My family and I were on Governors Island yesterday for the first time in a very long time, due to the pandemic. I did not do one tour last summer there, this was the first time since 2002 that this happened. I am about to announce my new schedule. In the meantime, here is a throwback video that is still fun to watch. I took part in a 2019 segment on Governors Island with CUNY Continue Reading →
A story dominating the news this month is about how the U.S. Army has ten posts named for Confederate Generals. A second story is the only Army post in New York City, Fort Hamilton, has roads named for Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Because I wrote the book about Governors Island and have spent untold days visiting and leading tours of New York’s greatest park, it got me to examine why this post, which Continue Reading →
In 2016 I launched an annual event on Governors Island that’s I’m really proud to be a part of. This is World War I History Weekend, Camp Doughboy. We started with one day in 2016 with less than 20 living historians; last year we had 100. Here is the information on the upcoming weekend. I hope you’ll join us: The Centennial of service members and civilians returning from France to New York Harbor following the Continue Reading →
The first uniformed guest we’ve had on the show is Ranger Joe Korber, however, due to the government shutdown the day we recorded the episode, Joe had no uniform or Smokey campaign hat on. Joe is a veteran of the national park service, a lifelong Queens guy, and a musician. We chat about the two national parks where he works, Teddy Roosevelt National Historic Site (Joanna has never visited) and Governors Island National Monument (Joanna Continue Reading →
Celebrate the Centennial of the Governors Island Railroad, called the “shortest railway in the world.” Visit the Governors Island National Monument on Saturday, August 18, for free talks and tour of where the Railroad once ran from 1917-1931. The events will be held at Castle Williams, on Governors Island. The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps on Fort Jay operated the 8 miles of track, with engines and freight cars. During World War I more than $1 Continue Reading →
I have paid my respects to the Confederate soldiers buried in Brooklyn. Oh, you didn’t know that more than 500 war dead who served in the Confederate States of America are interred there? There are more Confederate graves in New York City than any other place in the Northeast? I’ve been waiting to talk to a couple of reporters for two days, since I wrote a book about city war memorials, and give tours of Continue Reading →
One hundred years ago on Sunday, General John J. Pershing woke up in Times Square. He was in bed in the Astor Hotel, which once was on the corner of Broadway and W. 44th Street. I do not know how he got from Forty-second Street to the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, but I like to think that instead of a car he and his group took the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) Continue Reading →
Last summer I started work on a project that is small in scope but means a lot to me. Today I submitted the final grant application information to the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission for what I am calling the Governors Island World War I Memorial Project. Last year when my book The Governors Island Explorer’s Guide was published I was not done with the island, which is by far my favorite park in Continue Reading →
I am happy to announce that my latest book has been nominated for an Apple Award, presented by the Guides Association of New York City. This is a big honor for me and my book, The Governors Island Explorer’s Guide: Adventure and History in New York Harbor. This is the second consecutive year I have been nominated for an Apple Award; last year I was also up for the award for The Algonquin Round Table Continue Reading →
Today is the Ninety-ninth anniversary of the first American soldiers to be killed in combat in World War I. The three became national heroes and their names were printed in newspapers coast-to-coast. Today they are remembered together on Governors Island, where three roads carry their names. On Nov. 3, 1917, German troops killed Private Merle David Hay, Corporal James B. Gresham, and Private Thomas F. Enright, all serving with Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Continue Reading →