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Arts

Albany Artist Walter Launt Palmer: A Short Biography

April 13, 2015 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

image008Artist Walter Launt Palmer (1854–1932), the son of Albany sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer, enjoyed a revival of interest in the art world in the 2010s. It became common to see his paintings in art magazines and at major auctions across the country, bringing record prices for his oils and watercolors.

As an artist who preferred living and working in his home community of Albany, rather than New York City, Palmer carried forward the creative genius that emerged in the region generations earlier with the Hudson River School and his father’s own sculpture. [Read more…] about Albany Artist Walter Launt Palmer: A Short Biography

Filed Under: History, Arts, Capital-Saratoga Tagged With: Albany, Albany Institute For History and Art, Art History, Frederic Church, Hudson River School, painting, winter

Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow

October 23, 2014 by John Conway Leave a Comment

IrvingIt was once without question the best known ghost story set in Sullivan County, written by one of America’s most respected writers, and yet it is largely unknown today.

It combines detailed descriptions of the rich and bountiful beauty of this area in the 19th century with cleverly conceived ghouls as hideous as any in American literature.

It is Washington Irving’s 1838 short story “Hans Swartz: A Marvelous Tale of Mamakating Hollow” and it is still appropriate reading this Halloween season, more than 170 years after it was penned. [Read more…] about Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow

Filed Under: History, Arts, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Catskills, Esopus River, Halloween, Literature, Martin Van Buren, New Netherland, Shawangunk Ridge, Sullivan County, Washington Irving

AMC’s ‘Turn’: Lively Fiction, But Tenuous Connections to Fact

June 5, 2014 by Elizabeth Kahn Kaplan 35 Comments

TURN-Official-Teaser-TrailerOh, dear. What a disappointment. Many who were thrilled by the news that the AMC Channel was creating “Turn”, a television series to tell the true story of George Washington’s Long Island spy ring were startled to see glaring inaccuracies depicted, from the opening scene on April 6, 2014.

Had the writers not pinned the names of historic figures onto their characters, and instead developed a script of pure fiction about spying, adultery, gratuitous violence and traitorous generals during the American Revolution, one could sit back with feet up and relax with escapist fantasy. No problem. But – when a producer and a network advertise a program as “a true story,” and then proceed not only to bend the truth but, on occasion, to break it across their knees, and when “real” characters bear no resemblance to their flesh and blood namesakes, it is time to protest. [Read more…] about AMC’s ‘Turn’: Lively Fiction, But Tenuous Connections to Fact

Filed Under: History, Arts, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, George Washington, Long Island, Media, Military History

Early Black Musicians in Upstate New York

December 11, 2013 by David Fiske 8 Comments

Early African American FiddlerThe film 12 Years a Slave tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was lured away from Saratoga Springs, New York in 1841, and sold into slavery. Though he played the fiddle (and the men who tricked him into leaving Saratoga told him they wanted him to fiddle for a circus), the film overstates Northup’s status as a musician. Primarily, he earned his money from other work.

In his 1853 autobiography however, Northup wrote that prior to moving to Saratoga he had performed: “Wherever the young people assembled to dance, I was almost invariably there.” He attained some renown in Washington County, since: “Throughout the surrounding villages my fiddle was notorious.” [Read more…] about Early Black Musicians in Upstate New York

Filed Under: History, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Auburn, Black History, Cultural History, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Rome, Saratoga County, Saratoga Springs, Solomon Northup, Washington County

Musician Blind Tom: Black Pianist and Entertainer

June 5, 2013 by Herb Hallas Leave a Comment

3b30858rIn June 1874, music lovers in Northern New York were excited. For the second time in three years, Blind Tom, the world-renowned black pianist and entertainer and arguably the first black superstar to perform in the U.S., was coming to Malone. For years after the Civil War, he had been wowing audiences throughout the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, continental Europe, and South America with his one-man show which was part vaudeville and part classical piano music.

