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New York City

Coexisting with Coyotes

January 6, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

coyote courtesy of Jeff SenecaAs coyote breeding season begins in January, sightings are bound to increase. The Rockefeller State Park Preserve will host “Coexisting with Coyotes,” a program set for Sunday, January 29th.

[Read more…] about Coexisting with Coyotes

Filed Under: Events, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Rockefeller State Park Preserve

Edward Lange Long Island Artworks Sought For Research

January 5, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Winter scene by Edward LangeDuring the 1970s, staff at Preservation Long Island launched the first major effort to document all the known Long Island works by the artist Edward Lange who depicted local communities with precise detail during the 1870s and 80s. [Read more…] about Edward Lange Long Island Artworks Sought For Research

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Historic Preservation, Long Island, Material Culture, Nassau County, painting, Preservation Long Island, Suffolk County

Manhattan’s Great Art Dealers: Some History

January 4, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Mary Mason Jones’ marble mansionManhattan’s 57th Street, the world’s “most expensive” street, was laid out and opened in 1857 as the city of New York expanded northward.

With the Hudson and East Rivers on either end, the area was until then largely uninhabited and clustered with small factories and workshops. As late as the 1860s, the area east of Central Park was a shantytown with up to 5,000 squatters.

Half a century later it was Manhattan’s cultural heart and an intercontinental meeting place of artists, collectors and dealers. [Read more…] about Manhattan’s Great Art Dealers: Some History

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, French History, German-American History, Immigration, Impressionism, Manhattan, modernism, Museum of Modern Art, Museums, New York City, painting, spanish history

Hudson River Steamboat Images Go Online

January 3, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Steamboat City of HudsonThe newest collection of Hudson River Maritime Museum material on the New York Heritage website are steamboat images from the Tracey Irving Brooks photograph collection.

Tracey Irving Brooks was a professional quality photographer based in the Capitol Region of New York State. Born in 1888, Brooks photographed Hudson River steamboats during the first half of the 1900s. The collection covers an extensive variety of steamboats on the upper portion of the Hudson River. [Read more…] about Hudson River Steamboat Images Go Online

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Hudson River, Hudson River Maritime Museum, New York Heritage, Online Resources, Photography, Steamboating, Transportation History

The Natural History of Long Island

January 3, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

southampton history museumThe Southampton History Museum will host “Our Island’s Story: The Natural History of Long Island,” a virtual program set for Tuesday, February 17th. [Read more…] about The Natural History of Long Island

Filed Under: Events, History, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Southampton Historical Museum

Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

January 2, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Franklin WilliamsLarger-than-life figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King and, going back further, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, functioned as the “celebrities” of the equal rights movement, the public face of the crusade for racial justice.

But outside the spotlight, “bridge figures” such as New Yorker Franklin H. Williams — men and woman unencumbered by the sometimes blinding “star quality” of the Kings and Marshalls while also shunning the divisive tactics of militants such as Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, and Malcolm X — made enormous but often underappreciated contributions. [Read more…] about Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Jim Crow Laws, John F. Kennedy, Legal History, Lyndon Johnson, NAACP, New York City, New York State Archives, Peace Corps, Political History, Queens, Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall

Report Cold-Stunned Sea Turtle Sightings on New York Beaches

December 31, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

sea turtle courtesy DECThere are four species of sea turtles that can be found in New York’s coastal waters: green, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback, and loggerhead sea turtles. They remain local in our area during the warmer months from approximately May through November and will typically begin their migration south to warmer nesting waters by mid-November. [Read more…] about Report Cold-Stunned Sea Turtle Sightings on New York Beaches

Filed Under: Nature, New York City Tagged With: Climate Change, Long Island, nature, turtles, Wildlife, winter

The Albany Origins of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop

December 30, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

Dudley Observatory first building in Albany ca 1880The Capital District’s Dudley Observatory is considered “the oldest non-academic institution of astronomical research in America.” Originally, it was located north-east of downtown Albany, NY.

Construction there began in 1852 and the facility was dedicated in 1857.  Albany’s Congressman Erastus Corning, the founder and first president of the New York Central Railroad, was instrumental in donating a high quality telescope and time-keeping system at the new Dudley Observatory in Albany. [Read more…] about The Albany Origins of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Dudley Observatory, Erastus Corning, New York Central RR, New York City, railroads, Schenectady, Schenectady County, Science History, Siena College, Transportation History

Before Central Park: Farms, Businesses, Churches, Wars and Burial Grounds

December 27, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

before central parkBefore Central Park became a model for city parks worldwide, the land was the site of farms, businesses, churches, wars, and burial grounds – and home to many different kinds of New Yorkers.

In her book Before Central Park, historian emerita of the Central Park Conservancy Sara Cedar Miller chronicles two and half centuries of history, she tells the stories of a secret Revolutionary War meeting of George Washington and his generals, the Dutch taverns in Harlem, the personalities of Seneca Village, the unique Bloomingdale Black community of landowners, and the farm of James Amory now the Mall, Bethesda Terrace, and Sheep Meadow and more. [Read more…] about Before Central Park: Farms, Businesses, Churches, Wars and Burial Grounds

Filed Under: Events, History, New York City Tagged With: Central Park, Central Park Conservancy, Southampton Historical Museum

Dutch History of Christmas Treats With Peter Rose

December 24, 2022 by Liz Covart 2 Comments

ben_franklins_worldUndoubtedly, you have heard or read Clement Moore’s famous poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1822), but have you ever wondered where the traditions of stockings, presents, and cookies come from? And what about jolly old Saint Nick? Who was he and why do we call him Santa Claus?

In this episode of the “Ben Franklin’s World” podcast, Peter G. Rose, culinary historian of Dutch foodways in North America and author of Delicious December: How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats (SUNY Press, 2014), joins me to discuss the origins of Santa Claus, cookies, and more in the United States.  [Read more…] about Dutch History of Christmas Treats With Peter Rose

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Food, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: baking, Ben Franklin’s World, Christmas, Culinary History, Cultural History, Dutch History, New Netherland, Podcasts

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