Six on History: NY History
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Welcome back to Six on History.
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"Out on the industrial back streets of Queens sit two dusty, gravel-covered lots. Hemmed in by auto-body shops, graffiti-covered walls and barbed wire fences, one houses an abandoned trailer and a collection of car doors, while the other is home to three feral cats: Rosie, Blackie and Angel.
Throughout the challenges of the past year, many of us at MAS have found ourselves inspired in new and deeper ways by the mission of our annual Jane’s Walk festival. This volunteer-led celebration of urban life, inspired by Jane Jacobs, has always been a time to come together and share our love for this city.
Due to COVID-19, Jane’s Walk NYC has been reimagined to provide new ways to explore, share stories about the city, and connect with your fellow New Yorkers. From self-guided strolls to zoom talks to social media activations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy across the five boroughs. Jane’s Walks are free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required for live virtual activities. Although guided, in-person group walks must remain suspended this year due to COVID-19, we urge everyone taking a self-guided stroll to follow the latest safety protocols from federal, state, and local authorities.
The full roster of Jane’s Walks is now available below, and we have made your search easy! Using the search bar or filters, you can select the walk type (an activity happening virtually or in real life, like a self-guided in-person walk), borough, theme, date, or on demand (content that you can access at any time).
Questions for the Jane’s Walk NYC team? Email janesw...@mas.org.
He was born in 1825, son of Kathlyne Schuyler (Knickerboacker) and State Senator John L. Viele. The title of his newspaper obituary notice “Veteran of Two Wars and Indian Campaigns Passes Away” did little justice to his varied career, nor his personal foibles.
Egbert attended Albany Academy and graduated from West Point on July 1st, 1847. As a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry he served in the Mexican War. From there he was sent to Laredo Texas, became the Military Governor and conducted successful campaigns against ingenious people in the West. By October 1850 he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, but resigned from the military in 1853.
Viele moved to New York City and became the State Engineer for New Jersey (1854 – 1856). In 1856 he was appointed engineer-in-chief of Central Park and in 1860 redesigned both Central Park and Prospect Park. When the Civil War began he rejoined the military on the Union Side. He became engineering officer of the Seventh Regiment, and was commissioned Brigadier General of Volunteers on August 17, 1861.
General Viele marched to Washington, leading the first troops to reach the capital by crossing the Potomac River. He commanded brigades during the Union assaults on the Confederate forces along the southeast coast, first at Port Royal in November 1861, and then the victorious attack on Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River the following April. He participated in the capture of Norfolk, Va., and was named Military Governor of that area later in 1862.
He resigned from the service on October 20,1863 to again follow his career in civil engineering. Moving back to New York City he composed the “Viele Map,” a survey of the original streams and coastline superimposed on the streets of Manhattan, still in use today. In 1866 he became a Companion of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. In 1867, he worked as chief engineer on the Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Rochester Railroad.
From 1883 to 1884 Viele was the commissioner of parks for the city of New York. He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth Congress (1885 – 1887) but was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress. Viele resumed his former business pursuits and engaged in literary work.
He died from a “sudden attack of indigestion and heart disease” at the age of 77 in the city of New York. He and his second wife, Juliette Dana, are entombed in a pyramid-shaped mausoleum, guarded by a pair of sphinxes, in the Post Cemetery at West Point, New York. Egbert had a buzzer installed in his coffin wired to the house of the Superintendent of West Point to provide rescue if he had accidentally been buried alive.
His father owned mills in Cohoes. Although undocumented, one can assume he must have returned to Waterford to visit family over the years."
Photos, from above: Egbert Ludovicus Viele 1825-1902; and Viele’s mausoleum at West Point.
Russ Vandervoort in the Waterford Town Historian and leader of the Waterford Canal and Towpath Society and can be reached at russvan...@gmail.com.
EXHIBITIONPatty Chang: Milk DebtCloses May 23
Patty Chang’s multi-channel video installation Milk Debt, ongoing since 2018, features lists of fears solicited from an open call in Hong Kong and the United States—including one in New York during the height of its COVID epidemic. Compiled into a running script, the list is read by women pumping their breast milk in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and the US/Mexico border. Rich with hormones prolactin and oxytocin—which together promote bonding between mother and newborn—breast milk, in Milk Debt, becomes a charged and timely metaphor for the importance of empathy, understanding, and mutual obligation during a time of worldwide crises and collective anxiety. Formerly presented at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, this exhibition marks its New York debut.
Make a reservation to visit the exhibition before it closes!
EXHIBITION Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser: the bomb, Closes May 23
Originally scheduled for Fall 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bomb is a multimedia experience by artist Smriti Keshari and critically acclaimed writer Eric Schlosser. The installation immerses the viewer within the story of nuclear weapons—from the Trinity Test in 1945 to current discourses today in 2021—in order to explore the perverse beauty and seduction of the machines, alongside the existential threat they still pose. Inspired by nuclear weapon command and control centers, the bomb’s design suggests the technological fallibility of such systems, the devastating consequences of potential errors and malfunctions, and the impossibility of ever fully controlling these machines.
Make a reservation to visit the exhibition before it closes!
