Author Archives: Editorial Staff

Events to Celebrate Adirondack Women’s History


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image001(8)Celebrate Women’s History Month on March 21 and 22 with a program of stories and music by acclaimed Adirondack singer-songwriter Peggy Lynn and author/performer Sandra Weber.

On Friday, March 21 at 7:00 pm Peggy and Sandra perform at the Whallonsburg Grange Hall. On Saturday, March 22 at 6:30 pm at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts there is a reception to benefit the Adirondack History Center Museum followed by a performance at 7:30 pm. The Wild Spirits: Songs and Stories of Remarkable Adirondack Women program highlights the contributions and journeys of famous (and not so famous) women of the Adirondacks. Continue reading →

Poltics, War, and Personality:
50 Iconic World War II Documents


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Politics-War-and-Personality-Fifty-Iconic-World-War-II-Documents-That-Changed-the-World-HardcoverAuthor Kenneth W. Rendell has gathered 50 of the most important and iconic documents of World War II in Poltics, War, and Personality: Fifty Iconic World War II Documents that Changed the World (Whitman Publishing; 2014).

With the assistance of more than 150 archival images and photographs, Rendell tells the stories of these documents which foreshadowed, announced, or altered the course of war. The book features a foreword by the late John S.D. Eisenhower, son of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Continue reading →

This Week’s New York History Web Highlights


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Adirondack Fire Tower Management Public Hearing Set


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Hurricane-mtn-Fire-Tower-Phil-Brown-PhotoThe Proposed Final Drafts of the Hurricane Mountain and St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower Historic Area Unit Management Plans (UMPs) were presented by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) staff to the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) Board at their monthly meeting on February 14, 2014. Pursuant to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (SLMP) requirements for Historic Areas, the Agency will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 to solicit public comments related to the proposed UMPs’ conformity with the provisions of the SLMP.

The Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower Historic Area is located on the Summit of Hurricane Mountain in the Town of Keene, Essex County. The St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower Historic Area is located on the summit of St. Regis Mountain in the Town of Santa Clara, Franklin County. Continue reading →

This Week’s Top New York History News


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Latest New York History News

Subscribe! The New York History Blog reaches more than 6,000 people each day each day via E-mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

Make a Contribution! The New York History Blog is supported by you. If you think this site provides a valuable service, please become a recurring contributor – or just make a one-time contribution at our Rally.org page.

Questions about contributions should be directed to editor John Warren.

Abolitionist Gerrit Smith’s Birthday Party Planned


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Smith, G Sebring 1-2014Stewards for the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (the Gerrit Smith Estate) invite the public to the annual Gerrit Smith birthday party at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, 2014 to learn about Peterboro in 1864.

Born in Utica March 6, 1797, Smith came to Peterboro when nine years old and, with the exception of his years at college and in Congress, spent his life in Peterboro managing his land business in order to support his reform initiatives. Smith’s influence connected Peterboro to national issues. Continue reading →

Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American


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Hank Greenburg After Connecting; Home RuThere are people whose contributions to baseball history went far beyond mere batting averages or stolen bases. They didn’t just play the game, they changed the game. For generations of American Jews and other minorities, they served as athletic, cultural, and ethical role models.

On March 13, 2014 the National Museum of American Jewish History will open a new exhibition, Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American, being billed as “the first large-scale exhibition to use the story of Jews and baseball as an opportunity to highlight ways in which our national pastime is part of the history, and ongoing story, of how immigrants and minorities of many different backgrounds—including Italians, Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, and many others—become American, to feel a part of the society in which they might otherwise be on the margins.” Continue reading →

NYS Parks, Historic Sites Visitation Tops 60 Million


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OPRHP-1The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) today announced that more than 60.1 million people visited New York state parks and historic sites in 2013, and campgrounds had the busiest year on record.

Visitation topped 60 million for the second year in a row despite the fact that some of state’s most popular parks were temporarily closed for repairs due to Superstorm Sandy. Continue reading →

Genealogy: BillionGraves Crowdsourcing App Announced


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Billion GravesMyHeritage, the popular online family history network, has partnered with BillionGraves to launch a global crowdsourcing initiative to help preserve the world’s cemeteries.

BillionGraves is a free iOS and Android application that lets users easily photograph and document gravestones and record their GPS locations. The gravestone photographs are then expected to be transcribed by volunteers on the BillionGraves website, resulting in searchable digital data. The app is expected to be available in 25 languages and support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian dates. Continue reading →

Fair-Weather Patriot: General James Wilkinson


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General James WilkinsonGeneral James Wilkinson was the 5th Commanding General of the US Army, fought along the St. Lawrence River during the War of 1812, and was a spy for the Spanish. Find out more about this colorful character when Matt Dudley presents For King and Countries: The Remarkable Life of an Occasional Spaniard and a Fair-weather Patriot on Saturday, March 1st, 2 p.m. at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association at the Silas Wright House, 3 East Main St., Canton.

