AKA, how I set up my Sony DSLR to use as a webcam.

Unless you’ve only just woken from a months’ long coma and the first thing you decided to do was read my blog, you’re likely aware of (waves arms around) this quarantine. I’ve been home and isolated for two months now. Fun times.

As a result, I’m in a lot of Zoom calls. As a result, I’m envious of the few people with their fancy camera and mic setups. As a result, I decided to do something about it.

First, here are a list of articles of what other people have done to get this going:

• Dan Mall’s setup
• Jesse Gardner’s setup
• Matt Stauffer’s setup

Read them? If so, you may notice as I did that every single one of them use the Elgato Camlink. It’s a hardware dongle that allows you to plug in your camera via HDMI and it’ll be recognized as a webcam.

Cool cool cool cool. Here’s the thing: everybody and their grandmother have clearly read the same articles and ordered themselves the Elgato Camlink. As such, they are sold out everywhere. If you’re in the United States, it seems some people have still been able to get their hands on them. Up here in America’s Hat (i.e. Canada), I couldn’t find them anywhere.

I had pretty much resigned myself to living with the Mac’s FaceTime camera. Is that so bad?

Well, then I came across a YouTube video that perfectly describes how to setup a Sony DSLR as a webcam using a piece of free software called CamTwist.

Awesome!

Well, kinda sorta. It’s a clunky setup that requires me to fire up my camera, then fire up Remote, then fire up CamTwist, then fire up the remote streaming tool of choice.

Except, when I opened up Zoom, it wasn’t recognizing the CamTwist webcam. (Skype seemed to work fine but everybody is using Zoom these days.) Everything I was finding on the web was telling me to downgrade to a previous version of Zoom to allow this to work.

Turns out, as Zoom tried to fix a bunch of security issues, they decided to lock out any unsigned webcams. (This is explained in this Reddit thread.) CamTwist is 10 year old software and isn’t signed. As such, it doesn’t get recognized. To solve this problem, you need unsign Zoom so that it’ll allow unsigned webcams. This feels icky but it worked and since we’re dealing with a global pandemic at the moment, unsigning an app seems like the least of my worries.

Per the instructions in the Reddit thread, you’ll need to have Xcode installed and then you’ll be able to run this line of code:

codesign --remove-signature /Applications/zoom.us.app/

Just like that, you’re in business.

Now, like I said, it’s not ideal. You can’t minimize the Remote app or the webcam doesn’t work. You can’t use Spaces or the webcam doesn’t work. You don’t want to resize the Remote app or CamTwist will show the wrong thing. Remote resets its height and width every time its opened, so best not to mess with it at all.

On the upside, CamTwist is studio software, so you can play with effects and text overlays and even cut between multiple video feeds, if you’re feeling overly ambitious.

So, while not perfect, it’ll do.

Lucky for us, Luna Luis Ortiz has a passion for history. A native New Yorker, he’s been a fixture on the house and ballroom scene since the late 1980s as a performer, photographer, and activist. So, when New-York Historical Society curator Rebecca Klassen was looking for advisers to help develop our exhibition Letting Loose and...

The post Stonewall 50: Meet Luna Luis Ortiz, One of New-York Historical’s Experts on House and Ballroom Culture appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Billy Eckstine drove his fans wild. Nicknamed Mr. B, the dashing singer had a voice that was described as a “suave bass-baritone” and a stage presence that, for a time at least, rivaled Frank Sinatra’s. By 1949, Eckstine was a genuine pop sensation—the New York Times reported that he even outsold Sinatra at New York’s...

The post LIFE in Pictures: Pop Star Billy Eckstine and the Infamous 1950 Photo That Impacted His Career appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

George Washington wanted a tent. The commander of the Continental Army had the impossible task of transforming his ragtag troops into a professional fighting force to match the mighty British. But to do so, he had to beg the fractious Continental Congress for funds and equipment. “I cannot take the field without equipage, and after...

The post The Tale of Washington’s Headquarters Tent: Legal Battles, Family Ties, and Remembering the Revolution appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

The world’s first cruise ship, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, opened for business—but mostly for pleasure—in 1901. The Hamburg-American line vessel contained only first-class cabins, each of which was “brilliantly lighted by electricity,” outfitted with electric bells,  steam-heated, and ventilated. At the time, these were luxury amenities even more impressive than the ship’s marine golf deck...

