Month: June 2012

Chimney Point Historic Site Reopens

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The Chimney Point, Mount Independence, and Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Sites have opened for the 2012 season. The Chimney Point State Historic Site on Lake Champlain in Addison has reopened to the public after two years of closure due to the Lake Champlain Bridge construction project. This location is one of the most strategic on the Lake, important to Native Americans, the early French, and early American settlement.

In the historic tavern’s “ballroom” is a new exhibit, What Lies Beneath: 9,000 Years of History at Chimney Point, highlighting the archaeological findings from the 2009-2011 bridge and temporary ferry project. See evidence of earliest Native American habitation, the 1731 French fort, Moses Bradley’s 1790s redware pottery, and more.

The exhibit was prepared by the University of Vermont Consulting Archeology Program and guest curator Kate Kenney, Vermont bridge project archaeological monitor. Also new are several exhibit panels and media player exploring the history of the 1929 Lake Champlain Bridge. Bring a picnic and take a walk over the new bridge. The site is open Wednesdays through Sundays and Monday holidays, through October 8, 9:30-5:30. Admission is $3.00 for adults and free for children under 15.

Orwell’s Mount Independence, a National Historic Landmark named after the Declaration of Independence, was built on Lake Champlain in 1776-77 to protect the American colonies against British invasion from the north. This year is the 235th anniversary of the American retreat from the Mount. The museum has state of the art exhibits and Revolutionary War artifacts, including two huge logs from the Great Bridge and a cannon recovered from Lake Champlain.

Six miles of scenic walking and hiking trails wind past archaeological sites. The nationally award winning Baldwin Trail with acclaimed interpretive signage, is suitable for outdoor wheelchairs and strollers. The annual Soldiers Atop the Mount encampment is moving this year to September 8 and 9 to commemorate the September 1777 American attempt to retake the Mount from the British. The site is open daily, 9:30 to 5:00, through October 8. Admission is $5.00 for adults and free for children under 15.

The Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Site is the location of Vermont’s only Revolutionary War battle. It is considered one of the best preserved battlefields in America, retaining most of its original setting. The 235th anniversary of the July 7, 1777, battle will be honored with the annual living history weekend on July 7 and 8. Enjoy other history and astronomy programs throughout the season. The site is open Thursdays through Sundays and Monday holidays, from 9:30 to 5:00. Admission is $2.00 for adults and free for children under 15.

These sites have scenic grounds for walking and picnics, and specialty museum shops with many books and other items. For more information about events visit: http://historicsites.vermont.gov/events/ Join the Vermont State Historic Sites on Facebook.

Hudson River Valley Ramble Dates Set

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The Hudson River Valley Greenway and Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area invite Hudson Valley communities to become part of an exciting regional event &#8212- the Hudson River Valley Ramble. Now in its 12th year, the Hudson River Valley Ramble is a variety of walks, hikes, paddles, biking tours and other events throughout 13 counties, and is designed to showcase the scenic, natural, historic and cultural resources of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area . This year, the Ramble will be held on four weekends: September 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, 29-30, 2012.
Ramble events are led by naturalists, ecologists, historians, geologists and trained volunteers from participating groups, which last year included over 150 environmental, land conservation, trail groups, heritage sites and historic preservation organizations.

“In 2011, over 120,000 people participated in Ramble events and we expect a great turnout again this year,” said Mark Castiglione, Acting Director of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and Greenway. “If it’s September, then it’s time to Ramble. The event provides people of all ages an opportunity to experience the cultural landscape of the Hudson River Valley by hiking a trail, visiting an historic site or paddling on the river. The Ramble demonstrates that celebrating our natural and cultural resources also provides a big boost to our regional economy.”

The Hudson River Valley Ramble is funded in part through the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area (HRVNHA) program. The HRVNHA program was established by Congress in 1996 and is funded through the National Park Service and Department of the Interior. The mission of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area is to recognize, preserve, protect and interpret the nationally significant cultural and natural resources of the Hudson River Valley for the benefit of the Nation. The Hudson River Valley Greenway is the management entity for the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.

