A small outing

Both my husband and I thought we would work yesterday, but when my husband suggested that we play hooky from our responsibilities and go on a small outing. We decided to go to the New York Historical Society.

First we waited for the bus which gave us the time to pay attention to the familiar landscape. I have been fond of this 1920's Tudor revival brick apartment house since I moved to the neighborhood. I am a sucker for fancy brickwork.

My husband pointed out a detail of the building that neither of us had noticed before.

That great scalloped terracotta tile at the roof line is just amazing. The bus took a while to arrive so we had a long time to admire that tile.

I had lots of time to admire trees in Central Park.

On the way to the exhibit we had planned to see we were gobsmacked by an exhibit of Larry Silver Photographs. You can see a few of the images if you click on the link. The images capture the ordinary in New York City life in the late 1940's and 50's with great love. Every image is jammed with fabulous details in the background, stores that no longer exist, old logos for items we use every day.  I also loved the quality of the images themselves. The blacks and grays were just so velvety, so beautiful.

The images in the Larry Silver exhibit were so fresh  and so delightful that I didn't quite have the heart to see the exhibit were were actually at the museum to see. The First Jewish Americans. My husband goes through museum exhibits as curators expect visitors to, going through the exhibit in the order set out by the curator, reading every wall card.

Yesterday, the photographs had so filled my head that at first looking at oil paintings from the 18th century felt unbearable.

I flitted from vitrine to vitrine.

 Until eventually I took in the whole exhibit.

This ketubah is old, but not amazing. For me, there is something comforting about that.

Love the silver tzedaka box the Hebrew says " Charity will save from death".

This is the interior of the synagogue in Charleston that burned down in the 1830's. We attended a fabulous Friday night service in the "new" building built soon after the fire.

It was a small but satisfying afternoon of playing hooky from our responsibilities.