Political History

State Capitol Fire of 1911 Commemoration

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In the early morning hours of March 29, 1911, a fire broke out in the New York State Capitol at Albany. By sunset, the vast collection of the New York State Library, then housed in the Capitol, had been reduced to ashes.

To commemorate the centennial of the fire, coauthors Paul Mercer and Vicki Weiss, both of the New York State Library, have published The New York State Capitol and the Great Fire of 1911 (Arcadia Press, 2011) including rare images and documents from the special collections of the modern library, which arose from the ruins of the 1911 fire.

The public is invited join Executive Deputy Chief Warren Abriel of the Albany Fire Department to mark the 100th Anniversary of this historic event on Tuesday, March 29, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the University Club of Albany. The reception will feature light fare and cash bar, and authors Mercer and Weiss will discuss and sign the book. Royalties from book sales benefit the Friends of the New York State Library.

The event will also feature a preview of a documentary set to air on March 31 on WMHT, The New York Capitol Fire. Robert Altman, President and CEO of WMHT Educational Communications, will introduce a clip of the video, which draws on interviews, archival materials and reenactments. This WMHT documentary was created in collaboration with the New York State Museum, the New York State Archives, the Albany Institute, the New York State Library, the City of Albany and the Commission on the Restoration of the Capitol.

The cost for the reception, book signing and video preview is $20 per person. Reservations are required and may be made by calling the University Club at (518) 463-1151.

A portion of the proceeds from this event benefit the University Club Foundation, formed to recognize and maintain the unique historic and architectural significance of the University Club building and property, its historic neighborhood and the city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901.

Support for educational programming presented by the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc. is provided by AT&T.

Photo: Fire-destroyed reading room in State Capitol, Albany, NY, 1911. Courtesy New York State Archives.

Ron Chernow Awarded American History Book Prize

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Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society, announced today that Ron Chernow has been chosen to receive the Society’s sixth annual American History Book Prize for his most recent work, Washington: A Life (Penguin Press, 2010). The Historical Society will present Chernow with an engraved medal, the title of American Historian Laureate and a cash award of $50,000 at the beginning of its annual Weekend with History event, hosted by the Chairman’s Council, on April 8, 2011.

Ron Chernow’s previous books include The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (for which he received the National Book Award), The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and Alexander Hamilton.

Roger Hertog, Chairman of the New-York Historical Society’s Board of Trustees, stated, “With his studies of Hamilton, Rockefeller, the Warburgs and the House of Morgan, Ron Chernow has become the biographer’s biographer. His Washington will undoubtedly become the definitive life of our first President.”

“How can I not be thrilled to receive an award bestowed by a jury that includes distinguished historians under the auspices of one of our foremost historical societies?” Chernow asked. “We are living through an unusually rich period of historical writing, and I have no doubt that the field was crowded in 2010 with many worthy competitors for the prize.”

Washington: A Life was selected from a pool of 99 submissions made by a committee comprised of historians and New-York Historical Society leadership.

In its award citation, the award jury stated, “Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life is an exceptionally well-written book and offers a truly fresh perspective on the personality of Washington, bringing him to life and paradoxically making him more sympathetic because of the faults (vanity, aloofness, ambition) that are delineated.”

Pam Schafler, Vice Chair of the New-York Historical Society and Chair of the Chairman’s Council, added, &#8220We are delighted that Ron Chernow is being recognized for this latest biography, which joins his distinguished body of work. His remarks are sure to be a highlight of our Weekend with History gala dinner on April 8.&#8221

Now being presented for the sixth year, Weekend with History offers participants the opportunity to engage in two days of presentations and informal conversations with leading historians and cultural figures. The event is hosted by the Chairman’s Council, comprised of the Historical Society’s most committed supporters. Individuals may be invited to join the Council by Trustees and senior staff of the Historical Society and by existing members of the Council.

The American History Book Prize was previously awarded during Weekend with History to Doris Kearns Goodwin for Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln– David Nasaw for Andrew Carnegie– Daniel Walker Howe for What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848– Drew Gilpin Faust for This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War– and Gordon S. Wood for Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815.

An honors graduate of Yale and Cambridge, Ron Chernow has received wide acclaim for his deeply researched yet vivid explorations of the course of individual lives within the structures and institutions of American history. In addition to winning the National Book Award, Chernow received the prestigious George S. Eccles Prize for Best Business Book for The Warburgs and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in biography for his lives of both John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was also the first recipient of the influential George Washington Prize for the year’s best book on the founding era.

