Year: 2010

Saratoga National Historical Park Opens New Area

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Tomorrow, Saturday, June 5 at 11am, at Saratoga Monument on Burgoyne Street in the Village of Victory, Saratoga National Historical Park will host a grand-opening of “Victory Woods”, a new park site featuring a fully accessible boardwalk trail just south of Saratoga Monument. After opening remarks, there will be a guided hike, a reception with dozens of community organizations and light refreshments.

The 22-acre parcel now called Victory Woods, was donated to the park from Victory Mills Packaging in the 1970s, but could not be developed until 2005 when the park secured a management plan and necessary funding. Since then, the park moved ahead with archeological and landscape assessments, research, public workshops, design and construction plans. The park worked closely with the Prospect Hill Cemetery Association and the Village of Victory &#8211 two vital partners that provided access to link the site with the Saratoga Monument.

One of the most attention-grabbing findings during archeology work were artifacts found from indigenous peoples between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago, yet remains from the 1777 British occupation were lost to archeological looting over the years. The loss of this archeological record is significant, although archival documents from the period were extensively researched resulting in a series of exhibit panels that paint a vivid picture of the final days of the British Army in Victory Woods.

The event will kick off with comments by local officials, a ranger talk about the site’s dramatic history and ribbon cutting. Then participants will join park rangers for a walk along the 1-mile round-trip trail. A bus will be available to bring visitors with special mobility needs to the accessible boardwalk section of the trail. Both groups will meet there for a ribbon cutting of the accessible boardwalk trail section.

After June 5, the trail will be open daily from dawn to dusk and occasional ranger-guided walks will be scheduled throughout the summer. Soon, the trail will also link with the Champlain Canal Trail and other developing trails in the area. For more information, please contact the Visitor Center by calling 518-664-9821 ext. 224, or check the Park website at www.nps.gov/sara

Albany Institute to Host Free Exibition Preview

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Tomorrow, Friday, June 4, 2010, the Albany Institute of History & Art will host a free reception and preview of the Tomorrow’s Masters Today exhibition, and will name a Master Class of 10 artists. Recently, the Art Auction Committee of the Albany Institute selected 50 original works of art from Capital Region artists to be included in Tomorrow’s Masters Today, an art exhibit and silent auction which will be a feature of the Institute’s 2010 Museum Gala on Friday, June 11, 2010. Tomorrow’s Master Today is part of an effort to promote up-and-coming artists of the Capital Region and highlight the growing artistic wealth of this area. Proceeds from the June 11 auction and gala will support the ongoing programming of the Albany Institute.

The June 4 reception and preview will be held at the Institute, 125 Washington Ave., Albany, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Additionally, on Friday, June 4, the Institute will remain open until 8:00 p.m., and admission to the galleries will be free as part of 1st Fridays, the downtown arts walk that showcases the thriving and lively art scene in downtown Albany. Live music by The Next Station will also be featured.

The Tomorrow’s Masters Today exhibition will be on display at the Albany Institute from June 4 through June 27. To view any of the 50 selected works online, visit www.albanyinstitute.org/tmt.htm. For more information about, or to purchase tickets online for the 2010 Museum Gala on June 11—honoring philanthropists John D. Picotte Family/Equinox Foundation and renowned artist, Stephen Hannock, visit www.albanyinstitute.org/gala.htm.

Communipaw Story Marathon in Jersey City

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A Communipaw Story Marathon will be presented tomorrow, Friday, June 4, as part of Jersey City’s quarterly arts and culture festival, JC Fridays. There will be dramatic readings by professional actors of several short stories by Washington Irving, including three set in Communipaw, from his 1855 collection, Wolfert’s Roost And Miscellanies.

Also included will be an excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Trish Szmanski will be reading A Tale of Communipaw / Guests from Gibbet Island, the story on which she is adapting a script for theater. According to Trish &#8220The play is coming along well, not done, but close to final in form. Lots of new characters, dialogue, drama, four acts &#8211 exciting!&#8221

Communipaw is the historic European place of origin for Jersey City begun in 1634 when one of the first &#8220bouweries&#8221, or farnmsteads, in New Netherland was built there. The homestead was part of Pavonia, a patroonship of Amsterdam businessman Micheal Pauw. Plantations, worked by enslaved Africans, were located there. The Tappan and Wecquaesgeek took refuge there in 1643 before being attacked by the Dutch in the Pavonia Massacre, which led in part to Kieft’s War.

