A Survey of Oral Histories in Local Repositories

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Historical societies, especially small ones, often fall off the radar when librarians compile collection information, even though most of our cultural heritage is collected and kept in these small repositories. Personal accounts in the form of recorded oral histories are one of the most valuable, and also the most vulnerable of these precious local documents.

Librarian and oral historian Nancy MacKay (San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science), is currently conducting a survey on the state of oral histories in repositories. She is especially interested in reaching historical societies and cultural centers. The results of the survey will be made available as widely as possible.

If your organization contains oral histories, please contribute information about your organization online. The survey should take 15-20 minutes. More information about the survey can be found on the survey information page. The Survey deadline is March 30. For more information contact Nancy MacKay or Emily Vigor at [email protected].

WWII NY National Guard Records Go Online

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When 28,969 New York National Guard Soldiers mobilized in the fall of 1940 as the United States prepared for war, clerks filled out six-by-four inch cards on each man.

Now, thanks to a team of 15 volunteers, those records&#8211listing names, serial number, home, and unit, and later on annotated with hand written notes on whether or not the Soldier was killed or wounded&#8211 are available online from the New York State Military Museum.

&#8220I’ll bet you that we are the only state that has such an item on the web,&#8221 said retired Army Col. John Kennedy, one of the volunteers who turned the index card information into digital data.

Kennedy, a World War II veteran himself, and the other volunteers spent a year keying the information on the cards into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The digital information is now available on the museum’s website and can be downloaded and searched.

The museum put this information online so it can be used by people researching their family history or the history of World War II and New York’s role in it, said Jim Gandy, the assistant librarian and archivist at the museum.

&#8220Not only can you research a specific individual but you can also research who enlisted from what town- where men in the New York National Guard were born, or how old the average age of the men was. We indexed most data points on the cards including: date, city, state and country of birth- ID number- hometown, unit- rank- as well as enlistment and separation dates&#8221, Gandy explained.

In September 1940-a few months after France was overrun and defeated by the German Army and the British were fighting for survival in the air-the United States had an Army of 269,000 men. The German Army, meanwhile, had 2.5 million.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Congress to call up the 300,000 men in the National Guard for a year to double the size of the nation’s Army and prepare for any German threat.

On Oct. 15, 1940 the 28,969 members of the New York National Guard, including the entire 27th Division, reported to their armories to begin processing for a year of active duty. This is the data now available from the museum website.

For the 90-year old Kennedy, who keyed in the data on 6,500 Soldiers, the task brought back memories of his own World War II service. A Cohoes native, he joined the Army Reserve in 1940, transferred to the New York National Guard in 1941 and went to war in Europe in 1944 with the 8th Infantry Division.

He recognized the names of many of the 108 Soldiers on the list who cited Cohoes as their hometown because he had grown up with them, Kennedy said.

Kennedy, who now lives in Florida and served in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard until retiring in 1981, volunteered to help with Gandy’s project because he’s made the history of World War II and the role of New York’s units in it his hobby.

Bruce Scott, an Albany resident and another volunteer who keyed in the data, got involved in the project because he wanted to do something from his home that would be useful to others.

Scott, Kennedy and the other volunteers were critical, Gandy said. Without their work this kind of project would be impossible for the museum to carry out.

Eventually the Soldiers of the 27th Infantry Division who were called for training in the fall of 1940 went on to serve in the Pacific, securing Hawaii from a feared Japanese invasion in February 1942, invading Makin Atoll and the Island of Saipan, and eventually fighting on Okinawa. Other New York National Guard Soldiers called up in 1940 served in rear area security duty and fought in Europe.

The museum’s next web project is to create an index of which battles New York’s Civil War Regiments fought in, Gandy said. The data base will make it easier for historians to determine which regiments fought in which battles and the losses that were sustained in each fight. If anyone would like to volunteer, they may contact the museum at 518-581-5100, Gandy said.

The index card database can be found on the museum website.

Photo: A typical index card of a New York Army National Guardsman. Each card was 6 inches wide and 4 inches high.

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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New-York Historical Announces Fellowships

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The New-York Historical Society has announced five fellowship recipients for the 2012-2013 academic year. New-York Historical offers fellowships to scholars dedicated to understanding and promoting American history. Basing their work on New-York Historical’s museum and library collections of more than 350,000 books, three million manuscripts, and collections of maps, photographs, prints, art objects and ephemera documenting the history of America from the perspective of New York, these scholars extend and enrich their previous work to develop new publications that illuminate complex issues of the past.

