Articles from The Historian, March - May 2007
Judith A. Handelman, Editor

March 24 Dinner-Dance Honors Volunteer Firemen, Hardy, Sweeney

Our Annual Spring Benefit Dinner is scheduled for Saturday, March 25, 7 p.m., at Fenway Golf Club. This year the Society's Board has selected as honorees the Scarsdale Volunteer Fire Companies, Ed Hardy, former Society Board Member, Treasurer and Village Trustee, and the late John Sweeney, Society Volunteer Extraordinaire and also a former Society Board Member.

The Scarsdale Volunteer Fire Companies, which will receive the Society's Community Service Award, will be represented by Carl Peluso, Company No. 1 President, Jim Buck, Company No. 2 President, and Greg deSousa, Company No. 3 President. Scarsdale Fire Chief Tom Cain will also be on hand for the event.

Ed Hardy, longtime Society Board Member and active volunteer in the Village, who served on the Village Board, will receive the Society's Civic Award. The late John Sweeney, who was a most visible volunteer at all the Society events, especially the Annual Fall Foliage 5K run and the Kids & Dogs 2.5k race, will receive the Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tickets cost: Platinum Table $2500 (includes 10 tickets, a full-page program ad and premier seating); Gold Patron $300; Silver Patron $250; Benefit Ticket $200.

We need your help!! We need the support of the community to make this event truly successful!!! There are lots of things you can do

- Please attend and invite friends and family!

- Be an underwriter! Purchase a table, organize a table!

- Donate items for the Silent Auction!

Please Donate Auction Items!

Everyone is encouraged to donate items, such as a weekend in a vacation home; tickets to sporting or cultural events; gift certificates for restaurants, home, fitness, beauty, clothing and baby items. If you have something you would like to donate, call Cindy at the office, 723-1744 to arrange for pick-up or delivery.

Spring Lecture: “Got Beer?: Scarsdale’s Beer Connection”

Our Spring Lecture will offer a lighthearted change of pace, and a change of venue, on Thursday, April 19. Bill Wander will speak at Wayside Cottage, which was built c.1715 and became an inn/tavern in the mid-18th century. His talk, “Got Beer? The Scarsdale Beer Connection”, will be about the historic taverns in the Westchester and New York area. As an extra added attraction, the lecture will be followed by a beer-tasting provided by Scarsdale home brewers Bruce Wells’ VIP Brewery, Charlie and Carol Gardner Ewen, as well as Scott Vaccaro of Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. and Wander’s own brew, “India Pale Ale”.

Bill Wander is the historian for McSorley's Old Ale House in New York City. Many Scarsdale residents will probably be surprised to learn about the connection between the family of Col. Alexander B. Crane and McSorley’s: the Cranes of Scarsdale and their predecessors had a 4-generation link to the Saloon, and a part in its survival and re-emergence after prohibition.

Wander’s history of McSorley’s, the oldest continuously operating saloon in New York City (it opened in 1854), "Sawdust on the Floor", will be published by Greekworks. Bill has traveled the world for more than 20 years as a documentary film-maker for National Geographic, The Discovery and History Channels, the three major networks, and Public Television. He has contributed to three Emmy award-winning films, and been awarded the American Psychological Association's best media production of the year prize. He has been a judge for the Museum of the City of New York's annual History Day program, and has contributed to exhibitions for the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian, "Booming Out, Mohawk Ironworkers", and the Brooklyn Historical Society's "One-Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall".

New Kaller Exhibition Opens: “Lincoln, Slavery, Civil War”

Seth Kaller's second exhibition at our museum, "Turning Points: Lincoln, Slavery and the Civil War", is tailored to coincide with Black History Month and Lincoln's birthday. It opened on February 1 and will run through June 15.

Featured are an original first printing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and an "official edition" of the Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln to raise money to support the troops (shown with a reproduction, as Kaller had already arranged a loan of the original to Pennsylvania State University), and a December, 1862 letter signed by Lincoln, about three regiments captured during the Civil War: "They did not misbehave, and I am satisfied; so that they should not have anything withheld from them by way of punishment…" . General George Meade's message -- printed in the field -- congratulating his troops on the Battle of Gettysburg; a scarce New York Times printing of the Gettysburg Address, reporting the next day on Lincoln's speech, and one of the first announcements of Lincoln's assassination, are among the rare printed items on exhibit.