For more information on Weekend with History or the Chairman’s Council, please contact Corrie Manis at 212-485-9221 or [email protected].

Great Estates Consortium 7th Conference

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The Great Estates Consortium will be presenting the seventh annual Great Estates Conference &#8212- &#8220Inspiring Individuals: A Legacy of Leadership in the Hudson River Valley&#8221 &#8212- on Saturday, March 19, 2011. Speakers will discuss the life and times of Margaret Beekman Livingston, Frederic Church, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and their roles as inspiring Hudson River Valley personalities.

Optional afternoon tours of the Great Estates &#8212- including a tour of the Historic Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne Mansion in Esopus, New York, home to Marist College’s Raymond A. Rich Institute for Leadership Development &#8212- will highlight areas of the properties that are rarely open to the public.

The program will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home. Registration is $60 ($10 additional for the Payne Mansion tour). Registration forms are available online.

Morning sessions will include:

&#8220The Old Lady of Clermont&#8221:
Searching for the Truth About Margaret Beekman Livingston
Kjirsten Gustavson, Curator of Education, Clermont State Historic Site

&#8220The Commanding Genius of that Day&#8221:
Hudson River School Painter Frederic Edwin Church
Valerie Balint, Associate Curator, The Olana Partnership

Leaders and Land Owners: The Roosevelts and the Hudson Valley Connection
Jeffrey Urbin, Education Specialist, FDR Presidential Library and Museum

Continental breakfast and a morning coffee break will be served. Lunch will be provided by Gigi Hudson Valley and will feature local food. Laura Pensiero, RD chef/owner, Gigi Hudson Valley, will introduce the lunch and share with the participants how she uses local farm products for her business.

Following lunch, participants can choose to attend &#8220behind the scenes&#8221 tours at participating historic sites, including the Historic Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne Mansion, home to Marist College’s Raymond A. Rich Institute for Leadership Development. Attendees may also take a special tour of Locust Grove’s third floor, or the servant areas at Staatsburgh or the Vanderbilt Mansion. This conference will once again coincide with the Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, and participating &#8220behind the scenes&#8221 tours sites will partner with nearby restaurateurs to present a small treat at the end of the tour.

Newburgh Addresses Subject of Special Program

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Written at the John Ellison house, Knox’s Headquarters, in early March 1783, the two letters that came to be known as the Newburgh Addresses stirred passions within the Army. The author called for the officers of the Continental Army to threaten to march on Philadelphia and use military force to compel Congress to redress their longstanding grievances. Had the conspirators been able to make good on this threat, the United States, the beacon of freedom and democracy for the world might have developed quite differently. Knox’s Headquarters will present a lecture and special tour on Saturday March 12 from 1:00 – 2:30 PM highlighting this conspiracy.

Whether this threat was real or just an elaborate bluff, the implications of the letter shocked Washington. Throughout its long troubled history, the officers had kept the Continental Army together despite dreadful conditions, bitter defeats and soldier mutinies. If the officer corps turned against the country who could prevent the military from dictating to its civilian masters. Washington countered the first letter by expressing his “disapprobation of such disorderly proceedings” and directed that the officers meet in the Temple Building on March 15th to hear the latest report of the Committee of the Army to Congress. In the second March 12th letter, the author argued that Washington, by not banning further meetings actually supported their tough rhetoric. They could not have been more wrong.

Unexpectedly and certainly not welcomed by the conspirators, Washington appeared at the meeting and he addressed the esteemed gathering. The Commander-in-Chief poured out his heart to the officers, but so deep was their resentment that by in large, most of them were still unmoved. In a fit of desperation, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a letter from Congressman Joseph Jones, one of the Army’s staunchest supporters. He struggled to read it to them, but his eyesight was failing. His speech, in his own hand, was in large letters, but the Jones letter was written in smaller script, making it very difficult to read. He finally set the letter down and pulled from a pocket his new spectacles. Just a few at headquarters had ever seen him wearing them. This was his first use of them in public. Washington put on his spectacles and in a self-effacing manner said:

&#8220Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.&#8221

Gone for that poignant moment was the iconic great captain on horseback and in his place was revealed a fellow sufferer, aged beyond his years. This humble admission of human frailty unleashed a tidal wave of emotion. Some openly wept. Others felt the burn as the feelings of shame increased the flow of blood to their faces. Overcome by this compassionate response, Washington quickly gathered his papers and left as unceremoniously as he arrived.

Knox’s Headquarters is located at 289 Forge Hill Road at the intersection of Forge Hill Road and Blooming Grove Turnpike (Route 94) in Vails Gate, NY, just one mile from the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and New Windsor Cantonment. Call (845) 561-1765 ext. 22 to make reservations.

Photo: The 1754 Ellison House, Knox’s Headquarters State Historic Site. From November 1782 to April 1783 General Horatio Gates, from this headquarters, commanded over 7,000 soldiers of the Continental Army encamped at New Windsor. In early March 1783, Gates’ aide de camp Major John Armstrong wrote the Newburgh Addresses in this house.

Event: State Capitol and the Great Fire of 1911

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On Sunday, March 6, at 2:00 pm, the Albany Institute of History & Art will host a free lecture and book-signing by Paul Mercer and Vicki Weis, authors of the recently published book, The New York State Capitol and the Great Fire of 1911 (Arcadia Publishing, 2011). The lecture will complement a library case display at the Albany Institute of 10 historic photographs documenting the event, including the only known photo in existence of the full view of the building fully consumed by flames.

Weiss and Paul, of the New York State Library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections will discuss their pictorial history of the fire, which occurred on March 29, 1911. The book combines dramatic photographs with eyewitness accounts of the fire, which severely damaged the western portion of the capitol.

Virtually the entire collection of the State Library—as well as significant holdings of the New York State Museum—were destroyed in the blaze, which struck as the Education Department was mere months from relocating to the State Education Building across the street. The book tells not only the story of the fire and its aftermath, but also recounts the history of the construction of the capitol, as well as the pre- and post-fire history of the library.

The Albany Institute of History & Art’s library case display documenting the event includes a selection of 10 rare photos, showing both exterior and interior views taken during and after the actual fire. It also includes images of many of the firemen who responded to the blaze, The display opens on March 4 and closes in June. Viewing is free and open to the public.

The March 6 lecture and book-signing is free and open to the public. Museum admission is not included. Call (518) 463-4478 or visit www.albanyinstitute.org for more information.

FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt Discussion Event

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The New-York Historical Society will host a discussion on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Thursday, March 31, 2011, 6:30 p.m, at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th St. at Central Park West, to be presented in conjunction with the building of the FDR Four Freedoms Park. The program features historian Douglas Brinkley, Ambassador William J. vanden Heuvel, Roosevelt scholar William E. Leuchtenburg, and author Hazel Rowley.

In his State of the Union Address on January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt looked forward to a world in which everyone enjoyed four essential freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These values were central to both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who made it her personal mission to codify those rights in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Experts discuss the speech and its far-reaching influence, and also delve into this extraordinary couple’s influence on one another.

William E. Leuchtenburg is a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a former Bancroft Prize winner, and the author of six books on FDR. Hazel Rowley is the author of several books, including Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: An Extraordinary Marriage. William J. vanden Heuvel is Chairman of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, LLC, as well as Founder and Chair Emeritus of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Douglas Brinkley (moderator) is a professor of history at Rice University and a fellow in history at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. He is a member of the board of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

The cost is $20 for non-members- $10 for members. Call SmartTix at 212 868-4444 or visit SmartTix.com to purchase tickets.

Photo: The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Four Freedoms, located at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan Island and Queens in New York City. It was designed by the architect Louis Kahn.

Governor Nominates Rose Harvey, OPRHP Head

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Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the nomination of Rose H. Harvey as commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). OPRHP administers 178 parks and 35 state historic sites and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).

If confirmed by the state senate, Harvey would replace Acting Commissioner Andy Beers who took over after the resignation of Carol Ash in October 2010.

Currently, Harvey is a senior fellow at the Jonathan Rose Companies, where she acts as an advisor and researcher on parks and open space issues, and launched a non-profit organization to fund, design and develop safe, well-managed parks in urban neighborhoods. She was also recently a McCluskey Fellow and Lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

For 27 years, Harvey held multiple leadership positions with The Trust for Public Land, most recently as Senior Vice President and National Director of Urban Programs. There, she oversaw all real estate acquisitions, urban park design and developments, managed the finances of a $20 million annual operating budget, and closed between $50 and $75 million worth of land and parks transactions each year across 8 states – a total of nearly $1 billion and more than a thousand new and enhanced parks, gardens and playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods in New York City, Newark, N.J. and Baltimore. She has also established large landscape woodlands and natural areas throughout New York State and the Mid-Atlantic region.

