The Greater Astoria Historical Society (GAHS) is a non-profit cultural and historical organization located in the Astoria neighborhood of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, dedicated to preserving the past and promoting the future of the neighborhoods that are part of historic Long Island City, including the Village of Astoria, Blissville,

Bowery Bay Bowery Bay is a bay off the East River in New York City. It is located near the Steinway neighborhood of Queens and is bordered on the west by the Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant and on the south and east by LaGuardia Airport. Before t ...

, Dutch Kills, Hunters Point, Ravenswood, Steinway Village, and Sunnyside.

Mission

The mission of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, founded in 1985, is to discover, procure and preserve the history of historic Long Island City, which was incorporated into the

City of Greater New York The City of Greater New York was the term used by many politicians and scholars for the expanded City of New York created on January 1, 1898, by consolidating the existing City of New York with Brooklyn, western Queens County, and Staten Is ...

in 1898. In a borough well known for its diverse population (some 138 languages are spoken in Queens), the Long Island City / Astoria area is home to more than 350,000 people. A primary goal of the GAHS is to foster a positive sense of community pride and identity through an understanding of history for all residents, both newly arrived immigrants and longtime residents.

Programs

The Greater Astoria Historical Society's “Long Island City Forum” is a multi-faceted program that includes lectures, video presentations, walking tours, exhibits and programs designed for local schools to increase awareness of Long Island City history. Regular tours include the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

and the piano factory Steinway & Sons. The Greater Astoria Historical Society sponsors an annual Haunted Waters Walking Tour along the

in Long Island City as part of the

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

's Halloween Harvest Festival. The Greater Astoria Historical Society's most recent program, th
Winged Fist Project
is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Irish American Athletic Club, an amateur athletic organization that was active in Long Island City in the first two decades of the 20th century. Long Island City map 1896

Preservation

When possible, the Greater Astoria Historical Society attempts to acquire and preserve artifacts of historical significance to Queens. The GAHS played an important role "in saving the cornerstone of Congregation Mishkan Israel, the third oldest temple in Queens. It had been sitting near (a sidewalk in Queens) until a

Greek American Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest e ...

, George Stamatiades, and others helped to get a hearse from Quinn's funeral home, whose historical background is

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

, to save the synagogue stone," and relocate it to the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

Collections

The holdings of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, on loan and owned, include a collection of rare and unusual items available for public perusal. The GAHS maintains a Library/Research Center that contains over 10,000 items, including books and publications on local history, a photographic record of the community, and neighborhood ephemera and memorabilia. The GAHS holdings include dozens of antiquarian atlases and thousands of historic maps of

and surrounding areas from the now defunct Belcher Hyde map company among others. The holdings also include an almost complete run (or the morgue file) of th
''Long Island Star Journal,''
"a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the ''Star-Journal'' masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the ''Long Island Daily Star'' (1876) and the ''North Shore Daily Journal—The Flushing Journal'' (1841)."

Historic preservation

The Greater Astoria Historical Society actively solicits the donation of photographic images related to

history. The GAHS holdings include thousands of black and white photographs,

photographic slide In photography, reversal film or slide film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Instead of negatives and prints, reversal film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives (abbreviat ...

glass negative Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a capture medium in photography, and were still used in some communities up until the late 20th century. The light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, typically thinn ...

s and

tintype A tintype, also known as a melainotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintypes enjoyed their ...

s and include the works of notable Queens historians Vincent F. Seyfried and Frank Carrado, informally known as the "Mayor of Long Island City." The GAHS has published hundreds of these photos in their books, and has scanned thousands of images. More than 3,000 of these images are available online through th
Astoria History Project
The GAHS also has an extensive collection of images relating to the history of the East River, which can be viewed a
East River NYC
The Greater Astoria Historical Society has a historical plaque program, which designates noteworthy locations in Queens. The GAHS has erected a plaque on the apartment building a

in

Sunnyside, Queens Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It shares borders with Hunters Point and Long Island City to the west, Astoria to the north, Woodside to the east and Maspeth to the south. It contains ...

, where legendary jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke, "the remote and mysterious jazz cornettist... died in obscurity." In collaboration with local historians, the Greater Astoria Historical Society has authored or co-authored four books on the history of Queens: ''Long Island City'', ''Postcards of Long Island City'', ''The East River'', and ''The Queensboro Bridge''. The GAHS has also published a free map that includes popular walking tours along the East River in Queens. The GAHS also compiles a weekly column for the ''Queens Gazette'', summarizing historical articles from the ''Long Island Star Journal'', a newspaper that chronicled life in Queens, from the 1840s until 1968.

Facilities

The Greater Astoria Historical Society offices in the historic Quinn Memorial Building on the corner of Broadway and 36th Street in Astoria include a exhibit space for both permanent and rotating exhibits of topical interest to the community. The GAHS, which is affiliated with the Queens Tourism Council, maintains a tourist information booth outside its office and provides free maps and pamphlets to visitors looking to explore the history of Queens. A number of community groups use the Greater Astoria Historical Society offices for meetings, including; Astoria Music Society, Astoria Performing Arts Center, Central Astoria Development Coalition, Greenshores New York, Queens Council on the Arts, and

Transportation Alternatives Transportation Alternatives (TransAlt, formerly T.A.) is a non-profit organization in New York City which works to change New York City's transportation priorities to encourage and increase non-polluting, quiet, city-friendly travel and decrease a ...

References

"Daily Papers Once Flourished In Queens,"
by Jason Katzman. ''The Queens Gazette'', August 27, 2008.

External links

*
Winged Fist Organization
{{Authority control 1985 establishments in New York City History of Queens, New York Museums in Queens, New York History museums in New York City Historical society museums in New York City Long Island City Astoria, Queens Organizations established in 1985 Historical societies in New York City