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow

Kevin Butterfield, currently Assistant Professor of Classics and Letters at the University of Oklahoma, is the 2012-2013 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow. Butterfield received a Ph.D. in History in 2010 from Washington University in St. Louis. He is an active member of his profession who has published articles and reviews in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and Common-Place, as well as the New York Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has been a Gilder Lehrman Fellow at the New-York Historical Society (2006) and has won numerous fellowships and awards. His research project, an expansion of his dissertation, is entitled “Membership in America: Law and Voluntary Association in the Early Republic.”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowships

Andrew C. Lipman, Assistant Professor of History, Syracuse University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, in 2010. Lipman, who will develop his dissertation, “The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Colonization of Long Island Sound,” while in residence, has also published in the journals William and Mary Quarterly and Early American Studies. An experienced tour guide in Philadelphia, he has also reviewed books for scholarly journals and taken part in professional activities in his field.

Robin Cheyne Vandome is currently a Lecturer in American Intellectual and Cultural History in the Department of American and Canadian Studies, the University of Nottingham, U.K. He received a Ph.D. in the Faculty of History, Cambridge University in 2005 and has been a doctoral exchange student the Boston University. His 2012-2013 project at the New-York Historical Society will be the conversion of his dissertation into a book manuscript, provisionally entitled The Romance of Knowledge: American Endeavors in the Natural and Human Sciences, 1850-1900. An intellectual history of the development of attitudes toward science in the late nineteenth century, the work will draw on the resources of the New-York Historical Society’s Patricia D. Klingenstein Library in a variety of fields.

Bernard & Irene Schwartz Fellowships

Dael A. Norwood, Ph.D. Candidate in History, Princeton University, expects his degree in the spring of 2012. His dissertation, “Trading in Liberty: The Politics of the American China Trade, c. 1784-1862” investigates the relationship between trade with China and its impact on the politics of slavery, states’ rights, commerce and global relations. His work at the New-York Historical Society will draw heavily on the resources of the Naval History Society collection and the papers of Gustavus Fox, as well as family papers, logbooks, correspondence, and printed materials from the early nineteenth-century. Mr. Norwood has made many scholarly presentations and comes with strong recommendations from his dissertation advisers.

Catherine McNeur expects to receive her Ph.D. from Yale University in the summer of 2012. Her background in urban design and architecture studies, the subject of her undergraduate major at New York University has contributed to her current work, “The ‘Swinish Multitude’ and Fashionable Promenades: Battles over Public Space in New York City, 1815-1865.” By exploring how the struggle to define public spaces in the city during a period of rapid expansion affected the lives and livelihoods of New Yorkers, McNeur hopes to demonstrate how the decisions made during these years had an impact on subsequent urban planning and city life. Her work will draw on the resources of the Children’s Aid Society, the papers of John Randel, Jr., and documents relating to the development of the Croton Aqueduct and Central Park as well as related materials. McNeur has published in the Journal of Urban History, Louisiana History, and Common-place and has acted as a teaching fellow at Yale.

Fellowship positions at the New-York Historical Society are made possible by the generous support of Bernard & Irene Schwartz, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. All fellows receive research stipends while in residency- Bernard & Irene Schwartz Fellows each teach two courses at The New School during their year as resident scholars.

Peter Feinman: OPRHP and NYS Cultural Heritage

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The ongoing look at the history infrastructure in New York State continues here with the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). Within this overall department, Historic Preservation defines itself quite rightly as &#8220an important economic catalyst for New York State,&#8221 although the validity of this assertion often is overlooked by the powers that be. Read more →

Iroquois Beadwork at the Art of Flowering Talk

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The Adirondack Museum’s fifth 2012 Cabin Fever Sunday series program, &#8220Inventing Fashion: Iroquois Beadwork at the &#8216-Art of Flowering’&#8221 will be held on Sunday, March 18, 2012. The event will be offered free of charge.

In the mid-19th century, New York State officials began to collect Iroquois material culture, intending to preserve remnants of what they saw as a vanishing race. At the same time, Iroquois women were discovering that their beadwork was appealing to the fashionable Victorian women flocking to Niagara Falls and Saratoga Springs on the Grand Tour of America.

This multimedia presentation by Dr. Deborah Holler traces the historic development of Iroquois beadwork and costume, which came to define the public image of &#8220Indian-ness&#8221 around the world. Images are drawn from the collections of the Lewis Henry Morgan and Rochester museums, as well as private collections. These images also illuminate the contributions of the Iroquois to the textile arts, as well as the complex cultural exchange that defined the fashions of 19th century New York State.

Dr. Deborah Holler is a Lecturer and Mentor at Empire State College and teaches in Cultural Studies, Literature and the Arts. Her articles and creative writing have been published in regional and national magazines as well as academic journals. She has presented her lectures at national and international conferences, historical societies, and cultural events throughout New York State and is currently working on projects concerning the life and times of 19th century Seneca Caroline G. Parker Mountpleasant.

This program will be held at the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts at Blue Mountain Lake, and will begin at 1:30 p.m. For additional information, call (518) 352-7311, ext. 128 or visit www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Photo: Pincushion, typical of souvenir made for tourists by Eastern woodland Indians. From the collection of the Adirondack Museum.

