In her talk, Photographer Marisa Scheinfeld discusses the rise, fall, and impact of the Borscht Belt along with the deeper, more layered meaning she finds in her series, as well as her current work with the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project.
Read MoreThe League was thrilled to host Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein for a Preservation Book Club author talk in support of their new book Cheap Old Houses: An Unconventional Guide to Loving and Restoring a Forgotten Home. In this webinar, they discuss the process of putting the book together and the importance of everyday old home stewardship.
Read MoreIn this Preservation Book Club webinar, we were joined by Joseph McGill Jr., founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, and his co-author Herb Frazier. They discussed their book Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. This book is the personal account of one man's groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in the countless oft-overlooked former slave dwellings that still stand across the country, the fascinating history behind those sites, and how he has used the experiences to shed light on larger issues of race in America.
Read MoreIn this Preservation Book Club presentation, author Ariel Aberg-Riger discussed her brand new book America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History. Ariel did a reading from the book and detailed the behind-the-scenes process of how a chapter was put together. Following her presentation, she was joined in conversation by Katy Peace, Director of Communications for the Preservation League of NYS.
Read More…If what resonates with people is just the book recommendations, maybe there’s a better way to do that. So we’re going to spend the summer experimenting with a new format. Preservation Book Club, but make it Instagram.
Read MoreBonnie Tsui’s book American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods shines a spotlight on Chinatowns across the country — from New York City to Honolulu, Hawai’i — interweaving the stories of the people she meets with her own personal narrative.
Read MoreIn this Preservation Book Club webinar, Art Historian and Author Kristina Wilson joined us to speak about her book Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design. A striking counter-narrative to conventional histories of design, this book unveils fresh perspectives on one of the most distinctive movements in American visual culture. Following Kristina's presentation, she was joined in conversation by Sarah Tietje-Mietz, Digital Editor at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.
Read MoreIn Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, author Alexandra Lange chronicles postwar architects' and merchants' invention of the mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. In Lange's perceptive account, the mall becomes newly strange and rich with contradiction: Malls are environments of both freedom and exclusion--of consumerism, but also of community. Meet Me by the Fountain is a highly entertaining and evocative promenade through the mall's story of rise, fall, and ongoing reinvention, for readers of any generation.
Read MoreIn her book Historic Real Estate: Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States, Dr. Whitney Martinko takes a look at how historic preservation played out following the Revolutionary War. She discusses the ways in which people debated whether and what to save of their built environment, and how preservation balanced (or tried to) the relationship between the public good and private profit.
Read MoreIn this webinar, Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr discuss their new book Olmsted & Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea.
Read MoreIn this Preservation Book Club event, author Catherine Fleming Bruce discusses her award-winning book The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements. Catherine touches on her inspiration for the book, the importance of writing for a general audience, and her own grassroots preservation campaigns to save places related to civil rights — restoring the physical buildings and preserving the stories of the people who made history there.
Read MoreA Queer New York: Geographies of Lesbians, Dykes, and Queers, 1983-2008 is the first lesbian and queer historical geography of New York City. In this Preservation Book Club webinar, we invited author Jen Jack Gieseking to talk about their research exploring how lesbians and queers have survived in the face of twenty-first century gentrification and urban development.
Read MoreEspecially in an era of rapid climate change, the conservation efforts in the Adirondacks can provide a blueprint for other areas in New York State and beyond. In this author talk, Brad Edmondson dives into the APA’s tumultuous origin story and then is joined in conversation by the League’s Erin Tobin to expand on how the creation of a government agency in the 1970s continues to have ramifications today.
Read MoreMiki Conn reads her book The Story of House, followed by a kid's activity inspired by the story led by the Historic Albany Foundation.
Read MoreRoberta Brandes Gratz is a noted urbanist and journalist, as well as a longtime Preservation League Trustee. Her newest book, It’s a Helluva Town: Joan K. Davidson, the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and the Fight for a Better New York, explores the profound impact of Joan K. Davidson and her work through her family fund.
Read MoreOn Thursday, February 11, we welcomed Diana S. Waite to share some highlights about her book The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History.
Read MoreOn Thursday, January 14, Dr. Gretchen Sorin shared a presentation detailing her research about African American mobility and the impact automobiles had in the fight for civil rights. Her book Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights was our December Preservation Book Club pick.
Read MoreWe’re starting a book club and we’d love it if you joined us.
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