Month: October 2010

This Weeks Top New York History News

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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.

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Lecture to Focus on Albanys Railroad History

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Although Albany remains a vital railroad junction, New York’s capital city was once a major hub of the railway industry. Can it become one again? On Sunday, October 24, at 2:00 p.m., the Albany Institute of History & Art welcomes Harvard University Professor John Stilgoe, who will give a lecture entitled, Albany’s Railroads: A Once and Future Hub.

Professor Stilgoe recalls the bustling railroad lines that once converged on Albany, examines how curtailment of passenger and freight service has affected our region, and imagines a visionary railway revitalization that transcends the now-dominant interstate highway network. He holds joint appointments to the Harvard faculties of Design and Arts and Sciences. He is the winner of the Francis Parkman, George Hilton, and Bradford Williams medals, the AIA award for collaborative research, and the Charles C. Eldredge prize for art history research.

This lecture is free and open to the public, and is made possible by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities. Admission to the lecture does not include museum admission.

Finger Lakes Museum Adds Staff, Previews Designers

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Thirty­-five architectural, engineering, and exhibit design teams from across the U.S. and Canada presented qualification submissions in the first stage of a competition to design the Finger Lakes Museum. The submission deadline was October 1st.

On September 14th executive director John Adamski and project director Don Naetzker hosted 70 design professionals from 60 firms at the museum’s future site in Keuka Lake State Park.

The meeting was followed by a request for qualifications, which is the first step in selecting a design team. “Because of the complexity of the project, a team approach makes sense”, said Adamski, who is also president of the museum’s board of trustees and a retired architect. “It’s unlikely that any single firm would possess all of the design disciplines in­-house that are needed for a project like this”, he added.

The museum’s facilities committee will evaluate each of the submissions in order to narrow the field to a maximum of 5 frontrunners. Those firms would then be asked to submit proposals, which would include design concepts. It is hoped that a design team can be onboard before the end of the year.

In other Finger Lakes Museum news, the board of trustees recently hired Natalie Payne as the startup organization’s third employee. She was formerly acting curator at Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and will serve as associate project director working with executive director, John Adamski, and project director, Don Naetzker.

Adamski and Naetzker were hired by the board last May to develop plans for building the Finger Lakes Museum in Keuka Lake State Park. Payne has been involved with the project since its inception. She has been a museum board member since August 2008 and still serves as its secretary.

Adamski said, “Hiring Natalie is possible because of the early success of our Founders Campaign, which is a grass roots effort to raise the funds we need to hire personnel and equip our offices at the school in Branchport.”

Anyone can become a museum founder for $100 or more by logging on to their website and making a contribution. &#8220We have momentum but we need all of the help we can get to keep it going” Adamski said. He has donated his own 2010 salary back to the project.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers a collection of the week’s top web links about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

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Citizen Soldier Exhibit Now Online

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The New York State Museum’s story of the New York Army National Guard is now online.

&#8220Citizen Soldier: New York’s National Guard in the American Century&#8221 chronicles a history that is based on a tradition dating back to colonial times in a state that has always been guided by the principle that its defense lies in the hands of its citizenry.

&#8220Citizen soldiers are everyday people who put their lives on hold to defend, aid and protect their communities and their country,&#8221 a museum press release says. &#8220From militiamen defending their homes on the colonial frontier, to individuals serving in conflicts around the globe, New Yorkers continue this legacy of service to the present day.&#8221

The exhibit is open in the museum’s exhibition hall through March 2011. Photos from the exhibit, as well as an interactive history timeline can now be found on the museum’s website at www.nysm.nysed.gov/citizensoldier.

The displays in the exhibition hall, and the online information, focuses on the 20th century, which witnessed the transformation of the United States from an isolationist nation into a dominant power with the ability to shape world events. It was dubbed the American Century in 1941 by Time Magazine Publisher Henry Luce.

During that time the National Guard evolved from an ill-equipped and poorly trained militia into a modern-day force capable of protecting American interests around the world. The 16,000 men and women who serve in the New York Army National Guard today fulfill a variety of critical missions both at home and abroad.

Encompassing nearly 7,000 square feet of gallery space, the exhibition covers the service of New Yorkers in the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the first Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also included are the missions closer to home – the Capitol Fire (1911), blizzards in Buffalo (1944, 1977) and New York City (1996), the Woodstock concert (1969), the Attica riots (1971), the ice storm in northern New York (1998), the Mechanicville tornado (1998), the 2001 terrorist attacks and other smaller calamities around the state.

