~~~~~~~~ FEBRUARY 2022 ~~~~~~~~
Photo of the Week
—– February 7, 2020 —–
FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES
“Our History, Our Heritage, Our People”
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Henry Highland Garnet,
From Slave to Ambassador
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
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Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882): A Journey from Slave to Abolitionist to U.S. Ambassador
My whole life is consecrated to the cause of Liberty.
Wherever my lot shall be cast, I shall feel free
to raise my feeble voice for equal justice.
— Henry Highland Garnet, 1846
Although one of the most well-known African Americans of the nineteenth century, Henry Highland Garnet, sadly, is little remembered today. Even less remembered are his connections to Long Island and Suffolk County. As a young fugitive slave and an outspoken abolitionist, Garnet was given shelter by sympathizers on Long Island for several years. Quakers in Westbury took him in, and later they arranged for him to go farther east and be apprenticed to Epenetus Smith of Smithtown.
Despite his birth into the bondage of slavery, the loss of a limb, and the persistent discrimination and bigotry he faced, Garnet went on to achieve great successes: he was an effective orator and writer, a prominent clergyman, an educator, and a diplomat. He was also one of the first African Americans to be appointed as a U.S. ambassador.
Henry Highland Garnet has the notable distinction of being the first African American to speak at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. On Sunday, February 12, 1865, within days of Congress’s adoption of the 13th Amendment banning slavery, Rev. Garnet delivered a sermon in the Hall of the House of Representatives entitled “Let the Monster Perish” (go here to read it).
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~~~~~~~~ JANUARY 2022 ~~~~~~~~
Photo of the Week
— Week of January 31st, 2022 —
FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES
“Our History, Our Heritage, Our People”
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Fire Island Lighthouse By Night 1906
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
Fire Island Lighthouse by Night, 1906. Postcard by the Illustrated Post Card Co., New York. It was sent to a NYC address on August 14, 1906, with the handwritten note: “Say Dutch, we will have a drink on…Beer Lehr & Beer Lehr.” (Image from the Fire Island Postcard Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives.)
Fire Island Light was an important landmark for transatlantic ships coming into New York Harbor at the turn of the twentieth century. For many European immigrants, the Fire Island Light was their first sight of land upon arrival in America.
The first lighthouse built on Fire Island was completed in 1826–a seventy-four-foot tall octagonal pyramid. This tower was removed, and its stone was used to build the terrace for the present-day lighthouse. In 1857 Congress had approved the funds to build the new 168-foot tall tower, which was lit for the first time on November 1, 1858. It was made of red brick and was painted a creamy yellow color. In 1891, it was painted in the familiar white and black bands.
The Fire Island Lighthouse was decommissioned as an aid to navigation in 1974, and in 1979, the tract was declared by law to be within the boundaries of the Fire Island National Seashore. In 1982, the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society, formed to save the lighthouse, successfully raised over $1.3 million for its restoration and preservation. Two years later, the lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1986, the Fire Island Lighthouse was relit and reinstated as an official aid to navigation. Today the light is lit by two 1000-watt bulbs that rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, giving the appearance of a flash every 7.5 seconds. The light is visible for approximately twenty-four miles.The Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society owns and maintains the lighthouse.
Suggested Readings: Carole Perrault, Fire Island Lighthouse and Keeper’s Dwelling (National Park Service, 1993); Harlan Hamilton, Lights and Legends (Wescott Cove Pub., 1987); Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society site (www.fireislandlighthouse.com)
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Photo of the Week
— January 24, 2020 —
FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES
“Our History, Our Heritage, Our People”
GREETINGS FROM SHOREHAM, 1909
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
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“Greetings from Shoreham, Long Island, NY,” 1909. (Image from the Postcard Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives.)
Although the outlying farms and settlements date back to colonial times, the Shoreham of today was incorporated as a village in 1913. In the late nineteenth century, an Ohio banker named James A. Warden acquired significant landholdings in and around present-day Shoreham and undertook the development of a residential community there called “Wardenclyffe.” When the LIRR extension opened in 1895, the station at Shoreham was officially named Wardenclyffe. Mr. Warden was also instrumental in persuading a group of New York bankers to finance the construction of an experimental laboratory for Nikola Tesla, whose work in electronics had aroused scientific interest worldwide. Tesla’s lab opened in 1902 in Shoreham, but was short lived. Tesla was a part-time resident of the community at the time the plant was in operation. When Warden disposed of most of his lands in Wardenclyffe, the community was renamed Shoreham.
The hilly terrain of Shoreham made it necessary to construct a system of streets that would be free of the washouts that had plagued the community from the start. In 1913 it was proposed that the streets be concreted, and that the village be incorporated as an entity to issue bonds to cover the cost of the roadwork. At the time it was incorporated, Shoreham was the smallest village in New York state. It was and still is the first municipality in the state to have concrete roads throughout its original incorporated area.
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Suggested Readings: “A History of the Incorporated Village of Shoreham in the Town of Brookhaven,” by Mervin G. Pallister (1976); and “History of Shoreham,” by Mary Lou Abata (n.d.).
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Photo of the Week
— January 17, 2020 —
FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES
“Our History, Our Heritage, Our People”
The Road to Flanders, c. 1910
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
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The Road to Flanders, c. 1910. (Image from the Postcard Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives.)
How and when Flanders acquired its present-day name remain a mystery, though it may be that the hamlet adopted the name based on its wetlands and other similarities with the Flanders region of present-day Belgium in Europe. The word “Flanders” is adopted from the Flemish “Vlaanderen,” which means “flooded land.”
It’s believed that Josiah Goodale was the earliest Englishman to permanently settle in the area that would become known as Flanders. Southampton Town records refer to his house at “Aukabog” as early as 1761, and other references indicate that his home was likely built prior to 1760. Josiah is credited with clearing much of the land in the hamlet area, and his descendants continue to reside there today. Another early inhabitant was James Fanning II, a Southold native and son of Captain James Fanning, who was a hero of the French Indian War and the first of the Fannings to settle on Long Island. The oldest known surviving house in the hamlet is that of James Benjamin. His homestead, built in circa 1782 and located on Flanders Road, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
To read much more about the history of Flanders, see the Flanders Hamlet Heritage Area Report (2014).
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Photo of the Week
— Week of January 10th, 2022 —
FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES
“Our History, Our Heritage, Our People”
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NINE MEN ON AN ICEBERG, Patchogue, 1907
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
Nine Men on an Iceberg, Patchogue, 1907. (Image from the Patchogue Postcard Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives.)
Could this week’s bitter cold and snowy winter weather get any worse? The winter of 1907 was probably harsher. In that year, a very large 28-foot-high iceberg broke off the shore of Patchogue and drifted into Great South Bay. This photo from our postcard collection is dated March 21, 1907. The Great South Bay used to freeze over solid almost every winter. Strong winds would push the ice from the bay against the shore and form icebergs like the one shown here.
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www.suffolkcountyhistoricalsociety.org
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