New York History: April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The 220th Anniversary of Washington’s Inauguration

Today marks the 220th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration as America's first president a reminder that as our nation’s first capital, New York City is rich in historical gems that commemorate Washington and his era's achievements. One of them is presented by The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, which offers a series of tours that explore these sites.

"George Washington’s New York" is a new self-guided tour that recounts “a day in the life” of America’s first President when New York was the capital of the United States. Learn about the colonial New York our founding fathers called home. Follow Washington’s daily horseback ride through the Battery to Federal Hall; first home of the fledging country’s congress. The tour departs from 26 Wall Street and last approximately 90 minutes. Visitors can also visit free exhibits at Federal Hall following the tour.

You can download the tour booklet and map here.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Sanford Family Diaries Now Available Online

The Sanford collection, which was donated to the NYS Library last summer, consists of nine manuscript journals, a small group of letters, and a manuscript recipe book. Nathan Sanford (that's him at left) was Chancellor of NYS from 1823-1826, a NYS Assemblymember and Senator, US attorney general, and a US senator. The family was well connected and Nathan's descendants married into other prominent families such as the Gansevoorts, Stuyvesants, and Motts.

Most of the journals were kept by Nathan's son, Robert; covering his days as a student at Union College to 1881, they provide a wealth of detail into the daily lives of New York's upper class. The other journals were kept by female family members. The recipe book is marvelously descriptive and comprehensive and would be of interest to anyone researching aspects of the domestic sphere in the 19th century.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Preservation League to Honor 2009 Award Recipients

The Preservation League of New York State will honor and celebrate the recipients of its Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards at the The New York Yacht Club, 37 West 44th Street - New York City on Wednesday evening, May 13, 2009 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The suggested donation is $60 per ticket. For more information contact Shelley LaClair at 518-462-5658 x13 or download the invitation and RSVP card from the League's website at www.preservenys.org.

Monday, April 27, 2009

NYC: Douglas Brinkley on Roosevelt, 'Wilderness Warrior'

In his new book, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, Douglas Brinkley (Professor of History and Baker Institute Fellow, Rice University) looks at the pioneering environmental policies of President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid bird-watcher and naturalist with Adirondack ties at the American Museum of Natural History's Linder Theater in New York City tomorrow, Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 pm. Admission will be $15 ($13.50 Members, students, senior citizens).

Roosevelt was a pioneer of the conservation movement and was involved with the American Museum of Natural History from childhood. As a matter of fact, the original charter creating the Museum was signed in his family home in 1869, and the Museum has a permanent hall in tribute to Theodore Roosevelt and the contributions he made to city, state, and nation throughout his life. A book signing will follow this program.

Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History and Baker Institute Fellow, Rice University, is the author of several books, including The Unfinished Presidency, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, and The Great Deluge (which won him the 2007 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award); he is also a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and an in-house historian for CBS News. He has earned several honorary doctorates for his contributions to American letters and was once called the “the best of the new generation of American historians” by the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose.

For questions regarding this event, please contact Antonia Santangelo at 212-769-5310 or asantangelo@amnh.org.

'Wild, Unsettled Country' At The Adirondack Museum

The Adirondack Museum has announced a new exhibit, A 'Wild, Unsettled Country': Early Reflections of the Adirondacks, that will look at the early efforts to convey the Adirondacks visually to the wider world. The exhibit will open on May 22, 2009 - meaning that year-round Adirondack Park residents should be able to catch the exhibit for free the last week of May.

The first Europeans to see the Adirondack landscape of northern New York State came to explore, to document important military operations and fortifications, or to create maps and scientifically accurate images of the terrain, flora, and fauna.
These early illustrations filled practical needs rather than aesthetic ones.

The exhibition will showcase approximately forty paintings from the museum's exceptional art collection, including works by Thomas Cole, John Frederick Kensett, William Havell, John Henry Dolph and James David Smillie.

Also featured are fifty of the engravings and lithographs of Adirondack landscape paintings that brought these images to a wider audience and provided many Americans with their first glimpse of the "howling wilds" that were the Adirondack Mountains.

While tourists were flocking to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. in the 1830s, few ventured north into the "lofty chain of granite" visible from Lake George. One guidebook described the mysterious forms as "a wild repulsive aspect." Little was known of these yet-unnamed mountains.

In 1836, the New York State legislature authorized a survey of the state's natural resources. Artist Charles Cromwell Ingham was asked to join geologists Ebenezer Emmons and William C. Redfield during one of the first exploratory surveys. During the trip, he painted The Great Adirondack Pass, "on the spot." The original painting will be shown in the exhibition.

The exhibit will also include photographs-stereo views and albumen prints-sold as tourist souvenirs and to armchair travelers. William James Stillman took the earliest photos in the exhibition in 1859. These rare images are the first photographic landscape studies taken in the Adirondacks. Photos by Seneca Ray Stoddard will also be displayed.

Significant historic maps will illustrate the growth of knowledge about the Adirondack region. In 1818, it was still a mysterious "wild, barren tract...covered with almost impenetrable Bogs, Marshes & Ponds, and the uplands with Rocks and evergreens." By 1870, the Adirondacks had become a tourist destination with clearly defined travel routes, hotels, beaches, and camps.

"A 'Wild, Unsettled Country'" will be on exhibit in the Lynn H. Boillot Art Galleries. The space includes the Adirondack Museum Gallery Study Center - a resource for learning more about American art. In addition to a library of reference books, a touch screen computer allows visitors to access images from the museum's extensive fine art collection.

The Gallery Study Center will include a media space as part of the special exhibit. The documentary film "Champlain: The Lake Between" will be shown continuously. The film, part of the Lake Champlain Voyages of Discovery project, has aired on Vermont Public Television in recent months.

"A 'Wild, Unsettled Country'" is not just for adults. Family-friendly elements include Looking at Art With Children - a guide for parents as they investigate the arts with youngsters; the Grand Tour Guide - a colorful and engaging map that encourages exploration of the Adirondack sites shown in the paintings; and ten different Wild About! guidebooks that urge kids to be "wild" about maps, prints, history, and more.

