Families are invited to an interactive story time on the second Saturday of each month* featuring a children’s book by a Native author, illustrator, or created in collaboration with an Indigenous community. They will have the opportunity to engage with objects from the museum's teaching collection, such as photographs, textiles, or natural materials, which can deepen their understanding of the community represented in the story, along with a craft or other activity.

Partner Organization: National Museum of the American Indian - Smithsonian Institution

Suggested Ages: All are welcome. Recommended for visitors ages 3–9 years old accompanied by an adult caregiver.

Price: Free

Schedule and Link

July 12, 2025 | 11:15 – 11:45 AM https://americanindian.si.edu/events/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D180550803

July 12, 2025 | 2:15 – 2:45 PM https://americanindian.si.edu/events/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D180594491

For the July 4th weekend, date and time to be confirmed

• Tagged: Family

Reservations are currently open ONLY to Skyscraper Museum members by emailing programs@skyscraper.org. Tickets for remaining spaces will be open to the public on June 1. See below for more information.

As the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, we will walk Wall Street to recall its colonial history, recap its role as the banking center of capitalism, and observe its recent rise of a reinvented residential neighborhood. Skyscraper Museum director Carol WIllis will lead a 90-minute walking tour that meets in front of Federal Hall, at the juncture of Wall, Broad, and Nassau streets, and weaves its way through the Financial District, highlighting both the current uses of the landmark buildings that line Wall Street and discussing the generations of structures that occupied those sites and the cast of characters that populated this historic district.

Walking Tours are free! Reservation priority is given to Skyscraper Museum members. Want to become a member? Members should email programs@skyscraper.org to reserve your spots. RSVPs are required! Not a member? Check back soon for a Ticketstripe RSVP link to reserve your tickets.

This program is supported by a Community Partnership with the Battery Park City Authority.

Partner Organization - The Skyscraper Museum - The tour will be lead by Director Carol Willis

Price - Free, Reservation required

Reservation Link - https://skyscraper.org/programs/the-rise-of-wall-street-walking-tour-repeat/

• Tagged: Tour

Explore The Battery with the landscape architects who have helped shape it for nearly three decades.  Learn about how The Battery’s location at the tip of Manhattan destined it to become the birthplace of country’s first corporate headquarters — for the Dutch West India Company — and how this strategically located open space has continuously transformed to serve New York City’s social, commercial and climatic forces.

Tour Leaders: Jeff Poor ASLA, LEED AP and Laura Starr FASLA, LEED AP, Partners, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners

Price: $10

Reservation Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-battery-walking-tour-tickets-1376345810369?aff=oddtdtcreator

Starting Point: Meet at the Broadway entrance to the Park across from Bowling Green.

• Tagged: Tour

Gotham Park is a grass-roots community effort reimagining how spaces under the iconic Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan can become a new type of urban community park that nurtures connection, curiosity, wonder, and resilience. The bridge is a sleeping giant, a landmark recognized the world over, but it lands in a fenced-off, dark, underutilized parking lot. Gotham Park is transforming that space into a neighborhood nexus connecting and strengthening residents, businesses, and communities.

Built upon the spirit of the original Brooklyn Banks skate mecca, Gotham Park will restore the Banks while expanding public space and access to create a variety of flexible play spaces that inspire, engage and delight all ages. Woven together from the vaults, arches, and land beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, Gotham Park is building a hyper-urban, iconic public space for its communities, by its communities.

Please note stairs are involved.

The tour will be given by Rosa Chang, Gotham Park

Partner Organization: Gotham Park

Price: $10

Reservation: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1450581752069?aff=oddtdtcreator

• Tagged: Tour

Please join cultureNOW,the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, Center for Architecture,Consulate-General of the Netherlands in New York for a hybrid symposium about strategies for facing the urbanchallenges of the 21st century: mobility, resiliency, cultural heritage, water, housing. Architects from Amsterdam andother major cities in the Netherlands are global leaders in addressing these issues and will be invited to present theirideas in this program.

Introduction:
Barry Nieuwenhuijs, Deputy consul general of the Netherlands

NetherlandsNOW: Framing the Future

8:30 am - Session 1 – Framing the Future: Dutch Architects in New York
Dutch architects currently practicing here will highlight their practices, discussing cultural differences and reflecting on relations between the Netherlands and the US.

