CLARA DRISCOLL & THE TIFFANY GIRLS: New York Women of Light

At the turn of the 19^th century, a sorority of female workers in Queens labored anonymously to create the fabulous Tiffany lamps.   Known as the Tiffany Girls, these artisans meticulously created lamps that wed the new invention of the electric light bulb with fine craftsmanship.  The Tiffany lamp became a trope for the combination of  American manufacturing ingenuity and fine design.

Wisteria table lamp designed by Clara Driscoll for Tiffany Studios, ca. 1902.  Collection of the Virginia  Museum of Fine Arts.  Photo by Fopseh via Wikimedia Commons.

 

The beautiful mosaic glass lamps the Tiffany Girls created lit the living rooms of America’s Gilded Age.  This term, a reference to a thin coating of gold covering a core of base metal, was coined by Mark Twain as a criticism of the hidden inequalities of the era. The contributions of these anonymous Ladies of Light to American decorative arts were finally acknowledged in 2007.  A New Light on Tiffany,  an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, shed new and long-overdue light on the artistic genius of chief designer, Clara Driscoll and her female crew of artisans.

A New Light on Tiffany celebrated the genius of these women while offering insight into work life of women in the Corona, Queens Tiffany Studios in turn-of-the-century New York.  This included the difficulties of being a woman in a man’s world—including the convention of the time banning married women from employment at Tiffany Studios.

Clara Driscoll with Joseph Briggs, a longtime Manager at Tiffany Studios, ca. 1901.  Photo in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A native of Ohio, Clara Pierce Wolcott was born in 1861, the year the Battle of Bull Run began the Civil War.  Clara moved to New York, and enrolled in the new school at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She found employment at Tiffany Studios during a strike by the men of the Lead Glaziers and Glass Cutters Union.

Tiffany Studios hired large numbers of women to cut glass in the Corona, Queens complex they opened next to Tiffany Glass Furnaces.  The Queens location was far from prying eyes seeking to uncover the methods by which Louis Comfort Tiffany manufactured glass of dazzling colors and effects.  In Queens, Clara Driscoll and her team of skilled women artisans labored to produce Tiffany’s intricate lamps.

Driscoll became the head of the Women’s Glass Cutting Department in 1894.  She worked for Tiffany Studios for more than two decades, creating some of their most iconic designs–anonymously–as was thought to befit her status as a woman.

A display of Tiffany table and floor lamps.  Collection of the Mark Twain House and  Museum.  Photo by Magnus Manske via Wikimedia Commons.

Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls worked on lamp shades composed of hundreds of pieces of cut glass, from Tiffany’s repertoire of decorative glass. Tiffany’s manufacturing process was to use cartoons to cut out brass templates.  These would be used as guides to cut hundreds of individual pieces of glass. Each glass piece was edged in copper foil.  The shade would then be assembled on a rounded wooden form, and the glass pieces soldered together with lead.  The result was a shade that allowed light from an electric bulb to both bring brightness to the room and illuminate the colored glass.

Tiffany workbench with cartoon, wooden form, copper foil and soldering iron, 1900-1907.  Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Gift of Fred and Nancylee Dikeman, in memory of his father, John Dikeman, 1980.

Tiffany became famous for the color-infused, leaded glass lampshades that have come to define his name.  But it was Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany girls, not Tiffany and his staff of male designers, who both designed and executed some of Tiffany Studio’s most successful designs.  The women have been linked specifically to lamps with natural motifs, including the famous dragonfly, arrowhead, daffodil and wisteria lamps, arguably among the most iconic Tiffany products ever produced.

Dragonfly table lamp designed by Clara Driscoll for Tiffany Studios, 1920.  Collection of Dayton Art Institute.  Photo by Wmperal via Wikimedia Commons.

Driscoll and the Ladies of Light labored anonymously.  Americans believed, incorrectly, that the designs for the famous lamps were the genius of Louis Comfort Tiffany, a belief he was happy to encourage.  Professor Mark Eidelburg is an expert on Tiffany who lectures at Rutgers University.  He was asked how he felt Louis Comfort Tiffany would have reacted to the recent acknowledgement that Clara Driscoll, a woman, and not Tiffany himself had designed some of his most famous lamps. Professor Eidelberg’s response was succinct:  “I think Tiffany would have died.”

The Professor’s point is well taken as Tiffany, buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, chose a simple stone monument for his own grave.  Nearby, the mausoleum of Gilded Age “Copper King” Marcus Daly (1841-1900) features spectacular Tiffany windows—likely designed and executed by Clara Driscoll and her team of women at Tiffany Studios.

Stained glass window from Tiffany Studios in the mausoleum of Marcus Daly, Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY.  Photo courtesy Mille Fiori Favoriti.

In 1937, following changing tastes and the effects of the Great Depression, the Corona factory closed.  In March 2013, bulldozers began wrecking the old Tiffany building to make way for a new elementary school.  Thousands of shards of Tiffany glass were uncovered, their fabulous colors and effects revealed by the light for the first time in decades.

Carefully excavated, then cleaned and sorted, the glass was used by artist Rita McBride to create a modernist frieze in the new school.  Says McBride:  “I’m excited to be using actual Tiffany glass pieces that were manufactured here.”  Public School 315Q, constructed on the spot where Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls labored anonymously to create the famous Tiffany lamps, is known as The Tiffany School.

Rita McBride
Artifacts (C.W.D.)  2015
Excavated Tiffany glass shards installed within an aluminum PK-30 System
Collection of the NYC Department of Education
© Rita McBride, photo: Joerg Lohse, courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York.

Dorothy Creole: New York’s First Black Woman

Arriving in 1627, Dorothy Creole is known as the city’s first black woman.  That year, three enslaved African women set foot on the southern shore of Manhattan, arriving in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam).  Property of the Dutch West India Company, these women were brought to the colony to become the wives of enslaved African men who had arrived in 1625.  One of these women was named Dorothy Creole, a surname that she acquired in the New World and likely began as a descriptive term.

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Dutch soldiers in a boat with slaves from the Colonies, Africa” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1910.

Dorothy’s world was one in which West Africans and Europeans had mixed and traded for more than two centuries.   The Dutch had established trading posts in present-day Angola on the Slavenkust or Slave Coast to acquire slaves for their New World colonies.   It is also the year of the supposed sale of the island of Manhattan to the Dutch by native inhabitants for the equivalent of 24 dollars of trade goods.  What is significant to Dorothy Creole’s story is that by 1625, New Amsterdam was a place where white, blacks and native inhabitants had significant interaction.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Nieu Amsterdam.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

An early copper plate print of New Amsterdam shows the mix of Europeans and Africans in the fledgling colony.  In the foreground, a Dutch couple displays the agricultural wealth of the colony, chief among these being tobacco, very much in vogue in the coffee houses of Europe. The print circulating in Europe was designed to attract European colonists for New Amsterdam.  The Dutch West India Company wanted New Netherland to be the granary of its western Atlantic empire.  Prospective colonists were attracted by the abundance of rich farm land, offering them the possibility of becoming wealthy landowners.  In the middle ground of the print, figures of black men and a woman in African garments carry goods to and fro on their head.  Along with the brimming basket of foodstuff held by the Dutch woman, they are a troupe of wealth and abundance.   In the background, ships are shown arriving and departing from the colony with wealth from trade clearly illustrated.

