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On this day in history, blue jeans are born! On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a a patent to create pants reinforced with metal rivets, thus marking the birth of the popular pant.
The image here depicts the White Oak Cotton Mill in North Carolina, one of the largest denim mills in the world. The GIF was created by the Library’s Stereogranimator using images from the Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views in the Library’s Photography Division.
After last weeks’ Mustache Monday with Solomon J. Solomon, we were still feeling the artistic vibe and thought we’d highlight yet another great artist: Georges Jules Victor Clairin.
Clairin is a French painter who created many decorative pieces for various public buildings in Paris. He also caught the eye of actress Sarah Bernhardt and became one of her most favored portraitist, creating paintings based on various roles that she played.
(Image: NYPL Digital Gallery.)
Today’s Caturday is brought to you by the Music Division of our Library for the Performing Arts. This score for the song “Kitty” appeared in the music supplement of the New York American and Journal exactly 111 years ago today (or, more precisely, on May 18, 1902). The artwork features both a cat (of course) and a mouse in a tuxedo. That’s an obvious win. So happy Caturday! And, by the way, if you’re into music, the Library for the Performing Arts (at Lincoln Center) has two totally FREE exhibitions you should check out today, or soon - American Sabor: Latinos in US Popular Music and 100 Years of Flamenco In NY (check out the NY Times review of Flamenco).
Today in History
Coney Island’s Luna Park in opened today in 1903. This photo was taken shortly after the park opened, in 1907 (Courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery.)
DId you know that NYPL teamed up with Coney Island Brewing Company in Brooklyn to create a beer fit for a Founding Father – a porter based on George Washington’s handwritten “small beer” recipe, which can be found in the Library’s extensive collections.
What’s your favorite Coney Island attraction?
He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink.
—
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (published May 14, 1925)
Today’s a good day to correct with red ink or buy flowers yourself… or re-visit an old classic like Mrs. Dalloway. Or if you’d like to learn more about the inimitable author, visit the Library’s Berg Collection, which is a lovely spot to learn a great deal about English and American Literature. In any event, have a perfectly Dalloway day!
Solomom J. Solomon, a British painter, is best known for his dramatic, theatrical scenes from mythology and the biblical context. Ironically, Solomon painted these scenes out of pure enjoyment. He mainly painted portraits to make ends meet.
NYPL has a great selection of works about Solomon’s work if you are interested in learning more about his style of art.
Happy Mustache Monday!
(Image: NYPL Digital Gallery.)
Hey New Yorkers: Can you tell us who was the first mayor of New York City in 1898 after all five boroughs were consolidated? I’ll give you a hint…He’s the man with the mustache!
You’ve guessed right, it’s Robert Anderson Van Wyck, an attorney turned politician, who served as mayor of NYC from 1898 to 1901.
Want to learn more about the mayors of New York City? Check out ‘Part II: The Mayors of Greater New York From 1898’ at NYPL to get the scoop on Mr. Van Wyck and those who followed him!
(Image: NYPL Digital Gallery.)
NYPL is featured in a new book by Molly Oldfield called The Secret Museum, which highlights fascinating some fascinating objects located in “museums” around the world… including Charles Dickens very intriguing letter opener, which is in NYPL’s Berg Collection. Read all about it!
Writer Molly Oldfield has delved into the vast collections of objects stored away and rarely exhibited
NYPLMaps shares a few details about one of the oldest streets in New York City, Maiden Lane, which was also known as T’Maagde Paatje.
Appleton’s Dictionary of Greater New York And Its Neighborhood (1905):
Maiden Lane
A Street running from Broadway between John and Liberty Sts., east to the East River, is one of the most ancient in New York. It was established as a road in the earliest times of the Dutch, its course through a valley being the easiest route of passage from the two great highways along the North [ Hudson ]and East River sides and was from the first used as such. It was then known as “T’Maagde Paatje,” or the Maidens Path. It was laid out as a street about 1693, during the governorship of Colonel Fletcher, when it received its present name. At present it is lined with substantial stores and is the center of the wholesale jewelry trade.
Plan of the city of New York in North America (1776)
Maiden Lane, New York. Jewelry centre of the world (ca. 1885)
What do mustaches and poetry have in common…Langston Hughes!
Don’t miss our last poetry-themed Mustache Monday in honor of National Poetry Month.
Check out Hughes’ legacy as a poet and activist at NYPL today!
(Photo: From Academy of American Poets.)
