This Is New York

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The New York Sun

On September 16, 1925, Hugh Edward Gallagher wrote a letter home to Ireland. Ellis Island, he reported, was “not so bad as people paint it,” but the inspection process was another matter altogether. He and his fellow detainees had been “marched down the gangway like so many sheep,” and then made to “parade up and down like an old horse whom the buyer was putting to a severe test.” Fortunately, his health passed muster; by the end of the letter he’d found an apartment in Brooklyn for only $9 a week (a bargain even then).


A startlingly realistic reproduction of Gallagher’s letter – the neat, blue-inked handwriting faded just so, the mottled parchment nearly brittle, as if with age – is just one of the novelties found among a handful of remarkable new tools for understanding New York history. Geared in most instances toward children, but sophisticated enough to delight adults, each inventive, beautifully conceived project – a box, a book, a game, and an audio guide – offers an imaginative approach to experiencing the city.


“The Ellis Island Collection: Artifacts from the Immigrant Experience,” by Brad R. Tuttle (Chronicle Books, $24.95), in which Gallagher’s letter can be found, is made to resemble a worn leather box. Inside are 23 replicas of genuine immigrant-related documents – a ship’s passenger list, a boarding card, an Ellis Island dining room menu, among others – as well as photographs; the result is a sort of manufactured family history both generic enough to evoke the scope of American immigration at the turn of the last century and heart-rendingly specific. An enclosed booklet provides context and a description of each artifact.


Equally striking, yet far more particular, is the visual biography, “Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston,” by Lucy Anne Hurston (Doubleday, 36 pages, $29.95). Best known for her still influential novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Hurston, who was born in 1891 and moved to New York from Florida as a young woman, led a rich and varied life as a writer, anthropologist, playwright, and activist, evidence of which nearly pops from this treasure trove of memorabilia. Tucked into envelopes layered throughout the authoritative, readable text and gorgeous black-and-white photographs are typewritten poems, postcards, hand-painted holiday cards, a copy of one of Hurston’s first published stories, even a handwritten draft of the first chapter of “Their Eyes Were Watching God”; a CD provides interview excerpts and recordings of Hurston singing folk songs. The virtual scrapbook not only brings the woman to life, but also serves as an appealing introduction to the art and craft of archiving.


“The Prestel New York Architecture Game,” by Thomas Fackler (Prestel, $29.95), takes as its subject buildings, not people. The game’s intent is to allow players – ages 8 and up – “to experience firsthand the strategy and triumph of building a masterpiece.” To that end, handsome, high-quality photographic reproductions of 24 of New York’s most famous architectural monuments – from the Empire State Building to the Rose Center for Earth and Space – have been replicated and divided into thirds; between two and five players compete among one another to complete construction. The enclosed map of Manhattan provides historical information for each building.


The “Ground Zero Sonic Memorial Soundwalk” (www.soundwalk.com;$19.95) is too graphic for childrens’ ears, but appropriate for teenagers (with parental discretion). The 10th and latest in a series of audio walking tours of New York neighborhoods, the 60-minute audio expedition, narrated by writer Paul Auster, is based on the Kitchen Sisters’ award-winning NPR Sonic Memorial Project (www.sonicmemorial.org)commemorating the life and history of the World Trade Center. Mr. Auster’s sonorous voice and a tasteful soundtrack offer soothing accompaniment to a harrowing excursion that begins at St. Paul’s Chapel, passes through Ground Zero, and winds up on a park bench facing the Statue of Liberty. Along the way, listeners hear phone messages from the World Trade Center towers and United Flight 175 on the morning of September 11, 2001; archival recordings from the Observation Deck and Windows on the World; as well as sound clips from events such as Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers. For adults, the project serves as a difficult and profoundly moving reminder of that terrible day in history; for those who may have been too young at the time to comprehend the events, but may be old enough now to begin to learn about them, the tour provides context and an emotional experience unrivaled by history texts and even perhaps television footage.


The New York Sun

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