Online Resources

State Museum Launches War of 1812 Website

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The New York State Museum has launched a new statewide website and Facebook page dedicated to commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

The website is expected to include a web-based exhibition and hoped to be a statewide clearinghouse for information about New York’s pivotal role in the War of 1812, as well as for all War of 1812 events across New York State and into Canada. The goal is to provide a site for conversation and coordination among all of those interested in commemorating the memory of the war.

The New York-Canadian border was the central front of the war, which was waged against the British Empire from June 18, 1812 to February 18, 1815. Some of the nation’s most prominent military figures of the early 19th century made their names along New York State’s northern frontier. Several pivotal battles also took place in the state, including the battle of Plattsburgh in September 1814.

“The War of 1812 is a ‘New York story’ and so too is our effort to commemorate this important bicentennial,” said Museum Director Mark Schaming. “We have reached out to historians, historical societies and various other collaborators and partners across the state and into Canada, inviting them to join with us in telling this story and making this the ‘go-to’ place to learn about the war and the many events planned to commemorate it.”

The website will be a growing and evolving statewide resource for the duration of the bicentennial commemorations. Interested historians – from academics to genealogists – will have an opportunity to submit 1812-related stories, whether they are biographies of local citizens or essays on New York-related events. A page devoted to biographies highlights valiant and patriotic men and women who contributed their time, energies, and in some cases, made the ultimate sacrifice to aid the war effort.

The site also provides a platform for historical societies and museums across the state to highlight their War of 1812 collections in a virtual artifact gallery. The site currently displays historic artifacts related to the War that are in the collections of the State Museum, State Library and State Archives.

A resources page lists website links for War of 1812 commemorative events and organizations, as well as for State Library resources and State Archives records.

New Erie Canalway Map and Guide Issued

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The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission has released its 2012 Erie Canalway Map & Guide to introduce residents and visitors to the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. Copies can be obtained at 150 sites, including visitor centers, libraries, cultural heritage sites, and canal locks all along the New York State Canal System, and online.

The eight page newspaper-style guide includes a map of the National Heritage Corridor, as well as a list of canal-related cultural heritage sites, boat rental and tour companies, places to cycle on the Erie Canalway Trail, and more.


The map and guide, along with the website www.eriecanalway.org, are among the efforts by the heritage corridor commission to increase awareness about the waterway, trail, and national significance of the Erie Canal.

New Crowd-Sourced Exhibition at Brooklyn Museum

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The Brooklyn Museum is launching a borough-wide initiative in which Brooklyn-based artists will be invited to open their studios, allowing community members to visit and nominate artists for inclusion in a group exhibition to be held at the Museum.

Brooklyn Museum curators will visit the studios of top nominated artists to select works for the exhibition. The open studio weekend for GO: a community-curated open studio project will be held September 8 and 9. The exhibition will open during First Saturday on December 1, 2012, and will be on view through February 24, 2013.
Web and mobile technology will be a central component bringing artists and community together to share information and perspectives on art. All participants (artists, voters, and volunteers) will be able to create a personal online profile at the project’s website, www.gobrooklynart.org. Artist profiles will include photos of each artist and their studio, along with images and descriptions of their work. Volunteers will be connected with their respective neighborhoods online, and voters will have profiles that track their activity during the open studio weekend and provide a platform on which to share their perspectives.

&#8220GO is a wide-ranging and unique project that will transform how Brooklyn communities engage in the arts by providing everyone with the chance to discover artistic talent and to be involved in the exhibition process on a grassroots level. Through the use of innovative technology, GO provides every Brooklyn resident with an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the visual arts in an unprecedented way,&#8221 says Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman.

The project launched on May 18th with volunteer registration. Volunteers will identify and work with local groups and businesses within specific neighborhoods to engage artists and potential studio visitors. The Brooklyn Museum will also partner with the Brooklyn Arts Council, open studio organizations, the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, and Heart of Brooklyn to promote participation in GO. The New York City Housing Authority will also play an important role in engaging residents living in public housing developments in Brooklyn.

Artists will have an opportunity to register their studios at www.gobrooklynart.org in June. Artist registration will be followed by voter registration in August and early September. In October, Sharon Matt Atkins and Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, will make studio visits to the top nominated artists to select the work for the exhibition. Curators and community members will engage in a public dialogue about the selection of work.

