The award-winning PBS program Treasures of New York has featured a one hour episode on Bowne House. From the fight for religious freedom, to the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, Treasures of New York: Bowne House traces the history held in a 17th century house that’s now a museum in Flushing, in New York City’s borough of Queens.

Watch the full episode below:

Original air date: 11/29/23 on WLIW21

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:

Treasures of New York: Bowne House highlights the history of the 1661 private home in Flushing, Queens, beginning with the family patriarch, John Bowne (1627-1695), and explores the role multiple generations of its occupants have played in the history of New York City. From the fight for religious freedom to the Underground Railroad, the episode offers insight into Bowne House’s history and shares that story with 21st-century visitors of all ages from around the world.

Holding centuries of American history and first-person accounts of the struggle for freedom, the episode dives into the life and work of John Bowne and his descendants, exploring his imprisonment for hosting Quaker meetings and his detailed, handwritten journal handed down through generations. Bowne demanded the right to “liberty of conscience,” which set the stage for the guarantee of religious freedom in the First Amendment. Treasures of New York: Bowne House also shows preserved letters, maps and objects from the house’s earliest days including a letter written in 1850 asking for safety for a freedom seeker on the Underground Railroad.

With this episode, Bowne House joins a distinguished group of important cultural and historic sites in New York City’s five boroughs including Lincoln Center, the Park Avenue Armory, Louis Armstrong’s house in Corona, Queens and many more.

- PBS Pressroom