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.

Researching New York 2009: 400 Years of Exploration

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The annual Researching New York Conference, entitled 400 Years of Exploration: The Hudson &#8211 Champlain Corridor and Beyond, will take place today and tomorrow (November 19th and 20th). What follows is the conferences free and open to the public featured events, and even those who cannot attend the conference will find the Thursday evening sessions at the State Museum, as well as the Friday plenary session, interesting. Both those events are free and open to the public.

The full conference program is available in the History Department and at http://nystatehistory.org/researchny/rsny.html. Questions may be directed to [email protected]. UAlbany student/faculty registration for the entire conference and the lunch is $20.00.

Thursday, November 19 (at the State Museum)

4:00-5:00 pm:

Library Manuscripts and Special Collections/Archives Open House, 11th Floor

The New York State Archives, www.archives.nysed.gov, and the New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssdesc.htm, share the 11th floor of the Cultural Education Center. Examples from both collections will be on
display- staff from both institutions will be available to give overviews of their collections and answer questions. Limited to 30 people, registration requested. Call (518) 408-1916 to reserve a spot. Walk-ins are welcome if space is available.

State Library Workshop, 7th Floor Computer Classroom

Library staff will demonstrate navigating the Library’s website, http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/research.htm, including the services and electronic resources available to researchers. Sheldon Wein and Cara Janowsky will also demonstrate how to find and access items in the Library’s digital collections. Limited to 19 people, registration requested. Call (518) 474-2274 to reserve a spot. Walk-ins are welcome if space is available.

5:00-6:00 &#8211 Gallery Talks

The scholars and museum professionals who were integral in the creation of these exhibits will lead talks in the respective galleries.

&#82201609&#8243- &#8211 Charles Gehring, The New Netherland Project, New York State Library

&#8220Through the Eyes of Others&#8221: African Americans & Identity in American Art &#8211 Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, Cooperstown Graduate Program

&#8220This Great Nation Will Endure:&#8221 Photographs of the Great Depression &#8211 Herman R. Eberhardt, Supervisory Museum Curator, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

7:00 PM &#8211 LECTURE

The Future of History in the Empire State &#8211 Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University

Kenneth T. Jackson is one of the country’s leading scholars in American history. Currently the Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences and Director of the Herbert Lehman Center at Columbia University, Jackson has for years championed the importance and excitement of New York State history. His influential 2006 essay &#8220But It Was in New York: The Empire State and the Making of America&#8221 challenged historians to convince their &#8220fellow citizens that today’s America took shape in yesterday’s New York.&#8221 Expanding on that theme, Professor Jackson will examine subsequent events&#8211including the Hudson-Champlain Quadricentennial, planning for the New York State Museum’s proposed permanent exhibition on state history, the creation of
the New York Academy of History, new public school curricula, and more-as he challenges us to look to the future of New York’s history.

The discussion will be moderated by Jeffrey Cannell, Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education, New York State Department of Education.

Friday, November 20

12:00 LUNCH/KEYNOTE, Campus Center Ballroom **

&#8220Seeing with Explorers’ Eyes and Finding the Wild in the Hudson Valley&#8221 &#8211 David Stradling, University of Cincinnati

(** NOTE: For those who would like to hear Stradling, but not registering for lunch, seating available at 12:30 PM.)

For 400 years European and American explorers &#8211 from Henry Hudson to modern urban tourists &#8211 have traveled through the Hudson Valley. Stradling examines how the perceptions of these explorers have influenced public policy, especially preservation and conservation, in an attempt to explain why this heavily populated region still appears to be so wild. His publications include Making Mountains: New York City and the Catskills and Smokestacks and Progressives: Environmentalists, Engineers, and Air Quality in America, 1881-1951.

3:30 PM CLOSING PLENARY

The Tappan Zee Bridge: Transforming Rockland County

The Tappan Zee Bridge: Transforming Rockland County chronicles the dramatic changes that the Tappan Zee Bridge brought to Rockland County, transforming a quiet, rural farming community to a sophisticated New York City suburb. It tells the story of the bridge, through rare photographs, drawings, blueprints, and oral histories from workers- those who were relocated, or otherwise affected by the construction of
the bridge and the NYS Thruway extension. Funded in part with a &#8220Preserve America&#8221 grant from the Federal Parks Service in partnership with the County of Rockland, and Rockland County Tourism, the film is a part of the larger Tappan Zee Project of the Historical Society of Rockland County, which also includes teacher’s guide, museum exhibition, and companion book.

