N-Y Historical Society Announces October 2012 Exhibitions

The N-Y Historical Society has announced the following upcoming exhibitions. All exhibitions are presented at the New-York Historical Society unless otherwise noted.

TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS:

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: THE STONE ENGRAVING
Until October 8, 2012

Less than fifty years after the thirteen American colonies broke from Great Britain, the signed official parchment that declared independence already was becoming irreparably faded. In 1820, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, with the approval of Congress, commissioned William J. Stone to engrave a facsimile—an exact copy— of the decisive document. When Stone’s copperplate was finished in 1823, Congress ordered two hundred prints to be distributed to the three living Signers (including Adams and Jefferson); families of Signers; Lafayette; the President and Vice President; and other public officials and institutions. Approximately fifty copies are known to survive. Stone’s engraving is the best representation of the Declaration as the manuscript looked prior to its nearly complete deterioration. The document on display is on temporary exhibition at the New-York Historical Society through the generosity of David Rubenstein.

WWII & NYC
October 5, 2012 – May 27, 2013

When World War II broke out, New York was a cosmopolitan, heavily immigrant city, whose people had real stakes in the war and strongly held opinions. WWII & NYC will explore the impact of the war on the metropolis, which played a critical role in the national war effort, and how the city was forever changed. The presence of troops, the inflow of refugees, the wartime industries, the dispatch of fleets, and the dissemination of news and propaganda from media outlets, changed New York, giving its customary commercial and creative bustle a military flavor. Likewise, the landscape of the city acquired a martial air, as defenses in the harbor were bolstered, old forts were updated, and the docks became high security zones. This grand consideration of the wartime metropolis will feature the compelling stories of those who experienced the war in a New York City context. The exhibition will range from the mobilization of workers to the frenzy of shipbuilding, from the home front arts and entertainment industry to the dispatch of troops to the European theater, from the struggles over Civil Rights and segregation to the Times Square celebration of V-J Day. These were the times that saw raucous men in uniform celebrating their last stateside moments, tearful families embracing their sons, women with lunch pails off to work, celebrity-studded bond rallies and calls for justice at home and abroad from African-American patriots. The exhibition will draw upon extensive collections at New-York Historical and on important loans from the US Navy, the Smithsonian Institution, the Mariners’ Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other institutions.

NATURE AND THE AMERICAN VISION: THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL
Until February 21, 2013

After a national tour, the 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 others will once again be on display at the New-York Historical Society. "There is no better illustration of the life cycle of a great power than The Course of Empire...[Cole] beautifully captured a theory of imperial rise and fall to which most people remain in thrall to this day," said Niall Ferguson in Foreign Affairs.

PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS

DiMenna Children’s History Museum

Explore 300 years of New York and American history through the eyes and lives of children of the past! The DiMenna Children’s History Museum is a museum-within-a-museum and occupies the New-York Historical Society’s entire lower level. It includes character-based pavilions, a children’s library, a Whiz Bang Quiz Machine, and interactive exhibits and games. The DCHM encourages children to identify with the people whose enterprise and creativity changed the course of our history. All ages can enjoy and learn in DCHM, but the exhibits are targeted at age 8-13.

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 provides an overview of New-York Historical’s diverse collections and orients visitors to the experiences and exhibitions waiting deeper in the Museum.

Treasures of Shearith Israel

Objects and documents from the incomparable collection of Congregation Shearith Israel (established 1654), including manuscripts, maps, liturgical treasures, and historical artifacts, are featured in 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.