GO continues the Brooklyn Museum’s long tradition of highlighting the borough’s community of artists. Since its 2004 exhibition, Open House: Working in Brooklyn, the largest survey to date of artists working in Brooklyn, the Museum has continued its commitment to Brooklyn artists with exhibitions by Fred Tomaselli, Lorna Simpson, and an upcoming exhibition by Mickalene Thomas, among others, and the current Raw/Cooked series of five exhibitions by under-the-radar Brooklyn artists.

A pioneer in crowd-sourced exhibitions, the Brooklyn Museum also presented Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition (2008), a photography show in which nearly 3,500 community members evaluated the work of 389 local photographers. More recently, Split Second: Indian Paintings (2011) invited the Museum’s online community to participate in the selection of works to be shown in an installation of Indian paintings.

The project organizers are Sharon Matt Atkins, Managing Curator of Exhibitions, and Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology. GO: a community-curated open studio project is inspired by two predecessors: ArtPrize, an annual publicly juried art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the long tradition of open studio events that take place each year throughout Brooklyn.

The project’s website will be updated throughout the process until the exhibition’s opening in December 2012.

New Website Features Northern Franklin County History

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A comprehensive new website on the oral and digital history of Malone and other towns of northern Franklin County, New York, has been launched. The new site brings to life the history of this area from 1870 to 1940.

The website includes the material from a previous website dedicated to the history of the Franklin County logging community of Reynoldston, 1870-1970, located in the Town of Brandon.
You can listen to over 140 hours of tapes of people talking about all aspects of life in the late 19th and early 20th century in Northern New York. It includes hundreds of historical pictures, maps documents and thousands of pages of interview transcripts of more than 40 individuals. The tapes were collected from 1969- 1970. Historical features and background articles on the history of the area are included on the site.

The interviews were with a wide range of people who helped to settle and build the area: farmers, loggers, businessmen, politicians, woolen mill workers, sawmill operators, teachers, housewives, blacksmiths, and prominent members of the Malone community. They deal with religious and personal beliefs, home remedies, schooling, bootlegging, farming, growing hops, and many other topics. The interviews are autobiographical and includes comprehensive details of home life and work.

Photo: Interior of the Blacksmith Shop, Reynoldston, Franklin County,  NY.

Digital Storytelling: Optimizing Your Web Presence

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Many local organizations invest time, energy and money to build a website, but just how visible is your website in the infinite space of the internet? With the small staff and smaller budgets of non-profits, web developers need to be strategic, and generating a lively and engaging webpage is only part of the battle. In this article, we will explore the various opportunities and tools that are available to optimize your web presence.


Secure Your Domain
When building a website, often the first challenge is deciding on a domain name. Selecting a domain name is very important because it will become a part of your organization’s identity. Something that is simple,easy to remember and representative of your organization’s name works best, but may not always be available. When checking for the availability of your desired domain name, you will also want to consider the various extensions (ie. .com,.org, .net, etc.), and alternative spellings.

Once you have decided on one or more appropriate domain(s), lock it down! It costs about $10 to register your domain for a year, and the cost can be reduced if you pay more than one year at a time. It is well worth the estimated $100 to secure your domain names for the next decade.

Metadata
Metadata is like a card catalog for web browsers that matches search queries to keywords built into the web-language. Therefore, if someone enters a search query of “Museums near Anywhere, NY,” your museum may appear first. Work with your graphic designer and identify a set of keywords that could be associated with your organization, and be wary of Search Engine Optimizer SPAM mail.

Social Media
The average U.S. Internet user spends more time on Facebook than on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Amazon combined. Websites tend to be static, with regular but not daily updates. Social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, create new opportunities for you to create a dialogue with your audience, and learn what they are thinking to drive traffic to your website.

