Now through December 29, 2013
Regular admission is $9 per person, $7 for seniors and $4 for students ages six to 17.
The in Stony Brook presents a new exhibition highlighting two of Long Island’s summer playgrounds. They are sun-drenched spectacles. Miles and miles of beaches and boardwalks jammed with smiling, tanned and half-dressed people of all ages. The mere mention of Coney Island or Jones Beach evokes summer itself.
Coney Island and Jones Beach: Empires by the Sea will take visitors on a fun-filled ride through the history of these two landmarks, exploring the changing, complicated relationship between New Yorkers and their favorite seaside playgrounds. The exhibition will include a dazzling array of objects (including historic beachwear and amusement park artifacts), rare photographs, paintings, prints and archival film clips.
Coney Island went from an unknown strip of sand to the world’s most famous seaside resort in the 19th century. People began going there shortly after a shell-crushed road connected it to the rest of Brooklyn in 1829. But it gradually became rowdy entertainment for the masses, home to three major amusement parks, and the birthplace of the roller coaster and the hot dog. By 1920, accessible by the subway, Coney Island was dubbed the “Nickel Empire.” But not everyone was charmed by the spectacle.
Jones Beach was different: “Flowers, lawns, shrubs greet you, instead of papers, lunch boxes and dirt. Nothing is crowded, the sidewalks are wide, the buildings are low and attractively designed. The beach is apparently endless.”
Master builder Robert Moses planned Jones Beach as an antidote to what he regarded as the excesses of Coney Island. In addition to forbidding carnival vendors and “honkey tonk,” Jones Beach employed uniformed attendants and enforced strict rules against undressing in cars and leaving litter on the boardwalk or beach. The entire park included beautifully-designed bathhouses and nautical-themed trash receptacles. By the mid-1930s, Jones Beach welcomed over 100,000 visitors on its busiest summer days.
The exhibition will explore these two famous spots not only in their heydays, but will also look at what has happened during their decline, resurrection, and redefinitions over the past several decades. Where some once thought the sun might be setting on these two historic beaches, millions still pack their bags every summer to go there and make new memories. The perfect summer exhibition, Coney Island and Jones Beach will give visitors a fun and energetic history of how two iconic coastal areas became lasting people’s playgrounds.
For more information on the exhibition and related programs, visit or call 631-751-0066.