Other fascinating documents on display are an 1830 bill of sale for "Rachel," a 15-year-old slave girl; an advertisement seeking "Adam," a runaway slave, and letters on his capture and escape; an autographed quotation by Frederick Douglass about John Brown (who saw slavery "through no mist or cloud, but in a light of infinite brightness, which left no one of its ten thousand horrors concealed"), and an autographed letter from Lincoln's Secretary of War Edward Stanton, warning the governor of New York of looming conscription -- two months before the draft riots of July, 1863: "The organization under the Enrollment Act being nearly completed a draft bill will speedily be ordered in conformity with its provisions."

Kaller has partnered with the Society since last fall. His firm, Seth Kaller, Inc., of White Plains, is a leading historical document dealer. Many of the objects from his first exhibition, "Documents That Shaped America", which opened in September; will remain on display during the new exhibition. They include the first facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, letters written and signed by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and the first and second drafts of the Bill of Rights. At least half of the documents on display are originals, while others are reproductions of originals in Kaller's inventory. All are for sale, with a percentage of any proceeds going to the Society.

We’re Grateful for Grants

Grants from many arts and government organizations, friends, supporters and businesses have aided the Society's programs.

The Westchester Arts Council has been of great assistance, with a $5,000 basic support grant. A grant from the James A. Macdonald Foundation is funding the production and mailing costs of our newsletter. The Leon Lowenstein Foundation, the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation and the Irving J. Sloan Education Fund, the McCreery Family Foundation, Greta Fisher, Noreen and Rip Fisher, the Robert H. Lorsch Family Foundation Trust, the Henry Laird Smith Foundation, the William and Linda Doescher Charitable Fund and Samson Capital Advisors are among the generous private foundations and individuals who donate.

If you would like to make a grant from a foundation, or as an individual, contact Executive Director Cindy Krossman at our office, (914) 723-1744.

100 Types of Bulbs In 30th Annual Sale

More than 100 varieties of bulbs will be offered in the Society's 30th Annual Dutch Bulb Sale. Order forms will be mailed to all members and former purchasers. Current members receive a 10% discount.

The deadline for orders is Friday, June 1. The bulbs will arrive in early October; we will deliver them to your home. Please order your bulbs from the Society! The sale helps to support our education programs. For additional information, phone the office, 723-1744.

Extra Special Thank-you!

They say there’s no one like family! The Society family sends heartfelt thanks to the following families for their generous help and support:

Cavataio family: Kurt, Laura, Marie, Michael & Karl for stuffing, labeling, counting and keeping us on track with all our mailings.

Fisher family: Greta, Noreen & Rip, for providing a grant to enable the Mt. Vernon elementary school children to visit the Society this spring.

Lewis family: Jonathan, Laura, Steven & Hannah, for hosting the successful Saturday Morning Series.

Congratulations!

To our new Board Member, Eric Rothschild, who has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 Scarsdale Bowl. (The dinner is on Wed., March 28, at Lake Isle Country Club).

And to the Non-Partisan nominees for Village Board: Noreen Fisher, a longtime Society volunteer and Board member, nominated as Mayor; Ken Rilander, nominated for his second term as a Trustee, and David Irwin and Miriam Flisser, nominated for the first time as Trustees.

Condolences

The Society mourns the passing of three longtime former Board members: John Sweeney, who will be honored posthumously at this year’s Spring Benefit Dinner; Bob Greenes, who was instrumental in setting up Fenway Golf Club as our dinner-dance venue, and Mickey Singsen, a longtime member of our Quaker Meeting House committee and author of the 1978 booklet “Quakers in Scarsdale” (in our Museum Shop). We also mourn the loss of our members Dorothy Halsey and Ira Wallach, and our longtime neighbor John (“Jack”) Robinson. We send heartfelt condolences to their families.

Dates to Remember

“Turning Points: Lincoln, Slavery and the Civil War” Exhibition at our Museum through June 15, 2007; Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., weekends by appointment

Spring Benefit Dinner-Dance Saturday, March 24, 7 p.m.

Spring Lecture & Beer-Tasting Thursday, April 19, 8 p.m. Wayside Cottage; Bill Wander, “Got Beer? The Scarsdale Beer Connection”

Dutch Bulb Sale: Look for our mailing early in May!