Who knew...
I think the most interesting display item that the two nice gentlemen laid out for us was the book of residents of New York (I don't remember what they were called.) But I found it fascinating to see just what type of people were living in New York around the time Henry James and Edith Wharton and any other great New York writer were writing. I wish the city still made a similar directory. What if you could compare a volume like that made today with the one on display at the NYHS... how vastly different could you tell New York is now from then just by looking at entries in a book?
I also loved the NYU poster that encouraged donors to help raise money for the school. It seems not much has changed, huh? I thought that poster could have easily been made today. It's interesting to see how NYU channeled growth back then versus now. A few weeks ago I went to an event that was hosted by NYU about the school's plan for the future. Apparently the plan is to take over all of downtown, about one fourth of Brooklyn and Governor's Island (I didn't even know the public had access to Governor's Island.) Anyway, it just goes to show how NYU went from part of the community to the community itself. But how they're able to do it despite all the resistance still fascinates me (consider what's happening to Washington Square Park.) I wonder who's giving money to this campaign (besides us, of course) and I wonder what it means to WSP and the Village. Twenty years from now no one will call this area the Village anymore, they'll just call it NYU, and Washington Square Park will be "the Quad."
It's sort of sad.
-drew henry, 2/24/08
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