New-York Historical Society

"We rarely get a glimpse into the practical garments of past generations." Our upcoming exhibition "Real Clothes, Real Lives" explores an archival collection from Smith College, offering a fascinating narrative on the evolution of women’s labor, economics, and social roles. https://bit.ly/3AGUa1o 📷 L-R: Motor Corps of the National League for Women’s Service, Ambulance Corps Uniform, c. 1917 and Smith College Relief Unit Uniform and Hat, c. 1917.

🐾 Happy #InternationalDogDay to all the good puppers out there! Explore more pets of the past in our upcoming exhibition "Pets and the City"—opening on Oct. 25, 2024. Mark your calendars! https://bit.ly/3yXnPmH

💥 🥊 This work packs a punch! Throughout his career #GeorgeBellows was drawn to the gripping spectacle of boxing. "Counted Out" captures the drama of the match as the crowd awaits a decision. The carefully constructed composition places the viewer in the ring and draws the eye upward through the arc of the referee’s arm to the face of the presumed victor. See more in "From Paul Revere to Edward Hopper: Treasures from the Leonard L. Milberg Collection of American Prints, Drawings, and Watercolors"—on view through October 27, 2024. https://bit.ly/3XMl29R 📷 George Bellows, Counted Out (first version), 1921, Lithograph. Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Leonard L. Milberg

💅 Self care? Nailed it. Who invented the modern #manicure? And where did it start? Mary E. Cobb developed the American manicure salon in 1878, working with her podiatrist husband Dr. Joseph Parker Pray right here in New York City. She opened her first parlor in 1878 adjoining his practice at 69 West 23rd Street in New York City.⁣ After she divorced Pray on the grounds of persistent cruelty, she sold her own mail-order line of cosmetics and nail products, and trained women in the art of manicure so they could join the growing beauty industry. Cobb operated fashionable Manhattan parlors and outposts in Chicago and London. She sold Bran-u Nail Powder polish, Pan-za hand cream, Manicure Eko soap, and Cherri-lip—a blush tint for nails, lips, and cheeks. ⁣ ⁣ ✨ Last Chance: Visit "Women’s Work" before the show closes this Sunday, August 25, 2024. https://bit.ly/3DLkndA ⁣ 📷 1) Mrs. J. Parker Pray, 1875. 2) Mary E. Cobb, Jar, 1884-1920; Gift of Bella C. Landauer. 3-4) Mary E. Cobb, How to be Your Own Manicure, 1884, Hagley Museum and Library

#OnThisDay in 1901 The Willis Avenue Bridge, spanning the Harlem River between Manhattan and the Bronx, opens for traffic. The bridge was meant to relieve congestion on the Third Avenue Bridge to the north, which opened in 1898. It cost 2.4 million to build (more than 73 million in today's dollar).⁣ The opening celebration included officials and crowds gathering on the bridge for the ceremony, young girls in patriotic garb marching in a parade, and even the firing of a cannon. ⁣ 📷 George E. Stonebridge Photograph Collection

"The idea of animal companionship has evolved in step with the development of the city itself." Learn more about the history of New Yorkers and their pets in our upcoming exhibition "Pets and the City" in the latest from artnet. https://bit.ly/4dnfGqe

New Yorkers love their pets. Our upcoming exhibition “Pets and the City" traces "the history of animal domestication in New York, from the dogs trained by the Indigenous Lenape and Haudenosaunee peoples to the furry family members living in the city today." Mark your calendars for October 25, 2024! https://bit.ly/4cqsScM

"In each case the objects echo their distinctive historic forms while their content is reworked to reflect on the underside of the Dutch colonial empire—the hidden legacy of death, destruction, and suffering." Read more about the special exhibition "Beatrice Glow: When Our Rivers Meet" as well as "Lost New York." https://bit.ly/3SIYVxB

👶 You could *drop your children off* at this now-bygone department store while you shopped 🛍️ Samuel Klein opened his Union Square store in 1906. Kleins’s flagship location sold everything from clothing to furs, jewelry, and pet supplies. A painting by Anne Eisner shows the exterior of a dressing room at Klein’s—identified in the title as a woman’s sacred space. Department stores provided a pathway for women to disrupt social convention by leaving the home and pushing, unescorted, into public space. See more in "Lost New York." https://bit.ly/4aBuX5B 🎨 Anne Eisner, Klein's Outer Sanctum, ca. 1934–38, Oil on canvas; Gift of Christie McDonald.

#OnThisDay in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act to enforce the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 15th Amendment (ratified in 1870) prohibited states from denying any male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” However, in the years after the amendment various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were the most significant civil rights bills since Reconstruction. These laws signaled the end of legalized Jim Crow, though the struggle for equality and full citizenship continues. This photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson shows an earlier talk with Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, and James Farmer on December 3, 1963. Learn more in our "Meet the Presidents" gallery. https://bit.ly/2vnWLvF 📷 LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto