The Carnegie Library of Patchogue
The story of the Carnegie Library in Patchogue is a great case study in library history. The village started with an association library in the late 1800s, a subscription-based collection […]
Occupied Long Island: Voices from the American Revolution
Today’s episode is a recording of a panel discussion hosted on January 15, 2026 by the Long Island Library Resources Council. The panelists, all notable historians who have researched the […]
Historic Schoolhouses of Long Island
Today we come to praise the one-room schoolhouse of the 19th century (and some of its earlier forebears). Humble in appearance, these buildings might be easy to overlook but their […]
For Nothing Is Hidden with John Valenti
Steven Damman disappeared from outside a supermarket in East Meadow on Halloween day, 1955. He was not yet three years old. Still unsolved, the case has intrigued many over the […]
To Outwit Them All – Agent 355 and Peggy Wirgau
Where history fails to provide, authors of historical fiction can fill the gap. In her new novel To Outwit Them All, author Peggy Wirgau delves into the Revolutionary War history […]
Christopher Verga and Nazis of Long Island
Even as Hitler and his Nazi regime ran roughshod over Germany and Europe in the 1930s, there were those in America who championed their rise. And nowhere so much as […]
Three Village Oral Histories
Christian Avenue sits at the heart of the Three Village area on the North Shore of Long Island. Surrounded by Old Field, Setauket, and Stony Brook it has long been […]
Culper Spy Day 2025
Culper Spy Day has been an annual tradition on Long Island for over a decade. Created by Margo Arceri in conjunction with the Three Village Historical Society, it has grown […]
Why Oral History? With Erica Fugger
Are you curious about the past and love talking to people? Do you have a keen eye for detail and a persistent yet welcoming demeanor? Then oral history may just […]
Farmingdale History w Natalie Korsavidis
Chances are that your local public library has a local history librarian who oversees a rich collection of images, artifacts, and information about your community. Today we highlight and celebrate […]
Robert Anen and Long Beach Oral Histories
We continue our tour of Long Island-based oral history collections. This time out, Robert Anen (LILRC Project Archivist) and I sat down with the Long Beach Historical & Preservation Society. […]
Robert Beattie, Long Island Architect
Robert Beattie was many things: an architect, a designer of iconic public buildings on Long Island, and a decorated World War II veteran. But most importantly, he was the father […]
Long Island, Australia w Madeleine Bessell-Koprek
There’s a rough stretch of water between Australia and Tasmania called the Bass Strait. Within the strait there’s a group of islands called the Furneaux Group. Within the group lies […]
Robert Anen and Manhasset Oral Histories
The voices of the past are all around us, if you know how to listen. And sometimes those voices are trapped on small thin strips of tape wrapped in cheap […]
Isle of Ever with Jen Calonita
Isle of Ever is Jen Calonita’s newest middle grade novel, a story grounded in the history of Long Island’s North Fork. On today’s episode, Jen discusses growing up on Long […]
Your 1975 Long Island Champion Babylon Panthers
Tom McKeown lived and breathed basketball throughout junior and senior high school in Babylon. As an eighth grader in 1974-1975, he got to experience the thrill of watching the varsity […]
Angela Fernandez and Pierson v Post
When Jessie Pierson and Lodowick Post argued over a fox in early 19th century Southampton, they probably didn’t think the resulting court case would echo down the ages. Yet here […]
Long Island and the Legacy of Eugenics w Mark Torres
The science of genetics took a wrong turn in the early 20th century and it ran through Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Here overlooking a former whaling port, Dr. Charles […]
Riverhead Stadium w Fabio Montella
Memorial Day 1949 was an auspicious day in Riverhead as it saw the inaugural game at the brand new Wivchar Stadium on Harrison Ave. The brainchild of Tony Wivchar, a […]
When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch? With Kieran O’Keefe
The Dutch held on to their New Netherland colony for some forty years. They lost it to the English twice, at gunpoint in 1664 and by treaty in 1674. But […]
Whatever Happened to Walt Whitman’s Brain?
