History Lessons in NYC, New York

Dinosaurs! Science! Adventure! Break out your pith helmet as we embark upon a brazen expedition through the halls of New York City's world-famous American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Join your maverick tour guide as we deftly navigate this massive 27-building, 1.6 million square foot landmark cultural institution. Learn the science...

Our experience is a journey from the 1500s to the present day. We’ll start with explorers trying to find a route to Asia but then encountered a new land. I’ll share Harlem’s role in the American Revolution and the meeting of Alexander Hamilton and General George Washington. Our group will discuss the Trans Atlantic Slave trade in North, Central...

In this talk, we'll first discuss the origins of coffee and coffee houses as a shared communal space. On our world tour, we will sample different coffeehouse experiences throughout history. After that we'll dive into the United States's love affair with coffee shops,particularly in the last century: coffeehouses as a counterculture performance...

Rice around the world is thought of as Asian. But rice is just as African as it is Asian. Oryza glaberrima was cultivated from wild rice that needed humans when the Sahara was drying. That knowledge fueled the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade where Africans were brought west. Rice dominated the United States and particularly South Carolina for two hundred...

Meet the badass Brooklynites who brought us the ballot. Behind the stately facades of Brooklyn Heights’ most gracious brownstones lies the history of firebrand feminism! The wise “women of Brooklyn” were doctors, lawyers, educators and orators who made some of the foremost contributions to the Suffrage movement. Join us for a walk through their...

In 1603, one of the momentous events in history occurred when the Scottish King, James VI inherited the throne of England following the death of his cousin Elizabeth. He combined his two nations and called them Great Britain – and all subsequent kings and queens of Britain are his descendants to the present day. The telling of British royal history...

For two hundred years they waited beneath lower Manhattan, entirely forgotten. Even after their recent rediscovery – which occurred by accident during the construction of a new office building –their importance was denied, debated, and almost destroyed. Who are ‘they’? The thousands of African-Americans who lived in New York City during the...

Find your circa 1900 New York City ancestors in online databases, and learn where to look for them in brick-and-mortar NYC archives: births, deaths, marriages, ship manifests, military, tax and voting records. Come with a name and any documents you already have. Questions will be answered, and your ancestor may be used as the class example. Hands-on...

From the debauched slums of Victorian London to dry martinis and fancy cocktail parties, gin has had a remarkable journey, a story that reflects the ever changing moods and sensibilities of society at large. Like many other spirits, it began life in the alchemist’s workshop as a medicinal cure-all, a link it would retain as a mainstay of European...

The Why’s and How’s of French Spelling  So… let’s recap. AU and EAU sounds like “oh”, OU is “ooh, AI and EI do “eh” and OI makes… “wah”?!! The relationship between spelling and pronunciation in French, let’s face it, stands somewhere between confusing and frustrating, with all those vowel combinations and silent letters!...

Long regarded as the stuff of 19th century romanticism and 20th century warfare, nationalism is resurgent on the global stage. Despite—or, perhaps, because of—globalization, instant communication, and the seeming erosion of state supremacy, ideas about national sovereignty, national economies, and the preservation of national character...

Do you ever wonder where J.K. Rowling learned her magic from? As a student of the classics, she was able to learn about the myths of centaurs, basilisks and many more creatures from antiquity that made their way into her best-selling novels. Learn the history behind the creatures, potions and spells from Harry Potterwhen we...

China’s 2025 technology program and One Belt, One Road initiative underscores her ambitions for hegemony.  Yet, as China takes its place in the modern world, it faces immense difficulties: a growing inequality gap, widespread corruption and rampant pollution, all of which provoke mounting calls for political reform. The presentation will...

Early Life: From the Woodland Indians to the American Revolution! An exploration of the Native Americans who inhabited Staten Island and the archeological digs that have provided us with facts on the Lenape and their lives, will be followed by a discussion on the European settlers who changed everything. With the arrival of these colonizers enslaved...

Resting on the fault line between art and politics, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man makes the powerful claim that black modernism and the African-American experience are central to the American narrative. For Ellison, the plight of his narrator, “both black and American,” was emblematic of major and  persisting paradoxes in American...