History Detectives

This weekend we will be celebrating all things trains for ages young and old. Our terrific case of toys and trains Batteries Not Included showcases example of toys from 1850–1945.  Included in this case you’ll find a variety of train cars—a caboose, a fruit car, a Heinz ketchup box car, and a locomotive, among others….

This Sunday we will be joined by children’s book author and illustrator Joe McKendry. Joe’s book One Times Square: A Century of Change at the Crossroads of the World is a terrific look at the history, usage, and people of one location in New York City. Did you know the neighborhood used to be called…

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday, and since then Americans have come up with a number of foods to celebrate with! At our most recent At The Kids’ Table program, we talked a lot about food tools of the past, like an apple parer from 1890, or things like this celery…

  Special guest post by LeVar Burton, Co-Founder Reading Rainbow Kidz, Actor/Producer I was 6 years old and in the 1st Grade at Holy Angels Elementary School in Sacramento, California, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963. Being a Catholic school, there was of course, a considerable amount of pride associated…

One hundred and fifty years ago today, thousands gathered in Gettysburg, PA for the dedication of a national cemetery for those who died at the Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863. The three days of this battle left over 51,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead, missing, captured, or wounded. The country needed to heal from…

This November, the Reading into History Family Book Club is digging into Albert Marrin’s Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy. We’ll meet to discuss this book on Sunday, December 8th, at 3 pm. This work of non-fiction tells the story of how a fire broke out on the upper floors…

Each week in Little New-Yorkers we explore the theme of New York with our littlest historians. In October we were inspired by Maurie J. Manning’s Laundry Day and created clothesline necklaces with cut cloth pieces. We explored how diverse New York City is through this beautiful book, set in the Lower East Side. It follows a…

Gaining the right to rock the vote hasn’t been easy, historically speaking! And if you’re under 18, you still can’t vote in the United States (along with most other countries around the world). While some people and organizations favor lowering that age restriction or eliminating it completely, chances are you still have a few years…

The origins of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” lie shrouded in mystery. Some say that the character of the Headless Horseman was inspired by the German folktale “The Wild Huntsman.” Washington Irving may have heard this tale while traveling abroad. Others insist that the Headless Horseman was based on an actual Hessian soldier who was…