History, Natural History & the Arts
More than 400 people get the New York History blog each day via various subscription services. It’s a convenient way to get the latest New York History news, information, and events.
There are a number of ways you can subscribe:
Get New York History By E-Mail
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook (occasional updates).
On Sunday, September 12 at 9:30 a.m. the Barry Hopkins Run will take place at Olana State Historic Site. This Onteora Runners Club Grand Prix event also offers a free children’s run that precedes the adult event at 9:00 a.m. Runners will spend the morning on this 3.8 mile course traversing primarily unpaved carriage roads in the designed landscape of Hudson River School artist Frederic Church.
Registration is $10 per person; $9 for members of The Olana Partnership or the Onteora Runner’s Club. Email carri.manchester@oprhp.state.ny.us or call (518) 828-0135 to receive a registration form. Unique awards will follow the race.
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 seven historic sites and 15 parks administered by the 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.
Fall brings a diverse lineup of programs at Senate House State Historic Site, in historic uptown Kingston, NY at 296 Fair Street. Senate House is part of a system of parks, recreation areas and historic sites operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and the site is one of 28 facilities administered by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in New York and New Jersey. For further information about thess and other upcoming events call the site at (845) 338-2786 or visit the State Parks website at www.nysparks.com.
Saturday, October 2, 1:00 – 7:00 PM
African American History & Culture Festival: Music as the Pulse of Life
Some of the best regional talent performing music of different genres, from freedom songs to hip hop. Featured artists include Kim and Reggie Harris, Rednex Poetry, POOK, the Ulster County Community Choir, and more. Also, hands-on activities for kids, lectures, food and more. This event is free, for all ages, and occurs rain or shine.
Saturday, October 9, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Living History Encampment by the Third Ulster Militia
Re-enactors demonstrate the realities of 18th-century life during wartime, as well as domestic activities and trades. Free; occurs in light rain or shine. Please call for details.
Saturday, October 23, 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Arts Forum: Appraising Art / Re-appraising Vanderlyn
Tickets $10.00
Join arts expert and television personality Leigh Keno and renowned regional art experts for a day of talks and object evaluations to learn about Hudson Valley art and history, the Vanderlyn family of painters—particularly its most famous member, John Vanderlyn—and strategies for evaluating objects to understand their significance and value. Tickets for the public program are $10.
Saturday, October 23, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Evening Reception with Leigh Keno
Tickets $50.00
Join Leigh Keno and other arts experts in the Senate House Museum’s Vanderlyn Gallery for wine, food, 19th-century chamber music and artful conviviality.
Through October 31:
Currier & Ives: “Cheap and Popular Pictures” a free exhibition of 40 prints by the best-known printmakers of the 19th Century, with images offering fascinating glimpses of the Hudson Valley’s past.
Ever imagine what it would be like to ask Revolutionary War soldiers about their life and times? The Mount Independence State Historic Site in Orwell, Vermont, will bring to life the Revolutionary War at the site tomorrow Saturday, September 4, at 2:00 p.m. with the program, “An Investigation into the Revolutionary Mind: What Were You Thinking, Isaac Kendall and Benjamin McCool?” [Read more…] about Historic American Revolution Interview Saturday
Each Friday morning New York History compiles for readers the previous week’s top history related news from around New York State. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.
Subscribe! More than 400 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.
The Albany Institute of History & Art has announced two related upcoming exhibitions: “The Perfect Fit: Shoes Tell Stories” and “Old Soles: Three Centuries of Shoes from the Albany Institute’s Collection.” The exhibitions open on October 16, 2010, and close on January 2, 2011.
Since the invention of protective foot coverings by early societies thousands of years ago, shoes have become not only an essential element of our clothing, but also symbols of status, utility, amusement, and art. “The Perfect Fit” features more than 100 examples of fanciful footwear created by contemporary American artists between 2004 and 2008. The shoes are made of materials ranging from clay, metal, fabric, wood, glass, and paper, and transcend everyday style and function to illustrate various themes pertaining to issues of gender, history, sexuality, class, race, and culture.
