When Paris first heard American jazz, it is – from our perspective – impossible to make sense of the cultural thunderbolt that must have hit audiences. This music was so wholly different to European ears that it was either scornfully rejected or eagerly accepted. [Read more…] about Harlem & The Hellfighter Band That Set France Jazz Mad
New York City
National Lighthouse Museum, Staten Island, Announces 2021 Events
The National Lighthouse Museum (NLM) has announced their scheduled events for the month of May. [Read more…] about National Lighthouse Museum, Staten Island, Announces 2021 Events
Grants Available For Downstate Historic Signs
The newest grant round of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s New York State Historic Marker Grant Program is now open. This program commemorates historic people, places, things or events in New York State within the time frame of 1740-1921. Grant funding includes the full cost of a marker, pole and shipping. [Read more…] about Grants Available For Downstate Historic Signs
Square Dancing on Long Island: An Insider’s Look
An immigrant’s son from Brooklyn, Primo Fiore created a life for himself and his family as a physical education teacher on Long Island in the 1960s. He became involved in square dancing through gym class but wound up calling dances at Jones Beach for over twenty-five years. He and his son Mario describe that journey, including the intricacies and challenges of calling a square dance, on the most recent episode of the Long Island History Project. [Read more…] about Square Dancing on Long Island: An Insider’s Look
Humorous Reporting About Historic Politicians
Trivia clue: He was reportedly the first New York governor to address contestants of a New York spelling bee.
Correct response: Who is Nathan Miller? On August 19th, 1922, The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported that Miller would speak September 12th at a dinner at the New York State Fair for contestants in the state spelling bee. [Read more…] about Humorous Reporting About Historic Politicians
DEC Plans Changes to Whelk Harvesting Rules
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced proposed changes to whelk harvesting regulations in New York’s Marine and Coastal District. DEC is seeking to adopt a minimum size limit for whelk to protect immature females in the population and increase their potential to reach reproductive maturity. The proposal is available for public comment until June 21, 2021. [Read more…] about DEC Plans Changes to Whelk Harvesting Rules
The 1982 Day The Markets Roared
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
1982 was a year that marked the start of almost four decades of US economic growth. However, this classic Wall Street story has never been fully told until now.
After painful years of high interest rates and the inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s, consumers were paying 17% and higher to borrow money. But by the end of one summer day almost 40 years ago, the stock market had undergone its second-biggest rally since WWII, while bond prices soared and interest rates plunged. [Read more…] about The 1982 Day The Markets Roared
Myth and Migration: The Old West As Urban Invention
The idea of utopia as a place of peace and plenty away from the hardships of ordinary life, is a recurring theme in literature. The term entered popular usage after publication of Thomas More’s Utopia in 1516. His Eden is an idyllic island society wholly removed from the corruption of sixteenth century England. [Read more…] about Myth and Migration: The Old West As Urban Invention
Historian Jill Lepore On Data Mining and Voter Manipulation
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
Jill Lepore’s book, If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future (Liveright, 2020) is an account of the Cold War origins of the data-obsessed, algorithmic twenty-first century.
Launched in 1959 by some of the nation’s leading social scientists, the Simulmatics Corporation mined data, targeted voters, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge ― decades before Facebook, Google, and Cambridge Analytica. [Read more…] about Historian Jill Lepore On Data Mining and Voter Manipulation
Forest Rangers Respond: Searches, Rescues, Enforcement
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents in the Adirondacks. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Forest Rangers Respond: Searches, Rescues, Enforcement