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Virtual Field Trips for Home Schoolers

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Check out the website MeetMeAtTheCorner.org which provides virtual field trips for home schoolers ages 8-12. Short videos provide educational and informational “tours” of various landmarks from a child’s point of view via 3 to 4 minute video pod casts. Each episode offers suggested readings and follow-up activities, including the opportunity for kids to submit their own complementary videos, as well as lesson plans for the home school parent. Through these video pod casts, the site creates a community of children who learn the art of self-expression and storytelling through video. New virtual field trips are added every two weeks- participation is free.

Recent videos have included New York City historic and cultural landmarks like Broadway and the Forbes Museum, and a bird watching expedition in Central Park. Recently posted was a program featuring folk singer Linda Russell’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the Hudson River.

This month they will also celebrate Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week and travel to Colorado for an interview with the Director of the Money Museum. Amanda ( age 9) learns about the invention of money and how to begin a collection of state quarters, Presidential dollars and the new Lincoln pennies commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

Later in the Spring, shows feature children interviewing authors and illustrators, an astronomer about worldwide celebration of the 200th anniversary of the telescope, a team of Air Force cadets who care for the Academy falcons, a working cowboy, a man who raises and races homing pigeons, and the yo-yo champion of the United States.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage Offers Unique Tour

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Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) is offering for the first time an opportunity to explore the rustic building tradition long associated with the Adirondacks. For four days tour private and public camps of the Adirondacks led by experts in the field of architectural history and preservation, and local historians. Stops will include Camp Pine Knot, Camp Sagamore, lunch on the WW Durant, camps at Piseco Lake, and Camp Santanoni. The day trips will be supplemented by evening lectures by preservation professionals. Accommodations at Minnowbrook Conference Center in Blue Mountain Lake, meals and local transportation are included. Cost is $1400 for double occupancy and $1700 for single.

To make a reservation or for further information please call 518-834-9328, or send an email to [email protected].

Adirondack Architectural Heritage is the private, non-profit, historic preservation organization for the Adirondack Park region. This tour is one of over fifty events in our their series highlighting the region’s architectural legacy.

ORDA Creating New Sliding Sports Museum

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The New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) is looking to create the North American Sliding Sports Museum at Lake Placid’s historic Olympic Sports Complex. At this time, ORDA would like to call on all former bobsledders, lugers and skeleton athletes or family members of deceased athletes to come to Lake Placid during competition weekends in February. ORDA is calling on all former track workers or family members of deceased track workers who have kept their story and history alive. The Olympic Sports Complex is in the preliminary planning stage of creating a North America Sliding Sports Museum and ORDA would like to record the history, memories, stories and experiences of everyone affiliated with the Lake Placid tracks.

The goal of the North America Sliding Sports Museum is to tell the stories of athletes, to educate the public and inspire future athletes of these fast paced sports. Along with oral histories, ORDA is also accepting artifacts, programs, all images, uniforms, posters, club logos, club trophies, and more. By donating these items to the Olympic Museum, not only is the public memorializing special experiences but also contributing to a unique piece of history and everyone will be given a deed of gift to use at tax time.

The dates will be February 6-8, 20-22 and Feb. 26- March 1. Each person who donates or records an oral history will receive free admission to the world championships.
For more information on how to donate historical memorabilia, or to schedule an interview, please contact ORDA Corporate Development Assistant Alison Casey at (518) 523-1655 ext. 343 or email her at [email protected].

Preserve New York Grant Deadline in May

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Applications are now available to eligible municipalities and not-for-profit organizations to compete for funds through Preserve New York, a grant program of the Preservation League of New York State and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). A total of $96,400 is available for historic structure reports, historic landscape reports and cultural resource surveys. Grants are likely to range between $3,000 and $10,000 each. The application deadline is May 4, 2009.

Examples of eligible projects include: historic structure reports for public buildings- historic landscape reports for municipal parks- and cultural resource surveys of downtowns and residential neighborhoods. For Preserve New York Grant Program guidelines, visit the League’s website. Prospective applicants should contact the Preservation League to discuss their projects and to request an application form.

Adirondack Museum Receives Special Exhibit Funds

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York has received an anonymous gift from &#8220someone who loves the Adirondacks&#8221 in the amount of $50,000 in support of a very special exhibition that will open this summer. The new exhibit, A &#8220Wild Unsettled Country&#8221: Early Reflections of the Adirondacks will open on May 22, 2009. Paintings, maps, prints, and photographs will illustrate the untamed Adirondack wilderness discovered by the earliest cartographers, artists, and photographers.

