Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the best-known works of American literature. But what other myths lie hidden behind the landscape of New York's Hudson Valley? Imps cause mischief on the Hudson River; a white lady haunts Raven Rock, Major Andre's ghost seeks redemption and real headless Hessians search for their severed skulls.
Local storyteller Jonathan Kruk relates the other myths that lie hidden behind the landscape of the Lower Hudson Valley in Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley (History Press, 2011).
Kurk reveals the origins of the Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman and how the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was shaped and shifted by Henry Hudson, George Washington, Aaron Burr, Joseph Plumb Martin, Sir Walter Scott, Gottfried August Burger, Martin Van Buren, Walt Disney, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and a former slave. The author also provides new primary source evidence of the ghostly “Galloping Hessian” and similar tales including the full story of Sleepy Hollow’s other ghosts; Major Andre, White Ladies, Mother Hulda, the Imps, and more.
Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Books: Sleepy Hollow Legends and Lore
By Editorial Staff
Friday, December 30, 2011
This Week's New York History Web Highlights
By Editorial Staff
- New Year's Eve: Why The 1st Ball Was Dropped
- Preservation Nation: Top 10 Stories of 2011
- Tenement Museum: A History of Two Holidays
- Bowery Boys: Bowery Boys Year In Review
- Ephemeral NY: East River Sunken Treasure?
- Skyscraper Museum: A New York City Future
- Dick Eastman: Does the Calendar Need an Overhaul?
- Old Salt Blog: 10 Endangered Historic Ships of 2011
- SHRAB: Electronic Records Webinar Online
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State Library History Programs Planned
By Editorial Staff
The New York State library is offering two history related public programs in January. These programs are free and open to the public. Participants can register online, e-mail NYSLTRN@mail.nysed.gov, or call 518-474-2274. The organizers ask that participants contact them if any reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act is required at least three business days prior to the program date.
Walking Tour: Local History and Genealogy Resources
Date: Saturday, January 14
Time: 10:30am - 11:30am
Location: 7th floor, New York State Library - meet in front of the Genealogy/Local History Desk
The New York State Library is a treasure chest of resources for those tracing their family histories. This one hour tour highlights published genealogies, local histories, church records, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) records, United States and New York State Census records, newspapers on microfilm, city directories and more. Shawn Purcell, subject specialist for genealogy and local history at the New York State Library, will lead the tour. The tour is limited to 15 individuals and registration is required.
Historical Newspapers Online at the NYS Library
Date: Saturday, January 21
Time: 10:30-12:00
Location: 7th floor Computer Classroom
Senior Librarian, Stephanie Barrett will discuss online databases available at the New York State Library that contain full-text historical newspapers. She will demonstrate the effective use of America's Historical Newspapers and the Historical Newspapers (New York Times) with an emphasis on newspapers published in New York State. She will also discuss Civil War: a Newspaper Perspective. Seating is limited and registration is required
This Week's Top New York History News
By Editorial Staff
Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week's top stories about New York's state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.
Subscribe! More than 2,300 people get New York History each day via E-mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Last Chance for 2012 Woman of History Award
By Editorial Staff
Time is running out to nominate your candidate for the Martha Washington Woman of History Award which will be bestowed by Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in March, 2012. The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, January 6, 2012. The nomination field is open to any woman who has cultivated interest and awareness of Hudson Valley history, either locally or nationally.
Previous award-winners include Janet Dempsey, local historian and author, Barbara Bedell, Times Herald Record columnist, Mary McTamaney, City of Newburgh historian and, most recently, Mara Farrell, community activist.
The nomination form is available online (pdf).
Illustration: Martha Washington
Westport's Historic Depot Theatre Looks to 2012
By Editorial Staff
The historic Depot Theatre in Westport on Lake Champlain will celebrate its 33rd year with a new managing director, a new volunteer guild and four shows for the 2012 season. The popular professional theatre company was founded in 1979 by Carol Buchanan, former President of the Westport Historical Society, which maintained stewardship over the historic Westport train station.
The Historical Society saw the potential for cultural activity in the partially renovated D & H Railroad station, and turned first to a Wednesday Night Bingo game to reach the goal. In 1985, the Depot Theatre stepped out from under the Historical Society’s umbrella to become its own separate not-for-profit entity (the theatre company turned professional in 1988 under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. In 2006, the Depot Theatre also became a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for professional, non-profit theaters.
Since 1979, the Depot Theatre has produced over 170 plays in its handicap accessible, 136 seat performance space (the former D&H freight room, now fully air conditioned.) In 1995, the Depot Theatre was recognized with a Park Heritage Award from the Adirondack Council and in 2000 with an Adirondack Architectural Heritage Award which recognized major renovation and restoration work to the historical building.
Though Delaware and Hudson is no longer in operation, AMTRAK continues to service rail passengers on the Adirondack Line between NYC and Montreal. The Westport stop is a gateway to the Adirondack Park, and the train station and the Theatre have developed a unique partnership to keep this historical space maintained - the Depot Theatre serves as steward of the historical site.
The Depot has launched a national search to replace outgoing managing director Chris Casquilho who is moving to Ogden, Utah with his family to work for Weber State University.
The Board of Trustees has said it's approaching this leadership transition as an opportunity to realign operations to focus on the Depot’s long range plan. “We’re looking for an individual who can help grow the operating budget in order to nurture our commitment to exploring new work alongside the canon of American Theatre,” explained Artistic Director Shami McCormick, whose involvement spans the organization's history. The annual operating budget recently ranges between $300,000 and $350,000, but McCormick is says there is room and demand for growth.
“There’s something quite magical about being behind the scenes in a live theatre atmosphere,” said Kim Rielly, board trustee. “And in 2012, we plan to ramp up our Volunteer Guild, with new opportunities for community members to take a real hands-on role in the operation of our hometown Theatre, and earn some great perks to go along with it.”
The 2012 season will feature four main stage shows including a Country/Blues Love Story, a fast-paced comedy, a 1950‘s musical with classic favorites, a funny story of five full-figured women racing to meet nearly impossible production deadlines, plus a full season’s worth of mid-week and special events.
For more information, season subscriptions, tickets and a complete schedule, contact the Box Office at 518.962.4449 or visit depottheatre.org.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Fort Ticonderoga Adds Winter Lecture Series
By Editorial Staff
Fort Ticonderoga is introducing a Fort Fever Series of Sunday afternoon programs running from January through April. Presented by Fort Ticonderoga staff, the programs cost $10 each and are free for Members of the Friends of Fort Ticonderoga.