Photo caption: View of Caldwell, Lake George, by William Tolman Carlton, 1844. Collection of the Adirondack Museum.

Friday, April 24, 2009

This Week's Top New York History News

Weekly New York History Blogging Round-Up

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Len Tantillo on Painting The Hudson Valley: History and Process

Len Tantillo, an artist born and raised in upstate New York, will speak on "Painting the Valley: History and Process," this Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 2pm at the Albany Institute of History and Art. Tantillo is New York's premiere painter of historical subjects.

In 1980, Tantillo was commissioned to depict a series of 19th-century structures from
archeological artifacts and historic documents. Similar projects followed, many of which were located along the banks of the Hudson River near Albany. In 1984, Tantillo left commercial art and began the full-time pursuit of fine art. He has spent the last 25 years creating numerous historical and marine paintings, which have continued to draw a wide audience. Tantillo’s work shows the combined influence of the luminists of the 19th century and the great marine artists of the past.

You can see much of his work on the web here.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

SUNY Albany Puts Old Student Newspapers Online

Peter Bae's Clio's Room blog has announced that SUNY Albany's Special Collections and Archives has put copies of the university's newspaper from 1916 to 1985 online. Currently you only have the option to browse the papers via pdf, but they are working on a full text search.

You can find them online at:
http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/studentnewspapers.htm

Looks like a great resource, particularly for the history of student activism, education, youth culture, and more.

Adirondack Museum To Process Petty Collection

The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake has announced the appointment of Melissa Tacke as Project Archivist to describe and arrange the collections of personal papers belonging to two of the founding fathers of the Adirondack Park Agency: Clarence Petty and Richard Lawrence.

The Clarence Petty Papers consist of correspondence, subject files, memoranda, aviation and weather records, newspaper clippings, government documents, books and other publications, audio recordings, memorabilia, awards, photographs, and 62 maps. These records document Clarence Petty's long career with the Conservation Department and the Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as his influential role in the creation of the Adirondack Park Agency and the Adirondack Park Land Use Master Plan.

The papers also reflect Petty's relationship with contemporary environmentalists, environmental organizations and government agencies, and his position as an authority and spokesman on environmental issues throughout the country. The collection dates from circa 1939 through 2006. Clarence Petty donated the papers to the Adirondack Museum in November 2006.

The Richard Lawrence Papers consist of correspondence, subject files, memoranda, notes, publications, books, government documents, memorabilia, awards, and photographs. They document Richard Lawrence's work as a member of the Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks and as the founding Chairman of the Adirondack Park Agency. The records date from the mid 1960s to the 1990s and were donated to the museum by the Lawrence family in 2006.

Tacke's position has been funded by a grant in the amount of $9,669 from the New York State Archive's Documentary Heritage Program. The Documentary Heritage Program (DHP) is a statewide program established by law in 1988 to ensure the identification, sound administration, and accessibility of New York's historical records. The DHP provides grants to not-for-profit organizations in New York State that collect, hold, and make available historical records. Tacke will work in the Adirondack Museum's research library from April 6 through June 30, 2009 under the terms of the grant.

Melissa Tacke holds three degrees from SUNY Albany. Her Bachelor's degree was awarded for a double major in Women's Studies and Africana. She holds one Master's degree in Women's Studies and a second in Information Studies. She is a native of Lawrence, Kansas. Tacke comes to the Adirondack Museum following nearly a year of work at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont as a Project Archivist, funded by a Getty Campus Heritage Grant. She also served as a Digital Images Archivist.

Photo Caption: Project Archivist Melissa Tacke at left with Adirondack Museum Librarian Jerry Pepper. Adirondack Museum Photo.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Defying Empire: Trading With The Enemy

A new book on the French and Indian War (the Seven Years War in Europe) highlights the role New York merchants played in trading with the French enemy. Thomas M. Truxes's Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York gives an engaging narrative account of New York City's heavy involvement in a thriving, forbidden commerce with the French enemy and how the suppression of that trade by British authorities contributed to the coming of the American Revolution. The book was recently named a finalist for the Society of American Historians' prestigious Francis Parkman Prize.

Readers will recognize elements of our current economic situation in the story of how a few ambitious businessmen put their personal financial interests ahead of their country in order to enrich themselves. Upstate New York served as a major center for the French and Indian War military activities beginning when the remnants of the disastrous Braddock expedition, after having destroyed most of their equipment and supplies, retreated to Albany which Truxes describes "with its fort, guns, and small garrison of regular soldiers, the last physically secure place along the northern frontier."

Upstate New York then suffered much of the brunt of the ensuing war as all the while New York City traders continued to deal amicably with the French on the high seas. With French, British, and American economies increasing linked through trade, Truxes makes a convincing argument that New York City's former Dutch openness inspired a growing sense that individual and corporate ties of trade and commerce, at leasat for some, might override national alliance. Delancey, Chambers, Duane, and White streets in New York were all named for historical figures chronicled in Trading with the Enemy and whose names figure prominently in the conflict over what could be considered a kind of free trade movement. "French agents moved with ease in the shadows of wartime New York [City]," Truxes notes, "Agents and spies entered and departed unseen aboard vessels shuttling between New York City and French settlements in Maritime Canada, the western Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico." Some of New York City's most prominent trader-businessmen did the same. Well worth the read.

Truxes is a Senior Lecturer in the History Department at Trinity College. His current project (now in the works) 1756: The Year the World Ended will also have a lot to say about New York (city and province) during the French and Indian War.

The author sent me the following synopsis, which I'll include here:

Prologue: “The Informer”
The book opens in the autumn of 1759 with a dramatic account of the public humiliation of a government informer. George Spencer, a failed New York wine merchant, has responded to a notice from the custom house offering an award for information related to the shipping of provisions, supplies, and “warlike stores” to the French enemy. Spencer stands to recover his fortune by bringing ruin to New Yorkers doing business with the French. When word spreads that an informer is loose in the city, a dozen members of the city’s merchant elite—main characters in the story—meet in secret to plan the punishment of George Spencer. The following day (November 2, 1759), an angry mob “carts” the informer through the city, pelting him with stones, dirt, and “the filth of the streets”. He is then taken to the New York City Jail where he spends 27 months unraveling a web of false charges and planning his revenge.