The post Cruising and Colonialism: Sailing the Caribbean in the Wake of the Spanish-American War appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Growing up in the North Jersey suburbs in the 1960s, I never thought of my family as makers of American history. But looking back on our weekend trips to Bear Mountain and the banks of the Hudson River, I realize that we participated in an important chapter of the 20th century: the flowering of the...

The post Making History at Bear Mountain: Family Memories, the Palisades, and an Inheritance Worth Preserving appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

In the fall of 2018, Niagara Falls left New York. The 1804 painting by Antoine Phillippe d’Orleans, Duc de Montpensier, departed its home at the New-York Historical Society in late September and traveled to France’s Palace of Versailles, where it was part of an exhibition about the July Monarchy, entitled Louis Philippe and Versailles. For a painting that’s...

The post Art on the Move: What Happens When a 215-Year-Old Painting Gets Shipped to France? appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

If you were an adventurous visitor to New York City in the 1950s or 1960s, you might have found your way to the 82 Club. A basement nightclub at 82 East Fourth Street, it wasn’t much to look at from the outside. Located in what was then a remote edge of the Lower East Side,...

The post Welcome to 82 Club: The Naughty Story of a Legendary New York Drag Institution  appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

One of the signature elements of New-York Historical’s exhibition Hudson Rising is the imposing, elegant slabs of white pine and red oak that greet visitors. The live-edged trunks evoke the forests of New York State’s Adirondacks and help make the presence of nature palpable. Hudson Rising—closing on Sunday, August 4—presents the Museum’s stellar collection of Hudson River School landscape...

The post Hudson Rising: The Man Behind the New-York Historical Exhibition’s Trees appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

John Hancock needed a check-up. New-York Historical’s portrait of the famed signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first governor of Massachusetts is on view as part of the exhibition Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere. However, before it gets installed, the Museum’s Paintings Conservation Lab wanted to learn more about it. New-York Historical actually knows very...

The post John Hancock Gets an X-ray: Inside the New-York Historical Conservation Lab appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

On the evening of July 9, 1776, downtown New York City was in a rebellious mood. The Declaration of Independence had been read aloud that day in lower Manhattan for the first time, announcing to the city that the Revolution against British rule had begun. That night, 40 colonial soldiers and sailors under the command...

The post A Horse’s Tail: How a Legendary Piece of a King George III Statue Landed at the New-York Historical Society appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Tycoons love to survey their empires. And in the 1870s, that empire was San Francisco. The city was in a period of ravenous growth fueled by mining discoveries like the 1848 Gold Rush and the Comstock Lode, and the first transcontinental rail line, a feat that made the men behind the Central Pacific Railroad—Mark Hopkins,...

The post San Francisco is a Ghost Town: The Story Behind Eadweard Muybridge’s Spooky Panorama appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Panoramas are all about spectacle, and the biggest spectacle in New-York Historical’s current exhibition Panoramas: The Big Picture is Claude Samton’s 1986 photomosaic of Manhattan’s Canal St. An immersive work that runs the whole length of one of our galleries, Canal Street is made up of about 2,000 individual photographs that Samton shot and then...

The post Manhattan in Motion: Capturing Canal Street in 1986 appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Henry Pelham created an image for the ages. On the snowy night of March 5, 1770, a group of British soldiers were confronted by an unruly crowd of colonists near the Custom House in Boston. The melee that followed ended with the panicked troops firing into the crowd, killing several colonists, including Crispus Attucks, a...

The post How Paul Revere Scooped a Rival and Created One of the Most Infamous Images in American History appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Before he became a titan of American literature and the witty bard of life in the 19th century, Mark Twain was just another young man looking for his big break in New York City. In the New-York Historical exhibition Mark Twain and the Holy Land (opening Oct. 25), we’re exploring the fabled journey behind one...

The post Mark Twain in New York: How an Ambitious Young Writer Talked His Way onto a Luxury Cruise to the Holy Land appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Here’s the first thing you need to know about Anne Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville besides her remarkable name: Napoleon himself was so struck by her courage that he decided not to execute her husband. The Baroness is the subject of the New-York Historical exhibition Artist in Exile: The Visual...

The post Who was the Baroness? Discovering the Exciting Life and Work of the ‘Artist in Exile’ appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

In December, the Carolina Parakeet will be the featured bird in New-York Historical’s Audubon’s Birds of America Focus Gallery. Below, curator Roberta J.M. Olson outlines the tragic story of the bird’s extinction, which became official almost 100 years ago.  In the early 19th century, artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785–1851) sounded the alarm about habitat loss...