Panelists:
Francine Houben, Founding Partner, Mecanoo
Winka Dubbeldam, Founding Partner, Archi-Tectonics
Florian Idenburg, Managing Principal, Founding Partner, SO – IL
Rijk Rietveld, Founder, Rietveld Architects

10:00 am Session 2 – Design Innovations: A Panorama of Dutch Architecture Today
Through project showcases, panelists will highlight the ideas and philosophies of Dutch architects and engineers that propel innovation in addressing the built environment. Dutch architects are global leaders in developing innovative strategies for facing the urban challenges of the 21st century. A series of short presentations prepared by established as well as up-and-coming Dutch architecture and design firms will offer a panorama of where and how innovation is brought about in the built environment.

Panelists:
Jos van Eldonk, Partner Architect, Common A airs
Evert Klinkenberg, Founding Partner, BETA
Jan Knikker, Partner, Director of Strategy, MVRDV
Stefan Prins, Partner, Powerhouse Company
Dikkie Scipio, Founding Partner, KAAN Architecten
Erikjan Vermeulen, Head of Architecture, Partner, CONCRETE
Frans van Vuure, Senior Architect, Managing Director, UN Studio

Price: Free
Credits available: 2.5 LU|2.5 HSW credits
RSVP: https://calendar.aiany.org/2025/07/07/it-happened-here-netherlandsnow-framing-the-future/

People First for Lower Manhattan

2:00 pm - Session Three
This program focuses on the streets and public spaces of New York’s oldest and most historic neighborhood, the Financial District. Several of the FiDi’s streets, dating from the 17th century, have been recognized as Historic Districts on the National Register of Historic Places. While through most of the 20th century the neighborhood was seen as solely a commercial area and hub of world finance, Lower Manhattan is now home to 75,000 residents, sees over 300,000 workers daily, and attracts more than 9 million tourists annually.

Leaders in urban planning and government affairs will discuss the neighborhood’s complex urban challenges and how to enhance pedestrian mobility over the cars and trucks that currently congest its historic streets. The goal is to make all movement safer, easier, and cleaner towards a more enjoyable experience that can transform the area into one of the world's most attractive places to live, work and visit. Make Way for Lower Manhattan reimagines our public space for everyone.

Speakers:
Alice Shay, Principal, Buro Happold
John Massangale, AIA, Architect, Urbanist, Massengale & Co
Ben Furnas, Executive Director, Transportation Alternatives
Emily Weidenhof, Assistant Commissioner, NYC DOT

Moderator:
Catherine McVay Hughes, Board of Directors, Battery Park City Authority; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Lower Manhattan Historical Association; Financial District Neighborhood Association; South Street Seaport Museum; Princeton Climate Institute; President's Council, CERES

Price: Free
Credits available: 1 LU | 1 HSW Credit
RSVP: https://calendar.aiany.org/2025/07/07/it-happened-here-people-first-for-lower-manhattan/

At the Water’s Edge: Resiliency in Lower Manhattan

3:30 pm - Session Four
New York City’s identity as a global capital of finance and culture is rooted in its origins as a seaport. At the epicenter of over 520 miles of waterfront is Lower Manhattan, where it started 400 years ago with the arrival of the Dutch. Since then, even the boundary of where land meets the water has changed – in some cases dramatically. Learn from experts what is at risk and what is being done to protect Lower Manhattan from tidal flooding and coastal storms, and to ensure that all New Yorkers continue to have access to the jobs, subways, and infrastructure that thrive in this central hub. With 19 of 28 subway lines, 512,000 riders per day and 10% of all jobs in NYC, resulting in $74 billion in annual GDP (8% of the City’s total), downtown is indispensable to New York’s future. A range of current resiliency initiatives will be reviewed, including East Side Coastal Resiliency, Lower Manhattan Coastal Protection, and Battery Park City flood protection and water management systems. Discussions will also include how changes at NOAA, FEMA and the insurance sector may impact response and recovery to the next climate event, and its impact on the real estate and financial markets.

