The Land of Enchantment: Exploring the Norman Rockwell Museum

Did you know the Library owns an original Norman Rockwell painting? This treasured piece of art is now on view in the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA? Barbara Davis, New Rochelle City Historian and former NRPL Community Relations Coordinator, recently visited the museum and shares this illustrated brief with us:

If you have an opportunity to travel to the Berkshires, be sure to visit the museum to see NRPL’s magnificent painting, Land of Enchantment, prominently on display in the exhibit, Real and Imagined: Fantastical Rockwell. (It will return to its permanent home, above the desk in the Children’s Room at the main library, once the exhibit concludes on October 30, 2021.) 

The works of four other (former) New Rochelle artists – all members of the New Rochelle Art Association – are also on view! They are part of the corresponding exhibit, Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration.

 

"The Other Side" by Dean Cornwell with exhibit label at the start of the "Enchanted" exhibit.

"Vampire Girl" by Coles Phillips with exhibit label

"Pan" by J.C. Leyendecker with exhibit label

"The Submarine Menace Again!" by Orson Lowell with exhibit label

Never been to the Norman Rockwell Museum? You can meet many of his New Rochelle models there, as they are featured on the covers of Saturday Evening Post Magazines exhibited on the museum’s lower level. This space also features a video on the life of Norman Rockwell which, regrettably, omits the fact that he came into prominence while working and living in New Rochelle. He was an active member of our community for over 25 years, from 1913 – 1939.

And – he was a great supporter of New Rochelle’s extraordinary history, as evidenced in this letter found in NRPL’s archives.

 

Environmental Activism in New Rochelle: Citizens for a Better Environment

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 ushered in an era of popular concern for our living environment unlike any other event. It arrived in an era of grievance and protest over war, racism, and social justice; and while it seems celebratory, Earth Day now provides a regular opportunity to educate about climate change, the extinction of species, and our fragile environment. There were other watershed moments – the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and the nuclear catastrophes of Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986) come to mind, but Earth Day is special for its hybrid mix of purpose, gravitas, and celebration.

Several New Rochelle residents observed Earth Day in 1970, all eco-friendly citizens who had organized the Ecology Club of New Rochelle in 1969. This group built a foundation of concern about environment pollution and alarm over the possibility of construction of a nuclear power plant on Davids Island. The Ecology Club was an offshoot of an earlier group, the Citizens League for Education About Nuclear Energy (CLEAN). As their concerns grew, the club reorganized as the New Rochelle Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) to focus on a broader spectrum of issues beyond the single matter of nuclear power and its dangerous waste streams.

Excerpt from CBE News / December 1972

CBE opposed the nuclear plant and helped to prevent it by requesting a public hearing in 1971 prior to a city council vote on a contract extension pertinent to Davids Island. CBE’s pressure led to broader interventions. On April 12, 1971 (ten days before the second Earth Day), council passed a resolution to establish an Environmental Conservation Advisory Commission for New Rochelle. The commission was created to advise the mayor and the city council on environmental problems, conduct surveys and studies, educate the public, and connect with other environmental groups. 

County Sewage Treatment Plant / Echo Bay, New Rochelle / c. 1975

Photo courtesy Kit Bregman

Through the decade of the 1970s, the New Rochelle Citizens for a Better Environment served the community as a voice to raise awareness and a platform to offer realistic solutions to ecological problems. CBE was surprised to be dismissed by some as “well-meaning obstructionists,” but to its credit it focused on air pollution, water pollution, wildlife preservation, recycling, and consumer education. CBE advocated for a municipal recycling program, a wetlands ordinance to protect Titus Mill Pond, and the prevention of unplanned zoning in the city. It also established the first municipal curbside pickup of newspaper waste in Westchester County.

The NRPL Archive contains newsletters and records of the CBE along with the Long Island Sound Study Records. This study was a cooperative project of the 1990s to mitigate disastrous water quality problems in the Sound that also benefitted from a citizen’s advisory committee. As we focus on Earth Day 2021, with our urgent concerns over a global pandemic and rampant climate change, we should also remember the earlier efforts by citizen’s groups such as CBE to focus attention on the fragility of our planet.

April 22, 2021 / David Rose / NRPL Archive

Do You Rhumba?