The program begins with a “Winter Landscape Snowshoe Trek” led by Curator of Landscape Heidi Karkoski on January 22. Explore the Fort Ticonderoga grounds and learn how to identify trees based on their winter (leaf-less) characteristics. Bring your own snowshoes (or hiking boots if conditions require).
On February 12, Curator of Collections Chris Fox will give attendees the chance to examine several original 18th-cenutry weapons from the Fort’s extensive collection in a program titled “The Roar of Musketry and the Cracking of Rifles: An Introduction to the Weapons of the 18th Century.”
In “Native Americans and the Patriot Cause” on March 25, Director of Interpretation Stuart Lilie will discuss the roles of Native groups that sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.
On April 22, Director of Education Rich Strum will talk about “Henry Knox: Beyond the Noble Train of Artillery.” Learn about the fascinating life of Henry Knox, from his first job in a book shop at age nine through his Revolutionary War career to his role as the nation’s first Secretary of War.
The Fort Fever Series is one of several new education initiatives at Fort Ticonderoga in 2012. You can learn more about these new programs, including Material Matters Seminar, the Garden & Landscape Symposium, and the Conference on Lake George & Lake Champlain, by visiting the Fort’s website at www.Fort-Ticonderoga.org and selecting the “Explore and Learn” button.
Photo: Fort Ticonderoga volunteer BR Delaney portrays a North East Woodland Native at a recent Fort Ticonderoga event (courtesy George Jones).
Lecture: Famous Murder Case at the Adk Museum
By Editorial Staff
The first program of the Adirondack Museum's 2012 Cabin Fever Sunday series, "Chester Gillette: The Adirondacks' Most Famous Murder Case" will be held on Sunday, January 15, 2012.
It's the stuff movies are made of- a secret relationship, a pregnancy and a murder. Over a century after it happened in Big Moose Lake, Herkimer County, the Chester Gillette murder case of 1906 is the murder that will never die. The murder of Grace Brown and the case following was the subject of Theodore Dreiser's 1925 book An American Tragedy, and the Hollywood movie A Place in the Sun.
The story continues to be told today with a 1999 Opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and in a 2011 documentary North Woods Elegy. Author Craig Brandon, considered among the world's foremost experts on the case, and author of Murder in the Adirondacks, will present and lead a discussion.
Craig Brandon is a national award-winning author of six books of popular history and public affairs and a former award-winning reporter.
Held in the Auditorium, the program will begin at 1:30 p.m. Cabin Fever Sundays are offered at no charge to museum members or children of elementary school age and younger. The fee for non-members is $5.00. The Museum Store and Visitor Center will be open from noon to 4 p.m. For additional information, please call (518) 352-7311, ext. 128 or visit
www.adirondackmuseum.org.
Monday, December 26, 2011
CCNY Early-Career Historians Win NEH Awards
By Editorial Staff
Dr. Gregory Downs, associate professor of history, and Dr. Emily Greble, assistant professor of history at The City College of New York are recipients of faculty research awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The grants, announced by NEH December 9, will support book projects currently in development.
“The NEH fellowships are extremely competitive; only eight percent of applicants are successful. To have two early-career faculty members in the same department come up winners is remarkable,” said Dr. Geraldine Murphy, acting dean of humanities and the arts at CCNY, in congratulating them.
“Our department has undergone significant growth because The City College administration made a commitment to bring in energetic scholars and teachers,” said Professor Downs, who serves as department chair. “We’ve hired eight new faculty members in nine years and we are seeing that faith pay off.”
“We seem to have become a hotbed of new and innovative scholarship,” added Professor Greble. “We see the product of this intellectually stimulating environment in so many areas of departmental life, from the number of students we have been placing in top doctoral programs to the rigorous publication record of our faculty, to the winning of top academic fellowships like the NEH and the Rome Prize.”
Four Class of 2011 history majors are now in PhD programs at Yale University, Princeton University and University of Michigan. Associate Professor of History Barbara Ann Naddeo received the Rome Prize in 2010 for her scholarship on the city of Naples, Italy. Assistant Professor of History Adrienne Petty is conducting an oral history project on African-American farm owners in the South in collaboration with Professor Mark Schultz of Lewis University supported by an NEH award.
Professor Downs’ project, “The Ends of War: American Reconstruction and the Problems of Occupation,” examines the transition from Civil War to Reconstruction and asks why former slaves, loyal whites, Freedmen’s Bureau agents and northern émigrés became disillusioned. The problems emanated not as much from free-labor ideology or racism as from a sharp reduction of military force in the region, which resulted in a power vacuum, he contends.
At the end of the Civil War, the U.S. government, fearing budget deficits, demobilized at such a rapid pace that within 18 months only 12,000 troops remained in the former Confederacy. As the military withdrew from different areas, hundreds of small wars broke out between former Confederates and organized freedmen.
Professor Downs attributes the situation to a naïve belief among elected officials in Washington that they could expand voting rights in the South at the same time that the federal government was reducing its presence there to cut the budget. “What was needed was not an expansion of democracy, but an expansion of enforcement,” he says. “Both sides figured out that violence was the logical conclusion. By the time they had mobilized it was too late for the government to act.”
The project grows out of an earlier monograph, “Declarations of Independence: The Long Reconstruction of Popular Politics in the South, 1860 – 1908,” published in 2011 by University of North Carolina Press. However, Professor Downs says his thinking has been influenced by recent U.S. experience with occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Seeing how difficult it is to change social power, create new lines of authority and disrupt societies makes me wonder why we were so confident we could do it in the post-war South. Rights need enforceability to make them real,” he adds, pointing to the intervention by federal troops in the Little Rock Central High School in 1957 as an example.
Professor Greble’s project, “Islam and the European Nation-State: Balkan Muslims between Mosque and State, 1908 – 1949,” examines how South Slavic Muslims adapted to six significant political shifts over a 41-year period. In each instance new governments sought – in their own way – to limit, secularize and shape Muslim institutions as the region went from Ottoman to Habsburg control, to liberal nation-states, to authoritarian monarchs, to fascist regimes and to socialist regimes.
Her initial research suggests Muslims proactively adapted the norms and customs of their faith to define Islam in their own terms. Additionally, they sought to become part of the international community of Muslims to confront being dispossessed of property, Sharia law, institutional autonomy and the right to define Islam.
To assert their influence, some Muslims formed political parties and cultural societies that promoted Muslim cultural agendas. More conservative members of the community sought to strengthen and protect local Muslim networks through codification of Sharia law and Islamic society. Others engaged in clandestine activities such as underground madrassas.
