Agricultural History

The Borden Company’s Milk Condensing Plant in 1893

November 26, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The following essay, “‘Crazy Uncle Gail’s’ Idea and What Came of It,” by Eliza Archard Conner, appeared in the June 10, 1893 Northern Star of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer George A. Thompson and annotated by John Warren.

About forty years ago Gail Borden, a civil engineer of New England ancestry, conceived the idea that milk could be boiled down in a vacuum till from the liquid condition it became substantially solid, and in that state, preserved by means of another Yankee invention — the sealed tin can — it could be kept for any length of time. [Read more…] about The Borden Company’s Milk Condensing Plant in 1893

Cranberry Bogs of Long Island: Some History & Natural History

November 22, 2023 by Tim Huss 2 Comments

Nearly everyone has enjoyed the several products derived from the fruit of the cranberry, but few people are familiar with the ecology of this interesting plant or the role it has played in many local economies and histories.

Today the cranberry industry is an important. part of the agricultural economy only in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. But many other parts of the country were at one time involved in cranberry production. [Read more…] about Cranberry Bogs of Long Island: Some History & Natural History

Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply

November 15, 2023 by Milton Sernett 1 Comment

A huge cheese is said to have sealed the election of Thomas Jefferson, who occupied the White House on January 1, 1802, after a bitter contest with his rival, the incumbent president and Federalist leader John Adams. It is an oft-told tale.

Upset by Puritan denunciations of Jefferson, Elder John Leland of the Baptist Church of Cheshire, Massachusetts, organized a communal effort to demonstrate support for Jeffersonian Democracy. [Read more…] about Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply

Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast

November 8, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Hunger shaped the early Northeast. As Native peoples fought back against the invasion of British and French colonizers, everyone experienced, used, succumbed to, and survived hunger.

Haudenosaunee and Wabanaki peoples had spent generations honing their subsistence strategies to their environments. Colonizers, by contrast, struggled to adapt to North America and found themselves deeply dependent upon Native American foods.

In response, colonists constructed myths of starving Native people to justify colonialism and spent centuries attacking Native food sovereignty. [Read more…] about Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast

Livestock & Animal Breeds in Early America

November 1, 2023 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Undra Jeter, the Bill and Jean Lane Director of Coach and Livestock at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, joins us to explore the animals English and British colonists brought with them to North America and used to build, run, and sustain their colonial farms and cities. [Read more…] about Livestock & Animal Breeds in Early America

Tug Hill: A Historical Primer

October 17, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The Tug Hill region is east of Lake Ontario, north of Oneida Lake, and west of the Adirondack Mountains, from which it is separated by the Black River Valley. It encompasses parts of Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, and Oswego Counties. [Read more…] about Tug Hill: A Historical Primer

The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes

October 1, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

As the population of interior New York increased, developers pushed for a faster method of transportation between the area and developed population centers like the city of New York.

The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, revolutionized inland travel and ushered in a broader era of canal construction across the state, connecting the state capital of Albany on the Hudson River to Western New York and the Great Lakes. [Read more…] about The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes

New York Steamboats & The Mississippi River

September 25, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

This article is excerpted from “The Keelboats and Flatboats of the Early Days — Discouragements Overcome by Fulton and his Associates,” originally reprinted from the New Orleans Times-Picayune in The New York Times on August 14, 1891. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer Carl Mayer and slightly edited for clarity and annotated by John Warren.

Of the various persons who have disputed Robert Fulton’s laurels as the inventor of the first perfect steamboat, Edward West’s claims are the strongest. West, father of the noted painter William West [William Edward West, 1788–1859, provided numerous illustrations for the books of Washington Irving]. [Read more…] about New York Steamboats & The Mississippi River

Citigroup Acknowledges it ‘Indirectly’ Profited from Slavery – Maybe

August 1, 2023 by Alan J. Singer Leave a Comment

Citigroup now acknowledges that its predecessor banks may have indirectly profited from slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Connections with slavery include a 19th century bank president who promoted the Cuban sugar trade, the relationship between the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, one of Citigroup’s predecessor banks, and Alabama cotton planters, and Lehman Brothers, which merged with Citibank in 1998 and in the 1850s traded in cotton. [Read more…] about Citigroup Acknowledges it ‘Indirectly’ Profited from Slavery – Maybe

The Florence Farming Association

August 1, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

On this episode of the New York Minute in History podcast, Devin Lander and Lauren Roberts tell the story of the Florence Farming and Lumber Association, a settlement of free African Americans in Florence, Oneida County beginning in 1846. [Read more…] about The Florence Farming Association