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This past month, the New York Council for the Humanities awarded more than $300,000 in major grant funds to 22 organizations located in 14 counties in New York State. Awardees were selected from a pool of 60 applicants, a 35% increase from this time last year. Below is a complete list of awarded projects.
The Adirondack Museum
Blue Mountain Lake, Hamilton County
Awarded $20,000 for Let’s Eat!: Adirondack Food Traditions
An exhibition exploring the development of Adirondack food traditions from the 19th to the 20th centuries with a focus on the local environment.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Albany Institute of History and Art
Albany, Albany County
Awarded $2,500 for 2010 Hudson River Lecture Series
A series of four illustrated lectures about different aspects of the cultural and social significance of the Hudson River.
Awarded January 11, 2010
Brooklyn College, Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music
Brooklyn, Kings County
Awarded $8,800 for Black Brooklyn Renaissance Conference
A day-long event celebrating Brooklyn’s role as a major center of Black American music and culture.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Chemung County Historical Society
Elmira, Chemung County
Awarded $8,181 for Mark Twain in Elmira
An exhibition celebrating Mark Twain’s ties to the community of Elmira on the occasion of the anniversary of his birth.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Community Works
New York, New York County
Awarded $11,050 for Harlem’s Black Arts Movement: Its Past, Its Present and Its Future
Three interactive dialogues with key figures in the Black Arts Movement.
Awarded January 15, 2010
CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
New York, New York County
Awarded $16,250 for Justice and Injustice in America: the 1950s
A series of lectures focused on the 1950′-s and 1960′-s in America featuring preeminent scholars of jurisprudence and U.S. History.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Eldridge Street Project
New York, New York County
Awarded $12,982 for Ways We Worship: Jewish Practice & Beyond
A new public tour and related lecture series exploring the history of Judaism in America.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Epic Theatre Center
New York, New York County
Awarded $11,300 for Epic Forum Series 2010: Doubt and Certainty
A series of over 100 post-performance scholar-led discussions related to the theme of “Doubt and Certainty.”
Awarded January 15, 2010
Erie Canal Museum
Syracuse, Onondaga County
Awarded $20,000 for Heartland Passage: the Oral History of the Erie Canal
An on-line oral history exhibition about people involved with the Erie Canal.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Geneva Historical Society
Geneva, Ontario County
Awarded $10,310 for Geneva’s Changing Landscape
Development of a permanent exhibition about the history of Geneva from the 1700s to the present, using the lens of environmental history.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Historic Cherry Hill
Albany, Albany County
Awarded $2,250 for Program Planning: Class and Power in 18th Century Albany
A planning grant for a program exploring class and power in 18th century Albany.
Awarded January 26, 2010
Imagining America
Syracuse, Onondaga County
Awarded $18,000 for Revitalizing Downtown Syracuse: Local Culture, Trans-Local Knowledge
A performance and four public discussions exploring issues of culture and community revitalization.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
New York, New York County
Awarded $15,000 for Access Restricted: Nomadic Lecture Series Exploring Lower Manhattan
A free nomadic lecture series that opens to the public rarely visited or inaccessible spaces in Lower Manhattan. This year’s session will focus on the topics of jurisprudence and ethics.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Morrisville State College, Science, Technology & Society Program
Morrisville, Madison County
Awarded $5,850 for Agricultural Acts: On the Futures of Farming and Food
A two-day program of events about the future of food production.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
New York City, New York County
Awarded $2,095 for A Feminine Palette, Women Artists of the 19th and Early 20th Century
A panel discussion exploring the work and lives of three lesser-known women artists from the 19th and early 20th century.
Awarded January 26, 2010
National Jazz Museum in Harlem
New York, New York County
Awarded $20,000 for Jazz for Curious Listeners
A year-long series of weekly dialogues about jazz and culture.
Awarded January 15, 2010
New Rochelle Council on the Arts
New Rochelle, Westchester County
Awarded $6,000 for Sounds Shore Shakespeare Festival
A Westchester county-wide celebration of Shakespearian works.