Castle Society Dance Folio

Do you rhumba? Groucho Marx famously asked this question in the zany movie A Night at the Opera. Groucho took special pleasure in spoofing ballroom dancing. But along with the rhumba there was the foxtrot, the bunny hug, the hesitation, the maxixe, the Boston, the one-step, the tango, the turkey trot, and most especially the Castle walk, named for New Rochelle’s lively dance couple Vernon and Irene Castle (1893-1969). 

Irene was born Irene Foote on April 17, 1893 in New Rochelle. Her father was a local physician. Her romance with Vernon – born William Vernon Blythe – began at the New Rochelle Rowing Club in 1910. Within a year they were married and launched in a career that put them in the forefront of the ballroom dance craze in America and Europe.

Irene was a fashion trend-setter in many aspects of pop culture beyond dance – her bobbed hair style was a hit and copied widely; she appeared in silent films; and many women envied or emulated her elegant lifestyle. She traveled to Paris with Vernon and achieved instant popularity in ragtime dance. In 1914, the couple opened a dancing school, and the two illustrations here (from the Library’s Archive) of the Castle Society Dance Folios are evidence of their popularity – everyone wanted to dance like the Castles and step out to their music. 

Castle Society Dance Folio No. 2 

The jazz historian Phil Schaap has pointed out that the ballroom dance craze of the 1910s and 1920s was a major factor in the breakthrough of jazz to the very pinnacle of pop music. Before jazz and swing, ballroom dancing ruled pop music in America. Dancers were the music stars, and the ballroom styles of dance fostered an orchestral concept. Jazz merged with the social ballroom phenomenon to create the jazz orchestra in the 1920s, usually with the extra vitality of a hot tempo. Not only that, paired couples like Irene and Vernon Castle countered sexism in instrumental music at the time by bringing the talent, grace, and audacity of female performers to the forefront. 

The Castles made ballroom dancing respectable and fostered much enjoyable entertainment during the years of the Great War. Tragically, Vernon lost his life in an aviation accident in 1918, but Irene went on to star in many silent films. For more on the Castles, see the 1939 film, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (another famous dance couple), and the biography by Eve Golden, Vernon and Irene Castle’s Ragtime Revolution (2007).

March 1, 2021 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archive

Two African American Philanthropists of New Rochelle

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) stands as one of the most successful philanthropies in American history. Its incisive slogan – a mind is a terrible thing to waste – is etched into our collective memory because it challenges us to fulfill every promise of human improvement. We must never believe this principle can be reduced only to a branding exercise or advertising tagline, for it resonates with the necessity of seeking social justice through the immediate needs for higher education. The mind is a wonderful thing to nurture, cherish, and protect.

Frederick Douglas Patterson

The UNCF (https://uncf.org/) today follows a threefold mission of student scholarships, financial support for historically Black colleges and universities, and advocacy for minority education. Two of its most prominent leaders, Frederick Patterson and Christopher Edley, were long-time residents of New Rochelle. Frederick Douglas Patterson (1901-1988) was President of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) from 1935 to 1953. His many educational attainments culminated in a Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology from Cornell University. Named for the famed abolitionist leader Frederick Douglas, Dr. Patterson recognized the need for collaborative fund-raising among colleges serving Black students and founded the UNCF in 1944. Under his leadership, the UNCF became the largest independent source of financial support for the nation’s private, historically Black colleges and universities. Dr. Patterson went on to create the College Endowment Funding Plan in 1976, and after a long life of activism and leadership in education and philanthropy he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987.

Christopher Fairfield Edley, Sr.

Christopher Fairfield Edley, Sr. (1928-2003) became President and CEO of the UNCF in 1973 just after the Advertising Council, a public service organization, coined its famous slogan. He had graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in 1949 and received his law degree from Harvard University in 1953. He then joined the Human Rights Commission of Philadelphia and became a law partner of the firm of Moore, Lightfoot & Edley. Over the course of a 17-year career with the UNCF, Mr. Edley developed it into one of the most widely recognized charitable organizations in the nation, increasing the visibility of the needs of Black colleges. Leveraging the UNCF mission into further prominence through strategic marketing, Mr. Edley broadened its campaign to television in an annual telethon with the singer Lou Rawls as host. His work set new standards in public service advertising. Further, he orchestrated the largest individual donation in the history of Black philanthropy – a $50 million challenge grant in 1990 from publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg.  

