Local History Classes

Learn about our local Long Island history! Both in-person and online, as well as daytime and evening options available. We have the following events and classes coming up in September and October:

10th Annual Culper Spy Day (In Person) – Saturday, September 7, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Click here for more info.

Making Long Island: A History of Growth & the American Dream (Online)
Tuesday, September 10, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Explore the fascinating story of the development of Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk counties) between 1920 and 1980 with historian Lawrence Samuel, author of Making Long Island: A History of Growth & the American Dream. Long Island was a primary site of the pursuit of the American dream, as it offered affordable home ownership for the middle class that most compellingly expressed the nation’s core mythology. Beginning in the 1960s, however, that dream began to dissolve, as the postwar economic engine ran out of steam and as Long Island became as much urban as suburban. Despite all its current economic and social challenges, a new and improved American dream appears to be emerging on Long Island, and the place unarguable remains one of the beautiful places on the planet. Click here to register now.

From Pirates to Rumrunners: Smuggling on Long Island (In-Person)
Wednesday, September 18, 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Former Newsday reporter and historian Bill Bleyer will explain why pirates were drawn to Long Island at the turn of the 18th century and why bootleggers and gangsters favored Long Island during the Prohibition. Click here to register now.

Graveyards and Cemeteries of Long Island (In-Person)
Tuesday, October 1, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Learn about the various historic cemeteries, types of burial sites, and noteworthy people buried on Long Island. Find out where Mae West, Jackie Robinson, Jackson Pollock, William Sydney Mount, and Teddy Roosevelt are laid to rest. You will learn that the oldest burial ground in New York State is on Long Island, and it has the largest cemetery in the country. Led by Historian Robert von Bernewitz. Click here to register starting 9/9.

Questions? Email askus@emmaclark.org

Image: A map of Long Island in 1815 from Wikimedia Commons.