Awarded January 15, 2010
New York Library Association
Guilderland, Albany County
Awarded $7,500 for The Empire State Book Festival
A two-day celebration of reading held in the Empire State Plaza
Awarded January 15, 2010
Old Fort Niagara Association
Youngstown, Niagara County
Awarded $11,370 for Anglo-Native Relations on the Niagara Frontier, 1759-1764
A combination of special lectures and daily programs designed to examine the cross-cultural interactions at the fort between Iroquois people and Europeans.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Radio Diaries, Inc.
New York, New York County
Awarded $20,000 for America’s Lost Stories
A series of radio documentaries uncovering little-known chapters of 20th century American history to be broadcast on National Public Radio.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Slate Valley Museum Foundation
Granville, Washington County
Awarded $13,845 for Cultural Expressions in the Slate Valley
A series of six programs exploring the impact of various immigrant groups who came to the Slate Valley region between 1850 and 1930.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Southampton Historical Museum
Southampton, Suffolk County
Awarded $2,150 for Southampton Women Who Made a Difference
An exhibition exploring the influence of the Southampton women and their work from different historical periods and cultures.
Awarded January 9, 2010
SUNY Oswego, School of Communication, Media and the Arts
Oswego, Oswego County
Awarded $7,884 for From Global to Local: Diaspora, the Arts and Community
Weekly radio programs over a two-month period exploring issues of immigration and globalization as it relates to Central New York.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Three Village Historical Society
Saint James, Suffolk County
Awarded $20,000 for General Washington’s Spies: How a Group of Long Islanders Helped Win the Revolution
A permanent exhibition for children about a Long Island-based spy-ring during the Revolutionary War.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY)
Canton, Saint Lawrence County
Awarded $20,000 for Kindred Pursuits: Folk Art in North Country Life
An exhibition of contemporary and historic folk art from the North Country, exploring its relation to the region’s culture and history.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region
Troy, Albany County
Awarded $19,686 for Gender, Class, Race and Ethnicity in Abolitionism, on the Underground Railroad, and in the Struggle Since
Three days of programming related to the history of the Unde
rground Railroad in New York State and beyond and its contemporary implications.
Awarded January 15, 2010
Weeksville Heritage Center
Brroklyn, Kings County
Awarded $2,500 for Planning Weeksville’s Orientation Exhibition: Defining a Sense of Place
Planning for an interactive orientation exhibition for the historic Weeksville community.
Awarded January 1, 2010
At least 14 state historic sites and 41 state parks are targeted to close if Governor Paterson’s Executive Budget is enacted, according to a list released today by the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). Twenty-four more parks and historic sites will face severely reduced hours and services. The historic site closures would mean nearly half of the 36 state operated historic sites would close indefinitely. In all a total of 25 of 36 historic sites will either close or under threat of closure. A complete list of the closings and those threatened is included after the jump.
“If parks are forced to close it will be the first time in the 125-year history of the System,” Robin Dropkin, Executive Director of Parks & Trails New York, said. “Even during the Great Depression our parks remained open for people to enjoy and spend time with their families in nature.”
According to a 2009 report [pdf], state parks and historic sites generate $1.9 billion annually in economic activity statewide. Visitors from outside the community account for about 40% of that activity–visitors and money communities will lose if parks are forced to close.
Additionally, state parks and historic sites account for 20,000 non-park jobs statewide. These are long-term, sustainable jobs that will last as long as our state invests in its parks system. The investment in State Parks is a good one- for every dollar the state spends on parks, it gets back $5 dollars in economic activity.
“News of the closings will devastate many communities as their citizens rely on parks for affordable, close to home recreation and their businesses rely on parks to bring in revenue,” said Dropkin.
In addition to economic benefits, state parks preserve wildlife habitat, provide an escape for millions of New Yorkers in these difficult economic times, and protect the state’s heritage for future generations. The NYS Park System is the oldest and most historic state park system in the nation.
The State Parks budget is only one-quarter of one percent of the total state budget. The savings to the state from closing the 57 parks is estimated to be $6.3 million.
