Online Resources

New Online Collection Focuses on 9/11

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Beginning on September 11, 2001, Michael Ragsdale started collecting items focusing on the aftermath of 9/11, including materials relating to the security, recovery, war, health, peace, civil liberties, Iraq, war costs, war dead, remembrance, prisoner abuse and more. His project ended in September 2008, but this documentary paper history of what happened in New York City after the attacks of 9/11 now includes over 400 images.

Ragsdale says he has been receiving high praise from historians, authors, professors, filmmakers, activists, librarians, museum curators, and others. You can find the collection online here.

Ragsdale hopes to raise money to take the collection on the road, especially next year during the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the opening of the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City.

Photo: Flyer announcing a peace rally after 9/11 from Ragsdale’s collection.


Plowline: Images of Rural NY Project Launched

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In 1960, New York State was home to 88,000 active farms- today that number has decreased to roughly 36,000 farms – a decline of nearly 60% in 40 years. In response, The Farmers’ Museum in historic Cooperstown, NY is assembling an exciting collection of original photography to chronicle and preserve the changes in agricultural practice, rural life, and farming families of New York State from the 19th century through the present.

With the generous support of the Gipson Family, Plowline: Images of Rural New York is a resource not only for the scholarly community but also for the public to learn more about the rural heritage of New York State. Cooperstown photographer and museum visitor Andy Baugnet comments, “We cannot turn back the hands of time. However, the Plowline collection will allow us to view the past and experience how agriculture left its mark on New York State’s economic and cultural landscapes.”

Plowline presents beautiful black and white 1950s photographs of New York farm scenes such as harvesting the fall bounty, maple sugaring and horse-pulling. The collection also includes important aerial photographs of regional communities, including the construction of the New York State Thruway. Over 100 lantern slides from Cornell University’s Dairy Department, which instructed dairy farmers in the 1920s about how to operate an efficient farm, are featured in the collection. In addition, Plowline highlights snapshots chronicling an Orange County farm family’s life over a 30 year period. Finally, contemporary works by New York photographer Daniel Handel document the current farming revival in Upstate New York.

In 1942, The Farmers’ Museum’s founders set out to collect objects of American farm and rural communities and to display those in a method accessible to all interested. To enhance their accessibility, the photographs collected through Plowline will all be posted online. In addition, powered by Omeka, a free and open source platform developed by The Center for the Future of History Museums, the Plowline website has integrated Web 2.0 technology. “Thus,” says curator Erin Crissman Richardson, “the website encourages user participation and allows visitors to comment on records if they know something about the history of an object or what is happening in a particular photograph. Visitors can also share items with friends via Facebook, Twitter and other social media.”

Plowline, as a collecting initiative, will be continually adding photographs and will become a significant portion of the annual additions to The Farmers’ Museum collection. “We anticipate that Plowline will be the foremost resource of images of the 19th, 20th and 21st century rural imagery,” explains Vice President for Education Garet Livermore

Digital History Archive Adds Important Volumes

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Bob Sullivan, of the Schenectady Digital History Archive, has announced that the first two (historical) volumes of Nelson Greene’s four-volume history of Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Schenectady and Schoharie Counties, History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925 is now online.

Included are more than 300 photos and maps, and a biographical section &#8211 more than 2000 pages so far, are online. Greene’s History joins the Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, a four-volume set with more than 1300 family entries from Albany, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Washington Counties.

Washington Post Launches Civil War 150 Site

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Marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Washington Post newspaper will provide special ongoing coverage with commentary from experts, sesquicentennial news and an updating event calendar at a new site, Civil War 150.

A sampling of some of the articles and features on the site includes articles like &#8220The Civil War taught us to fight for the right to be wrong&#8221 and &#8220Civil War panelists join ‘A House Divided’: If Lincoln hadn’t won the election, would there have been a war?&#8221 Interactive features include a photo request for reenactors, a photo gallery &#8220Washington, D.C.: 1860 and today&#8220, a quiz entitled &#8220How well do you know Abe?&#8220, and a Civil War events guide.

April 2011 will mark the 150th Anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War. While the State of Vermont has laid out preliminary plans for the multi-year observance that include several large statewide events, as well as coordination of community-based activities, New York State has nothing planned and no organization set to undertake commemoration planning.

New York provided 400,000-460,000 men during the war, nearly 21% of all the men in the state and more than half of those under the age of 30. By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, New York had provided the Union Army with 27 regiments of cavalry, 15 regiments of artillery, 8 of engineers, and 248 of infantry.[5] Federal records indicate 4,125 free blacks from New York served in the Union Army, and three full regiments of United States Colored Troops were raised and organized in the Empire State—the 20th, 26th, and 31st USCT.

