From 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews fled discrimination and violence in Eastern Europe. Many settled on the Lower East Side and today’s East Village. How such migration was possible is complicated. It would have been impossible except for the unusual collaboration of three titans of business: Jacob Schiff, managing partner of Kuhn, Loeb, and Co., Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, and J.P. Morgan, the mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine trust.

STEVEN UJIFUSA is a historian who chronicles the confluence of American business, social, and maritime history. His third book, The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I, tells the story of Eastern European Jewish immigration to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was released by HarperCollins on November 21, 2023, and named by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year.

Over a hundred years ago, the Hudson River waterfront was the place where New York City cemented its status as one of the world’s greatest cities. Cargo, commuters, and international passengers jostled with dock workers, freighters, ferries, railroads, and giant ocean liners. Join us for a walking tour to explore how this dynamic waterfront worked in the age of TITANIC, LUSITANIA, and other floating palaces that once docked there.

This approximately 90-minute walking tour will be led by William Roka, a WSS - PONY Branch Board Mmember and the Director of Programs at Village Preservation. He is also an independent historian and writer. His research, presented at conferences in the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, and across the United States, has focused on the history of travel and ocean liners in the early 20th century.

There was a time when the Detroit Waterfront was home to the fleets of several maritime transportation companies, like the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company, the Georgian Bay Lines and the Canada Steamship Lines. The ships of these organizations were large, comfortable, and efficiently carried passengers all over the Great Lakes. In addition, they operated cruises that allowed inhabitants of the states around the Great Lakes an opportunity to experience their region from a new, watery perspective. Explore the fascinating world of steamship travel on the Great Lakes with author and architect Bruce Allen Kopytek – who will tell the story of the companies, their crews, their passengers, and their ships, all of them marvels of the Marine Architect’s art.

Hamtramck, Michigan born Bruce Allen Kopytek nurtured a love of history while achieving two degrees in Architecture from the University of Detroit. He built a career that lasted forty-five years and designed a number of significant buildings spread throughout the world. In retirement, Bruce launched Editions BK, LLC to publish books on topics that have fascinated him throughout his life, remembering the values bestowed upon him by his parents, who taught faith, education, accomplishment, and culture above most everything else. After writing several books for a publisher, this book, his second self-published work, comes after the wild success of his Hudson’s: Detroit’s World Famous Department Store, now in its third printing. His wife Carole has been his partner in all these endeavors and so much more to boot!

Martina Caruso, Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the South Street Seaport Museum, will provide an engaging multimedia presentation giving a brief history of the impressive 22-foot-long builder model of RMS Queen Mary, as well as the sumptuousness that came to light during its restoration process—from the shine of its propellers, to the detail of its mother of pearl windows and the fittings of the upper decks.

Through never-before-shared videos and a captivating mix of historical, archival, and modern photographs, attendees will discover the differences and importance of builder models, and how this 1935 invaluable artifact was packed and transported from a temporary loan on board the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, to its new specially designed display case within the Museum’s newly renovated A.A. Thomson & Co. warehouse galleries.

Martina Caruso is responsible for stewardship and accessibility of the Museum’s collections and archives with particular attention to the long-term management of annual and multi-year work plans, policies and procedures. She also coordinates the development, design, production, installation and maintenance of multidisciplinary exhibitions in Museum’s historic buildings, ships and public spaces, as well as online initiatives that engage visitors of all ages.

Prior to the South Street Seaport Museum, she worked for New York City and Massachusetts-based art institution museums including the International Center of Photography (ICP), the Drawing Center, and MASS MoCA. She is a board member of the Museums Council of New York City (MCNYC), and an active mentor for emerging professionals that are members of the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS).

(Photos: Martina Caruso Collection)

It has been 25 years of deck plans and ship china, interior brochures and agency posters, liner furniture and fixtures. Don Leavitt purchased Nautiques in 2001 and took it online. Looking back over a quarter of a century, Don will share his experiences in buying and selling millions of dollars’ worth of ocean liner memorabilia. Which items and ships are hot these days and which are not? What to collect for the future? Tune in to find out.

After careers in journalism and innkeeping, in 2001 Don Leavitt bought Nautiques and switched it from catalog to online sales. He lives in Baltimore and summers in New Hampshire with husband Todd, two golden retrievers, and a 17-year-old cat who still rules the roost. Don is a World Ship Society member and a past president of the Steamship Historical Society of America.

In September 1935, the French Line placed into service its Mediterranean flagship VILLE D’ALGER. The new liner was the fastest, largest, and most luxurious ship yet built for the company’s colonial service between Marseille and the North African colony of Algeria, a route the company had been operating since 1880. The VILLE D’ALGER also basked in the glow of the French Line’s North Atlantic flagship NORMANDIE whose record-breaking maiden voyage occurred in May-June of that same year. The company publicized the Mediterranean liner’s speed, appointments, and appearance as drawn directly from the NORMANDIE. Far from exaggerated advertising, the VILLE D’ALGER incorporated technical components from its North Atlantic fleet mate but more importantly signaled the French Line’s recovery from the Depression as well as symbolized the French Line’s role in Algeria’s colonial order. French Line officials described the VILLE D’ALGER as a mobile colony, with its diminutive hull containing the symbolism of imperial propaganda and reinforcing the French Line as a business serving both nation and empire. This presentation examines the conception, construction, and maiden voyage of the VILLE D’ALGER.

John H. Perry is a consulting historian for WSP USA. He is also an independent researcher and writer. He has a Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University, earning his degree in 2019 and specializing in the colonial history of Algeria and Mediterranean shipping in his dissertation “From Sea to Lake: Steamships, French Algeria, and the Mediterranean, 1830-1940.” He has presented his research in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Algeria, and has also published his work in academic journals and edited volumes.

Today the lonely iron arch of Pier 54 is an often-ignored reminder of what was New York’s Grand Central Terminal of the Hudson River waterfront, the original Chelsea Piers complex that extended from Little 12th Street to 23rd Street that saw millions of immigrants and some of the wealthiest people in the world brought to New York City by ocean liners to this docking on the Hudson.

But how did it work? Thousands of passengers and pieces of luggage, supplies, mail, and cargo had to be loaded and unloaded. How did the ships prepare to depart or dock, and what did the passengers experience as they departed for or returned from their voyages overseas? This illustrated presentation will explore this extraordinary period of New York’s waterfront, now nearly forgotten and unknown.

William Roka is the Director of Programs at Village Preservation. He is also an independent historian and writer. His research, presented at conferences in the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, and across the United States, has focused on the history of travel and ocean liners in the early 20th century. William is also a WSS-PONY Branch Board member.