Seatrain workers on a break at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1977, V1988.21.130; Frank J. Trezza Brooklyn Navy Yard Collection, ARMS 1988.016, Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

This photo shows Seatrain Shipbuilding workers on break at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1977. This photo was donated by Frank J. Trezza a long-time electrician at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Frank J. Trezza Collection contains several hundred color photographs, black and white photographs, color negatives, and black and white negatives, all photographed by Frank J. Trezza during his tenure at the Seatrain Shipbuilding. Though the dates of the collection span from 1861 to 1988, the bulk of the records are from the period 1973-1978, when Mr. Trezza was an employee of Seatrain Shipbuilding. The images offer an inside view of the Navy Yard during the final years of shipbuilding there. Included are landscapes of the Navy Yard and its surrounding area, portraits of fellow Seatrain employees on the job, and images of the ships that were built or repaired at the Navy Yard during this time. There are also a few copy prints obtained from the National Archives that depict ships built at the Navy Yard from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Boys at Fort Hamilton, ca.1910, V1981.284.55; Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, v1981.284; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

This photograph features boys from Emmanuel House on a visit to Fort Hamilton. Fort Hamilton is located in Bay Ridge, in the southwestern corner of Brooklyn. American soldiers had used the site as a garrison since the Revolutionary War, but the structure that stands today was not erected until the nineteenth century. The Army commenced building Fort Hamilton on June 11, 1825, completing it after six years and at a cost of half a million dollars. Fort Hamilton has played numerous roles in both war and peacetime. Its military residents included Robert E. Lee, garrisoned there during the 1840s, decades before he would lead the Confederate Army. During the Civil War, the fort protected New York harbor against potential Confederate invaders and provided troops to police the New York Draft Riots of 1863. In the twentieth century, it served as a major port of embarkation during both World Wars. Fort Hamilton continues to be an actively used military site today. The fort also houses the Harbor Defense Museum, which offers educational tours, exhibits, and access to archival collections related to military history in New York City.

Emmanuel House was located at 13 Steuben Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. As a civic center and place of outreach run by the Young Men’s League of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, the Emmanuel House offered Sunday school, Kindergarten and recreational classes to children of the church and neighborhood. Emmanuel House was demolished in the mid-twentienth century during an expansion of the neighboring Pratt Institute, at which time outreach and recreational activities were resumed at the Emmanuel Baptist Church.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Plan of New York island and part of Long Island, showing the position of the American and British armies before, at, and after the engagement on the Heights, August 27th, 1776. ca. 1776. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

From Brooklyn Historical Society (click here to enlarge):

This month’s featured map dates from approximately 1776 and shows the routes of American and British troops throughout the New York area before, during, and after the “Engagement on the Heights” of August 27th, 1776. Known alternately as the Battle of Long Island, the Battle of Brooklyn, and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, this event was a significant moment in the Revolutionary War. Some historical sites relevant to the battle can still be visited today, including Battle Pass in Prospect Park, the Prison Ships Martyrs Monument, and the Old Stone House.

[East side of Furman Street.], ca. 1940, v1974.16.228; Edna Huntington papers and photographs, ARC.044, Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

From the desk of Julie May, Photo Archivist: The first noticeable and great thing about this photograph is the cars, I think. While the new Fiat is sweetly round and compact, I personally don’t think it compares to the curvy lines of the cars above. I imagine they were pretty utilitarian, but I find them romantically stylish. This picture depicts Furman Street – a Furman Street that is no longer. It has transformed from a small street with trees and brick-front buildings to the roaring BQE on the east side of the street and the waterfront on the other side with an occasional building or two. In addition, the new Brooklyn Bridge Park in all its manicured and bike-friendly glory is now between the road and the water. That’s quite a change in a mere seventy years, but that’s Brooklyn for you – always changing.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Horse-drawn carriage on Clinton Avenue at Fulton Street, after the blizzard, ca. 1888, V1974.7.78; Adrian Vanderveer Martense lantern slide collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

 From the desk of Carolina Garcia, project intern: When I first started working on digitizing the Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection of lantern slides, one of the things I was most amused by was the fact that the labels on the slides were stamped “A.V. Martense, Amateur”. Martense hailed from one of Brooklyn’s oldest and wealthiest families and enjoyed the hobby of photography. Although he was not a professional photographer, there are many impressive images in the collection—from portraits to landscapes to architecture.

I chose to share this image because of the sharpness and richness that Martense managed to capture. It is among the images Martense created in the wake of a New York blizzard in March of 1888. The horse and carriage stand in front of a building near the corner of Fulton and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Sledding in Prospect Park, January 1967, V1990.2.39; Donald Nowlan Brooklyn collection, ARC.120; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

 This photo shows sledders in Prospect Park, January 1967. Equipped with the wood sleds, plastic discs, and pieces of cardboard, hundreds of winter revelers of all ages flock to the hills of Prospect Park every year. When Prospect Park opened in 1867, it provided a free and accessible public space for Brooklynites to congregate, exercise, and play in the heat of summer and the chill of winter. Today, Prospect Park remains one of the most popular sledding sites in Brooklyn.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Holiday House, February 28, 1960, v1974.4.1364; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

Photographer John D. Morrell was Assistant Librarian of the Long Island Historical Society (today known as Brooklyn Historical Society), and donated more than 2,600 photographs of Brooklyn neighborhoods to the library. Most are photographs documenting Brooklyn storefronts and blocks. The collection is a wonderful resource for researchers due to the detail included with each photograph. This photograph shows a small store called Holiday House, located on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street taken on February 28, 1960 – it’s great to have that much geographic information for so many images!

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Columbia Heights, ca.1885, v1973.6.651; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

In 2007, real estate blog The Real Deal called Columbia Heights “Brooklyn’s most expensive street” because of the limited number of properties and the stunning views of Manhattan from buildings on the west side of the street. Columbia Heights has long been one of Brooklyn’s most-coveted addresses, and over the centuries many of the mansions and brownstones along the street housed the borough’s most prominent families. Residents of Columbia Heights have included members of the Pierrepont family, the Roebling Family, Henry Ward Beecher, and more recently, Norman Mailer.

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Eliza J. Lefferts, circa 1850s-1860s; Lefferts family papers, ARC.145, box 5, folder 8; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

This portrait depicts Eliza J. Lefferts (1831-1867), a member of one of Kings County’s oldest and most powerful families. Eliza was born in Bedford Corners (part of present-day Bedford Stuyvesant). At the age of twenty, she moved a mile south to Flatbush when she married her cousin John Lefferts (1826-1895), heir to the Lefferts family homestead. Eliza spent much of her adult life pregnant: she gave birth to six children between 1852 and 1860. In 1867, after a short illness, Eliza passed away. Her death was particularly difficult for her sister-in-law, Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt, who lived across the street and who had lost her mother only two years earlier. In a family history she composed for Eliza’s children, Gertrude wrote, “Every effort to renew her strength proved unavailing, and she died in 1867, greatly beloved and lamented.”

To see more photos from BHS’s collection, visit their online image gallery.

Map of the New York City subway system. 1955. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection. Click here to enlarge.

From Brooklyn Historical Society:

This month’s featured map depicts the New York City subway system in 1955. Published by the Union Dime Savings Bank, the map shows various subway lines, stations, and sites of free transfer. Another interesting feature of the map is that it advertises banking by mail, calling it “the quickest and easiest way to open an account.”

You can view the BHS map collection anytime during the library’s open hours, Wed.-Fri., from 1-5 p.m. No appointment is necessary to view most maps.