Bayside Historical Society Unveils March Slate

The Bayside Historical Society will offer everything from Women’s History Month lectures and photo exhibits to a celebration of Irish culture this month at its Fort Totten headquarters.

On March 15, the society will host a performance by the Ryan Irish Dance Academy to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

The event, which will cost $10 general admission and $5 for members, will also include a swearing-in ceremony for the society’s new members, refreshments and a display from the group’s archives.

The society, located in Bayside’s Fort Totten, will hold a free lecture on March 20 to honor Women’s History Month.  

“Murder Most Foul, A Peek at the Underside of American Victorian History” will be presented by lecturer Harriet Davis-Kram, an assistant professor at Queens College. The event is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

For the next two months, the society will display “Bayside Life: On the Edge of Modernity,” which is a series of photographs, memorabilia, documents, narratives and clippings from Bayside Life, a magazine that was published from 1939 to 1941. The purpose of the exhibit is to explore Bayside life from the late 1930s.

Ongoing exhibits at the historical society include The Women of Bayside, which honors women who have made their mark on the neighborhood, and Native Bayside, an exploration northeast Queens’ prehistoric past. That exhibit is based on findings from the New York Institute of Anthropology.

The society is also hosting an art and essay contest through May 15. Local students, grades three to eight, can create models, hold interviews, take photographs or write poetry about the Throgs Neck Bridge or Clearview Expressway.

The winning entries will be displayed during the historical society’s 50th anniversary exhibit, which will examine the impact of the bridge and expressway on Bayside and its surrounding neighborhoods.

For more information on the society, call 718-352-1548 or visit the group’s website.