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John Warren

John Warren is founder and editor of the New York Almanack. He's been a media professional for more than 35 years with a focus on history, journalism and documentary production. He has a master's degree in Public History and is on the staff of the New York State Writers Institute, a center for literary arts based at the University at Albany. John lives in the Adirondack Park. His weekly Adirondack Outdoors Conditions Report airs across Northern New York on the North Country Public Radio network.

Leadership Changes At Long Island Museums Stir Controversy, Confidence

October 2, 2023 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Nassau County Museum of Art in 2017The Nassau County Museum of Art has abruptly dismissed its Museum Director in a controversial move that is prompting calls for his reinstatement and the Southampton History Museum has announced a new Executive Director without controversy.

This is the second time in six years the Nassau County Museum suddenly and without warning replaced its Museum Director. [Read more…] about Leadership Changes At Long Island Museums Stir Controversy, Confidence

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Long Island, Museums, Nassau County, Nassau County Museum of Art, Southampton, Southampton History Museum, Suffolk County

Federal Student Loan Payment Pause Ending

August 30, 2023 by John Warren Leave a Comment

US Capitol Building SouthAfter more than three years, the Federal Student Loan payment pause ends and interest resumes on September 1, 2023 with payments scheduled to restart in October 2023.

Begun under the Trump administration in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Student Loan payment pause allowed borrowers to stop making payments on their federal student loans without penalty. The payment pause was extended by the Biden administration several times, but widespread cancellation was halted by the conservative Supreme Court.

The end of the payment pause will have a significant impact on borrowers and is expected to lead to an increase in defaults on the some $1.75 trillion total debt from some 45.3 million borrowers. [Read more…] about Federal Student Loan Payment Pause Ending

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: Academia, Education, Housing, poverty

August 1807: Robert Fulton’s Steamboat Makes History

August 18, 2023 by John Warren 2 Comments

The 1909 replica of the North River Steamboat (Clermont) at anchorRobert Fulton did not invent the steamboat. There were perhaps 20 others who worked toward the same goal before the North River Steamboat, later known as Clermont, left the dock in the city of New York for Albany on August 17, 1807. [Read more…] about August 1807: Robert Fulton’s Steamboat Makes History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Clermont, Clermont State Historic Site, Dutchess County, Engineering History, Hudson River, Industrial History, Legal History, Livingston Manor, Maritime History, New York City, Robert Fulton, Robert Livingston, Steamboating, Transportation History

New York History Conference Returning in 2024

June 8, 2023 by John Warren 4 Comments

map of New York State with its counties, 1788The New York State Museum, New York State Archives, and the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, in collaboration with the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College and the Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta, have announced a New York State History Conference for June 2024.

It will be five years since a general conference on New York State history has taken place. [Read more…] about New York History Conference Returning in 2024

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Events, History Tagged With: Academia, Archives Partnership Trust, Conference on NYS History, Conferences, Hudson River Valley Institute, Marist College, New York State Archives, New York State History Conference, New York State Museum, Public History, Researching New York Conference, SUNY Oneonta

The Decline of the New York State Museum

March 27, 2023 by John Warren 12 Comments

Albany Cultural Education Center State Museum Archives and LibraryNew York State Museum leadership is under fire again. This time from Albany Times Union columnist Chris Churchill. He points out that it’s been eight years since a $14 million overhaul of the museums exhibits was announced. [Read more…] about The Decline of the New York State Museum

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Conference on NYS History, Museums, New York State Museum, New York State Regents, Office of Cultural Education, State Historian

Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York

January 19, 2023 by John Warren 7 Comments

A recreated chase of bootleggers in Chestertown, NY in 2013 (photo by John Warren)Dennis Warren left his job as a coal shoveler on the New York Central Railroad in Albany to ship out to the First World War. His transport ship had a close call with a German submarine on the way over, but got there in time to take part in what one of the bloodiest military campaigns in American history.

For Americans after the war, the Argonne would mean what Normandy meant just 25 years later – sacrifice. Sadly, that sacrifice in the Argonne Forest was never repaid to Dennis Warren, who met the death of a smuggler – running from an officious and invasive law on a treacherous mountain road near Port Henry on Lake Champlain.

