Uncategorized
Weekly New York History Blogging Round-Up
- The Virtual Dime Museum: Bah Humbug Oil
- Vanishing New York: Greenpoint, Post-Apoc
- Old New York City: Ready-To-Wear Fashion
- The In Box: Why Isn’t Lake Champlain Famous?
- Small Pines: A New Deal for the Adirondacks, at 4,810 feet
- Upstate Earth: The Albany & Hudson From Electric Park to Albany
- Mindful Walker: Sparks Over an Underground Railroad Site
- Bowery Boys: Roosevelt Island
- Patell and Waterman: Atlantic Avenue Subway Tunnel
New Additions to Online Newspaper Archive
Additional content from two newspapers has been added to the Northern New York Historical Newspapers site at http://news.nnyln.net. The Plattsburgh “Press-Republican” coverage has been expanded to 1998, with a starting date of 1942. The newspaper’s own indexed archive takes over with 1999. The Saranac Lake “Adirondack Daily Enterprise” has been expanded to 2007, with a starting date of 1948. It can be searched by itself or as part of the Franklin County group search.
The increased content of these two newspapers join over 40 titles with a total of more than 1,620,000 pages on the NNY Historical Newspapers site. The site is provided free of charge to the public by the Northern New York Library Network (NNYLN) in Potsdam.
While it is always fun and interesting to search decades back in the older newspapers, the more recent years make it easy to go back and check facts or clear up if something was remembered correctly.
For instance, with a few clicks through the Plattsburgh paper readers can be reminded of the “Champlain hires engineers for flood mitigation” story from Sept. 11, 1998 which read, “With $46,000 promised from Clinton County, the Champlain Village Board voted recently to hire Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratories to build a flood-mitigation system in the Great Chazy River.”
Those going through the Saranac Lake paper can see the December 27, 2007 edition reported the following: “The Mountaineer’s 12th annual Adirondack International Mountaineering Festival is coming up on the weekend of Jan. 11, and there are still openings in some of the ice climbing, avalanche and snowshoeing clinics.”
The Northern New York Historical Newspapers website averages well over one million searches every month.
NYCs Audubon Park Named New Historic District
Yesterday afternoon the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission named Audubon Park, in Washington Heights, Manhattan, the city’s newest historic district. Located between 158th and 155th streets between Riverside Drive and Edward M. Morgan Place, and adjoining the Audubon Terrace Historic District to the southeast, the Audubon Park Historic District consists of 19 grand, architecturally distinctive apartment houses and one Spanish Revival-style duplex house that were constructed between 1905 and 1932 on the former 20-acre estate of the famed wildlife artist John James Audubon.
The apartment houses, which range in height from 5 to 13 stories, were constructed in the tradition of the elegant residential buildings to the south in Morningside
Heights and on the Upper West Side following the extension of the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue subway line to the neighborhood in 1904.
Most of the buildings were given names that recalled the neighborhood’s past, and evoked glamour and prestige, such as the Grinnell, a massive Mission Revival style apartment house at 800 Riverside Drive that was named for the family who once owned most of Audubon’s estate following his death- Hispania Hall at 601 W. 156th St., a reference to the nearby Hispanic Society of America- and the Riviera at 790 Riverside Drive, both of which are designed in the Renaissance Revival style.
“These buildings are not only highly intact, but also retain the vibrant details and character that attracted residents to them a century ago,” said Chairman Tierney. “The curving streets and dramatic vistas formed by the area’s hilly topography continue to define the neighborhood to this day, and create a powerful sense of place.”
New Pre-1830s America Fellowship
The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the John Carter Brown Library are pleased to announce a new research and writing fellowship that may be of interest to members of the list. The Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellowship supports work by academics, independent scholars and writers working on significant
projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830. The fellowship is also open to filmmakers, novelists, creative and performing artists, and others working on projects that draw on this period of history.
The fellowship award supports two months of research (conducted at the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, R.I.) and two months of writing (at Washington College in Chestertown, Md). Housing and university privileges will be provided. The fellowship includes a stipend of $5,000 per month for a total of $20,000.
Deadline for applications for the 2010 fellowship year is *July 15, 2009*. For more information and application instructions, visit the Starr Center’s website at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.
This Weeks Top New York History News
- LPC Meeting on ‘-Greenwich Village Extension’
- Hudson Voyages and Google Maps
- Pro Wrestling Museum A Success
- State Parks Adopts Sustainability Blueprint
- Wardenclyffe, Tesla’s Lab Threatened
- Profile: Buffalo Folksinger Jackson Frank
- Rev War Graves in Fishkill Confirmed
- Awash in Henry Hudsons For 400th
Weekly New York History Blogging Round-Up
- American Historical Association Blog: Civil War Resources
- Patell and Waterman: Get Lost on the Bowery, 1969-1989
- Museum 2.0: AAM Recap: Slides, Observations, and Object Fetishism
- Tenement Museum Blog: Early Edison Films
- Confessions of a Preservationist: Post-Conference Recap, Medina 2009
- PlanetAlbany: Lost And Saved in Albany
- Adirondack Musing: Save Wardenclyffe
- TOCWOC: Whither the History Channel?
