Susan Henshaw Jones has revitalized the South Street Seaport Museum

By Ashley Welch

Susan Henshaw Jones had her work cut out for her when she became the president of the South Street Seaport Museum in the fall of 2011.

Earlier that year, financial struggles forced the maritime museum to lay off most of its staff and shut down. Jones, the Ronay Menschel director of the Museum of the City of New York, which took over the South Street Seaport Museum on an interim basis, was charged with the task of revitalizing the deteriorating museum.

Since then, the museum has reopened with a mix of historical and contemporary exhibitions, from installations featuring the former fisherman life of the area to photographs of Occupy Wall Street. The museum also offers an education program for preschoolers and grade-school children, in which 15,000 students have participated.

For Jones, the preservation of the 11 vessels that make up the Seaport fleet was one of the most difficult aspects of taking on the job. Before she assumed leadership of the museum, all 11 boats were closed to the public. Since then, two have reopened, with one, the Pioneer, running as a sailing vessel over the summer.

Yet, nothing could prepare Jones for the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

“Sandy was the biggest and most unexpected of challenges we have faced,” she said.

The storm left 5 to 7 feet of water in each of the museum buildings. In addition, all of the mechanical and electrical systems on Schermerhorn Row, a block of six historic counting houses built in the 1800s, were made inoperable and will need to be replaced, something that has hindered the museum’s ability to fully reopen. Currently, the museum is only accessible by stairs.

“We will be without elevators, escalators, and permanent heat and air conditioning for some time to come,” Jones said.

The ships, however, made it through Sandy just fine.

“They rode out the storm beautifully,” she said.

Sandy was just one of the many obstacles Jones has seen the Seaport Museum face over time. She started her career in the John Lindsay administration in the 1970s, when she worked on the affairs of the museum during her time at the Mayor’s office of Lower Manhattan Development. It was then when she developed a strong connection to the neighborhood and museum.

“Those days made me believe in the unique mission of the Seaport Museum,” she said.
When asked about the future of the Seaport Museum, Jones was hesitant to give details, saying that the agreement with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs will conclude in April 2013 and “we will have to see about the future then.” But she remained hopeful that it will remain an important cultural institution in the city.

“The Seaport and City Museum missions are very much compatible,” she said, “and with strong city and community support, the Seaport Museum has the potential to be a strong anchor and key institution in the Seaport district and for the City. After all, our greatness as a city is very much based on its past as a seaport.”

By Nora Bosworth

It was hard to imagine a more fitting venue as visitors of the South Street Seaport Museum sat huddled on a recent Thursday evening in a cool, brick-lined room, awaiting Underwater New York’s reading. Underwater New York is an online journal of writing, art and music inspired by real-life objects found in New York waterways—such objects, it turns out, range from a grand piano to a dead giraffe. The event, featuring the journal’s founding editor Nicki Berger and contributors Myla Goldberg and Jenny Offill, was held on a tip of Manhattan that was once one of the country’s busiest ports.

The reading was held in conjunction with the South Street Seaport Museum’s current exhibition, Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions, organized by the American Folk Art Museum. The exhibit features work “that speaks to both the romanticism and gritty realism of the seaport district,” according to the museum’s website.

For the event, authors were asked to view the Compass exhibit beforehand, so that they could either draw on the material for their writing, or choose from a list on Underwater New York’s website of actual things that have been found beneath the city’s water. As the writers read, a slideshow displaying the objects they had chosen was projected behind them.
Berger opened with “Crack and Break and Heal,” explaining that some of her selected items appeared literally in her story, while others only lent their essence to the story’s tone. Among her various objects was a 19th century tin bonnet— commonly used as a 10-year anniversary gift for married couples—two wooden prosthetic legs and a journal with intricate anchor tattoos drawn in.

For Berger, the underwater realm is an enormous toy chest, where things like “white goo” float up the Gowanus Canal and Good Humor ice cream trucks are submerged off the coast of Far Rockaway.

