New York Almanack

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Adirondack Research Library

The Adirondack Raised Relief Map: Some History

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Paul Schaefer, back to camera, hosts an Adirondack discussion with, left to right, Joe Martens, Governor Mario Cuomo’s environmental secretary, standing in background with film camera Carl Schaefer, Paul’s brother, seated Dave Gibson with the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Dan Luciano, deputy environmental secretary for the governor, and on the stool Tom Cobb, Trustee and later President of the Board of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. Photo by Ken Rimany.The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks had hired me the previous winter. It was now the spring of 1987. Windows and doors were again opening to the hope and then the reality of spring’s warmth. The director of the Schenectady Museum William (Bill) Verner had given me, practically rent free, a desk and telephone from which to begin work as the Association’s first Executive Director in over 60 years.

It helped that Bill was a member of my board of trustees, and that his knowledge and love for the Adirondacks and Adirondack history from a home base in Long Lake was long and deep. [Read more…] about The Adirondack Raised Relief Map: Some History

The Volunteers Behind the Adirondack Research Library

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Interior of the Adirondack Research Library in the Kelly Adirondack Center of Union College Photo by David GibsonMany organizations introduce their work with the words “were it not for the volunteers, we could not…” That can be justifiably said of the Adirondack Research Library (ARL), formerly part of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (AfPA). [Read more…] about The Volunteers Behind the Adirondack Research Library

Adirondack Research Library’s Adk Chronology

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Fans of Adirondack history will want to check out the Adirondack Chronology. The Chronology is a project of the Protect the Adirondacks!’s Adirondack Research Library at the Center for the Forest Preserve in Niskayuna. The Chronology consists of a chronological listing of significant events (natural or human-made) over the years and centuries, back to prehistoric times, that have taken place directly in the Adirondacks or which directly impacted the Adirondacks. The document, available as an online pdf, stretches to more than 300 pages and covers everything from the Big Bang (15 billion years before present) to a sunspot cycle in 2012 and 2013 that is predicted to causing major impacts on global electronics. The Chronology also includes an extensive and useful bibliography of relevant sources.

The Chronology is easily searched using the pdf search function, making it one of the most important documents for Adirondack history. Here is a short description of some of the kinds fo things you’ll find there from the Chronology’s introduction:

The Adirondack Chronology deals with all aspects of the Adirondack region to best suggest the various causal processes at work; several examples: forest exploitation leading to forest fire, in turn leading to protective legislation; trails of the Haudenosaunee leading to roads fostering development and then protective legislation, and so on. Crucial events also often occur well outside of the Adirondack region, e.g. invention of the snowmobile, the building of coal burning plants in the Mid-West, the growth of nickel-copper smelting in the Sudbury region of Ontario, the explosion of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, federal and state legislation, the introduction of the European Starling in New York City, the painting of a great picture or the writing of an inspirational poem.

The Chronology, last revised and enlarged in November 2009, is edited by Carl George, Professor of Biology, Emeritus at Union College, Richard E. Tucker of the Adirondack Research Library, and newest editor Charles C. Morrison, Conservation Advocacy Committee, Protect the Adirondacks!

The Adirondack Research Library holds the largest Adirondack collection outside the park boundaries. The library’s collections include maps, periodicals, technical reports, photos, slides, video and audio tapes, and archival materials from prominent Adirondack conservationists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Photo: The Center for the Forest Preserve, located in Niskayuna, NY, is owned and operated by Protect the Adirondacks!