1: “A City at War”
New York during the Seven Years’ War (1755-1763) was an attractive, thriving, and self-confident city. It was the headquarters of the British Army in North America and a principal link in the chain of military supply—for both sides. Its large and aggressive fleet of privateers, the most successful in British America, was emblematic of the swagger that pervaded the city. Most importantly, New York was a commercial center, driven by a business ethos that placed commercial success above all else.

2: “Admiral Hardy and the Smugglers”
Early in the war, New York’s provincial governor, Admiral Sir Charles Hardy, fears—quite rightly—that large-scale smuggling operations in New York City have the potential to undermine the British war effort. In the spring of 1756, Hardy stages an aggressive campaign to eradicate all forms of illicit trade. Since its founding in the seventeenth century, colonial New York City has benefited from a delicate balance between legal and extra-legal trade, and there is a long tradition of cooperation between political and commercial elites. When Hardy upsets that balance in the interest of the war effort, he unwittingly drives New Yorkers into large-scale trade with the French enemy.

3: “Frenchified Bottoms”
At midnight at an East River wharf in May 1756, Samuel Stilwell, one of the conspirators in the punishment of George Spencer, loads a cargo of provisions for the neutral Dutch island of St. Eustatius. The goods will be turned over to enemy agents for transshipment to French Saint-Domingue. Stilwell’s vessel departs New York just as Great Britain declares war against France. In the weeks that followed, British warships and privateers sweep the French carrying trade from the sea, creating a crisis for military planners in Versailles. In desperation, they turn to neutral “Frenchified bottoms”, as well as North America vessels bound for neutral Dutch and Danish islands in the Caribbean. High-handed British countermeasures take a severe toll on neutral shipping and create a diplomatic crisis.

4: “Mountmen”
London is more cautious in its dealings with neutral Spain, fearing Spanish entrance into the war on the side of the French. Britain’s toleration of Spanish neutrality contributes to the rise to prominence of an obscure Spanish port on the north coast of Hispaniola just a few miles east of the border with French Saint-Domingue. By 1757, Monte Cristi is one of the busiest shipping points in the North Atlantic, with as many as 180 vessels riding in the bay at one time. Each day, a fleet of Spanish coasting vessels carries high-priced North American provisions and other goods (many manufactured in Britain) to the French at Cape François and elsewhere in Saint-Domingue. There they are exchanged for sugar, coffee, indigo, and other island produce at bargain prices. From the British perspective, the trade is legal so long as there is no direct contact with the subjects of the French king. New York ships and resident merchants are a conspicuous presence at Monte Cristi, as are the sulking British warships patrolling off the coast.

5: “Flag-Trucers”
The chapter opens with a New York trading vessel flying a white flag of truce slipping silently beneath the guns at the entrance to the harbor at Cape François. British harassment of ships doing business with the French through neutral sites—and the high costs that accompany indirect trade—give rise to a more creative ruse: trading with the enemy under the protection of government-issued permits to exchange prisoners-of-war. When the commander of the British naval squadron at Port Royal, Jamaica, discovers that “flag-trucers” from North America are outfitting French warships in the summer of 1759, he takes the law into his own hands, rounding up flag-of-truce vessels and initiating prosecutions in the Jamaican court of vice-admiralty. The British admiral’s actions cause consternation in New York where the faint-of-heart begin to exit wartime trade with the French.

6: “Mixed Messages”
From his cold and dank room in the New York City Jail, George Spencer plots his revenge and launches a barrage of lawsuits in the early weeks of 1760. Some are to gain his “informer’s share” of ships and cargoes trading with the enemy; others are to recover personal damages from his tormentors. The Navy’s interdictions in the West Indies and Spencer’s initiatives at home spark a lively but inconclusive debate on trading with the enemy. In late July, the sudden death of Lieutenant-Governor James Delancey (Hardy’s replacement and a friend of the traders) further demoralizes the city and brings Cadwallader Colden (a less skilled and more confrontational politician) to power. In London, the de facto prime minister, William Pitt, responds to a chorus of complaints from the British military with a circular letter to all colonial governors demanding that they look into allegations of widespread trading with the enemy. In November 1760, after Spencer’s prosecutions are thrown out of the New York Court of Vice–Admiralty by a corrupt judge, the informer throws himself at the mercy of the British commander in North America, General Jeffery Amherst. Pressured to act, Colden calls for formal hearings. After two weeks of testimony, the provincial council in New York finds no basis for Spencer’s charges. In late December—the day Colden completes his report to Pitt—news arrives of the death of King George II.

7: “Business as Usual”
In January 1761—in the midst of a blizzard—King George III is proclaimed in New York. The guest list at the governor’s reception includes the city’s leading traders with the enemy, several of them kinsmen of prominent politicians and judges. Meanwhile, in the West Indies, the Royal Navy is stepping up its campaign to eradicate the practice and becomes increasingly aggressive in its disruption of trade with the French via Spanish Monte Cristi. News arrives in New York that an appeals court in London has begun to reverse lower-court condemnations of ships trading with the enemy where there was no evidence of face-to-face contact between British traders and subjects of the French king. George Spencer is released from the New York City Jail in January 1762 following the appointment of a new chief justice without ties to the New York mercantile community. By June, Spencer is in London.

8: “Crackdown”
New York City has become a nest of French agents coordinating the movement of provisions and supplies to the French West Indies and Gulf of Mexico. At the time of Spencer’s release from jail, a British warship departs a naval base on the south coast of England for New York City. It carries news of Britain’s declaration of war against Spain, as well as urgent orders for General Amherst to prepare an expeditionary force to join an assault on Havana, Cuba. In April, Amherst is unable to meet London’s deadline because of the scarcity of provisions and supplies created by the city’s trade with the French. When naval patrol boats seize New York ships returning from Cape François, captured documents reveal the full extent of the city’s involvement in the trade. Raids lead to the seizure of French agents, following which prominent New York merchants are arrested and jailed. At a public meeting on May 29, 1762, fifty-four New York merchants sign an appeal to Lieutenant-Governor Colden begging forgiveness for what they had done and the harm it may have brought to the war effort.

