Illustrated lecture with author Alice Sparberg Alexiou
Date: [NEW DATE] Tuesday, June 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8 (Tickets here)
*** Offsite: Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Once upon a time, when “The Bowery” was synonymous with anything low-life, it was filled with “anatomical museums.” These were a combination of freak shows, live animals, and jars of dead babies in formaldehyde. Sometimes these “museums” also featured live performances. These places were also known for scamming their customers. The possibility of danger enhanced the pleasure to be derived from a night out on the Bowery, which by the time of the Civil War was growing ever more notorious for its wicked ways. Anatomical museums made great targets for irate ministers and others among the ranks of an obstreperous anti-vice crusade that was then growing in tandem with the temperance movement. In 1873 the hysterically puritanical and savvy politician Anthony Comstock established his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and even pushed a law to that effect through Congress. The Bowery was one of his favorite targets, and in 1888, Comstock participated in a raid there that resulted in the shutting down of three of the Bowery’s most notorious anatomical museums.
Tonight, join Alice Sparberg Alexiou, author of a forthcoming book on the history of The Bowery, for a highly illustrated lecture detailing the history and the rise and fall of these largely forgotten museums.
Alice Sparberg Alexiou is a third generation New Yorker who is currently writing a book about the Bowery. Her other books are: The Flatiron:the New York Landmark and the Incomparable City That Arose With It, and Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary.