Just a few days after Hurricane Sandy hit Brooklyn, we blogged about the extensive damage to trees, memorials, and fences at Green-Wood Cemetery: “Sandy Hammers Green-Wood.” In today’s New York Times, reporter David W. Dunlap updates the sad story of destruction: “In a Historic Resting Place, a Different Sort of Loss: Hurricane Sandy Damaged Many … Read more
The firm of Currier and Ives, in business from 1834 until 1907, produced over 7,000 different prints and over one million copies of those prints. More of their lithographs (prints made by creating art, then transferring that art to a special stone with a variety of grease pencils, then applying ink, printing in a press, … Read more
Internationally-acclaimed avant-garde composer Elliott Carter died on November 5 at the age of 103. Carter has been interred at Green-Wood. Allan Kozinn, writing Carter’s obituary in The New York Times, described him as “one of the most important and enduring voices in contemporary music . . . .” And, as Anthony Tommasini, in his appraisal … Read more
September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day in American history. At the Battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia collided with the Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of Major General George McClellan. By the end of the day, 23,000 American soldiers, North and South, … Read more
Brooklyn was the incubator of baseball in the National Pastime’s infancy–the 1840s, 50s, and 60s. And, the first national baseball hero and legend, James Creighton, is interred at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery–where almost 200 baseball pioneers are permanent residents (you may find Glenn Collins’s wonderful article about Green-Wood and baseball, which was published in The New … Read more
October is a great time of year for projects on Green-Wood’s grounds. I recently checked in with Art Presson, Green-Wood’s superintendent of the grounds, who described some of the recent work: In October, when the mowing requirements lighten up and before the leaves cover the grounds, we have a brief window of opportunity when we … Read more
This past Saturday, the “Angel of Music,” a great bronze angel sculpture in tribute to music giant Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), who is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery, was unveiled at his grave. Gottschalk was America’s first matinee idol and its first international music superstar. While conducting an orchestra near Rio de Janiero in his own … Read more
What a very special Green-Wood weekend! This year, for the 10th year in a row, The Green-Wood Historic Fund took part in openhousenewyork, a celebration of architecture and design in the Big Apple. But this year was different. Last year, for the very first time in Green-Wood’s long history (174 years and counting), we opened … Read more
This Saturday and Sunday, volunteers, in character and costume, will fan out across Green-Wood’s grounds to present a production like no other: “Open ‘Houses.” Last year, for the first time, the Green-Wood Historic Fund opened up many of its mausoleums to the public for the first time. For the blog post on that weekend, click … Read more