Het West Indisch Huys, Amsterdam 1655, engraving. Amsterdam, Stadsarchief Amsterdam. Frank Schulenburg via Wikimedia Commons.

The colony was a business venture of the Dutch West India Company (DWIC); and Dorothy Creole was a part of that business.  The agricultural profits of the DWIC came from New World products that relied upon slave labor from Africa.  The company’s headquarters in Amsterdam boasted warehouses filled with tobacco, sugar and coffee that had been produced with slave labor from Africa and unloaded in Europe from the holds of ships returning from the New World.   On Manhattan, Dorothy became a tiny, but vital link in the chain of the company business.

When Dorothy arrived in New Amsterdam, it was a hardscrabble village of thirty wooden houses clinging to the southern tip of Manhattan, today’s financial capital of the world.    But it was also, quite literally, the island at the center of the Dutch world, linking the New World with Africa and the European continent.

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “Nieuwe Werelt kaert” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1668.

The company had a lucrative monopoly on the fur trade with the Indians.   By the end of the 17th century, the beaver had been hunted to near extinction in Europe.  At the same time, Europe was undergoing the Little Ice Age,” a period of expanding glaciers and falling temperatures.

Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library. “T’Fort Nieuw Amsterdam op de Manhatans.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Fur trade with the Indians was crucial to the financial success of the colony.  Colonists of African descent became key to maintaining good relations between the Dutch and the Indians.  An engraving from the late 17^th century shows a hunter holding a beaver pelt, while wearing another on his head.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Nieu Amsterdam at[que] New York” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1673.

Seal of New Netherlands. This photo taken at the New York State Museum, July 29, 2009. Matt H. Wade via Wikimedia Commons.

A beaver appears on the seal of New Netherlands, underlining its importance to the colony.  Beaver pelts were valued for making broad-brimmed hats.  Moreover, wearing a beaver hat was believed to make the wearer more intelligent.  The oil from the hat, when rubbed on one’s hair, was said to sharpen a person’s memory.

These hats, both warm and water repellent, were also conspicuous indicators of status and wealth.     The wealthy men depicted in Rembrandt’s Syndics of the Drapers Guild are pictured with such hats that were made from beaver pelts sent to Holland from the New Amsterdam colony.

The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild, known as the ‘Sampling Officials’ by Rembrandt (1606-1669), 1662, oil on canvas. Collection of the Rijksmuseum. DcoetzeeBot via Wikimedia Commons.

The New Amsterdam fur trade that was so crucial to the success of the Dutch colony had been established Jan (Juan) Rodrigues.  Rodrigues was the first known person of African descent to arrive on Manhattan.  He  arrived as a free man in 1613.  A black sailor from Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he had set up a trading post with the native Lenape people on Manhattan Island.

The future of the fur trade, and indeed, the colony itself, was jeopardized by the actions of the DWIC director-general, Willem Kieft.  Kieft’s War, (also known as the Wappinger War), was a conflict between the settlers of the nascent colony and the local native population.

Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “Kleding der Nieuw-Netherlanders.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1671.

Lasting from 1643-1645, the conflict grew from Kieft’s unauthorized order for an attack on the Lenape camps, in which the Dutch massacred the native inhabitants.  This action had unified the local Algonquian tribes against the Dutch, causing many attacks on both sides.  Dutch settlers began to return to the Netherlands, slowing the growth of the nascent colony.

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Dutch soldiers in a boat with slaves from the Colonies, Africa” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1910.

Part of Kieft’s solution was to use the African population as a buffer between the Indians and the Dutch.  At the height of the fighting of the Dutch and Indian War, Kieft opened the frontier north of the tiny colony for settlement by blacks.

Company records show that in 1644, one Paulo d’Angola and other enslaved Africans petitioned the Dutch West India Company for their freedom, as well as the freedom of their wives.  The wife of Paulo d’Angola was none other than Dorothy Creole.  Records also show that the previous year, Dorothy had adopted a young black child who had lost his parents.  Kieft conditionally granted the petition.  He conferred what was called “half-freedom” declaring them “free and at liberty on the same footing as other free people here in New Netherland.”  This group of former slaves was also granted title to land in the Dutch colony.  Only the names of men appear in records.  Some historians feel that half-freedom for the petitioners’ wives came only when these men paid for the women’s half-freedom.

These families received the right to own land north of the settlement to farm and settle.  Called the “Land of the Blacks” of the “Negro frontier,” this two-mile stretch from Canal Street to today’s 34th Street, was established as one of the first free black communities in North America, clearly outside the boundaries of the colony.

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “Map of the original grants of village lots from the Dutch West India Company to the inhabitants of New-Amsterdam (now New-York) lying below the present line of Wall Street : Grants commencing A.D. 1642” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1897.

But there were conditions to half-freedom.  The half-free men and women were required  to pay a yearly tax of “30 skepels (about ¾ bushel) of maize, wheat, peas or beans, and one fat hog” and work for the colony when required.  Men were required to serve in the militia.  These conditions were often required of the city’s free, white population.  The  children of these half-free men and women, however, would be slaves, tying these families to the colony via perpetual servitude.

The grant that Dorothy Creole and Paulo d’Angola likely received was sizeable, from eight to twelve acres.  This would make Dorothy Creole among the largest black landowners in the city’s history.  There was enough land for a kitchen garden, crops, and pastureland for animals.  Dorothy and Paulo likely planted orchards of apples, peaches, plums and cherries.  They built their house themselves, using wood and thatch, like those in the city proper, south of the palisade at Wall Street that was built in 1653, using labor from these freed black men.  It was a permeable barrier built to protect the colony while allowing the passage of valuable goods to enter the city.

Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “Section Of Wall Street Palisade.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1887.

The Journal of Jasper Danckaerts (1679-1680) describes this area and its inhabitants:

These negroes were formerly the proper slaves of the (West India) company, but, in consequence of the frequent changes and conquests of the country, they have obtained their freedom and settled themselves down where they have thought proper, and thus on this road, where they have ground enough to live on with their families.

Minetta Lane in today’s Greenwich Village is all that remains of a road, formerly called the Negroes’ Causeway, that ran alongside Minetta Creek.  This road connected several of the farms in the Land of the Blacks with the colony that was protected y the Wall Street Palisade.

Records have no mention of either Dorothy or Paulo until 1653, when one Dorothy d’Angola, then a widow, marries Emanuel Pietersen.  Nor do we learn about the fate of her adopted child, or property that survived her demise and might have passed down to her children.  There is no record of her place of burial.  But we can bring several facts about the fate of Dorothy and other blacks in New Netherlands to bear.

Willem Kieft’s rule as director-general had not met with the approval of the DWIC.  He was called back to the Netherlands in disgrace, and died when he was shipwrecked.  He was replaced by Pieter Stuyvesant, a seasoned administrator and soldier, who was counted upon to renew the fortunes of the colony.   In 1664, Stuyvesant surrenders the colony to the British without firing a shot, and New Amsterdam became New York.

