The Long Island History Project

Chris Kretz

Interviews with historians, scholars, authors and anyone with a story to tell and a passion for this unique region of New York.

  1. Oct 20

    Episode 223: The Baymen's Oral History Group

    The waters around Long Island were long known for their bounty. Fish and oysters sustained the indigenous population long before the coming of Europeans, who then developed full fledged industries around oysters, clams, and more. The Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville is dedicated to preserving and documenting much of this history, collecting and restoring everything from boats and clam rakes to baymen's cottages and oyster houses. And from 1977-2002, they collected oral histories. Led by maritime historian John Kochiss along with Peggy Holsten, the museum recorded over 480 interviews with the men and women who made their living on and around the Great South Bay. Some of their memories stretch back to before World War I, with other stories passed down form their families who came to America in the early 19th century. Our returning co-host today is Robert Anen, Project Archivist at the Long Island Library Resource Council. He spent many hours digitizing much of this collection and we explore the stories and struggles that are hidden within. We are also joined by Justin Walsh, Visitor Services and Volunteer Coordinator at the Museum. Justin explains the mission of the museum, the challenges of boat restoration, and gives wider context to the lives of the baymen in Oakdale, West Sayville, and beyond. Further Research The Long Island Maritime Museum "When the Great South Bay Froze Over: Gleanings from the Baymen's Oral History Group." John Kochiss. The Long Island History Journal, 1992. Part 1 Part 2 Oral Histories in This Episode Webster Duncan Beket William Broere Allen Howell Brown Carl Chichester  Jerry Kellogg Dominy Lucille Carmen Hulse Gaible  Hanff's Boatyard Workers Tonis Locker Edward Morris Ockers Mary Esther Abrms Petersen Isadora Evadner "Sue" Warner Schaper John Tucker John & Mildred Tucker George Van Wyen Marinus Verschuure  Fred Zegel and Edward Stewart "Pop" Zegler Music Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 223: The Baymen's Oral History Group

  2. Sep 24

    Episode 222: Revolutionary Spy David Maltbie with Claire Bellerjeau

    The story of Nathan Hale is a foundational myth of the Revolution: an earnest but inexperienced patriot takes on the role of spy and unfortunately ends up a martyr to the cause. But that's not the whole story. Historian Claire Bellerjeau, chronicler of Robert Townsend and the enslaved woman Liss, has brought to light another Nathan Hale. HIs name was David Maltbie and his history is remarkably similar to yet also significantly different from Hale's On today's episode, Bellerjeau explains the documentary trail she followed to uncover Maltbie's espionage activities and his ultimate fate as well as the implications it all has for the history of spies on Long Island. Further Research "This Connecticut Teenager Spied on the British During the American Revolution" (Smithsonian) Remember Liss Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties by Henry Onderdonk, Jr. (1849) Henry Onderdonk Papers (Center for Brooklyn History) Harlem Heights (American Battlefield Trust) Occupied City (Museum of the City of New York) Music Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 222: Revolutionary Spy David Maltbie with Claire Bellerjeau

  3. Sep 9

    Episode 221 Long Island in the '70s w Joshua Ruff

    Today we continue our tour of the Long Island Museum with Joshua Ruff, Co Executive Director, Collections & Programming. This time we're traversing the 1970s through the exhibit Long Island in the '70s. It was a decade of change that brought us the end of the Vietnam War, the opening of the Long Island Expressway, a gas crisis, a bicentennial, and so much more. Ruff and his staff, notably collections manager Andrea Squeri, have assembled an experience filled with everything from an AMC Matador Station Wagon to a Telstar Arcade and everyone from Nelson Rockefeller to Denis Potvin. If you lived through the '70s, you'll want to see this for yourself. And bring someone younger so that you can explain to them why you would sit in the way-back of a station wagon, facing out the back window with no seatbelts. The exhibit runs through October 18th. Further Research Long Island in the '70s My Father's Place Power of the People: How Opposition Sank the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant 30 Years Ago Walk With Frank Cold Spring Harbor (Spotify) Audio Footnotes Ellen Stark, daughter of Amityville Horror judge Thomas Stark (episode 158) Karl Grossman on the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant (episode 27) Vietnam vet Frank Romeo w Christopher Verga (episode 147) Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 221 Long Island in the '70s w Joshua Ruff

  4. Jul 29

    Episode 220: Joshua Ruff, the Revolution, and the Long Island Museum

    Join us for a private tour of the exhibit The Seat of Action: Long Island in the American Revolution and Beyond at the Long Island Museum. Running through October of this year, the exhibit tells the stories of the lives of people affected by the conflict at all levels of society. Joshua Ruff, Co-Executive Director, Collections and Programming, is our guide. You'll find some familiar faces along with new insights, mysteries, and revelations. There's the sword of loyalist Richard Hewlett, passed down through the same family over decades. There are muskets that Long Islanders carried into war. Belt buckles and ammo unearthed from British forts, portraits of the formerly enslaved, and of course a Culper Spy letter (from Benjamin Tallmadge to Robert Townsend). Along the way Joshua explains the challenges and opportunities this type of exhibit entails, working with the Museum's own collections as well as historical societies, libraries, and private collectors. The result is a rich experience that is the perfect capstone to this 250th anniversary year of the American Revolution and Long Island history. Further Research The Seat of Action: Long Island in the American Revolution and Beyond Samson Occom Don Troiani Revolutionary Incidents in Huntington: Occupation & Resistance Audio Footnotes David Bunn Martin and the Shinnecock (episode 29) David Griffin and British Forts (episode 137) Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 220: Joshua Ruff, the Revolution, and the Long Island Museum

