A DOCUMENTARY FILM Directed by RIC BURNS

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TEACHER’S GUIDE NEW YORK A DOCUMENTARY FILM Directed by RIC BURNS

Funding for this teacher’s guide was provided by FORD FOUNDATION A Acknowledgments Letter from Ric Burns

This guide was produced by Dear Teacher, I vividly remember the ﬁrst moment I realized I had to live in New York. It was in the summer of 1974. I was nineteen years old, riding down Fifth Avenue on the Number 4 bus, when it occurred to me that people from Michigan (where I grew up) could Educational live here. This simple thought sent an electrical current surging through my body so Resources Center strong that it made my heart pound as hard as it is possible to pound without having Ruth Ann Burns, Director a heart attack. I've lived here ever since. Publisher: Robert A. Miller Editor: David Reisman, Ed.D. There really is no place in the world quite like New York. For generations, its dark Design: B.T. Whitehill, Daniel Rhati- gan, Adam Helfet-Hilliker beauty and inimitable power have stirred men and women to the depths of their Writers: Jordan Brown, Allan L. souls, seeming the very embodiment of all ambition, all aspiration, all romance, all Damon, Eric Rothschild, Anne Marie Santoro, Gloria L. Sesso desire. The very names of New York's streets and districts have been woven into our Photo Editor: Christina L. Draper collective imagination, until they have become shorthand for the whole range of Copy Editor and Proofreader: Sue Young Wilson human experience. Broadway and Times Square. Wall Street. Madison Avenue. Fifth Research: Kimberly Yuen, Michael Avenue. Park Avenue. Harlem. Grand Central Station. Weinraub Advisers New York confronts us with the most basic questions. What forces converged to make Robert M. Dytell, President, Association of Teachers of Social such a city possible? What does it tell us about ourselves as a people? Is there any Studies/UFT way of explaining something so dense, complex, incomprehensibly vast, multiple Steve Rivo, Steeplechase Films and overpowering? Constantine Theodosiou, Social Studies Teacher, Beach Channel For seven years, I've been working on NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM, struggling High School, New York Grady Turner, Director of Exhibitions, with my production team to create a single narrative out of the nearly four hundred The New-York Historical Society years, four hundred square miles, and millions and millions of people that collectively Special thanks to the New-York constitute the polyglot, complex history that is New York. I've never been more chal- Historical Society lenged or obsessed by a subject in my life. NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM More than any other place in America, New York is the city Americans love to love, Directed by Ric Burns is a special presentation of and love to hate —the King Kong of cities, the city that has inspired greater ambivalence than any other city in America. Yet, for almost 400 years, New York has been the cauldron of capitalism and democracy in America, and the supreme laboratory of A Steeplechase Films production in modern life, where the most crucial American experiment of modern times continues association with WGBH Boston, to unfold —the exhilarating, often harrowing experiment to see if all the peoples of Thirteen/WNET New York, and the New-York Historical Society. the world can live together in a single place. Director: Ric Burns Producers: Lisa Ades and I hope that this guide is useful in provoking thoughtful debate in your classrooms Ric Burns Writers: Ric Burns and about the themes, stories and lessons included in our series, about your own city or James Sanders town, about the importance of cities in general, and perhaps most crucially, about

Funding for this teacher’s guide was the nature of America itself. provided by

Major funding for NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM was provided by: Ric Burns The Chase ManhattanCorporation Director

Ordering Information National Endowment for the Humanities Five two-hour videocassettes for NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM are available through PBS Home Video, 1-800-PLAY-PBS. The companion book to the series, NEW YORK: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, by Ric Burns and James Sanders with Lisa Ades, is published by Cover photos, clockwise from upper left: COURTESY OF NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY PBS/Corporation for Public Knopf, a division of Random House, and is available for $60 wherever FILM, © CORBIS IMAGES, COURTESY OF Broadcasting books are sold. NEW YORK, the series’s original soundtrack com- STEEPLECHASE FILMS, COURTESY OF NEW posed and arranged by Brian Keane, is available on RCA Victor for YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM, © NATIONAL Ford Foundation ARCHIVES — NT-959A-3, MUSEUM OF THE $18.98 at stores nationwide. CITY OF NEW YORK

New York: trade, finance, and culture, tions, and fun, explorable A Documentary Film and a source of ideas that environments. Lesson plans Directed by Ric Burns have shaped our country. It for teachers and guidelines illuminates little-known for parents are included. facets of American history, To take a virtual tour of and provides perspective on “hidden” New York, to play a social, political, economic, New York trivia game, or learn and cultural trends in our more about the six episodes nation today. and the making of the series, visit the NEW YORK series HOW TO USE Web site. Both Web sites are at THIS GUIDE www.thirteen.org/newyork/ This guide is intended to help or www.pbs.org/newyork/ you use NEW YORK: A DOCU- MENTARY FILM as a supple- BROADCAST ment to junior-high and high- INFORMATION school social-studies courses. The first five episodes of NEW Selected activities may also be © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK YORK will be broadcast on used in language arts, music, TEACHER’S PAGES the following dates on PBS NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY and art classes. The teacher’s information (check local listings): THEMES pages provide scene lists for Episode One, The Country the first five episodes of NEW and the City (1609–1825) COURTESY OF Key themes in this guide YORK — tables of contents include governance, public Sunday, November 14, 1999 for each two-hour film —to ew York is one of the health and other reforms, help you determine which Episode Two, Order and most exciting cities in culture and public policy, segments of the programs to Disorder (1825–1865) the world. It’s a cen- immigration and race, eco- N use in class. (A scene list for Monday, November 15, 1999 ter of economic and cultural nomic life, and the role of Episode Six was not available life, attracting people from women in New York City’s Episode Three, Sunshine and at press time.) Vocabulary around the globe. New York is history. The guide is intended Shadow (1865–1898) words, brief descriptions of where ambitious people to help students consider Tuesday, November 16, 1999 prominent people and places, come to test themselves, crucial questions related and resources for each pro- Episode Four,The Power and where those who feel different to these themes, and to gram (books and Web sites) the People (1898–1914) can find a sense of belonging. help them use what they’ve are also included. General- Wednesday, November 17, Some of its buildings and learned about the history of interest resources are listed 1999 industries are synonymous New York as a starting point on the back cover of the with modernity, while evi- for finding out more about Episode Five, Cosmopolis guide. dence of its rich past is every- their own community. (1914–1931) where. Its contrasts of great Thursday, November 18, 1999 LOG ON —THE NEW wealth and poverty, its incred- STUDENT’S PAGES YORK WEB SITE The series will be rebroadcast ible organization and appar- The student’s pages are to be with Episode Six, The City Learning Adventures in Citi- ent defiance of logic —so photocopied and distributed and the World (1931–2000) zenship: From New York to dense, so complex, so difficult to students before viewing a in Spring, 2000. Your Town is an educational to grasp at once —lead one program, or segments of the Web companion to NEW to ask: Why did this happen program. These pages VIDEOTAPING RIGHTS YORK for young people. here, and not someplace else? include a brief program Teachers, kids, and parents Off-air taping rights of NEW How did New York come to description, a primary source can learn about the history YORK: A DOCUMENTARY be what it is today? (a text, political cartoon, map, of New York and do activities FILM are available to educa- or photograph), discussion NEW YORK: A DOCUMEN- designed to help kids learn tors for one year following questions, a brief profile, TARY FILM is a six-part PBS more about and participate each broadcast release. and activities. Some of the series that examines the in their own communities. activities are intended to be history of the city, from its Funded by the Markle Foun- done over a long period of beginnings in 1624 as a dation, the Web site is full of time. Please review the mate- Dutch trading post through video clips from the series, rials carefully before making its transformation into an historical documents, illustra- urban colossus —a center of assignments.

Background photo: © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

1 The Country And the City (1609–1825) Broadcast Date: Sunday, November 14, 1999

Overview from different nations. By the PRIMARY SOURCE 1640s, there were 18 different ew York City began as a languages spoken there. N Dutch trading post. In 1609, Henry Hudson, a British “The Country and the City” explorer hired by the Dutch, chronicles New York’s history sailed into what would later from its early years as a Dutch become one of history’s colony to its takeover by the busiest, wealthiest harbors. British Empire in 1664, to its Hudson had planned to find a pivotal position during the faster route to the Orient for American Revolution. the Dutch, to give them a Although America’s capital competitive edge. Although moved from New York to Hudson failed to find the Washington, D.C., in 1790, fabled “Northwest Passage,” Manhattan became the eco- he saw the potential for trade nomic capital of the nation. with the native people in the The program ends in 1825 Manhattan area, who called with the triumphant comple- themselves the Lenape. A tion of the Erie Canal, cham- thriving fur-trading business pioned by DeWitt Clinton and in New Amsterdam sparked accomplished by numerous Manhattan’s role as a leader immigrant laborers. Clinton’s in the world of commerce and entrepreneurial act ensured capitalism. The colony wel- New York’s position as a comed hard-working people financial and cultural center.