The village of Communipaw was originally part of the Dutch West India Company holdings. After the British takeover it became part of the Province of New Jersey although it retained its Dutch character for hundreds of years. Washington Irving visited the area often and referred to Communipaw as the stronghold of traditional Dutch culture.

Illustration: Joan Vinckeboons (Johannes Vingboon), &#8220Manatvs gelegen op de Noot [sic] Riuier&#8221, 1639. &#8220Manhattan situated on the North Rivier&#8221 with numbered key showing settlements at Communipaw.

Washingtons Headquarters Open for the Season

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Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in Newburgh, Orange County, has opened its doors to a new season of guided tours, entertaining programs and special events. The site will be open each Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM and Sunday, 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM, and closed every Monday and Tuesday, until October 31st. There is a small admission fee for tours and programs.

Throughout the season, guest speakers will periodically offer presentations dealing with the Hudson Valley’s historic importance, not only during the Revolutionary War, but prior to it and after, in the period of national expansion. The 2010 schedule follows.

August 7th: Badge of Military Merit Day

August 28: Kites Over The Hudson

September 13: Cornelia Tappan Clinton: A First Person Experience (as part of the Dutch Ramble)

September 19: Tryntje Hasbrouck: First Person Experience (as part of the Revolutionary War Ramble)

October 15 and 16: A Night At The Headquarters

December 12: Warm up at the Washington’s (as part of the Newburgh Historical House Tours)

December 27 through the 30: Winter Welcome Week

For more information about visiting Washington’s Headquarters, contact the Museum office at 845-562-1195.

Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site is part of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, which administers 28 parks, parkways, and historic sites for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in New York as well as the Palisades Interstate Park and parkway in New Jersey. For more information about New York State parks and historic sites, visit www.nysparks.com and for more information about the Palisades Interstate Park parks and historic sites, visit www.palisadesparksconservancy.org

Tracing Your Ancestors to the Dutch Settlers

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Theodore P. Wright, Jr., Ph.D., Vice President of the Dutch Settlers Society of Albany and a trustee of the New Netherland Institute, will discuss resources to aid in tracing your ancestors to the Dutch Settlers, specifically in an area under the jurisdiction of the Court of Rensselaerswijck prior to the year 1665 or in Esopus (Kingston, NY) prior to the year 1661. The program will be held in Librarians Room, New York State Library, Cultural Education Center, 7th floor 310 Madison Avenue, Albany 12230 on Thursday, June 17th, 12:15 &#8211 1:15 PM Online registration is available.

The Dutch Settlers Society of Albany was founded in 1924, in connection with the celebration of the tercentenary of the settlement of the City, and was instituted to: perpetuate the memory and virtues of the individuals who resided here during the time it was a Dutch colony- and to collect and preserve records and information concerning the history and settlement of Albany and its vicinity, including genealogical records of the settlers and their descendants without regard to race, creed, or country of origin.

For more information about this program, contact Sheldon Wein or Mary Beth Bobish at [email protected], or call at 518-474-2274.

Jobs: Cobblestone Society Museum Exec Dir-Curator

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The Cobblestone Society Museum is seeking an Executive Director/Curator. Founded in 1960 to preserve three National Historic Landmark Designated cobblestone buildings in the hamlet of Childs, NY, the Cobblestone Society is a small historical society which has grown to encompass a Museum consisting of 8 historic buildings, including furnished buildings and a Resource Center which houses the Museum’s library. Located in a rural Western New York community in Orleans County, approximately 30 miles west of Rochester, NY, the Museum is just north of the Village of Albion, NY and the historic Erie Canal.

The position of Executive Director/Curator requires a passion for history along with previous non-profit leadership and management, fundraising and grantwriting experience, strong communication skills, excellent writing and interpersonal skills and the ability to form productive relationships with the Board of Trustees, volunteers and the community. A minimum of an undergraduate degree in museum studies,
American history or related field and three years experience will be required.

The position administers the organization’s day-to-day operation, including membership development, volunteers, database and website management, the historic buildings, and management of the collections. Responsibilities also include educational and fundraising programs, grantwriting, supervising volunteers and coordinating programs, events and publications in cooperation with an active Board of Trustees.

Anticipated start date is November 1, 2010. See the Cobblestone Society Museum’s website (www.cobblestonesocietymuseum.org) for a complete job description and required qualifications.

