New York Historical Society Releases Schedule of Events and Exhibitions for May 2015

1. 1. EXHIBITIONS

Picasso's Le Tricorne

May 29 - Ongoing

The show will position Picasso's curtain in a dialogue with other New-York Historical Society objects, including paintings from the European tradition that provide background to the artist's work as well as to the traditions against which the revolutionary artist rebelled. Other thematic threads pivot around dance subjects and explore roughly contemporary American paintings, sculpture, posters, and watercolors. Among the works included will be examples by William Adolphe Bouguereau, Will H. Bradley, Philippe de Champaigne, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Childe Hassam, Malvina Hoffman, Ricardo de Madrazo y Garreta, Elie Nadelman, Edward Penfield, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, and Adriaen van Utrecht.

Lafayette's Return: The "Boy General," the American Revolution, and the Hermione

May 29 - August 16, 2015

"She sails like a bird," the Marquis de Lafayette wrote about the Hermione, the ship that carried him and a decisive stache of arms across the Atlantic in aid of the nascent American Revolution. During the summer of 2015, a reconstructed Hermione returns to America, leaving from France and spending the weekend of the Fourth of July in New York. The New-York Historical Society exhibition focuses on both the recreated ship and Lafayette himself, the Boy General whose close friendship with George Washington and diplomatic networks in Paris helped win the war. The show focuses on Lafayette's early years from his initial advocacy on behalf of the Revolution in the late 1770s to the Hermione's voyage in 1780 and the events leading to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781.

The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld

May 22 - October 12, 2015

The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld examines his influences, his iconography, and his techniques, from his earliest works to his last drawings. Visitors will have the opportunity to trace this unique artist's evolution by viewing his own body of work, including drawings, paintings, selections from sketchbooks, ephemera, and video. The exhibition is being organized in partnership with the Al Hirschfeld Foundation and is guest-curated by David Leopold, the Foundation's Archivist.

Lincoln and the Jews

March 20 - June 7, 2015

Marking the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination, this exhibition focuses on the significant, and hitherto unknown, relationships and interactions between Abraham Lincoln and his Jewish friends and associates. At a time when Jews comprised less than one-half of one percent of the American population, and with the country rampant with prejudice, Lincoln's positive and meaningful personal relationships with Jewish individuals not only arguably changed him but also had an important and lasting impact on the status of American Jews. Lincoln stood up to his anti-Semitic generals even as he depended upon them to win the war, and became an advocate for Jewish equality and acceptance.

Audubon's Aviary: The Final Flight (Part III of The Complete Flock)

March 6 - May 10, 2015

Part III of the highly acclaimed tripartite series Audubon's Aviary: The Complete Flock will continue showcasing masterpieces from the New-York Historical Society collection of John James Audubon's preparatory watercolors for the sumptuous double-elephant-folio print edition of The Birds of America (1827-38), engraved by Robert Havell, Jr. Part III of The Complete Flock will highlight Audubon's watercolor models for Havell plates 306-435 (fascicles 62-87). At this time he was rushing to complete his great work and, therefore, represented the outliers and western species to bookend the North American continent.

Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein

January 16 - October 25, 2015

This exhibit features the stunning and historic photographs of Stephen Somerstein, documenting the Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights March in January 1965. Somerstein was a student in City College of New York's night school and Picture Editor of his student newspaper when he traveled to Alabama to document the March. He joined the marchers and gained unfettered access to everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Bayard Rustin. "I had five cameras slung around my neck," he recalled. Over the five-day, 54-mile march, Somerstein took about four hundred photographs including poignant images of hopeful blacks lining the rural roads as they cheered on the marchers walking past their front porches and whites crowded on city sidewalks, some looking on silently-others jeering as the activists walked to the Alabama capital.

1. 2. LECTURES AND TOURS

The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783 - 1789

Thursday, May 14, 6:30 pm

Joseph J. Ellis, Stacy Schiff (moderator)

$38 (members $24)

In the 1780s, four Founding Fathers diagnosed flaws in the recently signed Articles of Confederation and became determined to modify the charter. Prizewinning author Joseph J. Ellis explains how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison helped orchestrate the long, complex political process that ultimately resulted in the Constitutional Convention and the Bill of Rights.