Much of Professor Greble’s research will examine the changing role of Sharia courts. Under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, these were codified and given jurisdiction over Muslim socio-religious affairs, such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. Muslim parts of the Balkans, particularly Yugoslavia, retained this legal autonomy between the two world wars and during Nazi and fascist occupation, but lost it after communists came to power and shut down the Sharia courts in 1946.
The Fame and Misfortune of America's 'Signers'
By Editorial Staff
With their first book, Signing Their Lives Away, authors Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese introduced readers to the 56 men risked their lives and livelihood to defy King George III and sign the Declaration of Independence. Some prospered and rose to the highest levels of United States government, while others had their homes and farms seized by British soldiers. Signer George Wythe was poisoned by his nephew; Button Gwinnett was killed in a duel; Robert Morris went to prison; Thomas Lynch was lost at sea; and of course Sam Adams achieved fame as a patriot/brewer
Now Kiernan and D’Agnese have turned their attention to the 39 men who put their names to the U.S. Constitution in Signing Their Rights Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the United States Constitution (Quirk Books, 2011).
The United States was on the verge of a vast political collapse. The Articles of Confederation were too weak to govern such a large new nation. Some citizens feared the idea of a strong central government. After Shay’s Rebellion, the wealthy feared anarchy and mob justice. Many predicted a civil war. But 1787, representatives from the states converged in Philadelphia to hammer out a governing system that would work. Many of them were battle-hardened militarists who’d served in the War; others were profound legal scholars. Many of them were just as quirky and flawed as the elected officials we have today.
• David Brearley of New Jersey wanted to erase state boundaries and start over.
• Rufus King of New York ran for president or vice president every few years, lost every time.
• Henry Williamson of North Carolina was said to believe in aliens.
• Robert Morris of Philadelphia went to prison and died penniless.
• John Rutledge of South Carolina attempted suicide twice.
• Gouverneur Morris of New York, a peg legged playboy, once set his sights on Dolly Madison.
With 39 mini-biographies, a Constitutional Cheat Sheet, and a dust jacket that unfolds into a facsimile of the Constitution, Signing Their Rights Away offers an entertaining and enlightening narrative for history buffs of all ages.
Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Candy, Nuts, and Fruit: Christmas Gifts of the Past
By Lawrence P. Gooley
Children’s Christmas wishes and expectations years ago were much different from today’s world of high technology. I was so struck by this—the simplicity and innocence—that I included a chapter entitled Letters to Santa in a recent book on the history of Churubusco, New York. The sample letters below were published in newspapers of northern New York from 1920–1940. They portray the sharp contrast to the modern holiday, where expensive gifts have become the disproportionate norm.
Churubusco was a farming community. Families were self-sufficient, and even small children had daily chores. This fostered teamwork and family unity, and gave children a firsthand understanding of the values of goods, services, and hard work. Those lessons were conveyed in their missives to Santa. And some of the comments in the letters are just plain cute.
1923
Dear Santa,
This year, money being scarce, my wants are few. I want a doll, set of dishes, ribbon, candy, and nuts. Don’t forget my brothers and sisters.
Your girl, Eva Lussier
Dear Santa Claus,
I want you to bring me a little serving set, ball, candy, nuts, and bananas. Never mind the sled this year because I am expecting one from my aunt. My Xmas tree will be in the parlor near the stove, so take your time and get good and warm before you leave.
Wishing you a merry Xmas, your little friend,
Louis Patnode
1925
Dear Santa Claus,
I would like you to bring me a little bedroom set, some candy, nuts, and bananas.
Your little friend,
Louise Recore
Dear Santa Claus,
I would like a flashlight, sled, gold watch, some candy, nuts, oranges, bananas, and peanuts. Please don’t forget my little brothers, Walter and Francis. Walter would like a little drum, mouth organ, candy, nuts, gum, and oranges. Francis would like a little wagon full of toys, and some candy, nuts, and bananas.
Your little friend,
John Brady
1938
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I want a bottle of perfume and a locket, a 59 cent box of paints that I saw in your sale catalog, a pair of skates, a nice dress, and candy and nuts. I am eleven years old, and Santa, I hope you have a very merry Xmas.
Your friend,
Anita Robare
Dear Santa,
I am writing a few lines to tell you what I want for Christmas. I want a toothbrush, and there is a set of 12 different games in your Christmas catalog for 98 cents. Some of the names of the games are bingo, checkers, and jacksticks. Please bring me this set. I hope you don’t forget my little sister and brothers.
Your friend,
Henrietta Matthews
Dear Santa,
Christmas is drawing near and I would like these things: a pair of ski shoes, pair of fur bedroom slippers, a dump truck, and banjo. I will leave some crackers and milk on the breakfast table.
Your friend,
Ann Elderbaum
Dear Santa,
When you come around for Xmas, I would like to have you bring me a pair of skates and a woolen shirt. It’s all I want for Christmas for I thought that you are getting old and those chimneys will be hard to climb. You will have some bread and milk at Christmas Eve.
Yours truly,
Theodore Leclair
Dear Santa Claus,
I wish you would bring me a sled and a ring. I don’t want very much for I know you are getting old and I don’t want you to carry too much. You will find my stocking near the stove, and on the kitchen table you will find some bread and milk. I want you to leave me some candy, especially peanut brittle. I am 12 years old.
Your friend,
Cecelia Louise Miller
Dear Santa,
I wish you would bring me a popgun, tractor, truck, and an airplane. You will find a bowl of bread and milk near the Xmas tree. You will find my stocking near the stove. I am only seven years old.
Your friend,
Clayton Miller
My Dear Santa,
I am eleven years old, and I wish you would bring me a cowboy suit and a sweater. You will find my stocking near the stairway, and on the kitchen table you will find some corn meal mush.
Your little friend,
Herman Leclair
Dear Santa,
Christmas is drawing near and I thought I would drop you a line and let you know what I want for Christmas. I would like a red sweater, western book, and a fur hood. I will leave you some bread, cake, peanuts, and milk. I don’t want very much because you are growing old and your bag will be too heavy. So I will close and hope to have all I want for Christmas.
Sincerely yours,
Rita Theresa Leclair
Dear Santa,
I would like a new pair of shoes for Christmas.
Ruth Demarse
Dear Santa,
I want a tractor and some colors for Christmas.
Henry Lagree
1939
Dear Santa,
I have been a very good girl this year. I thank you for the things that you brought me last year. For Christmas I would like a doll and a Chinese Checker game. I will leave a lunch for you on the table. I will clean our chimney so you can slide down it. I will hang our stockings near the Christmas tree. I would like to stay up and see you but I am afraid that I would not get any presents so I will go to bed. Well we will have to close.
Your friend,
Helen and Patty Smith
Dear Santa Claus,
I have been a good boy this year. I would like a car that pedals. If you couldn’t bring that, I would like something smaller. And don’t forget Carol my baby sister. And I would like some candy, gum, oranges, and nuts.
Your little friend,
Robert K. Smith
Dear Santa,
I have tried to be a good little girl this year. I am nine years old and in the fifth grade. I would like a pair of ice skates between my sister and I. And don’t forget my baby sister, because she wasn’t here last year and I through that maybe you would forget her. But I guess that you wouldn’t do that trick. And don’t forget the candy, nuts, oranges, and gum.
Your friend,
Helen L. Smith
Dear Santa,
I would like for Christmas a pencil box and drawing paper, candy, and nuts.
Your friend,
Beulah Perry
1940
Dear Santa Claus,
I want a train and candy.
Norman Lafave
Dear Santa,
I would like a box of colors, a teddy bear, candy and nuts.
Agnes Lagree
Dear Santa Claus,
I want a pair of shoes, dress, and Christmas candy and nuts.
Ruth Demarse
From Bloated Toe Publishing, Happy Holidays to all.
Photo: 1916 Christmas advertisement.
Lawrence Gooley has authored ten books and dozens of articles on the North Country’s past. He and his partner, Jill McKee, founded Bloated Toe Enterprises in 2004. Expanding their services in 2008, they have produced 19 titles to date, and are now offering web design. For information on book publishing, visit Bloated Toe Publishing.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
New Book: The Race to the New World
By Editorial Staff
Doug Hunter's just released The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and the Lost History of Discovery (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), offers a new angle to the ubiquitous story of Columbus’ voyage; how John Cabot became his true rival in this search for the West Indies.
The final decade of the fifteenth century the Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus sailed westward on the Atlantic Ocean, famously determined to discover for Spain a shorter and more direct route to the riches of the Indies. Meanwhile, a fellow Italian explorer for hire, John Cabot, set off on his own journey, under England's flag.
In Race to the New World Hunter tells the fascinating tale of how, during his expedition, Columbus gained a rival. In the space of a few critical years, these two men engaged in a high-stakes race that threatened the precarious diplomatic balance of Europe-to exploit what they believed was a shortcut to staggering wealth. Instead, they found a New World that neither was looking for.
Hunter provides a revealing look at how the lives of Columbus and Cabot were interconnected, and how neither explorer should be understood without understanding both. Together, Cabot and Columbus provide a novel and important perspective on the first years of European experience of the New World.
Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.
Friday, December 23, 2011
This Week's New York History Web Highlights
By Editorial Staff
This Week's Top New York History News
By Editorial Staff
Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week's top stories about New York's state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.
Subscribe! More than 2,200 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
State Museum Aquires Unique Stoneware
By Editorial Staff
After hiding away in private collections – and a California coat closet – for nearly 200 years, a unique piece of early American decorative art is returning home to New York, where it will be housed at the New York State Museum thanks to collector Adam Weitsman. Weitsman, President of Upstate Shredding, also donated a monumental jug, two water coolers considered important by the museum and a gallon jug decorated with the image of a ship.
“The addition of these recent pieces of decorated stoneware surely put the New York State Museum on the map as having the premier collection of American stoneware. Not only are the decorations unique and outstanding as works of American folk art, but the documentation and history of these recent acquisitions enable us to learn so much more about the stoneware industry and those artists who left us such remarkable works of art,” said John Scherer, Historian Emeritus of the New York State Museum.
Weitsman has made a number of donations to the museum in the past, and a Herington incised jug will be an important - and valuable - addition to the collection.
A double-handled, profusely decorated stoneware jug is among the latest items Weitsman has donated. Inscribed "BENJAMIN HERINGTON,” it was bought at auction for what was, at the time, a record-breaking $138,000. The jug, considered by some a masterpiece, was made as a memorial to a 22-year-old potter who drowned in the Norwich, Connecticut harbor in 1823.
The double-handled jug joins two other pottery donations from Weitsman, including a 21 1/2 inch tall jug made in Poughkeepsie in the mid- to late-1800s, and a one-gallon stoneware jug decorated with the image of a ship, made in New York State between 1835-1846. The new acquisitions also include two water coolers made by Jonah Boynton of Albany purchased from New York City dealer Leigh Keno.
Stoneware was an integral part of the history of New York State and the expansion of the country in early days of exploration and settlement. In a time before refrigeration, stoneware was used to store and transport foodstuffs and drinking water. Clay deposits ideal for making stoneware were found around New York State, notably in what is now New Jersey, lower Manhattan and eastern Long Island. New York State became a large stoneware producer and artisans in New York developed durable vessels decorated with rich designs using incision techniques and distinctive rich blue coloring.
Weitsman began collecting American stoneware at age 11 and made his first donation of more than 120 pieces to the museum in 1996. In a 2009 article for Antiques and Fine Art Magazine, ‘Art for the People: Decorated Stoneware from the Weitsman Collection,’ Scherer wrote, “Since his initial donation Weitsman has continued to add at an aggressive pace to the museum's holdings, making it the premier collection of American decorated stoneware in the country.”
The Weitsman Stoneware Collection is available can be viewed by the general public at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York.
'Lost Cause': NY and Confederate History
By Peter Feinman
The fact that New York State has no official celebration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial or the War of 1812 Bicentennial is no secret. The question that isn’t being asked is: Why not?
To say that New York doesn’t have the money misses the point. Every state has financial problems but somehow other states are able to do something officially on the state level on behalf of these historic anniversaries. Why not New York? Hasn’t New York always generously supported historical anniversaries in the past? :)
The beginning of the answer may be found in a recent return visit to The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, by New York Times’ museum critic Edward Rothstein. He went there to view the new exhibit "The War Comes Home." His telling comments shed light on the paucity of NYS commitment without necessarily meaning to... or maybe he did. Rothstein writes of the exhibit:
"Here the war is personal. In the South, it seems, the Civil War is often recollected through relics and ephemera. In the North the approach is different. Would a comparable Museum of the Union even have enough personal artifacts to fill it? In the Northern states, the Civil War traces are more in monuments than in memorabilia. There, the war is not a personal event."
This observation is worth pursuing. In the teacher programs I have done, I find that the further away from New York City I go, the more likely I am to be in contact with a direct descendant of someone who participated in the American Revolution or the Civil War. It's like having a Bushnell descendant participate in a high-school project to build a replica of the Turtle that his ancestor had built in the American Revolution. This lack of a personal connection to the historic events in New York history is a direct contributor to the weakness of the historic community in the state to get government money on a comparable scale to other states.
