03/17/2025
The new episode of Crossroads of Rockland History is streaming now!
Listen to it here: https://on.soundcloud.com/Dei87vYTL4hwEgAb8
A 30-minute version of this interview originally aired on Monday, March 17, 2025 at 9:30am on WRCR Radio 1700AM.
Crossroads celebrated both Women’s History Month and Saint Patrick’s day with a discussion about an exciting program coming up at Harmony Hall in Sloatsburg. Eve Kahn, the former Antiques Editor for the New York Times and Elizabeth Stack the Executive Director at the American Irish Historical Society will joined host Clare Sheridan to discuss Anna Frances Levins, the Irish American artist and entrepreneur who traveled widely to photograph remotest Ireland and created portraits of sitters ranging from Pope Pius X to martyred Irish revolutionaries.
Anna Frances Levins founded her own company, Levins Press, which published lavish books about the history of Ireland and Irish Americans, and her photos appeared by the hundreds in books, newspapers, and magazines. Levins also helped the newest Irish arrivals at Ellis Island, combating her era's bitter prejudices against immigrants. She eventually married one of her portrait sitters, an Irish baronet. Despite all of this, Levins has ended up in contemporary obscurity.
About the guests:
Eve Kahn is an Independent scholar and former Antiques Columnist at The New York Times. She is an award winning author who writes about art, architecture, and design for the Times among other publications. She is the biographer of artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) and writer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914). Eve Kahn appeared on Crossroads of Rockland History to discuss Edith Varian Cockroft of Sloatsburg (Episode 95, September, 2018).
Elizabeth Stack, PhD, is the Executive Director of the American Irish Historical Society in New York City. Dr. Stack was previously the executive director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, NY and before that she taught Irish and Irish American History and was an Associate Director at Fordham University’s Institute of Irish Studies. She completed her PhD at Fordham, writing about Irish and German immigrants in New York at the turn of the twentieth century, as they grappled with the immigration restriction movements of that time. She has a master’s degree in Anglo-Irish Relations in the 20 th Century from University College Dublin in Ireland. From Listowel, in Co. Kerry, Elizabeth sees a huge connection between her own experience as an immigrant, and the important mission of the Society to preserve and share Irish contributions to American history. “Major areas of interaction between Ireland and America have included diplomacy, economy, education, nationalism, tourism, culture, philanthropy, and the free flow of capital. However, immigration has given the most significant and lasting link. We explore all these topics in the Society.”
About the Program: Anna Frances Levins
When: Sunday, March 30th, 2:00 pm
Where: Harmony Hall, Jacob Sloat House, Sloatsburg, NY
In Celebration of Women’s History Month: Eve Kahn presents Anna Frances Levins, forgotten Irish American Photographer, Publisher, Immigrant Activist, Bibliophile. Independent scholar Eve M. Kahn, who has mined thousands of pages of Levins' correspondence hidden in Catholic leaders' archives, will present a heavily illustrated report on her research into the life and works of this trailblazer.
Reservations Required: Members: $20; Non-members: $25.
Light refreshments will be served.
Tickets available at https://www.friendsofharmonyhall.org/events
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The American Irish Historical Society will also host Eve Kahn for "Rediscovering Anna Frances Levins, Forgotten Irish American Photographer, Publisher, Political Activist and Baroness"
When: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Where: 991 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028
Info here: https://aihsny.org/events-2/rediscovering-anna-frances-levins-forgotten-irish-american-photographer-publisher-political-activist-and-baroness
The Historical Society of Rockland County, New York, is a 501 (c)(3) private organization chartered
