NY State Museum Nearly Neglects BK!

The New York State Museum information desk cannot give you directions toward any object in its collections that hails from Brooklyn. The museum is divided down the line between New York City and the rest of the State. But within the City section, the outer boroughs show up about as often as they do on Sex and the City—which is to say four times, exactly, and only as the place to which Miranda is supposedly “exiled.”
The four mentions our Gazette reporters could track down say something about how the State in general views Brooklyn. It is a borough that spans many neighborhoods, through which you can zip by train; a place that boasts countless ethnicities, communities and school systems; and a place to forget about Manhattan as you while away the day on the carousel. In a fourth showing, Brooklyn is featured as a small blob edgeing an old map of Manhattan, as we might depict Europe’s shores on a map of America. Here are a few of the semblances of Brooklyn that have found their way up to Albany:

A Bushwick Classroom
Hooray for Brooklyn’s educational institutions! A turn-of-the century classroom from Bushwick’s former P.S. 52 on Ellery Street is memorialized in the New York State Museum in Albany.
A grey-haired schoolmarm in long garb writes on a blackboard in a classroom with many benches and numerous chalkboards hanging on each of the three sliding walls. The classroom exemplified the late 19th century “Lancasterian,” or Monitorial teaching method in which one teacher is responsible for several hundred students, and older students teach the younger ones. The classroom is sectioned off by sliding walls, which could be positioned as open or shut, creating either one gigantic room or sectioning the space off into smaller segmented classrooms. Many schools used the “Lancasterian” method and classrooms at the time since, much like today, teachers and school space were scarce in developing neighborhoods.

Due to an influx of various immigrants Bushwick grew rapidly during late 19th century and schools were in short supply and high demand. P.S. 52 was a public school that opened in 1883. As the neighborhood evolved and improved, the “Lancasterian” method gave way to the “Modern” teaching method in which students are grouped according to age and taught by a qualified instructor, and the sliding wall system was replaced by smaller classrooms specially built for their purpose. The improvements in education and structure of school buildings brought on the closing of P.S. 52 in 1943.

The MTA Diamond Jubilee
While everyone in the city—especially those who rely on the likes of the G train—is cursing the MTA for its gross mismanagement of funds, folks up in Albany are, curiously enough, celebrating its history at the New York State Museum’s newest exhibit: a retrospective of the New York City subway system’s 75th birthday celebration, or its Diamond Jubilee.
The subway system as we know it was first built in 1904, and in 1979 the New York Historical Society marked its 75th birthday with a special exhibition of MTA-related items, relics, blue prints, maps, architectural plans and original pieces of art inspired by New York City infrastructure.
“When you think about everything it took to build the subway, it’s just amazing. It’s an amazing thing,” said Andre Mack, a New York State Museum security guard who knows a thing or two about subways—he grew up in Harlem.

In addition to plans and drawings and blueprints galore, the exhibition offers visitors a chance to climb inside of an original model A train that has been pulled off the tracks and parked comfortably in the middle of the State Museum. One end of the subway car is a meticulously arranged diorama, complete with scale-models of old-timey subway riders situated behind a thin layer of plastic, while the other side is more than welcoming to children and adults alike, eager to experience the touch and feel of a big-city subway—only without the headache or hassle of having to wait forty-five minutes for your over-crowded train to arrive.

A Carousel Ride

Upstairs, on the museum’s fourth floor is an object that would have delighted the children stuck in that Bushwick school. Spinning around every 15 minutes is an old wooden carousel constructed in a Brooklyn workshop. Headed by Charles Dare, a German immigrant, the horses were carved for Coney Island’s hard-working, middle-class crowds. The horses sport glass eyes, the music is provided by an old Wurlitzer and the frame was designed to be packed up and shipped off to fairs. Though it started at Coney Island, it ended up at Martha’s Vineyard. Now, in Albany, it stands as the only carousel in the city.
On a windy Monday afternoon it was being enjoyed by the children of Nanette Johnson and Kariann Deno, who had driven in just for this. Johnson remembered that while she was growing up, there were more fairs and carnivals than there are today. “It’s just this great childhood fantasy—you’re riding a horse through the air, there’s music, there’s lights.”
Deno remembered going on one later, with an old boyfriend. “He threw up in a donation bucket.”
Now they bring their kids here; it’s an American tradition. “The hardest part,” Johnson said, “is waiting the fifteen minutes to ride again.” While the kids waited, they ran around the ride clockwise. The horses they had ridden a moment earlier spun the opposite direction.