History, Natural History & the Arts
Upcoming New York State EventsIf you would like us to run an event announcement from your organization, you should send a press release.
The Path through History project held its long-awaited kickoff conference on August 28 in Albany. An estimated crowd of 250-300 people attended the all-day program which included lectures, breakout sessions, regional reports, a reception at the Executive Mansion … and great food. [Read more…] about Commentary: Path Through History Project Meeting
On September 29, the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, New York, will host a second annual Americana Symposium. This year the theme is “Civil War Era Material Culture”; the event will be held at the Fenimore Art Museum from 9am until 5pm.
The symposium brings together leading scholars and experts on American history, art, and culture. After morning speaker sessions and an optional buffet lunch at noon, the 77th New York Regimental Balladeers perform in a special presentation, “Hard Times Come Again No More: America’s Heart Songs”. The balladeers preserve the songs, tunes, history, and spirit of the Antebellum and Civil War period using original musical arrangements and lyrics.
This year’s presentations include:
Symposium attendees also have the opportunity to explore the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum. Cooking demonstrations take place at The Farmers’ Museum, and a reproduction regimental silk flag will be painted at the Fenimore Art Museum. The symposium coincides with the Fenimore Art Museum’s exhibition, On the Home Front: New York in the Civil War, which runs from September 8 through December 31, 2012. The exhibition features Civil War–era artifacts, artwork, photographs and clothing.
The public is invited to explore the exciting world of Americana. Registration is limited and is $65 for NYSHA members and Archive Partnership Trust members, $75 non-members. For a complete schedule or to register online, visit FenimoreArtMuseum.org or call (607) 547-1453.
The Union may have won the war but the South has won Civil War tourism and its legacy. It’s an extraordinary fact of life that wherever the National Park Service has a site, a battle was fought there! And they are all in the South with the major exception of Gettysburg.
Time and time again presentations on life back then in antebellum (before the war) times begin with Gone with the Wind, still the box-office champion adjusted for inflation. What story does the North including New York have to tell that can compare with the pageantry of the South, the chivalry of the idealized plantation, and the glamour of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh? Freedom and preserving the Union that made the world safe for democracy in the three world wars in the 20th century should count for something, even for Confederates. [Read more…] about Peter Feinman: New York and the Civil War
On October 12, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York and the New School Archives and Special Collections will be co-sponsoring Archives and Activism, a symposium exploring the burgeoning relationship between archives/archivists and social and political activist movements. Proposals for individual papers and group panels to be presented at the symposium are currently being accepted. See the official CFP below:
Archives and Activism: Call for Papers
“The rebellion of the archivist against his normal role is not, as so many scholars fear, the politicizing of a neutral craft, but the humanizing of an inevitably political craft.”
— Howard Zinn “Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest,” Vol. II, No. 2 (1977) of Midwestern Archivist.
The boundaries between “archivist” and “activist” have become increasingly porous, rendering ready distinctions between archivists (traditionally restricted to the preservation of records, maintaining accountability, and making critical information available to the communities they serve) and activists (who, with greater frequency, look to archives or adopt elements of archival practice as a means of documenting their struggles) virtually unsustainable. In the past year, archivists and citizen activists collaborated to document the Occupy Wall Street movement, and archivists committed to open government worked with the New York City Council to advocate for keeping the Municipal Archives as an independent city agency. While the apparent convergence of archival and activist worlds may appear a timely and relevant topic, these distinct communities often deliberate their roles separately with little dialogue.
The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York and the New School Archives and Special Collections are sponsoring a symposium to bring together a diverse group of archivists, activists, students, and theorists with the aim of facilitating discussion of their respective concerns. Among its proposed topics, the symposium will address potential roles that archivists may engage in as activists, as well as how archivists can assume a greater role in documenting and contributing toward social and political change.
Possible areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
-Archivists documenting the work of activists and activist movements
-Activists confronting traditional archival practice
-Possible models for an emergent “activist archives”
-Methodologies for more comprehensively documenting activism
-Archivist and activist collaborations
-Community-led archives and repositories operating outside of the archival
establishment
-Archives as sites of knowledge (re)production and in(ter)vention
-Relational paradigms for mapping the interplay of power, justice, and archives
-Critical pedagogy in the reference encounter
-Interrogating preconceptions and misunderstandings that obscure common goals
Date: Friday, October 12, 2012
Location: Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, The New School
All individual presentations will be 20 minutes long (10 page paper).
Submissions must include a title, name of author and institutional affiliation (if applicable), abstract (250 words max), and indication of technological requirements.
Individual papers or entire panel proposals accepted.
Deadline for Proposals: Proposals should be emailed to admin@nycarchivists.org by August 1, 2012.
On April 22-24, MANY and Museumwise held their annual conference in Albany. The two organizations are in the processing of merging which should be a good thing. Due to all the commotion over the NYS Regents, the Core Curriculum, and the state requirements in social studies for high school graduation, I have been delayed in posting about that conference. [Read more…] about Peter Feinman: The MANY / Museumwise Conference
The New York Archives Conference (NYAC) is an annual gathering of New York State archivists, curators, historians, and anyone else with an interest in the preservation and accessibility of archives and primary historical resources. This year’s NYAC meeting will take place at Nazareth College in Rochester from June 6-8.
