This week on The Historians Podcast, Christopher Philippo, a historian from Bethlehem, NY, joins us. He is editor of The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories. Stories include The Green Huntsman and The Christmas Ghost. [Read more…] about Christmas Ghost Stories (Podcast)
Capital-Saratoga
Less Than $1,400 To Go! – We Need You To Help Us Meet Our 2020 Fundraising Goal
We’re less than $1,400 from our annual fundraising goal, but we need your help to get over the top. We receive no public money. We depend on you. (THANK YOU to those who have already done their part!)
To keep New York Almanack publishing we need you to make a contribution online at our Rally.org page: https://rally.org/f/4LBVKo9zYjO
Or, make checks payable to: [Read more…] about Less Than $1,400 To Go! – We Need You To Help Us Meet Our 2020 Fundraising Goal
Ballston Spa’s Abandoned 1814 Factory Awaits Rediscovery
In November, 1813, nine men met in the city of New York to sign an agreement, handwritten by Nicholas Low, to form the Ballston Spa Company for the manufacture of cotton, wool and linen fabrics. They pledged an initial capital of $100,000 in shares of $100 each. A month later the Company announced it would “extend the capital stock” to $800,000, a staggering sum for those days.
Low was a businessman and friend of the rich and powerful of the nation. One was his late colleague Alexander Hamilton. During the 1790s, Low helped midwife the birth of the village of Ballston Spa, in Saratoga County. He owned most of the land upon which it was laid out and spent a fortune developing the village, including the famous Sans Souci Hotel. [Read more…] about Ballston Spa’s Abandoned 1814 Factory Awaits Rediscovery
Saratoga National Park Announces Winter Hours
Saratoga National Historical Park is set to transition to winter hours of operation on Tuesday, December 1st.
Beginning December 1st, the park’s tour road will be closed until April 1st. Winter weather may cause an earlier closure or delay opening. [Read more…] about Saratoga National Park Announces Winter Hours
A Plague of Potato Bugs in 1877 Washington County
The weather at Granville, in Washington County, in June 1877, was ideal for agriculture.
“This is the weather that makes farmers happy,” The Granville Sentinel reported.
Corn and flax crops looked promising, but “vigilance and perseverance is to be the price of potatoes.” [Read more…] about A Plague of Potato Bugs in 1877 Washington County
Daddy Longlegs During Winter
Despite frosts, there continue to be many types of bugs that remain active into late autumn around New York State.
Among these hardy invertebrates, and the ones that are quite conspicuous to anyone that spends time working in the yard, garden or on the wood pile, are the harvestmen, known to most as the daddy-longlegs. [Read more…] about Daddy Longlegs During Winter
Winter Wonderland No More? Climate & Northeastern Forests
Climate change is altering winter weather in the Northeast, leading to less snow and more ice. Northeastern forests, and the resources they provide, need snow to stay healthy. And there is evidence that ice storms – the most destructive form of winter weather – will become more frequent and severe under changing climate conditions.
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is set to host a free virtual science conversation on the effects of climate change on winters, with a focus on consequences for forest ecosystems, on Wednesday, December 9th. [Read more…] about Winter Wonderland No More? Climate & Northeastern Forests
DEC Proposes Statewide 12-Inch Black Bass Size Limit
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed changes to black bass (smallmouth bass and largemouth bass) fishing regulations that the Department says will make them easier to understand. [Read more…] about DEC Proposes Statewide 12-Inch Black Bass Size Limit
Urban Cries: Street Hawkers’ Shouts in New York & London
Pictures of street hawkers with their trade shouts recorded in captions of poetry or prose are known as “Cries.” They first appeared in Paris around 1500. This early creation of an urban iconography included socially marginal people such as vagrants, beggars, prostitutes, and others.
Fifty years later, these images were established as a stylistic category across Europe. Eventually, they would make their way to New York. [Read more…] about Urban Cries: Street Hawkers’ Shouts in New York & London
Sembrich Receives Unique Donation from The Berthelsen Conservancy
The Sembrich in Bolton on Lake George has received a donation of paintbrushes and palate knives used by American Painter Johann Berthelsen.
The brushes were originally a gift to the artist from Marcella Sembrich, who originally presented them to Berthelsen at the time that he was working on a series of paintings that she commissioned. [Read more…] about Sembrich Receives Unique Donation from The Berthelsen Conservancy