When New Yorkers utter the phrase “Cooper Hewitt,” it typically brings to mind the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, housed in Andrew Carnegie’s mansion on 91st Street and Fifth Avenue. Far less renowned are the institution’s 19th-century women patrons, who made their family names synonymous with achievements in art and design. Sue Shutte, the historian […]

This lecture is co-sponsored with and will be held at The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen.  20 WEST 44TH STREET, BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH AVENUES RECEPTION AT 6:00 LECTURE AT 6:30 Julie Dobrow, a Tutts University professor, will speak about the mixed-up Victorian sensibilities and fascinating lives of Mabel Loomis Todd, Emily Dickinson’s first […]

This lecture will be held at Sotheby’s Institute, 570 Lexington Avenue (51st Street). On May 2, at the Victorian Society New York's annual Emerging Scholars event, young historians will shed light on little-appreciated aspects of 19th-century culture. During the free lectures (6 to 8 pm with reception, Sotheby's Institute of Art, 570 Lexington Avenue at 51st Street), Christine Garnier […]

The first stop on this bus tour will be Cold Spring, where an iron foundry operated from 1811-1911 supplying artillery to the West Point Military Academy across the Hudson River. A talk about the town's history will be followed by free time to explore its historic district before lunch at the Hudson House, an inn […]

Departing by train from Grand Central Station, we will visit two prominent Victorian homes on the Hudson, Washington Irving’s Sunnyside and the Gould family’s Lyndhurst. is tour is walking intensive; we will walk from the Irvington station to Sunnyside and then Lyndhurst via the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. Walking shoes/sneakers required. Lunch can be brought […]

Valley of Santa Ysabel by Frederic Edwin Church This tour will focus on accomplishments that preceded the Victorian era. In the morning we will explore Bartram’s Garden, the oldest surviving botanic garden in this country. It was begun in 1728 by John Bartram, a self-taught botanist who collected seeds and plants on travels that took […]

More than century before the Cuban Revolution of 1959 sparked an exodus that created today’s prominent Cuban American presence, Cubans were settling in New York in what became the largest community of Latin Americans in the 19th-century Northeast. Lisandro Pérez’s new book, Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution: The Making of Cuban New York (NYU Press), brings […]

Native American footpath, Dutch farm road and site of the city’s first Free Black homesteads, the Bowery stretches 1.25 miles from Chatham Square to Cooper Square. An early social hub for the working class, gangs, gays and immigrant Irish, Italians, Chinese, Jews and Germans, it was “the most interesting place in New York” to author […]

We travel to Connecticut to visit the famed Florence Griswold Museum, which was the center of the Old Lyme Art Colony, the main center of development of American Impressionism. Henry Ward Ranger, Childe Hassam, and Willard Metcalf all spent considerable time at the Griswold house and literally left their mark on its doors with their […]

Prostitution was big business in New York up to World War I, and where sex workers plied their trade, there was generally dancing and music. Musicologist and author Dale Cockrell’s lecture, based on his new book, Everybody’s Doin’ It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917 (W. W. Norton), will explore New York’s Victorian meeting […]

This lecture on the history of antique dolls' houses and miniatures will follow the fascination of the small as a part of Victorian life from a candy container miniature or a fairing, to a small box of miniature toys a child might have to a large grand dolls' house. We will see a doll pantry, […]

A lecture by Richard Guy Wilson Organized by the Victorian Society In America Director, VSA Newport Summer School and Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History, University of Virginia Thursday, February 6th, 6:30pm The Bob and Sheila Hoerle Lecture Hall The New School University Center, UL 105 63 Fifth Avenue, New York RSVP by Tuesday, February 4 to admin@vsasummerschools.org   Discover […]

Dear Young Victorians, We’re pleased to invite you to our first ever historic pub crawl! An afternoon of merriment is guaranteed to all as we explore some of New York’s oldest institutions and drink like true Victorians. When: Saturday February 8th, 1pm - 4pm Where: Meet-up point to will be announced to those who RSVP. […]

Zachary J. Violette focuses on what he calls the “decorated tenement,” a wave of new buildings constructed by immigrant builders and architects who remade the slum landscapes of the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the North and West Ends of Boston in the late nineteenth century. Drawing on research and fieldwork of more than […]

The Victorian Society New York invites you to a concert to benefit the Margot Gayle Fund for the Preservation of Victorian Heritage. Monday March 9th at 6:30 - 8:30 pm Bloomingdale School of Music 323 W 108th St, New York, NY 10025 Doors at 6:30 pm Performance begins at 6:45 pm in the David Greer […]

The Central Park: Original Designs for New York's Greatest Treasure (Abrams), a new book by New York City Municipal Archives conservator and art historian Cynthia S. Brenwall, is an eye-opening and magisterial study of how Manhattan’s beloved oasis was born. Based on previously unpublished documentation of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s visions, Brenwall’s lecture will explore […]