9: “The Trial”
Cadwallader Colden and New York’s attorney general, John Tabor Kempe, prepare for the prosecution of leading figures in New York’s trade with the French. The first of these, the Cunningham-White trial, opens in April 1763. Waddell Cunningham and Thomas White (among the principal characters in the book) are among the leading participants in the trade. Readers will be taken through the twists and turns of the trial and follow Kempe’s presentation to the jury. The defense, caught off-guard by the rigor of the Crown’s case, argues that Cunningham and White are being prosecuted for behavior that was commonplace during the war. To the consternation of the city’s merchant community, the jury finds the defendants guilty and the court imposes a stiff fine. The defense petitions the court for permission to argue later for an “arrest of judgment” based on the severity of the penalty.

10: “Fruits of Victory”
New York slips into a severe postwar recession. George Spencer—now in London—haunts the corridors of power, demanding justice for himself and punishment for those aiding and comforting the enemy. We learn about the politics of the government’s lackluster response to colonial smuggling and trading with the enemy. In America, the war ends in the summer of 1763, and Waddell Cunningham—the principal defendant in the Cunningham-White trail—becomes involved in a violent altercation on the streets of New York with a fellow merchant, Thomas Forsey. The British government, facing staggering wartime debt, deputizes naval officers as customs officials and sends warships to America to enforced laws governing trade. New Yorkers feel the heavy hand of commercial reform as the remaining trading-with-the-enemy cases go to trial. The mood turns ugly, and juries now refuse to convict. At a hearing in January 1764, a judge sharply reduces the fines against Cunningham and White.

Epilogue: “Path to Revolution”
In London, George Spencer—now busier than ever—is in contact with British Treasury officials as prime minister George Grenville puts the finishing touches on tough new legislation to reform the customs administration in America and raise revenue to pay for the long and expensive war. In New York, at the Cunningham-Forsey civil trial in October 1764 (a much anticipated event), the jury rules in favor of Forsey and imposes a huge fine on Cunningham. When the court refuses to hear an appeal based on the size of the penalty, friends of the defendant persuade Lieutenant-Governor Colden to allow an appeal based on his powers as chief executive of the province. Colden defers the matters to London and earns the wrath of the citizenry for interfering the sanctity of jury verdicts. In the spring of 1765, the Stamp Act is passed in London and New Yorkers edge toward open resistance against what they see as tyrannical and arbitrary rule. On the day the Stamp Act goes into effect (November 1, 1765), violence erupts in New York, and the city teeters on the edge of anarchy. Within a fortnight, Colden is replaced by a new governor who defuses the tension. In January 1766, George Spencer offers the British Treasury a solution to the thorny problem of raising revenue in America—a tax on tea.

Postscript.
The book ends with brief accounts of what happens to the principal characters later in their lives. Many go on to play prominent roles as Patriots and Loyalists during the American Revolution. A few of those who had earned their fortunes trading with the enemy during the last of the eighteenth-century Anglo-French colonial wars become Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Rochester Abolitionist John Doy

American Heritage has an interesting article on John Brown associate John Doy of Rochester. Here's an excerpt:

John Doy, a physician from Rochester, New York, heeded the call from abolitionist societies and moved to Kansas in July 1854. A full-bearded and serious-looking man, Doy helped found the town of Lawrence and built a house on its outskirts, where his wife and nine children joined him. As a bastion of free-soil sympathies, Lawrence became a target of pro-slavers, who sacked it on May 21, 1856. In retaliation, the abolitionist firebrand John Brown and his men murdered five slave owners near Pottawatomie Creek. Three months later Doy fought alongside Brown in a pitched battle at Osawatomie, 60 miles southeast of Lawrence.

Kansas became increasingly dangerous for African Americans, so on January 18, 1859, a group of Lawrence’s citizens raised money to help blacks move to safety. Brown offered to take one group north to Canada and did so without incident. Doy also volunteered to help by taking another group about 60 miles northwest to the town of Holton, the first step on the road to Iowa. His passage proved less fortunate.

Among the African Americans on Doy’s expedition were Wilson Hayes and Charles Smith, cooks at a Lawrence hotel. Doy knew that both of them were free men, although they had no papers. All the others had their “free papers,” including William Riley, who had been kidnapped once before from Lawrence but had managed to escape.

The piece offers an interesting look at one of teh many upstate New Yorkers who traveled west during the Kansas-Missouri Border War.

150th Anniversary of John Brown's Raid Conference / Symposium

John Brown Remembered: 150th Anniversary of John Brown's Raid is the title of a conference / symposium that will be held October 14 -17, 2009 at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Speakers will include David Blight, Spencer Crew, and Paul Finkelman.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, along with other partners, is hosting this multidisciplinary academic symposium on John Brown and his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. The symposium, which will be held at the Stephen T. Mather Training Center in Harpers Ferry, is hoped to stimulate new and diverse academic research, scholarship, and debate.

A schedule and registration details can be found here.

Friday, April 17, 2009

This Week's Top New York History News

Weekly New York History Blogging Round-Up

Thursday, April 16, 2009

State Archaeologist Paul Huey on Crailo Historic Site

State Archaeologist Paul Huey from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation will speak at at East Greenbush Community Library, 10 Community Way, East Greenbush, NY, Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 pm. Huey will concentrate on Crailo in the 17th century, explaining what archaeological excavations and documents have revealed.

Important archaeological discoveries have been made at Crailo at various times recently. According to Huey, “In 1974 when the sewer line was installed under Riverside Avenue and in 2007 and 2008 when we excavated for a gas line from the street to the house. We have discovered that Indians lived on the site as early as the 1400s. Dutch pottery and other artifacts discovered in 1990 and in 2008 support the interpretation that this was the location of the home of Domine Megapolensis in 1642, which was a different, earlier structure from the present house.”

