Month: October 2010

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 weblinks about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

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Fort Ticonderoga Hosts Garrison Ghost Tours

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Discover the unexplained past at Fort Ticonderoga during evening Garrison Ghost Tours, Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 22 and 23 and Oct. 29 and 30. The lantern-lit tours, offered from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., will highlight Fort Ticonderoga’s haunted history and recount stories featured on Syfy Channel’s Ghost Hunters.

Garrison Ghost Tours, led by costumed historic interpreters carrying lanterns, allow guests to enter areas of the Fort where unexplained events have occurred. The forty-five minute walking tour in and around the Fort offers historical context to the many ghostly stories that are part of Fort Ticonderoga’s epic history. The evening tours allow guests to experience the magic of Fort Ticonderoga at night. Guests can also take their own self-guided walk to the historic American Cemetery where a costumed interpreter will share the many stories related to its interesting past.

Fort Ticonderoga has a long and often violent history. Constructed in 1755, the Fort was the scene of the bloodiest day of battle in American history prior to the Civil War when on July 8, 1758 nearly 2,000 British and Provincial soldiers were killed or wounded during a day-long battle attempting to capture the Fort from the French army. During the American Revolution nearly twenty years later thousands of American soldiers died of sickness while defending the United States from British invasion from the north.

Tickets for the Garrison Ghost Tours are $10 each and reservations are required. Call 518-585-2821 for reservations. No exchanges and refunds allowed. The Garrison Ghost Tours are a rain or shine event. Beverages and concessions are available for purchase. Garrison Ghost Tour dinner packages are available through Best Western Ticonderoga Inn & Suites. Visit www.fort-ticonderoga.org for package details.

Photo: Twilight at Fort Ticonderoga

Champlain Maritime Museum Storytelling Festival Sat

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Gather in the museum’s intimate theater or in an Adirondack-style lodge to experience lake history in song and story at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Storytelling Festival, Saturday October 16. Festival activities take place from noon to 5pm, rain or shine, at the museum’s scenic campus just west of Vergennes on the shore of Lake Champlain.

At noon, Russell Van Dervoort will share family stories from over a century of adventure operating tugboats on the Hudson River, Erie and Champlain Canals. Van Dervoort will also personalize autographed copies of his new book, Canal Canaries and Other Tough Old Birds, recently published by LCMM. At 1:30pm, the student actors of Burlington’s Very Merry Theater will lead theatrical activities, games, and present a performance of The Velveteen Rabbit.

Their presentation is a special occasion at “The Roost,” LCMM’s Adirondack-style lodge that served as a children’s theater for Camp Marbury in the 1920s. At 3:00pm, the traditional musicians of Atlantic Crossing team up with LCMM director Art Cohn to offer original songs and illustrated stories of life on Lake Champlain, interweaving narration, images and music to paint a picture of Lake Champlain and its people. Along the way, Art Cohn shares his personal adventures as a nautical archaeologist and his unique perspective on the lake. The show ends with a brief discussion of the current state of lake resources and the need for conservation.

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is open daily from 10-5. Festival admission includes all performances, a day at the museum, a 20% discount at Red Mill Restaurant, and helps preserve Lake Champlain’s history and archaeology. Enjoy over a dozen exhibit buildings, antique boats in the new Hazelett Watercraft Center, and replica historic vessels at North Harbor. Find out more online at www.lcmm.org or call 802 475-2022.

Panel: Academy of Certified Archivists Accreditation

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The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York invites members and the general public to attend a panel discussion on the role of Academy of Certified Archivists accreditation in today’s professional climate. Please join ART at the Fashion Institute of Technology on Monday October 18, 2010. Panelists will represent a variety of viewpoints ranging from history and development of the ACA examination, and archivists’ experience preparing for the examination to different perspectives regarding the merits of becoming a Certified Archivist (CA).

Pam Hackbart-Dean (President of the Academy of Certified Archivists) will discuss the history and evolution of the ACA- Lois Kauffman (The Winthrop Group) and Michael Nash (NYU Tamiment) will discuss the merits of the examination for both archivists and organizations- Susan Woodland (Hadassah Archives) a recent ACA certified archivist will discuss her experiences preparing for the examination- and Susan Hamson (Columbia University) will discuss different modes of assessment of our profession.

Panelists include:

Pam Hackbart-Dean is Director of the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She is currently president of the Academy of Certified Archivists. She has been a member of the Academy since 1992.

Susan Woodland has been Archivist at Hadassah since 1996, where she is now Director of the Archives. She recently passed her examination and is now a Certified Archivist.

Lois Kauffman has been an archivist with The Winthrop Group since 2004. She holds an M.A. in Art History from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and is certified by the Academy of Certified Archivists

Susan Hamson, Curator of Manuscripts and University Archives at Columbia University Libraries

Michael Nash, Head of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.

