The Vermont Historical Society is asking for participation in a survey to help them determine which aspects of the organization are most important. The survey allows plenty of opportunity to comment and they would appreciate hearing from you folks interested in Vermont history by June 23rd if possible. You can find the survey here.
Online Resources
The New Amsterdam Trail, Free Downloadable Audio Tour
The Dutch and the indelible role they played in the formation of the ideas and ideals that shaped New York City and America is being celebrated by National Parks Service, the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, and the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation with The New Amsterdam Trail. This free downloadable audio walking tour is the first of three in a series featuring the iconic National Park Service Rangers and an expert cast of historians, scientists, and other great storytellers.
Using a backdrop of period music and special sound effects, the audio with map can be downloaded from the Harbor Conservancy’s website or on the Henry Hudson 400 website. Visitors travel through the streets of downtown Manhattan to 10 historically significant locations, cueing commentary from their mobile phone, mp3 player or ipod. As they stand at the tip of the Battery, they can visualize Manhattan in the hours before Henry Hudson arrived and when he first navigated our waters and then listen to the stories of the life and times of New Amsterdam’s most famous and infamous settlers.
The New Amsterdam Trail features Steve Laise, Chief of Cultural Resources for Manhattan’s National Parks- Eric Sanderson, author of Mannahatta, Natural History of New York City- Andrew Smith, editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and Russell Shorto, author of Island at the Center of the World.
The family-friendly walking tour takes about 90-minutes– however, you can walk the trail at your own pace during lunchtime and pause the recorded commentary at any point. For more details and to download the free tour, visit www.nyharborparks.org or www.henryhudson400.com.
The Harbor Conservancy is the official partner of the National Parks of New York Harbor and together they champion the 22 National Park sites that call New York Harbor home by helping to preserve the environment, promote economic development and create the finest urban waterfront recreation and educational park system in the world.
Henry Hudson 400 New York is a foundation created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s legendary voyage for the Dutch to the Hudson River and New York. The unique character of New York City, originally New Amsterdam, has been shaped by the legacy of the multiethnic and tolerant culture of 17th century Amsterdam. Henry Hudson 400 is producing a series of special events in 2009 to celebrate the spirit of freedom, enterprise, and diversity shared by Amsterdam and New York.
Newspaper Vital Records Index Reaches 50,000 Entries
Bob Sullivan of the Schenectady Digital History Archive at the Schenectady County Public Library has announced that the organization’s obituary index has passed the 50,000-citation mark. The index includes scattered records from Schenectady newspapers before 1822, more complete coverage from 1822 to 1858, some later 1800s, 1902, 1993 to mid-1995, and Dec. 2005 to date. Some other papers from neighboring areas are also included from 2005 to date including regional papers such as the Saratogian, the Gloversville Leader-Herald and the Glens Falls Post-Star. Also available are some years of the Hamilton County News, the Business Review, the Jewish World and the Evangelist.
Most of the newspapers are available in the collections of the Schenectady County Public Library or the Schenectady County Historical Society. See “What Newspapers Are Included?” and “How May I Obtain Copies?” at the top of each obituary page for more information about specific dates and holding libraries.
The index can be accessed here http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/vitalrecords/
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La Escuela Electronica / The Electronic Schoolhouse
The New York State Archives and Archives Partnership Trust have announced La Escuela Electronica/The Electronic Schoolhouse, a bilingual website for teachers focusing on the Latino experience in New York. Using historical records such as photographs, letters, flyers, broadsides and more dating from 1861 to the present, the website combines historical records and technology to promote the development of critical thinking skills, reading and writing skills, understanding historical content and context. Read more
Adirondack Museum Offers More Quilt Exhibits
The Adirondack Museum has launched a new online exhibit, “Common Threads: 150 Year of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters” that will share quilts and Adirondack quilting history. The online exhibit includes quilts, text, and historic photographs and is a companion piece to a special exhibition, also named “Common Threads” that will open to the public at the Blue Mountain Lake museum on May 22, 2009.
The exhibit will include more than forty quilts: historic pieces from the Adirondack Museum’s textile collection, as well as contemporary quilts, comforters, and pieced wall hangings on loan from quilters in communities throughout the region. Demonstrations of handwork will accompany the exhibit throughout the summer. According to an Adirondack Museum announcement:
The Adirondack region has supported an active pieced-textile tradition for over a century and a half. From bedcovers, plain or fancy, meant to keep families warm through long Adirondack winters, to stunning art quilts of the twenty-first century, the quilts and comforters of the North Country mirror national trends and also tell a unique story of life in the mountains. “Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters” explores the themes of women’s work, domestic life, social networks in a rural area, generational continuity among women, and women’s artistic response to life in the Adirondacks.
“Common Threads” will include a family-friendly discovery area where kids can explore pattern and design, try simple stitching on child-sized quilt frames, or enjoy illustrated quilt-themed children’s books. The Adirondack Museum has also developed a special “Toddler Tour” of the quilt exhibit “that will lead the smallest visitors on a fun (and fast) search for color, shapes, and animals among the quilts on display.”
Museum Curator Hallie Bond will offer an illustrated Monday Evening Lecture on July, 27, 2009 entitled “Common Threads – Adirondack Quilts Tell Their Stories.” The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in the Auditorium.
The Adirondack Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival will be held on September 12, 2009. A celebration of traditional and contemporary fiber arts, the Festival will include demonstrations, a juried artisan’s market, and hands-on activities. In addition, folksinger, song writer Peggy Lynn will offer a special musical presentation, “A Stitch in Time: Songs Celebrating the Art and Heritage of Quilting.”
Ulster County Dutch Records Database To Go Online
Ulster County Clerk and Quadricentennial Committee Co-Chair, Nina Postupack has announced that a new database “The English Translations of the Dutch Colonial Records” will go online June 12th. The new database features keyword searches of the Dingman Versteeg
In 1895, Kingston Judge Alphonso T. Clearwater had the early Dutch records of his city examined by Dingman Versteeg, the official translator of the Holland Society. Judge Clearwater then pushed to have the records translated at the expense of Ulster County. The translations were indexed shortly after their completion and are the source of the online database “Ulster County Archive’s Deed Book 1,2 & 3 Index.” The new database will be an expanded version that also includes the Dutch Court and Secretary’s Papers volume 1, 2 and 3. These records are the earliest court and land records of Ulster County.
They will be available on line at www.co.ulster.ny.us/archives/database.html
Governor Hugh Carey Photos Go Online
In an ongoing effort to make records more accessible, the New York State Archives collaborated with former New York Governor Hugh L. Carey’s director of communications, William F. Snyder, and the Carey family to create an online digital collection from the Archives’ gubernatorial records of Hugh Carey in celebration of the governor’s 90th birthday in April 2009.
Archives staff worked with Snyder and the Carey family to select and identify approximately 400 photographs from Carey’s two terms as state governor, his family pictures, and his congressional career. Governor Carey’s legacy was firmly established in the early years of his administration when he provided the strong leadership needed to rescue New York City from bankruptcy. A lifelong Democrat, Governor Carey is also remembered for his fierce advocacy on behalf of the disabled and for the I Love New York campaign that energized tourism in New York.
The photos can be found at http://www.archives.nysed.gov/d/.
Photo: Governor Carey with Frank Sinatra.
The Mannahatta Project Uncovers NYC in 1609
A new web site (now in Beta) sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society shows viewers what New York City looked like before it was a city. After nearly a decade of research the The Mannahatta Project uncovers online the original ecology of Manhattan circa 1609. According to the site:
“That’s right, the center of one of the world’s largest and most built-up cities was once a natural landscape of hills, valleys, forests, fields, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, beaches, springs, ponds and streams, supporting a rich and abundant community of wildlife and sustaining people for perhaps 5000 years before Europeans arrived on the scene in 1609. It turns out that the concrete jungle of New York City was once a vast deciduous forest, home to bears, wolves, songbirds, and salamanders, with clear, clean waters jumping with fish. In fact, with over 55 different ecological communities, Mannahatta’s biodiversity per acre rivaled that of national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Great Smoky Mountains!”
The goal of the Mannahatta Project is no less than “to re-start the natural history of New York City.” The site includes a virtual Mannahatta map that allows you to see Mannahatta from any location, block-by-block species information, lessons on the science and technology used to create the site, hundreds of layers of digital data, place-based lesson plans for elementary and high school students that meet New York State standards, an online discussion page, and event listing.
Recent updates to Mannahatta include the ability click on a city block to find out what type of plants and animals called it home, whether the Lenape people lived or worked there, and what kind of landscape features appeared on that block. You can also use the slider bar to fade from Mannahatta to modern day to see how the island has changed in the last 400 years.
Last week a related multimedia exhibit “Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City” also opened at the Museum of the City of New York.
Outstanding New York Newspaper Source Now Online
The Library of Congress has launched the beta version of a new online searchable newspaper collection, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. The site currently contains newspapers from 1880 to 1910 (more are coming) plus a directory for newspapers published in the United States since 1690 (a look there turns up over 11,000 New York newspapers). Results from Essex County include 85 newspapers once published there.
Research Buzz has all the tips on searching, but suffice it to say that along with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle online, and Northern New York Library Network’s vast online collection of Northern New York newspapers, online New York history research just got a whole lot better. The Library of Congress site includes papers that have heretofore been unavailable for free. These include New York City / National papers The Evening World, Horace Greeley’s The New York Tribune, and the The Sun, plus other major dailies from across the nation.
I took a look at some one of my favorite historical topics, the Adirondacks. The collection includes reports from Adirondack travelers, social notes from local resorts, and hundreds of advertisements like the one above by the Delaware & Hudson Railroad from 1908. Genealogists are going to find a lot of great stuff here, as well as political historians, and folks interested in the creation of the Adirondack Park, the 1903 and 1908 fires, and a lot more like a long report on the 1900 New York Sportsman Show, including the Adirondack Guide exhibit photo shown here.