No actual Civil War battles were fought within the Empire State, although Confederate agents did set several fires in New York City. New York troops were prominent in virtually every major battle in the Eastern Theater, and some in the Western Theater. New Yorker John Schofield rose to command of the Army of the Ohio and won the Battle of Franklin, dealing a serious blow to Confederate hopes in Tennessee.

More than 27,000 New Yorkers fought in the war’s bloodiest battle, the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. During the entire war, 834 officers were killed in action, as well as 12,142 enlisted men. Another 7,235 officers and men perished from their wounds, and 27,855 died from disease. Another 5,766 were estimated to have perished while incarcerated in Southern prisoner-of-war camps.

Early American Crime Site Launches Podcast

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One of the more interesting early American sites on the internets, Anthony Vaver’s Early American Crime, is now available as a podcast. Beginning with “Early American Criminals: Thomas Mount and the Flash Company,” you can subscribe to hear (as well as read) tales of America’s earliest criminals.

Early American Crime features stories about the criminal underworld of colonial America and the early United States including criminal profiles, cultural essays, features on early crime slang, and an outstanding series of posts on convict transportation including it’s evolution as a new form of punishment, the business of transportation, convict voyages, and the end of the system.

Vaver described his site when it launched in 2008 by saying: &#8220Crime and its punishment are among the top social concerns in the United States today. Over one percent of the adult population in the United States now lives in prison, and even though the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it holds almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Stories of crime fill our newspapers and affect the elections of our public officials. Yet, we as Americans know little about the history of crime and punishment that has brought us to this point. My hope is that this website will help provide a more complete understanding of crime and punishment in America by focusing on its early appearance and practice.&#8221

The site is well worth taking a look at, and now also a listen to.

Washingtons Headquarters Going Digital

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Matthew Colon, the 2010 winner of the Barnabas McHenry Award for Historic Preservation, is in the middle of a project that will digitize and catalog the entire slide collection of the nation’s first publicly-owned historic site, ensuring that the Washington’s Headquarters library and archives will be useful to the staff and public.

The scope of diverse images that make up the collection measures the value of this project. The range of time represented in the collection spans from the late 19th century to the present, documenting the changes undergone by Washington’s Headquarters through images of the historic house and environs, special events, important visitors, and interpretive programs. A favorite are images that document how the house interior looks in candle light. There are also slides documenting important acts of preservation on the historic house and other museum objects this project will make more accessible.

The biggest advantage, most of all to archivists, a digitization project offers are digital surrogates of the original material. Ideally, an infinite amount of copies can be made from the archival image and distributed to the public or for meeting museum interpretive goals. This ensures that the original material will be stored away from the environmental factors disrupting their condition.

Matt Colon has spent the past few months completing the collection index for about 5,000 slides before he can move onto the last phases of the project which include digitization, editing, and delivery. Matt has cemented his appreciation for the role of the librarian and archivist in a museum setting. Colon said, “’the methods of organization are the inner gears to the clock face viewed by the public.’ One issue with that statement is that today that clock face is typically digital.”

Illustration: Tower of Victory in &#8220Harper’s Weekly&#8221, 1887. Courtesy of PIPC Archives.

Study of Schenectady Development Online

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&#8220Shovel Ready: Razing Hopes, History, and a Sense of Place: Rethinking Schenectady’s Downtown Strategies&#8221 is now available at the Schenectady Digital History Archive.

A thought-provoking discussion of downtown development in Schenectady in the second half of the twentieth century, &#8220Shovel Ready&#8221 is Christopher Spencer’s master’s thesis in city planning (MIT, 2001) and analyzes the reasoning behind Schenectady’s development plans from the 1924 report of the City Planning Commission to the Downtown Schenectady Master Plan of 1999, which is also available at the Schenectady Digital History Archive.

The Schenectady Digital History Archive is a service of the Schenectady County Public Library and a member of the NYGenWeb, USGenWeb and American History and Genealogy Projects and the American Local History Network, dedicated to making information about Schenectady’s heritage more accessible to researchers around the world.

Expanded Canadian Naturalization Database Online

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Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has announced the release of a new version of the online database Canadian Naturalization 1915-1951. It now includes digitized images of the lists of names of people who applied for and obtained status as naturalized Canadians between 1932 and 1951- these lists were originally published in the Canada Gazette. This database is one of the few Canadian genealogical resources specifically designed to benefit researchers having roots other than British. The reference numbers indicated in the database can be used to request copies of the original naturalization records, which are held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The mandate of Library and Archives Canada is to preserve the nation’s documentary heritage for present and future generations and to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic development of Canada. Library and Archives Canada also facilitates co-operation among communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge, and is the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions. Genealogy Services (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/) includes all physical and online genealogical services of Library and Archives Canada. It offers information, services, advice, research tools and the opportunity to work on joint projects, in both official languages.

