It is a remarkable story–a tale of service, sacrifice, research, and discovery.
A few months ago I received an e-mail from Kevin Canberg. I didn’t know Kevin, but I was fascinated by his e-mail. Here’s what Kevin wrote:
Green-Wood Cemetery’s main entrance, at 25th Street and Fifth Avenue, is adorned by spectacular brownstone arches. Designed by Richard Upjohn (the architect of Trinity Church at the head of Wall Street in Manhattan and the first president of the American Institute of Architects) and his son, Richard M. Upjohn (who is interred at Green-Wood), the … Read more
The New York Restoration Project (NYRP), founded and sponsored by entertainer/philanthropist Bette Midler, and a part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s MillionTreesNYC, has returned to Green-Wood Cemetery. In the summer of 2008, Green-Wood Superintendent of Grounds Operation Art Presson was approached by NYRP leaders. They thought our grounds would be a great place to plant trees … Read more
This has been a great year for our Green-Wood Historic Fund volunteers–our best yet. Volunteers staffed our new Historic Fund cart, welcoming visitors to historic Green-Wood Cemetery, answering their questions, and selling self-guided walking tours, books, and other items. Other volunteers worked on our Civil War Project, coming in once a month to search the … Read more
Welcome to the Green-wood Discovery blog. My name is Jeff Richman and I am the historian at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Green-Wood is truly a remarkable place: 478 acres of trees, sculpture, ponds, gardens, and grass-covered hills in the heart of urban Brooklyn. It is my privilege to be the historian at Green-Wood … Read more
More from the “if I travel, I can usually find something pertaining to Green-Wood Cemetery” files. On a recent visit to Philadelphia, we headed off towards the Rodin Museum. As I drove, my friend navigated, with a map on her lap. As we arrived near the museum, she asked me, “Who was Henry George?” The … Read more
Early in 1839, Louis Daguerre offered his invention, the Daguerreotype, to the world. That invention was the birth of photography. Daguerre then dispatched his pupil, Francois Jean-Baptiste Gouraud, who was the agent for the manufacturer of equipment endorsed by Daguerre, to America to introduce photography. It was 170 years ago today that Gouraud arrived in … Read more
Nathaniel Currier started his lithography printing company that would be become the famous firm of Currier and Ives (both Currier and Ives are interred, of course, at Green-Wood Cemetery) in the 1830’s, printing letterheads, sheet music, and other routine business items. But, in 1835, Currier headed in a new direction: illustrated news. It was in … Read more
Louis Moreau Gottschalk, America’s first matinee idol and its first internationally acclaimed classical composer/musician, is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. Here’s Cecile Licad, in 2003, playing Gottschalk’s Manchega. Quite a performance, and on a Steinway piano (the Steinway family owns the largest tomb at Green-Wood, with room for 256 interments: 128 on the ground floor and … Read more
I recently found myself at an Association for Gravestone Studies convention in Schenectady with a few hours of free time, and decided to head over to the New York State Museum in Albany for a visit. Headed in–quite an exhibition on September 11–video of a fireman who lost all of his fellows, a badly damaged … Read more