See how ice skating became a beloved NYC pastime in new exhibit

Earlier this week, the Museum of the City of New York opened a new show celebrating the history of ice skating in NYC. New York on Ice, which opened to the public on Wednesday, explores the Dutch and British origins of ice skating in the city, and also ponders its future.

Moving through hundreds of years, the exhibit also looks at how ice skating became a favorite winter pastime in the 19th century, and how in the 20th century, ice skating arenas became the center of elaborate spectacles, and competitive sporting events.

MCNY is telling this story through all sorts of materials including paintings, posters, lithographs, costumes, and vintage photographs. If you do plan to stop by, you’ll be able to check out vintage photographs of a speed-skating race on the lake at Central Park, a ballpark flooded with skaters, also in Central Park, and skaters at Lasker Rink, and at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, among many other objects.

The show will run at MCNY until April 15, 2018. Here now is a peek at just some of the things the exhibit has to offer.

Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame

MCNY

Courtesy New York City Parks Photo Archive.

Courtesy New York City Parks Photo Archive

Courtesy New York City Parks Photo Archive

MCNY

MCNY