Year: 2010

Archived Websites of Defunct NY State Government

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Maybe someone is sending us a message. Just when New York State Governor David Paterson is criticizing his fellow lawmakers over their ethics, the New York State Archives has announced that the archived websites of the defunct organizations designed to investigate political corruption are online. Part of an online collection called Archived State Government Websites, archival copies of the websites of former Governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer, along with other former elected officials and those of the defunct bodies such as the Commission of Investigation and the Commission on Lobbying are all available on the New York State Archives’ website.

The collection also includes the State Northeastern Queens Nature and Historical Preserve Commission (SNEQ) which was created in 1973 to regulate publicly owned lands and wetlands in northeastern Queens County (eliminated in the 2009-10 Executive Budget).

The Temporary State Commission of Investigation was created in 1958 and had a broad mandate to investigate &#8220corruption, fraud, organized crime, racketeering, money laundering, the conduct of public officers, public employees, officers and employees of public corporations and authorities, and mismanagement in New York State and local government.&#8221

Temporary State Commission on Lobbying was created in 1977 and &#8220monitored individuals and organizations seeking to influence State legislation, rules, regulations, and rate-making actions or local laws, ordinances, and regulations.&#8221 It’s mandate (and staff) was transferred to the new State Commission on Public Integrity in 2007.

There is a FAQ about what material on the sites are actually archived, and each record group has a separate FAQ on background and site-specific access problems.

Farmers Museum To Show Food Inc

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Otsego 2000 has joined forces with The Farmers’ Museum to screen the critically acclaimed film “Food, Inc.,” with special appearances by representatives from local food and agricultural organizations. The film will be shown in the Fenimore Art Museum Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 20th.

“Food, Inc.” a Robert Kenner film, features interviews with experts such as Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto), along with agricultural entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farm’s Joel Salatin. “Food, Inc.” reveals surprising — and often shocking truths about what we eat. It exposes the highly mechanized workings of our nation’s food industry that are kept hidden from American consumers. The film stresses the idea that the nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health.

Speakers for the evening will include Chris Harmon, Executive Director of the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE) in Oneonta- Shulamis Giordani, General Manager of the Foodshed Buying Club in Utica, New York- and Lyn Weir Manager of the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market. Each will talk about creating and supporting a vibrant agricultural and food economy here in Central New York.

For information, please call The Farmers’ Museum at 607-547-1450 or visit our website at www.FarmersMuseum.org.

New York State Library Online Catalog Crashes

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A notice at the New York State Library’s home page reports that technical issues have crashed the state library’s online catalog. The catalog has been unavailable since yesterday. A simple notice reads: &#8220The Library’s catalog will be unavailable until further notice. We are working with the vendor to resolve the problem and apologize for the inconvenience.&#8221 Visitors can still search the Library’s website but catalog access to collections is down.

Hyde Collection Announces New Board Members

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The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, Warren County, has announced new members and 2010 officers of its board of trustees. New to the Museum board are Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy- Joseph F. Raccuia, president and CEO of Finch Paper, LLC- and Leo A. Rigby, CPA, Partner in Ross Rigby & Patten LLP.

Dr. Jackson, who has led Rensselaer since 1999, has held senior leadership positions in government, business, and academe. She serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Prior to her leadership of Rensselaer, Dr. Jackson served as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999). She holds a Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics and a S.B. in physics from M.I.T.

Joseph Raccuia joined Finch Paper in February 2009 after serving as president and CEO of SCA Tissue-North America. A twenty-five year veteran of the paper industry, Raccuia began his career in the Glens Falls area with the former Encore Paper Company in South Glens Falls. A resident of Wilton, he holds a B.A. in business administration and earned his MBA from Wagner College.

Leo Rigby is vice president and treasurer of Ross Rigby & Patten LLP, and the partner in charge of accounting and auditing services. He is a graduate of Clarkson University and a certified information systems auditor. Rigby is vice president of the Glens Falls Rotary Club and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Leading the 2010 board of trustees as chairman is Alan E. Redeker, who has been a member of The Hyde’s board of trustees for seven years and has most recently served the organization’s board vice chairman in 2009. Redeker is principal of Redeker Management Consulting, LLC and past president of Glens Falls Lehigh Cement Company. He succeeds Beth Saunders, who concluded her one-year term as chairman and will continue to serve The Hyde as immediate past chairman and as a trustee.

Officers for 2010 include Candace Wait as vice chairman, Dr. Michael J. Gardner as treasurer, and Michael S. Rapaport, Esq. as secretary. Wait, who joined the Museum’s board in 2004 is program director for The Corporation of Yaddo in Saratoga Springs. Gardner has been on the board for two years and is immediate past president of Prime Care Physicians in Albany, NY. Rapaport, a trustee since 2004, is a partner in Rapaport Brothers PC of New York, NY and Lake George, NY.

19th Century Magic at the Adirondack Museum

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In the 19th century, itinerant magicians traveled throughout the Adirondacks delighting local residents with tricks and dazzling illusions as they performed in town halls and local hotels. Prepare to be mystified and amazed on Sunday, January 17, 2010 as the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York presents &#822019th Century Magic and Beyond&#8221 a magic show for all ages with Tom Verner.

Tom Verner is both a performer and historian of American magic. His shows include many of the set pieces of magic performed across the United States by magicians in the 1800s. Verner involves children and adults alike in his humorous, entertaining, and intelligent presentations.