Goldberg’s mischievous piece “Smile” is written from the perspective of a teenage girl, stuck living with her mom in her uncle’s house because her father has split. Goldberg said that she did not envision a particular part of New York as she wrote, but one imagines a Jewish family somewhere out in Brooklyn. She chose only one found object to base her piece on: a pair of dentures. The girl’s uncle is a dentist, and she feels he takes a sadistic pleasure in his dentistry, so one night when she is watching TV and suddenly realizes something is a little funny about his perfect smile, she creeps into his bedroom while he’s sleeping, to examine his dentures. We are laughing the whole way through, as Goldberg effortlessly captures the frustrated voice of a bored 13-year-old. She said Underwater New York’s assignment brought her places creatively that she wouldn’t have gone otherwise. When asked what made her choose the dentures of all things, she replied quickly, “They chose me.” Goldberg lives and teaches in Brooklyn, and has published three novels, one of which was a New York Times Notable Book in 2000.

Offill said that what caught her attention at the exhibit was “how many paintings were made to memorialize someone or something.” Not surprisingly, one of her chosen objects was a painting of a baby girl who died of unknown causes. As she read “The Invention of the Ship,” the baby’s chubby, piercing face stared out at her audience. Offill wove an eerie portrayal of a mother living with her doting husband in the city, and the loss of their only child. The piece is as much about New York as it is about grief, with a character narrating at one point: “To live in a city is to be forever flinching.” In fact, after 15 years of city-dwelling, Offill very recently moved upstate, where she finds the relative lack of stress shocking.

Keep an eye on the journal and upcoming events at underwaternewyork.com. Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions will be on view at the South Street Seaport Museum through February 2013.

DOWNTOWN ALLIANCE UNVEILS WEB PROMOTION TO SUPPORT LOCAL RETAILERS

With more than 1,100 retailers and restaurants and 18 hotels based in Lower Manhattan, it’s hard to keep up with all the diverse merchants—new and old—below Chambers Street. The Downtown Alliance announces its new web-based promotional initiative, “Downtown Deals,” which spotlights the newest deals and special offers available from Lower Manhattan’s growing retail and cultural communities.

Downtown Deals is a free place for Lower Manhattan businesses and organizations to publish and promote special offers, discounts or free services. Business owners, museums and other organizations—as long as they are south of Chambers Street—can submit deals directly online.

“A global model for a 21st-century central business district, Lower Manhattan truly has something for everyone, and the Downtown Alliance is excited to support our retailers and museums and showcase the fabulous deals our growing neighborhood as to offer,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance. “Through supporting our local businesses, we are creating a ‘must-see’ and ‘must-do’ venue for Lower Manhattan’s 309,000 workers, 57,000 residents and 9.8 million annual visitors.”

Some exciting deals that are already available include introductory weekend rates at the Conrad Hotel, two-for-one general admission at the South Street Seaport Museum and a free six-piece maki roll at Koodo Sushi with a purchase of $25 or more, among many others. To see the Downtown Deals, go to www.downtownny.com/downtown-deals.

9/11 Health Bill Authors Hail Progress Toward Adding Coverage for Cancers

Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler and Peter King, authors of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, issued the following joint statement in response to the recent publication of email communications by members of the World Trade Center Science/Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) that show that the Committee is making progress toward advocating that cancers be covered under the Zadroga Act:

“The materials posted today on the NIOSH website show that we are making real progress in adding coverage for cancers under the Zadroga Act, and that the process created under the bill to evaluate emerging 9/11-related conditions is working. We are grateful to the members of the Science Advisory Committee for their hard work on this issue and their dedication to the health of those who fell ill because of their service to America in the aftermath of 9/11.

“Once the Committee’s recommendations are finalized later this month, we are sure that [Program Administrator Dr. John] Howard will render quickly a final decision on adding coverage for 9/11-related cancers.”

