Brooklyn Academy of Music: From Brooklyn to the World

This legal document includes the bylaws, articles of incorporation, names of the founding fathers, and a list of original subscribers, who purchased shares at $50 apiece.

Portrait of actor Edwin Booth, circa 1861. Edwin Booth performed numerous times at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, including multiple shows in its inaugural year of 1861-1862.

Hoping for a permanent home, the Philharmonic Society proposed building a classical concert venue, giving birth to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This 1866 concert took place during the Philharmonic’s ninth season, and the Academy’s fifth.

This ornate ticket for a Full Dress Reception for the 13th Infantry is dated 1870, just five years after the end of the Civil War. During the War, the Academy also hosted the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, a fundraiser benefitting Union Soldiers.

Mark Twain read from his work at the Academy multiple times, often with another important contemporary writer, George W. Cable.

Decoration Day, now called Memorial Day, originated as a day to decorate the graves of Civil War soldiers. The Academy regularly hosted events in commemoration.

Henry Ward Beecher, prominent social reformer and abolitionist, lectured frequently at the Academy, which served a civic and educational function in addition to entertainment.

Program for German virtuoso violinist August Wilhelmj, dated 1879. The Academy’s affluent, cultured founders prided themselves on presenting classical music in Brooklyn.

An early, mixed musical bill at the Academy, reflecting the founders’ interest in high art and classical music.

The interior pages of this program for Cinderella, cast with “the pupils of C.H. Rivers,” promise “Sparkling Dialogue! Beautiful Tableaus!” Tickets for children were half price. Over the years, the Academy has continued to present a rich roster of cultural events for young people.

On this night in 1880, Edwin Booth, famous Shakespearean actor, appeared as both Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. Booth performed numerous times at the Academy, often in his most famous role, Hamlet.

This 1881 program announces the “Farewell American Engagement” of Sarah Bernhardt in the plays Frou-Frou and Camille.

The Kemble Amateur Dramatic Association was a late 19th century dramatic society, and this “souvenir programme” is for Defeated, an original play.

From its founding, the Academy has served a civic function. This benefit raised funds for a nursing school in Brooklyn.

The memorial for U.S. President and civil war hero General Ulysses S. Grant was held at the Academy in September of 1885.

Ticket for the Second Annual Ball of the Veteran Volunteer Firemen, benefitting their Widows & Orphans’ Fund, held at the Academy’s first, Montague Street, location. The Academy served a civic function, hosting balls and other community events.

This concert by the Philharmonic Society of New York, performing in Brooklyn, was conducted by Theodore Thomas, who later founded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

After its start as a “private and parlor society,” the Association grew in “strength, prosperity, and popularity,” employed a professional conductor and designers, and began performing at the Academy.

This memorial event, presided over by abolitionist and social activist Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, included a prayer, a poem, and choral and band music.

The Gilbert Dramatic Association was an amateur dramatic society, one of many in late 19th century Brooklyn. Here they presented Our Boys, “A Musical Comedy in Three Acts,” by British playwright Henry J. Byron.

The popular concert pianist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski also composed and was Polish Prime Minister after World War I.

This lecture by Arctic explorer Lieutenant Peary, describing his journey across the Greenland Ice Cap, was illustrated with 100 slide projections. Also present were Peary’s sledge, 6 sled dogs, “and their native Esquimaux driver in full fur dress,” which could be inspected after the lecture.

The concert was accompanied by projected “views” that illustrated the history covered, which spanned the arrival of Columbus through the Civil War.

A 1907 photograph of the interior of the new Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House, designed by architects Herts & Tallant in the Beaux Arts style. The fanfare-filled 1908 gala opening included performances by Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar.

Program for the Opening Banquet on the eve of the Gala Opening of the rebuilt Academy of Music, on Lafayette Avenue. The menu, in French, corresponds to the next day’s gala program of Gounod’s Faust, performed in French.

Author, educator, and civil rights activist Booker T. Washington spoke at the Academy's original Montague Street site and in 1909, at the current Opera House.

In the early 1900s, two of the world's most famous ballet dancers, Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin, graced the Opera House stage. On October 15, 1910, Pavlova performed her signature, "The Dying Swan.”

Popular American soprano Geraldine Farrar appeared with the Metropolitan Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music numerous times between 1908 and 1924. She performed with Enrico Caruso at the 1908 Gala Opening of the Academy’s new Lafayette Avenue building in a production of Gounod’s Faust.

In the early 20th century, the Metropolitan Opera presented full seasons at the Academy, with luminaries including Gustav Mahler, who conducted during the Met’s second Brooklyn season.

Ruth St. Denis, a pioneer of modern dance inspired by Asian dance and spiritualism, parlayed solo success into an influential company and school (Denishawn) with Ted Shawn. They performed at the Academy numerous times, individually and together.

Robert E. Peary was one of many explorers and scientists who lectured at the Academy in its early years. His lecture "Last Polar Expedition and Its Climax on April 6th, 1909" described his journey to the North Pole.

A photo of Women’s Suffrage leaders General Rosalie Jones, Jessie Stubbs, and Colonel Ida Craft, who carries a bag labeled "Votes for Women pilgrim leaflets," and a banner advertising a Mass Meeting for a Woman Suffrage Party to be held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House.

Raymond L. Ditmars, pioneering naturalist and the first curator of reptiles at the Bronx Zoo, lectured at the Academy in the fall of 1914.

World-famous Czech violinist Jan Kubelik performed seven times at the Academy in the early years of the 20th century.