The Iroquois Museum in Schoharie County is hosting a Fall Speaker Series focused on Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) history and the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution on Sunday afternoons through September and October. These in-person events are funded in part by the New York State Education Department’s America 250 Initiative; the event is included in Museum admission. [Read more…] about Haudenosaunee & The American Revolution Speaker Series
Rose Knox’s Gelatine, Leadership, Mixed Kitchen & Boardroom
In 1914, after secretly running Knox Gelatine for six years, Rose Knox revealed that she’d assumed her deceased husband’s position as the company’s president.
As President of company from 1908 to 1947, she drew on traditional ideals of domesticity and womanhood to turn the company into an iconic American brand and herself into a business celebrity. [Read more…] about Rose Knox’s Gelatine, Leadership, Mixed Kitchen & Boardroom
Weather Prognosticators: Warren County’s John Brady & Nathan Davis
With weather events often predicted down to the minute, it is hard to imagine life without today’s real-time forecasts. Looking 120 years back into Warren County history, often that forecast came from old men sitting around a pot-belly stove who talked of woolly caterpillars and the color of the sky at sunset.
That changed in the late 1800s, when not one, but two weather prognosticators stepped into the limelight to share their predictions with the public. [Read more…] about Weather Prognosticators: Warren County’s John Brady & Nathan Davis
Memories of 1940s Greenfield, Saratoga County, NY
In the 1940s, driving north from Saratoga Springs toward Middle Grove about a mile west of Route 9N in Saratoga County, NY, is Pages Corners where Sodaman and Sandhill Road intersects with Middle Grove Road. At the corner is the Callenius dark gray house, Mrs. Receal’s small white house whose son served in the Second World War, and larger white houses are on the other two corners. Taking a right turn onto Sandhill, you are climbing up the mountain toward Lake Desolation. [Read more…] about Memories of 1940s Greenfield, Saratoga County, NY
Ulster County’s Humpo Marshlands and Forest Preserved
On August 14, 2026, Mohonk Preserve purchased the 174-acre Humpo Marshlands and Forest property from the Open Space Institute (OSI), with the Wallkill Valley Land Trust holding a conservation easement over a portion of the property. The deal was made possible by the New Paltz Community Preservation Fund – a source of funding that helped permanently preserve the property’s wetlands, forests, wildlife habitat, and iconic Shawangunk Ridge views. [Read more…] about Ulster County’s Humpo Marshlands and Forest Preserved
A New Paved Trail To A Historic Hudson Valley View
The Grant Cottage State Historic Site officially celebrated the completion of a new, fully ADA-accessible paved pathway to its historic Eastern Overlook on Mount McGregor in Wilton, NY. [Read more…] about A New Paved Trail To A Historic Hudson Valley View
New Deer Hunting Season at Saratoga Spa State Park
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) will open an undeveloped section of Saratoga Spa State Park to white tail deer hunting for the 2026-27 season as part of a deer management program. [Read more…] about New Deer Hunting Season at Saratoga Spa State Park
Include the Almanack in Your Newsletter – Get A Free Advert
Help build our community! Include the New York Almanack in your organization’s newsletter and get a few advertisement here on the site. The Almanack will be read by at least 1.5 million people over the next year – mostly New Yorkers interested in history and natural history. [Read more…] about Include the Almanack in Your Newsletter – Get A Free Advert
The Creative Milieu of Tin Pan Alley
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a few blocks of Manhattan’s 28th Street housed sheet music publishers, composers, songwriters, and agencies. Nicknamed Tin Pan Alley, it was home to the nation’s music industry.
The playhouse being the main venue of entertainment, Broadway musicals and Union Square vaudeville acts demanded an unceasing supply of songs. A dense concentration of creative talent laid the foundation for the “Great American Songbook,” a canon of songs and jazz compositions that have stood the test of time. [Read more…] about The Creative Milieu of Tin Pan Alley
Hungry Horned Owl Rescued From Soccer Net
NYS Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Brandon Franz responded to a call regarding an owl stuck in a soccer net in Armonk, a hamlet near the Connecticut border in the town of North Castle, in Westchester County on August 28, 2026 [Read more…] about Hungry Horned Owl Rescued From Soccer Net
Civil Rights Leaders and RFK Meet in NYC, 1963
During a television interview broadcast in March 1964, Malcolm X famously said “If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that’s not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even begun to pull the knife out, much less heal the wound. …They won’t even admit the knife is there.” [Read more…] about Civil Rights Leaders and RFK Meet in NYC, 1963
The Swamp: Tanneries, Bucktails, Loco Focos & Democracy
“The Swamp” was a lowland area in Lower Manhattan centered around Beekman’s Swamp, bounded roughly by modern-day Gold, Frankfort, Pearl, Water, and Ferry streets just south of the Brooklyn Bridge in the Financial District.