PROFILE COURTESY PAUL COHEN, MANHATTAN IN MAPS/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS IN MAPS/LIBRARY COHEN, MANHATTAN COURTESY PAUL DeWitt Clinton

Manhattan’s population grew rapidly in the early 19th century. To simplify the sale and purchase of unsettled land located between 14th Street and Washington Heights, a commission led by Mayor DeWitt Clinton proposed reshaping the natural landscape and dividing the land into about 2,000 rectangular blocks. Each plot of land was equal — 100 feet long x 25 feet wide. The commission pre-

© CORBIS IMAGES sented this “grid” concept on a sprawling, eight-foot map. DeWitt Clinton symbolically pouring water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean. Questions 1. The grid commission 3. Compare this grid to a cur- By the early 1800s, thriv- long, dangerous trip assigned the streets num- rent map of Manhattan. What ing American cities in the overland across the state. bers (e.g., 1st Street, Fifth similarities and differences do Midwest looked as though Completed in 1825, the Avenue) rather than names. you notice? What clues sug- they might take away canal linked Albany to How did this facilitate the gest that parts of lower Man- business from New York. Buffalo and made the buying and selling of land? hattan were developed prior To maintain New York’s transportation of people dominance as a commer- and products more eco- How does this urban plan to the 1800s? cial center, DeWitt Clinton nomical. While he was reﬂect the ideals of democ- (1769–1828) proposed the mayor and governor, racy? digging of the Erie Canal. DeWitt Clinton’s vision, 2. In what ways do you This 363-mile-long water- creativity, and commit- think Manhattan’s natural way would connect the ment improved public Hudson River with Lake education, aided the city’s landscape needed to be Erie. Merchants would no poor, and updated city changed in order to execute longer have to make the planning. the grid plan? © CORBIS IMAGES NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

Student’s Pages The Country And the City (1609–1825) 1

Complete one of the following activities. THE “NEGRO PLOT” STREET NAMES AND City. Research the history of • Were any famous battles OF 1741 STRUCTURE the Erie Canal. Find out, in fought in your area? On March 18, 1741, mysteri- Using resources from your detail, how a canal boat got • In what ways has your town ous fires broke out in New local historical society or from one end to the other. or city changed since older York near the governor’s public library, find out how What kinds of boats were people’s childhood days? house. Soon after, other unex- some prominent streets in used? How did stone locks Work with another student to plained fires destroyed more your town got their names. help during the journey? How research the answers to these homes and businesses. Who made the naming deci- long did it take for a boat to questions. To gather addition- Although there was almost no sions? Are any streets named get from Buffalo, New York, al information about your evidence, the English govern- after founders of your town? to Manhattan? Once you’ve area’s history, you can use an ment became convinced the Are any streets named after a gathered enough research, audiotape or videotape fires were part of a “Negro person whose business has create a diary of a student recorder to interview some Plot.” Nearly half the adult played an important role in traveling down the Erie Canal elderly townspeople (possibly your city’s economy? Then, during the 1830s, with one relatives) about their earliest with help from your local his- entry per day of your trip. memories. Alternately, you torical society or public Describe the sights you see, could interview an expert at a library, research how your and include some excerpts of local history organization. If town’s current organizational dialogue you “overhear.” Your there is a Native American plan originated. For example, goal is to help your readers organization nearby, inter- why is “downtown” located feel as though they’ve gone view one of its members where it is? Present your dis- back in time. When you’re about his or her tribe’s history coveries in the form of a large done, share your Erie Canal in your area. Share your find- map or mural that shows an diary entries with your class. ings with others in your class overview of your town or city You may also view the Erie in the form of a written and how it came to be. If you Canal slide show at the report, a short play, or a wish, offer a proposal for how NEW YORK Web site, at videotape presentation. you would re-organize your http://www.thirteen.org/ town if you were in charge. newyork/laic/episode1/ What industries and busi- topic7/e1_s1-ec.html nesses would you want to EARLY INHABITANTS male slaves in New York were attract? Would you add more LOOKING AND SETTLERS thrown in jail. In brutal pun- public parks? Improve public FORWARD ishments reminiscent of the transportation? Add another • Who were the first people Salem Witch Trials, 13 slaves zoo? Another shopping mall? to live in your area? Episode Two, were burned at the stake, 16 • Did they belong to a Native Order and blacks and 4 whites were A TRIP DOWN THE American tribe? Disorder hanged, and 70 more New ERIE CANAL • When did settlers arrive (1825–1865) Yorkers were deported. Using Although the Erie Canal is no from elsewhere in the New York becomes the books and Web sites, work longer used for commercial world? nation’s greatest indus- with a small group of students purposes, in the mid-1800s, • Did the Native Americans trial metropolis, as a to research the “Uprising of this waterway was essential massive wave of Ger- and the other settlers get 1741.” With suggestions from for transporting products and man and Irish immigra- along? your teacher, create a simu- people to and from New York tion turns the city into lated TV news program that one of the world’s most describes the events of this complex urban environ- uprising. Be sure to include ments. “Order and Dis- debate among the different order” features the con- points of view, such as a slave struction of Central who lost a family member; Park, Walt Whitman’s poetic celebration of Mary Burton, the young white New York, P.T. Barnum’s servant who testified; Justice dime museum, Abraham Daniel Horsmanden, the key Lincoln’s speech at investigator; an English busi- Cooper Union, and the nessman; and so on. New York Draft Riots. THE GILDER LEHRMAN COLLECTION ON DEPOSIT AT THE PIERPONT MORGAN LIBRARY, NEW YORK. GLC 4205. THE PIERPONT MORGAN LIBRARY, THE GILDER LEHRMAN COLLECTION ON DEPOSIT AT

2 Order and Disorder (1825–1865) Broadcast Date: Monday, November 15, 1999

Overview PRIMARY SOURCES n 1825, New York was The land where Central Park Questions Study Winslow Homer’s paint- I peaceful, orderly, and rural, was built was not uninhab- ing “Skating in Central Park.” with a population of less than ited. The map below shows 1. How would you describe 1. How are the people in the 175,000 people. The next few Seneca Village, a thriving Seneca Village based on the painting making use of Cen- decades brought the tensions community of African map? tral Park? Why? Which classes and possibilities of the mod- Americans that existed from 2. Why do you think the park of people are in the painting ern age to Manhattan. Its resi- 1825–1856, located between designers were willing to — upper class, middle class, dents were faced with prob- 81st and 86th Streets near destroy Seneca Village to cre- or lower class? How do you lems including crime, gangs, Eighth Avenue. It was ate the park? How would the know? What does the painting fires, and disease. New public demolished during the con- designers of Central Park suggest about the purpose services were urgently need- struction of Central Park. ed. A huge wave of immigra- defend their actions? and function of Central Park? Study the “Topographical tion from Europe brought 3. What defense could the 2. Using the sources, explain Survey for the Grounds of hundreds of thousands of leaders of Seneca Village use which class of people Central Park.” Seneca Vil- new arrivals, who had to to try to stop the park’s devel- appeared to have benefited lage’s population was stable. find somewhere to live. opment? from Central Park. How can The AMA Zion Church (con- you tell? Which group of peo- The city rose to the challenges sidered to be a “wealthy Topographical Survey for the Grounds of Central Park ple may not have benefited? of expansion, and Walt Whit- coloured people’s church”); showing Seneca Village Explain. man celebrated New York’s the Union Methodist Epis- energy and spirit in his mas- copal Church, which housed terpiece, Leaves of Grass. By one of the few black schools 1865, the city had a new fire in New York City; and All department, waterworks, pop- Angel’s Church served the ular newspapers, a world- community. Irish and Ger- class Central Park, mass enter- mans began moving into tainments, and whole new the area in the 1840s. The All communities of immigrants Angels Church ministered to who added to its diversity and a mixed population. energy. Still, during the Civil War, New York was the site of The map shows a village the worst urban riot in Ameri- that contains farmlands, ca’s history, in which working- houses, and churches. The class white mobs murdered dark squares and rectangles blacks in reaction to new fed- represent structures, most of eral draft laws. The aftermath them homes. of the riots brought the found- ing of a new police force and important reforms on behalf HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK of the poor. “Skating in Central Park,” Winslow Homer PROFILE

Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (1819–1892) a passionate work of was one of the most poetry that celebrates extraordinary American egalitarianism and his poets of the 19th century. own individuality, as well He grew up in Brooklyn as sexuality and regenera- and worked as a teacher, tion in nature. Considered journalist, and editor of the “father of free verse in the newspaper The American literature,” Brooklyn Eagle before Whitman has inﬂuenced publishing the ﬁrst edition generations of American of Leaves of Grass (1855), poets. © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

Student’s Pages Order and Disorder (1825–1865) 2

Complete one of the following activities. LINCOLN’S COOPER THE DRAFT RIOTS UNION SPEECH

Using a text fro m the library or the Web (www.netins.net/ showcase/creative/lincoln/ speeches/cooper.htm), analyze a copy of Lincoln’s “Cooper Union” speech from

February 27, 1860. Answer © THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY the following questions: Work in cooperative learning 1. What is Lincoln saying groups to create a Cause-and- about the Republican Party’s Effect chart on the 1863 draft relationship to abolitionism? riots. After each group com- To John Brown? pletes its chart, take turns presenting the information 2. As a class, debate whether you feel is essential to each

© COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK Lincoln’s speech was a uni- column. After the presenta- fying or dividing force in P.T. BARNUM AND tions, analyze the draft riots America. POPULAR CULTURE by answering the following questions: Divide into cooperative LEAVES OF GRASS groups. Each group should Using library resources, find 1. Why did the rioters engage use library or Web resources and share excerpts from Walt in such violence? Were they to research and study one or Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, justified in their frustration more of the following items such as “Song of Myself” or with the Draft Act? Why? from P.T. Barnum’s American “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” 2. Museum: Why did the rioters target With a partner, discuss your African Americans? • an itinerary of Jenny Lind’s first reactions to the poem. appearances What do you think Walt 3. How do race and class help • The Wedding of Tom Whitman is talking about? explain the draft riots? Thumb Who is he glorifying? After discussing the poems with • sheet music from the circus LOOKING the class, write an essay shows FORWARD explaining whether you • a description or pictures agree or disagree with Walt of the “Seven Salons” of the Whitman’s views of democra- Episode Three, Museum cy in New York City, and why. Sunshine and • an excerpt from The Illus- Shadow For more on Walt, visit (1865–1898) trated Guidebook HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK Walt Whitman’s City on This episode examines After you develop your the NEW YORK Web site at the era when the expan- Answer the following: answers to the questions, http://www.thirteen.org/ sion of wealth and 1. Describe the entertain- each group should report its newyork/laic/episode2/ poverty — and the ment value of your story or findings to the class. Based on topic7/e2_topic7.html schism between them — document. the answers and the informa- built to a crescendo. tion in Episode Two, discuss 2. Why did Barnum include it “Sunshine and Shadow” the following: in his museum? features Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, the 1. To what extent did Bar- 3. What does it tell you about opening of the Brooklyn num’s museum appeal to the popular culture in New York Bridge, and the annex- racist sentiments of the time? and the United States at the ing of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, time? 2. To what extent was and Staten Island into Barnum’s museum an expres- 4. Why did the sideshow a single metropolis — sion of American and urban exhibits feature people of dif- Greater New York. culture? ferent races? © CORBIS IMAGES NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

3 Sunshine and Shadow (1865–1898) Broadcast Date: Tuesday, November 16, 1999

Overview PRIMARY SOURCE n the 33 years covered by Harper’s Weekly, January 14, 1871 I this episode, New York City changed more dramatically than in any period in its history. From a merchant city to the second largest metropolis in the world, New York took center stage. Central Park, begun before the Civil War, was supposed to bring peace and breathing space to New York. Instead, the area around it was occu- pied within decades, as the “Gilded Age” brought stun- ning wealth to J.P. Morgan, Jay Gould, and Jim Fisk, who built mansions on the park’s eastern border, Fifth Avenue. At the same time, legions of new immigrants arrived, most

squeezed into tenements in IMAGES COURTESY OF HARPWEEK, WWW.HAPRWEEK.COM HARPER’S WEEKLY the older corners of the city TWEEDLEDEE AND SWEEDLEDUM. far from the park that had (A new Christmas Pantomime at the Tammany Hall.) been promoted as beneficial Clown (to Pantaloon).“Let’s Blind them with this, and them take some more.” to them. The bosses of Tammany Hall and the photo- Questions Activities graphs of Jacob Riis served PROFILE these new poor in different Use the cartoon, Episode 1. Draw a cartoon with a ways, but by the turn of the Three, and a little research political message. You don’t century, the gap between to answer the following. have to be a skilled illustrator to do so. Even stick figures rich and poor had never 1. Who are William M. will do. If you can, in your been greater. “Boss” Tweed (Tweedledee) cartoon, comment on some and Peter Sweeny (Sweedle- New Yorkers also tackled local political issue or on dum)? What is Tammany tremendous projects during some issue in your school. Hall? © CORBIS IMAGES these years. They raised the You are welcome to be biased! money to put together the 2. What social class are the Horatio Alger 2. Stage a debate with at least Statue of Liberty and raised people receiving the Horatio Alger five other students in your her to her feet in New York money? How can you tell? (1832–1899) was a class that wrestles with the Harbor. They built the Brook- Where is the money coming popular writer whose following situation: You are lyn Bridge, an engineering from? At what time of year more than one hundred on the edge of poverty. Would marvel that cost the lives of is this cartoon taking place? novels glorified the you support a politician or an American Dream. A many and connected Brook- Does it matter? Why? lyn, America’s first suburb, organization with your votes number of his works to Manhattan. And, in the 3. What is the Clown that, though shady or even focused on the experiences of New York most extraordinary “struc- (Tweed) suggesting when dishonest in public dealings, newsboys. While his ture” of all, by a vote of all he says, “Let’s blind them made sure to support you, if works were fiction, New Yorkers in December, with this, and then take you had an economic crisis Alger’s descriptions some more?” or had trouble with the law? 1897, Brooklyn joined Man- of the neighborhoods hattan, Staten Island, Queens, 4. What was the cartoonist, 3. Explore Tammany Hall on of New York helped a and the Bronx to become part Thomas Nast, suggesting the NEW YORK Web site and generation of young of New York City. about the real financial check out the activity “Smart men who were moving winners in the public Art”: http://www.thirteen.org/ from farm to city find their way. treasury raid? newyork/laic/episode3/ topic6/e3_topic6.html NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

Student’s Pages SunshineSunshine and and Shadow Shadow (1865–1898) (1865–1898) 3

Complete one of the following activities. FRESHMAN CLASS: plishments as adults up to about all the potential candi- 1898 and including 1898. dates, you will have to write a paper in which you rank your Lucky you! It’s 1898 and the Your teacher will assign you top eight students. It is very president of a brand new your role. Depending on the important to write an opening and totally fictional college, size of your class, either one paragraph in which you out- the University of New York, or two of you is responsible line your goals for the Univer- has asked you to serve on for presenting the candidacy sity of New York, with specific its admissions committee. of one of the applicants. You reference to as many of these You and the other committee and your partner, if you have topics as possible: gover- members, your classmates, one, may decide that your nance, public health and will be selecting the first applicant is wildly inappro- other reforms, culture and eight students in the fresh- priate for UNY. That’s fine. man class at UNY. Eighteen public policy, immigration historical figures have Using the content of NEW and race, the role of women, applied. (Some are dead, but YORK and any additional and economic life. The stu- that’s OK; remember, this is a research you wish, write up dents you select should square simulation!) The applicants your presentation and share with your goals, because they are: Joshua Beal, Russell H. it with your teacher at least a will influence life in New York HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK Conwell, Thomas Alva Edison, week before the admissions in the 20th century. THE SQUARE AND board meeting. Your teacher Jim Fisk, Henry George, Jay Finally, the admissions board THE MALL will return it to you in a few Gould, J.P. Morgan, Thomas will meet and debate the mer- days with suggestions for Central Park was the “great Nast, Frederick Law Olmsted, its of each applicant. After improvement, if any are public square” of mid-century Jacob Riis, John Augustus eight are selected, each of needed. New York. Is the mall today’s Roebling, Emily Roebling, you, using your notes, will great public square? Write a Washington Roebling, Al When the presentations begin, make roommate assignments. brief paper contrasting your Smith, Emma Stebbins, listen closely and take notes. observations of your nearest William M. Tweed, Cornelius (Your teacher may give you a HOW THE OTHER mall with the descriptions of Vanderbilt, and Walt Whit- sheet to guide your notetak- HALF LIVES man. In making your selec- Central Park in this and the ing.) Doing so will help you, The camera for Jacob Riis tions, you should consider all previous episode. because, just after the admis- became an instrument of of the applicant’s accom- sions committee has heard social change. Now, more than a hundred years later, LOOKING can you do the same? With FORWARD your teacher’s and your parents’ approval, document Episode Four, some situation or condition The Power and in your hometown, and, like the People Riis, provide the text to (1898–1914) accompany it. This episode looks at the period in which As an alternative, you may more than ten million write an imaginary letter from immigrants arrived in Jacob Riis to your local news- New York harbor. “The paper commenting on the Power and the People” homeless in American cities also shows how the today. Then write a letter sharp divisions between responding to Riis that accus- rich and poor were es him of bias and of staging addressed during the the vignette in the photo- Progressive Era, graph from How the Other and how the expansion Half Lives. of New York outward to Brooklyn was matched From Jacob Riis’s How the by the vertical expan- Other Half Lives, “In the sion of Manhattan’s Homes of an Italian Rag- skyscrapers.