Portrait of Ernest August, Duke of York (1674-1728), by an unidentified painter, oil on canvas. In the collection of the Royal Collection. Sir Gawain via Wikimedia Commons.

The now British colony was named for James II, the Duke of York, later both James II and VII.  The Duke was a principle investor in the Company of Royal Adventures  Trading To Africa—a name that boded ill for the future of blacks in the colony.  Under the British, life for black New Yorkers, enslaved and free, changed dramatically.  Laws passed by the British following the 1712 Slave Uprising, prohibited freed African New Yorkers from owning real estate.  They were forced to forfeit their property to the British crown.  Likely, the farm established by Dorothy and Paulo was lost in this way.

Like the Jews of New Netherlands, blacks were prohibited from burying their dead within city walls.   In 1673, on a plot of land off today’s Broadway, then the Post Road to Boston, a Dutch woman named Sara Van Bosum allowed the burial of Africans on her property.  The burial ground continued to grow with the city’s increasing black populations.  Eventually, it comprised of about five city blocks, and held hundreds of burials.  It could well be the final resting place of Dorothy Creole.

Area of archaeological excavation by Howard university marked on a map by Francis Maerschalck (d. 1776). A Plan of the City of New York from an Actual Survey, anno Domini M{D}CCLV .Section showing the Collect Pond and “Negros Burial Ground”. New York City in 1754; map was published in 1755 by Gerardus Duyckink II (1723-1797). Geographer at large blogspot.com via Wikimedia Commons.

By 1716, after a half-century of British rule, the African Burial Ground was one of the few pieces of land in Manhattan controlled by blacks.  By 1795, the land was subdivided and sold for house lots.  Though clearly marked on maps, the status of the site as burial ground was forgotten, only to emerge centuries later during 1991 excavations for the Ted Weiss Federal Office Building at 290 Broadway.

When it was revealed that the site held the bones of formerly enslaved residents of Manhattan, the descendant community of New Yorkers arose with a single voice.  They demanded a respectful recovery of the remains, a study of the site for information on the city’s first African residents and a fitting reburial and monument.

The graves were notable for the lack of artefactual material, speaking to the poverty of those interred.  Their bones, marked by period of malnutrition and physical stress, attest to lives of hardship and deprivation.  Perhaps Dorothy’s bones are among those recovered from the site.  No written records survive.  There are upwards of 500 burials at the site, yet there are no inscriptions or markers.  In other words, the only record we have of Dorothy Creole was written by the Dutch.  She left us no written record, no marker, no image.  Today, the site is a National Monument, known as the African Burial Ground.  Educational initiatives about the lives of early black New Yorkers is explored.

Artist’s Impression of the African Burial Ground National Monument, U.S. National Park Service. Image uploaded by Rodney Leon via Wikipedia.com.

When Dorothy arrived in Manhattan, New Amsterdam was a colony with less than 200 souls.  Today, the City of New York boasts a population of 8.5 million.  One in four New York City residents identify as black or mixed heritage making it the US city with the largest population of blacks.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Family, S&Q Silent March, June 17, 2012. Pancho S via Wikimedia Commons.

Arriving in 1667, Dorothy Creole is known as the city’s first black woman.  In 2014, Charlene McCray, became the first black woman to assume the role of the city’s first lady.  Ms. McCray serves as the chairwoman of the Commission on Gender Equity, spearheading initiatives to commission public art acknowledging the contributions of women to the city.  She Built NYC aims to bring the contributions of women to our city throughout its history.

All traces of Dorothy Creole, the city’s first black woman, have been erased by time, by prejudice, by greed and by successive governments caring less for their inhabitants than the expansion of the Island at the Center of the World. But the name of Dorothy Creole, has been put forward as a candidate for consideration by the commission.  Surely, a woman who helped forge links among three continents deserves a place in our textbooks, on our streets and in our hearts.

This article may be freely used by others in consideration of attribution only.  

 

 

NYC’S FABULOUS WOMEN UNDER GROUND

Part of my fascination with New York City lies in what is not usually encountered and most often missing from our cityscape.  By this, I mean evidence of the contributions that New York’s fabulous women have made to the five boroughs.  Over the centuries, women have accounted for roughly half of New York City’s population.  But historical documents and histories of the city are invariably lacking in information about New York women.  For that information, you need to go underground.

Enter Amanda Sutphin, an urban archaeologist working for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.  Sutphin might be called the city’s quintessential underground woman.  She spends her days in the city’s underground, climate-controlled archaeological repository.  Here, she works with with artifacts that often spent centuries underground before resurfacing in New York City during archaeological excavations.

Urban archaeologist, Amanda Sutphin,in the Nan A. Rothschild Research Center of the New York City Archaeological Repository.  The underground facility houses over a million objects collected from excavations throughout the five boroughs.  Located in the Durst Organization Building on Corporate Row, the facility places artifacts associated with New York women of the past, once again, at the very heart of New York City.

When bulldozers dig the foundations of a new building, excavate a new subway tunnel or refurbish a ferry landing, they destroy the archaeological record of the city.  Construction projects that take place on city land are required to complete an archaeological survey before the earth–and important evidence of the past–is disturbed.  In this way, the destruction of the city’s past also turns up artifacts that once belonged to long gone of New Yorkers.  Once these objects resurface on city land, ownership then transfers to the current generation of New Yorkers.

Artifacts that enter the city’s archaeological repository are used by Sutphin and her colleagues to reconstruct the past for the benefit of contemporary New Yorkers.  “These object were found on public land,” explains Ms. Sutphin.  “The collection has been catalogued and studied with public money.  The public should benefit from these efforts, and we hope to help them do so.”

Dr. Nan Rothschild, Adjunct professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, at the Stadt Huys excavation at the southern tip of Manhattan.  She holds the bowl of a pipe from Dutch New Amsterdam, recovered at the site.  Photo courtesy Stadt Huys Excavation Project.

Asked to provide the earliest example of objects associated with fabulous New York women of the past, Ms. Sutphin points to the city’s prehistory and Native American culture.  Archaeological sites from this early period are most associated with exploiting the land for seasonal food sources such as coastal spring fishing camps, fall open air hunting camps and shellfish collecting stations.  Native American women in sites such as the one now at College Point, Queens, worked at collecting and processing food.  Artifacts from this site include shells that were discarded after processing and a stone weight used to sink fishing nets.

Whelk, scallop and oyster shells unearthed at the College Point, Queens, prehistoric site.  A stone net weight is at left.  This site indicates the rich coastal food resources available to the earliest New York women.  Photo courtesy New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“The archaeological record of urban New York actually begins in 17^th century New Amsterdam,” explains Ms. Sutphin.   The Stadt Huys or City Hall, a site in lower Manhattan located at today’s 85 Broad Street was the site of an archaeological excavation.  The Stadt Huys was built by William Kieft, a lesser-known director of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam before Peter Stuyvesant and his peg leg arrived in town.

Louis Oram, View of Stadthuys, watercolor.  Collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The site originally served as a place where officials and guests of the Director were lodged and fed.  And drank.  A lot.