Here is the list of Historic Sites to close (and those under threat of closure according to a memo leaked to the media yesterday):
Long Island Region
Walt Whitman State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Lower Hudson Region
Fort Montgomery Historic Site
Knox Headquarters Historic Site
New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site
Stony Point State Historic Site
Philipse Manor Hall Historic Site
Senate House State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Washington’s Headquarters Sate Historic Site [Under Threat]
Taconic Region
John Jay Homestead Historic Site [Under Threat]
Staatsburgh State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Olana State Historic Site {Under Threat]
Saratoga-Capital Region (Including the Adirondacks)
Bennington Battlefield State Park
Crailo State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Crown Point State Historic Site [Under Threat]
John Brown Farm Historic Site
Johnson Hall State Historic Site
Schoharie Crossing Historic Site
Schuyler Mansion Historic Site
Central Region
Fort Ontario State Historic Site
Herkimer Home Historic Site
Hyde Hall State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Lorenzo State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Oriskany Battlefield/Steuben State Historic Site
Finger Lakes Region
Ganondagan State Historic Site [Under Threat]
Thousands Island Region
Sackets Harbor State Historic Site
In a unique collaboration, the New York Council for the Humanities has joined forces with the Rensselaer County Historical Society to offer Reading Between the Lines: Travel and Tourism Narratives of the Empire State, a monthly reading and discussion series that runs from March through June, 2010.
“Reading Between the Lines offers an unusual twist on the standard book group format with focused thematic discussions led by humanities scholars,” says Council Executive Director Sara Ogger. At the Rensselaer County Historical Society, the discussion leader will be Shealeen Meaney, Assistant Professor of English at Russell Sage College.
Meaney will lead four discussion sessions each focused on a book related to the series theme: Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Tales, by Washington Irving- The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862, by Carol Sherrif- The Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooning and Tourism at Niagara Falls, by Karen Dubinsky and Taxi! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver, by Graham Russell Gao Hodges.
Mari Shopsis, Director of Education at the Rensselaer County Historical Society adds: “The Rensselaer County Historical Society is very pleased to host this Reading Between the Lines program. Groups like this provide an important venue for civic engagement and social interaction, and Professor Meaney’s work on women’s travel writing and the Historical Society’s collection of travel diaries, postcards and letters are an interesting counterpart to the books being discussed.”
Participants in the series read works of non-fiction and works of literature that are discussed within an historical context. The program is free and open to the public, although pre-registration is required. The group will meet on the third Thursday of the month – March 18, April 15, May 20, and June 17 from 7-8:30pm at the Rensselaer County Historical Society, 57 Second Street, Troy, NY. For more information on the program, visit http://www.rchsonline.org/programs.htm#RBTL or contact Mari Shopsis at 518-272-7232, x 17 or at [email protected].
Reading Between the Lines is designed to promote lively, informed conversation about humanities themes and strengthen the relationship between humanities institutions and the public. Reading Between the Lines series are currently being held in communities across New York State. The project is supported by the We The People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about Reading Between the Lines: Travel and Tourism Narratives of the Empire State, visit www.nyhumanities.org/discussion_groups.
On Tuesday, March 2, 2010 (from 6:30-8:30pm) the New York City Historic Districts Council will offer a cultural resource survey presentation on Addisleigh Park, a little-known but culturally significant neighborhood in Southeast Queens. The event will be held at the Neighborhood Preservation Center, 232 East 11th Street, Manhattan.
In 2007 HDC began an effort to document Addisleigh Park, home to numerous major African-Americans figures such as James Brown, Roy Campanella, W.E.B. DuBois, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson and Ella Fitzgerald (to name just a few). Once completed, they submitted all the material to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, who recently calendared a historic district, partially in response to our work. This free program will allow participants a firsthand look at the research and learn more about this neighborhood and its storied past.
The event is free to the public. Reservations are required, as space is limited. For more information, please contact Kristen Morith at (212) 614-9107 or [email protected].
The discovery of the Great Lakes’ oldest confirmed shipwreck – a British warship used in the American Revolution – is the keynote presentation for the March 6, 2010 Great Lakes Underwater conference at SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY. Underwater explorer Jim Kennard, who might be called the “Great Lakes Jacques Cousteau,” will share the story of how he and diving partner Dan Scoville located the HMS Ontario.
Kennard and Scoville found the sloop-of-war in 500 feet of water May 2008. She was on her way from Fort Niagara in Youngstown, NY, to Oswego and Fort Haldimand on Carleton Island in the St. Lawrence during the Revolutionary War when she sunk in a gale on October 31, 1780. The ship is considered property of the British Admiralty and is to be left undisturbed as a war grave site.
