A decidedly unglamorous black-hulled cargo barge plying the turbid waters off Staten Island represents the last working evidence of two centuries of New York history. McAllister Towing & Transportation Co.’s Atlantic Trader, a 300-foot container-carrying barge which entered service in 1977 appears to be the last vessel built from the ground up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The plodding, anonymous Atlantic Trader had many famous Navy Yard forebears, including the USS Arizona, destroyed at Pearl Harbor where the Second World War began for the United States on Dec. 7, 1941, and the USS Missouri, where the war ended 45 months later with the formal Japanese surrender on her polished teak deck in Tokyo Bay. Other warships built in Brooklyn included the USS Maine, whose 1898 destruction in Havana Harbor helped launch the Spanish-American War; the USS Ohio, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line launched in 1820 that saw action in the Mexican-American War; and eight battleships and eight aircraft carriers completed between 1911 and 1961. Ships built at the yard saw service in every major American conflict from the War of 1812 to Operation Iraqi Freedom. [Read more…] about Decades After Closure, Brooklyn Navy Yard Sails On
On November 26, 1883, a large statue of George Washington by the American Sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward was erected in front of New York City’s Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street, which statue remains there to this day.
At the heart of the Ticonderoga peninsula is the 
A black dagger passed down through four generations had a “story” behind it. All the family knew was that it was “taken off a German soldier in France, during 
Ben Kemp from Grant Cottage State Historic Site is set to speak on the final days the Civil War General and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant on Tuesday, November 5th, at the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site. This will begin the fifth annual Tuesday Talk series to recognize New York State History Month. 
The home of James Edmonston in New Windsor has stood for over 250 years. Rescued in the 1960s by the National Temple Hill Association, the house by that point was a junkyard showroom filled with old car parts. It is now restored, near the New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site.
The Fort Plain Museum will host a symposium on the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign against Native Americans in 1779 on Saturday, November 2nd. Pre-registration is recommended, but walk-ins are welcome. 
Old Fort Niagara has announced French Heritage Day, featuring living history programs on the French influences on the Niagara region on Saturday, November 9th.