According to the newsman who reported his death at the age of 29, “Canadian Ale was spread across the road.” [Read more…] about Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Al Smith, beer, Canada, Clinton County, Crime and Justice, DeWitt, Essex County, Franklin County, Genealogy, Journalism, Lafayette, Lake Champlain, Legal History, liquor, Manlius, Newspapers, Onondaga, Onondaga County, Oral History, Plattsburgh, Political History, Pompey, Port Henry, Prohibition, Quebec, Rouses Point, Route 9, St Lawrence County, State Police, SUNY Plattsburgh, Vice, World War One

“Strange things about Mrs. Simeon Hays,” The Woman That Lived Without Eating

December 27, 2022 by John Warren 2 Comments

Chestertown and Horicon map 1858Night and day for three full weeks six well-dressed men would take shifts standing watch over Betsey Hays in her bed. They planned to stay with her two at a time in her one room cabin and make careful scientific notes.  For Betsey, who spent most of her time tormented by uncontrollable bodily contortions and seizures, it was something she was used to.

Over the past two years, thousands of people had come to Chestertown in Northern Warren County to stand over her as she suffered. [Read more…] about “Strange things about Mrs. Simeon Hays,” The Woman That Lived Without Eating

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Brant Lake, Chestertown, Glens Falls, Horicon, Medical History, NYU, Religious History, Science History, Warren County, Washington County, William Miller

Rough And Tumble: A Short History of Eye Gouging

September 7, 2022 by John Warren 3 Comments

Retired NYPD officer Thomas Webster, dubbed the 'eye gouger,' attacks a DC police officer in a still from January 6th videoLast week Thomas Webster, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, was sentenced to the stiffest sentence so far – 10 years – for his actions while attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6th in an effort to keep Donald Trump in power. In the effort to identify the insurrectionists, Webster was given the name “eye-gouger” for his attempt to gouge the eyes of a Washington D.C. police officer.

It’s a long American tradition. Eye gouging, not insurrection. [Read more…] about Rough And Tumble: A Short History of Eye Gouging

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: boxing, Crime and Justice, Cultural History, Lansingburgh, Medical History, New York City, Poughkeepsie, Social History, Vice, Virginia

Leland Stanford, The Bull’s Head & Albany’s 19th Century Cattle Market

May 11, 2022 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Leland Stanford portrait by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, 1881, courtesy Stanford MuseumCalifornia’s 8th Governor and long-time Senator Leland Stanford, namesake of Stanford University and one-time president of the Central Pacific Railroad, has a unique connection to New York State’s Capital District.

Leland was born in Watervliet in 1824, the son of Josiah Stanford and Elizabeth Phillips. Among his seven siblings were New York Senator Charles Stanford (1819-1885) and Australian spiritualist Thomas Welton Stanford (1832-1918). The elder Stanford was a wealthy farmer in the eastern Mohawk Valley before moving to the Lisha Kill in Albany County where Leland was born. [Read more…] about Leland Stanford, The Bull’s Head & Albany’s 19th Century Cattle Market

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Food, History Tagged With: Agricultural History, Albany, Albany County, Colonie, Culinary History, Gambling, Gold Rush of 1849, Horses, Leland Stanford, Political History, Stanford University, Transportation History, Troy, Vice

“Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad

March 26, 2022 by John Warren 8 Comments

Gainesville Midland track maintenance crew, CA 1890The St. Lawrence & Adirondack Railroad, also known as the Mohawk & Malone – eventually owned by the New York Central and called the Adirondack Line or the Adirondack Railroad ran directly through the Adirondacks from Herkimer (near Utica) to Malone connecting the rail lines along the Mohawk River to the Main Trunk Line running into Montreal. The line is often attributed to William Seward Webb, but it was the men who actually built the line that are the subject of this essay.

On March 29, 1892 a Boston Globe article titled “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks” reported that Utica “resembled Washington during war times, hundreds of penniless and destitute Negroes are camped out tonight in the temporary places of shelter given them, and the citizens of Utica are consulting as to the best means of returning them to their homes.”

The Globe told readers that all night, “runaway slaves” had been coming into town. One hundred and fifty of them, mostly black laborers from the Deep South, but some recently arrived European immigrants as well. [Read more…] about “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Adirondack Scenic Railroad, Adirondacks, Black History, Black River, Boonville, Crime and Justice, Franklin County, Herkimer COunty, Immigration, Irish Immigrants, Labor History, Legal History, malone, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, New York Central RR, Oneida County, railroads, Saranac Lake, St Lawrence County, Transportation History, Tupper Lake, Utica, William Seward Webb

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