Visitors entering the exhibition will see the M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car that was first introduced into combat in 1943. The 16,000-pound vehicle was used in all theaters of World War II, including Europe, where it was issued to the men of the 101st Cavalry Group of the New York National Guard.

The car is now owned by Gregory Wolanin of Loudonville. Also on display are a flamethrower and bazooka, a 37 mm gun, and various other military equipment. Visitors will also have the opportunity to see the History Channel film, &#8220Defending America,&#8221 which will be shown in the gallery.

There are many personal stories of courage and heroism throughout the exhibition. One of those is that of Sgt. Henry Johnson of Albany, a member of the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment who single-handedly fought off a group of German soldiers before collapsing from 21 wounds during a battle in France in 1918. It wasn’t until 1996 that Johnson was awarded the Purple Heart Medal, and 2003 when the Army awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross, this nation’s second highest award for valor.

Medals of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, were awarded to Col. William J. O’Brien and Sgt. Thomas A. Baker of Troy, both of the 105th Infantry Regiment, for their courage in the face of a horrifying enemy attack by the Japanese on Saipan in 1944. Also included is the story of Sgt. LeRoy Sprague of Elmira of the 108th Infantry Regiment who received a Purple Heart after being seriously wounded in 1945 during fighting on the island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands.

First Sgt. James Meltz of Cropseyville, a member of the 108th Infantry Regiment, received the Bronze Star for valor after rescuing fellow soldiers from a burning humvee during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan in 2008.

The exhibition also features profiles of other members of the 108th Infantry who served in Iraq, including Sgt. 1st Class John Ross of Latham, Sgt. 1st Class Luis Barsallo of Halfmoon and Private 1st Class Nathan Brown of Glens Falls. Brown was killed in Iraq in 2004 when an insurgent fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the back of the 5-ton truck he was riding in.

Also included in the exhibition are a bronze bust and other items related to Maj. Gen. John Francis Ryan, who grew up in Morrisania, Westchester Co. and became the commander of the New York National Guard in 1912. He led the 27th Division on the Mexican border and to victory in World War I.

A section of the exhibition is devoted to women in the New York National Guard. Featured here are profiles of Spc. Amy Klemm of Ronkonkoma, who volunteered to serve in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and Capt. Tara Dawe of Queens, who volunteered for service in Bosnia and later passed up Officer Candidate School so that she could deploy with her unit, the 442nd MP Company, to Iraq.

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting www.nysm.nysed.gov.

Former Trudeau Sanatorium Patient Publishes Novel

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Annapolis, Maryland resident, Florence Mulhern, will be at The Saranac Laboratory, 89 Church Street, on October 23rd, 2010, at 2:00 for a book signing of her just published novel, The Last Lambs on the Mountain. Ryerson University Scholar Dr. Jean Mason will introduce the author.

Mulhern spent two years at Trudeau Sanatorium while a tuberculosis patient. She has written a riveting and absorbing novel bringing her fictional characters together, sharing their varied backgrounds, living with constant hope, despair and uncertain futures. Her character’s lives intertwine as they are forced to live through difficult surgeries and experimental medicines always with the unceasing hope a cure is found allowing their lives will return to normal.

Mrs. Mulhern began her writing career many years ago and is the author of numerous published articles and two historical books. The book is now available for purchase in the Museum Store of the Saranac Laboratory, operated and major book sellers. All proceeds benefit Historic Saranac Lake.

Photo: Saranac Lake (Church Street from River Street). Courtesy Historic Saranac Lake.


Hear Tales of Hauntings at The Farmers’ Museum

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During the most haunting time of the fall season, The Farmers’ Museum invites visitors to experience “Things That Go Bump In The Night.” Join museum interpreters as they lead you about the shadowy grounds and recount the many mysteries and ghostly happenings that have occurred within the buildings making up the Museum’s historic village. These tours will be held on three nights only: Saturday, October 23- Friday, October 29- and Saturday, October 30, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Museum guides will lead visitors through the darkened 19th-century village by lantern, stopping at various buildings throughout, including the Blacksmith’s Shop and Bump Tavern, weaving ghostly tales adapted from the Louis C. Jones’ classic, Things That Go Bump In the Night, a timeless record of haunted history and restless spirits in New York State. Participants will hear stories associated with the museum’s buildings as in the tale of a young ghost sighted by staff and guests in Bump Tavern and the mysterious early morning strikes on the blacksmith’s anvil.

