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New York City

By the time this crowd gathered on New Year's Eve, 1938, the Times Square ball drop had been an annual rite for decades

On This Day in History

The First Ever Times Square Ball Drop Was Held Atop the New York Times Headquarters in 1907, Starting a Cherished Tradition

Time balls date back to the early 19th century, when they signaled the time to passing sailors. Now they’re part of the pomp and circumstance of the new year

This gold wreath thought to be from Corinth, Greece, dates to the third to second century B.C.E.

Why Has Gold Dazzled So Many Cultures Throughout History?

An exhibition in Brooklyn examines gold’s ubiquitous appeal across thousands of years through art, artifacts, paintings, sculptures and fashion

Visitors gather at the foot of Monkey Mountain, an attraction at Frank Buck's Jungle Camp in Massapequa, New York, around 1939.

History of Now

When 170 Wild Monkeys Escaped From a ‘Jungle Camp’ and Terrorized New York

In 1935, dozens of rhesus macaques absconded from Frank Buck’s Long Island menagerie. Nearly a century later, 43 members of the same species broke out of a South Carolina research facility

The Met's employee art show features more than 600 works.

Every Two Years, Staffers at the Met Get to See Their Own Art on the Prestigious Museum’s Walls

The museum has been staging exhibitions featuring employee art since 1935. This year’s show is only the second in history that’s been open to the public

Sotheby's recent Keith Haring exhibition, "Art in Transit," displayed the 31 artworks in an immersive recreation of the New York subway.

Keith Haring Created These Striking Subway Drawings While Waiting for Trains on His Way to Work

The artist used white chalk to draw on blank advertising panels inside subway stations. Now, 31 surviving examples of these works have sold at auction for more than $9 million

Broadway, New York City at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Union soldiers can be seen walking outside a recruiting station in the image's bottom right corner. 

On This Day in History

The Shocking Moment When a Group of Confederate Spies Plotted—and Failed—to Burn Down New York City

Southern operatives tried to light New York businesses on fire and bring the Northern city to its knees on this date in 1864

Alice Beatrice Rhinelander, née Jones (seated at center), looks at her father, George Jones, as they await the verdict in the Rhinelander v. Rhinelander case.

How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties

Under pressure from his wealthy family, real estate heir Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white

Tarlati Altarpiece, Pietro Lorenzetti, circa 1320

See the Breathtaking 14th-Century Sienese Artworks That Helped Set the Italian Renaissance in Motion

This brief chapter of art history is often overlooked. Now, an exhibition in New York City makes a strong argument for the integral role played by four artists in the city of Siena

Seismologist Won-Young Kim examines signals from a network of seismometers monitoring for earthquakes in New York, New Jersey and New England.

Geologists Finally Explain New Jersey’s Strange Earthquake That Rocked the Northeast in April

A new study suggests the seismic energy traveled outward from a previously unmapped fault, emanating from the hypocenter in bouncing waves that shook distant areas

Experts have found that the manuscript's paper and ink are consistent with the materials Chopin was using at the time.

Cool Finds

You Can Listen to a Lost Chopin Waltz That Hasn’t Been Heard for Nearly Two Centuries

The one-minute composition, which dates to the 1830s, was found on a piece of paper about the size of an index card at a museum in New York City

Titled Comedian, the banana sculpture has sparked heated debates about the value of art.

Maurizio Cattelan’s Perishable Sculpture Drove Some Critics Bananas. Now, It Could Sell for $1.5 Million

The banana duct-taped to a wall was created to be a “reflection on what we value.” An upcoming auction may deliver an answer

James J. Walker Park consists of soccer fields, pickleball courts, playground equipment and a community garden.

This New York City Park Was Built on Top of a Cemetery

In the late 19th century, city officials turned the final resting place for 10,000 souls into what’s now Greenwich Village’s James J. Walker Park

A colorized photo of superhero rodent Mighty Mouse’s exuberant turn in the 1951 parade.

How the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Went From Its Modest Start to an American Tradition Rivaling Stuffing and Pumpkin Pie

A century on, the country’s most beloved Thursday spectacle reaches new heights

A woman enters the secret annex at the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam. The new exhibition in New York will be the first full-scale replica.

Walk Through a Full-Scale Replica of the Secret Annex Where Anne Frank’s Family Took Shelter During the Holocaust

Featuring more than 100 original artifacts, a new immersive exhibition in New York City will explore the young Jewish diarist’s life and legacy

 Portrait de Berthe Weill (Portrait of Berthe Weill), Émilie Charmy, 1910-14

This Art Dealer Paved the Way for Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. So Why Haven’t You Heard of Her?

A new exhibition in New York celebrates Berthe Weill, an often overlooked but visionary figure who jumpstarted the careers of many of modern art’s giants

With its exquisitely vaulted ceiling and inlaid walnut bookshelves covering three floors, the East Room was designed as a treasury and showroom for Morgan's rare book collection.

Women Who Shaped History

This Savvy Librarian Was the True Force Behind New York’s Iconic Morgan Library

It fell to Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman whose racial identity was kept secret for decades, to catalog J.P. Morgan’s immense collection of books and art

By age 11, Theodore Roosevelt boasted that he had 1,000 scientific specimens in the collections of his Roosevelt Museum of Natural History.

How a Dead Seal Sparked Theodore Roosevelt’s Lifelong Passion for Conservation

As a child, the future president acquired a marine animal’s skull, which became the first specimen in his natural history collection

L to R: Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Matt Wood as John Belushi in Saturday Night, a new film about the making of “Saturday Night Live”

Based on a True Story

The Real Story Behind ‘Saturday Night,’ the Movie About the Television Show That Changed Comedy Forever

A new film revisits the 90 minutes before the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975

This long-term loan comes after Yemen and the Met formalized a partnership in 2023.

Ancient Statues Recently Returned to Yemen Are Now on Loan at the Met

The long-term loan is the latest agreement Yemen has made with a museum in order to protect its cultural heritage amid ongoing civil war

A Margherita pie from Una Pizza Napoletana

The World’s Best Pizza Is in New York City, According to Italy-Based Rankings

Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side has claimed the top spot in an annual ranking of pizzerias around the globe

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