Municipal Archives

Last week one of my classes met at the NYC Municipal Archives. We got a tour of the conservation facilities and archive rooms. The volume of records and historic documents stored there is amazing. There are property photos, marriage records, mayoral records among others. The woman who runs the archive told us that they have over 160,000 square cubic feet of material. Some of the items they pulled for us included 19th century mug shots and police evidence including a statement rolled up with a knife point that was extracted from the victim. Going in to one of the basement storage rooms was like the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when they wheel the crate into the warehouse.

Halloween fun!

The Merchant's House Museum has lots of fun, historically-themed events in October. Check out what they have going on http://www.merchantshouse.com/events/index.html

Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze

Last night I went with a group of friends, some newly made, to Van Cortlandt Manor. Before heading to the spectacle, we had dinner at Umami Cafe in Croton-on-Hudson. The place was busy, the food was reasonable and excellent, and our host was a Civil War reenactor to boot! I got some fun tidbits about the local history from him while waiting for friends.

We headed two minutes down the road to the Blaze. It was quite a production, to say the least. I believe the site has over 6,000 carved pumpkins now. The turnout was impressive as well. It's definitely merchandise-heavy (cafe tent, gift shop with tons of plastic toys for the kids and pumpkin themed food items, postcards and mugs) but I really like the fact that the proceeds support Historic Hudson Valley. This is entertainment that won't rot your brain. Some of my favorite displays:


The Halve Maen


The Headless Horseman's road


Dinosaurs!


Kitties