Jim Kaplan writes:
To My Walking Tour and Historical Activity Participants
I am pleased to report the very exciting historical walking tours and lectures that I expect to undertake this spring and summer:
1. HELL’S KITCHEN: A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IRISH – Sunday March 23, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Leaves from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The Sunday after St. Patrick’s Day, I will for the fourth consecutive year be giving a tour on the political history of the New York Irish. It is now more than 40 years since I was assigned by Dick Morris to work for George McGovern at the McManus Democratic Club, whose leader James R. McManus has been the Democratic District leader in the Hell’s Kitchen area for 50 years. In this unique tour I provide an inside view of the political history of Hell’s Kitchen starting with its settlement by the immigrant Irish in the 1850’s to its recent rise as a trendy New York neighborhood. I also discuss Archbishop Hughes and the importance of the Catholic Church in New York politics, the rise of the theater district, the fight against blight and pornography in the 1970’s, and based on original research how Frances Perkins, FDR’s Labor secretary and the creator of the New Deal Social Welfare policies, got her start when as a social worker in Hell’s Kitchen she met Thomas J. McManus in 1910. The tour is sponsored by Culture Now, and you can sign up on their website. For more information do a Google search for “Tammany’s Last Stand” to access my 10,000-word companion article, which covers most but not all of the tour.
Also I just spoke on a book panel about noted author Terry Golway’s new book Machine Made, a new history of Tammany Hall, which I highly recommend.
2. TORONTO; FORT YORK AND THE BATTLE THAT CREATED CANANDA – May 2, 2014–In conjunction with the spring meeting of the New York State Bar Association Estate Section in Toronto, I will be leading a group to view Toronto’s Fort York, site of one of the seminal battles in the War of 1812, in which American troops sacked the Canadian capital. As in prior Bar tours, the participants will hear a lecture on the building by a highly trained Canadian national park service guide. I will supplement this presentation with my own introduction describing the origins of the War of 1812, its impact on both Canada and the U.S., and how in 1814 Washington was burned in retaliation for the Battle of York. I will also discuss how on August 10, 1814 New York City was saved from British attack by Marinus Willett’s stirring speech from the steps of newly constructed New York City Hall.
3. JULY 4 ALL NIGHT TOUR (3 A.M. to 7 A.M.)– For the 18th consecutive year, I will be giving my highly acclaimed all night walking tour of Lower Manhattan sponsored by the Fraunces Tavern Museum (the audio of which for last year can also be heard on the Culture Now website). On the tour as in prior years I will discuss Jacob Leisler, Thomas Paine,and give the July 4th history of the City of New York in City Hall Park describing the building of the Erie Canal and the history of Tammany Hall (including my daughter Olivia’s classic oration on Nathan Hale), and will provide my now famous discourse on General Horatio Gates and the critically important Battle of Saratoga. As you may know, as a result of this tour, the New York State Daughters of the American Revolution last October placed a marker in Trinity Church graveyard rescuing General Gates from 150 years of obscurity of an unmarked grave. In honor of this momentous event in the history of the City of New York, I have moved the time of the tour up one hour to 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. so that that the tour might be followed by a wreath-laying ceremony on the graves of Gates, Alexander Hamilton and Marinus Willett. Willett is a relatively new addition to my tour, first mentioned on last year’s tour.
Also, note that a number of historical and other groups are planning an all-day Fourth of July festival in Lower Manhattan; possibilities include a reading of the Declaration of Independence at Federal Hall, a flag raising at Bowling Green, and a reading of George Washington’s 1790 Newport Letter in front of Fraunces Tavern.
4. PRETOUR LECTURE – I will be giving a lunchtime pre-tour lecture at the Fraunces Tavern Museumat 12:30 on June 17 on Marinus Willett. Willett’s public career spanned 55 years from 1775 until his death in 1830 at the age of 90. Beginning with his gallant stand on Broad Street to stop the British from brining heavy guns to Boston, he was an important Revolutionary War commander, a brilliant diplomat who settled the Creek War, a founder of the New York State Democratic Party, a Mayor of New York in 1807, and a leader in rallying New York militias in the War of 1812. I consider him as important as General Horatio Gates, whose career I have been promoting for some time. Like Gates he is buried in Trinity Churchyard in an obscure grave.
Hope to see you for some or all of these events.