This War of 1812 program is part of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association’s Commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, which was fought from 1812-1815. St. Lawrence County was one of the battlefields of the War of 1812. Continue reading →

This Week’s Top New York History News


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Latest New York History News

Subscribe! The New York History Blog reaches more than 5,300 people each day each day via E-mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

Make a Contribution! The New York History Blog is supported by you. If you think this site provides a valuable service, please become a recurring contributor – or just make a one-time contribution at our Rally.org page.

Questions about contributions should be directed to editor John Warren.

Enslaved in Rensselaer County: Slavery at Crailo


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SK-A-285On Saturday, February 22nd from 11:00am-4:00pm Crailo in Rensselaer, NY will explore the lesser-known world of those who were enslaved by the Van Rensselaers and the history of slavery in New Netherland and New York.

Crailo will be open for special open-house style tours, featuring new interpretation of the cellar kitchen focusing on the role that enslaved people played at Crailo.  Continue reading →

98th Annual NYS Archaeological Association Meeting


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NYS Archaeological AssociationThe New York State Archaeological Association (NYSAA) has issued a Call for Papers for its 98th Annual Meeting on April 11-13th, 2014. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2014.

The Annual Meeting will be held in the Susquehanna Valley at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Oneonta, NY. The keynote speaker will be David Starbuck, Professor of Anthropology, Plymouth State University. Continue reading →

NYS Museum Exhibit: Franklin Roosevelt’s First New Deal


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NYSM-bustsFDR_EleanorAn exhibition on President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the “First New Deal” in New York has opened at the New York State Museum. On display through May 4, “New York and the First New Deal” will feature bronze bust sculptures of Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as other images and artifacts from Roosevelt’s economic revitalization efforts in New York.

The bronze busts are by sculptor Caroline Palmer of Montgomery, New York. Palmer originally created a set of Roosevelt busts for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY. She created another set which is currently on loan to the State Museum. Continue reading →

Troy Labor History:
Kate Mullany 150th Anniversary History Walk


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kateimage-201x300The Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) is hosting a special event this Saturday, February 22nd commemorating the 150th anniversary of Kate Mullany’s historic formation of the Collar Laundry Union in Troy. The event begins at 11am at RCHS and includes a walk from RCHS to the Troy Farmers Market at 12pm and concludes with speeches at the Farmers Market at 12:30. This event is free to the public.

At the age of 23 Kate Mullany organized 300 of her fellow laundry workers to strike for higher wages and improved working conditions in the collar laundries. This Saturday, February 22nd, RCHS will commemorate Mullany’s creation of the 1st sustained female labor union in America’s history. The event begins at 11am at RCHS (57 Second St., Troy, NY) where the public will be invited to create strike signs in keeping with the historic celebration of the strike. Continue reading →

Historic Punch Recipes Featured At Albany Institute


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Albany Punch BowlOn Wednesday, February 26 from 6PM-8PM, the Albany Institute of History & Art will host Potent Potables, which will highlight historic punch recipes and showcase punch bowls from the museum’s collection. The event, which is hosted by the Albany Institute’s Special Events Committee, costs $25 per person to attend and participants must be 21 and over (ID required). Featured punches include Champagne Punch, Cherry Bounce, Lime Rub Shrub, Pumpelly Punch, and Regents Punch.

Punch, an Eastern drink, is from the Hindi word panch, meaning “five,” for its five basic ingredients of rum, water, sugar, juice, and spice. Punch was introduced to the West in the late seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century it had become the drink of choice in England and the American colonies where punch making was considered a social accomplishment. Continue reading →

2014 Public Historians Conference in Saratoga Springs


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AphlogoThe 2014 Association of Public Historians in New York State annual conference will be held from March 16-19, 2014 at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs.

A tentative conference schedule and registration information has been posted online here.

The purpose of the Association is to promote and encourage a greater understanding of the history of New York State and its local jurisdictions; to promote and encourage the work of the officially appointed local government historians in New York State and its legal jurisdictions; to support and encourage the Office of the State Historian; to foster a spirit of cooperation and collegiality among all public historians in New York State.

Martha Washington Woman of History Awardees Named


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washingtons headquartersWashington’s Headquarters State Historic Site will present two Martha Washington Woman of History Awards. The 2014 Martha Washington Woman of History Award recipient is author/historian Mary Sudman Donovan.

This award is given each year in honor of Martha Washington, a perennially outstanding woman in history who resided in the Hudson Valley with her husband, General George Washington, during the last days of the Revolutionary War. Continue reading →