Collaborations and Cross-Links
Local and region chambers, county tourism promotion agencies and multi-regional organizations create great opportunities for collaborations and cross-linking. Learn about regional and multi-regional partnerships in your area, such as Erie Canalway and Hudson River Valley National Heritage Corridors, Mohawk Towpath, Seaway Trail and Lakes to Locks Passage. Lakes to Locks Passage, for example, offers free user-generated web-listings under 40+ categories on their Lakes to Locks Passage and National Geographic Geotourism website, with unlimited capacity for text and media to make the information rich and compelling. (www.lakestolocks.org)

Google Adwords Grants
Is your organization a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit agency? You may consider applying for a Google Adwords Grant. When Google users search on keywords related to your organization, your ad appears next to relevant Google search results under the Sponsored Links sections. A click on your ad takes users directly to your website. Instead of looking for an audience, you’ have an audience looking for you. (www.google.com/grants/#)

Review and Assess
Setting benchmarks and goals for your website is a great wayto demonstrate impact and keep on task. This means that you have to be aware ofwhere you started, and where you are going. Google Analytics is a free tool formeasuring web traffic, links that refer people to your website and locationdata about the visitor. Utilize this information, and take a strategic approachto developing web-traffic. (www.google.com/analytics/)

Lakes to Locks Passage Summer Travel Suggestions

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Over 600 local travel suggestions have been submitted to the Lakes to Locks Passage website, just in time for the summer travel season. The site, which is co-branded with National Geographic, emphasizes travel and tourism opportunities that are submitted by local residents and locally-owned business owners.

A national advertising and marketing campaign is currently underway to promote the Lakes to Locks Passage, which stretches from Albany to Quebec, along the interconnected waterway of the Hudson River, Champlain Canal, Lake George and Lake Champlain and includes Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington, Warren, Essex and Clinton Counties. The site is built on the principles of Geotourism, which is defined as tourism that contributes to the economic health of communities by enhancing the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and well-being of its residents.

The site is as appealing to visitors as it is to people that live within the Lakes to Locks Passage according to Executive Director Janet Kennedy, who says “This website shines a spotlight on the region’s hidden gems, those places that provide local character to a destination. It is exciting to see the local commitment to delivering a distinctive travel experience.”

Lakes to Locks Passage is a New York and Federally designated byway, dedicated to stewardship of the natural, cultural, recreational and historic resources along the waterway. The collaboration with National Geographic unifies the region as a single destination, where users can pinpoint places of interest on a map and then learn about what the region offers in terms of nature, history, special events and outdoor experiences.

Website Highlights Free New York Documentaries

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The popular website DocumentaryStorm.com is celebrating its 1st anniversary, and is recommending several documentaries available on the site about New York City for New York History readers. These documentaries that focus on a couple of seldom visited spaces in New York life, the sewer system and the fire department, along with one of New York City’s most visited places. DocumetaryStorm.com is dedicated to finding providing free, full-length documentaries from around the web.

The New York City Fire Museum

NYC’s Fire Department plays an indispensable role in keeping New York’s citizen’s safe. While September 11th, 2001 shone a very bright and hot media light on the department &#8211 rightfully highlighting their training and sacrifice &#8211 the department has a sordid and quite remarkable history dating back many centuries. For many decades the firefighters were all community volunteers. This documentary explores the department’s origins and traces the various incarnations, training, and equipment through the 1800&#8242-s to today. When was the first fire truck used? How were fires put out in the early 1800&#8242-s? What did the firemen used to wear to protect them against fire?

New York from the Underneath

This is a rare and unique glimpse into the sewer system that runs below New York City. Beautifully shot, captivating, and gritty, the documentary traces the underbelly of New York from the Bronx to Queens. Urban Historian Steve Duncan leads the journey through a maze of winding tunnels, man-made waterfalls, and local wildlife. The scars of history’s past is evident in the brickwork and drawings on the wall. We explore more than two centuries of urban planning: a generational patchwork. Half vision, half compromise. The city’s first enclosed sewer system is located on Canal Street and survives intact to this day. Duncan sleeps in the sewers by day and leads us on an entertaining 25 minute tour by day. New York City: like you’ve never seen her before.

The Empire State Building Shall Rise

Proving that the Great Depression was no match for New Yorkers- the Empire State Building continued to rise: past the height of the Eiffel Tower &#8211 which had been the tallest building in the world for decades. Past the height of the Chrysler Building &#8211 which had been the tallest building for barely a year. The Empire State would stand as the tallest building in the world for over 40 years. It is still the tallest building in New York, following September 11th, 2001. Remarkable historical footage of an American treasure.

