Articles

Long Island in the 1960s

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Long Island in the 1960s: A Visual Essay

Long Island Women Preserving Nature and the Environment

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By Natalie Naylor The modern environmental movement of the last half century has its roots in conservation activities beginning in the late nineteenth century. Long Islander Theodore Roosevelt was a national leader in these efforts, creating national forests, bird reserves, and national parks.[1] Many of the early conservation efforts were in the West, but TR’s […]

Publicizing the Fight: Long Island’s Influence in the Struggle against Infantile Paralysis, 1933-1955

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By Durahn Taylor No good children’s story is without a villain. In the comic books, the villains have ranged from the Joker and the Riddler to the Prankster and the Puzzler. But in the real-life early twentieth century, starting on Long Island and soon throughout the rest of the country, the children’s enemy was far […]

Race, Ethnicity and Class on Shelter Island, 1652-2013

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By Nancy Robin Jaicks Less than 110 miles from Manhattan and roughly the same size, eight thousand acres, sits the place called Shelter Island. The island is nestled between the North and South Forks of Long Island. Bounded by tranquil bays rather than by oceans – Gardiner’s Bay to the north and the Peconic Bay […]

The Modernization of the Long Island Rail Road

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By Derek Stadler Like other American railroads, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) was at an impasse by the mid-twentieth century. Since rail was no longer the preferred method of transportation, many private railroads faltered and were forced into bankruptcy, unable to fund operating costs and essential improvements. Ultimately, public management set railroads on the […]

The Whale-Hunt: A Tale in Images

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By Nomi Dayan The Whale-Hunt: A Tale in Images

Reminiscences of a Shinnecock-Montauk Whaling Family

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By David Bunn Martine My grandmother, Alice Osceola Bunn Martinez, born in 1901, was a keeper of many oral histories. She remembered whaling stories from our Shinnecock-Montauk family and community going back to the early 19th century. In fact, she was a granddaughter of David Waukus Bunn, who was a whaler on several ships. But […]

Preservation Update: The Case of the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead

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By Georgette Grier-Key Introduction Archaeologist Steve Mrozowski, Ph.D. acknowledges that Long Island’s history, as in much of the North, seems largely to escape the slavery narrative. Stories about African Americans and enslaved Africans on Long Island are the less-told stories largely because of the lack of surviving or noted physical evidence.[1] Yet, Long Island had […]

‘I Have Seen the Storm Arise’: Long Island Whalemen’s Lyrical Navigation of Tempests Without and Within

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By Stephen N. Sanfilippo I have seen the Storm arise Like a giant in his wrath.[1] There was no regular mail service between the seaports of the northeastern United States and the ships that those ports sent to the Pacific during the mid-19th century peak of “Yankee” whaling. Letters were passed from ship to ship, […]

The Papers of Wiliam Cooper (1785-1857), Sag Harbor Whale Boat Builder

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By Francis Turano William Cooper (1785-1857) was a builder of whaleboats in Sag Harbor Long Island (Figure 1).[1] He was born in Southampton.[2] His father Caleb (1745-1834) was also a boat builder as well as a trustee of the Town of Southampton.[3] In 1806, William was in New York City.[4] In 1808, he married Phebe […]

The Materiality of a “Bold Mariner”: Jeremiah Pharaoh’s Home at Indian Fields

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By Allison Manfra McGovern “March the 3 I arrived at Montauk in the year of our Lord 1798 on Sat. Night. I was gone Nine years and five months. I sailed out Nantucket.” “I Jeremiah Pharaoh the Bold mariner I sailed the world all over nine long years. When I Returned home I found my […]

Family, Finance, and the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Company, 1836-1862

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By Jenna Wallace Coplin Located on the north shore of Long Island not 40 miles east of Manhattan, Cold Spring Harbor, at the beginning of the 19th century, was a small community that was home to a lesser-known whaling business run by John H. and Walter R. Jones. These brothers, along with a long list […]

Indian Whalers on Long Island, 1669-1746

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By John A. Strong Introduction The Long Island Algonquian communities along the south shore were closely attuned to their maritime environment. The coastal wetlands provided them with a reliable supply of shellfish, fish, migratory fowl, and sea mammals. They collected clams year round, trapped and netted fish, and hunted water fowl, seals, and whales. Little […]

The Lee Family and Nineteenth-Century Shinnecock Whaling

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By Nancy Shoemaker The American whaling industry originated on Long Island in the mid-seventeenth century, and as the historian John Strong has demonstrated in numerous books and articles, including his essay in this collection, Native American men’s labor was fundamental to the enterprise’s growth and success.[1] The bounty of whales off Long Island and Cape […]