Tom had many talents including the ability to: play the piano, coronet, French horn and flute; sing and recite speeches of well-known politicians in Greek, Latin, German and French; mimic any music a member of the audience might offer for him to hear; and use his voice to make the sounds of locomotives, bagpipes, banjos and music boxes. While singing one song, he could play a second with his right hand, and a third with the left. [Read more…] about Musician Blind Tom: Black Pianist and Entertainer

Filed Under: History, Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: Black History, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts

Westchester County Civil War Monuments (Part Two)

March 19, 2013 by Miguel Hernandez 3 Comments

Sleepy HollowThis granite and bronze monument in the Village of Sleepy Hollow, is located near southwestern corner of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and was dedicated on May 30, 1890. by the local GAR post. Inscriptions on the front (west) face include a Latin dedication, along with “Our Union Soldiers” and the following poem: “While Freedom’s name is understood, they shall delight the wise and good; They dared to set their country free and gave her laws equality 1861-1865.”

The monument’s south, east and north faces feature bronze plaques honoring some 240 local veterans. The references to Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant reflect the fact that the Village of Sleepy Hollow lies within Mount Pleasant, which is just north of Greenburgh. The monument is surrounded by a plot containing graves of Civil War veterans. The names of soldiers killed in action are engraved into the monument’s base; those who served are listed on tablets mounted to the base. The work was made in the New York foundry of the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company.
[Read more…] about Westchester County Civil War Monuments (Part Two)

Filed Under: History, Arts, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Civil War, sculpture, Westchester County

The Real Lake Placid: Alligators in Mirror Lake?

December 11, 2012 by Lawrence P. Gooley 2 Comments

In 1999, Fox 2000 Pictures released the film Lake Placid. Despite the title, the story takes place on fictional Black Lake in Maine. The folks at Fox apparently figured the name of an internationally renowned Olympic site in New York might attract more attention than Black Lake, which was, after all, placid, just like the title said. Except for those times when a giant killer crocodile was thrashing on the surface, gulping down humans for lunch. [Read more…] about The Real Lake Placid: Alligators in Mirror Lake?

Filed Under: History, Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Cultural History, Environmental History, Essex County, film, Film History, Lake Placid, Natural History

NYC Documentary Film Screenings Set

October 16, 2012 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Historic Districts Council (HDC) of New York City will host a film series, “Across New York”, that highlights stories from across the City’s five boroughs on how the city came to be and the people who helped shape it. [Read more…] about NYC Documentary Film Screenings Set

Filed Under: Events, Arts, New York City Tagged With: Documentary, Film History, Historic Districts Council, New York City

Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt

July 29, 2012 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Mark Twain Theordore RooseveltBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

Around 1900 two celebrated figures with close ties to New York rivaled each other in the love of their countrymen: Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt dominated the politics of the era the way the author of Huckleberry Finn dominated its culture.

As national celebrities, Roosevelt and Mark Twain were well acquainted, and neither spoke ill of the other in public. Yet Philip McFarland, author of five works of non-fiction, reveals a behind-closed-doors rivalry in his book, Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Arrival of a New Century (2012, Rowman & Littlefield). [Read more…] about Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt

Filed Under: Books, Arts, History Tagged With: Cultural History, Literature, Mark Twain, Political History, Pop Culture History, Theodore Roosevelt

Whitehall Filmmaking: The Girl on the Barge

July 24, 2012 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Following is the story of a movie that was filmed long ago on the barge canal in Whitehall, New York, where the canal links with Lake Champlain. The details were researched and written by my partner, Jill McKee, after following up on a recollection of her beloved elderly aunt, Mary Barber (now deceased). This fortunate collaboration led to the addition of an exhibit in Whitehall’s Skenesborough Museum.
In 1929, Universal Pictures released a film called The Girl on the Barge. The movie was about Erie McCadden, the illiterate daughter of a crusty, alcoholic barge captain. Erie falls in love with Fogarty, the pilot of the tugboat that is towing her father’s barge from New York to Buffalo on the Erie Canal. Captain McCadden is not at all pleased when he discovers the romance, and his anger is escalated further by the fact that Fogarty is teaching Erie to read.

[Read more…] about Whitehall Filmmaking: The Girl on the Barge

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Barge Canal, Champlain Canal, Cultural History, Film History, Glens Falls, Performing Arts, Pop Culture History, Washington County, Whitehall

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