For two weeks in the fall of 1909, New York threw itself the biggest party it had ever seen—attracting millions to a sprawling festival 150 miles long, from Manhattan up the Hudson River to Albany. This extraordinary event, the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, was officially mounted to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the river bearing his name and the centennial of Robert Fulton’s first successful run of his steamship on that same waterway in 1807.  But in an era of grand world’s fairs, the Celebration was really created to showcase New York’s coming of age as a world metropolis. On city sidewalks and in cities and towns along the Hudson, millions enjoyed a nonstop circus of fireworks, concerts, museum exhibitions, children’s festivals, and parades, each designed to link past glories to present challenges and future progress—and to show the world that its biggest city functioned beautifully.

For city leaders, the Celebration was to be a gaudy catalyst for change—technological, commercial, cultural, and political. There were great flotillas of the world’s navies. Glittering electric lights illuminated bridges and skyscrapers. Jaw-dropping flyovers by Wilbur Wright and Glenn Curtiss introduced New Yorkers to the airplane. Throngs of participants packed subway lines. Thousands of children in ethnic costumes marched to celebrate the new American melting pot. No one had seen anything like it.

Co-published by Fordham University Press and Historic Hudson Valley, this first full-length study of the 1909 Celebration offers thought-provoking analysis of the individuals, contemporary issues, and emblematic artifacts caught up in this giddy swirl. With a rich selection of full-color images—photographs, graphics, memorabilia, and much more—it tells the story of what those two weeks meant to four million New Yorkers and one million out-of-town guests. Kate Johnson brings to life a city feverishly at work and play, from the grand schemes of the Celebration planners to the reactions of ordinary citizens who witnessed the events.

ISBN-13:  978-0-8232-3021-1

Foreword by Kenneth T. Jackson, the Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences and Director of the Herbert H. Lehman Center for American History at Columbia University  

Preface by Howard P. Milstein 

Jacket and book design by Steven Schoenfelder

Hardcover with 132 color and 107 black and white illustrations

(Publication date: May 2009)

Funding for the book has been generously provided by the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Emigrant Bank and the Milstein Family, in particular Mr. Howard P. Milstein; and Furthermore, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

To learn more about the book, or to buy a copy, contact Fordham University Press or Amazon.

Kate has also created lively and visually appealing lectures inspired by the book.

For more information about hiring Kate to speak for your organization, hosting a book signing, or learning if she is lecturing near you, see her lecture schedule or send an email.