Date: Monday, October 18, 2010

Place: Fashion Institute of Technology|SUNY, 7th Avenue at 27th Street, Manhattan. Katie Murphy Auditorium, D Building, Ground Floor, Northwest corner

Time: 6:30-8:30 Panel Discussion followed by a Q&A

Directions: http://www.fitnyc.edu/1888.asp

Fee: $5.00 to members of the Archivists Round Table and faculty, staff, and students of FIT. $10.00 admission for all others

RSVP: To Jennifer Anna at [email protected] by October 16. Please provide first and last name of all people attending under your RSVP message within the body of message.

Learning in New York:NYC’s Historic Schools and Libraries

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Join the Historic Districts Council, the advocate for New York City’s historic neighborhoods, for ”Learning in New York” a series of programs exploring the City’s fascinating collection of 19th and 20th century educational buildings.

The entire series is available for $60/$40 for Friends, seniors & students. Advance reservations are required. Tickets can be ordered online, calling 212-614-9107 or e-mailing [email protected].

The Architecture of Knowledge: New York City’s Historic Schools and Libraries
Tuesday, October 19, 6:30pm, LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Manhattan
Fee: $35/$25 for Friends, seniors & students.

This panel will examine the architecture of school and library buildings across New York City, highlighting their history as well as reuse and restoration. Bruce Nelligan of Nelligan White Architects will showcase his firm’s renovations to historic schools in The Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, ranging from 1893-1930, highlighting discoveries about evolving construction techniques and various approaches to rehabilitation. Throughout the five boroughs, there are 55 public libraries still existing of the original 67 built with industrialist Andrew Carnegie’s support. Rashmi Sen, principal of Sen Architects will discuss her firm’s work renovating several Carnegie Libraries in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Through her efforts, these libraries have been successfully updated and modernized, while retaining and restoring their distinctive historic features. Jean Arrington is a scholar of C. B. J. Snyder, New York City School Superintendent from 1891 to 1923, who designed and constructed more than 400 new buildings and additions. Ms. Arrington will discuss Snyder and how he changed school design both in New York and nationally. This program will be a good introduction for attendees of the related walking tour that is part of this series.

An Educational Walk Through Chinatown: C.B.J. Snyder’s Schools, Andrew Carnegie’s Libraries and Everything In Between
Saturday, October 23, 11:00am, exact location announced upon registration
$35/$25 Friends, students & seniors

The second program of the series will be a walking tour highlighting the rich architectural legacy of public educational buildings in New York City through an examination of those schools designed by Superintendent C. B. J. Snyder, several Carnegie Libraries and other institutions of learning throughout Chinatown. Snyder scholar Jean Arrington will co-lead this tour and discuss several extant Snyder school buildings in the neighborhood, some of which are now being adaptively reused. Tour co-leader and noted guide Justin Ferate will explain the interesting historic development of this diverse immigrant neighborhood, visiting other significant institutional buildings including two existing Carnegie Libraries at Chatham Square and Seward Park.

Learning On Screen: New York City Schools in Popular Film

Wednesday, November 3, 6:30pm, LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Manhattan
Fee: $15/$10 for Friends, seniors & students

New York City schools have been the backdrops for some of film’s most celebrated moments, from “Blackboard Jungle” to “Fame”. This fun and informative program explores the portrayal of New York schools in popular film throughout the twentieth century. The program will be led by architectural historian and educator John Kriskiewicz.

A Call to Record Veterans’ Histories

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Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has issued a call to action to all Americans. During the Veterans History Project’s 10th Anniversary Commemoration Sept. 29, he launched a new campaign asking America to &#8220collect and preserve the story of at least one veteran&#8221 and to &#8220pledge to preserve this important part of American history.&#8221 Time is of the essence, he added: &#8220Help us gather in the accounts of 10,000 veterans by Veterans Day.&#8221

Congress created The Veterans History Project in 2000 as a national documentation program of the American Folklife Center (www.loc.gov/folklife/) to record, preserve and make accessible the firsthand remembrances of American wartime veterans from World War I through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. More than 68,000 individual stories comprise the collection to date.

The project relies on volunteers to record veterans’ remembrances using guidelines accessible at www.loc.gov/vets/. Volunteer interviewers may request information at [email protected] or the toll-free message line at (888) 371-5848.

Seth Warner Program at Mount Independence

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Less well known than his cousin Ethan Allen, Seth Warner was nevertheless one of the leaders of the Green Mountain Boys, and the Revolutionary War hero still boasts hotels, hiking shelters, and fire companies named after him. On Saturday, October 16, at 1:00 p.m. the Mount Independence State Historic Site in Orwell hosts the program, “Sidelined by History: Seth Warner, Green Mountain Boy.”