Speakers:
Kimberlae Saul  AIA, Vice President Planning & Design, Battery Park City Authority
Alexis Taylor, Vice President of Climate Resilience, NYC Economic Development Corporation
Jonathan Marvel, FAIA, Founding Principal, Marvel Architects
Matthijs Bouw, Founder & President, One Architecture

Moderator:
Catherine McVay Hughes, Board of Directors, Battery Park City Authority; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Lower Manhattan Historical Association; Financial District Neighborhood Association; South Street Seaport Museum; Princeton Climate Institute; President's Council, CERES

Price: Free
Credits available: 1 LU | 1 HSW Credit
RSVP: https://calendar.aiany.org/2025/07/07/it-happened-here-at-the-waters-edge-resiliency-in-lower-manhattan/

-This program was supported, in part, by public funding from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council
-This program was funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities
-The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
-This program is supported in part by the Consulate-General of the Netherlands in New York.

• Tagged: Symposium

Open Houses with Architects, Landscape Architects, Engineers, planners with offices downtown

• Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners
  120 Broadway

• Tra Studio Architecture
  1 Maiden Ln, 3rd Fl

• WXY architecture + urban design
  25 Park Place, 5th Fl (not fully ADA accessible)

• Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners
  80 Broad St, Suite 1700

• Galerie56, by SheltonMindel
  240 Church St

• JG Neukomm Architecture
  62 William St, 7th Fl

• Slade Architecture
  77 Chambers St, 5th Fl

• Buro Happold
  100 Broadway, 17th Fl

• IN STUDIO
  250 West Broadway, 4th Fl

• PERKINS EASTMAN
  115 Fifth Ave, 3rd Fl

• Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
  88 Pine St

Price: Free

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1424650821959?aff=oddtdtcreator

• Tagged: Open Houses

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum offers free admission exclusively to New Yorkers on the first Sunday of each month from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

New York First Sunday ticketholders will be admitted beginning at 4:00 p.m. Please be prepared to show a valid ID upon Museum entry.

Price - Free

Reservation Link - https://911memorial.org/visit/new-york-first-sundays

• Tagged: Exhibition, Museum

Returning to the deck of the 1885 tall ship Wavertree, the monthly sea-song sing along, will be hosted by a local artist who will lead the group through a variety of traditional maritime work songs and ballads. Throughout the in-person only event, attendees of all skill levels are welcome to take the stage for this round-robin where you will be able to sing and share the chantey of your choice. Attendees will be encouraged to sing along with the chorus or just sit back and enjoy each performance. Singers of all levels, as well as listeners, will be welcome to participate in this free event where you will be able to lead or request a song during the round-robin or simply listen.

Advanced in-person registration is encouraged, but walkups will be accommodated as possible. Any attendee is welcome to lead a song during the round-robin; if you have a specific song in mind, please inform us of the song title when you register. This event will take place rain or shine. In the event of rain, the event will be moved from the main deck to an indoor place on the ship.

Sailing Time - 2:00pm to 4:30pm

Price - Free, Reservation required

Reservation Link - https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/in-person-chantey-sing/

• Tagged: Family Activity

Experience New York City like never before on a thrilling sail aboard the historic 1885 schooner Pioneer with the South Street Seaport Museum! From May through October, this exclusive opportunity offers you the chance to take in the breathtaking views of the Big Apple from the deck of a National Register-listed vessel.

As you set sail on this unforgettable journey, you’ll witness some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan’s architectural treasures, Governors Island, Ellis Island, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned New Yorker or a first-time visitor, this adventure promises to be a truly unforgettable experience.

But that’s not all—as a guest on board, you’ll have the chance to get hands-on and help raise a sail or simply sit back and relax as you soak up the stunning scenery. And, for the perfect al fresco dining experience, bring along your favorite meal or snack, along with your preferred beverages or even a bottle of wine to sip on deck.

Sailing Time - 1:00 pm; 4:00 pm & 7:00pm

Price - $10–$70

Reservation Link - https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/1885-schooner-pioneer/

• Tagged: Sailing

By 1900 New York was the largest city in America. The biggest challenges were moving 3.5 million people, helping them navigate, and providing them with enough power Join us for an afternoon about infrastructure how it developed and what is planned in the future as we move to a carbon neutral city. Please join cultureNOW, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, South Street Seaport Museum, New YorkTransit Museum, and ConEdison for a hybrid symposium.

