Month: November 2010

Travel Channel to Feature Ellis Island Museum

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Travel Channel’s new series, Mysteries at the Museum, will be featuring New York tonight at 9 EST. The show will be highlighting the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

The episode will feature literacy tests given to all new arrivals at Ellis Island. In theory the test should have prevented thousands of poor, illiterate immigrants from gaining entry into the U.S., but what many immigrants lacked in literacy, they made up for in cunning and guile. How could they possibly have beat the test that was designed to keep them out of America?

Plowline: Images of Rural NY Project Launched

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In 1960, New York State was home to 88,000 active farms- today that number has decreased to roughly 36,000 farms – a decline of nearly 60% in 40 years. In response, The Farmers’ Museum in historic Cooperstown, NY is assembling an exciting collection of original photography to chronicle and preserve the changes in agricultural practice, rural life, and farming families of New York State from the 19th century through the present.

With the generous support of the Gipson Family, Plowline: Images of Rural New York is a resource not only for the scholarly community but also for the public to learn more about the rural heritage of New York State. Cooperstown photographer and museum visitor Andy Baugnet comments, “We cannot turn back the hands of time. However, the Plowline collection will allow us to view the past and experience how agriculture left its mark on New York State’s economic and cultural landscapes.”

Plowline presents beautiful black and white 1950s photographs of New York farm scenes such as harvesting the fall bounty, maple sugaring and horse-pulling. The collection also includes important aerial photographs of regional communities, including the construction of the New York State Thruway. Over 100 lantern slides from Cornell University’s Dairy Department, which instructed dairy farmers in the 1920s about how to operate an efficient farm, are featured in the collection. In addition, Plowline highlights snapshots chronicling an Orange County farm family’s life over a 30 year period. Finally, contemporary works by New York photographer Daniel Handel document the current farming revival in Upstate New York.

In 1942, The Farmers’ Museum’s founders set out to collect objects of American farm and rural communities and to display those in a method accessible to all interested. To enhance their accessibility, the photographs collected through Plowline will all be posted online. In addition, powered by Omeka, a free and open source platform developed by The Center for the Future of History Museums, the Plowline website has integrated Web 2.0 technology. “Thus,” says curator Erin Crissman Richardson, “the website encourages user participation and allows visitors to comment on records if they know something about the history of an object or what is happening in a particular photograph. Visitors can also share items with friends via Facebook, Twitter and other social media.”

Plowline, as a collecting initiative, will be continually adding photographs and will become a significant portion of the annual additions to The Farmers’ Museum collection. “We anticipate that Plowline will be the foremost resource of images of the 19th, 20th and 21st century rural imagery,” explains Vice President for Education Garet Livermore

2010 Researching NY 12th Annual Conference

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Researching New York: Perspectives on Empire State History, an annual conference that provides a forum for the exploration of all aspects of New York State history, in all time periods and from diverse perspectives, will be held this Thursday and Friday, November 18th and 19th.

The conference brings together historians, researchers, archivists, public historians, librarians, teachers, museum curators, filmmakers, and documentary producers — all to share their interest and their work in New York State History.

From its inception, Researching New York has highlighted the integral relationships between researchers and archival sources, encouraging presentations that highlight
the vast resources available to researchers as well as the scholarship drawn from those sources.

The Conference will be held on the University at Albany Uptown Campus. Registration will take place in the Science Library, Barnes & Noble Reading Room. This year we also have off-site sessions at the New York State Museum. As noted on the Conference schedule, transportation will be provided to conference attendees. While there is no
additional cost, you must reserve a space when you register. For conference updates, directions, maps, and information about local hotel accommodations, visit the Researching New York website.

Conference registration is $50.00 including all featured events, lunch and receptions. Advance registration is requested. Please be sure to include your name, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address with your check and also note if you would like to reserve a seat on the bus to the Museum. Send any questions or comments to [email protected].

Finger Lakes Museum Adds Three Trustees

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Finger Lakes Museum board president John Adamski announced that three new members have been elected to the organization’s board of trustees. The addition of Nancy Rees and Susan van der Stricht, and Texas businessman George Slocum brings the current number of board members to 12.