“Clifford Mullen, a long time Revolutionary War re-enactor and retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer, will tell the story of Seth Warner and his exciting military career during the American Revolution,” said Elsa Gilbertson, Regional Site Administrator for the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation.

The event is co-sponsored by the Mount Independence Coalition. This is the annual Robert Maguire Program, named in honor of Robert Maguire for his important efforts in preserving Mount Independence. Doors open to the public at 12:30 p.m. Admission is free- donations are appreciated.

Mullen will share finds from his recent original archival research on Warner, his men, and their Revolutionary War service, Gilbertson said.

Col. Seth Warner was one of the three American officers in charge during the Battle of Hubbardton, and played key roles at various points during the war.

In the summer of 1777, British General John Burgoyne and his British army were trying to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies, and forced the Americans to abandon Mount Independence and nearby Fort Ticonderoga.

On July 5, 1777, faced with a British force more than twice his size that had occupied a position from which they could bombard him with impunity, American General Arthur St. Clair withdrew from the fortifications without firing a shot and moved the army toward Castleton.

The British army pursued the American forces and in the resulting Battle of Hubbardton on July 7, 1777, soldiers from Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire fought a savage rear guard action, with Warner commanding part of the American force.

While the battle ended with an American retreat, the British were too battered to continue their pursuit and the rest of the colonial army escaped, paving the way for the victory later that summer at the Battle of Bennington, where Warner and his men turned the tide of the fight.

A monument in his honor is a key feature at the Bennington Battle Monument State Historic Site in Bennington.

The Mount Independence State Historic Site is one of the best-preserved Revolutionary War sites in America. It is located near the end of Mount Independence Road, six miles west of the intersections of Vermont Routes 22A and 73. Regular hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Please call (802) 948-2000 for more information or visit www.HistoricVermont.org/sites.

Photo: The Seth Warner statue at the Bennington Battle Monument. Courtesy Wikipedia.

Historic Saranac Lake Offers Cemetery Tour

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On Saturday, October 16 at 1:00 pm, local storyteller Bob Seidenstein will lead a tour through St. Bernard’s Cemetery in Saranac Lake to benefit Historic Saranac Lake.

The cemetery of St. Bernard’s Church in Saranac Lake is located on Ampersand Avenue at the intersection with Forest Home Road. Stones date to 1918. Roman Catholics were also buried in the Catholic section of Pine Ridge Cemetery. Among those buried here are long-time Saranac Lake mayor Charles Keough- village historian John Duquette- skating champion Edmund Lamy- baseball great Larry Doyle, New York Giants second baseman, the last patient to leave Trudeau Sanatorium- and Herbert Clark, the first 46er.

Bob Seidenstein grew up in Saranac Lake and has worked as a professor of English at Paul Smith’s College since 1973. A local storyteller, he writes a weekly column for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, “The InSeide Dope.”

Bob has loosely titled this tour, &#8220Helping the Dead Come Alive.&#8221 He offers as an explanation, “I look at my role as not letting the people and their lives fade into obscurity. While, objectively, all of us are &#8220average&#8221 people, none of us live average lives. And I like to discover, share, and celebrate the uniqueness of the people of My Home Town.”

This is the first tour of the Catholic Cemetery sponsored by Historic Saranac Lake. Mr. Seidenstein has provided memorable tours in the past of Pine Ridge Cemetery. Admission for the tour is $5 per person to benefit Historic Saranac Lake. Please call HSL at 891-4606 to reserve a spot, or email [email protected]. The tour will meet at 1:00 at the cemetery gates.

Documentary Heritage Program Grants Offered

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The Documentary Heritage Program (DHP) is a statewide program established in 1988 under Education Law, §§ 140, 207- L. 1988, ch. 679. The DHP is administered by the New York State Archives to ensure the identification, sound administration and accessibility of New York’s historical records.

One component of the DHP is the grants program. DHP Grants are designed to encourage more comprehensive documentation of New York State’s history and culture by supporting projects that identify, survey, collect, and make available important records relating to groups and topics traditionally under-represented in the historical record. DHP is administered by the New York State Archives, a unit of the New York State Education Department (NYSED).

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants include not-for-profit community organizations, archives, libraries, historical societies, and similar institutions within New York State and consortia or partnerships of such agencies. Also eligible are service providers such as historical service agencies, colleges and universities, professional associations, or other not-for-profit institutions or systems that provide services to historical records programs.

Funding

A total of $92,000 is expected to be available for grants projects. Grants will be available in amounts up to $25,000. Applicants may seek support for personnel- purchased services, including qualified consultants- supplies- materials and equipment costing less than $5,000- and travel as required to directly support project activities and outcomes.

Important Dates

Grants in this cycle are for up to 12-month projects, from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012. Applications must be postmarked by Tuesday, February 1, 2011. Tentative date for the announcement of grant awards is June 30, 2011.