Harvey began her tenure in the parks and open space arena as the Assistant Director for Conservation Easement at the Maryland Environmental Trust, where she negotiated protections of private lands holding environmental significance.

Harvey received her B.A. from Colorado College in 1977 and M.E.S. at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1984. She currently serves on the Board of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Yale Leadership Advisory Council. In the past she has served on many conservation organizations, including the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Hudson River Institute and Walsh Park Low Income Housing. In addition to multiple state and national awards for her environmental stewardship and advocacy for open space and parks, Ms. Harvey has written multiple articles and op/eds in numerous national media outlets and industry trade journals.

Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky, M.D., Chair of the New York State Council of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said, &#8220Ms. Harvey has been key to many of the great additions to state parks of the past 20 years. I look forward to working with her to foster strong private-public partnerships that protect and enhance New York’s parks, open spaces and heritage. I am also deeply committed to working with Governor Cuomo’s administration in preserving our state’s recreational landscapes and natural resources.&#8221

Kim Elliman, CEO of the Open Space Institute, said, &#8220Rose brings an unparalleled passion for providing all New Yorkers with access to parks and open space. Throughout her 30 year career, she has built an incredible track record of creating and protecting parks, from vest-pocket parks in cities to landscape parks like Sterling Forest. She is singularly qualified for the job and I commend Governor Cuomo for his selection.&#8221

Leslie Wright, New York State Director for The Trust for Public Land, said, &#8220Governor Cuomo’s selection of Ms. Harvey as Commissioner for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation shows that he is serious about maintaining open space and making it accessible to as many New Yorkers as possible. Ms. Harvey’s storied career in establishing parks, playgrounds and gardens in urban areas, combined with her ongoing advocacy for open space makes her the ideal candidate to lead this agency.&#8221

Photo: Rose Harvey (Courtesy Geraldine R Dodge Foundation)

Roosevelt Historic Site Celebrates FDR Birthday Sunday

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The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, NY will celebrate FDR’s 129th birthday on Sunday, January 30th at 3:00 PM in the Rose Garden. The event will include remarks by newly elected Republican U.S. Congressman Chris Gibson (20th District), the U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s Honor Guard and Color Guard, a presentation of wreaths and flowers, and a birthday cake and refreshments to follow at the Wallace Visitor Center. In case of inclement weather, the program will be held in the Wallace Visitor Center. For more information, contact Fran Macsali-Urbin at 845-229-2501.

Huntington Painting Returns to Historic Jay Estate

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The Jay Heritage Center (JHC) celebrated the recent anniversary of John Jay’s birthday on December 12 with news of an extraordinary gift from one of his descendants. In celebration of the continued restoration of the 1838 Jay House in Rye, Ada Hastings of Great Barrington, Massachusetts and her family magnanimously donated a portrait of John Jay’s great granddaughter that once hung in the mansion’s Drawing Room. The luminescent painting of a young Alice Jay by pre-eminent artist Daniel Huntington is documented in sepia toned family photos from 1886- it is visible hanging in a prominent location next to two other famous artworks originally owned by the Jays of Rye: Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of John Jay (which today is on view at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.) and Asher Durand’s depiction of Peter Augustus Jay (which belongs to New York Hospital where Peter Augustus Jay served as President of the Board.

The young subject of the painting, Alice Jay, along with her parents and siblings, lived both in New York and at the Rye estate during the mid and late 19th century. Windows into Alice’s life and times, particularly during the Civil War, are well documented in family letters and diaries. Alice’s father, Dr. John Clarkson Jay, was John Jay’s grandson and a vocal opponent of slavery like his grandfather and father before him. Through the local Episcopal church where he served on the vestry, he was instrumental in spearheading efforts in Rye to recruit volunteers for the Union efforts during the Civil War, a campaign which drew enlistments from Alice’s two older brothers, Peter, who became Captain of a local militia, and John, who served as an assistant surgeon. Alice’s sister kept a diary in which she wrote proudly in 1862, “Rye is called the banner town of the county for she has raised more men by volunteering than any of the other towns.”

The artist of the painting, New Yorker Daniel Huntington (1816 – 1906), trained with Jay family friends and esteemed colleagues like John Trumbull (who accompanied Jay as his secretary to Europe during treaty negotiations but also achieved renown as a painter, most notably for his grand scale Declaration of Independence now at the Capitol Rotunda) and Samuel F. B. Morse (whose successful career as an artist preceded his renown as an inventor and earned him the nickname of “America’s Da Vinci.”) Under the tutelage of men like these, Huntington rose to prominence both during and after the Civil War. He was a member of the National Academy of Design for most of his life and acted as its President for 22 years- he was also Vice-President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 33 years and helped that institution expand and grow in stature.