The science of the brain was changing throughout the 19th century. Medical researchers were peering ever deeper into cerebral mysteries and one question piqued their interest more than any other: […]
Promoting Long Island: The Art of Edward Lange, 1870-1889
Edward Lange was a German artist who started his career on Long Island in the late 19th century. He meticulously captured the landscape and built environment across the island from […]
The Association of Public Historians of New York State
The Association of Public Historians of New York State held their annual conference at Danfords Hotel in Port Jefferson this year, gathering public historians from all corners of the state […]
From Broadway to Jones Beach w Richard Arnold Beattie
Robert Moses had a vision for Jones Beach in the 1920s that included a theater to bring high quality entertainment to the people. That theater on Zachs Bay went through […]
1914 Freeport Murder Mystery w Woody Register
An obscure bit of early 20th century technology embroiled Dr. Woody Register in a murder mystery. Register, a professor of history at the University of the South (Sewanee), became intrigued […]
Ralph Bunn, Long Island’s Jackie Robinson
Librarian and baseball historian Fabio Montella returns to the podcast to bring us the story of Ralph “Sammy” Bunn. Bunn was a Setauket native who excelled at baseball all his […]
Chubby Jackson, Jazz, and Freeport
Greig Stewart “Chubby” Jackson was a swinging sensation in his day. A child of vaudevillians, he was raised in an enclave of actors, musicians, and performers in Freeport, Long Island […]
Washington’s Commando Benjamin Tallmadge with Richard Welch
The Long Island-born, Yale-educated Benjamin Tallmadge seized his moment to shine in the American Revolution. Whether fighting the British on horseback with the 2nd Continental Dragoons or uncovering their secrets […]
The Howard School in Kings Park with Dr Tammy C. Owens
Dr. Tammy C. Owens of Skidmore College joins us to discuss her 2019 article “Fugitive Literati: Black Girls’ Writing as a Tool of Kinship and Power at the Howard School.” […]
In Levittown’s Shadow with Tim Keogh
While Long Island developed a reputation for affluence throughout the 20th Century, there has always been a parallel history of the everyday workers and servants who toiled in the shadow […]
Long Island Loyalists with Brendon Burns
No one sheds a tear for the British Loyalists of Long Island, those inhabitants who remained loyal to the crown during the American Revolution. But genealogist Brendon Burns has spent […]
Long Island’s Endangered Historic Places
Every other year, Preservation Long Island compiles a list of historic places on Long Island that are endangered. Each list is a mix of structures from different periods of time, […]
Long Island, Kansas with Carrie Cox
There is a Long Island just below the Kansas border with Nebraska, between the Elk and Prairie Dog Creeks. It’s apparently the creeks that gave the area its name. When […]
Rockin History with Cindy Schwartz
Cindy Schwartz grew up on Long Island and followed her love of history into a long career as a social studies teacher at the Wheatley School in Old Westbury. She […]
The Our Hamptons Podcast
Your idea of the Hamptons on the East End of Long Island may include images of supersized mansions and extravagant parties, but there is an older, richer Hamptons history beneath […]
Making Long Island with Larry Samuel
Larry Samuel is an author and historian whose latest book looks at the development of Long Island throughout the 20th Century. It was a time of land speculation and rapid […]
Edward Lieberman’s Historic Tours
Yes, Edward Lieberman is a former assistant district attorney in Nassau County and the former mayor of Seacliff but just as importantly, he is a long-time listener of the Long […]
The Arthur Murray Girls Baseball Team
In 1949 nine women of the Arthur Murray Girls baseball team took the field against the all-male squad from the Patchogue Athletics. By that year, the Murrays had been together […]
The Gold Coast and World War I
The Gold Coast along Long Island’s north shore is most often celebrated as a showcase for the rich and famous in the early 20th Century. A decidedly different aspect of […]
How the Bayport Blue Point Phantoms Got Their Name
Today we team up with Stephanie Eberhard-Holgerson’s journalism class at Bayport Blue Point (BBP) High School to try to solve a mystery. At the suggestion of BBP’s librarian Pam Gustafson, […]
Remember Liss with Claire Bellerjeau
We’re returning to Revolutionary War era Long Island on this episode. And while the Culper Spy Ring does play a part, we are turning the focus to a woman whose […]
Redeeming Al Smith
Al Smith was many things during his political career: reform champion after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, four-time governor of New York State, the first Catholic presidential candidate. But he was […]
The Fate of the Long Island Mill
From time to time on the podcast we like to explore the histories of other Long Islands, those far from New York. Today we focus on the story of Long […]
The Steamboat Lexington with Bill Bleyer
On a frigid night in January 1840, the luxury steamboat Lexington burned and sank in the middle of the Long Island Sound with over 140 people on board. What followed […]
Grumman Test Pilot Bruce Tuttle
Jet fighters once roamed the skies above Long Island. Grumman, the aviation powerhouse behind such planes as the Hellcat and the Avenger, turned its attention to jets by the end […]
The History of the History of the Culper Spy Ring
Today we welcome back former Newsday reporter Bill Bleyer. Bill is an author and historian with a number of Long Island-related history books to his credit and today we dive […]
Bellport Preservation with Victor Principe
A tree-lined street running gently down to a flat blue bay, flanked by over two hundred years worth of American architecture. Bellport in all its glory, from its founding by […]
Bayport History with Rob Walch of Libsyn
Bayport and its immediate vicinity in Islip on the south shore of Long Island have some deep ties to history. There’s the Bayport Aerodrome with its vintage airplanes, the Meadowcroft […]
Raymond Buckland and Wicca in Brentwood
If you lived in Brentwood in the late 1960s and 70s, you may have encountered a charming, transplanted Englishman named Raymond Buckland. You many not have realized it at the […]
Cleaning Up After the Hurricane of 1938
Much has been written about September 21, 1938, the day that a massive hurricane hit Long Island. For Jonathan C. Bergman, the more interesting story began the day after. His […]