City Artifacts

Behind-the-Scenes Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Conserving the Rufus King Traveling Medicine Chest

Jamaica, Queens was home to Rufus King, one of our first senators. Inside his former farmhouse–still standing today–was a medicine chest, and inside the chest….well, you’ll have to read on to find out.

Behind-the-Scenes Tuesday, August 2, 2016

The Apple Peeler and Corer

High on a shelf of the legendary Russ & Daughters Appetizing store was an object that perfectly encapsulated the story of New York at Its Core, and a tool that helped launch a 100-year old business.

Augustus Fay. Croton Reservoir. ca. 1850. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.1525

City Artifacts Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Contentious History of Supplying Water to Manhattan

What made New York a prosperous port – its deep saltwater rivers – made its drinking water lousy. But this was also a problem of human error, dating back to when Europeans first settled in what was to become Manhattan.

“Under Broadway – Interior of Passenger-Car,” illustration from The Broadway Pneumatic Underground Railway, 1871, in the Ephemera Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 42.314.142

City Artifacts Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company – just a bunch of hot air?

The story of a forgotten transit line, one powered entirely by forcing air through a tunnel.

Sid Grossman (1915-1955), Vacant Lot between Buildings at 148th St., 1939. Museum of the City of New York. 43.131.9.7

City Artifacts Tuesday, August 7, 2012

A Fine Line: The Art of the Clothesline

Before laundromats, the clothesline was an intrinsic component of the urban landscape of New York City.