This history of the nation's first orphanage for African American children, founded in New York City nearly two centuries ago.This book uncovers the history of the Colored Orphan Asylum, founded in 1836. Through three wars, two major financial panics, a devastating fire during the 1863 Draft Riots, several epidemics, waves of racial prejudice, and severely strained budgets, it cared for orphaned, neglected, and delinquent children, eventually receiving financial su...

An in-depth account of the Civil War people and events that left their mark on the city at the heart of the Union, shaping its historic legacy.When the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Washington, DC, was a small, essentially Southern city. The capital rapidly transformed as it prepared for invasion—army camps sprung up in Foggy Bottom, the Navy Yard on Anacostia was a beehive of activity, and even the Capitol was pressed into service as a barracks....

Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, formerly the editor of "The American Historical Magazine," and one of the best informed historical writers of our times, left a great legacy at her death, especially to the citizens of New York, in her masterful effort "The History of the City of New York." This work has an increasing value with each succeeding year, and, as the late Hon. Thurlow Weed wrote, "No library is complete without it". Everything about New York, from the first day of its settlement until today...

Elizabeth Greenspan's Battle for Ground Zero provides a revealing look at the heated politics behind the long struggle to rebuild the World Trade Center.In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans came together in a way not seen for a generation, pledging unity to rebuild after the horrific loss of the Twin Towers. People were signing up to go to war; rescue workers were laboring to clear rubble. But instead of becoming a rallying symbol in the fight against terror...

This unique volume uncovers the most fascinating and compelling stories from The New York Times about the city the paper calls home.More than 200 articles and an abundance of photographs, illustrations, maps, and graphs from the preeminent newspaper in the world take a look at the history and personality of the world's most influential city. Read firsthand accounts of the subway opening in 1904 and the day the Metrocard was introduced; the fall of Tammany H...

From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, African Americans in the Washington, D.C. area sought leisure destinations where they could relax without the burden of racial oppression. Local picnic parks such as Eureka and Madre's were accessible by streetcars. Black-owned steamboats ferried passengers seeking sun and sand to places like Collingwood Beach, and African American families settled into quiet beach-side communities along the Western Shore of Maryland. Author and public...

Regiments from Chester County fought bravely in all theaters of World War II, while locals at home took extraordinary measures to support the Allies. West Chester resident G. Raymond Rettew developed a process to mass produce vitally needed penicillin while a peaceful farm transformed into the bustling Valley Forge General Hospital in 1943. Women entered labor positions at companies, including Lukens Steel, to meet production demands. The Coatesville YMCA created and distributed a newslett...

Spanish Harlem�s musical development thrived between the 1930s and 1980s in New York City. This area was called El Barrio by its inhabitants and Spanish Harlem by all others. It was a neighborhood where musicians from the Caribbean or their descendants organized musical groups, thereby adding to the diaspora that began in Africa and Spain. The music now called salsa had its roots in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo, and it continued developing onanother island: Manhattan.

"A fascinating trip back to a pastoral New Jersey where malls, gangsters and toxic waste did not exist, and violence still shocked the public."—Robert Schneck, author of The Bye Bye Man: And Other Strange-but-True TalesOn January 9, 1850, Judge John Van Winkle and his wife, Jane, were brutally stabbed to death by their former farm hand, John Jonston, in their home on Goffle Road in Hawthorne, NJ (which is still standing). Their murder would go down in hist...

The oldest names in aviation joined forces in 1929, when Wright Aeronautical and Curtiss Aeroplane formed the giant Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Curtiss airplanes were already �the best things with wings,� while Charles Lawrance had made Wright powerplants the leader in American radial engines. Aviation founding father Glenn Curtiss, along with superstars Charles A. Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Admiral Byrd, and �Wrong-Way� Corrigan, all blazed skytrails with Wright engines and Curtiss wings...

Walk along with New York's most celebrated writers on a tour of the city that inspired them in this "evolving portrait of New York through the centuries" ( The New York Observer).ONE OF THE NEW YORK OBSERVER'S TOP 10 BOOKS FOR FALLIt's no wonder that New York has always been a magnet city for writers. Manhattan is one of the most walkable cities in the world. But while many novelists, poets, and essayists have enjoyed long walks in New Yor...

Vivid accounts of the dangers that miners faced on a daily basis in the northern, southern, and middle coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania.Since 1870, mining disasters have claimed the lives of over 30,000 men and boys who toiled underground in the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania. Sometimes they survived; many times they did not. The constant threat of fire, explosion, collapsed rock and deadly gas brought miners face to face with death on a daily basis. Through or...