Right by the American Museum of Natural History is a nice sized building that houses some really interesting artifacts and a killer collection of Hudson artists.
The main exhibit is titled Lincoln in New York. The exhibit included documents, clothing, even interactive screens to discuss the career of Lincoln and his visit to New York. They were selling shirts that proclaimed "Lincoln: The most beloved President that New York hated". If you read your history books correctly, New York City did NOT like Lincoln and wanted to side with the South because they were going to lost business. In fact NYC was going to declare itself as a city state so it could trade freely with the North and South.
There was a school group there that wrote letters to Lincoln and one kid said thank you for freeing the slaves...right as I was standing by a sign that proclaimed Lincoln's words explaining how he wouldn't free the slaves if it preserved the Union. I was a horrible being and laughed out loud at the irony.
On display was a military jacket of the first Union victim. Took a nice bullet to the heart. Must have been a bitch to wash the blood out. I should stop being so mean.
I had two favorites sites.
1) The Painting Collection
The NYHSM has one of the largest collections of Hudson artists. Now the paintings were from the 19th century...which I hope I am right, puts us in the Romantic Era of literature, art, and music. One of the main aspects of Romantic art, literature, and music was the focus on nature. There were several oil paintings by Thomas Cole...one stood out to me which was called Catskill Creek.
2) The 4th floor of "stuff"
Up on the 4th floor is literally an artifact haven. Off to the side is the 9/11 collection. While the majority of everything was destroyed on that day, the museum has on display items recovered at the site...mainly port authority cards, a K9's tag, keys, even a pair of shoes from a Survivor. There was a jar of dust that was taken from the scene, and two parts of the airplanes that flew into the buildings. It was just weird to see everyday items on display, but you have to...it's New York history.
Upstairs there are military artifacts. There are guns, knives, swords, uniforms from the police, fire force, Civil War, and even Revolution. That was my favorite site to look at because I like military history (aaaand Nazis...).
The museum is small, but holds quite a lot (including a stagecoach up on the 4th floor). Our day was completed with pizza and beer, a trip to Columbia University, and Carngie Hall and of course Borders.
And I cannot complete this entry without the fact that I bought a book on the Gestapo. So there. There is my Nazi reference, Kate.
well said!
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