The achievements of African American professionals in the struggle for racial justice in the U.S. have lasting importance to this day. The innovative leadership of Frederick Patterson and Christopher Edley of New Rochelle stand high among many signal achievements, and we salute their lives of service and activism during Black History Month as we study and learn African American history throughout the year.

February 1, 2021 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archive

Small Tracts and Fugitive Pieces

Samuel Johnson, the preeminent literary figure of the 18th century, once organized a collection of materials from the library of the Earl of Oxford known as the Harleian Miscellany. In doing so, Johnson spoke up for the importance of preserving "small tracts and fugitive pieces," that is, ephemeral pamphlets that are more likely to be discarded than preserved. On the contrary, Johnson insisted, such "fugitive" pamphlets constitute a vital part of a library collection. He went even further, stating with great emphasis that such tracts "preserve a multitude of particular incidents, which are forgotten in a short time...and which are yet to be considered sparks of truth, which, when united, may afford light in some of the darkest scenes of state."

Sparks of truth! What a fascinating phrase! The Archive of the New Rochelle Public Library has its own collection of pamphlets that deserve recognition as the "sparks of truth" that illuminate the history of New Rochelle. Our collection of pamphlets is gathered into a group of records call the Publications Collection. In this collection are the ephemeral pamphlets, brochures, and printed notices that document our social and cultural life through the course of two centuries. Over the years, the Library staff has built up a collection of hundred of pieces of printed literature. Many items have been generously donated by history-conscious city residents who find an old trunk in the attic with their own fugitive pieces. The Publications Collection includes historical programs for anniversaries and special occasions, stage coach schedules, periodical publications such as the magazines They Say and The Tatler, church bulletins from our many churches, concert and graduation programs from our schools, exhibit programs of the Library, journals for annual Police Department benefits, offprints of scholarly articles about Thomas Paine, auction notices, industrial catalogues, street maps, a variety of printed city codes that regulate traffic, building, plumbing, and civil service - the list goes on and on. To make sense of this miscellany is the business of archives, and we now have the archival collection of printed materials organized into logical categories known as "archival series" described in a finding guide to the entire collection. 

       

Found among this historical bounty of printed matter are some unexpected items; for example, a bookplate of Carrie Chapman Catt; a musical score for City Alive, the official song of New Rochelle; an invitation to a cruise sponsored by the Quahaug Club, dated 1865; a report card of a high school student from 1945; and two of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" posters. There are also many brochures in French relating to La Rochelle, France, our "sister city" which launched the migration of Huguenots who landed on the shore of what became the City of New Rochelle. Samuel Johnson claimed that there are many advantages to maintaining such a collection of printed literature or "flying sheets." The obvious advantage for us today is that the Library makes accessible for study a great stream of occasional documents that collectively portray the scintillating historical landscape of our city that we can all claim as our own "sparks of truth."

Images (In Order of Appearance): 

1. A Guide to New Rochelle and Vicinity by Robert Bolton / 1842

2. Thanksgiving Dinner Menu / Fort Slocum / 1920

3. National Airmail Week / Commemorative Envelope / 1946

4. Advertising Brochure for Greater La Rochelle, Our “Sister City” in France / 2016

5. Calendar Illustration for Teddy’s Deli / c. 1960s

6. Library Exhibit / Association of Women Painters and Sculptors / 1915

September 3, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives

A Tribute to the League of Women Voters of New Rochelle

A Tribute to the League of Women Voters of New Rochelle 

August 18, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. This success of the women's suffrage movement stands as a transcendently important moment in the history of American democracy. Carrie Chapman Catt, who led the movement as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, also established the League of Women Voters in 1920 to continue to educate on all the social and political issues bearing on the rights and responsibilities that come with voting. Four years later, in 1924, New Rochelle established its own branch of the League of Women Voters, and the fact that Ms. Catt was a resident of the city ensured that their challenges, their power, and their successes would be intertwined. The New Rochelle Public Library was also part of the equation as a venue for lectures, meetings, and programs sponsored and organized by the League. 

An inconspicuous part of the League's legacy has been the preservation of its own history. The art and practice of keeping documents often happens unseen, but League officers have carefully preserved the record of its work over the years as the most knowledgeable curators of its history. However, let this important work be inconspicuous no longer! The League of Women Voters of New Rochelle has utilized the Library for the storage of its records, and its entire collection is now formally organized as part of the Library's Archive. An archival finding guide to the collection is available here. This is a rich and wonderful collection of documents that provides, in great detail, not only the history of the League but a political history of the City of New Rochelle itself. The League of Women Voters of New Rochelle has been a formidable actor in the field of education, and with the organizatino of its historical records its legacy as a nonpartisan political organization is again revealed as a vital leader in the education of the community. Kudos to the League of Women Voters of New Rochelle!  

