New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Saratoga: 233rd Anniversary of Surrender Week

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The week of Sunday October 10 to Sunday October 17, 2010 is Surrender Week in the Town of Saratoga marking the 233rd Anniversary of the American Victory at Saratoga. There are a series of events planned to call attention to the siege period of the Battles of Saratoga (October 10 – 16) and the Surrender of British General Burgoyne’s complete army on October 17, 1777.

On Friday, October 15 at 10 AM, the anniversary commemoration of the Sword Surrender of British General Burgoyne to American General Gates will take place at the bandstand at Fort Hardy Park, The ceremony location overlooking the Hudson River is where the British troops surrendered their weapons to the Americans. The ceremony includes patriotic songs from the Schuylerville Elementary School 4th grade students.

On Saturday, October 16 from 6 to 9 pm, visitors can feel the welcome of the warm, soft glow of candlelight as Old Saratoga Historical Association members in period costume, park staff, and park volunteers guide visitors through General Philip Schuyler`s 1777 country house. Light refreshments and period music follow the tours.

“We plan a whole week of events to commemorate the seven days the British Troops under General Burgoyne were under siege by the Americans in Old Saratoga (now the Schuylerville area),” according to Saratoga Historian Sean Kelleher. “We have a great partnership made up of the various levels of government including the Saratoga National Historical Park, Schuylerville Public Library, Town of Saratoga, Village of Victory, and non-governmental partners including the Fort Hardy Committee, Heritage Hunters of Saratoga County, and Old Saratoga Historical Association.”

The American Victory at Saratoga was considered the “turning point in the American Revolution”. France and other European countries entering the war as a result of the American Victory at Saratoga.

The schedule includes:

Sunday, October 10
Saratoga Monument and the Schuyler House Open – 9:30 am – 4:30. pm

Monday, October 11
Walking tour of Siege Lines (through along the Champlain Canal) at 3 pm meet at the Old Saratoga Town Hall on Ferry Street.

Tuesday, October 12
Researching your American Revolution Ancestor with Deputy Historian Pat Peck at the Schuylerville Public Library 10 am

Wednesday and Thursday, October. 13 and 14
Voices of the American Revolution – a program for pre-schoolers at the Schuylerville Public Library 10 am

Thursday, October 14
Stories from the Saratoga Battlefield with storyteller Joe Doolittle at the Saratoga Town Hall 12 Spring Street, 7:30 pm

Friday October 15
233rd Anniversary of the American Victory at Saratoga Ceremony Commemoration at the Fort Hardy bandstand 10 am The ceremony includes the 4th grade students from the Schuylerville elementary school singing songs and commemorations by the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution.

Saturday, October 16
Heritage Hunters Fall Genealogy Conference at the Saratoga Town Hall 12 Spring Street, from 8:45 am until 3:15 pm. Lisa Alzo is the featured speaker in a series of programs on researching family history. Registration is $30 for members and $35 for all others and includes the workshops, exhibits, coffee breaks and hot lunch. For information, contact Joan Cady at 518-587-2978 or email: melfrejo@aol.com.

Saturday and Sunday, October 16 & 17
Saratoga Monument and the Schuyler House Open 9:30 am – 4:30. pm

Saturday, October 16
Candlelight Tour of Schuyler House 6 – 9 pm

Sunday, October 17
Walking tour of Surrender Field at 10 am meet at the Old Saratoga Town Hall on Ferry Street.

For more information search Old Saratoga Historical Association on Facebook or twitter: oldsaratogahist or call (518) 698-3210 or e-mail skellehe@nycap.rr.com

Illustration: Surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull, 1822; The original painting hangs in the United States Capitol Rotunda.

Tractor Fest at The Farmers’ Museum This Weekend

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The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown will hold what it hopes will be an annual Tractor Fest on Saturday and Sunday, October 9 and 10, from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Tractor Fest will offer visitors an opportunity to see classic tractors from John Deere, Ford, and other manufacturers – representing the growth of farming technology from the 1920s until today. The Museum provides an ideal setting where visitors can learn about the world of tractors and how they powered America’s farms.