Irish American Museum Presents Erie Canal Exhibit

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The Irish American Heritage Museum presents its newest exhibit “The Irish and the Erie Canal” at its new galleries at 370 Broadway in Albany. The new exhibit, wholly developed by its staff and volunteers, is open to the public from Wednesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

“In keeping with our mission of education, ‘The Irish and the Erie Canal’ reveals the historical contributions of the Irish to the planning, designing, engineering, funding and construction of the famed achievement that transformed early America, and in particular New York City, into a world economic power, linking the Great Lakes and the interior of the young nation to the Atlantic Ocean,” stated Ed Collins, Chair of the Museum’s Board Of Trustees.

“Our exhibit expands the common perception that the Irish were limited to only the actual construction of the canal,” Mr. Collins further stated. “The Irish were involved from start to finish, from originally proposing the concept a hundred years before a shovel was even put into the ground, to the routing, to its design, to securing support from elected officials, to the elected officials themselves, to its construction and finally to its navigation and transportation services once it opened.”

“The Irish and the Erie Canal” was researched, written and composed by James Zibro, a Cohoes, NY, resident of Irish descent who is completing his PhD at Catholic University in Washington D.C. after earning Masters degrees in both American History and Irish Studies at the same university and a dual Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree at Union College, Schenectady, NY. Museum Director Krisy O’Connor produced the exhibit and Museum volunteer Adele O’Connell served as the exhibit’s editor.

The suggested donations for admission are: $3 adults, $2 seniors and free for children 14 years of age and younger. Museum Memberships are also available upon entry. Donations and memberships help fund the Museum’s educational programs.

The Museum is unique in the United States, where almost 40 million people claim Irish ancestry. The Museum is committed to the tenet that preserving one’s heritage is vital to providing a cultural and historical foundation to future generations of Americans.

The Irish American Heritage Museum was created by New York State Legislation in 1986 and permanently chartered by the New York State Education Department in 1992 as a 501c3 non-profit educational institution. The Museum’s mission is to preserve and tell the story of the contributions of the Irish people and their culture in America, inspiring individuals to examine the importance of their own heritage as part of the American cultural mosaic.

New Contributor: Drew Alberti of Lakes to Locks

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Please join us in welcoming our newest contributor, Andrew (Drew) Alberti of Lakes to Locks Passage. Drew is a graduate of the University at Albany with a BA in European History, and a MA in Public History. His previous experience includes Collections Management at the New York State Museum, and Park Ranger at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. Drew has been Program Manager for Lakes to Locks Passage since 2008 where he focuses on 21st century technology applications and local and regional interpretation and planning. Drew is co-author of From Forest to Fields: A History of Agriculture in New York’s Champlain Valley, and is editor for the Lakes to Locks Passage and National Geographic Geotourism website.

Teresa Mitchell Posthumously Recognized Nationally

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On Saturday, March 17, at 10:30am, National Scenic Byway Foundation will name the late Teresa Mitchell as the first recipient of the National Scenic Byway Foundation’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. The presentation will be made in the third floor ballroom exhibit area of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center at 401 W. Main Street in Sackets Harbor, NY.

Deborah Divine, Co-Executive Director of the National Scenic Byway Foundation (NSBF), will visit Sackets Harbor from Salina, Kansas, to present the inaugural award to Teresa’s family: her husband Joel, daughter Marcy, and son Michael.

Future recipients of the award will receive the National Scenic Byway Foundation Teresa Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award.

Teresa earned this honor with a lifetime of service to New York state’s tourism industry and promoting the concept of byways as an American touring tradition and as a vital economic engine for local, state and national economies.

As President and CEO of Seaway Trail, Teresa guided the Great Lakes Seaway Trail to become America’s leading model of byway development. She served from 2005-2010 as the inaugural Chairperson of the NSBF that she helped form in 2005 on behalf of all of America’s Byways nationwide.

In addition to Deborah Divine, speakers at the award ceremony will include Seaway Trail Foundation Chair Alexander “Pope” Vickers, a hospitality and tourism professor at Jefferson Community College, Watertown, NY- Seaway Trail, Inc. Chair John Hall of Cannon Design, Grand Island, NY- and Teresa’s longtime colleague Greg Marshall, Senior Vice-President of VisitRochester, Rochester, NY.

The presentation is part of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail War of 1812 Bicentennial Quilt Show, developed by Teresa Mitchell as a cultural heritage tourism event promoting travel the length of the 518-mile National Scenic Byway in NY and PA. A collection of Teresa’s own quilts will provide a speakers’ backdrop.

The annual event has expanded this year to include three early 19th-century historic venues in the village of Sackets Harbor and costumed living history interpreters. Along with 1812 period-correct quilts from 18 U.S. states and across Canada, there will be a vintage reproduction sewing implement exhibit, demonstrations and vendors. The event is co-sponsored by Orleans County Tourism and the Country Barn Quilt Trail loop off the Seaway Trail starting at Kendall, NY. Learn more about the Great Lakes Seaway Trail at www.seawaytrail.com.