- Library Preservation: Twitter Conversation for Conservators
- American Heritage: When Paper Boats Were King
NYS Library Offers Noontime Public Programs in May
The NYS Library will offer three noontime programs in May. On Wednesday, May 13th, librarian Bill Schilling will present “Patents,” an introduction to the patenting process in the United States. On Wednesday, May 20th, local authors Frankie Bailey and Alice Green will present “Wicked Albany,” a look at the effect that the Volstead Act of 1919, which established Prohibition, had on Albany. Then on Wednesday, May 27th, architect James Comegys and engineer Benjamin Marra from the NYS Office of General Services will discuss the State’s efforts to achieve sustainable building and LEED certification in “Green Building.” All programs are free and open to the public.
Patents (Wednesday, May 13th, 12:15 – 1:45 p.m.)
In the field of invention and design, a United States patent is the grant of an exclusive property right to the inventor for a fixed period of time. This class is an introduction to the patenting process in the United States. It will cover basic concepts about patents and the statutory requirements for obtaining them. It will also include a hands-on introduction to doing a preliminary patent search on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s web site using the U.S. patent classification system. Senior Librarian, Bill Schilling will present this program. This program will be held in the Computer Classroom on the 7th floor of the Library and registration is required. No food or drink is permitted in the room.
Wicked Albany (Wednesday, May 20th, 12:15 – 1:15 p.m)
Albany, New York, experienced massive upheaval when the Volstead Act of 1919 established Prohibition. Crime already proliferated in the capital of the Empire State, with rival political machines stooping to corruption and organized crime flexing their heavy-handed powers of persuasion. As it did nationwide, Prohibition in Albany served merely to force alcohol-related commerce underground and lawlessness and violence to the forefront of city activity. Local authors Frankie Bailey and Alice Green chronicle this evolution in Albany, relying on archival records and examining the greater social impact of the city’s moral decline. This program will be held in the Huxley Theater on the 1st floor of the Cultural Education Center.
Green Building (Wednesday, May 27th, 12:15 – 1:15 p.m.)
What does green mean in terms of building design? The attributes of green building design will be discussed by architect James Comegys and engineer Benjamin Marra from the Design and Construction group of OGS. They will describe how the OGS agency’s goal of sustainability in all state operations is reflected in building projects. Case studies of buildings for New York state agencies seeking LEED or green building certification will be presented.
Songs from the Piano Bench (Wednesday, May 27th, Noon – 2:00 PM)
Listen in while enjoying your lunch or lend your voice as singers perform a variety of songs, including popular folk, rock-and-roll, Victorian parlor, Civil War, Sesame Street, etc. Many selections are chosen from the more than 35,000 pieces of sheet music in the New York State Library Collection. Music and words are provided and instrumentalists are welcome. This session is held monthly in the 4th Floor Gallery of the State Museum. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or call 518-474-2274.
Rochester: Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks
The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, NY – known for its superb boat collection – will offer a special program entitled “Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks” this Thursday, May 7, 2009. The illustrated talk by museum Curator Hallie E. Bond, will tell the unique Adirondack story of boats, drawing on the rich collections of artifacts, documents, and historic photographs at the Adirondack Museum.
The presentation will be held in the auditorium of The Harley School at 1981 Clover Street, Rochester, N.Y., and will begin at 7:30 p.m. The program will be offered at no charge to members of the Adirondack Museum- admission will be $5 for non-members. For additional information please call (518) 352-7311, ext. 129 or visit www.adirondackmuseum.org
The Adirondack Museum’s boat collection currently numbers more than 200, a reflection of the importance of waterways for transportation in the region. Seventy-two examples of the guideboat, the watercraft indigenous to the Adirondack
region, are represented.
The Adirondack region has 2,300 lakes and ponds and 1,200 miles of rivers fed by more than 30,000 miles of brooks and streams. Waterways were once not only the preferred paths from place to place, they were often the only way to get about. The guideboat was “the pickup truck” of the Adirondacks.
From birch barks and dugouts to canoes, guideboats, steamboats, and gasoline powered racing boats, Bond will describe regional craft in the context of the people who made and used them.
Hallie E. Bond has been Curator at the Adirondack Museum since 1987. She has written extensively on regional history and material culture including Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks, published by Syracuse University Press in 1995 and “A Paradise for Boys and Girls” Children’s Camps in the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press, 2005.
Mindfulwalker, A Site About NY History and Architecture
Before the IRT Powerhouse’s last remaining original smokestack is possibly lost, civic and preservation groups such as the Municipal Art Society are seeking landmark status for this magnificent 1904 building on New York City’s West Side. Its station once powered the city’s first subway lines. But according to Mindfulwalker.com, Con Ed (the current owner) has objected to such an effort in the past.
Susan DeMark’s new New York-based blog explores architecture, preservation, history, and nature. Recently, DeMark has focused on AIG’s possible sale of its Art Deco headquarters building, the Irish Hunger Memorial in Lower Manhattan, and the current skirmishes over the best plan to rejuvenate Coney Island.
The site offers readers an opportunity to explore such topics primarily through a walking, up-close, firsthand experience. Also, a portion of the site called Mindful Activist promotes action and awareness about current issues in preservation and history. DeMark’s primary areas of focus are New York City and the Hudson Valley.