Families will find Tractor Fest to be an appealing weekend destination. Kids, ages 7 and under, can compete for prizes in a Kiddie Pedal Tractor Pull contest on both Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. There will be wagon rides around the Museum’s Historic Village – pulled by a Ford Golden Jubilee Tractor on Saturday and Sunday morning from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon. See a “hit and miss” engine powering a grinding wheel and Mr. Whipple operating his steam engine near the Blacksmith Shop. There will also be thrashing demonstrations, rides provided by Cooperstown Carriage Rides, The Empire State Carousel, craft demonstrations and more.

Discover classic and modern tractors throughout the Museum’s grounds. Springfield Tractor will display compact tractors with backhoe & front-end loaders and Cazenovia Equipment will demonstrate satellite controlled farm tractors.

For those with a deeper historical interest in tractors, Syracuse University history professor, Milton Sernett, will give a talk titled How the Ford Tractor Changed the American Family Farm: 1920 – 1940, on Saturday, October 9 at 12:30 p.m. in the Cornwallville Church located on the grounds of the Museum. This lecture is free and open to the public. It is made possible through Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Speakers in the Humanities lectures are made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Legislature, and through funds from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Tractor Fest is sponsored in part by Northern Eagle Beverage. Admission to the event: $12 adults (13+), $10.50 seniors (65+), $6 children (7-12), children 6 and under and members of the New York State Historical Association are free. Admission to the lecture is free. Food and beverages will be available throughout the day. Please visit our website at FarmersMuseum.org/tractorfest for more information and a full schedule of events.

Photo by Frank Forte.

This Week’s Top New York History News

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Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top stories about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.

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NY Genealogical & Biographical SocietyNew Digital Resources For Members

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The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) has announced that all issues of the NYG&B Record are now accessible online to the Society’s members. The entire run of the NYG&B Record comprises 563 issues at this writing and forms the largest single collection of published material on families that lived in New York State. The collection is every-word searchable and is accompanied by a new surname search engine based on an index to more than one million names from the pages of the Record. Originally created by Jean Worden, the search engine will simultaneously search every issue from 1870-2009 and will be updated every October when the year’s annual index is released.

Continuously published since 1870, the NYG&B Record is the second oldest genealogical journal in the country and one of the most distinguished. Published quarterly, it concentrates on people and places within New York City, State, and region and features compiled genealogies, solutions to problems, and unique source material.

Access to the digital version of the Record is available exclusively to NYG&B members through the Society’s growing E-Library of unique material on its website.

Other New Content: Expanding the digital content available to NYG&B members is one of the Society’s foremost goals. Book one of the 1855 New York State Census for Ward 17 of New York City, including an every name index was recently posted to the E-Library. Ward 17 was often the first home of new immigrants who arrived in the middle of the 19th century. The original census returns were damaged by fire and sat unused for many years. Thanks to an extraordinary effort by NYG&B volunteers and interns these records are now being made available. The remaining books will be posted once the indexing is complete. Also in progress is the posting of more than 500 biographical sketches of NYG&B members from the first half of the 20th century. Personally completed by each member as part of their application to the Society, these biographies contain exceptional firsthand narratives, family trees, and ephemera.

About the NYG&B: The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has been a primary resource for research on New York families since 1869. The NYG&B seeks to advance genealogical scholarship and enhance the capabilities of both new and experienced researchers of family history through a rich schedule of programs, workshops, and repository tours; through its quarterly scholarly journal The NYG&B Record and its quarterly review The New York Researcher; and through an E-Library of unique digital material on its website www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org.

Archives Month: NYC Archivists Round Table

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc., along with hundreds of organizations in the archives community across New York State, to celebrate New York Archives Week, October 10-16, 2010. With special commemorative activities across all five boroughs, New York Archives Week is an annual celebration aimed at informing the general public of the diverse array of archival materials available in the Metropolitan New York City region.

Among the many activities free and open to the public will be open houses, exhibitions, lectures, workshops and behind-the-scenes tours of archives throughout the city. These special events are designed to celebrate the importance of historical records and to familiarize interested organizations and the public with a wealth of fascinating archival materials illuminating three centuries of New York City history and culture.

Among those participating in the event are local government agencies, historical societies, universities, libraries, and cultural organizations. Highlights include tours of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum Archives, the New York Transit Museum Archives, and the Trinity Church Archives; instruction in conducting genealogical research at the National Archives at New York City; and a presentation on the literary treasures of famous authors such as Herman Melville and Edgar Allen Poe at the New York Public Library. Over twenty New York City archives are opening their doors to the public for this city-wide event.

A complete list of Archives Week events and schedules can be found on the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc.’s website. Note that pre-registration for some events
is required. For further information, contact: president@nycarchivists.org

Interested in The History of the Adirondacks?

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If you have an interest in Adirondack history, culture, or outdoor recreation, take a look at Adirondack Almanack. I began the site in 2005 and it is now the leading online newsmagazine of the Adirondack North Country region. Over the past two years the site has grown considerably and is now the work of 20 contributors, mostly veteran local historians, writers, journalists, and editors and includes media professionals from local radio, magazines, and newspapers.

The Adirondacks is home to the largest park and the largest state-level protected area in the contiguous United States (it’s also the largest National Historic Landmark). The park is over 6 million acres in size (that makes it bigger than Vermont, or Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks combined.

However, about half the land is publicly owned and the rest privately owned, including several villages. That mix of public and private land makes the Park a unique are and fodder for some heated discussions over sustainable development, wilderness, environmental and outdoor recreation issues. I felt strongly that local news media was not fully representing the variety of perspectives on these important issues, that’s why I started the site.

However, we cover a lot of Adirodnack History. So have a look.

Fort Ti Education Center Wins LEED Certification

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The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has recently granted Fort Ticonderoga’s Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center at Fort Ticonderoga Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDtm) certification. The prestigious certification is a national accreditation honor given to buildings that have been rated as “green” for their efforts to minimize negative impacts on the environment, and that actually make a positive contribution through their structure and design.

The LEED certification is awarded after the successful completion of a rigorous two-year evaluation based on environmental factors including reduced site disturbance, energy efficient lighting, water conserving plumbing fixtures, and indoor air quality management.

According to Beth Hill, Executive Director, “The biodiversity and natural significance of the Fort Ticonderoga peninsula were just as important to the armies who occupied the site more than 250 years ago as they are today. We are dedicated to programs rooted in all aspects of Fort Ticonderoga’s history and its relevance to today’s issues. By educating our visitors on these matters in a space that clearly reflects our commitment to responsible environmental stewardship, we hope to emphasize the importance of preserving and respecting the natural world for future generations.”

Andrew Wright, the building’s architect said that the feature of the building with the largest reduction in energy use is the geo-thermal heating and cooling system. which takes advantage of the energy in water from three deep wells. The heating and cooling needs of the entire building is met through sophisticated heat pumps. The design and construction team for the Mars Education Center was lead by Tonetti Associates Architects and Breadloaf Corporation with careful oversight of the Fort staff. The certification was achieved through careful selection of materials and building practices.

The building, constructed on the site of the original French magazin du Roi, is a faithfully reflection of the warehouse that preceded it. The interior is a 21st century Mars Education Center providing visitors with new opportunities to understand the Fort’s rich history and includes two classrooms, offices for education and interpretive staff, the Great Room which accommodates 200 guests, and a state-of-the-art exhibition space. The education center opened in 2008.

Vanderlyn Expert to Speak on Huguenot Street

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The Vanderlyn name, long associated with the Mid Hudson Valley, will be front and center at the October Second Saturdays talk at Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz. “The Portraits of John Vanderlyn,” will be presented on Friday, October 9th at 7pm by Katherine C. Woltz, a scholar with the University of Virginia. Woltz has become a central figure as interest in Vanderlyn, an Ulster County native and one of the country’s first nationally recognized artists, has undergone a resurgence in recent years.

Born in Kingston in 1775 and educated at the Kingston Academy, John Vanderlyn was protégé of statesman Aaron Burr and portrait painter Gilbert Stuart. Burr’s uncommon generosity allowed Vanderlyn to study first with Stuart in America, and then in Paris with the famous French painters Vincent and David at the é cole-des-beaux-arts. Meeting with acclaim in both Europe and the U.S., he was perhaps the first American artist to gain an international reputation and following.

Woltz is currently working on a book about Vanderlyn and will be featured at “Appraising Art, Re-Appraising Vanderlyn,” a special forum being offered by the Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston later this month.

