Category: African Americans

The Howard School in Kings Park with Dr Tammy C. Owens

March 27, 2024
cbkretz
A group of Black girls working in a kitchen.
Girls at the Howard Orphanage and Industrial School learning to bake. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL.

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.” […]

William Sidney Mount and Long Island People of Color

September 12, 2022
cbkretz
William Sidney Mount (l) and The Bone Player (1856) featuring Andrew Brewster.
William Sidney Mount (l) and The Bone Player (1856) featuring Andrew Brewster.

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, […]

The Long Island Archaeologist

November 9, 2020
cbkretz
Map from a 1915 atlas showing Freetown and parts of East Hampton.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "Part of East Hampton and Freetown" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1915 - 1917. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-3b13-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Allison McGovern has been digging history for a long time. Fascinated as a child with ancient Egypt and visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she went on to become […]

Baseball in Riverhead

August 3, 2020
cbkretz
Newspaper headline from 1950 stating "Satchel Paige to pitch at Riverhead."
Riverhead County Review, July 20, 1950. From NYS Historic Newspapers.

A July night at Riverhead Stadium in 1950. Two baseball legends face each other without even realizing it. Satchel Paige, fabled Negro League pitcher, is on the mound for the […]

Preservation Awards: SANS Sag Harbor

June 8, 2020
cbkretz
African American family playing on the beach at Sag Harbor.
Beach ca. 1959. Photo courtesy of Donnamarie Barnes Archive.

It’s a preservation party and you’re all invited! We’ve teamed up with Preservation Long Island to help celebrate their 2020 Preservation Awards. Over the next week we’ll be posting interviews […]

Still There on Christian Avenue

January 20, 2020
cbkretz
1873 map of the Strongs Neck area with the home of Silas Tobias circled in red.
Silas Tobias' home on Conscience Bay marked on the 1873 Beers map of Long Island. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. (1915 - 1917).

History is not the full story if not everyone gets to tell it. And in places where the traditional records are scarce or silent, where do you look for answers? […]