History, Natural History & the Arts
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We need your help! Please DONATE to our annual fundraising campaign to keep New York Almanack publishing. [Read more…] about Please Support New York Almanack’s Annual Fundraising Today
Around the middle of the 20th century, the area east of Third Avenue between Houston and 14th Streets in New York City began a transformation from what it had long been — a working-class immigrant neighborhood — to a unique, exhilarating, and sometimes dangerous one teeming with artists, oddballs, provocateurs, and future icons. [Read more…] about Artists, Oddballs & Provocateurs: The East Village Since 1950
During the 1920s, the Netherlands excelled in dullness, it is said. But Kees Wouters shows how the cobwebs of pillarized society were blown away by a new musical wind from the West: Jazz! Exalted by many, vilified by others, Dutch musicians playing American jazz conquered music halls and radio waves alike and even made the Dutch dance.
According to Dutch historian Hermann von der Dunk, writing in the early 1980s, life in the Netherlands after World War I was as exciting as in a girls’ boarding school. Nothing much happened. Despite the presence of about a million destitute Belgian refugees, the horrors of the war had largely passed the Netherlands by. [Read more…] about American Culture and 1920s Netherlands
The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has committed to constructing new residential buildings at Belmont Park in Hempstead, Nassau County, and Saratoga Race Course designed to provide additional housing options for the backstretch workers’ community.
These projects are part of NYRA’s multi-year, $40 million campaign to modernize and improve backstretch housing and facilities at Belmont and Saratoga. [Read more…] about New Backstretch Housing Planned For Saratoga, Belmont
In 1880, the first eight Game Protectors began serving to protect the natural resources of New York State. In 2022, Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) and Investigators across the state responded to more than 25,600 calls.
What follows are recently reported incidents involving wildlife rescues: [Read more…] about Recent Wildlife Rescues & Encounters: Loggerhead Turtle, NYC Pythons & Caged Whitetail Deer
Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West is a new exhibit at the New York Historical Society that explores the interplay between religion and United States expansion in the 19th-century West. It opens September 22, 2023, and will be on display through February 25, 2024.
The exhibit illuminates the way religion became a vital and contested part of American life. Acts of Faith takes visitors beyond the mythologized “Wild West” of popular culture to present a fuller and surprising picture: a West populated by preachers, pilgrims, and visionaries and home to sacred grounds and cathedrals that kindled spiritual feeling from the woodlands of New York all the way to the valleys of California. [Read more…] about Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West at the New York Historical Society
New York State Parks and Westchester County Parks have approved the renewal of the Jay Heritage Center’s (JHC) stewardship of the 21.5-acre Jay Property for another 10-year period. Westchester County Executive George Latimer personally sponsored Westchester County’s ACT 2023-312 in July to reaffirm the public-private partnership among the County, New York State Parks, and JHC. [Read more…] about Jay Heritage Center Property Management Agreement Renewed
Small changes in daily habits can make a big difference when it comes to our environment. Take transportation for example; using sustainable modes of transport can reduce emissions and save on fossil fuel usage. Looking to get started and help our environment? This year’s Get There Green event is taking place from September 17-24 and invites participants to use environmentally friendly modes of transportation. [Read more…] about Get There Green: Sustainable Transportation Tips
Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct will host a free, easy four-mile loop tour of historic Irvington, Tarrytown and the Old Croton Aqueduct beginning and ending at Main Street School at 101 Main Street, Irvington, in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, NY.
The mostly level, shaded walk will take place on one of the most storied sections of the Old Croton Aqueduct. [Read more…] about Historic Irvington and Tarrytown Old Croton Aqueduct Tour
This article, “Tows on the Hudson. The Great Fleets of Freight Boats That Come Down the River,” first appeared in the August 18, 1889 edition of The New York Times. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer Carl Mayer and annotated by John Warren.
Very few persons who journey up and down the Hudson River either upon the palatial steamers or upon the railway trains that run along both banks of this great waterway know how great an amount of wealth is daily floated to this [New York] city on the canal boats and barges that compose the immense tows that daily leave West Troy [now Watervliet], Lansingburg, Albany, Kingston, and other points along the river bound for this city. [Read more…] about 1889 Tows on the Hudson River: Great Fleets of Freight Boats