Leon Levy Foundation Funds Civil War Brooklyn Historical Research via the BAM Online Archive
It is always a cause for celebration when new archival history resources go online — especially for the enthusiastic digger of sometimes obscure history. Brooklyn history buffs have a new source of information (and distraction) thanks to the Brooklyn Academy of Music Leon Levy Digital Archive, which launched in June.
The new online resource was part of a four-year project funded by the Leon Levy Foundation to digitize items from the BAM Hamm Archives. More than 70,000 individual items are now accessible online to the curious public. A wide range of materials are part of the project: photographs, posters, programs, audio recordings and video are all included.
Items date from the 1850s to the present and document the history of performances at the historic venue as well as the architectural history of BAM properties and, occasionally, the surrounding neighborhood. The documents show a who’s who of famous personages and performers from the 19th century to the present, including Laurie Anderson and Oscar Wilde. . .