New York State is dominated demographically by the New York City metropolitan area. True the region pays more in taxes than it receives back but that is a separate issue. How many people in metropolitan New York have a family connection to the French and Indian War? How many people in metropolitan New York have a family connection to the American Revolution? How many people in metropolitan New York have a family connection to the War of 1812? How many people in metropolitan New York have a family connection to the building of the Erie Canal? How many people in metropolitan New York have a family connection to the Civil War? When we examine major events in American history which took place in the State of New York, we find that the overwhelming majority of the tax-paying citizens have no personal tie to any of them. These events simply are not part of their heritage as New Yorkers.
Certainly people with no direct tie to these events can develop one. Dobbs Ferry historian Richard Borkow, a doctor in real life, developed an interest in the American Revolution is his adopted community, has written a book about it, and is having the time of his life meeting with American history scholars and testifying before Congress to have the National Park Service recognize the role of his community [his wife actually did the speaking for him there]. Retired teacher Vin Dacquino of Putnam wrote a book on the story of Sybil Ludington in the American Revolution, has been "adopted" in the Ludington family and will be hosting a family reunion in the summer of 2012. Mario Cuomo has a great love and admiration for Abraham Lincoln even though his family was not here during the Civil War. Andrew Cuomo evinces no such interest. Nor does metropolitan New York.
How many people in metropolitan New York have a family connection to World War II? How many people in metropolitan New York know where they were on 9/11? Here we see a problem in the historical consciousness of the majority of citizens in the state. For Ellis Island New York, it begins in the 20th century with their own personal connection to a war (maybe even World War I: let's see if that centennial is remembered). For post-1965 immigration reform arrivals it begins with 9/11.
The challenge then for the historic community in New York State is to connect the people of recent arrival to the historical legacy of the state. The challenge for the historic community in New York State is to connect the people of recent arrival to the events in their own community, county, region, and state (and country) which occurred even before they became residents there. The challenge for the historic community to make the people of recent arrival realize that once they become citizens of New York and America, all New York and American history become their history. There is no leadership to do this and New York history is paying the price.
What needs to be done?
In a recent post Bruce Dearstyne listed some action items which need to be done. Bruce and I have discussed these in person and via email; we submitted a joint proposal last year to the New York State History Association conference on this subject which was rejected but we keep trying, now through New York History blog. At this point I would like to note only a few items.
1. The New York State Education Department is revising the social studies standards as part of the national effort to create a common core standard in all the states. The New York State History Community needs a seat at that table.
2. May 19-20, 2012 have been designated as NYS Heritage Weekend. I suggest we call it Community Heritage Weekend and ask every town, village, city, and hamlet to create an immersion program into the heritage of their own community including talks, walks, bus tours, food, certificates of community citizenship, passports to be stamped at every site, and whatever else each community can think of to connect the residents to the heritage of the community.
3. The Hudson Valley Ramble in September should be extended statewide. Instead of being a series of one-shot efforts, activities should be coordinated to create (bus-)tour and tourist opportunities for weekend programs. Summer programs also are needed.
4. There are many history-related organizations which have state conferences, sometimes in the same location, sometimes rotated throughout the state. We need to identify them and consider ways to take advantage of them to reach out to teachers, public historians, historical societies, museums, archaeologists, genealogists, scholars in the region where these conferences are being held.
Adam Smith to the contrary, there is no invisible hand that is going to transform Ellis Island and post-1965 immigrants into New York State history lovers. But if we don't change the k-12 curriculum, if we don't change the training of teachers, if we don't change the organization of and communication by the history community, we won't have this issue to worry about because it will all disappear as if a financial Irene washed it all away except for a few isolated and endowed crown jewels, blips from a 400 hundred and 4,000 year heritage that survived the deluge.
Photo: A booklet distributed by the U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission in the 1960s.
Peter Feinman founder and president of the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education, a non-profit organization which provides enrichment programs for schools, professional development program for teachers, and public programs including leading Historyhostels and Teacherhostels to the historic sites in the state.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Auto Museum Offers Pinewood Derby Clinic
By Editorial Staff
The Saratoga Auto Museum will be holding a workshop for area Cub Scouts on the science involved in building a winning Pinewood Derby Car. The event, which will take place on January 7, 2012 at the Museum (110 Avenue of the Pines, Saratoga Springs), will begin at 1:00 pm and include Tech Talk (The physics of speed), Speed Shop, and Track Time.
To participate in the full event, preregistration is required and will be limited to the first 40 registrants. Each registration includes a pinewood derby car kit with regulation axles and wheels which will be assembled during the Speed Shop segment. Once the cars are completed, a weigh in will precede a series of heat races on the SAM's Garage Pinewood Derby Track.
Registration fee for the event is $10.00 and will include a car kit and Museum admission for the scout and an adult, so participants should come early to check out the "Porsche: 60 Years of Speed and Style in North America" exhibit before the Pinewood Derby event begins.
Participation in the Tech Talk and Track Time segments is also open to Cub Scouts who have previously completed their car and just want to join in the fun.
For registration, visit www.saratogaautomuseum.org and click on the Pinewood Derby link.
Photo: Pinewood Article from 1954 Boy's Life magazine. Hat tip PinewoodPro.com.
Grant to Fund Saratoga Sword Surrender Sculpture
By Editorial Staff
The Friends of Saratoga Battlefield have been awarded a $38,000 grant from the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust for the design and fabrication of a classic brass or bronze bas relief sculpture replicating the famous painting by John Trumbull (1756–1843) celebrating the Revolutionary War victory at Saratoga. It is expected to be a major part of the cultural landscape development of the historic “Sword Surrender Site” on the west side of Route 4 just south of Schuylerville.
Friends’ President Tim Holmes said, “The Solomon Trust grant will jump-start the magnificent cultural landscape plan by Saratoga Associates for this key historic site recently purchased and protected by the Open Space Institute. With our many partners we will commence the first stages of development to include a memorial wall, interpretive kiosk and a sculptural bas-relief of John Trumbull’s iconic painting The Surrender of General Burgoyne which stands in the U.S. Capitol as one of four scenes depicting the birth of American independence.”