Those attending the Great Lakes Underwater event hosted by New York Sea Grant and the Oswego Maritime Foundation will see a video of the fascinating 229-year-old, 80-foot-long, 22-gun ship and hear the details of her discovery using deep-water sonar scanning. The video images will reveal how well the deep, cool Great Lakes’ water of Lake Ontario preserved her two crow’s nests, carved bow, quarter galleries, anchors and upright masts.
Conference co-organizer David G. White, a coastal recreation and tourism specialist with New York Sea Grant, Oswego, says, “With Jim Kennard as keynote speaker, the 2010 Great Lakes Underwater promises to be a fascinating day of the tales of shipwreck discovery. We are pleased to add our name alongside National Geographic, Sea Technology and others who have recognized the depth and scope of his exploration into the waters of New York.”
In just the past six years, Kennard has discovered 12 historic and rare shipwrecks in Lake Ontario. In his 40-year career, he counts more than 200 discoveries total exploring in Lake Champlain, the Finger Lakes, and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
Great Lakes Underwater 2010 will be held in the high-tech SUNY Oswego Campus Center Auditorium. Registration for Great Lakes Underwater is $25 ($20 for students) payable to Cornell University and includes the program, buffet lunch, and refreshments.
For more information, contact New York Sea Grant, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126, 315-312-3042, www.oswegomaritime.org/glu.html.
Photo: One of two crow’s nests on the HMS Ontario- courtesy Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville.
According to a letter by Roger D. Joslyn, a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, that was published at the Upstate New York Genealogy blog, the National Archives – Northeast Region, Manhattan Branch is apparently under threat. “We may be losing the National Archives–Northeast Region as a research facility,” Joslyn writes, “perhaps we can save it and not have New York lose yet another important repository for our research.”
According to Joslyn, “the supposed plan, told recently to Stuart Stahl by Diane LeBlanc, NARA’s Regional Administrator in Waltham, Massachusetts, for him to pass the word,” is not official, but here are the bullet points and the rest of the original letter from Joslyn:
•NARA-NYC will move in approximately eighteen months to about 5000 square feet over two floors in the Customs House.
•Only about twenty percent of the current collection at 201 Varick Street, textual and microform (not specifically identified to Stuart), will go to the new location in the Customs House. All or most textual material will go to a storage facility in northeast Philadelphia and will have to be transported to New York City for researchers, as off-site textual material in Lee Summit, Missouri, is now.
•Among the textual material to be retained in the new space will be the federal court naturalization petitions not microfilmed and the federal court records docket books, but it is not clear if the originals of microfilmed naturalizations will be retained.
•“Non-regional” microfilm will go to NARA-Pittsfield.
•Certifications of records on microfilm will have to be requested from Pittsfield.
Additionally, the following seems to also be in the plans for the move:
•The volunteer staff will be abolished or reduced, since there will no longer be textual records for them to arrange, index, and so forth.
•The new space will be primarily for visitors to see exhibits. There will be a few computers and, apparently, some microfilm readers and reader-printers.
•The microfiche indexes of New York State vital records will evidently go to the new space, together with associated printed material and microfiche readers.
•Nothing has been mentioned about the fate of NARA-NYC’s library, including published census indexes and so forth.
•Some of us had been led to believe there would be invitations to some of us “regular” users to help NARA staff know our needs and plan the space and collection for the Customs House. It would seem now that, while there may be a “public meeting,” it will only be to tell us NARA’s plans—too late for any changes.
When the move of NARA-NYC became more certain a month or so ago, I had a telephone conversation with Diane. She seemed very excited about the increased display space that NARA will have in the Customs House and explained the need to reduce the research collection because there will not be room. She also mentioned that the lower number of patrons using NARA these days justified the scaling down of the research facility. She did not seem to be concerned about the need many of us have for certification of records for legal matters, or that the microfilm and original textual records were still necessary even though there is much online. She was quite proud to tell me that NARA-Waltham had given all of its “non-regional” microfilm to a library in Plano, Texas. Guess who got the better deal there! Ironically, while New York City is scaling down, the Waltham facility is being expanded!!