REPRODUCED FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS REPRODUCED FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF LIBRARY Picker, Jersey Street” NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

4 The Power and the People (1898–1914) Broadcast Date: Wednesday, November 17, 1999

Overview PRIMARY SOURCE s the twentieth century Below, an English historian, made the process especially factors led them to become dawned, New York A H.G. Wells, describes a day at appealing to the young? Americanized? Does that ten- underwent extraordinary Ellis Island in 1906 as thou- sion between “old country” transformations that made 2. What was Wells’s reaction sands of immigrants “from and “new” exist in American the city the social, cultural, to the volume of immigration Ireland and Poland and Italy society today? and economic center of the as he observed it in 1906? and Syria and Finland and United States. Skyscrapers, What groups then in America Albania” and elsewhere wait Activities such as the Flatiron Building, might have taken a different in long lines for permission changed both Manhattan’s point of view? What reasons 1. Research the immigration to enter America. skyline and the lives of its would they give for their history of an ethnic group or nationality living in New York people; the subways opened a Questions position? How would Wells respond to them? from 1898 to 1914. (You 1. Like many other com- might choose one from your mentators on immigration, 3. Many immigrants to Amer- own heritage.) Answer these H. G. Wells was struck by ica were torn between their questions: How many had the relative youthfulness of desire to maintain their cul- entered America by 1914? the newcomers to America. tural identity and their wish What was the peak year of What was there about emi- to be assimilated as Ameri- immigration? What condi- gration (leaving the old cans. In 1898-1914, what tions in their homeland led country) and immigration major factors helped immi- them to America? Did they (entering the new) that grant New Yorkers hold on face special problems on to “old country” ways? What arrival here? Report your ﬁndings to your class. 2. Imagine yourself as an . . . All day long, through an intricate series of metal immigrant at Ellis Island in pens, the long procession files, step by step, bearing bun- 1900. Write a letter to a dles and trunks and boxes, past this examiner and that, friend in the old country past the quick, alert medical officers, the tallymen and the about your experiences from

© CORBIS IMAGES clerks. At every point immigrants are being picked out and the time you left home until this moment when you wait new world beneath the city. set aside for further medical examination, for questions, for the busy little courts, but the main procession satisfies con- to be cleared for entry into In one generation, Greater the United States. New York’s population more ditions, passes on. . . . than doubled —from 1.91 On they go, from this pen to that, pen by pen, towards 3. Before 1880, immigrants million in 1880 to 4.77 million a desk at a little metal wicket — the gate of America. . . . were denied entry to America in 1910 —as an endless wave [A]ll day long, every two or three seconds an immigrant, only for disease, a murder of immigrants made its way with valise or a bundle, passes the little desk and goes on conviction, or a disability across the Atlantic, the new- past the well–managed money–changing place, past the that prevented employment. comers displacing earlier carefully organized separating ways that go to this railway Between 1881 and 1924, arrivals in the teeming slums or that, past the guiding, protecting officials — into a new Congress voted more than of lower Manhattan and in world. The great majority are young men and young one hundred other restric- the needle and construction women, between seventeen and thirty, good, youthful, tions, including political trades. One hundred forty- hopeful, peasant stock. They stand in a long string, wait- behavior, race, and ethnicity. two of them (mostly teenaged ing to go through that wicket, with bundles, with little tin With other classmates, form girls) died in the Triangle Fire boxes, with cheap portmanteaus, with odd packages, in two teams and debate the in 1911, a preventable tragedy pairs, in families, alone. . . All day that string of human proposition: “It is in the that renewed the efforts of beads waits there, jerks forward, waits again, all day and national interest that immi- progressive reformers and every day, constantly replenished, constantly dropping the gration to the United States political ﬁgures like Al Smith end beads through the wicket. . . . be open and unrestricted.” In one record day this month 21,000 immigrants came to improve urban housing, 4. Take the virtual tour of public health, and working into the port of New York alone; in one week over 50,000. This year the total will be 1,200,000 souls, pour- Ellis Island on the Web site conditions. In seeking govern- at http://www.thirteen.org/ mental solutions to urban ills, ing in, finding work at once, producing no fall in wages. They start digging and building and making. Just think of newyork/laic/episode4/ New York again set the agenda topic1/e4_topic1.html for change nationwide. the dimensions of it! (1906), by H.G. Wells — From: The Future in America NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

Student’s Pages The Power and the People (1898–1914) 4

PRIMARY SOURCE Complete one of the following activities. The Flatiron Building under Questions RIVER VIEWS AND EVIDENCE FOR THE construction in 1901 at the 1. What does this photo CATTLE CARS FUTURE intersection of Broadway and reveal about New York City Report to your class on the Take a photograph or make a Fifth Avenue. For a brief time, in 1901? beneﬁts and drawbacks to sketch of an important inter- its 21 stories made it the city living of high-rise build- section in your community. 2. What technological and tallest building in Manhattan ings and public transporta- (Date your work and indicate commercial changes in the north of the ﬁnancial district. tion (like subways and elevat- the time of day.) How do you late 19th century, ed railways). think future historians might as described in this interpret what you show? episode of NEW INVESTIGATING THE YORK, made possi- TRIANGLE FIRE ble the construction of buildings Turn your class into a legisla- like the Flatiron? tive committee investigating the Triangle Fire. Take testi- 3. What changes mony from “experts” on such would you expect questions as these: “Who is

to find in such responsible for safety in the © PHOTODISC things as trans- workplace?” “If government portation, street has a role, what is it?” “What ALTERNATIVE REALITY: traffic, buildings, laws or regulations should be NEW YORK CITY and architectural written to protect workers Write an essay about what style if this site from tragedies like the Trian- might have happened to were photographed gle Fire?” New York if buildings had today? not risen above six stories, As an alternative, research the subway had not been and report on how fire and built, and the population safety regulations were had not been increased by changed because of the mass immigration. Triangle Fire. © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK

PROFILE LOOKING FORWARD Lillian Wald Lillian Wald (1867-1940) poor. Appalled by the over- renowned for its free, Episode Five, came to New York from crowded, disease-ridden comprehensive programs Cosmopolis Cincinnati to study and slums where many immi- in health-care, hygiene, (1914–1931) remained for a lifetime of grants lived, she was con- and cultural education In a short but dazzling public service among the vinced that poverty could for immigrant families. period, New York be eradicated through In 1902, Wald and Lina became the focal point neighborhood improve- Roberts set up the nation’s of an extraordinary ments in housing, school- ﬁrst public-school nursing array of human and cul- ing, and public health. A service in New York. Ten tural energies, reaching trained nurse, she made years later, Wald was its highest levels of public-health services her instrumental in getting urban excitement and principal means of trans- Congress to create the glamour. “Cosmopolis” forming urban life. Aided U.S. Children’s Bureau. features artistic cre- by philanthropists like Throughout her long ations like George Jacob Schiff, Wald estab- career, she was guided Gershwin’s “Rhapsody lished the Henry Street by her belief that everyone in Blue,” the Harlem Settlement (1895) to pro- was entitled to dignity Renaissance, the rise of vide visiting nurses to the and compassion, and that the new media indus- homes of the poor. Within each person had a respon- tries of advertising and a decade, Henry Street sibility for the well-being radio, and the construc- was internationally of others. tion of the Empire State