The archaeological record of The Stadt Huys is rich in bottles and pitchers that held the liquor seemingly necessary for official business of the Dutch city.  Locally-made pottery and imported glass bottles were found in abundance at the site.

Found at the Stadt Huys site, a redware pitcher and a glass bottle that were likely hefted by New Amsterdam serving maids, the original New York City waitresses.  The locally-made pottery pitcher, modeled on Dutch prototypes, held locally-brewed ale or cider.  The glass decanter, an elite object imported from Europe, held imported wine.  It was likely used by New Amsterdam’s political elite when attending to official business.  Kitchen work and serving were two of the limited options of work for New Amsterdam women.

In 1664, Dutch New Amsterdam became English New York.  Artifacts from colonial era New York were discovered during an excavation over an 18th century “ice-box” room on the grounds of what is now the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street in lower Manhattan.  The 18th century English custom of tea drinking was adopted by colonial New York ladies and was a feature of New York loyalist families (which was most of them.)  The evidence of tea drinking squarely places the colony in the middle of the political crisis that loomed when that commodity was taxed by the British.  And we all know what happened next….(though New York City remained staunchly loyal to the Crown.)

A green glazed teapot spout from the 18th century might have broken during a tea party hosted by loyalist New York women.  The beloved and oft-told (but likely apocryphal) tale of Mrs. Murray and her daughters describes such a party.  After the American defeat at the Battle of Brooklyn, the Murray ladies, secret patriots, hosted a tea party for British officers.  Their aim was to distract them while American troops escaped pursuing red coats.  New York legend says that a maid kept watch at an upstairs window and signaled her mistress once the troops had made their way to safety.  The unsuspecting Mr. Murray, a loyalist, provided the tea for the entertainment which took place in today’s Murray Hill section of Manhattan.

Tea was an expensive commodity, usually kept in a box that was kept locked by the lady of the house.  And the accoutrements for serving tea were imported elite items including teapots, teaspoons, teacups and saucers.

Jean-Étienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702 – 1789), Still Life: Tea Set, about 1781 – 1783, Oil on canvas mounted on board. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Speaking about New York women of the 19th century, Ms. Sutphin pointed to three different bottles designed to hold manufactured goods.  These artifacts signaled that  like today, New York women of the past were responsible for the majority of purchases in the city’s households–thus a driving economic force in the city.  A variety of 19th century bottles were excavated from root cellars in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx when it morphed from a private home to a public park.

L. Miller’s Hair Invigorator was part of the manufacturing boom in 19th century New York.  The product was marketed as a product for mother’s who wished to see their babies grow a lush head of hair (and their balding husbands.)

 

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Mother Combing Her Child’s Hair, Pastel on Gray Paper, Behest of Mary T. Cockcroft, Courtesy The Brooklyn Museum.

At the southern tip of Manhattan, the renovation of the Battery Park subway tunnel yielded a mid-20th century toy belonging to a New York child.  A play teacup made of Depression era glass was likely lost by a little girl playing in what was then a park.

The child’s replica of her mother’s tea set was manufactured in Akron, Ohio during the Depression.  Ms. Sutphin points to modern New York City girls of the 20th century being given a set of expectations that seem to differ little from those of little ladies in colonial era New York.

“Assigning gender to artifacts is often difficult,” warns Ms. Sutphin.  “But it is also true that the increasing presence of female archaeologists in New York City has meant that attention is often given to objects that can offer clues to the lives of past New York women.”

Play-Time Glass Dish Set in its original box.  Akro Company produced a wonderful collection of dishes for little girls.  Perhaps best known for their marbles, Akro Agate Company was founded in Akron, Ohio, in 1911 and moved to Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1914.

And the influence of New York women who work as archaeologists is overwhelmingly evident in the formation of the city’s archaeological archives.  The Nan A. Rothschild Research Center of the New York City Archaeological Repository is named for the Barnard College archaeologist who trained Ms. Sutphin as an undergraduate student. Professor Rothschild persuaded her cousin, Helena Durst, to donate space in the basement of the Durst Organization building, located on Corporate Row on West 47th Street, to house the collection.  Three fabulous New York women at work in the city!

Professor Rothschild has conducted extensive research into the lower Manhattan neighborhoods that comprised New Amsterdam and New York.  Photo courtesy of amazon.com.

The ghosts of New York women past are among us.  They may be underground instead of featured in history books and archives, but they account for half of the actors in our city’s great history.  And today’s New York women archaeologists are working to preserve their past, record their lives and tell the stories of their contributions to the city we know:  the good, the bad, the fabulous.

The excavations or digs from which objects enter the collection of the New York City Landmarks and Preservation Commission are situated throughout the 5 boroughs.  New York City is the first city in the nation to allow access to its archaeological records through a website.  The website lets you browse current and past digs in several ways:  using a map, through a list of excavations, or via thematic collections. The themed collections include:  Food and Drink in Colonial New York,  Historic Toys and Animals Among Us.  This final collection includes some of the oldest objects in the archives, and helps us reconstruct the natural environment of New York and its abundant natural resources.

In an effort to bring education about archaeology into New York classrooms, lesson plans for teachers and fun quizzes for kids are also available.  If you catch the bug for unearthing Gotham (or other places) and want to study archaeology, the web site offers a list of institutions in the city with formal programs as well as field schools–a way to literally get your hands dirty while learning about digging up the past.

Investing in Women: Bloomberg Financial Services Gender-Equality Index

Photo by Paul Williams via Flickr.

Bloomberg, L.P., the global business and financial information leader, has a finger on the pulse of innovation and diversity.  Inside Bloomberg’s soaring glass-walled headquarters in midtown Manhattan, Bloomberg experts are breaking down glass ceilings and compiling information on the upside of gender equality.  The recently-launched Bloomberg Financial Services Gender-Equality Index (BFGEI) is a guide to best-in-class public companies in the financial services industry providing opportunities and services for women.

Photo courtesy Bloomberg, L.P.

Every American working woman knows that she earns only 79 cents for every dollar her male colleagues make.  It’s a statistic that cuts like a knife during the morning commute or the race home to prepare dinner for the family and help kids with homework.  Enter Angela Sun, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, who works in Bloomberg headquarters.  Projecting that 79 cents and gender inequality into the global financial arena, Sun offers a couple of staggering numbers with lots and lots of zeros..

Sun points out:  “According to the World Bank, there are more than a billion women outside the formal financial system.  The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that $12 trillion could be added to the global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality.”  The BFGEI is designed to address all those zeros affecting the global economy.

 

Why is now a good time for Bloomberg to launch this initiative?  Explains Sun:  “Investors and managers have long known that diversity is good for the bottom line.  Now, they are looking for solid data to evaluate an individual company’s reputation, value, and performance.”

Bloomberg Index has made a commitment to provide investors with industry-leading market data and analysis in the still-opaque areas of ESG data. Investors are increasingly relying on this data which includes environmental information alongside corporate social responsibility and governance information.  Clarity and transparency in this data bring investors and companies together.

The BFGEI is designed to showcase companies that have made strong commitments to gender equality.  Participation in the Index is voluntary and there are no associated costs. Sun stresses that the Index is not a benchmark:  “We collect data for reference purposes only.  The BFGEI is not ranked.”

