New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Bob Cudmore

Bob Cudmore is author of Lost Mohawk Valley, Hidden History of the Mohawk Valley, Stories from the Mohawk Valley and the satirical book, You Can’t Go Wrong. He writes “Focus on History” every Saturday in Schenectady's Daily Gazette newspaper and hosts the weekly podcast "The Historians" at BobCudmore.com

Will Lewis: Interview With A Public Radio Pioneer

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast Will Lewis, president emeritus of the Los Angeles Press Club, recalls his early days in the 1960s at Boston University’s WBUR-FM in Boston, passage of the public broadcasting bill in Washington, his public radio career and the Patty Hearst kidnapping in California.  Podcast host Bob Cudmore worked for Lewis at WBUR in Boston in the 1960s on a nightly program, Newspaper of the Air. [Read more…] about Will Lewis: Interview With A Public Radio Pioneer

Saratoga Soldier Played Key Role in Tojo’s Capture

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Chris Carola, a veteran Associated Press reporter, tells the story of Jack Wilpers, who grew up in Saratoga Springs, and the key role Wilpers played in the capture of former Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo in 1945. Carola is writing a book on the subject. [Read more…] about Saratoga Soldier Played Key Role in Tojo’s Capture

Slavery, Christmas and Southern Memory

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The Historians LogoIn this episode of The Historians Podcast Purdue University Professor Emeritus Robert May weighs in on whether enslaved people were better treated during the Christmas season in the Old South.

May is author of Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas and Southern Memory (2019). He earned his undergraduate degree at Union College in Schenectady. [Read more…] about Slavery, Christmas and Southern Memory

Frances Perkins: The First Woman Named To A Presidential Cabinet

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast Jim Kaplan chronicles the achievements of the first woman member of a Presidential cabinet. Frances Perkins was FDR’s Secretary of Labor who helped design Social Security.  [Read more…] about Frances Perkins: The First Woman Named To A Presidential Cabinet

Utica Sculptor Henry DiSpirito

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The Historians LogoOn this episode of The Historians Podcast, Ashley Hopkins-Benton recounts the life of sculptor and stone worker Henry DiSpirito, who became artist in residence at Utica College. Hopkins-Benton is author of Breathing Life Into Stone: The Sculpture of Henry DiSpirito.  She is also a senior historian and curator of social history at the New York State Museum in Albany. [Read more…] about Utica Sculptor Henry DiSpirito

Researching Fulton County’s First Roman Catholic Church

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The Historians LogoThis week’s guest on The Historians Podcast is retired Army Colonel Dave Cummings who discusses efforts to research St. Joseph’s Shrine and its nearby cemetery in the Adirondack hill town of Bleecker, NY.

Constructed in the 1850s, St. Joseph’s Church, torn down in 1919, was the first Roman Catholic Church built in Fulton County. [Read more…] about Researching Fulton County’s First Roman Catholic Church