. Hip-Hop

Culture and architecture face off in this exciting semi-final round. Which one will make it to the end?

Winner: Chrysler Building

Finals: Chrysler Building vs. Central Park

We've made it to the finals with these two NYC icons! Make sure to vote on which one you think makes New York New York.

Winner: Central Park

It's official: Central Park is THE iconic landmark that makes New York New York! Thank you to everyone who voted and made this a success. We hope you had fun!

Summary

We’ve selected eight images in four categories to kick off the first #MCNYMadnessChallenge. Vote for your favorites on Instagram and Twitter March 23–31 to determine what makes New York New York.

Thumbnail

MCNY Madness 2020 Thumb

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

Iconic New York City Restaurants

lrobinson — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 21:39:34 +0000

Iconic New York City Restaurants lrobinson Wed, 01/22/2020 - 16:39

New York City is a notoriously difficult environment for restaurants to survive in. And yet, some restaurants have despite all odds withstood the test of time. Here we take a look at some iconic eateries that remain.

The Russian Tea Room opened at 150 West 57^th Street next to Carnegie Hall in Manhattan in 1927. The founders were former members of the Russian Imperial Ballet, and the restaurant quickly became a meeting place for actors, writers, agents, and producers.

Samuel H. (Samuel Herman) Gottscho. Russian Tea Room, 150 West 57th Street. Exterior. 1935. Museum of the City of New York. 88.1.1.3808

The original interior was an Art deco masterpiece. The restaurant changed hands over the years and closed in 1996 for renovations. It reopened in 1999 and closed again in 2002. It opened once again for business in 2006.

Samuel H. (Samuel Herman) Gottscho. Russian Tea Room, 150 West 57th Street. Bar. 1935. Museum of the City of New York. 88.1.2.2884

Samuel H. (Samuel Herman) Gottscho. Russian Tea Room, 150 West 57th Street. Boyer room. 1935. Museum of the City of New York. 88.1.2.2886

Russian Tea Room Vodka Drinks. 1960-1980. Museum of the City of New York. 97.146.314A-B

Tavern on the Green was designed by Calvert Vaux as a sheepfold to house the sheep that grazed Sheep Meadow in Central Park. It was built in 1870. In 1934, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses ejected the sheep from Central Park and installed a restaurant in the former sheepfold. Tavern on the Green opened for business on October 20, 1934. Since then, different owners have modified the structure. With its sweeping views of Central Park and elegant courtyard, it remains a favorite dining option for New Yorkers and tourists alike.

Tavern on the Green. 1937. Museum of the City of New York. 2003.50.8

Thaddeus Wilkerson. Sheep Fields, Central Park, New York. ca. 1910. Museum of the City of New York. F2011.33.897

John Vachon for Look magazine. New York in the Summertime. 1949. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.4.11125.105

In 1888, the Iceland brothers opened an eponymous deli on Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side. In 1903, Willy Katz joined the business and the name was changed to Iceland & Katz. Katz and his cousin, Benny, bought out the Iceland Brothers in 1910 and changed the name to Katz’s Delicatessen. Subway construction required Katz’s Delicatessen to move across the street, to its present location.

By the mid-1980s, the descendants of the original owners realized that there was no immediate family to whom they could leave the business. Long-time friend Martin Dell and his son, Alan, officially bought into the business in 1988, on the 100^th anniversary of the restaurant.

Edmund Vincent Gillon. [Ludlow Street façade of Katz’s Delicatessen, 2015 East Houston Street.] ca. 1975. Museum of the City of New York. 2013.3.2.366

Harvey Wang. Katz’s Deli. 1993. Museum of the City of New York. 2019.11.252

Speaking of Katz’s Delicatessen, the Museum is holding a tasting and conversation event with Katz’s Deli and Teranga, the new West African restaurant at The Africa Center. Unexpected Pairings: Katz’s Delicatessen & Teranga will take place at the Museum on Thursday evening, January 30 from 6:30 – 8:30. The event will feature Jake Dell, owner of Katz’s Delicatessen, and Pierre Thiam, co-founder and executive chef of Teranga, in conversation about the different meanings of comfort food and how they reflect the city’s diverse immigrant histories. New York Times food writer Julia Moskin will moderate. Food samples will be available. Click here for more information.