The Index provides information on 56 data points in 4 areas for each company: gender statistics, company policies, products and services, and community engagement. These data points provide investors with an objective, quantified comparison of a company’s performance and commitment to gender equality relative to its peers.  The information collected by the Index ranges from the number of women working for the company and serving on the board, to child care services and parental leave provided.  The Index also measures the level of gender consciousness in a company’s products and services, as well as engagement with the outside community.

Image via commons.wikimedia.org

For participating companies, the BFGEI also provides the opportunity to highlight their accomplishments in improving gender equality.  The Index is also valuable in helping companies to attract potential female talent.  Customers, vendors, governments and community groups all benefit from the information as well.

The BFGEI began with 26 public companies.  Companies with a market capitalization of at least $15 billion and at least one security trading on a U.S. exchange, were invited to participate in the initial survey.

Banking heavyweights JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, insurance giant MetLife, and credit card company Visa, are in the initial Index.  In response to the overwhelming positive feedback, Bloomberg plans to expand the Gender-Equality Index product to other business sectors in the coming years. Currently, the BFGEI is only available through Bloomberg proprietary terminals.

Photo via commons.wikimedia.com

How do the first group of BFGEI companies stack up?  Women make up 26% of BFGEI company board members versus only 13% for the overall financial services industry.  An impressive 92% of BFGEI companies are committed to increasing the percentage of women they hire by putting mechanisms in place to identify and recruit qualified women.  Fully 81% of BFGEI companies sponsor financial education programs for women in their communities.  Nice going.

The bottom line is that diversity is good for business. The hope is that BFGEI will help to add those meaningful zeros to the global GDP, and bring more women inside the formal financial system.

Photo by Paul Williams via Flickr.

 

Eliza Jumel & Anne Northup: New York’s Richest Woman & Saratoga’s Most Unfortunate Woman Join Forces

Portraits of Eliza Jumel and Aaron Burr from the front parlor at the Morris-Jumel mansion.  The couple were married in this room in 1833.

The rags-to-riches story of Eliza Jumel, the wife of wealthy merchant Stephen Jumel, and the second wife of Aaron Burr, made substantial grist for the gossip mills of the New Republic.  The beautiful house Eliza purchased with her first husband (and where she later married Burr) was the largest Manhattan estate at the time, and survives as Manhattan’s oldest house.  Here, Eliza entertained the crème de la crème of New York society in her mad scramble up the social ladder.  Briefly assisting her in that arduous social climb was Anne Northup.

The elegant mansion in northern Manhattan is now a museum, decorated after careful research on Madame Jumel’s furnishings.

Anne Hampton Northup was an American citizen of mixed European, African and Native American heritage.  She became the wife of Solomon Northup, a free man of African descent, whose harrowing tale is told in the 1853 book and 2013 movie, Twelve Years A Slave.

Anne and Solomon had wed on Christmas Day in 1829.  Their union had resulted in three children:  Elizabeth, Margaret and Alonzo. Solomon Northup had moved his family to Saratoga Springs in 1834 for its employment opportunities.  The town was known as Spa City, and attracted the elite of the New Republic.  Solomon played his violin during seasonal dances.  He is known to have played at the United States Hotel, one of the grandest hotels in the resort town.  He also worked, off season, laboring to build the railroad that served Saratoga.  Anne was a noted cook, working at the town’s many upscale hotels to earn extra money to round out Solomon’s seasonal employment.

Anne Northup likely met Eliza Jumel at the United States Hotel in Saratoga Springs.  Here, Eliza escaped the heat of Manhattan summers at the fashionable watering hole in upstate New York.  It is likely that Anne was hired by Eliza Jumel to cater private dinners. Eliza Jumel enjoyed the role of fashionable hostess at  private parties held during the summer months.

Saratoga Springs Marker.     Photo by Ron Cogswell via Flickr.

In 1841, at age 32, Solomon Northup met two men who offered him a job as a fiddler for several New York City performances.   Expecting the trip to be brief, Solomon did not notify Anne, who was working  an extra job as cook  at Sherrill’s Coffee House in Sandy Hill (now Hudson Falls) to supplement their income.  His disappearance left Anne without the knowledge of his whereabouts and without income to support their three children.

Anne Northup cooked meals to be served in Eliza Jumel’s elegant dining room in northern Manhattan. The emphasis was on products from the estate and wine from its wine cellar.

At the end of the summer of 1841, it appears that Anne accompanied Eliza to work as a cook in her elegant Manhattan home.  There is no documentation of any contract, wages, duties or the reasons behind Eliza’s offer and Anne’s acceptance.  Though Anne had likely cooked for Eliza in the past, and often took on private catering jobs, she usually stayed close to her home in Saratoga Springs.

Anne might have felt that in New York City, she could more easily pick up information about Solomon’s whereabouts.  It seems Anne knew her husband’s initial musical performances took place in the city.  Anne might also have hoped that access to powerful New York figures might offer some clue as to her husband’s fate.

As the widow of a Frenchman who had imported wine from Bordeaux to New York and who had visited France extensively, Eliza Jumel fancied herself a judge of good wine and the good food to go with it.  Likely, Anne Northup’s repertoire of dishes included rich sauces, made flavorful by the addition of wine from the estate wine cellar. As the ex-wife of Aaron Burr (following a scandalous divorce in 1836), Eliza was also anxious to re-establish herself in good society.  Dinners catered by Anne Northup might offer another rung up on the social ladder back into the graces of New York society.

The kitchen where Anne Northup cooked for Eliza Jumel featured a dairy, pantry, laundry and wine cellar.       Photo by Tom Stoelker, Morris-Jumel Museum.  

For a time, New York’s richest woman and Saratoga’s most unfortunate woman, Eliza and Anne, certainly saw one another each day to confer on menus and discuss the availability of  fresh products on the estate.  At Eliza Jumel’s country estate in northern Manhattan, diners were treated to oysters harvested from the Harlem River.  Grapes from Eliza’s carefully-tended vineyard and choice fruit from her orchards of peach and apricot trees were featured at her table.

Today, visitors can see the restored basement kitchen at the mansion.  It is now furnished with cooking implements and an open hearth that pre-dates Anne’s arrival.  Anne would cooked on a stovetop.  The kitchen also included a dairy, a pantry for storage, the wine cellar and the laundry.

A staircase runs from the kitchen up to a serving alcove on the ground floor dining room.  The treads likely rang with the steps of Anne Northup as she carried dishes up to the sideboard for Eliza Jumel’s formal dinners in the dining room.

Both Eliza Jumel and Anne Northup were unsuccessful in their joint efforts.  Kidnapping was a lucrative business, and Anne was unable to use New York City as a site to help locate her missing husband.  All the elegant dinners in the world could not salvage Eliza’s dubious position in good society.  But for a time, New York’s richest woman and Saratoga’s most unfortunate woman, joined forces. Today, you can visit the site where these fabulous New York women of the past collaborated in order to achieve their individual ends.