Speakers:

• Richard Miller, Former Vice President, Energy and Environmental Law, Con Edison

• Daniel Taft, Chief Engineer, Con Edison

• Polly Desjarlais, Content and Research Manager, New YorkTransit Museum

• John Tauranac, Cartographer, Historian, and Writer

Price:

• In Person: Free. RSVP Required.

• Virtually: Free. RSVP Required.

Reservation: http://seaportmuseum.org/connecting-the-city

• Tagged: Symposium

Stroll through the neighborhood's 100-year-old history!

Join us on Sunday, July 6th at 11:30am at the Museum at Eldridge Street for a Museum and neighborhood tour celebrating the immigration, activism, and architectural history of the 20th century that made our Lower East Side home a fixture of New York's ever-evolving cityscape.

Highlights:

• Visit the Museum at Eldridge Street's historic Main Sanctuary

• From the Eldridge Street Synagogue's founding in 1887 through the golden age, decline, and restoration, uncover the unique ways the building preserves the experiences of the Jewish immigrant community who once lived and worshiped on the Lower East Side

• Venture out into the neighborhood and stop at Straus Square, formerly Rutgers Square, and learn about its history and its significance during the heyday of Jewish immigration

• Visit The Forward building and learn the role of this important Jewish newspaper and its Yiddish advice column A Bintel Brief ("a bundle of letters")

• Stop by Seward Park, the first municipally-built free playground in the United States and designed especially for the neighborhood’s children, the first generation to grow up in such crowded conditions

About the Museum at Eldridge Street:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a magnificent National Historic Landmark that has been meticulously restored. Opened in 1887, the synagogue is the first great house of worship built in America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Today, it is the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public who wishes to visit Jewish New York. Exhibits, tours, public programs, and education initiatives tell the story of Jewish immigrant life, explore architecture and historic preservation, inspire reflection on cultural continuity, and foster collaboration and exchange between people of all faiths, heritages, and interests.

Registration - https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/eldridgestreet/items/637434/calendar/2025/07/?full-items=yes

Ticket Price (Includes Museum Admission):
Adults $25
Seniors / Students $20
Children 5 and Under FREE
Cool Culture Pass / SNAP Benefits $5

This Museum at Eldridge Street experience is only available to 35 people max. Please reserve in advance to secure your spot, and cancel if you are unable to attend.

• Tagged: Tour

Replacing deserted piers along Lower Manhattan’s Hudson River shoreline, Battery Park City has emerged as a remarkable living space. Its 92 acres of landfill were developed by the Battery Park City Authority, an innovative group of public and private advocates. 

The secret of Battery Park City’s success is its integration of public amenities and private initiatives in artistically-designed natural landscapes, including hills, secret paths, and glorious panoramas.

Highlights include:

• Parks with playfields that include dramatic vistas, hilly woodlands, and delightful yet sinister sculpture

• Poetry House, the Irish Hunger Memorial, Winter Garden, and public bathrooms galore

• Politics of the public-benefit corporation

• Environmentally state-of-the-art private spaces

Tour Leader: Joyce Gold

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/battery-park-city-its-manhattan-plus-walking-tour-tickets-1412690859389?aff=oddtdtcreator

Price: $10/person, with a maximum of 40 People

• Tagged: Tour

Join the Seaport Museum for an all-ages activity where you get to learn about the common ships’ tool known as a baggywrinkle––a soft covering used to protect sails from damage. You’ll get to see a real example from one of the Seaport Museum’s historic ships, and then learn how to make one!

Traditionally, baggywrinkle is made from unraveled ropes, but on weekends throughout July, you can come aboard the 1885 tall ship Wavertree and learn to make these important tools from scratch using colorful yarn.

Sailing Time - 11:00am

Price - Free, Reservation required

Reservation Link - https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/family-activity-weekends/

• Tagged: Family Activity

The Seaport Museum’s latest exhibition Maritime City, highlights how New York City, as we know it today, arose from the sea. Throughout the extensive three-floor exhibition, 540 deliberately-selected objects from the collections and archives of the Seaport Museum are on view to underscore how the city’s identity as a global capital of culture and finance is rooted in its origins as a seaport.

