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Guest Contributor

Contribute an essay to the New York Almanack here.

Michael Anderson: Plattsburgh’s Native Astronaut

September 14, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Michael Anderson during the STS-107 Columbia Space Shuttle missionHistory is often treated as an old thing, of events before anyone’s living memory, of days gone by. And yet history is happening all around us, all the time, right now, if we only choose to recognize it.

Clinton County made that choice in 2020 — in a big, bold way — a choice to mark the remarkable life of one of its own, Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson. [Read more…] about Michael Anderson: Plattsburgh’s Native Astronaut

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History Tagged With: Air Force History, astronomy, Clinton County, Clinton County Historical Association, Outside Art, Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh Air Foce Base, Science History

1889 Tows on the Hudson River: Great Fleets of Freight Boats

September 13, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Hudson River. A tow just north of West Point (Hudson River Maritime Museum)This article, “Tows on the Hudson. The Great Fleets of Freight Boats That Come Down the River,” first appeared in the August 18, 1889 edition of The New York Times. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer Carl Mayer and annotated by John Warren.

Very few persons who journey up and down the Hudson River either upon the palatial steamers or upon the railway trains that run along both banks of this great waterway know how great an amount of wealth is daily floated to this [New York] city on the canal boats and barges that compose the immense tows that daily leave West Troy [now Watervliet], Lansingburg, Albany, Kingston, and other points along the river bound for this city. [Read more…] about 1889 Tows on the Hudson River: Great Fleets of Freight Boats

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Champlain Canal, East River, Erie Canal, Hudson River, Kingston, Labor History, Lansingburgh, Manhattan, Maritime History, New York City, New York Harbor, Pennsylvania, Rensselaer County, Steamboating, Transportation History, Troy, Ulster County, Watervliet

Aitkin’s Rifles: Mementos of the Battle of Plattsburgh

September 12, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Commemorative plate on the stock of the rifle awarded Captain Martin Aitkin in 1826 "For His Gallantry at the Siege of Plattsburgh" (Battle of Plattsburgh)By any measure, things were looking very grim for General Alexander Macomb and his army on September 3, 1814. Scouting reports indicated that as many as 11,000 battle-hardened British troops were moving south along the western shore of Lake Champlain with Plattsburgh in their sights, and most Plattsburgh inhabitants had left for safer quarters. [Read more…] about Aitkin’s Rifles: Mementos of the Battle of Plattsburgh

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Alexander Macomb, Battle of Plattsburgh, Chazy, Clinton County, Clinton County Historical Association, Material Culture, Military History, Plattsburgh, Saranac River, War of 1812

The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

September 11, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Crowd in front of the New York Stock Exchange, October 1929As the 1920s advanced, the economy soared. But with that dramatic expansion came irrational exuberance and unchecked speculation: stock prices reached levels that had no basis in reality; margin purchases were rampant; banks handed out loans lavishly and imprudently; and giddy product production resulted in a vast oversupply of goods.

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down. This is the story of the Great Depression in New York City. [Read more…] about The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Brooklyn, Economic History, Education, Financial History, Fiorello La Guardia, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, Harlem, Herbert Hoover, Hispanic History, Housing, Jimmy Walker, Labor History, Manhattan, New Deal, New York City, New York Stock Exchange, poverty, Public Health, Queens, Staten Island, Wall Street, WPA

The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

Early illustration of the Iroquois Confederacy, by a EuropeanInitially, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) claimed neutrality during the conflict between Britain and the colonists, seeing the disagreement as a civil war and valuing loyalty to their families and to their lands above all else. When the political discontent erupted into the American Revolutionary War, the member nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy split their support between the British and newly formed American forces. [Read more…] about The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Battle of Newtown, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Finger Lakes, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Loyalism, Military History, Oneida Indian Nation, Onondaga Nation, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Sullivan_Clinton Expedition, Tioga County, Tuscarora

Cliffs Host Varied Flora and Fauna

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Searchers look for the body of a man from Brooklyn in the karst below a cliff at Mohonk Preserve in February 2023On a recent hike up Eagle Mountain in Milton, Vermont, we climbed to a ledge overlooking Lake Champlain. Turkey vultures soared overhead, tilting back and forth on the breeze. A sheer cliff dropped to the forest below us, a lush variety of plants clinging to its face. Cliffs are defined as areas of exposed bedrock with a slope greater than 60 degrees. We tend to think of cliffs as solely geological features. But they also host distinct natural communities of plants and animals. [Read more…] about Cliffs Host Varied Flora and Fauna

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation Tagged With: bats, birding, birds, climbing, Geology, lichen, mosses, raptors, rock climbing, small mammals, snakes, wildflowers, Wildlife

A Sketch of 1854 New York Firemen, Sporting & Fancy

September 9, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

"Streets of New York" advertisement, 1869 (Harvard Theatre Collection)What follows is the essay “Esquisses a la Plume: Types du Bowery—le Pompier” [Pen Sketches: Bowery Types—The Fireman] by an anonymous French observer in the city of New York reprinted in George Goodrich Foster’s New York Naked (1854). It was annotated by John Warren.

The American fireman differs essentially from his French namesake. They have but a single point of correspondence, the common object of their mission. As to the  organization of their bodies and their individual physiology, there is radical difference. [Read more…] about A Sketch of 1854 New York Firemen, Sporting & Fancy

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Cultural History, Fires, French History, Gambling, Manhattan, New York City, Social History, Sports History, The Bowery, Vice

1745: The First Battle of Saratoga

September 7, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Johannes Scuyler and his wife Elizabeth Staats Wendell Schuyler (New-York Historical Society)The First Battle of Saratoga took place during King George’s War (1744-1748) in November 1745. A force of French and Native allies set out from Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point to attack English colonies in either New England or Albany.

When deep snow made travel into New England impractical, they turned toward Old Saratoga, now known as Schuylerville in Saratoga County, NY (near where the 1777 Battles of Saratoga would later take place during the American Revolution). [Read more…] about 1745: The First Battle of Saratoga

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abenaki, Canada, Crown Point, First Battle of Saratoga, Fort Burnet, Fort Saratoga, Fort St. Frederic, Haudenosaunee, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Military History, Mohawk, New France, Philip Schuyler, Quebec, Saratoga County, Schaghticoke, Schuyler House, Warren County, Washington County

The Fox Sisters and the “Great American Hoax”

September 3, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Fox SistersOn this episode of the A New York Minute in History Podcast, Devin Lander and Lauren Roberts tell the story of the Fox sisters of Rochester, NY, who rose to fame as early practitioners of modern spiritualism in the 19th Century. [Read more…] about The Fox Sisters and the “Great American Hoax”

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Historic Palmyra Museums, Monroe County, Newark-Arcadia Historical Society, Podcasts, Rochester, Spiritualism

The Life of a Snapping Turtle

September 2, 2023 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

Snapping Turtle by Marcelo del PuertoUntil 65 million years ago, huge reptiles dominated our planet – and every summer I think they might be making a comeback. The sight of a snapping turtle hauling herself onto a sunny log or lifting her incredible bulk on mud-colored legs always fills me with prehistoric daydreams.

Turtles have roamed the Earth for about 200 million years, meaning they were around during the time of the dinosaurs. [Read more…] about The Life of a Snapping Turtle

Filed Under: Nature Tagged With: reptiles, turtles, wetlands, Wildlife

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