Whatever Happened to Walt Whitman’s Brain?
The science of the brain was changing throughout the 19th century. Medical researchers were peering ever deeper into cerebral mysteries and one question piqued their interest more than any other: […]
Promoting Long Island: The Art of Edward Lange, 1870-1889
Edward Lange was a German artist who started his career on Long Island in the late 19th century. He meticulously captured the landscape and built environment across the island from […]
The Association of Public Historians of New York State
The Association of Public Historians of New York State held their annual conference at Danfords Hotel in Port Jefferson this year, gathering public historians from all corners of the state […]
From Broadway to Jones Beach w Richard Arnold Beattie
Robert Moses had a vision for Jones Beach in the 1920s that included a theater to bring high quality entertainment to the people. That theater on Zachs Bay went through […]
1914 Freeport Murder Mystery w Woody Register
An obscure bit of early 20th century technology embroiled Dr. Woody Register in a murder mystery. Register, a professor of history at the University of the South (Sewanee), became intrigued […]
Ralph Bunn, Long Island’s Jackie Robinson
Librarian and baseball historian Fabio Montella returns to the podcast to bring us the story of Ralph “Sammy” Bunn. Bunn was a Setauket native who excelled at baseball all his […]
Chubby Jackson, Jazz, and Freeport
Greig Stewart “Chubby” Jackson was a swinging sensation in his day. A child of vaudevillians, he was raised in an enclave of actors, musicians, and performers in Freeport, Long Island […]
Washington’s Commando Benjamin Tallmadge with Richard Welch
The Long Island-born, Yale-educated Benjamin Tallmadge seized his moment to shine in the American Revolution. Whether fighting the British on horseback with the 2nd Continental Dragoons or uncovering their secrets […]
The Howard School in Kings Park with Dr Tammy C. Owens
Dr. Tammy C. Owens of Skidmore College joins us to discuss her 2019 article “Fugitive Literati: Black Girls’ Writing as a Tool of Kinship and Power at the Howard School.” […]
In Levittown’s Shadow with Tim Keogh
While Long Island developed a reputation for affluence throughout the 20th Century, there has always been a parallel history of the everyday workers and servants who toiled in the shadow […]
Long Island Loyalists with Brendon Burns
No one sheds a tear for the British Loyalists of Long Island, those inhabitants who remained loyal to the crown during the American Revolution. But genealogist Brendon Burns has spent […]
Long Island’s Endangered Historic Places
Every other year, Preservation Long Island compiles a list of historic places on Long Island that are endangered. Each list is a mix of structures from different periods of time, […]
Long Island, Kansas with Carrie Cox
There is a Long Island just below the Kansas border with Nebraska, between the Elk and Prairie Dog Creeks. It’s apparently the creeks that gave the area its name. When […]
Rockin History with Cindy Schwartz
Cindy Schwartz grew up on Long Island and followed her love of history into a long career as a social studies teacher at the Wheatley School in Old Westbury. She […]
The Our Hamptons Podcast
Your idea of the Hamptons on the East End of Long Island may include images of supersized mansions and extravagant parties, but there is an older, richer Hamptons history beneath […]
Making Long Island with Larry Samuel
Larry Samuel is an author and historian whose latest book looks at the development of Long Island throughout the 20th Century. It was a time of land speculation and rapid […]
Edward Lieberman’s Historic Tours
Yes, Edward Lieberman is a former assistant district attorney in Nassau County and the former mayor of Seacliff but just as importantly, he is a long-time listener of the Long […]
The Arthur Murray Girls Baseball Team
In 1949 nine women of the Arthur Murray Girls baseball team took the field against the all-male squad from the Patchogue Athletics. By that year, the Murrays had been together […]
The Gold Coast and World War I
The Gold Coast along Long Island’s north shore is most often celebrated as a showcase for the rich and famous in the early 20th Century. A decidedly different aspect of […]
How the Bayport Blue Point Phantoms Got Their Name
Today we team up with Stephanie Eberhard-Holgerson’s journalism class at Bayport Blue Point (BBP) High School to try to solve a mystery. At the suggestion of BBP’s librarian Pam Gustafson, […]
Remember Liss with Claire Bellerjeau
We’re returning to Revolutionary War era Long Island on this episode. And while the Culper Spy Ring does play a part, we are turning the focus to a woman whose […]
Redeeming Al Smith
Al Smith was many things during his political career: reform champion after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, four-time governor of New York State, the first Catholic presidential candidate. But he was […]
The Fate of the Long Island Mill
From time to time on the podcast we like to explore the histories of other Long Islands, those far from New York. Today we focus on the story of Long […]
The Steamboat Lexington with Bill Bleyer
On a frigid night in January 1840, the luxury steamboat Lexington burned and sank in the middle of the Long Island Sound with over 140 people on board. What followed […]
Grumman Test Pilot Bruce Tuttle