5 Cosmopolis (1914–1931) Broadcast Date: Thursday, November 18, 1999

Overview PRIMARY SOURCE oon after the First World from “My Lost City” by F. Scott Fitzgerald S War, New York City blos- somed into an extraordinarily n the dark autumn of two creative and progressive years later we saw New York place, which F. Scott Fitzger- Iagain. We passed through ald called “the land of ambi- curiously polite customs agents, tion and success.” New York’s and then with bowed head and hat afﬂuence, sophistication, and in hand I walked reverently decadence during “the Jazz through the echoing tomb. Among Age” were epitomized by the ruins a few childish wraiths Fitzgerald’s novel The Great still played to keep up the pre- Gatsby. During this time, New

tense that they were alive, betray- © CORBIS IMAGES York’s skyline took shape, as ing by their feverish voices and F. Scott Fitzgerald skyscrapers such as the hectic cheeks the thinness of the masquerade. Cocktail par- Chrysler Building were built. ties, a last hollow survival from the days of carnival, echoed Fueled by the migration of

© COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK to the plaints of the wounded: “Shoot me, for the love of God, hundreds of African-Ameri- someone shoot me!”, and the groans and wails of the dying: can writers, artists, and musi- nation’s jazz-music fans. cians, Harlem became the During this era, New York “Did you see that United States Steel is down three more undisputed capital of black also became a media center, points?” My barber was back at work in his shop; again the culture in America. During due to new radio networks, head waiters bowed people to their tables, if there were people the Harlem Renaissance, recording companies, and to be bowed. From the ruins, lonely and inexplicable as the Manhattan provided a nurtur- the booming advertising and sphinx, rose the Empire State Building and, just as it had been ing environment for writers publishing industries. On a tradition of mine to climb to the Plaza Roof to take leave of such as Langston Hughes. October 29, 1929, when New the beautiful city, extending as far as eyes could reach, so now African-American musicians York’s stock market crashed, I went to the roof of the last and most magnificent of towers. such as Duke Ellington and “roaring ’20s” New Yorkers Then I understood —everything was explained: I had discov- Louis Armstrong dazzled the had to face reality again. ered the crowning error of the city, its Pandora’s box. Full of vaunting pride the New Yorker had climbed here and seen with dismay what he had never suspected, that the city was not the PROFILE endless succession of canyons that he had supposed but that Zora Neale Hurston it had limits —from the tallest structure he saw for the first time that it faded out into the country on all sides, into an During the literary and 1996), 28–29 New Directions, (New York: cultural moment known as expanse of green and blue that alone was limitless. And with the Harlem Renaissance, the awful realization that New York was a city after all and not Zora Neale Hurston (1891- a universe, the whole shining edifice that he had reared in his

1960) wrote her famous imagination came crashing to the ground. That was the rash The Jazz Age novel Their Eyes Were gift of Alfred E. Smith to the citizens of New York. from Watching God. Based on oral histories, life experience, and her studies of Questions African-American folklore, 1. During what period in 4. Using clues from this this story tells the tale of American history do you excerpt, infer some reasons a black woman’s search think this paragraph was why people such as customs for spiritual growth in written? What clues from the agents, barbers, and waiters an oppressive society. text support your guess? acted differently than usual Hurston, who viewed © CORBIS IMAGES during “The Jazz Age.” her racial heritage as 2. What did F. Scott Fitzger- a source of deep pride, about it.” Although Hurston died penniless ald think was “the crowning 5. If Fitzgerald were alive once wrote: “I do not error” of New York City? today, what observations do belong to the sobbing and mostly forgotten in Why? you think he would make school of Negrohood 1960, interest in her work was revived during the about his “lost city”? Would who hold that nature 3. Research Alfred E. Smith. 1980s, particularly due to Fitzgerald still regard New somehow has given them Using clues from this a lowdown dirty deal and the efforts of author Alice York as a lost city? Walker. excerpt, what was the “rash whose feelings are all hurt gift” he gave to the citizens of New York? NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

Student’s Pages Cosmopolis (1914–1931) 5

Complete one of the following activities.

WOMEN OF between the Chrysler Build- AND IF YOU ORDER THE HARLEM ing and the Bank of Manhat- TODAY... RENAISSANCE tan Building. Find the The advent of national radio During the 1920s, patron answers to these questions: programs supported by mass A’lelia Walker organized lavish What factors helped the rapid advertising helped develop a events to bring together construction of the Empire “consumer society” in Ameri- African-American authors State Building? What role did ca. This shift in consumer with publishers and other Alfred E. Smith play in creat- purchasing had to do both patrons. Her personality and ing this famous skyscraper? with mass production and lifestyle inspired Langston For how many years did the attitudes about aspiration, Hughes to dub her the “joy Empire State Building remain “keeping up with the Jone- goddess of Harlem’s 1920s.” the tallest skyscraper in the ses.” Use your local library Another prominent woman world? Write a research paper to research some print adver- during this time was Zora or create an annotated mural tisements that appeared in Neale Hurston, author of nov- (with photographs if possible) newspapers, magazines, or els such as Their Eyes Were that shares with other stu- catalogues during the 1920s Watching God. Research the dents what you’ve discovered. and 30s. Create a written life of Walker or Hurston and As an alternative, research the report in which you contrast ﬁnd out more about their role construction of a famous his- these ads with ones you ﬁnd during the Harlem Renais- torical building in your town in modern publications. Do sance. Then, create a presen- or city. Find out what build- you think people in the ‘20s tation about them to share ings, if any, needed to be and ‘30s were more gullible with your class. It can be in demolished beforehand. What than they are today? Discuss was the original purpose of

the form of a biographical © CORBIS IMAGES the ways in which you believe paper, a play, an oral report, this building? Has this pur- you are susceptible to adver- did your local government a multimedia presentation, pose changed over the years? tisements and ways in which use to try to combat illegal or a mural. you are aware when compa- drinking? Conclude your SO LONG, SALOONS! nies are trying to persuade paper or presentation by In 1917, Congress approved you to buy products you don’t examining contemporary atti- the 18th Amendment to the really need. tudes toward alcohol and Constitution. This amend- other drugs in America. ment —known as Prohibition — stated that, as of 1920, it LOOKING GOING UP,GOING would be illegal for Ameri- FORWARD DOWN cans to manufacture, sell, or transport liquor. Many Ameri- In this activity, imagine you Episode Six, cans rebelled against this law. have $10,000 to invest in the The City and People called “bootleggers” stock market. Use the busi- the World made their own liquor, gang- ness section of the newspa- (1931–2000) per, or an Internet site such sters smuggled in alcohol NEW YORK concludes as YAHOO finance research from other countries, and ille- in Spring, 2000, with (http://finance.yahoo.com), gal bars called “speakeasies” “The City and the thrived. In 1933, Congress to track five stocks over the World,” an examination acknowledged the failure of period of a month. Write of the Depression and this experiment by passing down your reason for select- the New Deal, the eco- © CORBIS IMAGES the 21st Amendment, which ing each of the stocks. By nomic and population HIGH AS THE SKY ended national Prohibition. keeping daily logs (or an booms of the 1950s, online chart) of the ups and the enormous influence Research the dramatic story Write a research paper or oral downs, as well as noting of Robert Moses on of the construction of New presentation in which you events that might have con- the city and its sur- York City’s famous icon, the discuss the pros and cons of tributed to these changes, roundings, and the Empire State Building. To set national Prohibition (e.g., grass-roots reaction you will gain a greater under- the stage, discuss the “sky- effects on people’s health, to “urban renewal” — standing of both the stock scraper wars” from the ’20s, organized crime). Find out the historic-preserva- market’s volatility and its including the competition how this law affected your tion movement. town or city. What methods profitability. NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