These hour-long tours will be held every half-hour between 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Reservations are required. Admission is $10 per person (ages 3 and up). Please call Meg Preston at (607) 547-1452.

National Archives Regional Residency Fellowship

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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), with the support of the Foundation for the National Archives, has announced a new program designed to give researchers the opportunity to conduct original research using records held at National Archives locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Seattle. This is an opportunity for researchers to explore often overlooked records held by NARA and to experience what many researchers have discovered &#8211 that you do not have to go to Washington, D.C. to do research at the National Archives.

For 2011, one fellow will be assigned to each of the participating National Archives facilities, for a total of five fellowships. Each fellow will receive a $3,000.00 stipend to assist with travel and research expenses.

Stipend recipients will be expected to complete a research project that results in a publishable work product. In addition, within one year of receiving the fellowship, recipients will be asked to prepare a short report for publication by NARA that describes the research experience – the discovery, method, and use of the records at whatever facility the fellow is working at.

The use of social media tools to spread information about the experience is encouraged. Fellows will also be asked to conduct a staff briefing at the end of their research visit to share information regarding what was found during the research process.

Academic and independent historians, public and local historians, and writers are encouraged to apply. Current NARA employees and contractors or their immediate family members are not eligible.

Submit proposals by e-mail or mail. Either must be postmarked by NOVEMBER 15, 2010.

What to Send:

* A description and justification for the project, not to exceed six pages. This proposal should include:

o a description of consultation with a regional archivist regarding the records to be used for research (there should be enough records to warrant a research visit of at least one week)-

o a listing of the records that will be used at the region-

o the proposed final product- and

o the significance of the project to historical scholarship.

* Please also include the following with your proposal:

o Copy of Vita (no more than three pages) including current contact information- and

o Two letters of recommendation

Proposals should be sent by mail or electronic mail directly to the NARA facility the researcher intends to use for the fellowship:

Hudson Valley Woman of History Nominations Sought

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Each March, Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site recognizes a woman who has distinguished herself in the field of Hudson Valley history by bestowing upon her the “Martha Washington Woman of History Award.” Appropriately, the award emanates from where Martha Washington resided with her husband, General George Washington, during the last months of the Revolutionary War.

That the ceremony takes place in March, during Women’s History Month, is indeed fitting. The Woman of History award acknowledges Martha Washington’s important place in history as a devoted patriot in support of the American Revolution and the ensuing new nation. This is the ninth year the award has been given, continuing the site’s mission to educate the public about the history of our great state and national heritage.

There are many women who are dedicated to sharing and preserving our history. Perhaps you know of a woman who shares her love of history with children by taking them to historic places during her free time? Is there a woman who has done research about the Hudson Valley and has shared her findings to encourage others to do the same? Do you know a woman who has used her personal funds to preserve historic landmarks? These are just a few examples of what could qualify a woman to be a recipient of the award. As you can perceive, the nomination field is open to any woman who has cultivated interest and awareness of Hudson Valley history, either locally or nationally. Nominations must be completed and submitted by January 7th, 2011. The award will be given during a ceremony in March 2011.

The Nomination Form is online. For more information call (845) 562-1195.

Photo: Washington’s Headquarters circa 1852. Courtesy of Palisades Interstate Park Commission Archives.

Iroquois Stories for Thanksgiving Season

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The Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, NY will present “Iroquois Stories for the Season of Thanksgiving” with writer and storyteller Susan Fantl Spivack on Sunday, October 24th at 2 p.m. Museum visitors will enjoy traditional Iroquois stories such as “The Brave Woman and the Flying Head” and “The Talking Stone.”

Ms. Spivack teaches poetry writing workshops to children and adults, and since 1991, has brought her program, &#8220Tricks of the Trade: Stories to Take Home, to libraries and scouting groups. Ms. Spivack conducted The Community Library Story Hour in Cobleskill, NY for thirty years, and has told Iroquois myths and tales at the Iroquois Indian Museum of Schoharie County where she has served as an adjunct educator.

For more information visit the Iroquois Indian Museum online at www.iroquoismuseum.org, e-mail [email protected], or call 518-296-8949.