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The Long Island History Project

It’s a long island with a long history. Want to hear it? Interviews with historians, scholars, authors and anyone with a story to tell and a passion for this unique region of New York.

Jun 28, 2021

Elizabeth Letts has a knack for finding good stories and evoking a time and place. In her New York Times bestselling book The Eighty-Dollar Champion, she uncovers the secluded equestrian world of Long Island's North Shore in the 1950s. It's the story of a Dutch immigrant in St. James with a uniquely talented horse...


Jun 15, 2021

Imagine you were a woman born at the height of the Gilded Age with a passion, not for fashion or society, but for sports. And you grew up riding bareback and driving massive horse-drawn carriages through the narrow streets of Chinatown. Your family's wealth meant you could also sail on the Lusitania and visit Paris...


Aug 3, 2020

A July night at Riverhead Stadium in 1950. Two baseball legends face each other without even realizing it. Satchel Paige, fabled Negro League pitcher, is on the mound for the Philadelphia Stars. Young Carl Yastrzemski Jr. is in the stands, cheering for his dad on the Riverhead Falcons. The sellout crowd in a stadium...


Feb 12, 2019

Clarence H. Robbins was a master of hounds and horses, a gentleman jockey and trainer, and a member of Brooklyn's Gilded Age elite. Come explore this forgotten Long Island figure with Kate Robbins, wife of Clarence's great grandson. Kate has taken on the mantle of family historian, spending years tracking down...


May 1, 2018

The Long Island Ducks personified an era and a brand of hockey. From 1959 to 1973, they fought, checked, and slashed their way through the Eastern Hockey League and the Long Island Arena in Commack.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, think back to the 1977 film Slap Shot with Paul Newman. Newman's character, Reg Dunlop,...