How important is “public history?”
The essay on public history in the newly published second edition of the Encyclopedia of Local History, provides some fresh insights. The Encyclopedia, edited by Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen, a long-time leader in the field, and Amy H. Wilson, an independent museum consultant and former director of the Chemung County Historical Society in Elmira, is a rich source of fresh insights on all aspects of local history. Read more
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To celebrate the National Day on Writing, October 20, THV invites students to write about places they love in the Hudson River Valley. With “Writing about Place,” THV joins the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Writing Project, and others to encourage
our desire to write.
The “Writing about Place” contest is open to K-12 students who live and/or attend school in the 11-county Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area. Elementary students may submit poems in any style. Secondary students are invited to write essays or other creative nonfiction- middle school submissions may be up to 500 words and high school writing up to 750 words.
All writing will be considered for publication on THV’s blog and will be shared with staff at the place written about. Samples from last year include a story called Lost in Muscoot, poetry, and an essay about the Sloop Clearwater called Tug of War.
Three students–one each from an elementary, middle, and high school–will receive up to $750 to help cover the cost of visiting the place they love with classmates. Additional prizes are offered by the contest’s cosponsors: Cary Institute, Hancock Shaker Village, Hudson River Recreation, John Jay Homestead, New Castle Historical Society, Olana State Historic Site,
Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Scenic Hudson, and the Sloop Clearwater.
Student work will be read by teachers, site staff, THV’s coordinator, and representatives of NYS DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program, Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, and the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College. Readers will look for evocation of place, a
vivacious voice, and use of conventions appropriate to each student’s age and development.
Writing must be received by October 31. Word documents or PDFs, along with signed submission forms, should be e-mailed to [email protected]. More information about the “Writing about Place” contest, including the submission form, is available online.
Teaching the Hudson Valley (THV) and the Albany Institute of History & Art invite teachers, 4H and scout leaders, home schoolers, PTA activists, and others working with children and teens to drop in for a free place-based education resource fair at the Albany Institute between 3:30 and 5 p.m., Tuesday, October 16.
Erika Sanger, education director at the Albany Institute pointed out that, “Many educators are familiar with field trips offered by local museums, historical societies and sites, parks, and environmental groups in our region. Less familiar are the wealth of artifacts and primary sources, staff expertise, traveling trunks, in-school programs, and other resources sites are eager to share.”
Superintendent Sarah Olson, of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, added, “This is a great way to connect teachers and others with place-based resources in their own backyards.”
The fair is designed to give educators from sites in the Capital area an opportunity to talk with teachers and youth group leaders one-on one and describe what they have to offer. At the same time, teachers and others will be able to explain what would be helpful to them and their students.
Light refreshments will be served and there will be poster giveaways. While the event is free, interested parties are asked to RSVP to [email protected] or 845-229-9116, ext. 2035, with their name and school or organization.
The fair is made possible, in part, by the Hudson River foundation, www.HudsonRiver.org.
The Archives Partnership Trust and the New York State Archives have announced the availability of awards for applicants to pursue research using the New York State Archives.
The Larry J. Hackman Research Residency program is intended to support product-related research in such areas as history, law, public policy, geography, and culture by covering research expenses. Award amounts range from $100 to $4,500. The deadline for receipt of application materials is January 15, 2013.
Academic and public historians, graduate students, independent researchers and writers, and primary and secondary school teachers are encouraged to apply. Projects involving alternative uses of the State Archives, such as background research for multimedia projects, exhibits, documentary films, and historical novels, are eligible. The topic or area of study must draw, at least in part, on the holdings of the New York State Archives.
Information on the 2013 Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program is available on-line at www.nysarchivestrust.org or by contacting the Archives Partnership Trust, Cultural Education Center, Suite 9C49, Albany, New York 12230- (518) 473-7091- [email protected].
John Brown Lives! and North Country Community College have announced that Maine artist Robert Shetterly will be present for the unveiling of his portrait of abolitionist John Brown during Freedom Now, Freedom Then: The Long History of Emancipation, a two-day program designed for students, educators and the general public on November 30-December 1, 2012. The events will take place in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, New York.
Brown is one of the newest additions to the Americans Who Tell the Truth project that Shetterly began 10 years ago using portraits of contemporary and historical figures and their own words to offer a “link between a community of people who struggled for justice in our past and a community of people who are doing it now.”
With this portrait, Brown joins Shetterly’s pantheon of more than 180 Truth Tellers that includes Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth and Mark Twain from the nation’s past, and Bill McKibben, James Baldwin, Michelle Alexander, and Jonathan Kozol who are addressing some of humanity’s gravest concerns today.
Shetterly’s portraits have been exhibited across the country. His painting of Brown will be unveiled on Friday 30 November at North Country Community College, Saranac Lake campus, at the opening program of “Freedom Now, Freedom Then: The Long History of Emancipation”. Several other Shetterly paintings will also be exhibited at the college and at the other venues where events will be taking place.
Geared for area high school and college students, their teachers and professors, the Friday program of “Freedom Now, Freedom Then” will also feature independent scholar Amy Godine and Kenneth Morris, Jr., the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass.