Completed in 1955, this three-mile link between New York’s Westchester and Rockland Counties was a response to the post-war housing shortage, our national love affair with the automobile, and the power of the American dream. A replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridges in the planning stage, making it imperative that we preserve the tumultuous
story of this historic bridge and how it brought both immigration and heritage tourism to Rockland County-and is part of the larger story of suburbanization in America. The Project also offers a window into the value of local historical collections, innovative public history projects, and ways to tell stories from the archives.

Annmarie Lanesey, MZA Multimedia, Troy, NY Gretchen Weerheim, The
Historical Society of Rockland County

Comment: Sheila Curran Bernard, University at Albany, SUNY

Research Fellowship in Museum Anthropology

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The Bard Graduate Center and the American Museum of Natural History announce a Research Fellowship in Museum Anthropology. The fellowship provides support to a postdoctoral investigator to carry out a specific project over a two-year period. The program is designed to advance the training of the participant by having her/him pursue a project in association with a curator in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The Fellow will also be expected to teach one graduate-level course per year at the Bard Graduate Center (BGC). The Fellow will thus be in joint residence at BGC and AMNH. The fellowship includes free housing.

A major purpose of the BGC-AMNH Research Fellowship in Museum Anthropology is to promote mutual scholarly interest and interaction among fellows, BGC faculty and students, and AMNH staff members. Candidates for Research Fellow are judged primarily on their research abilities and experience, and on the merits and scope of the proposed research.

Candidates with a research interest in the History of Collecting for Anthropology Museums are especially encouraged to apply for the 2010-12 fellowship. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop a research program drawing from the Asian Ethnographic Collections at the AMNH. We wish to encourage scholarly investigation of how objects move from the sacred and particular to the market, and of the collecting process and the role of collectors, whether scholars, missionaries or dealers.

Application Procedures: Interested researchers should send a statement of research accomplishments and intentions, curriculum vitae including list of publications, and three letters of recommendation to Research Fellowship Competition, Bard Graduate Center, 18 W.86th Street, New York NY 10024, USA. Research Fellowship applications must be postmarked by December 15. At this time, applications are not accepted by fax or e-mail.

Mapping New Yorks Shoreline, 1609-2009

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A New York Public Library exhibit will look at the history of New York City’s shoreline. The exhibit, entitled Mapping New York’s Shoreline, 1609-2009, will run until June 26, 2010 at the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall (First Floor) of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.

September 2009 marks 400 years since Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and up the Hudson River, almost to what is now Albany, performing detailed reconnaissance of the Hudson Valley region. Other explorers passed by the outwardly hidden harbor, but did not linger long enough to fully realize the commercial, nautical, strategic, or colonial value of the region.

Once the explorers returned to Europe, their strategic information was passed on to authorities. Some data was kept secret, but much was handed over to map makers, engraved on copper, printed on handmade paper, distributed to individuals and coffee-houses (the news centers of the day), and pored over by dreamers, investors, and potential settlers in the “new land.”

Mapping New York’s Shoreline celebrates the Dutch accomplishments in the New York City region, especially along the waterways forming its urban watershed, from the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound to the North (or Hudson) River and the South (or Delaware) River. Inspired by The New York Public Library’s collection of Dutch, English, and early American mapping of the Atlantic Coastal regions, this exhibition exemplifies the best early and growing knowledge of the unknown shores along our neighboring rivers, bays, sounds, and harbors.

From the earliest mapping reflecting Verazzano’s brief visit to gloriously decorative Dutch charting of the Atlantic and New Netherland, illustrating their knowledge of the trading opportunity Hudson’s exploration revealed, the antiquarian maps tell the story from a centuries-old perspective. We are brought up to date with maps and text exploring growing environmental concern for this harbor, and the river that continuously enriches it. From paper maps to vapor maps, those created with computer technology, the story of New York Harbor in its 400th year is told.

Mapping New York’s Shoreline features maps, atlases, books, journals, broadsides, manuscripts, prints, and photographs, drawn primarily from the Library’s Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, augmented by items from other New York Public Library collections.

CFP: Farmingdale State College Borders Conference

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The intriguing concept of borders involves discussions of identity, nationality, ethnicity, hybridity, and community. The Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at Farmingdale State College/ SUNY announces a one-day interdisciplinary conference exploring the nature of borders on October 16, 2010 on its campus.

