You're Invited To Learn All About Living And Working On NYC's East River At Roosevelt Island Historical Society Fall Lecture Series Thursday September 8 - First Of 4 Free Monthly RIHS Lectures

The Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) invites you to attend it's Fall Lecture Series beginning Thursday, September 8.

 Image From RIHS

According to the RIHS:

The Roosevelt Island Historical Society
Invites You to the
First of Four Free Lectures

The East River:
The Heart of New York

by Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society

New York Public Library Branch on Roosevelt Island
Thursday, September 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The Roosevelt Island Historical Society begins its Fall Lecture Series with a presentation on the commercial and cultural significance of the river and channel that surround Roosevelt Island and separate Manhattan and Queens.

The Hudson may be the road to the Inland Empire, as the Midwest was once called, but it was on the East River where New York lived and worked. Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, will cover the waterway that extends from Governors Island to Fort Totten in a lecture at the New York Public Library Branch on Roosevelt Island, on Thursday, September 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The lecture is the first in a series of four fascinating programs sponsored by the RIHS and supported by The Hudson Companies and Rivercross Tenants Corporation. All programs begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Roosevelt Island branch of the New York Public Library. The remaining lectures are:

-On Thursday, October 13, Nathalie Belkin, Archivist, New York City Department of Records and Information Sciences, will review the recent digitization, conservation and preservation of the The Almshouse Ledger Collection, 1758-1952. The collection includes more than 400 volumes pertaining to admissions, discharges, deaths, census records and supply inventories for the institutions housed on Blackwell’s Island. The project was funded by the National Historical Publication and Records Commission.

-On Thursday, November 10, Miriam Berman, author of Madison Square: The Park and Its Celebrated Landmarks, will discuss the immediate environs of Madison Square Park (once called "The Center of the United States") and its architectural treasures.

-On Thursday, December 8, Jeff Richman, Green-Wood Cemetery historian, will talk about what is old and what is new in the Brooklyn-based National Historic Landmark, renowned for its mausoleums, the people interred in its hallowed grounds and the landscape architecture.

These events are FREE and open to the public.

DIRECTIONS: Take the Tram at 59th Street and Second Avenue or the F train to Roosevelt Island. Take the red bus (no charge) or walk eight minutes north to 524 Main Street.

Here's a film from Thomas Edison showing the NYC East River waterfront in 1903 as a boat passes Blackwell's, now Roosevelt, Island.