Applications, which must include five [5] copies of a cover letter and resume, must be postmarked by June 15, 2010, and should be mailed to:

Search Committee, Cobblestone Society Museum, P.O. Box 363, Albion, NY, 14411.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s Degree in museum studies, or American history, art history, architectural history or related field and three (3) years of experience in the museum field, including at least one year of administrative experience (budgeting, planning, directing and supervising) at a museum or historic site- a Master’s Degree in museum
studies or museum education may be substituted for one year of general experience.

Salary: $21,000-$25,000 (depending on qualifications) plus housing in a single-family 3-bedroom house.

Cobblestone Society and Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Sackets Harbor French and Indian War Lecture

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On Friday, June 4, historian, colonial-style blacksmith, and authentic artifact supplier Jack Vargo will present the exciting tale of “The Last Battle of the French and Indian War.” The final struggle to control the North American continent in 1760 was waged at Fort Levis on Chimney Island in the St. Lawrence River. The program begins at 6:30pm at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center at the corner of Ray and West Main Streets in Sackets Harbor, NY.

Vargo is co-owner and head artisan for the Beaver River Trading Company, a Croghan, NY, business that provides historically accurate museum-quality 17th and 18th century colonial artifact reproductions to historic sites and living history reenactors.

Vargo says, “My background in mechanical engineering, an interest in the early technologies of Native American and Colonial populations and knowledge gathered through archaeological studies and publication development support our efforts to preserve and interpret history, much of which occurred throughout the Great Lakes Seaway Trail shoreline region.”

In 2009, Seaway Trail, Inc. published “Waterways of War: The Struggle for Empire 1754-1763, A Traveler’s Guide to the French & Indian War Forts and Battlefields along America’s Byways in New York and Pennsylvania.”

The New York State Signature Event commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the French and Indian War is set for July 16-18 at Fort la Presentation as part of the Ogdensburg, NY, Founder’s Day celebration.

There is a $5 fee for the June 4 program at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center to benefit the Seaway Trail Foundation. For more information, call 315-646-1000.

Staten Island: Old U.S. Gypsum Plant to Host LUMEN Festival

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Staten Island’s once abandoned waterfront will be hosting LUMEN, a cutting-edge video art festival on the site of the Atlantic Salt Company, presented by COAHSI, the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island. This raw, magnificent, old, beautiful, decaying space, originally opened in 1876 as a plaster mill. In 1924, the building was bought by United States Gypsum, a plant that made wallboard and paint. The gypsum plant employed Staten Islanders for 52 years, before closing in 1976. Now owned by the Atlantic Salt Company, the 10-acre property is a depot for road de-icing salt for New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut.&#8221

It’s that grungy, creepy, abandoned feeling that keeps people coming to industrial sites like Atlantic Salt, but normally these spaces are off-limits. Now’s your chance to see the space — without breaking any laws. The site will be open to the public for LUMEN, Saturday, June 26, 4pm-12am. The LUMEN Festival will showcase amazing contemporary video/projection and performance art both outside and onto the space. Atlantic Salt is right on the waterfront, so get ready for views of NYC and NJ, plus up-close views of the many tugboats & container ships that float up and down the Arthur Kill.

The festival will include performances throughout the day, raffles featuring artists’ work, as well as an open bar sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery from 9pm-11pm. Participating artists and collectives include: Alex Villar, Alix Pearlstein, Scott Peel, Lena Thuring, Grace Exhibition Space, Flux Factory, and Steven Lapcevic, among many others. For a complete listing of all participating artists, visit: LUMENFEST.org. Atlantic Salt is located at 561 Richmond Terrace, a 10-minute walk or bus ride from the Staten Island Ferry.

LUMEN will be free of charge and open to the public. Contributions are welcome at LUMEN’s Kickstarter page.

About COAHSI:

The mission of COAHSI is to cultivate a sustainable and diverse cultural community for the people of Staten Island by: 1) making the arts accessible to every member of the community- 2) supporting and building recognition for artistic achievement- 3) providing artists, arts educators, and organizations technical, financial, and social resources to encourage the creation of new work. COAHSI does extensive outreach to communities that are underserved geographically, ethnically, and economically. The organization works hard to impact the arts across all borders.