I do not think I need to state the obvious to all you seasoned and knowledgeable researchers about the huge loss to us if all the plans noted above are correct and go through. I know I use microfilm of the Federal Census at least once a week in order find what I cannot online or clarify what I do find online, one problem being the annotations that obscure names on the 1900 Census. This is but one example. I am sure you have all found census pages missed by Ancestry, Heritage Quest, Footnote, or “front material” and other pieces not scanned from the microfilm that someone evidently decided we did not need. Sorry! One more example: What about the original ships’ passenger lists, especially the ones where the often abbreviated copy is what is on the NARA film? What will become of these?
Who in Pittsfield will make “my” kind of decision about the best copy to be certified for the court? In the always-tight time breathing down our necks for court cases, what will Pittsfield’s turn-around time be? Will there be added costs since we can no longer get the certifications locally? Will Pittsfield staff make “groupings” of certified records that we often get here to hold down costs?
Personally, while I have enjoyed many of the exhibits at NARA-NYC, I rarely see anyone coming to specifically look at them, and even those who come to do research seem not to pause for a few minutes of viewing.
And it has always been my understanding that one of the great things about our National Archives is its wealth of material for scholarly research. Yes, personal visits are down, but we all know what the majority of those who rely strictly on the magic box are missing. And I do not see much effort by NARA to help educate the unwashed about what is there that cannot be found online.
I very much admire the position of Kathleen Roe, New York State Archives’ Director of Operations. At a meeting there last year, she told our advisory committee something like, “I know financing for archives is tight, but our mandate is to serve the public, and we must make every effort to continue to do so.”
The very upsetting plan seems analogous to a library tossing certain books because no one has taken them off the shelves over the last couple of years.
So, who wants to organize the car-pooling to Pittsfield and Philadelphia? No? Then we should organize a group effort to let our concerns be known. Genealogists have been successful in the past in changing the direction of bad thinking at NARA. Some examples come to mind: When President Reagan proposed John T. Agresto as Archivist of the United States and the genealogical and historical communities formed a loud “No!” to the inappropriateness of the candidate- and when Archivist John Carlin planned to ship huge amounts of NARA material from the regions to cold storage (and some of you were on hand to give your two-cents when he came to New York City). Another example is the great effort genealogists lent to getting NARA away from GSA’s thumb.
Are there others out there, including folks you know in the historical community, whom we should encourage to get involved?
I know after the G&B mess, many of you may not want to devote the time and energy it may take to make a difference, but I look forward to hearing from those who are concerned and want to be involved. Then we can plan something together.
Roger
The University of Rochester has announced a two-day conference on April 16 and 17, 2010 to celebrate the launching of a new book series by the University of Rochester Press, “Gender and Race in American History.” The Conference is free and open to the public. The conference organizers include Carol Faulkner (of Syracuse University), Alison M. Parker (of The College at Brockport, SUNY), and Victoria Wolcott (of the University of Rochester).
Featured Speakers will include:
Deborah Gray White (Rutgers University), “What Women Want: The Racial Paradoxes of Post-Modernity.”
Michelle Mitchell (New York University), title TBA
Meredith Clark-Wiltz, Ph.D. Candidate, History Department, Ohio State University, “Persecuting Black Men, Gendering Jury Service: The Interplay between Race and Gender in the NAACP Jury Service Cases of the 1930s.”
Kendra Taira Field, Assistant Professor, U.C. Riverside, “‘-You mean Grandma Brown. Grandpa Brown didn’t have no land.’ Race, Gender, and An Intruder of Color in Indian Territory.”
Rashauna Johnson, Ph.D. Candidate, History Department, NYU, “‘-Laissez les bon temps rouler!’ and Other Concealments: Households, Taverns, and Irregular Intimacies in Antebellum New Orleans.”
Michelle Kuhl, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, “Countable Bodies, Uncountable Crimes: Sexual Assault and the Anti-Lynching Movement.”
Vivian May, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University, “Historicizing intersectionality as Theory and Method: Returning to the Work of Anna Julia Cooper.”
Helene Quanquin, Associate Professor, University of Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle, “‘-There are Two Great Oceans’: The Slavery Metaphor in the Antebellum Women’s Rights Movement as ‘-redescription’ of Race and Gender.”
For more information visit:
http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/index.php?history&events