This folding knife was probably created by an artist affiliated with the renowned Bezalel School of Art founded in 1906 in Jerusalem. Boris Schatz, a Jewish artist from Bulgaria who had started the Sofia Royal Academy of Art, established the Jerusalem school during a period of increasing European Jewish immigration to Palestine. Schatz’s mission was to develop an artistic style representative of the anticipated independent Jewish homeland by teaching artists and artisans to synthesize European and Middle Eastern designs and techniques. Bezalel artists and artisans created works in a “Hebrew style” that integrated Hebrew characters, Jewish ritual symbols, and biblical scenes into Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and Bauhaus inflected paintings, textiles, metalwork, and graphic designs. The school was immediately successful and still exists today. Bezalel School artists made a lasting impact on twentieth- and twenty-first-century Judaica, as many subsequently brought the school’s mission to European and American art schools. In New York, the Tobe Pascher Workshop for the Creation of Modern Judaica established at the Jewish Museum in 1956 was headed by Bezalel-trained silversmith, Ludwig Wolpert (1900-1981).

Bloomingdale’s introduced its iconic brown shopping bags in 1973, a century after first opening in Midtown Manhattan. Designed by Massimo Vignelli (1930–2014) to accommodate bulky purchases from the bedding department, the “Big Brown Bag” has astonishingly utilitarian qualities given the department store’s upscale reputation. This is an example of a souvenir-style utilizing the "Little Brown Bag" logo and branding.

Bloomingdale’s introduced its iconic brown shopping bags in 1973, a century after first opening in Midtown Manhattan. Designed by Massimo Vignelli (1930–2014) to accommodate bulky purchases from the bedding department, the “Big Brown Bag” has astonishingly utilitarian qualities given the department store’s upscale reputation. This is an example of a souvenir-style utilizing the "Little Brown Bag" logo and branding.

The nightclub El Morocco first opened as a midtown New York speakeasy in 1931 during Prohibition. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the club became one of the city’s most popular and glamourous locales. It was frequented by international luminaries, New York City socialites, movie and stage stars (Rudy Vallee, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Gloria Swanson, and Fred Astaire among them), directors, celebrated journalists, sports champions, and other dignitaries such Franklin D. Roosevelt, and, later, John F. Kennedy.

The club was located at 154 East 54th Street until 1960, when its proprietor, John Perona, moved it to 307 East 54th Street. Its interior was nearly as famous as its clientele. The club’s ceiling was painted a deep, “glittering” blue, and its furnishings and tableware sported a bold blue and white zebra pattern. After Perona died in 1961, El Morocco closed and reopened several times under different owners into the 1990s.

The nightclub El Morocco first opened as a midtown New York speakeasy in 1931 during Prohibition. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the club became one of the city’s most popular and glamourous locales. It was frequented by international luminaries, New York City socialites, movie and stage stars (Rudy Vallee, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Gloria Swanson, and Fred Astaire among them), directors, celebrated journalists, sports champions, and other dignitaries such Franklin D. Roosevelt, and, later, John F. Kennedy.

The club was located at 154 East 54th Street until 1960, when its proprietor, John Perona, moved it to 307 East 54th Street. Its interior was nearly as famous as its clientele. The club’s ceiling was painted a deep, “glittering” blue, and its furnishings and tableware sported a bold blue and white zebra pattern. After Perona died in 1961, El Morocco closed and reopened several times under different owners into the 1990s.

According to the accession records, this parasol belonged to the donor's grandmother, Mary Lorrain Peters (b. 1822).

During World War II, New York schools accepted responsibility for the safety of their students. Principals and teachers received training in civilian defense and first aid. The Board of Education distributed emergency equipment to teachers. Air raid drills became part of the classroom routine. And the School Defense Council arranged for public, private, and parochial school students to wear emergency identification tags around their necks. By July 1942, 1,600,000 children had received tags, each embossed with their name, date of birth, school district, and a serial number. This tag was issued to Rosalind Weiss Rothman in 1942, when she attended either P.S. 54 at Amsterdam Avenue and 104th Street or J.H.S. 118, called Joan of Arc High School, between 92nd and 93rd Streets and Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Ms. Rothman remembers: “I believe I was in 6th and 7th grade when we were required to wear these every day to school. … I even remember one air raid warning (not a drill) I was at the Museum of Natural History with my class (from Joan of Arc Jr High - on 92nd street and Amsterdam) when the alarms sounded. Our tags were checked so that we were returned to our homes. The whole city was shut down.”

Harold Moroson (born Harold Morosoff, 1927-2011) was born in New Jersey and moved with his family to New York City around the age of six. His parents, immigrants from the Ukraine, owned and operated a luncheonette in the Bronx. Moroson attended Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1944 at the age of 17. He was recruited from the school to take a summer job as a lab assistant on the Manhattan Project (not yet given that name). With his parents’ blessing and security approval—two security officials visited his home and questioned his mother prior to hiring—Moroson took the job. According to his widow, Julia Newman, these glasses were issued to Moroson as safety glasses, to be worn at all times as a safety precaution. Moroson was asked to continue working on the project at Los Alamos, but declined in order to attend college at Columbia. He went on to receive a BS and later a PhD from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. Moroson became a noted cancer researcher, working at Sloan Kettering, New York Medical College, and Lenox Hill Hospital.

Celluloid, the first entirely synthetic plastic, was invented by John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920) of Albany in 1869. It is created from nitrocellulose and camphor along with dyes and other agents. Hyatt first developed the material as a less expensive alternative to ivory in the production of billiard balls. Hyatt's invention was patented in 1869 and subsequently used for a wide range of objects, both in imitation of expensive animal products like ivory, horn, and tortoiseshell, and also as an inexpensive medium for objects such as dresser sets, jewelry, picture frames, and advertising giveaways. Celluloid, which is both flammable and fragile, was gradually supplanted by the stronger Bakelite in the 1920s. Celluloid continues to be used today for making Ping Pong balls and guitar picks.