It is interesting to know that other local branches of the League have maintained archival collections, such as the one at Columbia University Libraries documenting the League of Women Voters of the City of New York. And, there are archival collections of Carrie Chapman Catt papers at the Library of Congress and the NY Public Library. Ms. Catt's work as an advocate for world peace as also deserves renewed attention. In 1930, she participated in a "World Affairs Conference" in her honor held in New Rochelle that focused on the possibilities for lasting peace. With the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, and with availability of the archival collection at the New Rochelle Public Library, there will be many occasions to study the work of Carrie Chapman Catt and the League of Women Voters even further. 

August 13, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives

The National War Fund: A Story of Philanthropy and Crisis

New Rochelle Community Chest Appeal / 1942  (front)

New Rochelle Community Chest Appeal / 1942  (back)

A community chest was once a popular means of collective philanthropy, superseded today by non-profit foundations and the digital philanthropy of crowdfunding online. The first community chest appeared in Cleveland, Ohio in 1913, and New Rochelle organized its own in 1936 during the Great Depression, In the 1930s, business and social leaders of New Rochelle touted its community chest as "one campaign for ten human welfare agencies," noting the efficiency of one brief annual appeal by a single agency rather than ten individual appeals. The agencies that benefited from the largesse of the community included the New Rochelle Day Nursery, Huguenot YMCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Colburn Memorial Home for the Aged among others. The local community chests of mid-century eventually morphed into what we now know today as the United Way. 

U.S. Committee for the
Care of European Children / 1943

In 1941, the philanthropic landscape changed with the advent of war. With the new crisis, the New Rochelle community chest broadened its mission to include emergency aid for victims of wartime catastrophe in Europe and China beginning in 1942. This was done through a new agency, the National War Fund (NWF). The NWF was created as an umbrella agency to support the United Service Organizations, known as "the USO," that provided live entertainment and other social support for American troops overseas. In addition, the NWF distributed its funds to affiliated relief organizations providing succor to nations suffering from Nazi oppression and the wartime tragedies of homelessness, hunger, persecution, imprisonment, exile, and injury brought on by the global conflict. There were many such relief organizations aligned with the "United Nations," as America and her allies were then known; these included American Relief for Norway, the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, The British War Relief Society, the Greece War Relief Association, and the United Seamen's Service. 

National War Fund Member Agencies
with Norman Rockwell Illustration / 1943

Though there were many other fund-raising appeals during World War II (most notable were the periodic war bond drives), the NWF aligned with local community chests to provide direct aid to a host of relief organizations. The New Rochelle community chest was one of hundreds of local civic organizations that supported this effort through the NWF. In 1942, it advertised its mission as a community chest and "war chest." Among the many historical treasures of printed literature in the Library's archival collection is a fine assortment of pamphlets distributed during the war years to educate the public and raise awareness about this intricate network of national relief organizations. A small selection of these pamphlets appear here. One of the ("Remember Us") includes the artwork of famed New Rochelle artist Norman Rockwell whose message "each according to the dictates of his own conscience" typifies the appeal to common philanthropy in a time of crisis. As we struggle to come to grips with the current pandemic and express appreciation for the frontline workers in medicine and public health, it is helpful to reflect on the past generosity of ordinary citizens in a time of national and global crisis. The National War Fund existed from 1942 to 1947. Its history may seem obscure to us today, but it is one that deserves a much more comprehensive historical exploration. 

June 29, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives

Poliomyelitis Epidemic in New Rochelle - Summer 1916

Poliomyelitis, or polio, also known as "infantile paralysis" is a contagious viral disease that destroys motor neurons that control muscles. Paralytic polio is life-threatening, and survivors often experience lifelong disabilities. The 1916 polio epidemic was the most devastating in the history of the disease, not to be surpassed until the 1950s in the U.S. In June of 1916, polio cases appeared in Brooklyn that led to an epidemic encompassing all five boroughs of New York City, causing widespread panic and flight from the city. Polio cases quickly spread to adjacent areas in Conneticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. One affected city was New Rochelle.