As you walk through the exhibition, you will discover how the waterways, people, and industries of the Greater New York area—including all the boroughs, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley—led to the creation of a truly diverse city. By sharing the material culture of New York and its people, the objects on display highlight stories of the working class people employed by ships, shipping lines, and other local industries throughout history, as well as the emigrant workers and immigrant families that came through the port as their first stop in America.

In Maritime City, you will experience a celebration of communities that have come together to grow New York. For four centuries, the port of New York has connected people to the world through the exchange of goods, ideas, languages, and cultures. Indigenous Lenape people were the first stewards of the waterways, creating trade routes connecting Manahatta to the sea. In the 17th-century European colonists, enslaved Africans, and migrants built on this foundation to give birth to a restless and ambitious city. Later waves of immigration, would grow a world capital formed by its oceanic links to the world. Just as the history of New York is woven from many stories, Maritime City employs artifacts to present a tapestry of a global metropolis shaped by the sea. The South Street Seaport Museum interprets these origins, a museum for a maritime city.

Partner Organization: The South Street Seaport Museum

Price: Included in Admission price

Reservations: https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/maritime-city/

• Tagged: Exhibition

The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue. Built in 1887, it is an architectural marvel and a symbol of immigrant aspirations realized. The building is the first grand synagogue purpose-built by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the United States, and was nearly lost to neglect before the Museum’s 20-year, $20 million restoration project returned the space to glory and public use.

Visitors are welcome to tour the National Historic Landmark and learn about its time as a cultural hotspot in the bustling Jewish Lower East Side, to its decades of decay, to its miraculous rebirth as a 21st-century Museum in present day Chinatown.

Museum Hours: 10:00am to 5:00pm
Guided Public tours: 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and 3:00pm.

Museum Entrance Price:
Adults: $15
Students & Seniors: $10
Children 5 - 17: $8

Reservation Link - https://www.eldridgestreet.org/

• Tagged: Museum

Please join cultureNOW, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, Sons of the RevolutionSM in the State of New York, Inc. and its Fraunces Tavern® Museum, and the American Friends of Lafayette for a hybrid symposium.

Speakers:

• Mike Duncan, history podcaster; author of Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution.

• Professor Robert Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian; Professor of Journalism and American Studies at Rutgers Newark; co-author of All Nations Under Heaven.

• Moisette Broderick, Clinical Professor in the Department of Art History, New York University; Director of the London MA Programme in Historical and Sustainable Architecture

• John Tauranac, Cartographer, Historian, and Writer

Books will be available for purchase at the event for in-person attendees.

Price:

$35.00 General Admission Lafayette and the Gilded Age Symposium Tickets
$50.00 Reserved Seating Lafayette and the Gilded Age Symposium Tickets
$10.00 Zoom/Virtual Only Lafayette and the Gilded Age Symposium Tickets

Reservation: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/frauncestavernmuseum/items/642604/calendar/2025/06/?full-items=yes

• Tagged: Symposium

Please join cultureNOW, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, Sons of the RevolutionSM in the State of New York, Inc. and its Fraunces Tavern® Museum for a hybrid symposium.

Speakers

• Mike Duncan, history podcaster; author of Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution.

• Professor Robert Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian; Professor of Journalism and American Studies at Rutgers Newark; co-author of All Nations Under Heaven.

• Professor Moisette Broderick, Clinical Professor in the Department of Art History, New York University; Director of the London MA Programme in Historical and Sustainable Architecture

Price:

• $35General Admission Lafayette and the Gilded Age Symposium Tickets

• $50Reserved Seating Lafayette and the Gilded Age Symposium Tickets

• $10Zoom/Virtual Only Lafayette and the Gilded Age Symposium Tickets

Reservation: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/frauncestavernmuseum/items/642604/calendar/2025/06/?full-items=yes

• Tagged: Symposium

Uncover the layers of New York’s past in this fast-moving, team-based hunt through the city’s oldest neighborhood. Teams will compete to solve a series of location-based clues and puzzles, leading them to landmarks tied to more than 400 years of history.

Players will race through the narrow streets of Lower Manhattan to discover sites like Trinity Church, the New York Stock Exchange, Fraunces Tavern, Bowling Green, and the spot where George Washington took the oath of office. Along the way, they’ll encounter monuments to revolution, immigration, commerce, and resistance — all hidden in plain sight.

Whether you’re a history buff, a puzzle solver, or just someone who loves a good challenge, this hunt is a unique and exhilarating way to experience the birthplace of New York.

Secret City Scavenger Hunts offers fast-paced, clue and puzzle-driven experiences that turn New York City into your game board. Since 2004, we’ve guided thousands of players through the city’s most iconic neighborhoods with smart, team-based hunts that reward sharp eyes, quick thinking, and a spirit of fun. Our events are fully facilitated, screen-free, and designed to bring people together through shared discovery.

Price - $10 / person, and up to 6 people per team.

Reservation Link - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1424698695149?aff=oddtdtcreator

• Tagged: Family Activity

Experience New York City like never before on a thrilling sail aboard the historic 1885 schooner Pioneer with the South Street Seaport Museum! From May through October, this exclusive opportunity offers you the chance to take in the breathtaking views of the Big Apple from the deck of a National Register-listed vessel.

As you set sail on this unforgettable journey, you’ll witness some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan’s architectural treasures, Governors Island, Ellis Island, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned New Yorker or a first-time visitor, this adventure promises to be a truly unforgettable experience.

But that’s not all—as a guest on board, you’ll have the chance to get hands-on and help raise a sail or simply sit back and relax as you soak up the stunning scenery. And, for the perfect al fresco dining experience, bring along your favorite meal or snack, along with your preferred beverages or even a bottle of wine to sip on deck.

Sailing Time - 1:00 pm; 4:00 pm & 7:00pm

Price - $10–$70

Reservation Link - https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/1885-schooner-pioneer/

• Tagged: Sailing

Come Together for Unkown and Untold Stories at Kimlau Square.

Keynote Speaker:

• Judge Randall Eng

Partner Organization: Chinatown BID/Partnership

Price: Free

Reservations: No Reservations required.

• Tagged: Tour

The Seaport Museum’s latest exhibition Maritime City, highlights how New York City, as we know it today, arose from the sea. Throughout the extensive three-floor exhibition, 540 deliberately-selected objects from the collections and archives of the Seaport Museum are on view to underscore how the city’s identity as a global capital of culture and finance is rooted in its origins as a seaport.

As you walk through the exhibition, you will discover how the waterways, people, and industries of the Greater New York area—including all the boroughs, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley—led to the creation of a truly diverse city. By sharing the material culture of New York and its people, the objects on display highlight stories of the working class people employed by ships, shipping lines, and other local industries throughout history, as well as the emigrant workers and immigrant families that came through the port as their first stop in America.

In Maritime City, you will experience a celebration of communities that have come together to grow New York. For four centuries, the port of New York has connected people to the world through the exchange of goods, ideas, languages, and cultures. Indigenous Lenape people were the first stewards of the waterways, creating trade routes connecting Manahatta to the sea. In the 17th-century European colonists, enslaved Africans, and migrants built on this foundation to give birth to a restless and ambitious city. Later waves of immigration, would grow a world capital formed by its oceanic links to the world. Just as the history of New York is woven from many stories, Maritime City employs artifacts to present a tapestry of a global metropolis shaped by the sea. The South Street Seaport Museum interprets these origins, a museum for a maritime city.

Partner Organization: The South Street Seaport Museum

Price: Included in Admission price

Reservations: https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/maritime-city/

• Tagged: Exhibition

Marquis de Lafayette, a young, wealthy French aristocrat, volunteered for and later led the Continental Tour this National Register-listed vessel that represents the thousands of ships that docked along New York’s waterfront over the centuries. Come aboard to see how people worked and lived aboard a 19th century cargo sailing ship—from the captain to the ship’s officers, cooks, and crew. In the care of the South Street Seaport Museum, the 1885 tall ship Wavertree has been meticulously restored and has been carefully curated to help tell the story of the rise of New York City as a global metropolis.

