History Detectives

  WARNING: If you are squeamish around slimy, blood-sucking worms, you may not want to read further! Have you ever been swimming in a pond with leeches? I have…and it made me a little nervous. As refreshing as it was on a hot summer day, I did NOT want an uninvited guest to tag along on my body…

Dear Readers, we are just about two weeks away from our January Book Wrap for Picture the Dead with author Adele Griffin. We are so excited to talk about the Civil War, Spiritualism, and tricky photographers! Get to know Adele Griffin better by reading this short interview. Enjoy, and we’ll see you at 3 pm on Janurary…

The DiMenna Children’s History Museum is hosting its second-ever family cooking class this Saturday at 2pm—and of course we are cooking the old fashioned way. I mean churn your own butter, make your own bread, grind your own spices, snip your own sugar old fashioned! Our theme is “How the Kitchen has Changed,”  and we’ll…

Hello Families!  We had a wonderful Book Wrap on December 2nd with special guest author Donna Jo Napoli. This book dealt with such tough issues- loss, poverty, immigration, the struggle to fit in- that families were debating ideas right out of the gate. Bravery was a particularly interesting topic of discussion. Is a person brave for…

  The history of World War II and New York’s story during the war is felt throughout the museum right now because of our incredible exhibition, WWII & NYC. When I walk through the exhibit, I learn a lot of things about soldiers and civilians (regular people like you and me) and leaders during the war….

Hello families! We hope you are enjoying The King of Mulberry Street. If you can tear your eyes away from the adventures of Dom, Gaetano, and Tin Pan Alley, take a few minutes to read our interview with author Donna Jo Napoli. We hope learning more about her makes you even more excited to meet her and ask…

Have you ever used a needle and thread? Do you like to sew? There was a time in American history when girls were REQUIRED to sew! Young girls took classes in school and outside of school to learn cross stitch, which is a form of embroidery that looks like tiny “X’s” and can be found all over the…

  Like many in New York City, I am getting very excited for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade next week. We are extremely lucky here at the New-York Historical Society because we get a front row seat for all the action. Every year, they blow up the balloons right in front of our museum on 77 th…

Hello readers! Our Book Wrap for Same Sun Here was a resounding success. Neela Vaswani did an amazing job fielding questions, and our discussion was really thought provoking. I am still thinking about the theme of what it means to be an American, which comes up a lot in Same Sun Here.  When River gets in trouble for disagreeing…