New York History

History Channel to Feature Saranac WWII Veteran

2009-11-10T12:00:00.002-05:00

A History Channel documentary will feature an Adirondack veteran of World War Two: Archie Sweeney of Saranac Lake. The 10-hour series WWII in HD, which will air over over five consecutive nights from Sunday through Thursday, November 15-19 will be narrated by Gary Sinise.Archie Sweeney was a resident of Saranac Lake Village (where one of his sisters still lives; another lives in Glens Falls), who

Sex and the City: The Early Years

2009-11-10T06:00:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday, November 18th, Bill Greer, the author of The Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan, is giving a talk at the Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch, at 7 p.m. The lecture, entitled "Sex and the City: The Early Years," looks at the bawdy world of Dutch New York from 1624 to 1664. Through anecdotes of real people and events, the talk examines the libertine culture Europeans brought to the

John Brown Symposium, Reenactment, Memorial

2009-11-09T06:00:00.005-05:00

A tremendous slate of events has been planned for the Lake Placid-North Eba area to commemorate the life and death of abolitionist John Brown. Dubbed the "John Brown Coming Home Commemoration," held from November 4th to December 8th, 2009, the series of events will examine John Brown's impact on the country leading up to the civil war, the use of violence, and on the ongoing efforts to end

Books: Madison County's Frank L. Baum, Wizard of Oz

2009-11-08T06:00:00.006-05:00

This summer the film "The Wizard of Oz" marked its 70th anniversary. Just in time comes The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baumby Rebecca Loncraine, the first full biography of L. Frank Baum - from his birth in 1856 and his youth in the Finger Lakes region, to the years following his death - that looks at the people, places, history, culture, and literature that influenced the

This Week's New York History Web Highlights

2009-11-06T12:00:00.003-05:00

Old Salt Blog: 250th Anniversary of the Spencer Riot NYCO’s Blog: Happy birthday, Fairmount Fair New York Public Library Blog: Charting the Future Inside the Apple: History of Yankee Ticker Tape Parades Virtual Dime Museum: The Coney Island Bowery Inside the Apple: William Jay Gaynor, Assassinated Mayor Ephemeral NY: The Squatters of 'Hardlucksville' Confessions of a Preservationist: Saving Main

This Week's Top New York History News

2009-11-06T06:00:00.003-05:00

Mass. State Library May Close Rockwell Museum Opens Major Exhibit 1845 Wesleyan Methodist Church Left To Rot Civil War Statue Gets A Sword RPI President is Highest Paid in The Country

The Real Peter Stuyvesant? New Netherlands Fiction

2009-11-05T13:13:00.003-05:00

Bill Greer (a trustee of the New Netherland Institute) will talk about painting a portrait of New Netherland in a work of fiction, using his novel The Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan: A Novel of New Amsterdam and the life of Peter Stuyvesant, Director general of the New Netherland colony. The event will take place on November 19th at the Hagaman Historical Society, Pawling Hall, 86 Pawling Street,

Rensselaer County HS's Uncle Sam Exhibition

2009-11-05T06:00:00.004-05:00

The Rensselaer County Historical Society and Museum (RCHS) will become the new home for Uncle Sam and his story with the opening of its new permanent exhibition Uncle Sam: The Man in Life and Legend on Wednesday, November 11, 5-7 p.m., at 57 Second Street in Troy.Samuel 'Uncle Sam' Wilson (1766-1854) is undoubtedly Troy¹s most famous son. Arriving in Troy in the late 18th century and

'Mostly Spruce And Hemlock' Book Party in Tupper

2009-11-04T12:00:00.003-05:00

A book-release party for the reprint of the classic Adirondack history “Mostly Spruce and Hemlock” will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 at the Goff-Nelson Memorial Library, 41 Lake St., in Tupper Lake. The party will feature brief comments from library officials, Tupper Lake Free Press Publisher Dan McClelland, index author Carol Payment Poole, and publisher Andy Flynn.

Iroquois Indian Museum's Free Fall Party, Nov. 14

2009-11-04T06:00:00.003-05:00

The Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, NY invites everyone to attend a FREE Fall Party on Saturday, November 14 from 3 to 6 P.M. This year's annual Fall Party kicks off a celebration of the Museum's 30th anniversary. Visitors can enjoy our current exhibit: "Native Americans in the Performing Arts: From Ballet to Rock and Roll", view a special tribute display to the late Ray Fadden, play Clan

The Lenape: Lower New York's First Inhabitants

2009-11-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

Dr. David Oestreicher will present a lecture, The Lenape: Lower New York's First Inhabitants on Sunday, November 8, 2:00-4:00 PM at the SUNY Albany Center for Arts and Humanities. For over twelve thousand years, the region that is now lower New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware was home to groups of Lenape (Delaware Indians) and their prehistoric predecessors. By the late 18th

Hudson Valley Edith Wharton Lecture Tonight

2009-11-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Alan Price, Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University will offer a lecture entitled "The Hudson Valley Through Edith Wharton’s French Lens" tonight (Tuesday, November 3rd) at Poughkeepsie's Marist College. The event will begin at 7 pm in the Hudson River Valley Institute's Henry Hudson Room. A reception with light refreshments will follow.Dr. Price is the author of The End of the