The 2012 Ramble Sponsors Are:

The Hudson River Valley Greenway- The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area- The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program- The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation- The National Park Service.

Visit www.hudsonrivervalleyramble.com for more information about the Ramble

Visit www.hudsonrivervalley.com for information about the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area

Visit www.hudsongreenway.ny.gov for more information on the Greenway

Visit www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4920.html for more information on the Hudson River Estuary Program

Photo: 2012 Hudson River Ramble at Fort Crailo, in Rensselaer. 

Lake Georges Sunken Fleet of 1758 Event

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On Tuesday, June 5, 7 p.m. at Thurman town hall underwater archaeologist  Joseph W. Zarzynski will present a talk on Bateaux Below’s study of &#8220The Sunken Fleet of 1758,&#8221 a notable event at Lake George during the French & Indian War (1755-1763).

In the autumn of 1758, the British sank over 260 warships in Lake George to protect the vessels over the winter of 1758-1759 from their enemy, the French and their Native American allies. Many of the sunken warships were recovered in 1759 and reused by the British.  However, over 40 sunken warships were never retrieved by the British forces in 1759 and they offer underwater archaeologists an excellent opportunity to study these shipwrecks to find out about the colonial soldiers that used them.

Zarzynski’s talk will give details on Bateaux Below’s 24-year-long study (1987-2011) of &#8220The Sunken Fleet of 1758.&#8221Zarzynski is co-founder of Bateaux Below, co-author (with Bob Benway) of the book Lake George Shipwrecks and Sunken History, and co-authored the documentary Search for the Jefferson Davis: Trader, Slaver, Raider.  The documentary, written with Dr. Samuel Turner, was a 2012 Peabody Awards nominee, and an &#8220Official Selection&#8221 in the Orlando Film Festival (2011),  Amelia Island Film Festival (2012), and the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival (2012). The documentary was named one of three finalists for &#8220Best Documentary&#8221 in the 6th Buffalo Niagara Film Festival.

Zarzynski’s June 5th program, hosted by the John Thurman Historical Society, is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. Thurman town hall is located at 311 Athol Road, Athol, NY, about 6 miles from the Warrensburg Health Center via route 418 and Athol Road. For more information, call 518-623-9305.

Photo: Joseph W. Zarzynski holds a model of the type of 18th century radeau that plied the waters of Lake George during the French and Indian War (Photo courtesy Peter Pepe).

New Crowd-Sourced Exhibition at Brooklyn Museum

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The Brooklyn Museum is launching a borough-wide initiative in which Brooklyn-based artists will be invited to open their studios, allowing community members to visit and nominate artists for inclusion in a group exhibition to be held at the Museum.

Brooklyn Museum curators will visit the studios of top nominated artists to select works for the exhibition. The open studio weekend for GO: a community-curated open studio project will be held September 8 and 9. The exhibition will open during First Saturday on December 1, 2012, and will be on view through February 24, 2013.
Web and mobile technology will be a central component bringing artists and community together to share information and perspectives on art. All participants (artists, voters, and volunteers) will be able to create a personal online profile at the project’s website, www.gobrooklynart.org. Artist profiles will include photos of each artist and their studio, along with images and descriptions of their work. Volunteers will be connected with their respective neighborhoods online, and voters will have profiles that track their activity during the open studio weekend and provide a platform on which to share their perspectives.

&#8220GO is a wide-ranging and unique project that will transform how Brooklyn communities engage in the arts by providing everyone with the chance to discover artistic talent and to be involved in the exhibition process on a grassroots level. Through the use of innovative technology, GO provides every Brooklyn resident with an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the visual arts in an unprecedented way,&#8221 says Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman.

The project launched on May 18th with volunteer registration. Volunteers will identify and work with local groups and businesses within specific neighborhoods to engage artists and potential studio visitors. The Brooklyn Museum will also partner with the Brooklyn Arts Council, open studio organizations, the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, and Heart of Brooklyn to promote participation in GO. The New York City Housing Authority will also play an important role in engaging residents living in public housing developments in Brooklyn.

Artists will have an opportunity to register their studios at www.gobrooklynart.org in June. Artist registration will be followed by voter registration in August and early September. In October, Sharon Matt Atkins and Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, will make studio visits to the top nominated artists to select the work for the exhibition. Curators and community members will engage in a public dialogue about the selection of work.

GO continues the Brooklyn Museum’s long tradition of highlighting the borough’s community of artists. Since its 2004 exhibition, Open House: Working in Brooklyn, the largest survey to date of artists working in Brooklyn, the Museum has continued its commitment to Brooklyn artists with exhibitions by Fred Tomaselli, Lorna Simpson, and an upcoming exhibition by Mickalene Thomas, among others, and the current Raw/Cooked series of five exhibitions by under-the-radar Brooklyn artists.

A pioneer in crowd-sourced exhibitions, the Brooklyn Museum also presented Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition (2008), a photography show in which nearly 3,500 community members evaluated the work of 389 local photographers. More recently, Split Second: Indian Paintings (2011) invited the Museum’s online community to participate in the selection of works to be shown in an installation of Indian paintings.

The project organizers are Sharon Matt Atkins, Managing Curator of Exhibitions, and Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology. GO: a community-curated open studio project is inspired by two predecessors: ArtPrize, an annual publicly juried art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the long tradition of open studio events that take place each year throughout Brooklyn.

The project’s website will be updated throughout the process until the exhibition’s opening in December 2012.

Call for Entries: 2012 Erie Canalway Photo Contest

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Entries are being accepted now through September 7, 2012 for the 7th annual Erie Canalway Photo Contest. Winning photos will be displayed in the 2013 Erie Canalway calendar.

Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit prints and digital images in four contest categories: Bridges, Buildings and Locks- For the Fun of It- On the Water- and the Nature of the Canal.

The contest captures and shares the beauty, history, people, and  distinctive character of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, which is comprised of the Erie, Oswego, Cayuga/Seneca, and Champlain Canals, and their historic alignments, and surrounding communities.

Official contest rules and an entry form are available online.

The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor spans 524 miles across the full expanse of upstate New York, encompassing the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca,  Oswego, and Champlain canals and their historic alignments, as well as more  than 230 canal communities. Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission, in partnership with the National Park Service, collaborates with government agencies, communities and organizations to protect and  promote the canal corridor for all to use and enjoy.

Photo: 2011 Photo Contest Winner, &#8220Lockport Locks&#8221 by Stephen Bye.

Schenectady Civilian Conservation Corps Reunion

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On Saturday, June 16, 2012, the Schenectady County Historical Society will host a reunion of Civilian Conservation Corps alumni, family, & friends from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady. Marty Podskoch, author of Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: Their History, Memories and Legacy, will give a short presentation and will invite participants to share their memories of the camps.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began on March 31, 1933 under President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” to relieve the poverty and unemployment of the Depression. Camps were set up in many New York towns, state parks, and forests. Workers built trails, roads, campsites and dams, stocked fish, built and maintained fire tower observer’s cabins and telephone lines, fought fires, and planted millions of trees. The CCC disbanded in 1942 due to the need for men in World War II.
Marty Podskoch is a retired teacher and is the author of six books: Fire Towers of the Catskills: Their History and Lore, two volumes of Adirondack fire tower books: Adirondack Fire Towers: Their History and Lore, the Southern Districts, and Northern Districts and two other books, Adirondack Stories: Historical Sketches and Adirondack Stories II: Historical Sketches, from his weekly illustrated newspaper column.

After 5 years of research and interviews, Marty Podskoch has completed his new book, Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: Their History, Memories and Legacy. The 344-page book contains over 500 pictures and illustrations, 26 maps, and 25 charts. The author will have all of his books available after the presentation for sale and signing.

For more information on the reunion or to RSVP, contact Melissa Tacke, Librarian/Archivist at the Schenectady County Historical Society, by phone at 518-374-0263, option “3”, or by email at [email protected]. The Schenectady County Historical Society is wheelchair accessible, with off-street parking behind the building and overflow parking next door at the YWCA.

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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This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers the previous 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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