Suzanne Hinman's The Grandest Madison Square Garden: Art, Scandal, & Architecture in Gilded Age New York

Reviewed by Paul Ranogajec

Madison Square Garden was among the premier places to see and be seen in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. As Suzanne Hinman amply documents in her new book, this palace of popular entertainment was truly a modern wonder of architecture and spectacle. Like the old Penn Station (another McKim, Mead and White building that sadly no longer graces the city’s streets) the Garden helped define the aesthetic and social landscapes of New York in the years around 1900.

Built Environment, Gilded Age, Reviews, Urban PlanningGuest UserJuly 23, 2019Suzanne Hinman, Paul Ranogajec, Stanford White, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Evelyn Nesbit, Madison Square Garden (MSG)Comment

The Girl on the Velvet Swing

Reviewed by Emily Brooks

In The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, Simon Baatz explores the dramatic and violent relationship between three infamous figures in late nineteenth and early twentieth century New York City. The story of Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, and Harry Thaw, a beautiful young performer, a famous middle-aged architect, and a notorious scion of a wealthy family, respectively, captivated their contemporaries and continues to appeal to historians more than a century later.

Reviews, Crime & Policing, Gender & SexualityGuest UserApril 25, 2019Emily Brooks, Simon Baatz, Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, Harry Thaw, Pittsburgh, Phiadelphia, Broadway, The Tombs, Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Dueling, Masculinity, Anthony Comstock, Madison Square Garden (MSG)Comment