This Wednesday, March 28, the STAC held a public conference call to discuss its plans and to accept public comment.

The World Trade Center Health Program, headed by Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, provides medical monitoring and treatment for those who became ill as a result of the 9/11 attacks and conducts research into emerging 9/11-related health conditions. The STAC was created under the Zadroga Act to advise Howard on the implications of 9/11-related medical research and to issue recommendations on adding coverage for new conditions under the bill.

GREENWICH VILLAGE

NYU FACULTY, STUDENTS, TENANTS AND ALUMNI URGE STRINGER TO VOTE “NO” ON EXPANSION PLAN

Leaders of community groups throughout Lower Manhattan and representatives of NYU faculty, students, alumni and tenants gathered on the steps of City Hall last week to call upon Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to hold a public hearing and to vote “no” on the NYU 2031 Village Expansion Plan, according to a release distributed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP). Stringer has until April 11 to issue his recommendation on the plan.

While the borough president is not required to hold a public hearing, he has done so with similar land use applications, such as the Columbia expansion plan and the Solow development in the East 30s. The GVSHP delivered more than 2,500 petition signatures to Stringer urging him to reject the plan following the press conference.

NYU is seeking to build 2.5 million square feet of new space on the blocks south of Washington Square Park. However, the university is currently prohibited from adding any new buildings to these blocks due to zoning restrictions and urban renewal deed restrictions.

Photo Credit: Patricia Voulgaris

Robert Warner has been the master printer for 17 years at Bowne & Co Stationers, a modestly sized stationery store and printing press that is part of the South Street Seaport Museum.

This piece of New York City history stands on cobble stoned sidewalks, giving New Yorkers and tourists alike a little taste of the 19th century, with its hand-cranked printing presses. Back when printers were tradesmen, not machines hooked up to computers, press printing was a skill and a trade essential to Downtown, which has always been a printing, publishing and finance district.

What does Bowne & Co offer the Downtown community?

This community that’s down here is unlike any other community. There’s a school and then there’s all these businesses and then there’s all these old buildings, which some people have inhabited and restored—there is a whole sense of renewal and community in this part of the city. This is where New York begins. 

We have to learn from our history, preserve it and actually embrace a neighborhood so many people have passed through, like [Herman] Melville and [Walt] Whitman and Joseph Mitchell.

What do people expect when they walk in or pass it by?

When people enter the shop, oftentimes they say, “Oh, it reminds me of the way my grandparents’ house smells.” And I’ll ask, “Well, were they printers?” and they say, “No, it’s the wood.” I’m so used to the smell of the wood after 17 years that I barely notice it.

[When I first started here] I just loved walking in and smelling the ink and the oils. There were two women in the back printing and there was a sense of industry and tradition. I want to continue to convey that. I like people to have an experience when they visit here that they wouldn’t have in any other store.

Why does printing matter?

This neighborhood was the printing and publishing district for many, many years. And as much as we’d like to think that we’re a paperless society, we still rely on paper now. Ink on paper is all the more beautiful when it’s letterpressed because it leaves a kiss on the paper and an impression on the page.

I am a firm believer that humans need the human touch, which is what Bowne & Co. Stationers does. You can buy a handmade $3 card here—why spend $4.50 at a Duane Reade on a glossy American Greetings card?

Photo Credit: Patricia Voulgaris

Do you have any letterpress workshops coming up to get some people coming in? You have to pass on the printing tradition eventually, right?

Occasionally I do workshops. The next one will be letterpress collage, and I’d like to do it weekly. Workshops sound so serious, like you have to work. I just want people to experience paper and composition. It’s not really playtime either, it’s an assemblage, but people don’t really know the word assemblage.

I could consider the next generation, take on an intern, pass on my knowledge. I’ll do what I can, but being here, unlocking the door and having normal business hours, people know and depend on me to come here. I’m not expecting millions of people—I don’t know if I want a global network. I think Downtown is enough.

What’s the appeal of an antiquated letterpress, especially in this technological age where everything is on a screen?

[The letterpress] is hand-operated and hand set, so every letter is an individual body of type. You can print 500 copies from one letterpress and 200 of them might be very similar, but the beauty of it is that they’re never going to be exactly the same. It’s the difference between something that is hand-embroidered and something that is machinemade.

What’s beautiful about printing on letterpress is the ability of the viewer to actually see a hand process. I think more and more, the way the public views a computer screen or a tablet, people long to actually feel paper and run their finger across it. I know that the Kindle is very important because people are reading it and it’s accessible, but I’ve noticed that when people pick up paper or books, they run their finger across it and you see them taking it in. People will always hunger for something that has a texture to it.

Bowne & Co. Stationers, 211 Water St. (betw. Fulton & Beekman Sts.), 212-748-8651

Robert Warner has been the master printer for 17 years at Bowne & Co Stationers, a modestly sized stationary store and printing press that is part of the South Street Seaport Museum. This piece of New York City history stands on cobble-stoned sidewalks, giving New Yorkers and tourists alike a little taste of the 19th century, with its hand-cranked printing presses. Back when printers were tradesmen, not machines hooked up to computers, press printing was a skill and a trade essential to Downtown, which has always been a printing, publishing and finance district.

What does Bowne & Co offer the Downtown community?

This community that’s down here is unlike any other community. There’s a school and then there’s all these businesses and then there’s all these old buildings, which some people have inhabited and restored—there is a whole sense of renewal and community in this part of the city. This is where New York begins.

We have to learn from our history, preserve it and actually embrace a neighborhood so many people have passed through, like [Herman] Melville and [Walt] Whitman and Joseph Mitchell.

What do people expect when they walk in or pass it by?

When people enter the shop, oftentimes they say, “Oh, it reminds me of the way my grandparents’ house smells.” And I’ll ask, “Well, were they printers?” and they say, “No, it’s the wood.” I’m so used to the smell of the wood after 17 years that I barely notice it.

[When I first started here] I just loved walking in and smelling the ink and the oils. There were two women in the back printing and there was a sense of industry and tradition. I want to continue to convey that. I like people to have an experience when they visit here that they wouldn’t have in any other store.

Why does printing matter?

This neighborhood was the printing and publishing district for many, many years. And as much as we’d like to think that we’re a paperless society, we still rely on paper now. Ink on paper is all the more beautiful when it’s letterpressed because it leaves a kiss on the paper and an impression on the page.

I am a firm believer that humans need the human touch, which is what Bowne & Co. Stationery does. You can buy a handmade $3 card here. Why spend $4.50 at a Duane Reade on a glossy American Greetings card?

Do you have any letterpress workshops coming up to get some people coming in? You have to pass on the printing tradition eventually, right?

Occasionally I do workshops. The next one will be letterpress collage, and I’d like to do it weekly. Workshops sound so serious, like you have to work. I just want people to experience paper and composition. It’s not really playtime either, it’s an assemblage, but people don’t really know the word assemblage.

I could consider the next generation, take on an intern, pass on my knowledge. I’ll do what I can, but being here, unlocking the door and having normal business hours, people know and depend on me to come here. I’m not expecting millions of people—I don’t know if I want a global network. I think Downtown is enough.

What’s the appeal of an antiquated letterpress, especially in this technological age where everything is on a screen?

[The letterpress] is hand-operated and hand set, so every letter is an individual body of type. You can print 500 copies from one letterpress and 200 of them might be very similar, but the beauty of it is that they’re never going to be exactly the same. It’s the difference between something that is hand-embroidered and something that is machine-made. What’s beautiful about printing on letterpress is the ability of the viewer to actually see a hand process.