For more information, please contact [email protected].

Nouvelle version de la base de donnees Naturalisation canadienne

Bibliotheque et Archives Canada (BAC) a le plaisir d’annoncer le lancement d’une nouvelle version de la base de donnees en ligne, Naturalisation canadienne 1915-1951. Elle comprend maintenant les images numerisees des listes de noms de personnes qui ont demande et obtenu le statut de citoyen naturalise canadien entre 1932 et 1951- ces listes etaient a l’origine publiees dans la Gazette du Canada. Cette base de donnees constitue l’une des rares ressources genealogiques canadiennes specialement concues pour aider les chercheurs ayant des racines autres que britanniques. On peut se servir des numeros de reference indiques dans la base de donnees pour commander des copies des dossiers originaux de naturalisation, qui sont conserves par Citoyennete et Immigration Canada.

Le mandat de Bibliotheque et Archives Canada est de preserver le patrimoine documentaire du pays pour les generations presentes et futures, et d’etre une source de savoir permanent accessible a tous et qui contribue a l’epanouissement culturel, social et economique du Canada. En outre, Bibliotheque et Archives Canada facilite au Canada la concertation des divers milieux interesses a l’acquisition, a la preservation et a la diffusion du savoir, et represente la memoire permanente de l’administration federale et de ses institutions. Les Services de genealogie (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/) englobent tous les services genealogiques physiques et en ligne de Bibliotheque et Archives Canada. Ils offrent de l’information, des services, des conseils, des outils de recherche et la possibilite de travailler a des projets communs, et ce, dans les deux langues officielles.

Pour de plus amples renseignements, ecrivez-nous a [email protected].

June and Art Explores Family History Collections

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A new blog has launched called &#8220June and Art,&#8221 based on the 1949-51 courtship letters of June Anderson and Art Price, while she was attending Traphagen School of Fashion (1680 Broadway between 52nd and 53rd) and he was just out of the Navy and working as a grocery clerk in the Hamptons. The blog includes historic photos, postcards, and their artwork- both June and Art were amateur artists.

The blog’s creator Lee Price, who is also Director of Development at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, PA, has also created a companion blog, &#8220Preserving a Family Collection,&#8221 which is about conserving the photos and artwork of the &#8220June and Art&#8221 collection.

Lee Price has visited both the New York Historical Society and the New York Public Library in search of late 40s/early 50s photographs of the Traphagen school and the two Upper West Side streets where June lived, 96th Street and 83rd Street, both times between Central Park West and Columbus and would greatly appreciate ideas for other places to look for photos from these areas and this particular time.

Virtual Tours of State Parks, Sites, Now Online

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The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has partnered with Fisheye Virtual Tours to provide 360-degree views of scenic vistas, popular attractions, gathering spots and select interiors of nearly 50 parks and historic sites on its website, www.nysparks.com.

&#8220Virtual tours are an innovative and user-friendly tool for both tourists and frequent park visitors to plan their next adventure,&#8221 said State Parks Acting Commissioner Andy Beers. &#8220By showcasing New York’s incredible natural and cultural treasures, the virtual tours will help draw new visitors to popular, favorite spots and provide regular visitors with glimpses of features of the park system they’ve never visited before.&#8221

The virtual tours include images of assorted campgrounds, trails, play areas, golf courses, boat launches, beaches and pools in the parks, as well as landscapes, architectural elements and collections in many of the state historic sites. Tours also feature interior and exterior images of the diverse types of lodging available at State Parks – from the many amenities of the Ironworkers Cabins at Taconic State Park’s Copake Falls to the rustic camping areas of Allegany State Park. Additional tours will be added in the coming weeks.

&#8220We are very excited to be working with the state of New York on the first phase of our &#8216-Explore America’s Parks’ project. This partnership truly shows New York’s commitment to bringing exciting new features to their website and to show their global audience the stunning beauty of their parks and historic sites,&#8221 said Fisheye Virtual Tours president Michael Brennan.

The pilot program between Parks and Fisheye Virtual Tours began in 2009 and has expanded to include the unique photography of all 11 state park regions. The initiative is supported through sponsorships developed and administered by Fisheye Virtual Tours.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees 178 state parks and 35 historic sites. For more information on any of these recreation areas, call 518-474-0456 or visit www.nysparks.com. For information about Fisheye Virtual Tours, sponsorship and the Explore America’s Parks program, visit www.exploreamericasparks.org.