Call the State Library at 518-477-7476 to register for this free talk.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A Van Rensselaer Era Program at NYS Library

Friends of the New York State Library are presenting a program entitled "The Van Rensselaer Era" that features Stefan Bielinski and Charles Gehring with senior librarian Fred Bassett. The program, which unfortunately costs $35 per person, will be held this Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 1:00 p.m at the Huxley Theatre of the Cultural Education Center (Madison Avenue between Eagle and Swan Streets in Albany).

Stefan Bielinski, founder and director of the Colonial Albany Social History Project (a model community history program at the New York State Museum), will describe and depict the individual members of the Van Rensselaer family, Albany's "First Family" within the city context for the period 1700-1860 (1:00-1:55 p.m.).

Dr. Charles Gehring, Director, New Netherland Institute and translator of New York Colonial Dutch documents, along with senior NYS Librarian Fred Bassett will display ten of the most significant of the original Dutch documents in the New York State Library's Van Rensselaer Manor Papers collection dating from 1630 concerning Rensselaerswyck. These scholars will describe the historic importance and relevance to the people of Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties of the Van Rensselaer Manor and the Van Rensselaer family (2:00-3:00 p.m.).

To reserve seats send send $35 per person by Monday, April 20, 2009 to:

The Friends of the New York State Library
P.O. Box 2247
Empire State Plaza Station
Albany, NY 12220

Ticket will be held at the Huxley Theatre on April 23 after 12:15 p.m; Tickets at the door will be $40.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Rare World War II Relief Quilts Make First NY Stop

For the first time in New York state, a rare collection of quilts and comforters used by children, Jewish fugitives, Nazi Resistance workers, and Mennonite refugees fleeing the post-war Soviet Union who were given shelter by a Dutch Mennonite woman will be seen Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays April 24-June 28 at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, Jefferson County, NY.

The New York Council for the Humanities, Mennonite Heritage Association, Seaway Trail Foundation, Town of Hounsfield, National Grid and Key Bank are sponsoring “Passing on the Comfort: World War II, Quilts & The Women Who Made a Difference” that tells the story of a young Mennonite minister and his newlywed wife who participated with the Resistance movement in the Netherlands.

The professionally designed interpretive and interactive exhibit that features a rare collection of quilts and comforters made by Mennonite women in the United States and Canada; interpretive panels with historic images of wartime life in the Netherlands, and a DVD sharing the story of An and Herman Keuning-Tichelaar who sheltered people in their parsonage. In the DVD, Keuning-Tichelaar herself says, “I sorted my memories as I folded and unfolded the (few, worn) quilts telling my unspoken tales."

Phyllis Lyndecker, president of the Mennonite Heritage Association, says, “We are always making quilts for relief efforts and this exhibit is a special opportunity to see quilts that reached their destinations and actually provided comfort and security to those in need.”

Great Lakes Seaway Trail Foundation President Teresa Mitchell says, “The Great Lakes Seaway Trail pleased to host this rare exhibit illustrating the intertwining of global history, philosophy, ethics, and religion.”

Mitchell says she expects the exhibit to attract quiltmakers, family, school and church groups, veterans, tourists and senior citizens. The quilting tradition is a popular cultural and arts heritage travel theme for the 518-mile-long byway that has clusters of Mennonite and Amish quilters in its 11 counties along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie in New York and Pennsylvania. A 22-mile loop tour off the Great Lakes Seaway Trail in Orleans County, NY, features more than 40 traditional quilt block patterns painted on barns.

The Seaway Trail Foundation has won Upstate History Alliance and New York State Governor’s Tourism awards for its heritage programming related to historic shipwrecks. In August, the three-story, limestone Seaway Trail Discovery Center (built in 1817 as the Union Hotel) will host a presentation on the World War II refugees who found “safe haven” in Oswego, NY from 1944-1946 in Oswego, NY.

For more information on the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, visit www.seawaytrail.com or call Seaway Trail Foundation, 315-646-1000.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Help Out The Rensselaer County Historical Society

Since the news broke in early March that the Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) was in serious financial trouble, there has been an outpouring of support from the community. RCHS board and staff have been working hard to make the most of many offers and come up with a plan to "Keep the Lights On and the History Alive."

For the first public event of this campaign, ticket proceeds from the Saturday, April 25, 2009 preview of the New York State Theatre Institute's production of Philip Barry's timeless comedy, "The Philadelphia Story" will be donated to RCHS to help our 82-year-old organization in the fight to stay open.

Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder, the theater's producing artistic director, made this generous offer to the organization shortly after RCHS announced that without significant and immediate support it will need to close its doors or greatly reduce public access. The celebrated comedy will play in an 8:00 pm performance on Saturday, April 25 at the Schacht Fine Arts Center of Russell Sage College in Troy.

Tickets benefiting RCHS are available for $30 (Friends of the Family), $50 (Wedding Party), and $100 (Honored Guests) levels. Ticket cost is tax-deductible, and additional donations are welcomed. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling (518) 272-7232, ext.12. All tickets will be held at the box office for pickup the night of the performance.

Friday, April 10, 2009

This Week's Top New York History News

Weekly New York History Blogging Round-Up

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Western New York Historic Preservation Events

Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services for the The Landmark Society of Western New York has posted a nice list of upcoming historic preservation education events at their blog Confessions of a Preservationist. The events are designed for "everyone from homeowners to design professionals." I'm reposting the entire list here, but be sure to check out their blog.

This isn't a full listing of all upcoming Landmark Society events, just those that are geared specifically toward historic preservation education (as opposed to our many tours and other events, which, of course, are also educational!). For other upcoming events, including local and out-of-town tours, be sure to check out the Events section of our website.

April 6, 13, 27, and May 5 and 12: Your Old House workshop s - learn to care for your house by preparing your garden for spring, repairing your windows, taking care of hardwood floors, and more! All sessions start at 6 p.m. at the Stone-Tolan Barn, 2370 East Avenue in Brighton; these sell out early, so register in advance to reserve your spot for one session or the full series.