In the 17th century the marshy wetland was known by the Dutch as Bestevaer’s Kripplebush. It was later acquired by the Beekman and Roosevelt families and filled and drained over the 18th and early 19th centuries. [Read more…] about The Swamp: Tanneries, Bucktails, Loco Focos & Democracy
Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: Good-Bye To Summer
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week. This is her last week in Adams before returning to the university.
Monday, September 7
Labor Day! Woke up at six, both Edna [her sister] and I. Helped Edna pack, dusted the parlor and dining room and swept our room. I did not help with the dinner work but went down with Alma and Edith to see the Field Day crowd and races. [Read more…] about Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: Good-Bye To Summer
Benedict Arnold’s Retreat Up Lake Champlain
Towards the evening of the Battle of Valcour Bay on October 11, 1776, the HMS Inflexible got within point-blank shot of the Americans, “when five broadsides,” wrote Sir Charles Douglas, “silenced their whole line.”
One fresh ship, with scantling [a design] for sea-going, and a concentrated battery, has an unquestioned advantage over a dozen light-built craft, carrying one or two guns each, and already several hours engaged in battle. [Read more…] about Benedict Arnold’s Retreat Up Lake Champlain
The Winter Outlook & An El Nino Update
New York State is facing a historic “Super El Niño” for the upcoming 2026–2027 winter season, with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center placing the odds of a very strong event lasting through winter at over 90%.
This rare atmospheric pattern is shaping-up to be one of the most intense on record and indicates that winter in New York will likely feature milder overall temperatures, reduced total seasonal snowfall, and an elevated risk for large coastal storms. [Read more…] about The Winter Outlook & An El Nino Update
With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Federal authorities arrested 2,197 people across New York last month during what they have derisively named “Operation Rotten Apple,” the highest monthly immigration arrest total since the Trump administration’s round-ups began in New York State. [Read more…] about With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Native Sunflowers: Solar Avatars
Among the most widely cultivated and recognizable plants growing in gardens this time of year are sunflowers, members of the genus Helianthus. The showiest species and hybrid varieties within this cheery botanical club, such as common sunflower, often steal the limelight for their size and color. But it’s worth getting to know the Northeast’s three most common native Helianthus species: woodland, pale-leaved, and thin-leaved sunflower. [Read more…] about Native Sunflowers: Solar Avatars
Rock Climber Finds Beech Leaf Disease Near Tupper Lake
Bill Widrig, a volunteer with the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program’s Forest Pest Hunters program, was on his way to climb a rock wall on Goodman Mountain, just south of Tupper Lake, when he noticed an all-too-familiar site: the telltale leaf banding of beech leaf disease. [Read more…] about Rock Climber Finds Beech Leaf Disease Near Tupper Lake
The Naval Campaign on Lake Champlain in 1775-1776
In 1775, only fifteen years had elapsed since the expulsion of the New France from Canada following the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The concentration of French power in the valley of the St. Lawrence had impressed upon the minds of colonial leaders the importance of Lake Champlain, of its tributary Lake George, and of the Hudson River, as forming a consecutive, if not continuous, water line of communications from the St. Lawrence River to the city of New York. [Read more…] about The Naval Campaign on Lake Champlain in 1775-1776
New Historical Plaque Being Dedicated at Lake George Battlefield
The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, founded in 1892, and whose contributions to commemorating the history of the Lake George region date back to the 1903 Battle of Lake George (William Johnson-King Hendrick) sculpture at Lake George Battlefield Park, will dedicate a new historical plaque in the park on Monday, September 7 (Labor Day) at 12 noon. [Read more…] about New Historical Plaque Being Dedicated at Lake George Battlefield