As Manhattan’s oldest residence, the Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum presents American life from the colonial era to the present by preserving, collecting, and interpreting history, culture, and the arts to engage and inspire diverse audiences.  Morris-Jumel Mansion is located at 65 Jumel Terrace, a short block which extends from West 160th & West 162nd Streets.  For more information on Eliza Jumel, refer to Margaret Oppenheimer’s book, The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel.

 

 

 

Hunter College & the Next Generation of Fabulous New York Women

On Thursday, June 2nd, the Theater at Madison Square Garden was the place to find fabulous New York Women of all stripes and colors.  But the color to watch for was purple, as in the violet-colored robes of Hunter College graduates. What a fantastic bunch they are.

Hunter College President, Jennifer Raab

Hunter College is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system.  These are the schools where New York City’s best and brightest traditionally come for an education that is both affordable and excellent. The stories of this year’s graduates shared by Hunter College President Raab show that the tradition is alive and well.  She spoke of courage, perseverance and determination to triumph against seemingly insurmountable odds.  It was a day to celebrate.

This year marked Hunter College’s 213th commencement exercises.  Founded by Thomas Hunter in 1870, Hunter began as a school that educated women.  An Irish immigrant, Hunter led the school as president for 37 years.

President Raab is a New York girl, originally from Washington Heights.  She made the schlep to the Upper East Side to attend Hunter High School during her public school days as the first step to becoming Hunter’s President. A fabulous New York woman who helps other fabulous New York women – lots of them.

Today, Hunter’s roster of students includes women (and men since 1964) who hail from 150 countries.  Many of their families traveled from other continents to mark the celebrations with their graduates.  Hunter College is also the only college in America that has two female Nobel Prize winners on its roster of alumnae.  And the roster gains more fabulous New York women each year.

Hunter graduates celebrate their achievements.

This year, Hunter’s keynote speaker and President’s Medal Recipient was the media mogul, Arianna Huffington, who co-founded The Huffington Post.  Arianna was born in Greece.  But today, she’s an American citizen and fabulous New York woman with an office in Soho.  Here, she works as Editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.  She has also written 15 books.  Huffington was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine and is on the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.  In short, she fit right into the spirit, the vision and the accomplishments of Hunter College women.

Arianna Huffington, Hunter President’s Medal recipient and media mogul

What made me particularly happy about seeing Arianna Huffington on the stage at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, was that my daughter, Alexandra Wang, was one of the four Hunter BA recipients who presented her with the President’s Medal.  I couldn’t be more proud.Like Hunter President, Jennifer Raab, Alex is from Washington Heights and attended New York City public schools.  She will stay at Hunter to begin graduate studies at the School of Education.  Her own future will be dedicated to fighting for the rights of people with disabilities.

Two generations of Hunter women: Klara Silverstein and Alex Wang

Also on stage at Hunter College was another fabulous New York woman, Klara Silverstein, now Dr. Silverstein.  She received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.  A fabulous New York woman originally from Brooklyn, this was Dr. Silverstein’s third degree from Hunter College.  She also holds a BA in social sciences (’54) and an MS in special education (’56) from Hunter College.  She married New Yorker, Larry Silverstein, 60 years ago.  Together, they have supported education, medical research and organizations that meet humanitarian needs. Fabulous New Yorkers.

In her Charge to the Graduates, President Jennifer Raab urged the students to remember the Hunter College motto:  Mihi Cura Futuri, the care of the future is mine.  With such a dazzling array of talent, determination and education, I have never been more confident in the future contributions of Fabulous New York Women to our great city.  And I have never been more proud.  Congratulations, Alex!

Mihi Cura Futuri

Women Wearing Hats: Celebrating Margaret Corbin

Margaret Corbin “womaning” the cannon at the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

A heroine of the American Revolution, Margaret Corbin was the first woman to take a soldier’s part in the fight for independence.  She saw action during the Battle of Fort Washington, and was captured in the crushing American defeat on November 16, 1776.

Margaret Corbin lies in eternal rest at West Point.  Here, Margaret Corbin Day is celebrated each year by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

Final resting place and monument of Margaret Cochran Corbin, West Point cemetery.

This year’s gathering celebrated the growing understanding and appreciation for the role of American women in the history of our country. At the Old Cadet Chapel, Brigadier General Maritza Sáenz Ryan US Army, Retired, and a 1982 graduate of West Point, US Military Academy, spoke of the many hats worn by Margaret Corbin and other women Patriots.

Through blazing summers and cruel winters alike, these dedicated women endured the privations of war right alongside the soldiers. -Brigadier General Maritza S. Ryan US Army, Retired

It was women like Margaret, explained General Ryan, who provided key and essential field services for the Continental Army.  Women worked as laundresses, seamtresses and nurses.  As water carriers, they assumed a role that was crucial for providing drinking water for soldiers as well as cooling down artillery pieces after firing.

Old Cadet Chapel and cemetery, West Point.

Prepared to serve in these functions at Fort Washington, Margaret Cochran arrived in New York with her red hair tucked into a ruffled mob cap.  She had accompanied her husband, John, a private in the Pennsylvania Artillery to the field of battle at the northern tip of Manhattan island.  Here, at the height of the battle, Margaret Corbin switched hats, changing abruptly from field service to artillery service.  Still wearing the mob cap of a colonial American woman, Margaret Corbin sprang into active military duty, taking the place of a wounded soldier who was part of the artillery crew.

BG Maritza S. Ryan, US Army, Retired, who delivered remarks on Margaret Corbin’s military actions at the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776.

After her husband fell, mortally wounded, Margaret Corbin continued to man (or more precisely, offered General Ryan, “to woman”) the cannon single-handedly.  It is said that Margaret fought overwhelming British and Hessian forces, swabbing, loading, aiming and firing a 6-pound cannon that was usually handled by four artillerists. Hers was the last American gun at Fort Washington to fall silent as enemy forces overran the American fortifications.

Margaret Corbin was taken prisoner by the British after the American defeat at Fort Washington.  But the Patriot actions during the battle, including the military role of Margaret Corbin, had allowed George Washington to escape capture.  He fled by boat across the Hudson River to Fort Constitution (now Fort Lee) on the New Jersey side of the river.

DAR Officers assemble on the steps of the Old Cadet chapel before the wreath laying ceremony at the grave site of Margaret Corbin.

Margaret Corbin, now a POW, was sent by horse-drawn cart to the Patriot stronghold in Philadelphia for medical care.  It was a journey of three days before Margaret’s wounds were properly cared for.  Her jaw was shattered.  Grape shot from enemy fire that had likely killed her husband, had injured her neck and rendered her left arm completely useless.

Washington would ultimately return victorious to the battlefield at Yorktown in 1781, gaining independence for our country.  Margaret Corbin was awarded an Army pension.  Changing hats once again, she was assigned to the Corps of Invalids at West Point, assuming the status of wounded veteran.  Here, she spent her happiest hours  as “Captain Corbin” amongst her fellow soldiers.  General Ryan noted:  “She expected, and received, salutes and professional courtesies whenever she came on post.”   The Adjutant at West Point personally saw to Margaret’s welfare as a wounded veteran.