Why New Netherland Matters Lecture by Joyce Goodfriend

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The prevailing history of the Dutch settlers in America has been illustrated with depictions of quaint Dutch villages, and tales of characters such as Rip Van Winkle and St. Nicholas . Dr. Joyce Goodfriend offers a new look at the story of the Dutch settlement called New Netherland.

On Saturday, June 12th, 2:00 pm, at the Schenectady County Historical Society, Dr. Joyce Goodfriend will give a talk titled, “Why New Netherland Matters.” Her presentation answers fascinating questions about our founding myths and legends, including a new look at the lives of slaves in New York. Celebrations throughout 2009 of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the Hudson River in 1609 inspired many researchers, Dr. Joyce Goodfriend among them, to bring to our attention the latest research on the history of early New York.

Dr. Goodfriend’s scholarly research into contemporary traveler’s accounts and her examination of period artwork reveals a more complete picture of our nation’s early
multicultural history. Dr. Goodfriend’s talk is based on an essay by the same title, in which she writes: “New Netherland may have been dissolved as a political reality by 1674, but it remained a cultural reality well into the nineteenth century, and in this guise indelibly influenced the course of history in the mid-Atlantic region.” The audience for her talk on Saturday, June 12th, will be treated to a broader understanding of the importance of early New Amsterdam and the Dutch in New York.

Dr. Goodfriend has written extensively on the subject of New Netherland including articles on religion and women’s roles. Her books include Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730– Going Dutch: The Dutch Presence in America 1609-2009 and Revisiting New Netherland: Perspectives on Early Dutch America, as well as numerous articles in collective history on Dutch New York. Goodfriend is a professor of history at the University of Denver and received her B.A. from Brown University and her M.A. and PhD from UCLA.

Only 75 tickets are available for this event. A $5.00 donation per person is requested. For reservations call (518) 374-0263, and for more information e-mail [email protected].

New York Army National Guard Featured in Museum Exhibit

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The history of the New York Army National Guard from the Spanish American War to Iraq and Afghanistan will be featured in a New York State Museum exhibit that opened May 28 and will run through March 2011.

Entitled &#8220Citizen Soldier: New York’s National Guard in the American Century&#8221 the exhibit includes almost 7,000 square feet of gallery space covering the service of New Yorkers through world wars, natural disasters, the 2001 terrorist attacks and Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.

Wall panels, dioramas, photos, uniforms, equipment and weapons displays are being completed. The exhibit will also feature personal stories of Soldiers – past and present – including women Soldiers serving in the modern Guard’s ranks.

A restored World War II M8 &#8220Greyhound&#8221 Armored Car was moved into position in front of the Citizen Soldier Gallery on Wednesday, May 19 as delighted visitors including fourth grade elementary school students from Jeffersonville, Sullivan County looked on.

The vehicle is just one of many display items that will be used to tell the story of New York’s Citizen Soldiers who served at home and abroad during some of the nation’s darkest times. New York Soldiers of the 101st Cavalry Group used M8s in Europe during World War II.

&#8220This is one of the largest exhibits ever produced here,&#8221 said Pat Jordan, the museum’s Director of Community Relations. &#8220This will be here through March 2011,&#8221 she added. &#8220We are also developing a series of special events and programs including documentary screenings, book signings and other events that are being scheduled during the exhibit’s run.&#8221

The New York State Museum is the nation’s largest and oldest state museum and hosts innovative exhibitions and programs year round. More than 700,000 visitors annually come through its galleries to see both permanent and temporary exhibits including the &#8220World Trade Center: Rescue, Recovery, Response,&#8221 &#8220Adirondack Wilderness,&#8221 and &#8220Native Peoples of New York.&#8221

Expert curators, historians, designers and other professionals design and produce the exhibits on site from photos and artifacts in New York’s archives and historic collections as well as using selected items on loan from private sources, like the armored car and other items from Gregory Wolanin from Albany.

&#8220Citizen Soldier&#8221 will also include materials from the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs who have been working with the New York State Museum staff since last year to plan and support the exhibit.

The museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New years Day. For more information, visit the New York State Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov

Photo: A World War II-era M-8 armored car is manuevered into position by its owner, vehicle collector Greg Wolanin, as the centerpiece of a New York State Museum exhibit honoring the service of New York Army National Guard Soldiers. The 101st Cavalry Group of the New York NationalGuard operated M-8s during their service in Europe in 1945. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Steven Petibone, New York Army National Guard.