Related Stories

Restaurants of Yore

Summary

New York City is a notoriously difficult environment for restaurants to survive in. And yet, some restaurants have despite all odds withstood the test of time.

Thumbnail

Stories_2020.01.22_Image8

Landmarks

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

New York City Blues

mgarmon — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 13:45:11 +0000

New York City Blues mgarmon Tue, 07/16/2019 - 09:45

The color blue is everywhere in the summer. There is the bright, hopeful blue of a clear sky, the shimmering grayish blue of the East River, and the sticky bottom layer of a firecracker popsicle, blue sugar water dripping everywhere. Blues are definitely on the brain at the Museum thanks to our latest installation, Blue Man Group: Ready…Go!. That trio of bald and blue humans that have been appearing at the Astor Place Theatre since 1991 has got me looking for blues all over the city.

I don’t have to look very far. The official flag of New York City consists of vertical stripes of blue, white and orange, with the seal of the city printed in blue on the central white stripe. The flag was first made official in 1915. Below is an invitation to the ceremony commemorating the occasion.

Invitation to the adoption of new city flag, June 24, 1915. Museum of the City of New York. F2014.18.352A

The blue in the flag also been used to link sports teams—almost all professional New York City teams include the color in logos and branding.

Sticker for the New York Rangers, 1996-1997. Museum of the City of New York. X2014.12.553.

Press button for World Series Yankees, 1953. Museum of the City of New York. 81.97.41

Pass for the Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc. ca. 1966. Museum of the City of New York. F2014.18.698.

Ticket for New York Knicks 50th Anniversary Season, Knicks vs. Charlotte. 1996. Museum of the City of New York. 97.131.4.

Roster for the inaugural season of New York Liberty, 1997. Museum of the City of New York. 98.31.9.

Blue is the color of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Whether you take the A/C/E lines or not, blue is part of a New Yorker's daily commute. On all cards used as a payment method to enter the subway or bus, the word “MetroCard” is spelled out in blue across a field of yellow.

Patch for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Ca. 1989. Museum of the City of New York. X2014.12.393.

The New York City Police Department has long been associated with the color. The navy blue uniform was first introduced in 1853, and the popular 1990s television drama “NYPD Blue” cemented the Department’s connection in popular culture.

Pamphlet. “Police and Warden Duties in Wartime.” 1942. Museum of the City of New York. F2014.18.743.

These official blues are part of the structure of the city, but when some think of New York, it’s that light robin egg blue of Tiffany and Company that comes to mind. The boxes stacked in the Fifth Avenue flagship windows of the famous jewelry store have come to evoke an expectation, a promise wrapped in blue.

Elsa Peretti for Tiffany and Company. Baby spoon. 1997. Museum of the City of New York. 99.68.1A-C.

If you’re feeling in the New York City blues, come check out the new installation and play with the instruments on display. You can always pop by during the Museum’s summer series, Uptown Bounce, and dance those blues away!

Related Exhibition - July 19 - September 2, 2019

Blue Man Group: Ready...Go!

Summary

To celebrate the opening of Blue Man Group: Ready…Go!, a new experiential installation at the Museum, we take a brief look at the color blue as it appears around the city.

Thumbnail

Press button for World Series Yankees

City Artifacts

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

Independence Punch and Washington Pudding

echapin — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 18:57:24 +0000

Independence Punch and Washington Pudding echapin Tue, 07/02/2019 - 14:57

New Yorkers are resourceful in their tactics to beat the summer heat. Some chose to flee the city during the warmest months, escaping to the shore or the country. Leaving the city during the summer was so common that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported who was summering at what resorts, and the social events and goings-on there. A July 1913 edition of the Eagle featured a “News from the Resorts Where Brooklynites Sojourn” column.

[Croton Lake.] ca. 1908. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.4097.

One such destination for well-to-do Manhattan and Brooklyn families was the Colonial Hotel in Kitchawan, NY. Brothers H.S. and A.P. White built the Colonial Hotel in 1898 as a luxury inn and country retreat. Just 32 miles from NYC, nestled in the Hudson Valley near Croton Lake, guests could enjoy golf, croquet, and tennis as they took in the beautiful scenery and fresh air.

Dinner and evening entertainment was an important aspect of summer resort life. The Colonial Hotel held informal dances, or “hops,” nearly every night, and occasional musical or theatrical entertainments put on by guests. These dinners were multi-course affairs with printed menus, even on the 4th of July. Though today we associate the 4th of July with informal gatherings such as picnics, fireworks, and barbeques, the Museum’s Ephemera Collection on Dining and Hospitality contains twelve Colonial Hotel menus from July 4th dinners dating from 1902 to 1916. The menus were given to the Museum in 1956 by Miss Charity Rich Myers of White Plains, New York—who may have spent summers at the Colonial Hotel with her family.

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). Dinners. ca. 1910. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.3532

As you can see below, many dishes were aptly named for the holiday—Martha Washington Pudding; Independence Punch; Red White & Blue cake; Washington Pie; and Punch de Lafayette. The July 4th dinners generally began with soup accompanied by an assortment of olives, celery, and pickles (sometimes known as a relish tray). Next came the fish and meat-heavy courses and complementary vegetables—planked blue fish á la Narragansett, roast stuffed Long Island Duckling, and broiled Philadelphia squab, with mashed potatoes, peas, asparagus, creamed cauliflower, and sugar beets. Guests polished off their dinners with a variety of desserts and cheeses—apple pie, fancy macaroons, custard, and interestingly, saltines with American cheese and cream cheese. Much more than the hot dog, coleslaw, and potato chips that are usually on my plate!

[Fourth of July menu at the Colonial Hotel.] 1905. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.12.24

William Allen & Co. [Fourth of July menu at the Colonial Hotel.] 1906. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.12.25.

William Allen & Co. [Fourth of July menu at the Colonial Hotel.] 1909. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.12.31.

The Colonial Hotel operated until the summer of 1934, when it was reclaimed in a mortgage foreclosure proceeding by the owner. The Hotel burned to the ground in October the same year, attracting more than 2,000 bystanders.

Summary

With summer upon us it is time to revisit how past New Yorkers spent their time between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Many spent time at country resorts like the Colonial Hotel on Croton Lake, socializing and dining with fellow guests.

Thumbnail

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). Dinners. ca. 1910. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.3532

Notable New Yorkers

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

Punk Photographer Roberta Bayley

ltuttle — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 21:39:21 +0000

Punk Photographer Roberta Bayley ltuttle Tue, 01/29/2019 - 16:39

New York at Its Core recently celebrated its two-year anniversary, and a new section on the downtown punk scene of the 1970s was added to the World City gallery. In researching this topic, I came across the work of photographer Roberta Bayley, who shot the iconic cover for the Ramones' first studio album in 1976. Bayley had been a fixture at CBGB in the 1970s, and was part of the staff of Punk magazine, a seminal publication from that time and place. I recently sat down with Ms. Bayley to hear her thoughts and reflections on the Ramones, punk, and the East Village…then and now.

Roberta Bayley, The Damned, Twin Towers, New York, 1977

Q: When did you arrive in New York City? What drew you to New York?

A: I came to New York in April of 1974. The reason I came was that I had a one-way ticket from London; no other real reason…I wanted to get out of London…didn’t know anyone here. I wanted to get on another plane and go to California. But from the moment I got off that airplane, I fell in love with New York City.

Q: What was the city like when you arrived in 1974?

A: It was fantastic. I had been living in London for three years. From the statistics, London had like four murders a year and New York had like 8,000 – and I saw a lot of movies that were out then like Serpico – cop movies with violence and murder, and it seemed like a really, really scary place. But I never encountered that place. I instead encountered the New York City that I love and live in. I settled into the bohemia of everything that was going on in downtown New York at that time. It just seemed really vibrant, friendly, and creative.

Roberta Bayley, Joe Strummer, 14th Street, New York, 1980

Q: What was that creative scene like? Who were your friends? What kinds of work were they doing?

A: I was just working regular jobs and I met Richard Hell (of the band Television). We became a couple and I moved in with him. That’s when Television was starting to play at CBGB and their manager said “Roberta, why don’t you work on the door and ask for $2.” CBGB’s had been a derelict bar, a biker, Hell’s Angels bar. Television convinced Hilly (Hilly Kristal, the founder of CBGB) that he needed to give them the stage for Sunday nights.

After I broke up with Richard, Hilly asked me if I’d work the door when they had the Unsigned Bands Festival for three weeks in 1975. Hilly had picked up that there were a lot of bands out there that had nowhere to play. He had stumbled across the scene of original bands that didn’t have record contracts, that were trying to do something. His only requirement was that you had to play original music.

CBGB was located in this completely derelict part of town that no one ever wanted to go to. It had become a place where the “lost men” – men of low means and high alcohol consumption lived in these SROs. It wasn’t a really desirable neighborhood, but it was cheap, so we all lived around there. People knew each other and it was a very small scene. Everybody was starting bands, and then Punk magazine came along. It was covering all those bands and that’s how the bands all got lumped together under the rubric of “Punk.” Nobody thought they were punks or even knew that that was.

Roberta Bayley, The New York Dolls “Reunion” St. Marks Place, 1977

Q: What is the backstory on Punk magazine? Who started it and how did you get involved?

A: Punk was started by three guys from Connecticut: John Holmstrom, Legs McNeil, and Ged Dunn. They were probably two or three years out of high school. John…wanted a place to publish his art and cartooning. They figured out how to get it printed, did an article on the Ramones, there was a piece on Marlon Brando, and there was some poetry, drawings, cartoons, and comics. It wasn’t necessarily a music magazine, although it was covering some music, and Lou Reed was on the cover.

It was a great magazine. After I read the first issue I felt like “I have to work for these guys…this is everything I’ve waited for in life.” I had just started taking pictures two months before that and had just bought a professional camera in November ’75, which was the exact moment, unbeknownst to me, that they were putting together Punk magazine. So, by the second issue I was a little bit involved and by the third issue I was the photo editor and chief photographer.

Roberta Bayley, Debbie Harry Coney Island, Punk magazine’s Mutant Monster Beach Party, 1977

Q: When did you start out taking pictures at CBGB?

A: I bought my camera in November of ’75 and I took the Ramones album cover three months later. I’d always had an aspiration to be a photographer but I’d never lived in one place long enough, or had a dark room, or any money, so it didn’t come up. But once I was working at CB’s, I was like “if I don’t get a camera now, when all this really great stuff is going on around me, and I happen to know all these people, and I’m friends with them, and I’m seeing their bands and it’s so great…I have to get a camera.”

I was very lucky that a friend of mine gave me a darkroom and immediately I was published, immediately I was getting record covers. That was instrumental in me developing as a photographer. I just went with it.

Roberta Bayley, The Ramones Live CBGB New York, 1976

Q: That Ramones cover is so iconic. How did that come about? What was it like working with the Ramones?

A: It was never intended to be an album cover. We were Punk magazine…for our third issue we going to put them on the cover. So we went to the Ramones’s loft – we being John Holmstrom, Legs McNeil, and myself. Arturo Vega, their lighting director, was also there. We interviewed them and took some pictures of the loft, which was Arturo Vega’s loft on East 2^nd Street, which is now Joey Ramone place. They were ok pictures but I felt like we needed to do something else. We left the loft and walked a little ways down 2^nd street, and there was an old playground, kind of beat up, with a chain link fence. We went in there and just took a bunch of pictures. (Sire Records) paid me $125 – I had no choice; they said, “that’s what we’re offering and if you want to do it you have to take it.” The one thing we did make them do was say “Roberta Bayley, courtesy of Punk Magazine,” which is on the record. And the rest is history…it wasn’t thought out. I don’t tell people what to do in my pictures…it kind of just happened. I have good eye. You can learn technique, lighting, but you’ve kind of either got it or you don’t. And I just happen to have it.

Roberta Bayley, The Ramones, New York, 1976 (First album cover)

Q: What was different about CBGB at that time? What did Hilly do that was different?

A: It was a dump. It was a dive bar. But it was the ONLY PLACE. There was NO PLACE ELSE. All the bands there were looking for other venues. They didn’t even want money. There was no place to play if you played original music. Hilly’s standards were very low and most people were good. Or at least good enough to be interesting. You don’t see the Talking Heads first show and think “oh these guys are going to be big.” You think “this is a really quirky band and they’re kind of fun to watch.”

People were just looking for places for their creative outlets and CB’s was the most welcoming in a way…it was sort of homey, there was an old bookcase, there was a couch, there were dogs running around. For a lot of people, they practically lived there. Hilly would feed people, he’d give them free drinks. When CB’s started letting people play it opened the floodgates…

Roberta Bayley, The Ramones Live CBGB New York, 1976

Q: What are you up to now? Do you still live in the East Village? How do you feel about New York today?

A: Not only do I still live in the East Village, I live in the same apartment that I’ve lived in since 1975. So, I’ve seen a lot. I think there is a community…its being continued a little by the Howl Happening Gallery on East 1^st Street run by Jane Friedman, who used to be Patti Smith and John Cale’s manager. Now she has a lively and interesting downtown culture-oriented gallery. She’s trying to show the connection with the scene then and what people are doing now.

The East Village is hard to truly gentrify. Enough of us still have rent control, but we will be the last generation that does. I don’t think they’ve ripped down too many good cultural things – we have a lot of protections. It’s tough, but I don’t see the point of completely, constantly bemoaning what’s gone. I think it’s the nature of life – change and evolution – there’s no way to stop it. But creativity is still doing ok here…

Visit New York at Its Core to view original issues of Punk magazine and one of Roberta Bayley’s iconic Ramones photographs in person.

This transcript of an audio recording has been edited for clarity.

Summary

The photographer of the iconic Ramones album cover shares her experiences in New York City's early punk scene.

Thumbnail

The Ramones New York 1976 (First album cover)

Notable New Yorkers

Streetscapes

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

Coney Island Polar Bear Club

lrobinson — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 17:52:25 +0000

Coney Island Polar Bear Club lrobinson Mon, 12/31/2018 - 12:52

The Museum’s Photograph Collection consists of more than 400,000 prints and negatives that document New York City and its inhabitants from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Among the Museum’s recent accessions are three photographs of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. To learn more about the organization, I accompanied the club as a guest for a swim on a cold, rainy December afternoon.

The Coney Island Polar Bear Club was founded in 1903 by physical culturist Bernarr Macfadden, who believed that a dip in icy water could boost one’s stamina and immune system. The club is believed to be the oldest continuous winter swimming association in the United States. Every Sunday from November through April, members swim in the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island.

Stephen Salmieri. Coney Island [Polar Bear Club]. 1990 [printed from a photograph taken in 1973.] MCNY. 2018.20.21

Before and after the swim, club members gather at the New York Aquarium Education Hall. On the beach, members spread out in a circle and do jumping jacks or other exercises before heading into the frigid water. Many members sport official Coney Island Polar Bear Club hats, robes, sweatshirts, and patches. Once in the water, people form another circle, holding hands and yelling. Some choose to leave the water after the circle is formed; others stay for a swim.

Anders Goldfarb (1954-). Coney Island Polar Bear Smoking. 1983. MCNY. 2017.32.5

Winter swimming poses risks, such as the possibility of cold water shock, or hypothermia. The club requires guests to sign a waiver and release agreement before participating in a swim. Proponents of cold water swimming assert that the activity enhances circulation, reduces stress, and releases endorphins. My anecdotal evidence supports these claims.

Stephen Salmieri. Polar Bear, Coney Island. 1980 [printed from a photograph taken in 1969.] MCNY. 2018.20.7

While membership is currently closed, the club encourages everybody to join in the annual Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day. The 115^th New Year’s Day plunge will take place January 1, 2019, at 1:00 pm. There is no fee to participate, but donations and fundraising are encouraged. The club uses the event to raise money for charity. This time, money raised will support the Coney Island community, which is still recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Recipients include New York Aquarium, Alliance for Coney Island, Coney Island USA, Coney Island History Project, and other neighborhood organizations. Learn more about the 2019 Coney Island Polar Bear Club New Year’s Day Plunge.

Nancy Rudolph (1923-2017). [Alexander Mottola, president of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club.] 1964-1984. MCNY. X2010.11.14607

Related Stories

One Ton of Ice & Clowns on Skis

Summary

The Museum recently acquired photographs of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, which is believed to be the oldest continuous winter swimming association in the U.S. To learn more about the organization, a member of our Collections team accompanied the club for a swim.

Thumbnail

Nancy Rudolph (1923-2017). [Alexander Mottola, president of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club.] 1964-1984. MCNY. X2010.11.14607

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

New York by the Slice

mattheffernan — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 20:20:00 +0000

New York by the Slice mattheffernan Tue, 11/20/2018 - 15:20

Sub-title

A City of Pizza

New York is a city of immigrants. People from across the world come here to begin their American story. Each group brings ingredients to the table that make New York a unique combination of cultures and experiences.

Menus: Nineteenth Banquet of the Celtic Club. 42.250.57; German-American Rathskeller. 97.146.115.; Hunan Lake. 97.146.151.

As people all over the United States gather for Thanksgiving meals, we celebrate one of New York’s great food traditions: pizza.

Raphael Tuck & Sons. "Little Italy." -- Vegetable Stands. ca. 1920. MCNY. Gift of the Dacotah Prairie Museum. X2011.34.2162.

When Southern Italian immigrants came to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s to escape poverty, many of them made a home in an enclave in lower Manhattan that became known as Little Italy. These new Americans brought a variety of traditions with them that became part of the American food landscape.

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991). Napolitana Kitchen, West 4th St. 1947. Museum of the City of New York. 2014.90.8.

However, pizza in its original form was almost impossible to make by traditional methods in the kitchens found in New York at the time. Hungry people who miss home will always find a way, and so, new traditions were born out of the greatest selector of all, necessity.

As with most foods, there were different regional varieties of pizza when Italians began coming to New York and introducing pizza to the American lexicon. There was the Genovese focaccia, the Roman pizza al taglio, and the Sicilian sfincione among so many others. To some degree bread dough baked with toppings can be found in most cultures around the world. The pizza that gave birth to the common American pie can most easily be traced back to Naples, Italy.

Neapolitan pizza has a few key characteristics. In 1984, an organization was founded to certify and protect proper Neapolitan pizza, Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN). A pizza approved by the AVPN is given Denominazione di Origine Controllata, or D.O.C., certification, which is usually reserved for authenticating fine wines. There are requirements for the time the dough rises, the time the dough cooks, the temperature the pizza cooks at, and even the temperature the pizza rises at and the temperature the water is when the dough is mixed.

However, there were no issues with D.O.C. standards in Little Italy in 1905. There was flour, water, tomatoes, and cheese so there could be pizza. Traditional pizza Napoletana is baked in a wood-fired, domed, stone oven that produces heat between 900-1000 degrees Fahrenheit and can cook a pizza in two to three minutes. The problem was that there were no such ovens on Mulberry Street in 1905.

New York Italians in search of pizza ovens began using the next best thing, bread ovens. Commercial bread ovens have much more space than a pizza oven in order produce greater volume. Pizza Napoletana cooks so quickly, and it is eaten on the spot, so turnover happens at a steady rate. Bread ovens need to produce a larger quantity of product that will be sold later off site. Along with the heating sources used in New York at the time, this innovation allowed cooks to make much larger pizzas than would be the norm.

Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y). Bread oven for restaurant. ca. 1908. MCNY. Gift of Richard Wurts. X2010.7.1.3989.

The other factor that led to the original New York pizza style was the heating source. While Neapolitan pizza ovens burn wood for a bright hot heat, the heating source in New York at the time was coal. Coal burned hotter than wood and allowed the large bread ovens to get up to temperature that could rival the wood burning pizza oven.

Karl Struss (d. 1981). [Coal barge and Brooklyn Bridge]. c. 1912. Museum of the City of New York. 2009.8.19.

These adaptations led to the first New York Neapolitan pizzas. Large pies close to the Neapolitan style but changed by a bigger faster world. While a Neapolitan pie is eaten by one person (usually with a fork and a knife) the larger bread oven pies could be sliced and shared. An entire new culture around pizza could begin.

The next change to pizza in New York came in the as the world changed from coal to gas and New York went with it. As businesses and homes changed from coal to gas, pizza had to evolve with them. Gas cooks at a lower more controlled heat and so pizza changed again.

Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y). "A Coal Kitchen-A Gas Kitchen" exhibit. ca. 1900-1964. MCNY. Gift of Richard Wurts. X2010.7.2.26325

Dough conditioners such as olive oil were added to help the dough cook more slowly in the gas oven without drying out. Toppings that cooked quickly in blinding hot heat were replaced by heavier toppings that could hold up to the longer cooking times. All of these adaptations are reflected in what we have come to know as the New York slice of pizza. One slice off a larger pie, laden with sauce and cheese, with a pliable dough that can be (should be) folded to help keep it under control. New York pizza is a food that can be enjoyed as an individual on the go or in a communal setting. It is perfectly at home in a restaurant booth, on the couch, or sitting on a park bench.

From New York pizza spread into America and then back out into the world at large. Different American locales all have their own pizza inspired by their immigrants and their unique circumstances. New Haven claims to have developed Neapolitan American pizza concurrently to New York City and many pizza experts hold it up as the gold standard of American pizza. New England has thin, round pan fried pizza. Detroit has small, square pan fried pizza. Chicago has deep dish pizza. California even has a claim on American pizza by adapting Neapolitan American methods to use with gourmet ingredients.

However, just as Naples is considered the birthplace of modern pizza, New York City is recognized as the epicenter of the American pizza culture that has taken over the world. The influence of the New York slice can be seen inside almost every fast food pizza box.

Menu. The Pizza Joint. ca. 1985. Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Lance Von Zepkan. 97.146.281.

We think of the triangular pizza slice as commonplace, but it is something that New York has taken from classical roots and adapted into a phenomenon. Something as refined and iconic as the French baguette only began appearing on menus in the 1920s. Lombardi’s, which is seen as the forerunner of most American pizza parlors, opened their doors on Spring Street in 1905, predating its yeasty cousin by over a decade. New York pizza isn’t even that far removed from its Neapolitan forbearers by much.

The pie that most defines classic pizza is the Margherita. As legend has it Queen Margherita visited Naples and wanted to sample the local cuisine. Pizzeria Brandi designed a new pizza for the queen. Red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil leaves to mimic the new Italian flag. That iconic pizza was baked in 1889, just 16 years before Lombardi’s began serving pizzas out of their coal fired oven. So, New York pizza was right there all along, changing with the times and taking over the world.

Stop by the Museum of the City of New York to try some pizza at Amy's Bread at Chalsty's Café. It is unique, just like any other New York pizza.

Summary

New York is a city of immigrants who brought traditions along with them that became part of the city’s food culture. We explore the history of how pizza came to be a staple of New Yorkers’ diet.

Thumbnail

Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y). Bread oven for restaurant

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off

Dressing Sustainably, Then and Now

PMagidson — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 18:47:14 +0000

Dressing Sustainably, Then and Now PMagidson Tue, 07/31/2018 - 14:47

As the nation’s sartorial capital, Fashion City currently subscribes to two disparate philosophies of dress: fast fashion, offering trendy looks and seductive pricing but morally burdened by its questionable quality and manufacturing practices, and sustainable fashion, prioritizing socially responsible standardized production, classic styling and zero-waste practices – but at a significantly higher cost. This latter, staid approach has served to unify the contributions made by New York’s enduring designers, past and present. Shying from seasonal trends and celebrity hype, their shared philosophy seems basic: invest in a tightly edited quality wardrobe that has far-reaching utility, timeless style, and that you truly like to wear. Simply stated: Don’t be a slave to fashion.

Valentina Schlee and Vera Maxwell, two of America’s defining mid-twentieth century designers, extolled the merits of a minimalist wardrobe. They both created basic, uplifting looks that buoyed the nation’s women through the World War II period of L-85 governmental restrictions without feeling deprived. Both dancers in their early careers, they championed mobility and comfort as critical to successful, enduring clothing design. They also rejected fashion’s fads and gimmicks, opting for solid colors, natural or durable fibers, and simple silhouettes.

Vera Maxwell. “Weekend Wardrobe” ensemble comprising two jackets, two skirts, and a pair of pants, 1935. Museum of the City of New York. 81.134.6A-E.

Vera Maxwell | Sperry Rand Corporation. Sperry Gyroscope Division. “Rosie the Riveter,” muted blue wool jumpsuit, 1942. Museum of the City of New York. 81.134.1

Nationally applauded for the versatile practicality of both her 5-piece “Weekend Wardrobe” (1935) and iconic “Rosie the Riveter” (1942), Vera Maxwell always remained true to her working credo: “Style is a point of view, steadily maintained…Style should have, above all, the gift of nonchalance, and not forever try to outdo fashion.”

Vera Maxwell fitting a model for Museum of the City of New York’s “A Salute to Vera Maxwell,” 1942. MCNY exhibition files.

Similarly, Valentina when once asked her opinion of the latest fashions wryly commented, “Oh…I never like fashion. I only like Style.”

Wallace. Mr. and Mrs. George Schlee, 1945. Museum of the City of New York. 2017.54.57.

Unknown. Valentina, ca. 1935. Museum of the City of New York. 2017.54.61.

George Hoyningen-Huene (1900-1968). Valentina, 1940. Museum of the City of New York. 2017.54.22.

Both designing women rejected the transient nature of fashion, priding themselves on the enduring qualities that would invite long-term commitments from their clientele. Iconic New York performer Kitty Carlisle Hart once visited Valentina for a new black dress, only to be confronted by the question, “…what happened to the one I made for you four years ago? You don’t need a new dress: how about a new bolero jacket to wear with it?”

Valentina Sanina Schlee (1899-1989). Dress in cadmium red wool twill, ca. 1950. Museum of the City of New York. 81.90.2A-C.

That approach is precisely that which encapsulates the creative philosophy behind today’s responsible design movement, which endeavors to foment change by educating their public to commit to the clothing it purchases rather than discard it to make way for the “next big thing.” That, combined with its pursuit of resilience and functionality, has remained a defining goal for America’s current generation of clothing designers.

Parsons-trained Yeohlee Teng has been and remains a staunch proponent of responsible design and lifestyle and remains a defender of New York’s Garment Industry and the safeguarding of its future. From her earliest collections she has committed to clothing of season-less relevance and “concise functionalism.”

Yeohlee Teng (b. 1951) Kimono in white paper fabric sandwiched between two layers of white silk organza, 1996. MCNY 98.33.1.

Related Stories

Resuscitating Ruby’s Dolls

Summary

Valentina Schlee and Vera Maxwell, two of the mid-20th century's defining designers, extolled the merits of a minimalist wardrobe. They created looks that buoyed the nation’s women through the WWII period of L-85 governmental restrictions without feeling deprived.

Thumbnail

Vera Maxwell fitting a model for Museum of the City of New York’s “A Salute to Vera Maxwell”

Notable New Yorkers

Urban Tastes

Do Not Display in Stories Roll?

Off