I think more and more, the way the public views a computer screen or a tablet, people long to actually feel paper and run their finger across it. I know that the Kindle is very important because people are reading it and it’s accessible, but I’ve noticed that when people pick up paper or books, they run their finger across it and you see them taking it in. People will always hunger for something that has a texture to it.

Bowne & Co. Stationers, 211 Water St. (betw. Fulton & Beekman Sts.), 212-748-8651.

By Penny Gray

Susan Henshaw Jones, president and Ronay Menschel director of the Museum of the City of New York, speaks about the museum’s interim takeover of the South Street Seaport Museum at 12 Fulton St.

How did you become president of the Museum of the City of New York?
I’m a native New Yorker, but I was living in Washington, D.C., heading up the National Building Museum when I got a call because my husband and I were moving back to New York after 10 years in D.C. The call was this job. I started in February 2003 and I have been here ever since.

And it’s been a good match?
Oh, I think so. What attracted me most—what makes me happiest—is the name of our museum. I believe there is so much others can learn from our city. It’s a place of opportunity, diversity and perpetual transformation. The Museum of the City of New York is a testament to that.

The Museum of the City of New York has just taken over at the South Street Seaport Museum. Will this change your role at all?
Well, it’s important to clarify that this is an interim agreement for one year with a six-month possible extension and it started on September 29. We were asked to consider this by the City of New York; they were seeking a solution for the future of the Seaport Museum.

And so they came to you. What’s the solution?
We’re working quickly to show the community and New Yorkers that we can make quick, positive changes down at the Seaport. We have secured funding for the reopening of the boats; we’re winterizing the boats at the moment so they can be opened up by the summer.

We’ve also restarted the school programs; we’re booking programs as we speak and the first school program began November 1. We’ve hired archivists to work in the library, cataloging. The library has been closed to the public for a long while, so it’s badly in need of organization. Hopefully, we’ll even be able to digitize documents and make them available on the website.

Beyond that, we’re exploring strategies for our galleries on Schermerhorn Row. The Seaport has 30,000 square feet of public exhibit space within Schermerhorn Row, so we’re putting together an exhibition of New York’s maritime history, broadly speaking. As of January, we’ll be inviting artists into designated space to put the gallery into use for art installations, performance art, etc. It’s a good time to put the word out about that.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate. What’s the most difficult aspect of taking on the South Street Seaport Museum?
Undoubtedly, it’s the consideration of the 11 vessels in the Seaport fleet. Up here at the Museum of the City of New York, we haven’t really considered ships, but we embrace them. We are committed to joining these iconic ships with the Schermerhorn Row block, but working out the ins and outs of the vessels is certainly the greatest challenge.

And meanwhile, you continue to run the Museum of the City of New York as well. What’s the greatest challenge there?
Unlike our neighbors down Fifth Avenue, we’re a mid-sized museum entity. We’re a $16 million shop, so raising money in the post-2008 environment is the task at hand. We manage to have a surplus, though, because we’re very responsible.

The Museum of the City of New York is located at 103rd Street and Fifth Avenue, and the Seaport is definitely a Downtown museum. What’s it like working downtown and how does location affect museum culture?
Downtown is really a different place. I spent over a decade working in Lower Manhattan with the [John] Lindsay administration in the ’70s and ’80s, when all of the 24-hour uses of Manhattan were being facilitated. Thanks to the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association, there’s new life cropping up all over the place, and even the function of Downtown is changing, with new residential areas and new uses. It’s unbelievable. It just goes to show how long it takes for city planning to really take root.

And how can Downtowners become involved in the Seaport Museum?
We need the support of all New Yorkers. We need Downtowners to become members on all levels. It’s not just a source of support, but also of attendance. And if museums aren’t your thing, come on over to Bowne & Company Stationers—it’s a fully functioning 19th-century letterpress. You can get your holiday cards printed here, or cards for any occasion. There are a lot of ways to be involved with the South Street Seaport besides stepping inside of a traditional museum.

Photo courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York