  5. Jun 29

    Episode 219: Patience Wright w Dr. Zara Anishanslin

    There are untold stories of the American Revolution. We've highlighted many that took place on Long Island but today we follow a remarkable life that started on Long Island in the mid 18th century but wound up in the heart of empire during truly tumultuous times.  Patience Wright was born a Quaker (and a relative of the Townsend family) in Oyster Bay. She had a talent for sculpting and her medium was the wax figure. Her museum in New York City was a popular attraction, featuring lifelike replicas of notable figures. After disaster struck, this widowed mother with four children moved to London and quickly established herself as a local celebrity. Her new museum became a destination for all walks of life. Filled with conviction for the American cause, Patience made no secret of her views and support (although she was not above a little espionage as well). Dr. Zara Anishanslin has documented Patience's story, along with other artists on both sides of the Atlantic who championed the Revolution, in her book The Painter's Fire (Harvard University Press). On today's episode, we discuss Patience's decidedly unique personality, her Quaker upbringing, the inherent flammability of wax, and the world of London during the height of the American Revolution. Further Research The Painters Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the Revolution Dr. Zara Anishanslin William Pitt and Family (Westminster Abbey) Thing4Things (Apple Podcasts) Audio Footnotes "The Death of Woodhull: An American Ballad" (episode 29) Kerriann Flnagan Brosky (episode 80) Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 219: Patience Wright w Dr. Zara Anishanslin

  6. Jun 10

    Episode 218: The Pickled City

    Consider the pickle. Whether sour or sweet, sliced or speared, it's a seasoned veteran vegetable with a story to tell. New York plays a big part in that tale, as does Long Island. Today we reach deep into the barrel of food history and talk with Paul van Ravestein, co-author along with Monique Mulder of The Pickled City: The Story of New York Pickles (Princeton Architectural Press 2026).  Paul takes us from the pushcarts and crowded streets of the lower east side to the cucumber farms and pickle factories flanking the Long Island Rail Road in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Along the way we detail the role of the pickle in the economic, social, and culinary history of the region. Syosset, Farmingdale, Greenlawn and other places all had their "pickle kings" who profited from the pickle. Before, enabling a lucrative industry and legacy that lived on well into the 20th century. Further Research The Pickled City: The Story of New York Pickles (Amazon) Mattmo Creative Agency Street Food City (Museum of Food and Drink) Audio Footnotes Farmingdale Local History (and Stern's Pickles) The Long Island Seed Consortium Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 218: The Pickled City

  7. May 11

    Episode 217: Whalemen's Songs w Stephen Sanfilippo

    Long Island played a major role in the development of whaling in the Americas. Native Americans along the south shore were well practiced in harvesting whales near the coast. They shared their knowledge with early settlers, leading to chartered companies and competition for what became, for much of the 19th century, a very lucrative industry. And nowhere was this industry more visible than out of Sag Harbor. Men boarded ships for multi-year voyages around the globe, in a dangerous pursuit to hunt, kill, and dismember giant creatures of the sea. And while they worked at this pursuit, they sang. Stephen Sanfilippo has been tracking whaling songs for the better part of sixty years, preserving and performing them with his wife Susan at festivals, libraries, and historical societies. Some his best finds have come from reading the private journals of seaman in the Sag Harbor whale fishery. These literate young men recorded life on ship, including the lyrics to many of the ballads, shanties, and ditties sung by the crew in the course of their work. On today's episode, Stephen relates the history and preservation of these songs along with what the sources can and cannot tell us about oral traditions and the life of a whaler. Along the way you'll get a masterclass in the history of Long Island whaling and the chance to sing along. Related Research Isle of Beauty, Fare-Thee-Well (Long Island History Journal) "Seasongs" newsletter: email seasonghistory@gmail.com Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum The Whaling Museum and Education Center (Cold Spring Harbor) Whaling bibliography Moby Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville (find in a library via WorldCat) Songs the Whalemen Sang by Gale Huntington (find in a library via WorldCat) Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana (find in a library via WorldCat) The Sea Lions or The Lost Sealers by James Fenimore Cooper (find in a library via WorldCat) LogBook for Grace by Robert Cushman Murphy (find in a library via WorldCat) Into the Deep: America, Whaling and the World (PBS) Audio Footnotes John Strong, Tracing the Whale Design Brenna McCormick Thompson, We Were the Whalers Music Intro: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0; Isle of Beauty, Fare-Thee-Well (Susan and Stephen Sanfilippo)

    Episode 217: Whalemen's Songs w Stephen Sanfilippo

  8. Mar 23

    Episode 216: Battle of Long Island with Dan Davis of the American Battlefield Trust

    The Battle of Long Island went down in history as a major defeat for the fledgling American army and George Washington. The fighting in late August 1776 focused around the Gowanus Heights in Brooklyn and saw the patriots outflanked on their left, routed by Hessians in the center, and hunted down across the marshy Gowanus Creek. Washington did manage to evacuate most of his troops but the fight for survival over the coming crucial months left Long Island a bitter memory best left forgotten. But today we remember with our guide Dan Davis, Senior Education Associate at the American Battlefield Trust. In this 250th anniversary year of the American Revolution, we look back at this pivotal battle. Although a definite military defeat, it produced heroes like William Alexander, Lord Sterling and the men of the 1st Maryland Regiment. And the battle is a great opportunity to discuss the meaning of these sites in the history of America and the importance of preserving them for future generations. Further Research American Battlefield Trust Green-Wood Cemetery Prospect Park American Veterans Archaeological Recovery Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/ Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

    Episode 216: Battle of Long Island with Dan Davis of the American Battlefield Trust
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Interviews with historians, scholars, authors and anyone with a story to tell and a passion for this unique region of New York.

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