The exhibition, curated by Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, is organized by the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA. An illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition and will be on sale in the Albany Institute’s Museum Shop for $10.00.
Accompanying “The Perfect Fit” will be a complementary exhibition entitled “Old Soles: Three Centuries of Shoes from the Albany Institute’s Collection.” The selection includes a variety of shoes ranging from a pair of brocaded silk women’s wedding shoes from the early 18th century to modern men’s and women’s footwear from the 20th century. The collection also includes protective over-shoes, pattens, slippers, jeweled buckles, work shoes, boots, and more. The Old Soles exhibition will be located in the museum’s Lansing Gallery, in proximity to many historic paintings in which the subjects are wearing shoes similar to those that will be on display.
Photo: Red riding shoes awarded to Miss Catherine Fitch for “Best Equestrian Rider” at the Albany Agricultural Society Fair, September, 1856, Wool felt and leather, 1856,
Gift of Margaret Boom, 1941.45, from Old Soles.
Due to the interest generated by the exhibit “Faces of Schenectady: 1715 – 1750” as well as brand-new research, support from the First Reformed Church of Schenectady, and generous grants from the New York Council for the Humanities, and Schenectady County, the Schenectady County Historical Society (SCHS) is offering a two day seminar this October.
Participants will be able to experience, first hand, new research related to eighteenth-century art, politics, and culture in Schenectady County. Along with one-of-a-kind lectures, SCHS is also offering a one-on-one gallery talk with co-curator Ona Curran and a 17th century Dutch Luncheon made possible by the Glen Sanders Mansion!
FRIDAY October 15
Exhibit Tour with Gallery Lecture Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Avenue Schenectady NY 12305
Registration 1:30
2:00 – 3:15 Ona Curran Nehemiah Partridge: His style, use of mezzotints, English influence Clara Clack van Beek – Account ledger of Annatje Beck, tavern keeper and seller of dry goods
3:30 – 4:30 Ona Curran Peter Vanderlyn and John Heaton
Schenectady Portraits – Susanna Truax and Deborah Glen Other portraits – Albany, Hudson Valley, The Van Bergen Overmantel, the Oliver portrait
5:30 – 7:30 Evening Fare and Folklore (Additional $10.00 Fee) First Reformed Church of Schenectady 8 North Church Street, Schenectady NY 12305 Buffet and Story Telling Joe Doolittle
SATURDAY October 16
Exhibit Open 9:00 – 9:30 Schenectady County Historical Society
Registration 9:00
Lectures First Reformed Church of Schenectady
9:30 – 10:15 Susan Blakney, 17th Century Double Wedding Portrait
10:15 – 11:15 Nancy Hagadorn Ph.D., Laurens Claese Van Der Volgen Cultural Broker and Interpreter
11:30 – 12:30 John Townsend The Mohawk Prayer Book
LUNCHEON 12:30 – 2:15
2:15 – 3:00 Karen Hess The Indomitable Ariantje Coeymans: Bangles and Beads – Jewelry in Portraiture
3:00 – 3:45 Rod Blackburn Scripture Paintings
3:45 – 4:30 Rod Blackburn and Ruth Piwonka The Data Base of early 18th century paintings
4:30 – 5:00 Questions and Closing Remarks
Register online here.
New York History Review has just published online John Timon – Buffalo’s First Bishop
: His Forgotten Struggle to Assimilate Catholics in Western New York
by Paul E. Lubienecki. Timon assimilated Catholics and Catholic women into the culture of western New York and established Catholicism while battling the local Protestant clergy and the Catholic hierarchy. You can read more about him here. [Read more…] about Online: John Timon – Buffalo’s First Bishop
There will be a party at Thomas Cole’s home in Catskill with cocktails on the lawn followed by dinner at one of several magnificent river-front homes nearby on Saturday September 11, 6pm. The event is a fundraiser, and the newly completed architectural drawings for Thomas Cole’s “New Studio” will be unveiled.
The building was designed by Cole and built in 1846, but was demolished in 1973. The original stone foundation has been unearthed, and the fascinating archaeological site will be on view. [Read more…] about Thomas Cole’s ‘New Studio’ Plans Revealed