The historic 19-acre site is where British General John Burgoyne surrendered his sword to American General Horatio Gates in 1777, marking the “Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War.” It will be a key feature for heritage tourism in the area, linking Saratoga Battlefield to sites in Schuylerville and Victory where the British retreated before their surrender. A broad alliance is raising awareness of the impact of the
Battles of Saratoga on the region. It is being advanced by the Historic Saratoga-Washington on the Hudson Partnership, an entity created through cooperative action in the State Senate and Assembly to support local efforts through a voluntary framework of public and private groups.
The scene of the surrender of the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, painted by Trumbull in 1822, shows American General Horatio Gates, who refused to take the sword offered by General Burgoyne, and, treating him as a gentleman, invited him into his tent. All of the figures in the scene are portraits of specific officers (from left to right, beginning with mounted officer):
American Captain Seymour of Connecticut (mounted)
American Colonel Scammel of New Hampshire (in blue)
British Major General William Phillips (British Army officer) (in red)
British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne (in red)
American Major General Horatio Gates (in blue)
Americal Colonel Daniel Morgan (in white)
A full key to those depicted in the painting is available here.
John Trumbull was born in Connecticut, the son of the governor. After graduating from Harvard University, he served in the Continental Army under General Washington. He studied painting with Benjamin West in London and focused on history painting.
To find out more about the grant or the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield, call Tim Holmes at 518.587.9499
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Hyde Hall: A New Director and Textile Treasures
By S.Rabbit Goody
For those of you who are not familiar with Hyde Hall, I had the greatest treat a few weeks ago: the new Executive Director, Dr. Jonathan Maney, and I perused the textile and trim collections that have survived at this Regency mansion.
Hyde Hall, a National Landmark and a New York State Historic Site, located in Springfield, NY, was built by George Clarke between 1817 and 1834.
Its importance to material culture historians is based on the extraordinary survival of furniture, textiles, textile ornaments, and receipts for the period of its building. Everything is fully documented.
Rarely do we have the opportunity to put so many pieces together to understand both the style and color way for window treatments in a high style Regency mansion circa 1830.
More important to those of us who work in rural areas, Hyde Hall is not located in an urban environment. Rather, it is far afield from the population centers that we normally associate with high style culture. Hyde Hall is perched high on a bluff overlooking the northern tip of Otsego Lake, about 60 miles west of Albany, New York.
We know that the draper/upholsterer came from Albany as did much of the furniture, and we know the exact volume of fabrics, trim, and ornaments that were ordered. We have surviving fragments of the original red damask, tassels, trim, and ornaments for the grand dining room and the drawing room. These great rooms are elaborate, handsome, and very well preserved.
Hyde Hall offers us the opportunity to study, educate, and reproduce the window treatments with more documentation than nearly any other historic site could ever hope to find.
Rabbit Goody is a textile historian and owner/weaver at Thistle Hill Weavers. She is also the director of the Textile History Forum.
New Contributor: Rabbit Goody, Textiles Expert
By Editorial Staff
Please join us in welcome our newest contributor here at New York History, Rabbit Goody. Goody is a nationally recognized textile historian who has served as a consultant to major museums, private collections, and the film industry. Her reproduction fabrics appear in many movies, including Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Master and Commander, Amistad, The Titanic, Cinderella Man, Polar Express, The Prestige, Transformers, and the new Indiana Jones movie.
Goody has extensive experience working as a consultant to museums including dating and identifying textiles in specific collections; making recommendations about exhibits, storage, and conservation; helping museum staff to develop appropriate and workable furnishing plans that include historically accurate soft furnishings, from carpet to loose covers to window treatments; and developing plans for textile rotation. She has worked with many living history sites to coordinate the use of historically accurate reproductions with original items in the museum's collections.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Franklin County War Hero Without a Gun
By Lawrence P. Gooley
In the early 1900s, woodsman Oliver Lamora of Brandon, New York became somewhat of an Adirondack hero, earning coast-to-coast headlines with his ongoing battle against billionaire William Rockefeller. At the same time, just 20 miles north of Oliver’s homestead, a young man began a career destined to earn him international praise as a hero of two world wars—without ever hoisting a gun to his shoulder.
Darius Alton Davis was born in 1883 in Skerry, New York, and worked on the family farm about ten miles southwest of Malone in Franklin County. The Davis family was devoutly religious, following the lead of Darius’ father, Newton, who took an active role in the local church, Sunday school, and county Bible Society.
In 1903, Darius graduated from Franklin Academy in Malone. At the commencement, several students presented papers to the assembly. Darius chose as his subject David Livingstone, the legendary Scottish explorer and medical missionary. The audience heard details on Livingstone’s humble beginnings, hard work, civility, and desire to help others. What young Davis was presenting, in fact, was a blueprint for his own future.
Darius attended Syracuse University (1903–1907), where he studied theology and played a leadership role on campus. “Dri,” as he was known, was a top oarsman, guiding the crew team to many sensational victories, including one world-record effort that stood for five years.
In 1905, he was elected president of the university’s YMCA (recently renamed “the Y”), an event that would determine his life’s direction. Prior to graduation in 1907, Darius accepted a position as religious director for the YMCA in Washington, D.C. After marrying his college sweetheart, he worked three years in Washington while continuing his studies, attending four terms at the Silver Bay YMCA School on Lake George, New York.
His personality, intelligence, and work ethic made Darius a very capable leader, and in 1910, the International Committee of the YMCA assigned him to establish a presence in Constantinople, Turkey. From the position of general secretary of operations, Darius built a membership of nearly 600 in the first year.
In late 1912, the Balkan War broke out, and Davis assumed the organization of Red Cross aid. He also volunteered, serving for six months as an interpreter in a Turkish hospital. His selfless dedication to war victims did not go unnoticed. In appreciation, the Turkish sultan awarded him a medal, the prestigious Star of the Third Order of Medjidieh.
In 1915, within a year after World War I began, Darius was assigned to work with prisoners in France and Italy, both of which were unprepared for the mounting number of captured troops. The YMCA assumed the challenge of caring for the physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of the men held captive. The organization’s efforts were based on Christian charity, but it mattered not what one’s beliefs were: the YMCA was simply there to help anyone.
Access to prison camps had been largely restricted, but Davis was a great negotiator and spokesman. Dealing with various government officials, he stressed the YMCA’s neutrality, which was a powerful argument.
The French were skeptical. They had recently developed a Foyer du Soldat (Soldiers’ Fireside) program featuring a series of buildings (small to large facilities, but often referred to as “huts”) where French soldiers could go to relax, read, snack, play games, and enjoy entertainment. Sensing an opportunity, Davis offered to support and expand the program while making it available to captives as well as troops. France’s war prisoner department finally relented.
