Historical News and Views from the Empire State
A local Women’s History event is set for Wednesday, March 21st at 7 pm, at the Warren County Historical Society, 50 Gurney Lane, in Queensbury.
This Women’s History Month event, which is free and open to the public, features talks by three local women on three notable women in local history Harriet Leonard Colburn, Jeanne Robert Foster, and Frances Garnar Kinnear. Light refreshments will be served following the presentation. [Read more…] about Queensbury Women’s History Event March 21st
A Women’s History Month Program has been set for March 15th from 7 to 9 p at the Alling Coverlet Museum, 132 Market Street, in Palmyra, Wayne County, NY.
This event will introduce attendees to the women of Palmyra’s history such as Dr. Harriet Adams, Clarissa Hall Jerome, Lavinia Chase, Harriett Hyde Sexton, Anna Webster Eaton, and Sybil Phelps, along with other women of the region such as the Fox Sisters. [Read more…] about Historic Palmyra Women’s History Month Event March 15th
Women’s Rights National Historical Park will be celebrating National Women’s History Month in March with an array of programming and special events. New exhibits will be unveiled featuring some of the park’s most significant historical objects related to the first Women’s Rights Convention held in the park’s Wesleyan Chapel in 1848.
Dr. Barbara LeSavoy, PhD, Director of Women and Gender Studies at The College of Brockport, will be sharing her experiences traveling in Russia in a lecture and conversation on women titled, “Comparative Perspectives on the United States and Russia.” And, WCNY will once again hold its Annual Central New York Women Who Make America Awards Ceremony at the park. These are just a sampling of the activities that will be on the park’s calendar during National Women’s History Month. [Read more…] about Women’s History Month Plans At Women’s Rights NHP
At the height of her career in mid-1873, Kate Field was said to be “a more prominent journalist than Clemens [Mark Twain].” The Washington Post said she was “one of the foremost women of America,” and the Chicago Tribune called her the “most unique woman the present century has produced.” Yet in her tales of adventure in the Adirondacks, she called herself “a babe in the woods.”
She wrote, “To be a babe in the woods watched over by a human robin redbreast, is as near an approach to Eden before the fall as comes within the ken of woman.” [Read more…] about Kate Field: “A Babe in the Woods” of the Adirondacks
Editor’s Note: This tribute to Lake George’s Winnie LaRose was written by the late Robert F. Hall and republished in his 1992 collection of essays, Pages from Adirondack History. He included this piece in the collection because, he wrote, “Winifred S. LaRose, who died on December 6, 1979, was the very embodiment of the environmentalist – a person whose love of her own native place and whose determination that its beauty would not be spoiled led her to the forefront of the environmental movement, not only in Lake George, but throughout New York State.”
Governor Hugh Carey proclaimed August 21, 1980, as Winnie LaRose Day, but any day would have served because that lady was busy every day of the year for the past 30 years in battling for the environment.
The governor chose that date because it coincided with a memorial service to the late Mrs. LaRose at the Fort George Battleground Park on the Beach Road at Lake George. This was an appropriate site for the service because Winnie, more than anyone else, was responsible for turning this swampy piece of ground into a park for people to enjoy. But it was done not only for people. As Victor Glider, a good friend and now retired as director of Environmental Conservation Field Services, told the gathering, Winnie insisted on clearing away the brush so that the statue of the martyred Father Jogues would have a good view of the lake where he served his mission in the 17th century. [Read more…] about Winnie LaRose: An Informal Tribute
Any recognition of influential and famous American women should include Frances Perkins and rank her close to the top of such a list. Perkins was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s secretary of labor during his entire time in office, from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman cabinet member in our history.
Although she is largely unknown to most Americans, many historians credit Perkins as being the architect and driving force responsible for the key achievements of FDR’s New Deal program during the Great Depression of the 1930s. [Read more…] about Frances Perkins: Secretary of Labor Under FDR
During the first decades of the twentieth century, as women first agitated for and then began exercising the right to vote, many became intrigued by the political process and the possibilities for influencing public opinion. One of the topics of great interest and debate concerned the best use of forest lands in the Adirondack Park, and whether to uphold the protections of Article VII, Section 7, the forever wild clause of the New York Constitution. Although little has been written on this subject, I am convinced that women contributed significantly to this debate.
My source of information is a collection of letters saved by John S. Apperson, Jr., an engineer at the General Electric Company in Schenectady. By 1920, he had earned a reputation as a leading preservationist, and was fighting a vigorous campaign to protect the islands at Lake George. His connection to women’s organizations apparently got its start there, as he became friends with Mary Loines, from Brooklyn, New York, who owned land in Northwest Bay. [Read more…] about NY Women Helped Frame 1930s Preservation Debate
Research projects sometimes take unexpected, but fascinating, twists and turns. I had reason a few years ago to look into the case of a woman called Madame Sherri. She is mostly known for an unusual castle-like house built for her in a rural area of New Hampshire–its ruins are now popular with hikers and lovers of the odd and mysterious.
My investigation dragged me far from New Hampshire–to the world of cabaret reviews in New York City, the vaudeville circuit, and “soldier shows” (popular during World War I, with Irving Berlin’s “Yip Yip Yaphank” being the most well-known). And, for good measure, toss in a scandal involving sex and blackmail. [Read more…] about Madame Sherri: Early 20th Century NYC Show Business
Three women’s suffrage activists, four educators, two musicians, an artist, a psychiatrist, and a writer. These are just some of the amazing careers led by North Country Women of Courage who will be the subject of the Patricia Harrington Carson Brown Bag Lunch program tomorrow, Thursday, March 20th at noon at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association at the Silas Wright House, 3 East Main St., Canton.
Brown Bag Lunches are free and open to the public. Bring your own lunch and enjoy a beverage and dessert provided by SLCHA. [Read more…] about Canton Event: North Country Women of Courage
Helen Redmond’s life was that of a star, playing Broadway and touring the country for five years in the role of prima donna, but she hadn’t forgotten her family. In 1900, Helen’s mother, three brothers, a sister, and a nephew shared a Manhattan address with her. All were employed except for mom (age 64 and retired) and the nephew, who was in school. It was a far cry from 20 years earlier, when the single mother of seven toiled as a hotel servant and cook in upstate Vermont.
Clinging to her roots, and to escape the constant limelight and media attention, Helen occasionally visited her hometown of Port Henry, sometimes spending entire summers there, accompanied by her mother. [Read more…] about Helen Redmond: Big City Star with North Country Roots