New York Historic Society

- and I thought I was a horder: in this museum, some one has thoughtfully collected about a hundred 'food sticks' covering the period 1932 until about 1965! Below was my fave piece of crockery. It's from the 1930s. The middle espresso cup is really the point of showing this picture. I don't know if you can see it, but it depicts a lady with long plats whacking a fallen man with a broom. For some inexplicable reason, an umbrella lies at the man's side. I don't know if this is part of a story that involves all the pieces here, but I think it's a very peculiar piece of domestic crockery. 

The museum as a whole was really nice. It had an exhibition of Victor Prevost's photographs of early New York. (Though unfortunately they did not show the original prints - only reproductions.) And it had details from the New York Great Exhibition, which looked so eery and antiquated for a show intended to display the vanguard of victorian modernity. 

The man selling postcards in the shop was fantastic.  I asked him if they had any postcards of the Prevost exhibit, and if you could go have a look at the Society's archives. Very  bored, and very skinny  with golden spectacles, he launched into a dramatic monologue: it turns out he collects antique men's clothing. He just added the top hat of Frederick Vanterbuilt's little brother, Jacob. Thrilled to the very core, he'd then used the Historic Society archives to find a photograph of Jacob, in said hat. So - he knew the collection, and said it was a really worthwhile to set aside an afternoon to peruse the photographs. Much of what they'd rescued had apparently been gained by mistake. Then , to disclose some 'exclusive' gossip, the society had recently been in a big fight with the New York Transit Museum. Their images of the MTA and its construction were rescued from a skip. He said they'd recently had the cheek to ask for them back, but, with much eye rolling, he said with a mild southern drawl: 'Wheel, you can imagine what we said!' Finger waggling and raised eyebrows aided the delivery of the next statement: 'Hell no. You may borrow them. And that is all!'