6 The City and the World (1931–2000) Airing in Spring, 2000

Overview PRIMARY SOURCE uring Depression-era D New York, poverty and social unrest drove many New Yorkers to the brink of desper- ation. In response, New Deal programs —direct descen- dents of New York’s social programs of the previous 20 years, administered by Franklin D. Roosevelt and a team of New York-trained policy makers —began a flow of money from Washington to the city. Mayor La Guardia aggressively took advantage of the new largesse, and with his master builder Robert Moses, used the untold billions to rebuild New York —not only bringing the city out of its doldrums but also giving it a remarkable infrastructure for future growth. These federal programs pre- cipitated a dramatic change ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GM MEDIA ARCHIVES © 1978 GM CORP. in New York’s hegemony as The motto of New York In 1939, GM’s Futurama Activities depicted 1960 as a car- the center of American power. City’s1939 World’s Fair was centered world, including 1. See if you can find old Yet, following the 1939 World’s “Building the World of seven-lane highways and maps of your town or city at Tomorrow.” The City of the Fair and World War II, New enormous skyscrapers. the local historical society, Future diorama was the York emerged as the de-facto city hall, or public library. capital of world culture, rati- central focus of the General Research the inventions and Discuss what changes have fied by its selection as home Motors Futurama exhibit ideas that were introduced to occurred over the years, and to the United Nations. New there. Visitors moved in the world for the first time at make guesses as to what fac- York’s post-war growth chairs equipped with indi- this exhibit. tors caused these changes. seemed boundless as Moses vidual loudspeakers around the 36,000-square-foot 2. Working in teams, choose marshaled enormous power Questions to reshape the geography of model. Although there were a variety of intersections in the metropolis, focusing 600 moving chairs, this 1. Did everything introduced your neighborhood and resources on suburban design gave each rider the at the exhibit become part of build a diorama showing expansion and the middle- feeling of experiencing a pri- American daily life in 1960, how you want your area to class, rather than addressing vate show. The last words as promised? look in the year 2020. Place visitors heard the narrator your school at the center, the needs of the expanding 2. What was the vision that say were, “All eyes to the and branch out from there. urban underclass and the inspired the creators and future.” Make a list of what should now-rotting inner-city infra- builders of the 1939 World’s be improved. Decide what structure. People coming off the ride Fair? action steps can be taken to found themselves standing The destruction of Penn 3. What impact did the auto- create these improvements. in front of an impressive, Station served as a wake-up mobile and the highway have What resources will be need- life-size intersection, imag- call to the city’s landmarks- on the quality of life in New ed? Develop a timeline that ining how the streets they preservation movement, and York City? In the nation? shows how this dream can had just seen in the diorama urbanists like Jane Jacobs happen. You may also create would look in 1960. They 4. Brainstorm the actions that reaffirmed the need to pre- a school club whose mem- saw that the cars were on could be initiated to ease and serve city neighborhood life. bers will work on this contin- the street level while pedes- eventually eliminate automo- uing project long after you trian sidewalks were raised bile traffic and congestion graduate. one level above. where you live. NEW YORK: A Documentary Film

Student’s Pages The City and the World (1931–2000) 6

Complete one of the following activities

SOCIAL UNREST AND CHALLENGING THE history? Were the means CREATIVITY SYSTEM Moses used to achieve his “When the mode of the Two women challenged the public works compatible music changes, the walls of power of Robert Moses. While with the principles of a true the city shake.” — Plato Lillian Edelstein lost the bat- democracy? tle to save South Bronx neigh- • Imagine New York City Come senators, congressmen borhoods from bulldozer without Robert Moses. How Please heed the call © CORBIS IMAGES destruction in the Fifties, Jane would the city be different? Don’t stand in the doorway Jacobs stopped Moses’ inva- research the civil and social What would the South Don’t block up the hall sion of Greenwich Village dur- unrest of the 1960s in New Bronx look like today? How For he that gets hurt ing the Sixties. Working in York City and across the would it feel? What would Will be he who has stalled teams, research, write, and nation. Divide up into three the noise levels be? Find There’s a battle outside produce two one-act plays or groups and find examples of and compare a map of the And it is ragin’. hold two mock debates that five songs, five films, and five city before the Moses build- It’ll soon shake your windows vividly illustrate the dramatic books that reflected the social ing projects with a map of And rattle your walls clashes these courageous tension of this time. Work the city at the end of his For the times they are women had with New York together to create a presenta- career. a-changin’. City’s power broker of urban tion for your class that illus- Perform the plays or the — from “The Times They Are renewal. trates how this social debates for your class as a A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan upheaval was expressed Here are some suggested dress rehearsal and then for Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 through the talent of these ways to approach your your school. Afterwards, have Special Rider Music specific musicians, filmmak- research: an open discussion on the ers, and writers. Who are their Pioneering civil-rights legisla- • Find out how Robert Moses personal strength it takes to counterparts who are creating tion outlawing racial discrimi- was written about at the stand up and fight for what in the 2000s? nation in government-assist- time of his death. Why was you believe is right for your ed and private housing, in he such a controversial neighborhood, your city, your NEIGHBORHOOD employment, and in educa- figure in New York City country, and your world. URBAN PLANNING tion was first written and enforced in New York City. Brainstorm the following However, there is still plenty urban-planning scenarios in PROFILE small groups: of work to do to correct the Robert Moses public-works projects failures and fulfill the nation’s • How would street life over a period of 44 years. great promise of a diverse, change if local residents Moses’ influence was democratic, and just society. banned automobiles in felt nationally when he mentored the engineers your neighborhood? Along with being a place of who designed the inter- hope and promise, New York • How would planting and state highway system. can often be a place of cruelty caring for trees, shrubbery, Ironically, even though his and contradiction. Use the and flowers change the life urban planning vision cen- library and the Internet to and spirit of a city street tered on automobiles and highways, Moses never and its residents?

© CORBIS IMAGES drove a car. • What is gained when his- New York City’s great When asked by a Fordham toric buildings are treated public-works builder, University student after as treasures? Robert Moses (1888- a lecture in the 1970s, 1981), was never voted With your teacher’s help, “What obligation does into public ofﬁce, but he an urban planner owe write a survey and distribute wielded enormous power to the future?”, Robert it to people in your neighbor- over ﬁve mayors and six Moses replied, “None.” hood, asking what makes a governors. A man with a In the end, he became city street vital and safe. Tabu- dynamic personality, great the type of arrogant late the responses and discuss intellect, and indomitable power broker he once the results in class, or circu- will, he built highways, despised as a young, late them in a printed parks, and controversial idealistic public reformer. newsletter or on the Internet. © PHOTODISC NEW YORK: A Documentary Film Note: Segments in the scene lists in bold relate to T Teacher Information questions and activities on the student’s pages.

Episode One Cornelius Vanderbilt Kraft, Herbert C. The Lenape Episode Two The Country (1794–1877): industrialist or Delaware Indians: The Order and Disorder and the City Original People of New Jersey, (1825–1865) PLACES Southeastern New York State, (1609–1825) Monday, November 15, Eastern Pennsylvania. 2nd ed. Sunday, November 14, Erie Canal: artificial waterway 9–11 P.M. South Orange, N.J.: Seton Hall 9–11 P.M. through New York State, com- University Museum, 1996. pleted in 1825, connecting the SCENE LIST Hudson River with the Great SCENE LIST Folk Tales 1. Introduction Lakes 1. Introduction Hitakonanulaxk. The Grand- 2. The Impact of the Erie 2. New Amsterdam Manhattan Island: the first fathers Speak: Native Ameri- Canal: Economic Boom 3. English Colony part of New York City settled can Folk Tales of the Lenape 3. Urban Life: The Penny 4. 1741 Slave Revolt by Europeans People (International Folk Press and P.T. Barnum 5. American Revolution 4. German and Irish New York Harbor: a port Tale Series). Northhampton, 6. The Deal Immigration since the 1600s, and the Mass.: Interlink Publishing 7. Alexander Hamilton 5. Problems: Nativism, mouth of the Hudson River Group, 1994. and the American City Crowding, Disease, and 8. DeWitt Clinton: Fiction Class Conflict RESOURCES The Grid and the Irving, Washington. Diedrich 6. Walt Whitman: Books Erie Canal Knickerbocker’s A History of Leaves of Grass 9. Epilogue Nonfiction New York. Tarrytown, N.Y.: 7. Central Park 8. The Gathering Storm: Brookhiser, Richard. Alexan- Sleepy Hollow Press, 1981. VOCABULARY Lincoln and the Outbreak der Hamilton, American. New of Civil War Dutch West India Company: York: Free Press, 1999. Web Sites 9. The Draft Riots an international trading com- Delaware (Lenape) Tribe of Cornog, Evan. DeWitt Clinton 10. Epilogue pany created in 1621 to Indians: Homepage and the American Experience, administer New Amsterdam http://206.103.98.155/ 1769–1828. New York: Oxford VOCABULARY Knickerbocker: a descendent University Press, 1998. National Canal Museum: draft lottery: federal-govern- of the early Dutch settlers of Erie Canal ment system to conscript sol- New York; term derived from Davis, Thomas J. Rumor of http://canals.org/erie.htm diers for the Civil War; includ- the writer Washington Irving’s Revolt: The “Great Negro Plot” ed a clause allowing drafted pseudonym, Dietrich in Colonial New York. Reprint. New York Canals: men to buy their way out for Knickerbocker Amherst, Mass.: University of The First Boat that Passed Massachusetts Press, 1990. through the Erie Canal $300 Lenape: Native American http://www.canals.state.ny.us/ Irish Potato Famine: crop tribe that originally inhabited Hansen, Joyce and Gary history/b2p21-3.htm failures in Ireland beginning what is now New York City McGowan. Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New Netherland Project in 1854 that spurred immigra- real estate speculation: buy- New York’s African Burial Home Page tion to New York City ing land or buildings to resell Ground. New York: Henry http://www.nnp.org/ Know-Nothing Party: a 19th- them for large profits Holt, 1998. century secret political organ- shipping: sending out or Peter Stuyvesant and the Trumpeter, (The Wrath of Peter ization hostile to the political receiving goods by ship Stuyvesant), by Asher B. Durand influence of Roman Catholics and recent immigrants PEOPLE tenement: an apartment Alexander Hamilton house in the city that meets (1755–1804): New York states- minimum standards for safety man and U.S. Secretary of the and comfort Treasury Washington Irving PEOPLE (1783–1859): author of the fictitious History of New York P.T. Barnum (1810–1891): dime-museum showman Peter Stuyvesant (1610–1672): Dutch adminis- Abraham Lincoln trator of New Amsterdam (1809–1865): 16th president of the United States © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK

Teacher Information T

Episode Three political machine: a highly Sunshine and organized political group Shadow under the leadership of a boss (1865–1898) Tammany Hall: political Tuesday, November 16, organization, also called the 9–11 P.M. Society of St. Tammany or Columbian Order, that helped SCENE LIST New York’s immigrants but 1. Prologue: Sunshine and was notorious for scandals Shadow 2. Introduction: Post-War PEOPLE Boom, Railroads, and Thomas Edison (1847–1931): Growth inventor 3.

© COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK The Bridge I: 1867–69 J.P.Morgan (1837–1913): 4. Tammany Hall and the Frederick Law Olmsted Bernstein, Iver. The New York financier Tweed Ring (1822–1903): landscape City Draft Riots. New York: 5. Al Smith Thomas Nast (1840–1902): architect of Central Park Oxford University Press, 1990. 6. Interlude I: Panic of cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly George Templeton Strong Burrows, Edwin G. and Mike 1873; J.P.Morgan; Edison Jacob Riis (1849–1914): (1820–1875): lawyer and Wallace. Gotham: A History of and District One photographer, social diarist the City to 1898. New York: 7. The Bridge II: reformer, and writer Oxford University Press, 1999. 1882 Opening Walt Whitman (1819–1892): 8. Interlude II: The Rich, John Roebling (1806–1869) journalist and poet, author of Diner, Hasia. Erin’s Daughters Statue of Liberty, Henry and Washington Roebling Leaves of Grass (1855) in America. Baltimore: Johns George Campaign (1837–1926): builders of the Hopkins University Press, 9. Sidewalks of New York Brooklyn Bridge PLACES 1983. 10. Jacob Riis and the Al Smith (1873–1944): Central Park: Manhattan’s Stansell, Christine. City of Poor Tammany Hall Democrat, 873-acre park, constructed Women: Sex and Class in New 11. Greater New York: reformer, and governor of during the mid-19th century York. New York: Alfred A. Consolidation of 1898 New York Five Points: a notorious, Knopf, 1986. crime-ridden former neigh- VOCABULARY William M. Tweed Poetry borhood in lower Manhattan capitalism: economic system (1823–1878): politician, characterized by private or nicknamed “Boss,” and leader Kleindeutschland: Little Ger- Whitman, Walt. Leaves of corporate ownership of capi- of Tammany Hall many, a New York neighbor- Grass and Selected Prose. New tal goods, by private invest- hood on the Lower East Side York: McGraw-Hill, 1981. ment, and by distribution of PLACES settled in the mid-1800s Web Sites goods determined by compe- Brooklyn Bridge: steel sus- Seneca Village: small African- tition in a free market pension bridge across the Barnum Museum American neighborhood East River linking Manhattan http://www.barnum-muse- graft: money or other rewards demolished in 1857 during and Brooklyn, completed in um.org/ gained illegally or dishonestly the construction of Central 1883 Park Leaves of Grass by Walt Whit- minstrel show: a perform- Wall Street: financial center man ance in blackface of African- and location of the New York RESOURCES http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ American-style songs and Stock Exchange Books bartleby/whitman/ jokes Nonfiction Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper panic: sudden, widespread Union Address fear in financial affairs result- Angle, Paul M. and Earl http://www.netins.net/ ing in a depression Schenk Miers. The Living Lin- showcase/creative/lincoln/ coln. New York: Barnes and patronage: a politically speeches/cooper.htm Nobles, 1992. advantageous power to The Five Points Home Page make appointments to Barnum, P.T. Struggles and http://R2.gsa.gov/fivept/ government jobs Triumphs. 1855. New York: fphome.htm Viking Penguin, 1987.

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RESOURCES Episode Four Triangle Shirtwaist fire: RESOURCES Books The Power and the March 25, 1911, factory fire Books in which 146 women died Nonfiction People (1898–1914) Nonfiction Wednesday, November 16, union: an organization of McCullough, David. The Great Binder, Frederick, and David 9–11 P.M. workers who have joined Bridge: The Epic Story of the M. Reimers. All the Nations together for a common pur- Building of the Brooklyn under Heaven: An Ethnic and SCENE LIST pose Bridge. New York: Simon and Racial History of New York Schuster, 1983. 1. Prologue: Emma City. New York: Columbia Lazarus PEOPLE University Press, 1995. Riis, Jacob. How the Other 2. Introduction: Birth of Emma Lazarus (1849–1887): Kotker, Norman and Robert Half Lives, Ed. David Leviatin. the Movies author of the poem “New Twombley, eds. Ellis Island: Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1971. 3. The New Immigration: Colossus” inscribed on the Echoes from a Nation’s Past. Ellis Island base of the Statue of Liberty Shirley, David. Thomas Nast: New York: Aperture Founda- 4. Skyscrapers Cartoonist and Illustrator Clara Lemlich Shavelson tion, 1997. 5. Al Smith in Albany (Book Report Biography (1886–1982): leader of strik- 6. Immigrant Energy: Landau, Sarah Bradford and Series). Danbury, Conn.: ing garment workers Watts, 1998. The Lower East Side Carl W. Condit. Rise of the 7. Building the City: Jacob Riis (1849–1914): pho- New York Skyscraper, 1865– Fiction Subways & Grand Central tographer, social reformer, 1913. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Carr, Caleb. The Alienist. New and Penn Stations and writer University Press, 1995. 8. Hudson-Fulton York: Random House, 1994. Al Smith (1873–1944): Perec, George and Robert Celebration 1909 Tammany Hall Democrat, Bober. Ellis Island. Translated Finney, Jack. Time and Again. 9. Progressive Reform: reformer, and governor of by Harry Matthews. New York: New York: Simon and Schus- Public Health and Housing New York New Press, 1995. ter, 1995. 10. Women’s Garment Wharton, Edith. The Age of Strikes of 1909 & 1910 Lillian Wald (1867–1940): Fiction 11. Triangle Fire and reformer and settlement Innocence. New York: Bantam, Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. New Factory Commission worker, creator of visiting 1996. York: NAL-Dutton, 1997. 12. Epilogue: Governor nurse service and the Henry Web Sites Smith Street Settlement Harpweek VOCABULARY PLACES http://www.harpweek.com general strike: an organized Ellis Island: island in New The City of Greater New York: work stoppage across a num- York Bay; the point of entry The Story of Consolidation ber of industries to force into the U.S. for sixteen mil- http://www.mcny.org/ employers to meet demands lion immigrants between © COLLECTION OF THE NEW- YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY consolidation.htm the years 1892–1924 greenhorn: a newly arrived Web sites The Gilded Page immigrant to the U.S. Flatiron Building: unusual Ellis Island http://www.wm.edu/~srnels/ skyscraper erected in 1902 http://www.ellisisland.org/ gilded.html progressive movement: a widespread political effort Lower East Side: neighbor- On the Lower East Side: Cartoons of the Gilded Age to promote social improve- hood of tenements in lower Observations of Life in Lower and Progressive Era ment through government Manhattan known for its large Manhattan at the Turn of the http://www.history.ohio- action population of immigrants Century state.edu/ projects/ uscartoons/ http://acad.smumn.edu/ skyscraper: an extremely tall Times Square: section of GAPECartoons.htm history/contents.html building midtown Manhattan centered How the Other Half Lives: The at the intersection of Seventh From “Shepp’s New York City sweatshop: a small factory in Hypertext Edition Avenue and Broadway Illustrated” which workers are employed http://www.cis.yale.edu/ http://acad.smumn.edu/ man- for long hours at low wages Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: amstud/inforev/riis/title.html hattan/TOC.html in unsafe conditions garment-manufacturing company that was the site of the The Triangle Shirtwaist tenement: an apartment worst factory fire in New York Factory Fire house in the city that meets City’s history http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ tri- minimum standards for safety anglefire/cover.html and comfort