They soon discovered the great value of Davis’ plan. Soldiers and prisoners alike were thrilled with the results, and within two years, 70 huts were established across the country. Eventually, more than 1500 were in place. In early 1917, when America entered the war, General Pershing requested that Davis provide the same program for the huge number of Allied troops destined for service in France. That meant quadrupling their efforts, which required enormous infrastructure.
Undaunted, Davis led the way, and within a year, the YMCA was operating what was once described as “the world’s largest grocery chain.” At a cost of over $50 million, it included more than 40 factories for producing cookies, candies, and other supplies, plus warehouses, banks, hotels, cafes, dorms, and garages for vehicle repair. Their own construction and repair departments built and maintained the facilities.
After the war, Davis was appointed the senior YMCA representative in Europe, and from that position, he organized YMCAs in several countries. In 1925, he became secretary of the National Council of Switzerland (a neutral country), and in 1931 was named associate general secretary of the World YMCA based in Geneva, a position he held as World War II began.
In that capacity, he worked with the War Prisoners’ Aid program, an advancement of the work he had done with prisoners during World War I. In late October 1940, Davis completed a three-week tour of POW camps in Germany. At the time, the YMCA was already providing recreational and educational services to millions of prisoners, but sought to do more.
Though many were well treated by their captors, they often lacked warm clothing, news from home, adequate food, and other daily needs. Books were one of the most desired and requested items in every camp. Many organizations (like the Red Cross) addressed that problem—the YMCA alone had distributed hundreds of thousands of books to prison camps across Europe.
Their aim was to provide the essentials to prisoners held in all countries, and Darius was relentless. By January 1941, negotiations had been conducted on behalf of an estimated 3 million POWs in Australia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Palestine, Rumania, Sweden, and Switzerland. As the war continued, that number kept rising.
In a speech he gave in mid-1942, Davis spoke of the more than 6 million war prisoners they were helping to care for. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it gave the prisoners a voice and a connection to the outside world. It also allowed independent observation of the goings-on inside many prison camps, a comforting fact to both the prisoners and their families back home. One newspaper noted, “The YMCA already is conducting welfare work among the largest number of war prisoners in the history of mankind.”
After the war ended in 1945, Darius spent four years aiding refugees and citizens who had been displaced. In 1953, he was awarded the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his work with German POWs. Ten other European governments likewise honored Davis for his work on behalf of prisoners. The onetime farm boy from Skerry touched an untold number of lives. Darius Alton Davis died in 1970 at the age of 87.
Photo Top: Darius Alton Davis.
Photo Middle: A Foyer du Soldat in France, 1918.
Photo Bottom: An appreciative WW II prison camp poster.
Lawrence Gooley has authored ten books and dozens of articles on the North Country’s past. He and his partner, Jill McKee, founded Bloated Toe Enterprises in 2004. Expanding their services in 2008, they have produced 19 titles to date, and are now offering web design. For information on book publishing, visit Bloated Toe Publishing.
Fort Ticonderoga to Assess Repair Options
By Editorial Staff
A grant for $20,320 was recently awarded to the Fort Ticonderoga Association, a private not-for-profit organization, as part of the recent announcement by New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. The grant to Fort Ticonderoga, through the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, will fund a structural condition evaluation for Fort Ticonderoga in 2012 that will be used to make long-range decisions regarding the fort and its walls. This evaluation will establish the structural priorities for Fort Ticonderoga and identify options for repair.
The grant project is part of a larger Fort Ticonderoga planning initiative being prepared by PGAV Destinations. Phase 1 of this plan is expected to be complete in early 2012.
Beth Hill, Fort Ticonderoga Executive Director, said “a clear analysis of the structural needs of the Fort and its walls is one of our highest priorities at this time. The state grant allows for us to include this evaluation as we plan for a vibrant future for one of America’s greatest treasures. It will help us best preserve the Fort while reaching our greatest potential as a major destination in New York.”
The stabilization and preservation of Fort Ticonderoga’s walls has been an ongoing project since it was built by the French in 1755. In particular, water infiltration and the winter freeze thaw cycle have caused damage to the walls. In recent years, sections of the walls have been successfully repaired using modern masonry and drainage techniques.
Photo: Deteriorated walls at Fort Ticonderoga (Courtesy John Warren).
Sunday, December 18, 2011
New Book on John Brown: Midnight Rising
By Editorial Staff
In his new book Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, bestselling author Tony Horwitz tells the story of Adirondack abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.
Late on the night of October 16, 1859, Adirondack abolitionist John Brown led 18 well-armed men on a raid of the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry and sparked a nationwide uprising against slavery. The principal goal of the raid was to free slaves, not attack and hold a Southern state. The plan was simple: capture about 100,000 muskets and rifles, ammunition, and other supplies from the lightly guarded federal facilities at Harpers Ferry, retire to the countryside and carry out nighttime raids to free Southern slaves. The raider's believed the southern harvest fields would be filled with disgruntled and overworked slaves bringing in the crops, a perfect opportunity to turn them to revolt.
The raid might have succeeded, had Brown not made a serious error in allowing an eastbound Baltimore & Ohio train the raiders had captured to proceed. The conductor alerted the main B & O office that abolitionists were attempting to free the area's slaves. The word was immediately taken to B & O president John W. Garrett, who notified US President James Buchanan, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, and Major General George H. Stewart of the Maryland Volunteers that a slave insurrection was underway in Harpers Ferry. The worst fear of the southern slaveholders seemed to be at hand.
By about noon Brown's last chance to escape into the countryside came and went - he was in command of the bridges, and held about 35 prisoners. Armed locals arrived and organized a makeshift attack with their own hunting guns. Then two militia companies arrived from nearby Charles Town - together they stormed the bridges and drove the half dozen or so of Brown's men guarding them back.
Five raiders were captured alive. Seven initially escaped and five of them made it to ultimate freedom in the north; four later served in the Civil War. Ten men were killed. All but two were buried in a common grave on the Shenandoah River, across from Harpers Ferry. The lest resting place of Jeremiah Anderson remains unknown. Watson Brown's body was given to Winchester Medical College where it remained until Union troops recovered it during the Civil War and burned the school in reprisal.
Brown was charged with murder, conspiring with slaves to rebel, and treason against Virginia (West Virginia was not yet a state) and after a week-long trial was sentenced to death in early November. He was hanged on December 2nd (John Wilkes Booth sneaked in to watch) and his body was afterward carried to North Elba in Essex County to "moulder in his grave."
