History Detectives

Nothing thaws the winter chill like cozying up to a good book! Spending quality time with picture books helps young children build language, literacy, and social skills and provides a great opportunity for grownups and kids to learn together. Here at N-YHS, we have an extensive collection of books in our Barbara K. Lipman Children’s…

Calling all young historians! Swing by the New-York Historical Society  this Sunday, December 15  at 2 pm for this month’s Reading into History book club! We’ll be discussing Laurie Halse Anderson’s thrilling novel Chains. The novel is the first in a trilogy, and the story follows Isabel, an enslaved girl fighting to gain her freedom…

We’re thrilled to host Huck Scarry, son of Busytown author and illustrator Richard Scarry, at New-York Historical on Dec. 14 and 15, from 1–3 pm. An author and illustrator himself, Huck lives in Switzerland, but spent most of his childhood in Connecticut. He’s joining us to celebrate Richard Scarry’s centenary year and our Busytown-themed toys…

This month’s Reading into History book, Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell, depicts the devastating experiences endured by children who were forced to attend Native American boarding schools. Carvell’s novel is historical fictional, but drew from her in-laws’ oral histories and the very real story of cultural genocide enacted by the United States federal government. In…

In Sweetgrass Basket, author Marlene Carvell weaves together the story of two Mohawk sisters, Mattie and Sarah, who have been sent to an off-reservation Native American Boarding School in the early 20th century. Written in prose-poetry and alternating voices between the two sisters, this heart wrenching novel follows the sisters’ emotional journey, as they work to…

On Oct. 27, we’re scaring ourselves silly with our annual extravaganza, the Hallowe’en Family Party. This year, we’re celebrating the exhibition Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere with pony rides, a pumpkin patch, a statue costume contest, and much more. (Buy your tickets today!) In honor of the spooky season, we’re bringing back a golden oldie from…

We’re thrilled to be hosting author Ruth Behar in person on Sunday, October 20, when her poignant novel Lucky Broken Girl is the subject of our family book club Reading into History. In honor of her  appearance, we wanted to revisit an earlier interview we did with Behar last year when Lucky Broken Girl was a finalist for the Children’s…

Every year, New-York Historical’s beloved statues of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass get into the Hallowe’en spirit! This year, they need costumes for our Beyond Spooky: Hallowe’en Family Party where we’ll be celebrating our exhibition Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere. So, what should they wear? Vote below and visit the Museum for our party on Sunday,…

SPOILER ALERT! Below, we talk about some of the plot twists in our Reading Into History Family Book Club pick, The Parker Inheritance, by Varian Johnson. So, if you haven’t finished the novel yet, stop reading now and come back when you’re done! In the middle-reader novel The Parker Inheritance, author Varian Johnson spins a mystery…