Who Shot Rock And Roll Photography Exhibit Opens

2009-11-02T15:24:00.003-05:00

Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present, which will run from October 30, 2009–January 31, 2010 at the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor of the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway) features more than 175 works by 105 photographers, including many rare and never-before-exhibited photographs, that gave the music its visual identity. The exhibit is being billed

'New Jersey History' Journal Resurrected After 4 Years

2009-11-02T06:00:00.005-05:00

The journal New Jersey History, founded as the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society in 1845 and published under the direction of the Society until 2005, has been re-launched under the editorial direction of historians at the New Jersey Historical Commission, Kean University, and the Society. This peer-reviewed journal will be published online twice a year by the Rutgers University

Books: The Bronx's Boulevard of Dreams

2009-11-01T06:00:00.003-05:00

Stretching over four miles through the center of the West Bronx, the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, known simply as the Grand Concourse, has served as a silent witness to the changing face of the Bronx, and New York City, for a century. To coincide with the Concourse’s centennial, New York Times editor Constance Rosenblum has written a book, Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope

Drunk History: Drink A Bottle of History

2009-10-31T06:00:00.005-04:00

Drunk History has got to be seen. It is one of the funniest historical things you will ever see, and I'm not kidding. Created by Derek Waters and edited and directed by Jeremy Konner, these short films involve a narrator / host who gets drunk and then relates a fascinating bit of U.S. History. Among the topics these hilarious denizens of history take on are William Henry Harrison (who death was

This Week's New York History Web Highlights

2009-10-30T12:00:00.001-04:00

Old Salt Blog: Edge of NY Waterfront Photographs Upstate Earth: Ghosts of Beardslees Mills Lost City: No Disney Here [Times Square, 1970s] Inside the Apple: Washington Square Tombstone Unearthed Fenimore Art Museum: The Bones of Cooperstown Ephemeral NY: Successful Newsboy Strike of 1899 Mashable: Happy 40th Birthday, Internet! Confessions of a Preservationist: Charles Mulford Robinson The Bowery

This Week's Top New York History News

2009-10-30T06:00:00.002-04:00

New District Includes Ebbets Home Auction: Peter The Great Russian Portriat The Dead Sea Scrolls Come to Toronto Archaeological Dig Unearths Skeleton

New York And The American Jewish Experience

2009-10-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Milstein Conference on New York And The American Jewish Experience is a one day public conference celebrating history of Jewish life in New York, achievements of Jewish communal organizations, treasures of Jewish archives. Morning Sessions feature presentation on Jewish organizational archives and a roundtable discussion by Jewish agency leaders. Afternoon focuses on papers by scholars on a

Books: Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville

2009-10-28T11:02:00.011-04:00

Cultural historian and journalist David Freeland has published his latest book,Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure, a rediscovery of the historic remnants of New York City’s leisure culture, including bier gartens in the Bowery, music publishers on Tin Pan Alley, jazz clubs in Harlem, and other locations throughout the city that remain partially

Cities in Revolt: The Dutch-American Atlantic Conference

2009-10-28T06:00:00.002-04:00

Deutsches Haus at Columbia University (420 W. 116th St., New York City) will be the location for "Cities in Revolt: The Dutch-American Atlantic, ca. 1650-1815," a conference on the relationships between the Netherlands and (mostly North) America in the long eighteenth century, that will take place November 13th and 14th, 2009. The main conference goals are 1) to create a scholarly discussion

Sound and Story of The Hudson Valley Event

2009-10-27T15:22:00.002-04:00

Eileen McAdam, Director of The Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley, will be the featured speaker during the Annual Meeting of the Friends of Senate House on Wednesday November 4th, at the Senate House Museum, 312 Fair Street in Kingston. Ms. McAdam has made it her mission to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the Hudson Valley through recorded sound. Her Sound and Story

Easier Access to Old New York State Museum Publications

2009-10-27T06:00:00.001-04:00

The New York State Library has a new web page that highlights and links to New York State Museum publications that have been digitized by the Library. These publications include links to the Museum Memoirs and Handbooks series, which have been recently scanned from print copies in the Library's collection.To make it easier to find the digital copy of a specific Bulletin, Memoir or Handbook, the

Regional History Awards of Merit Call For Nominations

2009-10-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

Each year the Upstate History Alliance gives annual Awards of Merit to recognize outstanding work in the regional history and museum community, reward staff and volunteers, and provide encouragement for development of new and innovative projects. These awards will presented to recipients on Sunday April 11 at the opening reception of the 2010 Museums in Conversation Conference in Albany,

Mastodon Tusk May Be Largest Ever Uncovered in NYS

2009-10-26T06:00:00.003-04:00

Research under way at the New York State Museum indicates that a huge mastodon tusk, recently excavated by Museum scientists in Orange County, may be the largest tusk ever found in New York State. The nearly complete but fragmented tusk, measuring more than nine feet long, was one of two excavated this past summer in the Black Dirt area of Orange County at the confluence of Tunkamoose Creek and