Horwitz is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. He also wrote Confederates in the Attic, the outstanding look at the Civil War's continued legacy in the South. Midnight Rising follows John Brown’s plot from its very inception to the savage battle, and then to its aftermath as it galvanizes the North and pushes the South closer to secession.
New York History founder John Warren wrote about the raid in a series of posts on in 2009.
Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Adirondack Classic Now Available in Paperback
By Editorial Staff
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) has released the third edition of The Adirondack Reader in paperback. The collection of writings about the Adirondacks, which is also available in hardcover, spans more than 400 years of the region’s history and literature and reflects our nation’s changing attitudes toward wilderness. Edited by the late Paul Jamieson with Neal Burdick, this edition includes the work of some 30 new writers as well as the classic entries of Adirondack explorers and philosophers for which the book is known. A glossy, 32-page, color insert features classic and contemporary Adirondack paintings, illustrations, etchings and photographs. The paperback edition retails for $24.95 and the hardcover lists for $39.95.
“Adirondack literature is an unparalleled mirror of the relations of Americans to the woods,” Jamieson writes. “This is a book about what Americans have sensed, felt, and thought about our unique heritage of wilderness.”
The release of the third edition in 2009 coincided with 400th anniversary of the voyages of Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson and the European discovery of the waterways that bear their names. The Adirondack Reader opens with Francis Parkman’s account of Champlain’s voyage. But much of the historical material is contemporary: Isaac Jogues on his capture by the Mohawks, Ethan Allen on the taking of Fort Ticonderoga, William James Stillman on the 1858 “Philosopher’s Camp” at Follensby Pond, and Bob Marshall on scaling 14 Adirondack peaks in a single day. The Adirondack Reader also features writings by James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Louis Stevenson, Theodore Dreiser, Joyce Carol Oates, Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Henry Dana Jr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Newcomers to the third edition include Bill McKibben, Russell Banks, Chris Jerome, Barbara McMartin, Elizabeth Folwell and Philip Terrie. Visual artists represented in its pages include Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Seneca Ray Stoddard and Harold Weston, as well as more contemporary artists such as Anne Diggory, Lynn Benevento, John Gallucci, Laura von Rosk and Don Wynn.
First published in 1964, The Adirondack Reader was lauded for its scope and its success in capturing and conveying the region’s spirit. Jamieson organized the collection into 10 sections and wrote an introduction for each that also imparts a great deal about the Adirondacks’ culture and character. His preface describes a place he knew well and gives readers a context for understanding the Adirondack Park’s unique role in the nation’s development and literature.
In the years that followed, Jamieson and editor Neal Burdick watched with interest the emergence of new voices in Adirondack writing. It is these authors, many of whom live in the region they write about (a marked change from earlier Reader contributors), who Jamieson and Burdick took particular care to include in the current edition. “There has been a remarkable flowering of writing about the Adirondacks in the last two and a half decades,” notes Burdick in his preface to the third edition. “A regional literature of the Adirondacks has come into its own.”
Neal Burdick is associate director of university communications for St. Lawrence University and editor-in-chief of Adirondac magazine. An essayist, reviewer, poet and fiction writer, his writing has appeared in numerous publications. Burdick is also past editor of ADK’s eight-volume Forest Preserve Series trail guides. A native of Plattsburgh, he holds a B.A. in English from St. Lawrence University and a Ph.D. in American studies with a concentration in environmental history from Case Western Reserve University.
Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Paul Jamieson was inspired by the discovery of “uneven ground” in the nearby Adirondacks when he joined the faculty of St. Lawrence University in 1929. It was there, in Canton, that he became a hiker, paddler, author and prominent figure in regional and national preservation efforts. He is widely credited with the opening of many tracts of land and paddling routes to the public. Jamieson lived in Canton until his death in 2006 at the age of 103.
The Adirondack Reader is 544 pages and is available at book and outdoor supply stores, at ADK stores in Lake George and Lake Placid and through mail order by calling (800) 395-8080.
The Adirondack Mountain Club, founded in 1922, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the New York Forest Preserve and other parks, wild lands and waters through conservation and advocacy, environmental education and responsible recreation. ADK publishes more than 30 titles, including outdoor recreation guidebooks and maps and armchair traveler books, and conducts extensive trails, education, conservation and natural history programs. Profits from the sale of ADK publications help underwrite the cost of these programs. For more information, visit www.adk.org.
Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers.
Friday, December 16, 2011
This Week's New York History Web Highlights
By Editorial Staff
- Early American Crime: 10 Best Crime and Punishment History Books
- Osawatomie Notebook: TR, Barack Obama, and John Brown
- Holidays on Ice 1861: Skaters at Brooklyn's Icy Ponds
- Ephemeral New York: 'Murderers' Alley', NYC
- Tenement Museum: Creating Bridget Moore
- Jim Loewen: Can Today's Trains Reach Steam RR Speeds?
- New Website: Occupy History
Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers the previous week's top links about New York's state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.
Subscribe! More than 2,200 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.
This Week's Top New York History News
By Editorial Staff
Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week's top stories about New York's state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.
Subscribe! More than 2,200 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Thomas Cole Celebrates 10 Years, Makes Plans
By Editorial Staff
Ten years ago the Thomas Cole National Historic Site opened its doors with no endowment, no government operating funds, and no paid staff. Thanks to members, volunteers, donors, scholars, trustees, staff, interns, advisors and fans the birthplace of the Hudson River School is still inspiring us today.
Over the next ten years Historic Site staff hope to see Thomas Cole's "New Studio" rebuilt in the exact spot where it stood for 128 years - a building that he himself designed and the interior rooms of the 1815 "Main House" restored.
On Sundays at 2 pm once per month Thomas Cole State Historic Site offers a popular Sunday Salon series of lectures. Here are the first two:
January 15
The Hunt for Thomas Cole's Lost, Last, Unfinished Series
In the late 1980s, a legendary New York art dealer acquired an oil study for one of five paintings in Cole's monumental series, The Cross and the World. Learning that the series – still on Cole’s easel at the time of his death – had vanished from sight in the 1870s, the dealer sent Christine I. Oaklander out to hunt them down. Dr. Oaklander will discuss the history and iconography of Cole's last, lost series and give us a "behind the scenes" glimpse of her quest.
February 12
Thomas Cole in Love
In 1825, young Thomas Cole stepped out of the Catskills autumn with a body of work so exceptional that it kicked America's drowsy cultural ambitions into a new state of excitement. Join Kevin Sharp, Director of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, as he explores Cole's use of Romantic imagery from English poets such as Byron and Coleridge to create dramatic works that stood in stark contrast to the gentle landscape images that had come before.