The talk will be offered in the newly reopened LeFevre House. The museum house now features a portrait gallery. Currently on exhibit is “An Excellent Likeness,” a selection of portraits from the permanent collection of Historic Huguenot Street. “An Excellent Likeness” includes several portraits attributed to John Vanderlyn Jr. The LeFevre House is located at 54 Huguenot Street in downtown New Paltz. Parking is available in municipal parking lot across the street. There is an $8 charge ($6 for Friends of Huguenot Street). For more information, visit www.huguenotstreet.org or call (845) 255-1889.

Illustration: Abraham D Deyo. Attributed to John Vanderlyn, Jr. From the permanent collection of Historic Huguenot Street.

77th New York Regimental Balladeers at Olana

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Sunday, October 10th, from 1-3 p.m., at Olana State Historic Site, the New York 77th Regimental Balladeers will reenact musical selections from the Civil War era.

Co-founded by John C. Quinn and Michael Yates, the 77th New York Regimental Balladeers are dedicated to preserving the songs, history and spirit of the 1860s. John, Mike, and fellow Balladeers John Perreault, Jim Broden and Kathleen Ross use the original Civil War music arrangements and lyrics to convey the thoughts, motives, and sorrows of the men and women who lived during one of the most defining periods of our American heritage. The songs are sung as they would have been performed in camp or the family parlor 138 years ago.

A $5 per vehicle grounds fee includes the performance. House tours will be available on a first come, first served basis starting at 10 a.m., with the final tour of the day beginning promptly at 4 p.m. Come early to ensure tour availability and shorter wait times. House tour tickets are $12/adult, $10/student or senior. Children under age 12 receive free tour tickets! Call 518-828-0135 for information.

Olana, the home and studio of Hudson River School artist Frederic E. Church, is a New York State Historic Site and a National Historic Landmark. It is located at 5720 Route 9G in Hudson. Olana is one of six historic sites and 15 parks administered by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation – Taconic Region. The Olana Partnership is a private, not-for-profit organization, which works cooperatively with New York State to support the preservation, restoration, development, and improvement of Olana State Historic Site. Call 518-828-0135, visit www.olana.org for more information.

Archives Month: Palisades Interstate Park Commission

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October is New York State Archives and National Archives Month, a time to celebrate and promote the rich and diverse documentary heritage of our great state by increasing public awareness of archival materials and repositories and by acknowledging the importance of our records keepers.

Archives are essential to the historical record and include a wide range of document types, including letters, legal records, transcripts, diaries, newspapers, photographs, reports, architectural drawings, manuscripts, artifacts, audio and video records, and materials in electronic formats.

The Palisades Interstate Park Commission has 110 years worth of archives in all of these categories. The PIPC’s archives are currently housed in a former naval barrack on the Iona Island Estuarine and Bird Sanctuary. The vast collection, which documents the creation and development of the nation’s first interstate park, is an important resource for historians, environmental advocates, and archaeologists. From the documentation of the movement to stop the destruction of the Palisades cliffs, the collection of statistics of multiple natural studies, to the reports and hearings that form the genesis of today’s environmental movement at Storm King Mountain, to the creation of its 28 parks and historic sites, PIPC’s archival holdings are a largely untapped Hudson Valley treasure.

Palisade’s archives are divided into four disciplines: Archaeology and Native Americans, Historical Photographs, Research Library, and Park History. Researchers, educators, and authors have used items in the collection for unlimited projects including books, films, newspaper articles, and lectures.

But like many repositories of history, the PIPC Archive is in serious need of improvement. Only generally organized, volunteers and funding are greatly needed for database entry, cataloging, digitizing documents, and general upkeep.

The Commission is grateful for its first archive grant given by the Nyack based Austin Stokes Ancient Americas Foundation in support of the PIPC Native American collection. This funding allowed the protection of this invaluable collection.

But, much more is needed. For example, of the approximately 100,000 photographs located in the collection, less than five percent have been digitized and catalogued. And the facility in which the archives are stored, originally a barracks from when Iona Island was a naval munitions factory for World Wars I & II, lacks climate control, a critical component in the preservation of any archive.

If you are interested in assisting the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to preserve and make available this unique collection, please contact Susan E. Smith, PIPC Research and Development Director, at smiths@pipc.org.

Photo: The Carpenter Quarry, Fort Lee, NJ.