History
The Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) was founded in 1863 by Henry Pierrepont (1808-1888) as the Long Island Historical Society. In 1985 LIHS changed its name to Brooklyn Historical Society.
In October 1999, BHS began a full-scale restoration of its National Historic Landmark building, and reopened in 2003.
In 2005, the BHS was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Principal activities of BHS include education programs, which are organized around a central educational concept of encouraging students to understand that history is connected to their lives. BHS programs link the study of American history to events and sites in the students’ own communities by introducing the investigation of primary source documents and neighborhood histories. BHS’ education programs largely focus on the ability of students to “read” primary source documents, including works of art, maps, photographs, and other artifacts.
BHS offers a schedule of programs designed to engage a broad range of audiences. Programs range from topics in history and current affairs to exhibition related lectures, to musical events, walking tours, readings and plays.
Up to eight exhibitions each year are preesented by BHS, ranging from comprehensive retrospectives and historical surveys to more focused presentations that explore specific themes and topics. Installations from the collection have included a gallery of family portraits and another of landscape paintings. These installations rotate over time, providing visitors with greater access to BHS’ fine arts collections.
In December 2007 BHS opened the first gallery in the United States devoted to oral history. The first exhibition installed in the gallery was an installation of oral histories, photographs, documents, and artifacts called "In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn's Vietnam Veterans".
Read more about this topic: Brooklyn Historical Society
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)