Perhaps Huntington’s most recognizable work, The Republican Court, was completed in 1861 at the start of one of our nation’s bloodiest engagements. His tableau harkened back to what was sentimentally remembered as a more harmonious time between the states &#8212- the initial founding of our union &#8211and it represented an idealized assembly of the leaders of that period (Northern and Southern) in a European, court like setting. The image prominently features John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay and 62 other identifiable personages of the Revolutionary War. Huntington’s painting was reproduced in 1865 as a very popular engraving. The larger original oil painting is owned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Winter hours for the Jay Heritage Center are Tuesday through Friday, 10am &#8211 5pm and by appointment. Please call (914) 698-9275 or contact JHC Program Director, Heather Craane at [email protected] to schedule group or school tours. The Jay Heritage Center’s Exhibit commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, “The Jays and the Abolition of Slavery: From Manumission to Emancipation” will open in May 2011.

John Jay’s home in Rye is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area selected for its themes of Environment, Landscape and Gardens, Architecture and Freedom and Dignity. It is one of 13 sites on Westchester County’s African American Heritage Trail.

Illustrations: Above, &#8220The Republican Court&#8221 by Daniel Huntington (1861, Brooklyn Museum of Art). John Jay is depicted in the crimson robe on the far left and Sarah Livingston Jay is opposite him in white in the right foreground. An engraving based on this painting was recently donated to the Jay Heritage Center. Middle, &#8220Alice Jay&#8221 by Daniel Huntington- Below, an 1886 photograph of the Jay Drawing Room. Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Jay is on the left of the mirror and Asher Durand’s portrait of Jay’s eldest son Peter is on the right.

Ferdinand Pecora’s Investigation of the Great Crash

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In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, the image of Wall Street’s most influential powerbrokers being called before Congress to give an accounting of their actions will not soon be forgotten. One name was repeatedly invoked during this time, a reminder of when the government first had to step in to protect the American people from Wall Street’s excessive greed: Ferdinand Pecora.

In the winter of 1933, Ferdinand Pecora took the reins of the bumbling Senate investigation of the 1929 crash. He was an unlikely hero: Sicilian-born, stout, with little experience in the Wall Street realm, he nevertheless created the sensational headlines needed to galvanize public opinion for reform. The hearings, under his leadership, spurred Congress to take unprecedented steps to rein in the free-wheeling banking industry, and led directly to the New Deal’s landmark economic reforms.

Now, Michael Perino’s The Hellhound Of Wall Street: How Ferdinand Pecora’s Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American Finance, tells the story of Pecora’s pursuit of the “banksters” of Wall Street. The story a resonates so powerfully even today that Nancy Pelosi, Frank Rich, and Ron Chernow, among others, have publically referred to his legacy.

The Pecora commission brought an end to Washington’s traditionally hands-off approach to the stock market and led directly to the creation of the SEC and other landmark financial reforms that still govern our markets today.

In Hellhound Of Wall Street, Congressional hearings become high-stakes courtroom drama, with an inspiring tale of an unlikely hero’s triumph over powerful interests. Michael Perino provides a minute-by-minute account of the ten dramatic days when Pecora turned the hearings around, cross-examining the officers of National City Bank (today’s Citigroup), particularly its chairman, Charles Mitchell, one of the best known bankers of his day.

Mitchell strode into the hearing room in obvious disdain for the proceedings, but he left utterly disgraced. Pecora’s rigorous questioning revealed that City Bank was guilty of shocking financial abuses, from selling worthless bonds to manipulating its stock price. Most offensive of all, and all too familiar sounding today, was the excessive compensation and bonuses awarded to its executives for peddling shoddy securities to the American public.

A gripping courtroom drama with remarkable contemporary relevance, Hellhound Of Wall Street brings to life a crucial turning point in American financial history and reminds us again of the delicate and crucial relationship between Wall Street and government.

Michael Perino is the Dean George W. Matheson Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law. A former Wall Street litigator, Perino has authored numerous articles on securities regulation, securities fraud, and class action litigation. He has testified in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives and is frequently quoted in the media on securities and corporate matters. He has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered”, “Morning Edition”, and “Marketplace”, and on “Bill Moyers’ Journal” on PBS, and on CNBC.

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