Grant Project Types

Documentation projects identify and ensure the systematic preservation of papers and records that shed light on the people, groups, events or changing political, economic or social conditions of New York State. The ultimate goal of a documentation project is to contribute to the building of a comprehensive and equitable historical record in repositories which make unique original source materials available to researchers and citizens. Typically consisting of three phases &#8211 planning, surveying, and collecting, documentation projects usually take at least two years to complete. Cost sharing of at least 20% is required.

Arrangement & Description projects &#8211 Arrangement and description are the processes used to obtain physical and intellectual control over materials held in historic records repositories. Arrangement is the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order, to protect their context and to achieve physical and/or intellectual control over the materials. Description is the creation of an accurate representation of a unit of archival material by the process of capturing, collating, analyzing, and organizing information that serves to identify archival material and explain the context and records system(s) that produced it. The objective of archival description is the creation of access tools that assist users in discovering desired records. Cost sharing of at least 50% is required.

Ineligible Projects

Several types of historical records projects are not eligible for funding under the DHP. These include:

· Projects that do not demonstrate a primary focus on New York State

· Digitization (projects to create digital records)

· Item-level description and/or indexing

· Oral history and/or video taping

· Newspaper collections (these are not considered to be historical records under the DHP law)

· Preservation (i.e., the physical work to conserve, restore, or repair records, or reproduction for preservation purposes such as microfilming)

Topical Priorities

In order to insure that the DHP addresses the New York State Historical Records Advisory Board’s mandate to identify, survey, collect, and make available historical records that relate to under-documented groups or subjects, the State Archives has identified and given priority to specific topical areas for DHP funding. These topics are listed in Priority Levels One and Two below. Although applications for projects that focus on any under-documented group or subject are eligible for funding, they will receive fewer points during grants review than those in Levels One and Two.

Priority Level One

· Population groups in the 20th and 21st centuries
· Economic change in the 20th and 21st centuries
· World Trade Center disaster, September 11, 2001
· Education policy

Priority Level Two

· Environmental affairs
· Mental health

Priority Level Three

· Other under-documented topics in New York State history

Application Process

Grant application forms may be obtained by emailing the State Archives [email protected] or by visiting the State Archives Web site www.archives.nysed.gov and clicking on Grants and Awards.

For further information contact:

Pamela Cooley/Documentary Heritage Program
New York State Archives
Room 9C71 Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230
Telephone: 518-474-6276
Email: [email protected]

Seaport Museum NY Hosts Alfred Stieglitz New York

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For the first time in nearly 80 years, legendary early twentieth century photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s iconic New York City photographs will be displayed together as part of the groundbreaking, new exhibition “Alfred Stieglitz New York,” at Seaport Museum New York in Manhattan. The exhibition opened September 15th and runs through January 10, 2011.

Stieglitz – a central figure in the history of photography and modern art and husband of artist Georgia O’Keefe – lived in New York City for most of his life and chronicled its dramatic transformation into the archetypal metropolis of soaring skyscrapers, subways and electric lights. These works have not been displayed together since 1932, when Stieglitz featured them at his own gallery, An American Place.

“Alfred Stieglitz New York,” featuring 39 vintage Stieglitz photographs, is organized into three galleries. The first evokes the spirit of 291, Stieglitz’s pioneering gallery, which cemented his reputation as an impresario of European modern art. It will include a facsimile of a lantern slide show, the first time Stieglitz’s lantern slides have ever been exhibited – and prints from 1893 to 1916. The second gallery presents portraits taken from the windows of his midtown Manhattan apartment and gallery in the 1930s, when Stieglitz re-engaged New York as a subject for his photography. The third and final gallery examines the explosion of imagery of New York in popular culture and fine arts, including works by renowned photographers Paul Strand, Lewis Hine and Berenice Abbott.

“Stieglitz is one of the most distinguished American photographers, and Seaport Museum New York is thrilled to be the first cultural institution to bring these beautiful and important images together under one roof,” said Mary Ellen Pelzer, president and CEO of Seaport Museum New York. “This exhibition will give everyone, from lifelong New Yorkers to visitors, a unique look at the emergence of the modern city through the eyes of a masterful observer. It exemplifies our commitment to telling the ongoing story of New York in bold and unexpected ways.”

“Alfred Stieglitz New York” is curated by Dr. Bonnie Yochelson, former curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, who also authored the exhibition’s catalogue. The photographs were brought together from several leading national art institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as from private collectors.

“Georgia O’Keefe famously remarked, ‘Stieglitz was always photographing himself.’ Indeed, he never went far from his home or place of work to photograph,” stated Yochelson. “During Stieglitz’s lifetime, New York became a symbol of the modern city, and this show provides the rare opportunity not only to better understand how Stieglitz saw New York, but to compare his personal vision with the idea of New York in popular culture and among other photographers with different points of view.”

Photo: The Terminal, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington.