bygone history
READ DIA GRIFFITH'S COLUMN TO LEARN WHO & WHAT CAME BEFORE US.
At New York Historical, “House Made of Dawn: Art by Native Americans 1880 to Now” explores Indigenous history and identity through more than a century of paintings, photography, sculpture, and mixed media. The exhibit feels less like a traditional retrospective and more like a reclaiming of perspective.
Adelaide Herrmann spent twenty years performing beside her husband, the legendary magician Herrmann the Great, dazzling audiences across America and Europe. But after his sudden death, she did something no woman had ever done before: she took center stage herself. Known as the Queen of Magic, Herrmann became the first woman to headline her own magic act, performing death-defying illusions, touring internationally, and reshaping the Golden Age of Magic. Her extraordinary and often overlooked story is now featured in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ exhibition Mystery and Wonder: A Legacy of Golden Age Magicians in New York City.
As America gears up for its 250th anniversary, New York City is quietly celebrating a milestone of its own: 400 years since the founding of New Amsterdam. Through Dutch Golden Age paintings and surprising historical insights, the New York Historical's Old Masters, New Amsterdam offers a fresh look at the people, culture, and ideas that helped shape the city long before it became New York.