Marisa L. Berman

Marisa L. Berman, a Long Island native, spent numerous summers of her childhood at Nunley’s Amusement Park in Baldwin. Growing up in Oceanside, a town over from the park, she is a second generation Long Islander. Her parents, Ed and Carrie, grew up in Baldwin, went to Baldwin High School and spent many of their early dates at Nunley’s. So of course they brought Marisa, as well as her older brother Steven, to the park as children.

A local historian, Berman has spent the last twelve years working in various museums, libraries and other historic sites in the New York area. She served as Executive Director of the Queens Historical Society in Flushing from 2007 to 2012, where she curated multiple exhibitions using the Society’s historical archives, as well as giving lectures and leading walking tours of the surrounding area.

It was while working in the Museum Division of the Nassau County Parks Department from 2005 to 2007, that Berman got the opportunity to experience the vast history of Long Island firsthand. She was stationed at Sands Point Preserve, Old Bethpage Village Restoration, as well as the Cradle of Aviation Air and Space Museum – ironically, the new home of the famous Nunley’s Carousel.

Berman holds a Masters degree in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City – a unique program that uses the history and theory of fashion specifically for museum work. She also holds a Bachelors degree in English Literature, as well as a Bachelors of Professional Studies in Fashion Design – both from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Berman is currently serving as Assistant Director of the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives at Queensborough Community College CUNY in Bayside, NY. Although the subject matter is very different from her previous positions, Berman loves working with the students and faculty at the college and finding new ways to make history interesting and relevant to future generations.

On looking back on the project Berman says, “I feel so privileged to bring this piece of lost history back for Long Islanders to enjoy. I have received so much support from the public while working on the book, as well as countless stories and photographs. This is a history that needed to be documented so that will never be forgotten.”

2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the Nunley’s carousel and was celebrated with a weekend long festival at its new home between the Cradle of Aviation Air and Space Museum and the Long Island Children’s Museum in Museum Row, Garden City.