NYAC provides an excellent platform for both new and established archives professionals to share their work, exchange ideas, learn about emerging trends, and become further involved in the professional archives community. This year’s conference will feature workshops and information sessions on managing digital collections, mobile apps for archives, facilitating genealogical research in archives, future plans for the New York Heritage Project, and much more.
Conference attendants will also have the opportunity to tour area repositories, including the Nazareth College Archives and the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The conference’s plenary speaker will be Marie Holden, Chief of Archival Services at the New York State Archives, who will offer advice on disaster preparedness for archival institutions based on success stories and lessons learned from 2011’s Tropical Storm Lee.
For those interested, the full conference program is available here. It’s also not too late to register!
On Saturday, June 16, 2012, the Schenectady County Historical Society will host a reunion of Civilian Conservation Corps alumni, family, & friends from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady. Marty Podskoch, author of Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: Their History, Memories and Legacy, will give a short presentation and will invite participants to share their memories of the camps. [Read more…] about Schenectady Civilian Conservation Corps Reunion
The organizers of the Researching New York Conference invite proposals for panels, papers, workshops, roundtables, exhibits, and documentary and multimedia presentations on any aspect of New York State history —in any time period and from any perspective. The conference will be held at the University at Albany on November 15-16, 2012. This annual conference brings together historians, archivists, graduate students, public historians, documentarians, and multimedia producers, to share their work on New York State history.
Nature, science, and technology are reflected in the fabric of the State’s economy, public policy, and culture—and in the lives of its citizens. Environmental forces and human histories have long been intertwined. Among many concerns, policymakers today consider the implications of energy, light rail and nanotech research, while their predecessors sought to develop the economy of the state with infrastructure projects like the Erie Canal, the New York State Thruway, agricultural experiment stations, housing projects, and much more. For 2012, the organizers especially encourage submissions that call attention to transformations of the New York state landscape, while exploring historic ways of knowing and understanding the environment and the broader social, cultural, and political implications of technological and environmental transformations.
The proposal deadline is July 1, 2012. Complete panels, workshops, media presentations, or sessions are preferred; partial panels and individual submissions will be considered. For complete sessions please submit a one-page abstract of the complete session and a one-page abstract and curriculum vita for each individual participant. For individual submissions, submit a one-page abstract and one-page curriculum vita. Submissions must include name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. Submit electronically to resrchny@albany.edu. All proposals must detail any anticipated audiovisual needs or time constraints at the time of submission.
The organizers also seek commentators for panels. Please indicate your interest by contacting us at resrchny@albany.edu, noting your area of expertise and including a one-page vita.
Limited space is still available to attend Fort Ticonderoga’s Seventeenth Annual War College of the Seven Years’ War May 18-20, 2012. This annual seminar focuses on the French and Indian War in North America (1754-1763), bringing together a panel of distinguished historians from around the country and beyond. The War College takes place in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center and is open to the public; pre-registration is required.
Begun in 1996, the War College of the Seven Years’ War has become one of the premier seminars on the French & Indian War in the country. It features a mix of new and established scholars in an informal setting for a weekend of presentations related to the military, social, and cultural history of the French & Indian War. Speakers include:
De Witt Bailey, British author and 18th-century arms expert, on British weapons of the war.
Maria Alessandra Bollettino, Framingham State University, on slave revolts in the British Caribbean during the war.
Earl John Chapman, Canadian author and historian, on the experiences of James Thompson, a sergeant in the 78th Highlanders.
Christopher D. Fox, Fort Ticonderoga, on Colonel Abijah Willard’s Massachusetts Provincials in 1759.
Jean-François Lozier, Canadian Museum of Civilization, on the use of paints and cosmetics among Natives and Europeans.
Paul W. Mapp, College of William & Mary, on the role the vast western lands played in the battle for empire.
William P. Tatum III, David Library of the American Revolution, on the British military justice system, using ten courts-martial at Ticonderoga in 1759 as case studies.
Len Travers, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, on the “Lost Patrol of 1756” on Lake George. The weekend kicks of Friday evening with a presentation by Ticonderoga Town Historian William G. Dolback on “Historic Ticonderoga in Pictures.” Dolback is also President of the Ticonderoga Historical Society and leading local efforts to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the first settler in Ticonderoga in 1764.
Registration for the War College is $145 for the weekend ($125 for members of the Friends of Fort Ticonderoga). Registration forms can be downloaded from the Fort’s website under the “Explore and Learn” tab by selecting “Life Long Learning” on the drop down menu and then clicking on the War College. A printed copy is also available upon request by contacting Rich Strum, Director of Education, at 518-585-6370.
A conference entitled “Civil War on Trial-Legal Issues That Divided A Nation” will feature a three-day program over June 7-9, 2012, include some of the foremost Civil War and Constitutional scholars in the nation on the subjects of the Civil War and the law, and will look at this iconic period in American history in a way unique from virtually all other conferences nationwide. The conference is being chaired by nationally prominent Civil War scholars Paul Finkelman and Harold Holzer.
The conference will be held on the campus of Albany Law School in Albany, New York from June 7-9, 2012. For more information on the conference agenda and registration, go to www.nysarchivestrust.org or call (518) 473-7091.
The New York State Archives Partnership Trust and the Government Law Center at Albany Law School, in cooperation with the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York, the New York State Bar Association, and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation are organizing the conference. Principal financial support has been provided by History Channel and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.