On your visit, you will explore the main deck that features the restored forecastle, where the crew bunked; the galley, where meals were prepared; the saloon, which acted as the captain’s living room and the ship’s office in port; and the quarterdeck, where you can man the helm, turn the ship’s wheel, and learn about the capstan. You will also get a look into the vast cargo hold, which stored bulk cargo on Wavertree’s many journeys to distant ports around the globe during her 24-year sailing career.

You may access Wavertree at any time from 11am to 5pm. Tours of Wavertree are led every 30 minutes and last approximately 30 minutes.

Price - Included in the Museum admission fees

Reservation Link - https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/wavertree/

• Tagged: Tour

‘A human dump of Mythic Proportion’

Just east of today’s City Hall and Municipal Building, this was once was a foul-smelling, disease-ridden district. Brought to life in the movie Gangs of New York, it was a place of violence, gang wars, poverty, and corruption. The district evokes such places of notoriety as Paradise Square, Cow Bay, and Bottle Alley, and such gangs as the Roach Guards, Plug Uglies, Shirt Tails, and Dead Rabbits.

Highlights include

• Five Points visitors—Davy Crockett, Charles Dickens, and Abraham Lincoln

• A Five Points success story—Al Smith—Tammany protégé, state governor, presidential candidate

• The oldest Jewish graveyard in North America

• The Roman Catholic church with Anglican, Cuban, Irish, Italian, Chinese, and Buddhist history

Tour Leader: Joyce Gold

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gangs-of-new-york-and-the-bloody-five-points-tickets-1412688442159?aff=oddtdtcreator

Price: $10/person, with a maximum of 40 People

• Tagged: Tour

Join the Seaport Museum for an all-ages activity where you get to learn about the common ships’ tool known as a baggywrinkle––a soft covering used to protect sails from damage. You’ll get to see a real example from one of the Seaport Museum’s historic ships, and then learn how to make one!

Traditionally, baggywrinkle is made from unraveled ropes, but on weekends throughout July, you can come aboard the 1885 tall ship Wavertree and learn to make these important tools from scratch using colorful yarn.

Sailing Time - 11:00am

Price - Free, Reservation required

Reservation Link - https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/family-activity-weekends/

• Tagged: Family Activity

Experience the story of a new founding figure for America, an enslaved Black woman named Liss, and see historic lower NYC in a new way.

 Experience the story of a new founding figure for America named Liss - and see New York City in a whole new way. You'll also follow in the footsteps of the spy Robert Townsend of the Culper Spy Ring who risked his life to send intelligence across enemy lines. As Robert and Liss’s story unfolds, prominent figures cross their path, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Benedict Arnold, John Graves Simcoe, John André and John Adams. Liss’s escape with the British, re-enslavement in Manhattan and later Charleston, and her complex struggle for freedom gives new insight into the country's founding era, through the eyes of an enslaved Black woman seeking liberty in a country fighting for its own.

 This talk is given by Claire Bellerjeau, the historian and author who discovered Liss's amazing story. From well-known sites like Bowling Green and South Street Seaport to more hidden corners and courtyards that reveal her unique journey, this talk reveals the untold history of enslaved New Yorkers during the Revolution.

 Presented by Remember Liss, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to sharing her story.

Price:
In Person: Included in Museum Admission (Special Admission on July 4th will be $1)
Virtually: Free

RSVP: This talk is a prelude to the ‘1700’s Symposium : The Path to Liberty’ Please make the reservation here

Marquis De Lafayette, by Philibert-Louis Debucourt, 1790. Image Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

The It Happened Here program highlighting the newly installed ‘Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation’ exhibit.

Speakers

• Scott Dwyer, Executive Director, Sons of the RevolutionSM in the State of New York and its Fraunces Tavern® Museum 

• Lisa Goulet, Collections Manager, Fraunces Tavern® Museum

• Peter Hein, Past President, Sons of the RevolutionSM in the State of New York; Secretary, Lower Manhattan Historical Association

• Seth Kaller, Seth Kaller, Inc, Historical Documents & Legacy Collections

• Charles (Chuck) Schwam, Executive Director, The American Friends of Lafayette; National Sales Executive, Guernsey, Inc.

