Culture
The cultural refinement displayed in the Carnival Parade was just one example of New York’s status as a cosmopolis as displayed on the iconic Fifth Avenue. History and culture were present in the dozens of museum exhibitions designed specifically for the event to attract tourists from Europe and other parts of the United States. As the Carnival Parade’s floats and marchers moved down Fifth Avenue, spectators looked on in awe. They memorialized their visit to New York with postcards from the Celebration, a hobby that consumed America and bolstered the importance and economic development of the America’s postal service. The post office of New York, as well as the city’s transportation system, were integral to the success of the 1909 Celebration, as they served to connect the vast American continent and spread awareness of both the event and the city. This momentous occasion was much more than the commemoration of Henry Hudson and Robert Fulton – it was also a recreation of New York’s history, a promotion of the City’s culture, a window into the social movements of the time, and an attempt to strengthen New York’s national reputation and international status. The elaborate preparations of the Commission were not in vain; this last great celebration in New York City was appreciated by millions in 1909, and is a success worth remembering today. A commemorative plate was produced by Royal Doulton China, The "Areo" Plate, which shows Wilbur Wright who flew up the Hudson River for the event, as well as other means of transportation including airships and boats in the river.
Read more about this topic: Hudson-Fulton Celebration
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
“We now have a whole culture based on the assumption that people know nothing and so anything can be said to them.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)