Verner has performed magic around the world for thirty years. He has worked with the United Nations for the past eight years, creating magic for more than 400,000 refugee and orphaned children in many of the most troubled parts of the globe. Tom Verner is also a Clinical Psychologist who practices and teaches.

The program will be the first in the museum’s always-popular Cabin Fever Sunday series. Held in the Auditorium, the presentation will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m. Cabin Fever Sunday programs are offered at no charge to museum members. The fee for non-members is $5.00. There is no charge for children of elementary school age or younger. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, please call the Education Department at (518) 352-7311, ext. 128 or visit the museum’s web site at
www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Photo: Tom Verner.

Thomas Cole House Hosts Sunday Salons

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Sunday Salons are gatherings at the home of Thomas Cole, with guest speakers leading discussions on topics relating to the Hudson River School, America’s first major art movement. The public is invited for wine, cheese, and lively conversation once per month at Cedar Grove, the birthplace of American landscape painting. Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $8 per person or $6 for members. Admission is first-come-first-served.

During the reception following each talk, a new exhibition will be on view in the 2nd floor Beecher Gallery, displaying historic wallpapers from the collection of Michael Levinson. The exhibition explores Thomas Cole’s work as a young man in the wallpaper business, demonstating the types of designs he might have been exposed to and influenced by.

January 10 Patricia Junker
Sacred to the Memory of Thomas Cole: Charles Herbert Moore and his Views of Cedar Grove

Patricia Junker, Curator of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum, explores Charles Herbert Moore’s affection for Thomas Cole, evident in his captivating paintings of Cole’s house and studio. Moore rented Cole’s studio in the early 1860s, making Catskill a meeting place for a new generation of landscape painters. While much has been made of the Pre-Raphaelites’ dismissal of Cole’s visionary tendencies, Moore warmly embraced his memory. The artist who worked in Cole’s studio could not help but evoke the late artist’s spirit—enlisting the language of Cole’s art to create richly symbolic landscape compositions.

February 7 Katherine Manthorne
Eliza Pratt Greatorex: “First Artist of Her Sex in America”*

Katherine Manthorne, Professor of Modern Art of the Americas (1750-1950) at City University of New York, reveals highlights from her upcoming biography on one of the most fascinating, least-known Hudson River School painters: Eliza Pratt Greatorex. Focusing on her extraordinary life – the first female to be admitted to the National Academy of Design, one of the first artists to capture images of New York City’s historic sites before they were destroyed, and a world traveler who made her living as an artist/teacher while raising her children by herself – this talk is a wonderful prelude to our 2010 exhibition, “Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School.” The title of the talk is a phrase dubbed by a 19th-century critic.

March 14 Linda S. Ferber
The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision

Linda S. Ferber, Senior Art Historian and Museum Director Emerita of the New-York Historical Society, and former Chair of the Department of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum, returns to the Cole House with her new book, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision. Capturing the New-York Historical Society’s world-renowned Hudson River School collection in book form for the first time, Dr. Ferber’s book features all the greatest artists of the group including Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey, Asher B. Durand, Sanford Gifford, and John F. Kensett. One of the Cole House’s most popular speakers, Dr. Ferber will sign copies of her book after her talk.

April 11 Stephen Hannock
Thomas Cole with a Power Sander

One of the most exciting artists of our time – called “the consummate landscape painter” – Stephen Hannock began his artistic career near the site of Thomas Cole’s famous 1836 painting, the Oxbow. Cole has been “a reference point” for Hannock, whose virtuosic use of light &#8211 as well as a power sander &#8211 has landed his paintings in museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art Historian Jason Rosenfeld describes Hannock’s work as &#8220both distinctively modern as well as reflective of landscape traditions&#8230-.Hannock, in his radical technique is a true American luminist. His paintings, multi-layered in both surface and meaning, radiate in a manner that connects past and present.&#8221 After his talk, Mr. Hannock will sign copies of his new monograph.

Historic Districts Councils Morning Coffee Talks

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Each Month, the Historic Districts Council hosts a Coffee Talk &#8211 a presentation and question and answers session with folk important to local historic preservation. The first Coffee Talk of 2010, on January 11th, will feature representatives of the New York City Department of Design and Construction. The event begins at 8:30 am, in the Neighborhood Preservation Center, 232 East 11th Street, Manhattan.

The Department of Design and Construction (DDC), is the lead agency for New York City public construction projects such as street, water and sewer reconstructions, firehouses, libraries, police precincts, courthouses and senior centers. Because the agency is responsible for such a large portfolio (valued at over $6 billion), the Historic Districts Counciil believes it is essential that communities help make sure that each project that DDC undertakes respects and responds to the specific needs of the communities where the projects are located.

Richard Zetterlund, Associate Commissioner for Infrastructure and Sergio Silveira, Assistant Commissioner for Structures will discuss their respective divisions and how neighborhood advocates can provide input on major projects. Our speakers will also showcase some of DDC’s recent successful initiatives and talk about the efforts of DDC’s Historic Preservation Office.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required, as space is limited. For more information about this or other Coffee Talks, contact Frampton Tolbert at (212) 614-9107 or [email protected].

Photo: Brooklyn Terminal at Brooklyn Bridge c 1903.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday New York History compiles for our readers the week’s best stories and links from the web about the history of New York. You can find all our weekly web highlights here.