• Lloyd S. Kramer, Emeritus Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Panel Discussion: Moderator

  • Louise M. Joy, Attorney, Reed, Claymon, Meeker, Krienke & Spurck, PLLC 

• Descendants of James Armistead Lafayette

  • George Bruton Delaney, Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel; Health IT Professional

  • Moses L. Delaney, U.S. Air Force veteran; CEO, Your EDU Career DBA First Job Prep

• Richard Sylla, Author and Emeritus Professor of Economics, NYU School of Business

Prelude: Liss and the Culper Spy Ring in Historic Lower Manhattan, from 1:00pm to 1:30pm

Price:
In Person: Included in Museum Admission (Special Admission on July 4th will be $1)
Virtually: Free

RSVP for attending virtually: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1422269960739?aff=oddtdtcreator

• Tagged: Symposium

Fraunces Tavern was a witness to history throughout the Revolutionary War Era. Among the many historic events that took place there, Fraunces Tavern served as a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty, a site for trials that were part of a process that led to the emancipation of thousands of Black Loyalists, and the setting for Washington’s farewell to his officers.

On Exhibit are:

• The Birch Trials at Fraunces Tavern

• Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation

• Lafayette: A Hero’s Return

• Governing the Nation from Fraunces Tavern

Partner Organization: Fraunces Tavern® Museum Sons of the Revolution℠ in the State of New York, Inc.

Price: Special museum admission for July 4th is $1

Link: https://www.frauncestavernmuseum.org/

• Tagged: Exhibition

Alexander Hamilton immigrated to British Colonial New York as a young, orphaned nobody, but quickly rose to be an influential player in the Revolutionary War and the founding of the United States of America. 

On the southern tip of Manhattan, Hamilton lived, studied, worked, and served to create a financially robust nation in good standing with the international community. Today’s Financial District was the setting for much of Hamilton’s career.

Highlights include

• Site of first capital of the United States

• Society of the Cincinnati

• Trinity Church, the Tory stronghold

• Hamilton’s political foes Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr

• Grave of Hamilton & Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—and Angelica

Tour Guide: Joyce Gold

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alexander-hamilton-in-the-financial-district-walking-tour-tickets-1412662975989?aff=oddtdtcreator

Price: $10/person, with a maximum of 40 People

• Tagged: Tour

The celebration of Independence Day has been a long standing tradition in Lower Manhattan from the very first days of the Revolution, and especially following the British military's evacuation in 1783. This year the celebration will begin with a Flag Raising, Cannon Salute to the fifty states at Castle Clinton, followed by a parade through historic downtown.

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE PARADE

Lower Manhattan Historical Association 
cultureNOW
Veteran Corps of Artillery State of New York
Sons of the RevolutionSM in the State of New York,  Inc. & its Color Guard
The American Friends of Lafayette

Chung Pak Local Development Corp.
Colonial Dames of America
Immigrant Social Services (ISS) 
Kiwanis Club for Community Care NYC
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Col. Benjamin Tallmadge Chapter 
Fort Greene Chapter
Knickerbocker Chapter 
Manhattan Chapter 
Mary Washington Colonial Chapter 
New York City Chapter 
Peter Minuit Chapter 
Richmond County Chapter
National Society of the Children of the American Revolution
Sons of the American Revolution
1st New York Continental Chapter
Battle of Brooklyn Chapter
 The American Legion Lt. B. R. Kimlau Chinese Memorial Post 1291
The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY)
The Old Stone House Society
US China Cultural Foundation

Reservation: Not Required, Open to the Public

• Tagged: Parade, Cannon Firing, Flag raising, Family Activity

Partner Organizations: cultureNOW, Lower Manhattan Historical Association, Sons of the RevolutionSM in the State of New York, Inc. and its Fraunces Tavern® Museum, Consulate-General of the Netherlands in New York, New York City Department of Records and Information Services, and New Amsterdam History Center

RSVP for attending virtually: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1415525748619?aff=oddtdtcreator

Price:
In Person: Included in Museum Admission ($10 for adults, $5 for seniors, students, & children)
Virtually: Free

• Tagged: Symposium