“Bums, Slummers and Swells—American Social Class and the Birth of Popular Culture on the Lower East Side, 1825–1855”

New York City has always been a hotbed for iconic characters—the five boroughs gave us Woody Allen, Lady Gaga and even Spider-Man—but it can also lay claim to being the birthplace of pop culture itself. Historian Warren Shaw will detail how NYC’s 19th-century slums helped spark various lowbrow amusements.