Organizers are especially interested in papers exploring “self” and the “other,” imagined geographic communities, the ways in which border communities police, shun, or integrate &#8220outsider” influences, cultural creolisms, the borders between scientific facts and science fiction, the boundaries between literary fiction and memoir, the fluid political, economic, and cultural borders in the contemporary world, technology’s role in building up or tearing down borders, and in presentations which focus on the voices of those living in these liminal spaces.

They are also interested in the ongoing dissolution of institutional and structural borders in academia. The natural sciences and mathematics now merge at &#8220fuzzy borders,&#8221 while the humanities and social sciences are merging through the proliferation of interdisciplinary programs. The borders surrounding higher education itself are being impacted by the changing role of higher education in society. Who defines our borders?

These are just some of the areas that we hope the conference will address.
To participate send a 500 word abstract or proposal by May 3, 2010 to: Dr. Tony Giffone
[email protected]

NYS Library Awards 2009 Residencies, Invites Applications

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The New York State Library has announced the recipients of the 2009 Research Residency grants for research in New York State history. In addition, researchers interested in conducting original research at the New York State Library may now apply for the 2010 program, which will include four Cunningham residencies of $1,000 and at least one Quinn fellowship of $2,500.

The New York State Library has awarded six grants for research in New York State history in 2009 through the Anna K. and Mary E. Cunningham Research Residency Program in New York State History and Culture.

Four grants were awarded through funds provided by a trust fund endowment created by a bequest from the estate of Anna K. Cunningham. The Cunningham fund was established in 1997 to benefit scholars using the unique collections of the New York State Library to study the history of New York. The funds celebrate the sisters’ lifelong interest in the study of New York State history.

Anna Cunningham (1906-1996) was Supervisor of Historic Sites of New York State, as well as serving on the boards and councils of many state and national historic preservation organizations.

Mary Cunningham (1917-1986), whose personal papers are among the collections of the State Library, held various executive positions in the New York State Historical Association, was a founder and the first editor of American Heritage magazine, and was a founder of the Yorkers program for teaching and involving young New Yorkers in the State’s history.

Through generous support from the Doris Quinn Foundation, the New Netherland Institute and the New York State Library made two additional special Cunningham grants of $2500 each for specialized research in Dutch-related documents and printed materials at the New York State Library.

2009 Recipients

Grant recipients in the 2009 Anna K. and Mary E. Cunningham Research Residency Program in New York State History and Culture are:

Nancy Siegel
Associate Professor of Art History
Towson University
Carlisle, PA
Project title: To elevate the mind: female instruction, women artists and the Hudson River School.

Margaret Lasch Carroll
Asst. Professor of English
Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
Project title: Influence of 19th century Bishop John McCloskey and 20th century Gov. Martin Glynn on the Irish ethnicity and Attitudes of Albany, NY.

Robert Chiles
University of Maryland
Project title: The gubernatorial administration of Alfred E. Smith and its importance to U.S. political development In the years preceding the New Deal.

Susan Ingalls Lewis
SUNY New Paltz
Project title: Research for a college text book on the history of New York State.

The 2009 Cunningham-Quinn fellows are:

Kim Todt
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
Project title: Transformation of the Mercantilist system from 1630 through 1790 in New Netherland and Colonial New York.

Andrea Mosterman
Boston University
Project title: Sharing Spaces in a new world environment: African-Dutch contributions to North American Culture.

Four Cunningham residencies and one Cunningham-Quinn residency are awarded annually by the New York State Library. A second Cunningham-Quinn residency was awarded for 2009 to mark the 400th anniversary of the Dutch era in American colonial history.
2010 Applications

Academic and public historians, graduate students, independent researchers, writers, and primary and secondary school teachers are invited to submit applications for the 2010 Cunningham and Cunningham-Quinn residencies. Applicants must conduct original research at the New York State Library.

Four Cunningham residencies of $1,000—and at least one Quinn fellowship—will be awarded in 2010. Applications must be postmarked by January 29, 2010. A panel of scholars and library staff will review proposals. The panel’s decisions will be announced by April 2, 2010.

Applications and information on how to apply for the 2010 Cunningham and Cunningham-Quinn research residencies can be found here: http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/researchres.htm

Jews In New Amsterdam Lecture November 30th

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In celebration of the new exhibit on the roots of religious freedom in America, The Flushing Remonstrance: Who Shall Plead For Us?, written & curated by Susan Kathryn Hefti, the John L. Loeb, Jr. Foundation has generously sponsored a very exciting companion lecture entitled &#8220Jews in New Amsterdam&#8221 by Dr. Gary Zola, Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives and Professor of The American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, in conjunction with the Museum of the City of New York, Monday, November 30, 2009 at 6:30pm. (1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street NYC).