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Episode Five more: Johns Hopkins Univer- Cosmopolis sity Press, 1996. (1914–1931) Tucker, Mark, ed. The Duke Thursday, November 17, Ellington Reader. New York: 9–11 P.M. Oxford University Press, 1993. Watson, Steve. The Harlem SCENE LIST Renaissance : Hub of African- 1. Prologue: City of Desire American Culture, 1920–1930. 2. Introduction: Home- New York: David McKay, 1996. coming 1919 3. The Boom Essays 4. This Side of Paradise: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Jazz

F.Scott Fitzgerald HISTORICAL SOCIETY © COLLECTION OF THE NEW-YORK Age. New York: New Direc- 5. The Red Scare PEOPLE African-American life and tions, 1996. 6. Mongrel Manhattan: culture Harlem, Jazz, and Louis Armstrong Fiction Broadway (1901–1971): jazz trumpeter midtown: the center of Man- 7. Sell Them Their and singer hattan, between 34th and Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New Dreams: Midtown, Radio, Duke Ellington (1899–1974): 59th Streets, and the site of York: HarperCollins, 1990. and Advertising jazz composer, bandleader, the Chrysler Building, the 8. Celebrity Empire State Building, and and pianist Poetry 9. Ambivalence: NY vs. Rockefeller Center America F.Scott Fitzgerald Times Square: a section of Hughes, Langston. The Col- 10. Fitzgerald II (1896–1940): novelist and midtown Manhattan known lected Poems of Langston 11. Al Smith for President short-story writer for entertainment, named for Hughes. Edited by Arnold 1928 George Gershwin the nearby New York Times Rampersad and David 12. Skyscraper War (1898–1937): composer building on 43rd Street Roessel. New York: Random 13. The Crash House, 1995. 14. Empire State Building Langston Hughes (1902–1967): poet and play- RESOURCES Web Sites VOCABULARY wright Books Black Tuesday: October 29, Jimmy Walker (1881–1946): Nonﬁction The Empire State Building - 1929, the date on which mayor of New York, Douglas, Susan. Listening in: Ofﬁcial Internet Site the stock market lost over 1925–1932 Radio and the American http://www.esbnyc.com/html/ $14 billion Imagination, from Amos ‘N’ empire_state_building.html PLACES Andy and Edward R. Murrow isolationism: a national poli- The Jazz Age Page to Wolfman Jack and Howard cy of avoiding international Broadway: a 17-mile street http://www.btinternet.com/ Stern. New York: Times Books, political or economic rela- extending from lower Man- ~dreklind/threetwo/ 1997. tionships hattan to the Bronx, usually Jazzhome.htm associated with theater and Giddins, Gary. Satchmo. New Rhapsodies in Black Jazz Age: the 1920s boom in other entertainment, particu- York: Doubleday, 1992. http://www.iniva.org/harlem/ commerce and popular culture larly around Times Square Suriano, Gregory, ed. Gersh- home.html speakeasy: a place where alco- Cotton Club: Harlem night- win in His Time: A Biographi- Jazz Roots: Early Jazz on holic drinks are sold illegally club opened in 1922 that fea- cal Scrapbook, 1919–1937. Jass.com tured black performers but speculation: taking on New York: Random House, http://jass.com/ unusual risk in a business was usually not open to black 1998. transaction with the hope of audiences GershwinFan.com — Tauranac, John. The Empire The George Gershwin great gains Empire State Building: State Building: The Making of Educational Fanpage world-famous skyscraper suffragettes: women who a Landmark. New York: St. http://www.gershwinfan.com/ completed in 1931 advocate for a woman’s right Martin’s Press, 1997. home.html to vote Harlem: uptown Manhattan Taylor, William R., ed. Invent- Zora Neale Hurston neighborhood known from xenophobia: fear and hatred ing Times Square: Commerce http://i.am/zora of foreigners or of anything the 1920s as a center of and Culture at the Crossroads that is foreign of the World. Reprint. Balti-

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Episode Six PLACES Olmos, Edward James, ed. General Interest The City and the Jones Beach: public beach on Americanos: Latino Life in the Resources World (1931–2000) Long Island, opened in 1929 United States. New York: Little BOOKS Brown, 1999. Airing in Spring, 2000 Levittown: Long Island sub- Als, Hilton, ed. Our Town: Sklar, Morty and Joseph Bar- (The scene list for this urb featuring low-cost, pre- Images and Stories from the bato, eds. Patchwork of episode was not available at assembled housing Museum of the City of New press time.) Dreams: Voices from the Heart York. New York: Harry N. Triborough Bridge: three- of the New America. Jackson Abrams, 1997. bridge structure, opened in Heights, N.Y.: Spirit That VOCABULARY 1936, linking Manhattan, the Moves Us Press, 1996. Homberger, Eric. The Histor- ical Atlas of New York City: adaptive re-use: renovating Bronx, and Queens A Visual Celebration of Nearly old buildings and using them Fiction 400 Years of New York History. for new purposes RESOURCES Kluger, Steve. Last Days of Books Summer. New York: Avon Reprint. New York: Henry Great Depression: period of Books, 1998. Holt, 1998. great economic hardship Nonﬁction Katz, William Loren. Black beginning with the stock mar- Caro, Robert. The Power Bro- Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in Legacy: A History of New York’s ket crash in 1929 ker: Robert Moses and the Fall the Rye. New York: Little African Americans. New York: of New York. New York: Ran- Brown, 1991. New Deal: 1930s federal aid Atheneum, 1997. dom House, 1975. programs created by Franklin Web Sites Roosevelt’s administration in Edelman, Bernard. Centenar- WEB SITES We Shall Overcome: Historical response to the Depression ians: The Story of the 20th The New-York Historical Century by the Americans Places of the Civil Rights parkways: landscaped, limit- Society Who Lived It. New York: Movement ed-access highways, many of http://www.nyhistory.org Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999. http://cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/ which were built by Robert civilrights/index.htm The Museum of the City of Moses Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Harlem New York On My Mind: Cultural Capital New Deal Network Title I: federal program for http://www.mcny.org of Black America, 1900–1968. http://newdeal.feri.org/ urban rebuilding, frequently New York: New Press, 1995. Triborough Bridge (I-278) Schomburg Center for used to destroy older build- Research in Black Culture ings Jacobs, Jane. The Death and http://www.nycroads.com/ crossings/triborough/ http://www.nypl.org/ Life of Great American Cities. research/sc PEOPLE New York: Random House, LIHistory.com: NYC 100 —America Begins in Jane Jacobs (1916– ): author 1993. The Master Builder (Robert Moses) New York John Lindsay (1921– ): mayor Lee, Joann F. Asian Americans: http://www.lihistory.com/7/ http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/ of New York, 1965–1973 Oral Histories of the First to nyc100/home2.html Fourth Generation Americans hs722a.htm Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. from China, Korea, the Philip- A Close-Up View, Warts and NEW YORK: A DOCU- (1908–1972): congressman, pines, Japan, India, the Paciﬁc All, of an Arrogant, Endearing MENTARY FILM Online minister, and civil rights Islands,Vietnam, and Cambo- Man (Robert Moses) http://www.thirteen.org/ leader dia. New York: New Press, http://www.lihistory.com/7/ newyork/ Nelson Rockefeller 1992. hs722b.htm (1908–1979): governor of

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