April 18: Birthday party for Frederick Law Olmsted in Highland Park (Lamberton Conservatory, 180 Reservoir Avenue), at 5:00 p.m. Enjoy cake and punch while learning about Rochester's remarkable Olmsted legacy.

April 23: Preservation Night at the Opera House - while not our event (this one is sponsored by the Village of Lancaster Historic Preservation Commission), this looks like a great opportunity to hear about the newly created Preservation Buffalo Niagara, and to learn about the Certified Local Government (CLG) program. The program will be held at the historic Lancaster Opera House, 21 Central Avenue, Lancaster.

May is National Preservation Month! This year's theme is "This Place Matters" - a powerful theme, since the historic places we care about do matter, for so many reasons.

May 2: Regional Preservation Conference in Medina, NY: Homeowners, Realtors, elected officials, zoning/planning/preservation board members, community activists, and anyone else with an interest in older buildings and neighborhoods won't want to miss it! Medina High School, 2 Mustang Drive (off Route 31), Medina.

May, date TBA: Marketing Historic Houses Successfully: This class, a joint effort of the Landmark Society's Rochestercityliving.com initiative and the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, educates Realtors about the attributes of older housing stock, helping them to sell these special properties. The class includes two bus tours of city neighborhoods. Registration will be handled by GRAR, with classes taught by Cynthia Howk, Steve Jordan, and Jean France.

June 4: Green Strategies for Historic Buildings: This day-long workshop, presented by the National Preservation Institute, will demonstrate how the environmental goal of “reduce, reuse, recycle” can enhance the capital cost competitiveness of preservation projects. We are really excited to be cosponsoring this event, along with the Preservation League of NYS and AIA New York State. The workshop will be held at the Eisenhart Auditorium of the Rochester Museum & Science Center, 657 East Avenue.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

New Netherland: A Charles Gehring and Jaap Jacobs Event

Charles Gehring, Ph.D., Director of the New Netherland Project in Albany, has spent 30 years translating 17th-century documents to uncover the Dutch origins of New York will join Jaap Jacobs, Ph.D., co-curator of Amsterdam / New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson, and one of the scholars who has built on Gehring’s work to rewrite the history of New Netherland will hold a conversation "about myths, memories, and discoveries of New York’s origins, what made New Netherland unique, and why knowledge of these
origins is important for New York and New Yorkers today."

The event will be held April 11th, at 2 pm at the Museum of The City of New York, 1220 5th Ave,. Reservations are required. For further information about this event contact Paula Zadigian at (212) 534-1672.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Amsterdam / New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson

A new exhibit “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” opened Saturday at the Museum of the City of New York and will run through September 27, 2009. Presented in collaboration with the New Netherland Institute, Albany, and the National Maritime Museum Amsterdam / Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam, the exhibit will employ rare 16th- and 17th-century objects, images, and documents from major American and Dutch collections to bring the transatlantic world to life and reveal how Henry Hudson’s epic third voyage of exploration planted the seeds of a modern society that took root and flourished in the New World. Focusing on the economic, cultural, and ideological connections that ultimately linked two global cities, Amsterdam and New York, “Amsterdam / New Amsterdam” will illuminate not only the global significance of Hudson’s voyage, but also the creative context out of which the exploration and settlement of New York itself arose, highlighting the Dutch role in creating the very character of New York as a place of opportunity, tolerance, and perpetual transformation.

Monday, April 6, 2009

3.1 Million For Historic Erie / Champlain Canal Tug Boat

The New York State Museum has received a $3.1 million federal transportation grant to make mechanical upgrades to the Day Peckinpaugh, paving the way for the historic canal boat’s transformation into a permanent floating museum, dedicated to sharing the history and heritage of the state’s canal system.

As the first motorship of its kind specifically designed for the dimensions of the 20th-century Erie Barge Canal, and the last surviving vessel of its kind remaining afloat, the Peckinpaugh has become an iconic fixture on the state’s waterways. Built in 1921 in Duluth, Minnesota to carry grain from the Midwest to New York City, it was the harbinger for nearly a hundred other canal motorships that were seen everywhere on the waterway until 1950. In 1994, the Peckinpaugh made its final commercial voyage, with communities from Rome to Oswego turning out to wave goodbye.

Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Peckinpaugh was saved from the scrap heap in 2005 through the efforts of the New York State Museum, in partnership with the New York State (NYS) Canal Corporation; NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor Commission; the National Park Service and the Canal Society of New York State.

The Peckinpaugh is scheduled to have temporary exhibits installed for the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain quadricentennial celebration tour in August and September. This was organized by the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor, in conjunction with the State Museum, Saratoga National Historical Park and the New York State Canal Corporation. This new federal grant will provide funds for the rehabilitation work necessary before permanent exhibits can be installed and the Peckinpaugh is ready for continuous tours.

The grant was among more than $81 million in federal funding for 59 transportation projects across New York State, announced by Governor David Paterson. Funds will be allocated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for Transportation Enhancement Program (TEP) projects. TEP finances transportation improvements with cultural, aesthetic, historical and environmental significance. It's hoped the projects will make necessary improvements to local walkways, bicycle paths and other transportation routes while spurring economic development and job creation.

The value of a waterborne traveling exhibition, dedicated to sharing the history of the canal system, became apparent when more than a million visitors turned out to visit the 1976 Bicentennial Barge, which reached several dozen communities over a five-month journey. It is estimated that as much as 85 percent of the state’s population live in regions within a half-hour drive of the state’s waterway network.

The Peckinpaugh will follow a schedule of visits from New York City to Plattsburgh to Buffalo to Ithaca. When it is not touring during the navigation season it will be available for tours at the historic Matton Shipyard at Peebles Island State Park in Waterford. During the winter season it may also be open at its winter berth on the Waterford Flight.