The new exhibit will showcase more than forty paintings from the museum’s exceptional collection, including works by Thomas Cole, John Frederick Kensett, William Havell, and James David Smillie.

Engravings and lithographs of Adirondack landscape paintings will also be
featured. Prints brought these images to a wider audience and provided many
Americans with their first glimpse of the &#8220howling wilds&#8221 that were the
Adirondack Mountains.

A &#8220Wild Unsettled Country&#8221 will include photographs &#8211 stereo views and albumen prints &#8211 sold as tourist souvenirs and to armchair travelers. William James Stillman took the earliest photos in the exhibition in 1859. These rare images are the first photographic landscape studies taken in the Adirondacks.

A dozen significant maps from the collection of the Adirondack Museum’s research library will demonstrate the growth of knowledge about the region.

Acknowledging the generosity of the gift that has made A &#8220Wild Unsettled Country&#8221: Early Reflections of the Adirondacks possible, Chief Curator Laura S. Rice said that, &#8220Through this exhibit, museum visitors will be able to discover, the Adirondacks through the eyes of late 18th and early 19th century artists as a place of great beauty.&#8221

Early American Economy, Society Fellowships

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The Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company of Philadelphia invites applications for its dissertation and short-term fellowship awards to be granted for research during 2009-2010: Dissertation-level fellowship, carrying a stipend of $20,000, is tenable for nine consecutive months of residency from September 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010, or at a stipend of $10,000 for the period Sept. 1, 2009 to January 15, 2010, or January 15, 2010 to May 31, 2010. Four one-month fellowships, for scholars at any level, carrying stipends of $2,000 each, are tenable for a month of continuous research at the Library Company between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010.

Deadline for receipt of applications is March 2, 2009. These fellowships are designed to promote scholarship in early American economy and society, broadly defined, from its colonial beginnings to roughly the 1850s. Applicants for dissertation awards may submit proposals based not only on the collections at the Library Company, but also on the printed and manuscript materials of other institutions in the Philadelphia area. Short-term fellows should plan to spend a continuous month of research in the collections of the Library Company.

Applicants shoud first fill out a cover sheet at: www.librarycompany.org/Economics. One-month applicants should submit seven copies each of a brief resume, a two- to four-page description of the proposed research, and one letter of recommendation. Long-term fellowship applicants should submit seven copies each of a resume, a research proposal outlining the larger project and the work to be pursued during the fellowship term, a writing sample of about 25 pages, and two letters of recommendation. Dissertation award applicants should state clearly which of the tenable periods they seek, and whether they also wish to be considered for a short-term fellowship. All materials should be sent to:

PEAES Fellowships
The Library Company of Philadelphia
1314 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Camp Santanoni Historic Ski Tour with AARCH

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Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) will kick-off their 2009 educational series Sunday, February 8th with an interpretive cross-country ski into the 19th-century, Adirondack Great Camp, Camp Santanoni. Participants will learn about the history and architectural significance of the camp that make it a National Historic Landmark. The 10-mile round trip ski, along the preserve’s gently sloping historic carriage road, leads us into the majestic wilderness estate. Those taking part will visit the camp’s three complexes (the Gate Lodge, the Farm, and the Main Camp), and view the massive log retreat at the Main Camp, the work of architect Robert Robertson. Skiers will also see first hand, authentic Adirondack rustic interiors and learn about the restoration of the camp.

Steven Engelhart, AARCH Executive Director and John Friauf, former AARCH Board Member, will lead the tour. The group will depart Santanoni Preserve parking area, off Route 28N in the hamlet of Newcomb at 10AM, returning around 3 PM. This is a remote site. All participants are encouraged to bring a trail lunch and plenty of hydration. The fee is $10 for members and $15 for non-members. Advance registration is required by calling AARCH at (518) 834-9328.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) is the private, non-profit, historic preservation organization for the Adirondack Park region. AARCH works in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Town of Newcomb to preserve and interpret Camp Santanoni. This tour is one of over fifty events in our annual series highlighting the region’s vast architectural legacy. For more information on AARCH including membership and a complete 2009 program schedule contact AARCH at (518) 834-9328 or visit our website at www.aarch.org.