The Heart Mountain Draft Resisters: A Trial Reenactment

Saturday, May 16, 9:30 am

Judge Denny Chin, Asian American Bar Association of New York

$44 (members $32)

9:00 - 9:30 am: Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:30 - 11:00 am: Program

The internment of Japanese-American citizens during the Second World War will forever remain a painful chapter our nation's history. When the U.S. government began drafting interned citizens for military service in 1944, a group of men confined at Wyoming's Heart Mountain Relocation Center protested their loss of freedom through a mass draft evasion. Experts lead a trial reenactment of the legal proceedings that followed and share the draft resisters' story through narration, discussion, and historic photographs.

Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in WWII

Monday, May 18, 6:30 pm

Richard Reeves, Lesley Stahl (moderator)

$34 (members $20)

Less than three months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order which initiated thousands of Japanese Americans to be rounded up and imprisoned into internment camps for the remainder of the war. Drawing from survivor interviews, private letters and memoirs, and numerous archives, award-winning historian Richard Reeves provides compelling insight into this painful chapter in American history, during which more than 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese aliens were interned.

Antebellum New York

Tuesday, May 19, 6:30 pm

Barry Lewis

$38 (members $24)

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, New Yorkers had plenty on their minds besides the issue of slavery. Industrialization had radically changed the city in the previous 20 years, immigrants needed for labor were bringing "foreign" cultures to American shores, the rising middle class was beginning to mimic European high society, and new technology was changing everyday life-for those who could afford it. Join us to look at a city whose own thorny problems made the "slavery question" seem a distant dilemma.

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

Tuesday, May 26, 6:30 pm

Stanley A. McChrystal

$38 (members $24)

As commander of Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008, General Stanley McChrystal recognized that to battle a decentralized enemy like Al Qaeda, the U.S. would need to discard a century of management wisdom and reinvent military strategies to become more organic and adaptive. Drawing on his experiences in the military, the private sector, and beyond, General McChrystal examines how teamwork, communication, and freedom for experimentation can transform organizations, from the world's largest military to the smallest institutions.

Memories of Al Hirschfeld

Thursday, May 28, 6:30 pm

Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, Robert Osborne, Harold Prince

$34 (members $20)

For nine decades, Al Hirschfeld immortalized celebrities and Broadway personalities with his iconic linear calligraphic portraits, establishing himself as one of the most important contemporary artists. Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, Robert Osborne, and Harold Prince explore the caricaturist's life and legacy through his art, career, and personal relations. This program is presented in conjunction with the New-York Historical exhibition The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld.

1. 3. FILMS

Entrance to the film series is included with Museum Admission during New-York Historical's Pay-as-you-wish Friday Nights (6 - 8 pm). No advanced reservations. Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 6 pm.

Justice in Film
Join us for the New-York Historical Society's film series, featuring opening remarks by notable directors, writers, actors, and historians. This series will explore how film has tackled social conflict, morality, and the perennial struggles between right and wrong that are waged from the highest levels of government to the smallest of local communities.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Friday, May 1, 7:00 pm

Andrew Roberts

Distinguished historian Andrew Roberts introduces Frank Lloyd's historic drama in which the crew of the HMS Bounty mutineer their ruthless captain. Directed by Frank Lloyd. Starring Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. 132 min.

Umberto D. (1952)

Friday, May 8, 7:00 pm

Antonia Monda

Award-winning filmmaker and novelist Antonio Monda presents this Italian film in which a proud old man and his beloved dog struggle to live on a government pension in Rome. (Italian with English subtitles). Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Starring Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio. 89 min.

All the President's Men (1976)

Friday, May 29, 7:00 pm

Akhil Reed Amar, Philip C. Bobbitt

Alan J. Pakula's intense political thriller follows reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their pursuit of truth during the Watergate scandal. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford. 138 min.

CONTACT INFORMATION

New-York Historical Society

170 Central Park West (at 77th Street)

New York, NY 10024

www.nyhistory.org

(212) 873-3400

MUSEUM AND STORE HOURS:

Tuesday- Thursday: 10 am - 6 pm

Friday: 10 am - 8 pm

Saturday: 10 am - 6 pm

Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm

MUSEUM ADMISSION

Adults- $19

Teachers and Seniors- $15

Students- $12

Children (5-13) - $6

Children (4 and under)- free

*Pay-as-you-wish Fridays from 6 pm - 8 pm.