US\u2019s 250th birthday this summer <\/a>\u2014 will take over the entire 7,000 feet that make up the MCNY\u2019s third floor.<\/p>\nThe project, which was two years in the making, includes hundreds of artifacts ranging from Union soldiers\u2019 uniforms and cannons to registries of slaves across the city.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s even a section of the wrought iron fence that protected the 4,000-pound statue of King George III at Bowling Green \u2014 which Americans famously toppled on July 9, 1776 after the Declaration of Independence was read to Gen. George Washington\u2019s troops.<\/p>\n
The exhibit includes hundreds of artifacts, including weapons and texts. Katherine Donlevy<\/p>\n
A registry of slaves in New York City is seen in this photograph. Katherine Donlevy<\/p>\n
The exhibit will open May 1 and will be on view for one year. MCNY<\/p>\n
Many of the artifacts have been arranged to recreate taverns, coffeehouses and more to provide an immersive experience for visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Occupied City\u201d follows New York City\u2019s journey from the early days of the revolution through Evacuation Day in 1783 \u2014 when the last of the British troops fled the US \u2014 and into the Big Apple\u2019s emergence as the capital of the new nation.<\/p>\n
But the exhibit doesn\u2019t just regurgitate stories repeatedly told in textbooks \u2014 the museum paid homage to several \u201cforgotten and overlooked\u201d New Yorkers who ushered in the new age.<\/p>\n
The exhibit explores how the Big Apple became a cultural and economic hub in the wake of the revolution. MCNY<\/p>\n
\u201cStories like that of Charity Clark, who along with other women engaged in home spinning, making their own cloth to resist dependence on British imports, or Haim Solomon, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who joined the Sons of Liberty and advocated for the Patriot cause throughout the war,\u201d said Elisabeth Sherman, the\u00a0Robert\u00a0A. and\u00a0Elizabeth\u00a0Rohn Jeffe\u00a0chief curator\u00a0and\u00a0deputy director. \u201cOr Harry Washington, who was born in West Africa and enslaved by George Washington, then escaped to fight for the British. His journey ultimately took him from the same streets we walked today, north to Nova Scotia and on to Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat struck me most encountering these stories is that the people whose lives unfold in this exhibition, whether their names are familiar to us or brand new, were living through their own contemporary moment. It was as urgent and immediate as our moment is to us today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Occupied City\u201d will be paired with a series of historical lectures, including one that focuses on Washington.<\/p>\n
The MCNY expects the exhibit to remain on view for the next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the city that never slept. A new exhibit celebrating New York City\u2019s \u201cpivotal\u201d role in turning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33453,23877,881,57,39393,9,24,55,197,54,56,58],"class_list":["post-213142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-america-250","tag-american-revolution","tag-history","tag-metro","tag-museum-of-the-city-of-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}