Resolved:  That Margaret Corbin, who was wounded and disabled in the attack on Fort Washington, whilst she heroically filled the post of her husband who was killed by her side serving a piece of artillery, do receive during her natural life, or the continuance of said disability, the one-half of the monthly pay drawn by a soldier in the service of these states. — Journal of the Continental Congress of July 6, 1779

In 1800, at the age of 49, Margaret Corbin was buried without fanfare in the woods near West Point.  Jennifer Voigtschild Minus, current DAR Chairwoman of Margaret Corbin Day, and a 1993 graduate of West Point, US Army (Retired), delivered the narrative of Corbin’s return and burial in the West Point cemetery.  Through the efforts of the DAR, Captain Molly’s remains were located and disinterred, 151 years after her heroic actions on the battlefield at Fort Washington.  She was identified by means of the war wounds she had suffered:  Three grape shot were still embedded in the bones of her shoulder; her shattered jaw bone indicated pain and suffering that were the price of her heroic military actions.  The remains of Margaret Cochran Corbin were re-interred at the West Point cemetery with full military honors on March 16, 1926.

A plaque in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan honor Margaret Corbin’s heroic actions during the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776.

Each spring , the DAR has celebrated Margaret Cochran Corbin Day; an occasion designed to honor her actions, her bravery and her contributions to American history.  At this year’s services, General Ryan remarked:  “We remember with deepest gratitude, a woman whose heroism transcends the limitations of her time and place to inspire all of us, men and women alike, to walk, if we dare, in her brave footsteps. ”

This year marked the 90th Margaret Corbin Day.  A church service at the Old Cadet Chapel, remarks and wreath laying and 21-gun salute are usually followed by a luncheon with female cadets at West Point, the United States Military Academy.

In 1976, the year the first women cadets arrived at West Point, the Margaret Corbin Forum, a  cadet club, was founded.  Exactly 200 years after Margaret Corbin’s heroic actions at the Battle of Fort Washington, the Forum provides a voice in support of the commitment to the integration of women in the Corps and in the military.  It is a fitting legacy for Margaret Corbin, the first American woman to take a soldier’s part in the war for liberty.

During Margaret Corbin Day in 1978, for the first time, a woman cadet helped place the wreath at Margaret Corbin’s Grave and monument, to this day, the only monument depicting a woman that has been dedicated here at West Point.–Jennifer Voigtschild Minus, USMA 1993 and current DAR Chairwoman of Margaret Corbin Day

Photo by West Point – The U.S. Military Academy via Flickr

Margaret Corbin wore many hats:  She was an Army spouse, a widow, a soldier, a wounded POW and a disabled veteran. Today, as women expand their role in the military, the hats keep changing.  During Margaret Corbin Day at West Point, DAR ladies in formal hats mingle with women wearing US Army officer caps and female Cadets wearing the white hats of the US Military Academy.  All come together to honor and celebrate the legacy of Margaret Cochran Corbin and her fight for independence.

Jane’s Walk: Let’s Get Walking

Jane Jacobs in 1961. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), writer and activist, published her critique of post-World War II urban planning policy in her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.    Jacobs begins her book with a pointed challenge: “This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding.”  For New Yorkers, these urban policies are personified by Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs’ nemesis.  Jacobs held Moses responsible for the decline of many neighborhoods in New York City.  But enough about him….

Next week, the Municipal Arts Society (MAS),and other organizations in cities across the globe, are sponsoring Jane’s Walk, a series of citizen-led walks throughout the five boroughs.  The initiative is designed to get folks to tell stories about their own neighborhood, explore their community and connect with neighbors.  It’s a community-based effort in urban literacy.  Let’s just call it a celebration of the local; in plain sight, but often overlooked and unappreciated.

The 1961 publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.  Photo by pdxcityscape via Flickr.

Jane Jacobs’ work was inspired by her years as a fabulous New York woman living in Greenwich Village, a mix of townhouses and tenements on twisting and narrow streets that did not conform to the city’s grid.  She contrasted life in the Village, a cohesive community, with the grandiose plans of Robert Moses.  His “towers in the park” concept, anathema to Jacobs, was then changing the face of New York City.   But really, enough about him….

The Jane’s Walks tours are listed by location and topic on the MAS web site.  The theme of each walk is up to the volunteer organizer, and all walks are free and open to the public.

Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church, Kings Highway.  Photo by Wally Gobetz via Flickr.

In Brooklyn, the Go Dutch in Flatlands! Jane’s Walk led by fabulous New York woman Ellen Halliday, is actually a bicycle tour meeting at the Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church, on Kings Highway.  Her tour description reads:  “Let’s dish some history and gossip while we bike around with a side of vinyl replacement windows!”

Fabulous New York woman Anna Araiza will lead Old Croton Aqueduct Walk.   Beginning in the Bronx, the tour will cross the Hudson River via New York City’s oldest bridge and end up in Manhattan at the Highbridge Water Tower and reservoir (now the Highbridge pool).

An illustration of the High Bridge from Harper’s Weekly magazine, 1860.  Picture via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Says Araiza:  “The summer of 2015 brought the inaugural re-opening of the Highbridge, the only pedestrian bridge connecting the Bronx and Manhattan. With the restoration project now complete, I invite you to explore the Old Croton Aqueduct…”

This year, which would have been Jane Jacobs’ 100th birthday, the MAS lists from than 200 Jane’s Walk offerings.  There is no advance registration.  Just turn up at the designated meeting site.  What a fabulous 100th birthday present for a fabulous woman.  Let’s Get Walking!

Photo courtesy Municipal Arts Society.

 

 

Malli Rembacz: One Hundred Fabulous Years and Counting

 

Malli Rembacz cutting birthday cake on her 100th birthday.

It’s a story that spans one century, three continents and one life.  The story of Malli Rembacz begins on April 4, 1916 in Cologne, Germany.  The latest chapter takes place on April 4, 2017 in apartment 4L of Cabrini Terrace.  Here, in Hudson Heights, Malli shared cake and memories with her neighbors in celebration of her one hundredth birthday.  Here’s to you, Malli Rembacz: centenarian, fantastic potter, wonderful neighbor and fabulous New York woman.

 

The view from apartment 4L overlooks the schoolyard of PS/IS 187. It’s the perfect view for Malli, who trained as a kindergarten teacher in her native Germany.  The term, meaning “garden for children” was coined by  German Friedrich Fröbel.  He envisioned kindergarten as a place for playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition for children from home to school.  Hitler’s Germany was not the place where Malli could teach and children could enjoy this education.  Malli, who describes herself as “an idealist” dreamt of a place where she could live in safety and practice her profession.

Malli accepts a Citation from Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell, Jr.’s office congratulating her on her 100th birthday.

 

Malli booked passage aboard a boat to take her to Palestine.  Just as she sailed from Germany, war broke out.  Her ship took her to England where she was given refuge and work as a kindergarten teacher in Birmingham, an industrial city in the north of England.  Explains Malli:  “England was at war and the women had to work.  The government opened schools to care for the children, and I was given a job for the next four years.”  While working as a teacher, Malli perfected her English and began to save money for a new ticket to Palestine.  At the end of the war, she boarded a ship from England to the Holy Land.