Jet fighters once roamed the skies above Long Island. Grumman, the aviation powerhouse behind such planes as the Hellcat and the Avenger, turned its attention to jets by the end […]
The History of the History of the Culper Spy Ring
Today we welcome back former Newsday reporter Bill Bleyer. Bill is an author and historian with a number of Long Island-related history books to his credit and today we dive […]
Bellport Preservation with Victor Principe
A tree-lined street running gently down to a flat blue bay, flanked by over two hundred years worth of American architecture. Bellport in all its glory, from its founding by […]
Bayport History with Rob Walch of Libsyn
Bayport and its immediate vicinity in Islip on the south shore of Long Island have some deep ties to history. There’s the Bayport Aerodrome with its vintage airplanes, the Meadowcroft […]
Raymond Buckland and Wicca in Brentwood
If you lived in Brentwood in the late 1960s and 70s, you may have encountered a charming, transplanted Englishman named Raymond Buckland. You many not have realized it at the […]
Cleaning Up After the Hurricane of 1938
Much has been written about September 21, 1938, the day that a massive hurricane hit Long Island. For Jonathan C. Bergman, the more interesting story began the day after. His […]
The Ferguson Brothers
Two Black men were shot and killed by a police officer in Freeport on a cold winter morning in 1946. Another was wounded. All three were brothers, two were World […]
Revisiting Robert Moses
Robert Moses is the man most New Yorkers love to hate. This is in no small part due to his own hubris and the impact he had on the people […]
Returning to the Culper Spy Ring
Today we dive back into a discussion of the Culper Spy Ring, turning our attention to the area of Port Jefferson or, more appropriately, its original incarnation of Drowned Meadow. […]
Collecting Bottles off Gilgo Beach
Long Island’s barrier beaches are fascinating places. Stretched along the south shore of the island, they persist through much of Long Island history as wild natural landscapes constantly shifting and […]
The Last of the Hempstead Plains
The Hempstead Plains were once a defining feature of Long Island. Covering some 40,000 acres, the Plains stretched from the Queens border in the west to the Suffolk border in […]
William Sidney Mount and Long Island People of Color
William Sidney Mount was known for his keenly-observed portraits and scenes of everyday life on Long Island during the first half of the 19th century. He portrayed farmers, fiddlers, tradesmen, […]
Long Island Beach
We continue our exploration of Long Islands other than our own. This episode takes us inland from the East Coast to the banks of the Whitewater River in western Ohio. […]
Judging the Amityville Horror
Thomas M. Stark served as a judge in Suffolk County and New York State beginning in the early 1960s. During his career he presided over a number of important cases […]
Square Dancing and the Durlachers
Glenn Durlacher looks back over his family’s legacy of square dance calling on Long Island with deserved pride. His grandfather Ed pioneered square dancing in the New York City area […]
How the Suffragists Lived
They were women and they fought for the right to vote. Beyond that, every person documented in the Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States […]
Marguerite Kearns and an Unfinished Revolution
In 2020 we marked the centennial of woman suffrage and the passing of the 19th amendment. Although the intervening 102 years can make that struggle feel like the distant past, […]
The Jews of Long Island
Brad Kolodny returns to the podcast to update us on what he’s been doing during the intervening thirty episodes. Turns out he’s got a new book and a new historical […]
Cold War Long Island
Journalist Karl Grossman and historian Christopher Verga have teamed up for the new book Cold War Long Island, out now from the History Press. In it, they detail the productive […]
Lucinda Hemmick and the Southold Indian Museum
We continue our focus on the Southold Indian Museum by talking with their current president, Lucinda Hemmick. A science research teacher from Longwood High School, Lucinda found her way to […]
Jay Levenson and the Southold Indian Museum
Welcome to part 1 of a 2-part episode focusing on the Southold Indian Museum. Today we speak with Jay Levenson, incoming executive director of the museum. Jay discusses his Native American […]
The Story of Telefunken in West Sayville
Welcome to our 150th episode! Connie Currie is back to bring us the story of the Telefunken site in West Sayville and how she and a dedicated band of radio […]
The Long Island in Casco Bay
Some may be shocked to find that there are many Long Islands out there, each with its own fascinating history. We’ve taken up the challenge of finding those who are […]
The Lost Boys of Montauk
In her first book, The Lost Boys of Montauk, journalist Amanda Fairbanks documents the story of the Wind Blown and the four men who lost their lives aboard it in […]
A Personal History of PTSD
Frank Romeo graduated from Bay Shore High School and enlisted in the US Army during the height of the Vietnam War. Despite fighting in the Tet Offensive and participating in […]
Love, Death, and German Immigrants in 19th Century New York
If you were a corrupt or incompetent official in 19th century New York City, Philip Merkle was your worst nightmare: an idealistic German immigrant with subpoena power. As city coroner […]