Godine will talk about young men and women with North Country roots who have heeded the call for human freedman, including slain civil rights worker Andrew Goodman and criminal justice reformer Alice Green. A poster including Goodman, Green and four other civil rights champions done by Lake Placid artist Nip Rogers will also be on display.
Following in his forebear’s footsteps, Morris will talk with students about slavery in Douglass’ time and today, when more people are trafficked and held in slavery than at any other time in human history. Twenty-seven million people are enslaved in nearly every country on Earth, including the United States where State Department estimates that 15,000 women, men and children are trafficked each year. Morris will also discuss service-learning opportunities for students to join the 21st century abolitionist movement to end slavery once and for all.
Glory, the Edward Zwick film starring Denzel Washington and Matthew Broderick, will be shown on Friday night (venue to be determined). Civil War Memory blogger Kevin Levin will lead a discussion immediately following the screening.
A cornerstone of John Brown Lives!’ work is to provide teachers in and outside of the classroom with high-caliber opportunities to engage with historians, scholars, anti-slavery activists and artists in an intimate setting. Heaven Hill Farm in Lake Placid will be the venue for a full day of workshops, presentations and conversations on the complex history of emancipation for educators, librarians, and the general public and will feature: Dr. Gloria Marshall-Browne on freedom and the Founding Documents- Dr. Margaret Washington on women and emancipation- Civil War Memory blogger Kevin Levin on film and emancipation- Magpie, the folk duo, on emancipation in song- Artist Robert Shetterly on art to promote courageous citizenship- Kenneth Morris, President of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, on engaging youth, congregations and communities in emancipation today- and Dr. Franny Nudelman on emancipation our texts and textbooks.
David W. Blight, preeminent scholar on the U.S. Civil War, will give the closing keynote address, “The Historical Memory of the Civil War and Emancipation at 150” on Saturday night in Lake Placid (venue to be determined). Dr. Blight is the Director of the Center for Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University and the author of numerous award-winning books and publications including American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era– A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation- and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.
For more information, presenter bios, and a complete schedule of workshops, film and music programs, visit John Brown Lives! on Facebook or contact either Martha Swan, Executive Director John Brown Lives!, or Cammy Sheridan, Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at North Country Community College. Swan may be reached at 518-962-4798 or [email protected]. Sheridan is available at 518-891-2915, ext. 1271 or [email protected].
Summer is over. Fall is upon us. Schools are back in session (even in Chicago), and now is the time to start planning a Spring 2013 County History Conference.
It is a time of breaking bread and sharing stories among people with similar interests. We are a social species so bringing people together is good and it has advantages as people plan for collaborative activities in the future. Read more
If you have an opinion on whether or not New York State and local history should be taught in our public schools, now is the time to speak up.
As noted on September 17 here at the online news magazine New York History, the State Education Department has released a draft version of the “New York State Common Core K-8 Social Studies Framework” for review and comment until October 11 [online]. There is a link there for people to submit comments. After revision, the document will go to the Board of Regents for adoption as state education policy. Read more
It is time for me to put up or shut up. My previous two posts have been about the Path through History project. I said the conference was a good first step but that the project was at the proverbial fork in the road. Many people in the historic community have witnessed these periodic forays into the world of cultural heritage tourism and our leery about another such effort no matter how sincere. I have pointed out some of what has been done already by different organizations throughout the state and raised the issue of where this project fits in given what has occurred.
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The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor recently received an $8,000 grant from the National Park Foundation that will enable 1,472 students from 27 schools in eight school districts across New York State to participate in educational field trips along the Erie Canal this fall.
“We have tremendous canal historic sites from Buffalo to Albany, but the cost of bringing students to them has become prohibitive for many districts. This grant removes that barrier so that students can experience firsthand the innovation and impact of the Erie Canal,” said Beth Sciumeca, Executive Director of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.
In addition to Ticket To Ride funding, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor secured an additional $5,000 from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to enhance the field trip program. These funds are being used to enlist the assistance of the Albany Institute of History & Art, which is developing a web-based curriculum guide and conducting teacher training and post-visit evaluations.
The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is one of 35 national parks and heritage areas to receive a grant from the National Park Foundation, the national charitable partner of America’s National Parks. With support from Disney, the Ticket To Ride program provides financial resources for transportation and in-park educational programming that make field trips to national parks and heritage areas possible for schools across the country.
Looking for funding? This competitive grant program makes awards ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 and is aimed at funding projects that serve to advance the goals and strategies of the Erie Canalway Preservation and Management Plan.
Proposals related to historic preservation, conservation, recreation, interpretation, tourism, and community development will be considered. Eligible organizations and requested projects must be based within Corridor boundaries and include nonprofits, municipalities, and federally recognized Native American tribes.
The application deadline is Friday, October 12, 2012. A full grant description and application can be found online: www.eriecanalway.org/get-involved_grants-fund.htm. Awards will be announced in January 2013.
The program is administered by the Erie Canalway Heritage Fund, in partnership with the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission.
For more information contact: Andy Kitzmann, Project Manager, 518-237-7000, ext. 201.