Malli chose to live in a kibbutz, a collective community.  Located in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem and Hebron, Kibbutz Kfar Etzion was surrounded by Arab villages and in a vulnerable position.  Palestine was under British rule, and the Jews had no ammunition with which to defend themselves.   It was decided that the mothers of the children and Malli, the kibbutz kindergarten teacher, would take the youngsters to Jerusalem where they would be safe.

When the kibbutz was attacked by Arab forces on May 14, 1949, the inhabitants had no choice but to raise the white flag of surrender.  In the Kfar Etzion massacre, 157 Jewish inhabitants of of the kibbutz, men and women, young and old, were murdered.  Malli’s action had saved the lives of the children of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion.

Malli pictured with her kindergarten class from Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, Israel, 1948.

Malli continued to work as a kindergarten teacher in Tel Aviv before deciding to join her brother in the United States.  In New York, she quickly found work as a kindergarten teacher in a Jewish school in Queens.  “I spoke both English and Hebrew,” she explains.  “They wanted the children to learn both languages.  I taught kindergarten in Queens for many years.”

Malli moved to Washington Heights, enjoying the area and its parks.  Most of all, she loved making pottery, which she counted as her true vocation.   “I really have been involved emotionally with clay.  It’s the most wonderful medium.” explains the centenarian.

Asked to elaborate, Malli offers:  “I fell in love with clay.  You really can impress your own feeling with clay.  Clay has got something which goes into emotions,” she says, gesturing towards her heart.

A glazed plate by Malli Rembacz, aka The Pottery Lady.

After studying at Alfred University, a leading New York Design College, Malli devoted her time to pottery.  “I worked 24 hours a day at my pottery,” say Malli.  She bought a wheel and installed it in her apartment in Cabrini Terrace.  “I had a wheel in my bedroom; it got so messy that I had to give it up.”  But word had spread, and neighbors were quick to purchase the beautifully glazed pottery Malli made by throwing on the wheel and by handbuilding.

 

On her 100th birthday, Malli Rembacz, aka The Pottery Lady, holds a cup and saucer that she made on her wheel.

Malli’s skill and dedication became legendary.  She  became known as “The Pottery Lady.”  In 1990, she made an appearance on the David Letterman Show.  She was introduced as a lady who could “turn a lowly lump of clay into a work of art.”  Malli and David both centered clay on matching pottery wheels and she instructed him on how to throw a pot.  She also managed to engage in a spirited water fight with the TV host.  She won.

Says Malli:  “I love the wheel.  But you can’t really separate throwing and handbuilding.  You have to do both to get what you want.”  As for her beautiful glazes, Malli explains that she first had to learn the chemistry behind the colors.   “When you have something nice, you can make it nicer with glazing.”

 

A beautifully-glazed bowl from the hands of The Pottery Lady, Malli Rembacz.

Asked to show examples of her favorite pieces, she admits:  “I have nothing left.  I gave it all away.”   This reporter suggests the absence of pottery in the home of a potter known as The Pottery Lady, is the sign of a generous heart, a creative spirit, a lifetime of working with clay and a fabulous New York woman.  Congratulations to you on your 100th birthday, Malli Rembacz, The Pottery Lady.

 

 

Ronda M. Brands, Garden Designer, Horticulturist, Fabulous New York Woman

A trout lily makes an early spring appearance.

THE WASTELAND by T.S. Eliot

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain

 

 

Ronda Brands, Garden Designer and Horticulturist, might argue that T.S. Eliot wasn’t much of a gardener.  Her April garden tour in Fort Tryon Park attracted a crowd of New Yorkers eager to share the first signs of spring.

Ronda Brands leads a tour in the Heather Garden during early spring.

Ronda’s tour focused on the three acres of Fort Tryon Park known as the Heather Garden. This swathe of garden is planted over 500 varieties of trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs, including dozens of varieties of heaths and heathers that combine to form a sweep of changing colors and textures in each season.  During early spring, the blooming heaths are a signature plant of the Heather Garden.  They put on a show of waves of pink and white in partnership with the vivid purples and yellows of early spring bulbs.  It’s a signal that a happy change has arrived to bring New Yorkers out of both their apartments and the winter doldrums, and into New York City’s most beautiful park.

Heaths (Erica species and cultivars), usually flower from mid-winter to early spring.  These are followed by heathers (Calluna vulgaris cultivars), which take over in mid-summer. Working over the years with the  Northeast Heather Society, the gardeners and designers have carefully selected plants have been planted to provide year-round interest of blooms and foliage color in the garden.  Both heaths and heathers are evergreens, with foliage of green, yellow and red that might turn silver, copper, red or even chocolate during winter months.  The seasonal change is a particular joy for Ronda, who was called to the Garden by the Fort Tryon Trust in 2009 as design partner to Lynden B. Miller, New York City’s icon of public garden design, to reinvigorate the Garden and develop a plan for sustaining it for the long term.

The shrub Andromeda (Pieris Japonica) has foliage that changes color throughout the year. In early spring, the dark green foliage appears with long, dangling clusters of white flowers.

Lynden Miller and Ronda Brands, fabulous New York women, created a fabulous design for a fabulous garden.  They decided to edit the garden carefully to preserve the spirit of the original plan by the Olmsted Brothers, whose father was the designer of Central Park. They also decided to capitalize on its romantic and rustic feel, taking full advantage of the sloped, rocky topography.  Their design features an overarching feel with carefully selected vignettes of plants punctuating the cohesive rivers of perennials.

An outcropping of rocks adds dramatic interest to the Heather Garden.

 

 

The park is located on a ridge near the highest point on Manhattan.  The area was known as Chquaesgeck by the local Lenape tribe, and was called Lange Bergh (Long Hill) by Dutch settlers.  Visitors enjoy sweeping views of the Hudson River.  These stretches of water are repeated in the rivers of plants that give the garden both unity and movement.   Plants, foliage, structures and shape move the eye through space.

Twitter called the park “The Happiest Spot in Manhattan,”  yet it remains one of Manhattan’s best kept secrets.  At 67 acres,  Fort Tryon Park offers tranquility and calm in a tapestry of plants and flowers over 200 feet above the Hudson River.  It is the city’s largest public garden and is a city, state and national landmark.  Local resident Gabe Kirchheimer has photographed every flower in the park and produced Fort Tryon Park Flowers his own independent and amazing web site of what he calls “The Flower Capital of Manhattan. ” The photographer organizes the flowers by season using over 1,000 photographs.

The garden requires a significant amount of skilled maintenance, provided by Parks Department gardeners.  Each week, a legion of fabulous New York women (and men!) from the neighborhood come together to work as volunteers in the garden.  Speaking of the long flower beds, Ronda says (with great admiration and affection):  The volunteers weed, and weed, and weed from one end of the bed to the other.  When they reach the end, they return to the beginning and start weeding again.”  Fabulous New York women (and men)!

Fort Tryon Park Trust offers free tours of the Heather Garden on the first Sunday of every month.  The Trust raises endowment to help support the park and its year-round horticultural maintenance and offers more than 300 free programs annually, including environmental education programs for children.