Seating for the lecture is limited. So if you wish to attend Jews in New Amsterdam, please RSVP at your earliest convenience.

For a Special $6 Members Rate simply call MCNY at 917.492.3395 and mention &#8220The Flushing Remonstrance&#8221 when making your reservation.

Photo: The Flushing Remonstrance, written in 1657, recognized as the earliest political assertion of freedom of conscience and religion in New York State.

Dutch Influence: Cookies, Coleslaw and Stoops

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To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Dutch arrival off the coast of Manhattan, the renowned linguist Nicoline van der Sijs along with Amsterdam University Press have published Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages.

From Santa Claus (after the Dutch folklore saint Sinterklaas) and his sleigh (the pronunciation of the Dutch slee is almost identical) to a dumbhead talking poppycock, the contributions of the Dutch language to American English are indelibly embedded in some of our most vernacular terms and expressions. This fascinating volume charts over 250 Dutch loan words that journeyed over the Atlantic on Henry Hudson’s ship the Halve Maan and into the American territory and languages. Each entry marks the original arrival of a particular term to American English and offers information on its evolving meaning, etymology, and regional spread.

American Antiquarian Society Academic Fellowships

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The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) invites applications for its 2010-11 visiting academic fellowships. At least three AAS-National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships will be awarded for periods extending from four to twelve months. Long-term fellowships are intended for scholars beyond the doctorate- senior and mid-career scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. Over thirty short-term fellowships will be awarded for one to three months. The short-term grants are available for scholars holding the Ph.D. and for doctoral candidates engaged in dissertation research, and offer a stipend of $1850/month.

Special short-term fellowships support scholars working in the history of the book in American culture, in the American eighteenth century, and in American literary studies, as well as in studies that draw upon the Society’s preeminent collections of graphic arts, newspapers, and periodicals. Accommodations are available for visiting fellows in housing owned by AAS.

The deadline for applications is January 15, 2010.

For further details about the fellowships, as well as application materials, consult their website at http://www.americanantiquarian.org/fellowships.htm.

The AAS is a research library whose collections focus on American history, literature, and culture from the colonial era through 1876. The Society’s collections are national in scope, and include manuscripts, printed works of all kinds, newspapers and periodicals, photographs, lithographs, broadsides, sheet music, children’s literature, maps, games, and a wide range of ephemera. In addition to the United States, they have extensive holdings related to Canada and the British West Indies. As such, their collections offer ideal resources for research in the history of the Atlantic World.

For detailed descriptions of the collections, please consult our guidebook, Under Its Generous Dome, available online at http://www.americanantiquarian.org/collections.htm

Books: Adirondack, Lumber Capital of The World

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As you might expect, my desk-side book shelves are heavily burdened with Adirondack books. Guides to hiking, climbing, wildlife, forestry- books of photography, sit beside fiction and various technical reports &#8211 all here within easy reach. Most are history &#8211 general histories, political histories, environmental and cultural histories, books on logging, tanning, prohibition, Native Americans, county histories. Recently I received a tidy volume on Adirondack logging history that focuses on Warren County, Phillip J. Harris’s Adirondack, Lumber Capital of the World, which seems to have drawn from them all to good effect.

Harris’s book takes on, with incredible detail, the people and places that made the southeastern Adirondacks unique in the history of the American lumber industry. In 1850, New York produced more lumber &#8211 about a billion board feet a year from around a half million trees &#8211 than any other state in the nation. Southern Warren County was where much of the lumber was milled and where the Adirondack lumber barons reigned. Their names, James Morgan, William, Norman and Alison Fox, Jones Ordway, James Caldwell, John Thurman, Samuel Prime, Henry Crandall, Zenus VanDusen, Jeremiah and Daniel Finch, Augustus Sherman, George Freeman, William McEchron, are found scattered through the county’s history books &#8211 until now.

Harris’s book takes on the large and small, from the first pioneers and their patents, to the lumber camps, jobbers, log drives, log marks, and sawmills. The Delaware and Hudson Railroad is featured in one chapter, the Fort William Henry Hotel in another. In 1865 there were some 4,000 sawmills in New York State, one hundred years later there were fewer the 200 &#8211 today, maybe fewer then 50. One of the bigger contributions Harris makes to the history of the Adirondack lumber industry is in explaining how that came to pass.