The Schenectady County Historical Society will host “Iroquois/Haudenosaunee Material Culture, 1700-1815,” a virtual program exploring the material culture of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, between 1700 and 1815, set for Thursday, February 24th. [Read more…] about Haudenosaunee Material Culture, 1700-1815 (Virtual Program)
Arts
Adirondack Experience ‘Artists & Inspiration in the Wild’ Exhibit Gets Boost
The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, (ADKX, formerly known as the Adirondack Museum) has received a $500,000 grant from the Challenge Grants program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a federal agency. The funds will help support the $2.25M construction cost of a new Artists & Inspiration in the Wild exhibition effort. [Read more…] about Adirondack Experience ‘Artists & Inspiration in the Wild’ Exhibit Gets Boost
Poetry: Atammayata
Atammayata
Birth and death, love and hate, the burnt scent
of cloves on fingers and campfire on jeans,
nothing is attached for long.
In the butter-soft leather light of purple fog,
a royal procession of swans announces themselves.
Not made of that, the lake is restless for now
The Spirit of the Times: A 19th Century Chronicle of American Sports
In the early 1800s it was unusual for Americans to be interested in sporting matters on their own shores. News from Europe was the only sporting news of merit, and publishing an American sporting journal was considered a risky use of capital.
The first attempt along these lines may have been in 1829 Baltimore, where John S. Skinner published a monthly magazine which focused on race horse pedigrees called The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. Another early attempt was published in New York by the recognized writer and horseman Cadwallader R. Colden, whose organ was called The New-York Sporting Magazine and Annals of the American and English Turf, first published in 1833.
Among the most notable of the sporting press arrived in 1831, when William T. Porter and James Haw published the first issue of The Spirit of the Times, focusing on horse literature and sporting subjects. They had chosen the name for their broadsheet from a quotation in Shakespeare’s King John, “The spirit of the times shall teach me speed.” [Read more…] about The Spirit of the Times: A 19th Century Chronicle of American Sports
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Architect Richard Morris Hunt Virtual Walking Tour
Richard Morris Hunt (1827 -1895) was known as the “Dean of American Architects.” In addition to raising the discipline of architecture to the status of a profession in the United States, Hunt also revolutionized apartment living in New York, created the nation’s first “studio apartment,” and gave the city of New York some of its most beloved architectural gems.
Along the way, Hunt helped transform New York’s built environment, by championing the City Beautiful Movement, and founding civic organizations like the Municipal Art Society, and the American Institute of Architects. [Read more…] about Architect Richard Morris Hunt Virtual Walking Tour
Arto Monaco’s Valcour, Plattsburgh Battle Dioramas Being Conserved
The Clinton County Historical Association has announce it has received a Conservation Treatment Grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for the conservation of a diorama created by Adirondack artist and theme park creator Arto Monaco (1913-2003).
The diorama was a gift from the Plattsburgh Rotary who commissioned the work for the 1976 United States Bicentennial celebration. It’s been moved to several locations over the years, resting finally within the CCHA Museum at 98 Ohio Avenue on the Old Base Museum Campus in Plattsburgh, NY. [Read more…] about Arto Monaco’s Valcour, Plattsburgh Battle Dioramas Being Conserved
Poetry: Milk for Morning Cereal
Milk for Morning Cereal
Pre-electricity at the cabin, we kept
milk cold in the spring across the road.
Whoever was chosen to fetch it would
baptize their footgear in dew drawn
from the atmosphere by temperature
differentials. But you dared not
contemplate that as you negotiated
fetching the bottle from the spring
lest you — as we long feared — pitch
head-first into the sunken barrel
to drown before you were missed
back in the conviviality of the cabin.
I recall images of myself barrel-
stuck like a Charlie Chaplin figure,
feet pumping the air for non-existent
purchase to anchor pulling oneself
out of fatal harm’s way. Imagine that
as your last thought on this Earth,
Heaven itself chuckling uncontrollably.
To reincarnate would be embarrassing.
What Did You Learn This Year At New York Almanack?
What was your favorite story this past year? Whatever it was, it cost money to produce. Now we need your help.
We have less than $1,980 to reach our goal for 2021. Please chip in to support New York Almanack‘s 13th year of providing stories about New York State history, natural history and culture.
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Please make a contribution online at our Rally.org page: https://rally.org/f/4LBVKo9zYjO Or, send a check to: [Read more…] about What Did You Learn This Year At New York Almanack?
Poetry: Opal
Opal
Come to the surface,
O dear stone, the time
to appreciate each other
is nearly over.