The post When is a Parakeet a Canary? John James Audubon and the Extinction of North America’s Only Native Parrot appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

When you think about a brooch, you might think of your grandmother’s beautiful and intricate butterfly pin. Or maybe you’ve read about the various adornments that Queen Elizabeth II wears on special occasions. But for people living in the Victorian era, something as simple as a brooch was weighted with meaning and heavily scrutinized by...

The post Brooches for Every Occasion: Death and Jewelry in the Victorian Era appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

The New-York Historical Society Museum wants a wedding cake topper. Not just any cake topper: a same-sex version with two men or two women that speaks to the titanic shift in American culture that happened when gay marriage was legalized at the federal level in 2015. So if we’re so eager, why not just buy...

The post Want to Donate an Object to New-York Historical? Here’s How it Happens appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

In the early 19th century, artist Martha Ann Honeywell would sweep through towns like a band on tour. An artist who specialized in needlework, embroidery, and cut paper, among other mediums, she’d set up shop at a museum, tavern, or boardinghouse, charge 50 cents a ticket and perform three times a day for two hours...

The post “Done Without Hands”: Meet Martha Ann Honeywell, the Silhouette Artist Who Captivated 19th-Century America appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Bill Graham once said he didn’t remember much about his childhood. Maybe that’s because he preferred to forget. One of the most influential rock & roll promoters of all time, Graham was quite literally the man behind the music. The manager of the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and the Fillmore East in New...

The post Bill Graham’s American Journey: A Rock & Roll Mastermind Started Life as an Orphaned World War II Refugee appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

For over 50 years, Brooklyn native Jerry Greene and his wife Nina compiled one of the most remarkable collections of toys and trains ever assembled. In 2014, New-York Historical acquired a portion of their Jerni Collection with generous support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Richard Gilder, and an anonymous donor. This February marks yet another stop in...

The post The Secret Life of Trains: Inside the Jerni Collection of Vintage Toys appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

The history is right there in Wyoming’s official nickname: the Equality State. In 1889, delegates to Wyoming’s constitutional convention voted to do something that had never been done before: permanently guarantee women the right to vote in a constitution, without any preconditions. Article No. VI, Section 1, states plainly: “The rights of citizens of the...

The post “This Great Experiment”: How Wyoming Gave Women the Vote 30 Years Before the United States appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

To help support the city’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to protect the health of our visitors and staff, New-York Historical is temporarily closing to the public as of Friday, March 13, at 6 pm through the end of the month. While you can’t drop by to see our Meet the Presidents exhibition in...

The post History at Home: Listen to 10 Public Programs About the American Presidency appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19 in New York City, New-York Historical is temporarily closed to the public through the end of the month. Our Women March exhibition is off limits for the time being, but we’re celebrating Women’s History Month from afar. So, why not dip into our our vast collection of audio recordings from past...

The post History at Home: From Wonder Woman to Margaret Thatcher, 7 Public Programs About Remarkable Women appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19 in New York City, New-York Historical is temporarily closed to the public through the end of the month. Our Women March exhibition is off limits for the time being, but we’re celebrating Women’s History Month from afar. So dip into our our vast collection of audio recordings from past Public Programs and listen to a...

The post History at Home: 2 Public Programs About Women on the Supreme Court appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19 in New York City, New-York Historical is temporarily closed to the public through the end of the month. So take this time to dip into our our vast collection of audio recordings from past Public Programs and listen to a couple of fascinating talks about two memorable First Ladies from the Revolutionary Era who...

The post History at Home: 2 Public Programs on First Ladies of the Revolution appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Bestselling author and journalist Walter Isaacson has been a frequent guest of New-York Historical over the years, always bringing tantalizing tales of innovation and ingenuity. Enjoy four of his past public programs below: on Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, and Albert Einstein, and a deep dive into the technologies that are shaping our digital future....

The post History at Home: Bestselling Author Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, and More appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

No matter the occasion, flower deliveries always mean one thing: We’re thinking about you. On Tuesday, March 25, New-York Historical Society partnered with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., to send museums a virtual #MuseumBouquet of flowers to brighten social media feeds and cheer up online audiences. Hundreds of cultural organizations—most of...

The post #MuseumBouquet to Brighten Your Day: Sending Flowers on Social Media appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

When Ulysses Grant Dietz’s older brother gave him a wedding cake topper for Christmas in the early 2000s, he meant it mostly as a gag gift. Made of molded plastic, the topper features two tuxedo-clad men linking arms under a flower-bedecked bower. On the underside, it’s stamped with the words “Adam & Steve.” The topper’s...

The post The Love Story Behind New-York Historical’s New Wedding Cake Topper appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

What can history museums do during an epidemic? Like many institutions across the globe, the New-York Historical Society is temporarily closed to help contain the spread of COVID-19. And like so many New Yorkers, our curators and librarians are preoccupied with concern for their loved ones and grief over what’s happening in our beloved city....

The post History Responds: Collecting During the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

America lost a great journalist in 2019 when Cokie Roberts died at the age of 75 from complications due to breast cancer. New-York Historical also lost a beloved friend. Roberts, a legendary reporter and commentator for ABC News and NPR, had appeared often in our Public Programs over the years to talk about American history and politics, and she...

The post History at Home: Cokie and Steven Roberts and Their Unique Haggadah appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Author and scholar Douglas Brinkley has been described by CNN as “a man who knows more about the presidency than just about any human being alive.” So it was a match made in history heaven when New-York Historical named him our official presidential historian in 2017. He’s long been a fixture at our Public Programs series and...

The post History at Home: 2 Public Programs About the Roosevelts and America’s Natural Treasures appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

April 22, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, was a remarkably non-partisan affair that brought an estimated 20 million people out into the streets, parks, and beaches across the United States. In New York alone, Earth Day celebrations, rallies, and teach-ins shut down 5th Avenue...

The post Earth Day Turns 50: How to Participate Online and Get Free Posters from New-York Historical appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

“Booze sales are booming,” read a recent CNN headline focused on a spike in liquor, beer, and wine sales as Americans shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our current moment is just another side note in America’s long, complex relationship with alcohol.  Over the years, our Public Programs have explored many facets of this history. Enjoy audio recordings of two past programs below: one...

The post History at Home: 2 Public Programs About Prohibition and America’s Tradition of Beer Brewing appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, perhaps it’s no surprise that alcohol sales are booming. With many of us confined to our homes (if we’re lucky), braving commutes to carry out essential work, or simply trying to figure out how to make a mask out of your last pair of clean underwear, there seems to be no...

The post Cocktails in a Crisis: New-York Historical’s Iconic Barware and a History of Happy Hours in Dark Times appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

People around the world are stuck at home and socially distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we want to bring the outdoors inside. The New-York Historical Society partnered with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., to send virtual rays of #MuseumSunshine to lighten moods and brighten social media feeds. Dear @metmuseum, we...

The post Catching Rays with #MuseumSunshine: Shining Light on Social Media appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Our Public Programs have long explored the rich history of Jewish life in America from the colonial era to the present day. They’ve also, not surprisingly, grappled with the ongoing scourge of anti-Semitism and its pernicious hold on world affairs. Listen to two audio programs below that tackle two very different facets of Jewish life: first, a fascinating...

The post History at Home: 2 Public Programs About Jewish History and Anti-Semitism appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

In 2010, our Public Program series welcomed an all-star lineup: journalist and then-New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, The New Yorker‘s Adam Gopnik, and boxing writer and sports historian Bert Sugar (who sadly, passed away in 2012). The subject of their talk was an irresistible one for any sports fan who’s missing the action during lockdown: longshots, underdogs,...

The post History at Home: Longshots, Underdogs, and Great Moments in New York Sports appeared first on Behind The Scenes.

Les Vies de quatre saints fondateurs du christianisme et du monachisme éthiopiens qui furent en activité, pour les premiers, aux IVe et VIe siècles et, pour les seconds, au tournant du XIIIe et du XIVe siècle.

L'affirmation du pouvoir romain sur le monde grec et ses limites.

Rompre avec ' le ' mythe, renouer avec les rituels : pour une poétique des formes narratives grecques

Féru de culture grecque et des manières alexandrines, amant passionné des registres extrêmes du langage, le jeune Catulle de Vérone fait briller d'un éclat subtil l'esprit de la ' nouvelle poésie ' à Rome...

L'hégémonie des géants de l'économie numérique est simplement forte de nos résignations et de nos crédulités. Nous pouvons reconquérir le monde d'or et d'airain qu'ils prétendent régenter.

La traduction revue et corrigée du chef-d'oeuvre de la littérature humoristique en langue latine.

Un témoignage capital sur la façon dont les chrétiens se représentaient leur position par rapport au judaïsme dans les derniers temps de l'Empire romain.