New York’s Disconcerting Summer

By Victoria Johnson

In the summer of 1795, New Yorkers were protesting in the streets over the ratification of the controversial treaty John Jay had signed with Great Britain the previous fall.[1] Suddenly, the city’s soaring political fevers collided with the real thing. Around July 19, the British ship Zephyr arrived at New York from Port-au-Prince and unloaded most of its cargo at the foot of William Street before sailing out into the East River to dump 22 barrels of spoiled coffee.

Early Republic, Medicine & Public Health, ScienceGuest UserOctober 8, 2020 Comment

Biotechnology, Race, and Memory in Washington Heights

By Robin Wolfe Scheffler

Amidst the economic and human toll inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic on the City of New York, one industry still thrives: the city’s Economic Development Corporation trumpeted the news in June that biotechnology companies were still “gobbling” up space in an otherwise sagging real estate market.

Manhattan, Science, Urban Planning, Medicine & Public HealthGuest UserSeptember 8, 2020Comment

How Dinosaurs Came to New York

By Lukas Rieppel

On February 16, 1905, the American Museum of Natural History unveiled an enormous dinosaur skeleton measuring more than sixty-five feet in length: Brontosaurus. This lumbering behemoth was discovered in a remote part of Wyoming several years earlier, and curators had just finished assembling its gargantuan bones into a free-standing display that would serve as the centerpiece of the museum’s recently inaugurated dinosaur hall. Over the next several decades, Brontosaurus became one of the most iconic dinosaurs of all time, and throngs of visitors flocked to the Upper West Side to see its fossil remains with their own eyes.

Arts & Culture, Progressive Era, Gilded Age, Manhattan, ScienceGuest UserJune 9, 2020Comment

"To harness the forces of nature to the service of mankind”: An interview with Richard Munson

Today on Gotham, Peter-Christian Aigner speaks with Richard Munson, director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s clean-energy efforts in the Midwest and the author of several books, about his new work, Tesla: Inventor of the Modern.

Interviews, Progressive Era, ScienceGuest UserJune 14, 2018Comment