Public health officials rushed to quarantine the contagious and quell the epidemic, but hundreds of new cases were reported weekly in communities that summer. In New York City alone, there were over 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths. In New Rochelle, health officials reported ten cases in July clustered in a neighborhood downtown and the Pelham border; all were children under the age of three. The Board of Health placed the neighborhood under quarantine and began to build structures adjacent to the hospital for the polio cases. When the epidemic peaked in August, there were 86 hospital cases. Orders were issued for mosquito and fly abatement, but to no avail, for these where not the vectors of poliovirus. Patients were isolated; families were quarantined; and public gatherings of children were forbidden. New Rochelle schools delayed opening until October when the epidemic had passed. At that point the Board of Health established a fund to provide aftercare treatment and orthopedic braces for disabled children, and the New Rochelle Hospital established a regular polio clinic for hundreds of survivors. 

It is instructive to remember this history in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The current situation is shocking and devastating, but medical science and public health will ultimately prevail. It is also important to remember the most famous polio survivor, a person who became President of the United States - Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR is the only elected leader in the history of the world who could not walk or stand on his own. His disability was caused by paralytic polio. FDR's struggle was arduous, but he set in motion the research that ultimately led to the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines. A paraplegic for life, FDR once said about his struggle to walk again, "I once spent two years in bed trying to move my big toe. After that everything else seems easy."

April 21, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives

New Rochelle Birthdays - April 28: Robert Woodruff Anderson and Jay Leno!

Robert Woodruff Anderson

Robert Woodruff Anderson, leading playwright, screenwriter and producer, is probably best-remembered as the author of Tea and Sympathy. He was born on April 28, 1917 in New York City. Soon after, his family moved to a large home in New Rochelle's Residence Park neighborhood. Anderson attended Thornton Donovan School when it was located on Centre Avenue, just a few blocks from his house at 99 Elm Street. His fond memories of attending Junior Garden Club meetings at the New Rochelle Public Library, when it was located at the corner of Main Street and Pintard Avenue, were included in NRPL's 100th Anniversary journal. Anderson had mailed his reminiscences for the 1994 occasion. 

He followed in his brother's footsteps, attending Phillips Exeter Academy. While a student at the New Hampshire prep school he fell in love with an older woman. The experience became the basis of Tea and Sympathy. Anderson earned graduate and master's degrees from Harvard University. 

Serving in World War II, Navy Lieutenant Anderson was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for "meritorious achievement against the enemy" on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. While serving, he also won first prize in the 1945 National Theater Conference playwriting contest, topping the 697 scripts submitted by individuals representing all the armed forces. About Anderson's winning play, theater producer and contest judge Arthur Hopkins wrote, "'Come Marching Home' is the one I like best. The author should be encouraged to continue playwriting."

Anderson's most well-known play, Tea and Sympathy, made its Broadway debut in 1953, and was directed by Elia Kazan, who coincidentally, also grew up in New Rochelle. The successful play was made into an MGM film in 1956. Both play and movie starred Deborah Kerr, John Kerr and Leif Erickson. Between 1959 and 1968, Anderson's hit Broadway shows included Silent Night, Lonely Night; You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running; and I Never Sang for My Father.

During the same decade he wrote the screenplays for Until They Sail, The Nun's Story (which received an Oscar nomination), and The Sand Pebbles. His 1970 screen adaptation of I Never Sang for My Father also earned him an Academy nomination. Anderson also wrote scripts for many television dramas, as well as novels.

Married to Phyllis Stohl from 1940 until her untimely death in 1956, Anderson wed actress Teresa Wright three years later (Interestingly, Wright played the wife of Lou Gehrig in the film Pride of the Yankees. Robert Anderson's childhood home was across the street from the Gehrig's New Rochelle home at 9 Meadow Lane). The couple divorced in 1978. Following a seven-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, Anderson died of pneumonia on February 9, 2009 at his New York City home in Manhattan. 

Late-night television host Jay Leno began his show business career as a standup comedian. He performed his comedy routines around the country making as many as 300 appearances a year. Eventually, he procured a spot as guest host of the popular late-night program the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. With Carson's retirement from the show, Leno stepped in as his successor, beating out other contenders including David Letterman. Soon dubbed the "King of Late Night" by the media, Leno's Tonight Show began topping late-night television ratings in 1995 and became a dominant force by the late 1990s. 

Jay Leno

Born James Douglas Muir Leno on April 28, 1950, in New Rochelle, Jay Leno was the son on an Italian-American father and a Scottish mother whom he claims had a "Gracie Allen type of humor."

He grew up in a house still located at 69 Leland Avenue. Leno attended Trinity School before his family moved to Massachusetts in 1959 but his relatives remained in New Rochelle. His uncle, Anthony, started the popular establishment Leno's Clam Bar (AKA "Greasy Nick's") on Pelham Road (although that side of the family pronounces the name "Leeno"). He apparently has always had a heart for comedy. His fifth-grade report card read, "If Jay spent as much time studying as he does trying to be a comedian, he'd be a big star."

Jay Leno is well known for his philanthropy. He won Emmy Awards in 1995 and 2011, and has been nominated numerous times. Leno has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2013.

These sketches were written by Barbara Davis, City Historian and NRPL Community Relations Coordinator, and Rod Kennedy, founder of the New Rochelle Walk of Fame. 

Woody Woodpecker's Roots in New Rochelle - 120 Years Ago Today

Walter Benjamin Lantz

Walter Benjamin Lantz, animator, producer and director, was born on April 27, 1900 in New Rochelle, New York to Italian immigrant parents. His father, whose surname Lanzas was anglicized to Lantz by a immigration official, was soap maker by trade, but became a butcher when he moved to New Rochelle. The family lived at 169 Washington Avenue.

Lantz was always interested in art, having completed a mail order drawing class at age 12. While working as an auto mechanic, he got his first break when a wealthy customer named Fred Kafka liked his drawings posted on the garage's bulletin board and financed his studies at Art Students League. Kafka also helped him get a job as a copy boy at the New York American. 

In 1927, Lantz moved to Hollywood, where he worked as an independent producer and founded Walter Lantz Productions. His most famous cartoon characters were Andy Panda, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Woody Woodpecker. He is credited with producing the first Technicolor cartoon. 

Woody Woodpecker

It was during Lantz's honeymoon with actress Grace Stafford in 1941 at a lakeside cottage that he found the inspiration for his most famous creation. When the couple heard a woodpecker drilling holes in the shingles of the roof, Grace suggested adapting the bird as a cartoon character. She eventually went on to become the voice of the pesky bird after her husband initially turned her down because Woody was a male character. Undeterred, Grace secretly made an audition tape and submitted it anonymously. Not knowing whose voice was being heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice to do Woody and his raucous laugh. 

Walter Lantz received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his for contributions to the art of animation. His Woody Woodpecker artifacts are part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1982, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2011, Lantz was among the first notables to be inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame. He died on March 22, 1994, at home in California.  

Woody Woodpecker's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare - History of the Avon Bard Club of New Rochelle

Most of us have had experience with a book club or reading group, but do you know of any reading group that has lasted for nearly a century? There was one in New Rochelle – the Avon Bard Club! It was founded in 1908 as a study group devoted to the works of William Shakespeare. The club's name combines the name of Shakespeare's birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon, England – with his title as "The Bard" – a masterful lyric poet. For decades the Avon Bard Club of New Rochelle provided a guided course of study to the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare in regular meetings of serious readers.

Besides the intensive of study of Shakespeare, the club created a public garden with the intention of planting all the herbs and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and poetry. The idea was conceived by Jessie Beers, the wife of William Beers of the New Rochelle appellate court, who was inspired by a visit to the Elizabethan gardens of Stratford-upon-Avon. With the cooperation of New Rochelle city officials, the club opened the garden in Davenport Park at Long Island Sound in April 1937 and cared for its maintenance for many years. In 1966, the Federated Garden Clubs of New York recognized the club with a special citation for the beautification of public parks.

The New Rochelle Public Library holds the records of the Avon Bard Club among its many archival collections. The records include study guides to Shakespeare's plays and several original essays – a fascinating glimpse of how Shakespeare was studied in New Rochelle from 1908 to 1996. One document in the collection lists all the book titles ever inspired by William Shakespeare – over 500!

Shakespeare's birthday is April 23rd. The great essayist Samuel Johnson claimed that his plays "may be considered a Map of Life" and that a person "that has read Shakespeare with attention will perhaps find little new in the crowded world – his repuation is therefore safe, till Human Nature shall be changed." Inspiring words about The Bard!

April 20, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Library Archives