History - Turnstile Tours

Struggle and Resilience on Manhattan’s Lower East Side | Episode 83

In celebration of Lower East Side History Month, this virtual program will explore how the neighborhood has weathered difficult times, including stories of mutual aid, charity, and resilience shared from …

Public Markets
Virtual Programs

The Saga of Salty Sam, Navy Mascot | Episode 82

In 1953, the USS Wrangell was sailing off the coast of Portugal when it encountered a fishing boat adrift; on board was just a lone fisherman, dead, a dog, barely …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs

Vaux & Olmsted: Public Spaces, Private Lives | Episode 79

Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted are best known for designing landmark landscapes in New York City and across the country, most notably Prospect Park and Central Park. Both men …

Prospect Park
Virtual Programs

Exploring the Erie Canal with Will Van Dorp | Episode 78

Two hundred years ago New York State was in the midst of digging a canal to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie, a civil engineering project that would transform …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

Tales from the Archives: The Puerto Rican Experience Reflected in Federal Records | Episode 74

Government records are not just the stuff of bureaucratic nightmares. While created to serve agency functions, federal records can also reveal very personal stories. Dennis Riley, an archivist at the …

Virtual Programs

Fleet Week New York, Past and Present | Episode 71

For just the second time in 33 years, Fleet Week New York has been cancelled this year, so instead, we will look back at Fleet Weeks and naval reviews held …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

“Mind the Light, Kate”: New York’s Most Famous Lighthouse Keeper with the Noble Maritime Collection | Episode 70

“Mind the Light, Kate.” From 1890 to 1919, Kate Walker honored this request from her dying husband as he was taken from their home, the lighthouse on Robbins Reef just …

Virtual Programs
Waterfront

“Manhattan Beach”: The Brooklyn Navy Yard of World War II with Jennifer Egan | Episode 66

Take a virtual tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in World War II with Jennifer Egan, author of the award-winning novel Manhattan Beach, and our own resident historian, Andrew Gustafson. …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs

Brooklyn Army Terminal: Unexpected Stories from the Archives | Episode 65

The Brooklyn Army Terminal has served many functions over the years, including as a liquor storehouse in the 1920’s, a coffee roastery in the 1930’s postal sorting center in the …

Brooklyn Army Terminal
Virtual Programs

From Orchard to Essex: Street Peddlers and Market Vendors with the Tenement Museum

When Essex Street Market opened in 1940, it was heralded as a new era for commerce, as the city promised to clear the streets of pushcart peddlers and provide a …

Public Markets
Street Vending
Virtual Programs

Feeding NYC: The History of the Supermarket | Episode 64

During the pandemic, supermarkets are the few public places that people still frequent, so this is a perfect time to look back at the history of grocery stores in America …

Virtual Programs

Before Rosie: Women at the Brooklyn Navy Yard pre-World War II | Episode 59

Before the celebrated images of “Rosie the Riveter” and “Winnie the Welder,” women served in a variety of roles at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in uniform and as civilian workers. …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs
Waterfront
World War I

Hospital Ships and Shipwright Tools: Exploring Collections of the South Street Seaport Museum | Episode 56

Dive into the collections of South Street Seaport Museum with Director of Collections Martina Caruso, who will share some of the highlights among the museum’s 28,000+ artifacts and 55,000+ archival materials that …

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Virtual Programs
Waterfront
World War I
World War II

A Church Grows in Brooklyn: Historic Most Holy Trinity-St. Mary’s | Episode 43

Explore one of the most beautiful and historic churches in Brooklyn, Williamsburg’s Most Holy Trinity-St. Mary. Established in 1843 as the first German Catholic parish on Long Island, the stunning …

Virtual Programs

Dredging the Past and Present of the Gowanus Canal | Episode 31

Best known today for its pollution and gentrification, the Gowanus Canal is an historic waterway that has seen war, industry, innovation, and reinvention play out along its banks. We will …

Architecture
Virtual Programs
Waterfront

The History of NYC Public Markets, Part 2 | Episode 22

Take a deep dive into the history of New York City’s public markets, which have their origins in a vast food distribution system set up by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in …

Public Markets
Virtual Programs

The first and second floors of the Essex Market with a historic neon sign from the Orchard Essex Meat Market

Exploring the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History | Episode 17

Join Sarah Litvin, former Turnstile guide and current director of the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History in Kingston, New York, to learn how immigration, community, work, and bread …

Virtual Programs

Sarah standing in front of a yellow store front

Census Day: Telling Brooklyn’s Story Through the US Census | Episode 15

April 1 is Census Day, so we’re discussing the importance of the 2020 Census, and delving into the history, from the first federal census of 1790 to the present day. …

Prospect Park
Virtual Programs

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Workers walk alongside a large stone dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard with two white tugboats below and a red and white crane on the right.

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