Rees, a retired Xerox senior vice president, currently coaches and speaks on practical approaches to leading organizations through change, and business process improvement. She also serves on the advisory board of Forte Capital Wealth Management and chairs the Garth Fagan Dance Company, an internationally renowned modern dance group.

She is a founding board member of Moonshadow’s Spirit, a non­profit organization benefiting people who are seeking treatment for eating disorders. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in computer science from Ball State University, and a management certificate from Smith College. Rees and her husband, Michael, live in Farmington and on Keuka Lake.

Susan van der Stricht is a Pittsford and Canandaigua Lake resident and former paralegal who worked for three major law firms during her 28­year career. She is a graduate of Union College with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies and she also attended the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. Van der Stricht is an outdoor enthusiast who serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy and the Genesee Country Museum and is active in conservation and preservation initiatives. She was recently involved in the transfer of title of the 7,000­ acre Hemlock and Canadice Lake watersheds from the City of Rochester to the State of New York. The new Hemlock­ Canadice State Forest will now be preserved in a forever ­wild state, immune from development.

Houston, TX entrepreneur George Slocum was elected to the board of trustees in October. Slocum grew up in the Finger Lakes Region but moved to Houston early in his career. He and his wife, Priscilla, live on Cayuga Lake for six months each year, where Slocum owns and operates the 1,200­ acre Cayuga Lake Farm. Slocum is a private investor and entrepreneur engaged in proactive investments in agriculture, energy, and venture capital. In his former corporate executive career, he served as CFO and CEO of Transco Energy Company, now part of the Williams Companies. Before that he was a vice
president in charge of energy project financing at Citibank.

Slocum is presently a trustee of Wells College in Aurora and a former trustee of University Council at Cornell University, where he is an active member. He has also chaired the Houston Council of Boy Scouts of America and served as a vice­chair of United Way of Houston. The Slocums have three grown children and eight grandchildren.
Adamski said, “George brings the business acumen and fundraising expertise that we need to keep the museum project on course. And he knows a little something about staying on course. His grandfather was the first person to sail around the world solo.”

New NY Military History: Empires in the Mountains

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Meeting Russell Bellico, as I did briefly several years ago, you’d think you were in the presence of an old sea captain spending his retirement in the softer wind and spray of Lake George. You’d be surprised to know that he spent 35 years in the economics department at Westfield State College in Massachusetts.

You’d be glad to hear that Bellico spent his time away from Westfield at Lake George, where as a summer resident he invested himself in local history. He has spent over three decades photographing shipwrecks and historic sites on Lake George and Lake Champlain. He served as a consultant on the National Park Service’s Champlain Valley Heritage Corridor, a trustee of the Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance, and a board member of Bateaux Below, the organization founded by the archaeological team (which included Bellico) that documented the 1758 radeau Land Tortoise which lies underwater at the southern end of Lake George.

Bellico is the author of a score or more articles and five books on the maritime and military history of Lake George and Lake Champlain published by Purple Mountain Press. His first two projects were Chronicles of Lake George (1995) and Chronicles of Lake Champlain (1999). Both were aptly subtitled Journeys in War and Peace, as they were mostly drawn from primary sources by diaries, journals, and other early first hand accounts. His third major effort, Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain, earned a place as the go-to resource on the region’s maritime history.

His interest in boots on the ground history has no doubt contributed to some of Bellico’s most unique contributions to the region’s history &#8211 his careful looks at what remains. For example, Bellico weaves together histories of not just the events (through archaeology, primary sources, and first hand accounts) but of what remains of those events on the landscape.

Bellico’s latest effort, Empires in the Mountains: French and Indian War Campaigns and Forts in the Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Hudson River Corridor, is the fruit of three decades of the author’s work to understand the military and maritime importance of the region. His first volume to focus entirely on the campaigns and forts of the Great Warpath during the French & Indian War (1754-1763), Empires in the Mountains covers the epic battles of the war in the lake valleys, as well as the building of the fortresses and battleships in Northern New York’s wilderness.