Plans call for the Peckinpaugh’s permanent exhibitions to be installed and ready for visitors by summer 2010. The National Park Service will coordinate the development and operation of the exhibitions in the 130-foot long open cargo hold of the motorship, which at one time carried 160 tons of dry cement. While maintaining the Peckinpaugh’s industrial character, initial plans call for the creation of a gallery that is nearly as large as some gallery spaces in the State Museum. The gallery will be universally accessible and compliant with the American Disabilities Act..

This grant will help to mitigate a decade of neglect that left many of the boat’s mechanical systems in disrepair when it was largely abandoned in Erie, Pa. between 1995 and 2005. It follows a $290,000 grant in 2006 from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s Environmental Protection Fund that has been used to stabilize the Peckinpaugh. Additional work will include the replacement of fuel tanks, ballast piping and valves, the possible addition of a new ballast tank and the rebuilding of fresh water, sanitary and electrical systems. Plans also include some hull plate replacement, repair and painting.

1609 Exhibit Will Look at Henry Hudson's Voyage

As part of the celebration of the 2009 Hudson-Champlain Quadricentennial the New York State Office of Cultural Education (OCE) will present the exhibition “1609,” which will re-examine Henry Hudson’s voyage, the myths that surround it, and explore the legacies of Hudson’s unexpected discovery.

The State Museum, State Archives, State Library and State Office of Educational Broadcasting, which make up OCE, are collaborating on the “1609” exhibition. It is scheduled to be open July 3, 2009 through March of 2010 in the New York State Museum’s Exhibition Hall.

Other quadricentennial events will include a two-month tour along the Hudson River and Champlain Canal, led by the New York State Museum’s historic Day Peckinpaugh, a 259-foot, 1921 canal boat. The Half Moon, historic barges and other large working boats will also participate in the tour in August and September 2009. It will stop at 15 ports from Burlington, Vt. to New York Harbor. Visitors will be able to step onboard to view exhibits on 400 years of maritime progress and advancement. The tour is organized by the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor, in conjunction with the State Museum, Saratoga National Historical Park and the New York State Canal Corporation.

The “1609” exhibition will be presented in four parts. The first section will focus on what life was like for both the Dutch and Native Peoples of New York before 1609 and the events of that year. The visitor will then look at the myths that Hudson planned to come here, and that Native Americans greeted him and his crew with joy and awe. The exhibition will attempt to dispel those myths and explore with the visitor what is known about Hudson and the 1609 voyage and the Native American response. The third section will confront the myths relating to the short-term impact of the voyage – the consequences for the Dutch and the Native Americans. Finally, the visitor will be able to examine the long-term legacy of the Native Americans and Dutch, and how they affected subsequent historical events and American culture today.

In addition to artifacts from throughout OCE collections, “1609” will also feature paintings by Capital District expert historical artist L.F. Tantillo.

Archaeologist James Bradley, an expert on Native Americans, and Russell Shorto, an authority on colonial Dutch history, have written text for the exhibition. Bradley is the author of “Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region 1600-1664,” and a guest curator for portions of the exhibition. Shorto, who resides in the Netherlands, authored “The Island at the Center of the World,” the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America.

Steven Comer, a Mohican Native American living within the original territory of the Mohican people, has provided cultural information and consulting for the project.

To complement the exhibition, the Museum also will present a program, “The Stars of 1609” on Saturdays, May 2 and 30 and June 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Participants will peer through the ages to see the night sky as it looked to Henry Hudson and his crew in 1609. There also will be a discussion about the navigational techniques of European explorers, their tools and equipment and 17th-century astronomy. The program is free but visitors must obtain tickets at the Museum’s front lobby desk.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

Friday, April 3, 2009

This Week's Top New York History News

Weekly New York History Blogging Round-Up

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Wartime Writings of French Intellectuals At NYPL

Hitler’s occupation of France presented writers with a difficult, often dangerous dilemma: keep silent, collaborate, or resist the Germans and their Vichy allies. A new exhibition at The New York Public Library explores how Sartre, Gide, Cocteau and dozens of other public intellectuals responded to Nazi rule. Personal correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, books and posters -- most displayed for the first time in the United States -- illustrate the contrasting, often complex response by writers to the country’s defeat and the Vichy regime. Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation is on view at the Library’s D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall from April 3 to July 25, 2009. Admission is free. The exhibition is accompanied by a companion volume presenting more than 650 archival documents, an April 3 symposium featuring leading French and American scholars, and screenings of rarely shown French films created during the Nazi period.

The period of the Vichy regime, which lasted from 1940 to 1944, was a tumultous time for French literature. A number of the best-loved writers of the twentieth century produced some of their finest works, such as Sartre’s No Exit, and the intellectual foment helped inspire more than two hundred films and numerous literary and artistic works, many of them clandestine. The exhibition features original copies of illegal underground publications by resisters such as Mauriac, Camus and Aragon, along with the writings of Nazi-favored authors like Céline and Drieu La Rochelle and brilliant efforts by Sartre and other resisters to circumvent the censors.

“Some writers worried about whether they were collaborating even by writing a book, because it would seem that life was normal in Vichy France. Others wanted to show that France still lived through its arts,” says co-curator Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor Emeritus, Columbia University. “It’s the moral ambiguity of what seemed like ordinary actions by a writer – such as publishing a poem – that makes Vichy such a fascinating period for the arts.”

Unlike other defeated European countries, France struggled under two dictatorships: the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators. The exhibition explores the deep divisions between left and right, highlighting a perhaps surprising amount of sympathy for the Nazis and the homegrown fascism of Vichy. Original letters and documents, drawn from the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) and The New York Public Library’s collections, also show the exile experience of Jewish intellectuals such as Hannah Arendt, who escaped to America and artist Otto Freundlich, who died in the Holocaust. One of the most remarkable items is the manuscript of Irène Némirovsky's Suite française, which became a recent worldwide bestseller after its discovery by her daughter half a century after the writer’s death at Auschwitz.

This exhibition was conceived by IMEC director Olivier Corpet, who presented it with curator Claire Paulhan at Caen in 2008. It has been adapted and reshaped for an American audience by Dr. Paxton. Objects are drawn largely from IMEC, supplemented by materials from The New York Public Library, the Mémorial de Caen, and other private and public collections.

The exhibition opens in the shadow of World War I, with the depiction of a large military cemetery reminding viewers that 1.3 million Frenchmen were killed just two decades before. It chronicles the political instability of 1930s France, with a weak Third Republic, economic turmoil, and the rise of Hitler just over the border causing much agitation between left and right.

The Vichy regime is depicted as an enthusiastic enforcer of fascism in France, rather than simply a puppet to Hitler. The Germans were able to save resources by occupying only part of the country, allowing their ideological ally to rule the rest. Tales of crossing the Demarcation Line, faced with dangers from crooked “passers” and German patrols, are a ubiquitous subject in diaries and letters of the Occupation period, and in later fiction about it. Some of the exhibition’s most fascinating materials deal with how resisters were able to get information across the line and past the censors. In order to write loved ones, authorities distributed pre-written postcards with phrases (such as “I am in good health”) that could be checked off. A 1940 postcard shows Louis Aragon scribbled some extra information to the wife of Jean Paulhan, including the coded phrase “Cousin Mercadier can go to Pierre’s house.” This may have referred to the Aragons’ plan to stay with the poet Pierre Emmanuel in Dieulefit (Drôme).

The exhibition explores the violent fate suffered by many writers during this period. The price for literary resistance during the Occupation was imprisonment or death. And bitterness ran high against those who took Vichy’s side: after the war, four collaborationist writers were shot, and dozens were imprisoned and blacklisted. Others, such as Céline, fled France.

For those who joined the Resistance, there were more than 1,000 homemade, mimeographed publications, often printed secretly in the middle of the night by printers who risked -- and sometimes lost -- their lives. Included are copies of such clandestine publications as Combat and Les Lettres françaises, to which Camus and Sartre, respectively, contributed.Sartre’s activities during the Vichy period serve as an interesting example of the complex response by writers to difficult politics: his underground writings, a newspaper clipping depicting him sitting at Café de Flore, press commentary and correspondence help to illustrate how the writer-philosopher navigated space for himself both below ground and above, where he put on two plays. There were also the “Little Magazines,” published legally in the Unoccupied Zone, which pushed the limits of censorship. One of the most famous,Max-Pol Fouchet’s Fontaine, published a stirring poem by Paul Eluard in 1942, entitled “Liberty,” which showed the wartime evolution of literary style away from aesthetic artifice and toward simple, straightforward poetry.

“The deep political divisions of the Vichy period are always interesting to study on their own merits, but especially as an influence on the literature of Sartre, Gide, and other major twentieth-century authors,” said Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. "In spite of censorship and other forms of suppression, some writers of the period produced masterpieces of enduring worth."

Other highlights include card files containing index cards of banned books written by Jews, Communists or those critical of the Nazis; letters by Céline from Denmark, to which he fled after the war, complaining about his treatment by Jews, and a handwritten note about Hannah Arendt by a member of the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars. The German Jewish philosopher, then totally unknown, was described as “swarthy, intelligent, sparing of words, courteous, efficient.”

French and German newsreel extracts, drawn from the 1969 Max Ophüls film The Sorrow and the Pity, will be screened in the exhibition. The April 3 symposium takes place at The New York Public Library’s Celeste Bartos Forum, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Participants include prominent scholars from the United States and France. For more information about the exhibition and a link to the symposium schedule, go to www.nypl.org and click on “Exhibitions.”

A companion film series featuresfilms produced in France under the Nazi Occupation, including Marcel Carné's masterpiece Les Enfants du Paradis [Children of Paradise] and rarely screened works by such directors as Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Becker, and Marcel L'Herbier. Films will be presented at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts every Tuesday in June at 2:30 p.m.

Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation will be on view from April 3, 2009, through July 25, 2009 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall (First Floor), of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. Exhibition hours are Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday through May 17, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Sundays Memorial Day through Labor Day and all federal holidays. Closed April 12, May 23-25, July 3-5. Admission is free. For more information, call 917.ask.nypl or visit www.nypl.org.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Champlain Valley Architecture Tours

As part of the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial celebration, Adirondack Architectural Heritage is presenting a new tour series, Architecture of the Champlain Valley. The series features half-day walking tours of eight towns along the lake, led by experienced and professional guides. Tours will be at 9:30 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays in May and June unless otherwise noted.

May 2- Willsboro: One of the oldest settlements in Essex County, Willsboro has a rich history connected to agriculture, paper industry, stone quarrying, shipbuilding, and tourism.

May 9- Keeseville: Keeseville is a town with a long history as an industrial community that manufactured products from wood and iron ore using the power of the Ausable River.

May 16- Essex: Essex prospered during much of the 19th century as a shipping and ship building port, and today, as a National Historic Register District, contains many wonderful examples of various styles of architecture.

May 23- Elizabethtown: As the county seat, Elizabethtown boasts a large historic government complex, and a number of buildings that reflect the town’s social, political and economic importance.

May 30- Port Henry: Port Henry and the surrounding town of Moriah have the longest industrial history of any community in the Champlain Valley, beginning with iron mining and manufacturing in the late 1700s.

June 6- Ticonderoga: Historically associated with military events, Ticonderoga developed as an industrial town connected to paper manufacturing, and today offers more than three dozen buildings listed on the National Register.

June 20- Wadhams (10:00)/Westport (1:00): The hamlet of Wadhams lies just north of Westport on the Boquet River, and was once known for its industrial pursuits which supported the outlying farms. Though industry and agriculture played a role in the development of Westport, it has gained most of its identity as a summer resort town.

June 27- Ironville: In the town of Crown Point, the settlement of Ironville is the site of the Penfield Homestead Museum and was once the center of a thriving iron industry.

Attendance is free of charge, but advance registration is required. Reservations may be made by calling AARCH at 834-9328.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) is the private, non-profit, historic preservation organization for the Adirondack Park region. This is one of over fifty events in our annual series highlighting the region’s vast architectural legacy. For more information on membership and our complete program schedule contact AARCH at (518) 834-9328 or visit our website at www.aarch.org.

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