NYPL Putting Historical Documents Online

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Thousands of historical documents at The New York Public Library – including material handwritten by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and papers from authors such as Mark Twain – will soon be accessible to the public online.

The project, which began in January and will continue through 2014, will digitize documents from the Thomas Addis Emmet Collection, located within the Manuscripts and Archives Division, and almost all the papers of several major American authors in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at The New York Public Library.

“This exciting project is a key element in our goal of creating greater possibilities for our collections and expanding their accessibility worldwide,” said NYPL President Anthony Marx. “Digitizing collections featuring hand-written documents from Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Mark Twain, among others, provides remarkable new opportunities for scholarly research, and creates new teaching applications for an international audience. The Library is grateful to The Polonsky Foundation and other generous supporters who assist us in this valuable work.”

Technicians at the New York Public Library have already begun digitizing the Thomas Addis Emmet Collection, which documents the founding and early years of the United States – the move towards independence, the Revolutionary War, and the establishment of the federal government. The approximately 11,000 manuscripts in the collection include letters and documents by nearly every patriot and statesman who distinguished himself during this period American history.

Their letters provide insight into important historic milestones, such as the Stamp Act Congress, the First and Second Continental Congress, and the Annapolis Convention- trace the genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation- and chronicle the successes and struggles of the first Federal Administration. The correspondence and letterbooks of generals and other officers detail their decisions, actions, and relationships during the Revolutionary War.

Highlights of the Emmet Collection include a copy of the Declaration of Independence in Jefferson’s hand, an engrossed copy of the Bill of Rights, and manuscript minutes of the Annapolis Convention. The collection has been a vital and repeatedly consulted resource for American historians since the Library acquired it in 1896.

Following the completion of digitization of the Emmet Collection, nearly all the papers from the Berg Collection’s holdings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, his wife Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman will be digitized. An estimated 35,000 pages will be scheduled for digitization beginning in January 2013 and be made available through the Library’s website. Items slated for digitization will include:

Hawthorne’s correspondence with President James Buchanan, educator Horace Mann, and fellow authors Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville, as well as the diaries of his wife, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne that chronicle her own work as a writer and the literary work of her husband-

An original pencil map of Walden Pond, as well as several Thoreau manuscripts, including Faith in a Seed, about which the novelist Annie Proulx wrote in the Library’s Centennial celebration volume, Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public library at 100-

Mark Twain’s manuscripts of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and Following the Equator, and correspondence with such influential American icons as Andrew Carnegie, William Dean Howells, and Theodore Roosevelt-

Numerous poems by Walt Whitman and over 300 of his letters, most of them to his mother and to Union soldiers during the Civil War.

The total cost of the project including both collections is $1 million- a gift of $500,000 from The Polonsky Foundation is expected to be matched by similar donations.

Digital Storytelling: Using Interactive Maps

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Local historical societies and municipal historians fill an important role of building awareness and appreciation of their community’s resources, which they often achieve by producing unguided walking and driving tours of local points of interest. By recognizing these points of interest and inviting others to share their appreciation, we can often encourage local historical homeowners to keep a neat garden or persuade local cemetery managers to tidy up.
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NY Public Librarys 1940 Census Tool Online

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There is a new online tool developed by the New York Public Library to help people find their New York City relatives in the 1940 census, which was released April 2.

NARA released the census online for the first time, but transcribing and indexing the data is a slow process,that could take as long as six to eight months.

The Library’s online tool connects people to 1940 New York City phonebooks, which they digitized for the first time, where you can look anyone up by last name to find their address. Once you have the address, just enter it into a search field and up pops the census enumeration district number. Clicking the number takes you to the National Archives’website, where you can find the correct section of the census.

It’s a great research tool, but it’s also meant to grow into something more. When you find an address, the tool pins it to both a 1940 map and a contemporary map, so you can see how the area has changed (buildings torn down, freeways put up, etc). You’re then invited to leave a note attached to the pin – memories, info about who lived there, what the neighborhood was like, questions – and so forth. As people use the site, we’ll build a cultural map of New York in 1940 that will assist both professional historians and laypeople alike. Users have already found New Yorkers including Mayor John Lindsay, Jackie Kennedy, and Jane Jacobs.

Check out the Library’s new tool right here.