And true to his authoritative and thorough style, Bellico explores this history with one eye toward what happened after those great events of 350 years ago. He reviews the history of the abandonment, the excavations, and the exploitation of French and Indian War sites from Bloody Pond (which Bellico seems to suggest may in fact be correctly marked on Route 9 south of Lake George) and Fort Gage (bulldozed by a local developer avoiding APA oversight) to the more popular spots like Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, and Fort George.

It’s that concluding epilogue, &#8220Forts Revisited&#8221 that is perhaps the most valuable chapter of the book for local historians, and those interested in how we remember, and exploit, local history. For that chapter alone, this book belongs on the shelf of those interested in local history, regardless of your particular interest in the French and Indian War.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

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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Digital History Archive Adds Important Volumes

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Bob Sullivan, of the Schenectady Digital History Archive, has announced that the first two (historical) volumes of Nelson Greene’s four-volume history of Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Schenectady and Schoharie Counties, History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925 is now online.

Included are more than 300 photos and maps, and a biographical section &#8211 more than 2000 pages so far, are online. Greene’s History joins the Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, a four-volume set with more than 1300 family entries from Albany, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Washington Counties.

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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Landscape of Memory: Prints by Frank Eckmair

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The first exhibition of its kind &#8212- “The Landscape of Memory: Prints by Frank C. Eckmair” &#8212- opens at the New York State Museum November 19 showcasing the works of one of the nation’s most accomplished printmakers.

Open until September 18, 2011 in Crossroads Gallery, the exhibition comes from the Museum’s own 386-piece collection, which is the largest museum collection of Eckmair’s works that exists. The Museum’s curatorial and exhibition team worked with Eckmair during the last few years to archive his lifework, document the way he makes the prints and develop the exhibition.

The exhibition features more than 80 works, mostly landscapes, which include framed woodcut prints, as well as wood engravings, sculptures and the original woodblocks that track Eckmair’s career as an artist and lifelong resident of Gilbertsville in central New York. Also included are wood engraving tools and an early 20th-century Poco Proof printing press, on loan from Eckmair.

While growing up in central New York, Eckmair developed an affinity for the quiet landscape of the rural areas of that part of the state. His subjects are its farm fields, stone walls, abandoned homes, and old barns.

Although he did all kinds of printmaking Eckmair preferred woodcuts, noting that “wood is a poor man’s material.”

During the 1950s, printmaking grew in stature in New York with the rise of the New York School, a group of artists, poets, and musicians centered in the city. On Long Island, the influential Universal Limited Art Editions studio encouraged collaborations between artists and writers, provided

printmaking space, and brought prints to collectors, galleries, and museums. Finally, the explosive growth of State University of New York campuses during the postwar period led to the establishment of major printmaking programs that are still operating today.

Born in 1930, Eckmair spent his early years drawing and working at his father’s hotel in Gilbertsville, a small village in Otsego County, west of Cooperstown. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of Iowa, where he studied with Mauricio Lasansky, who is considered to be the “father of 20th-century American printmaking.” After teaching public school, Eckmair served in the U.S. Air Force in Korea, Japan, and the northwestern United States. He then received a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from Ohio University. From 1963 to 1995 he was a key figure in the print studio of Buffalo State College, where he was a revered professor and influenced a generation of artists. While working in Buffalo, he maintained his family residence in Gilbertsville.

Eckmair’s work received its earliest recognition through American Associated Artists (AAA), a program founded to market affordable fine art prints to the American public. Like earlier artists such as Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry, and Thomas Hart Benton, Eckmair created prints of regional landscapes for AAA that had great populist appeal. Considered a master of the woodcut and represented in major collections around the world, Eckmair continues to create haunting works evoking rural life in upstate New York. He is the artistic director of Birch Book Press, a publisher of hand-crafted letterpress books and art.

Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

Civil War Nurse Dedication Ceremony

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In 1911, Civil War nurse Lucy Blanchard died in Fenton, Michigan. Her remains were brought back to Syracuse and she was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. For ninety-nine years, her grave was unmarked and the memory of her service faded. Thanks to the efforts of Michigan historian Len Thomas, Lucy’s life story has been researched in depth. With the help of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a government headstone has been placed on Lucy’s grave.

On Saturday morning, November 13 at 11 o’clock, all are invited to pay tribute to this courageous lady, so long forgotten. For more information and a map to the gravesite, go to: