New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Albany

Lecture to Focus on Albany’s Railroad History

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Although Albany remains a vital railroad junction, New York’s capital city was once a major hub of the railway industry. Can it become one again? On Sunday, October 24, at 2:00 p.m., the Albany Institute of History & Art welcomes Harvard University Professor John Stilgoe, who will give a lecture entitled, Albany’s Railroads: A Once and Future Hub.

Professor Stilgoe recalls the bustling railroad lines that once converged on Albany, examines how curtailment of passenger and freight service has affected our region, and imagines a visionary railway revitalization that transcends the now-dominant interstate highway network. He holds joint appointments to the Harvard faculties of Design and Arts and Sciences. He is the winner of the Francis Parkman, George Hilton, and Bradford Williams medals, the AIA award for collaborative research, and the Charles C. Eldredge prize for art history research.

This lecture is free and open to the public, and is made possible by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities. Admission to the lecture does not include museum admission.

New York State Archives Research Grants Available

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The NYS Archives and the Archives Partnership Trust announce the availability of awards to qualified applicants, including students, teachers and public historians, to pursue research using historical records at the New York State Archives. Awards generally range from $100-$4,500 for advanced research in New York history, government, or public policy.

The Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program supports applicants from a variety of backgrounds with awards for advanced research in New York State history, government, or public policy. Previous residents have included academic and public historians, graduate students, independent researchers and writers, and primary and secondary school teachers. The project must draw on the holdings of the New York State Archives. Projects may involve alternative uses of the Archives, such as research for multimedia projects, exhibits, documentary films, and historical novels.

The Quinn-Archives Research Residency provides financial support for an individual to spend up to a year in Albany, New York, working in the rich collections of the New Netherland Institute and the New York State Archives. The program is offered because of the generous support of the Doris Quinn Foundation, the New Netherland Institute www.nnp.org at the New York State Library and the New York State Archives.

Endowment earnings and private contributions to the Archives Partnership Trust provide the financial basis for the Hackman Research Program. Contributors have included The Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Inc., Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and The Lucius N. Littaur Foundation. Contributions and endowment earnings enable the Trust to maintain prior years’ award levels, as well as to continue with invitational fellowships to complete priority projects.

Albany Institute Announces Summer Family Programs

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The Albany Institute of History & Art has announced its summer art programming schedule for children and families. Programs are designed to offer children and their adult companions an opportunity to experience a wide range of artistic workshops and creativity-based lessons, experienced in combination with the museum’s current exhibits and collections. Programs to be offered are as follows:

THREE-DAY ART CAMPS

9:00 a.m.–noon (ages 6–8), 1:00–4:00 p.m. (ages 9–11)
Students will deepen their engagement in the artistic process and share their creations on the third day of the workshop at a show of the students’ work. Classes are taught by a NYS certified art educator. Program fee of $60 for non-members and $45 for members includes materials and museum admission for all three days.
June 29, 30, and July 1: Masterpiece Puppet Theater—Create an original puppet show with your own marionettes.

August 31, September 1 and 2: Art That Goes—Use art and objects related to transportation as inspiration for your own work.

THE ’TUTE FOR TOTS

Wednesdays through July and August, 10:00–11:30 am (ages 3–5)

An inspiring setting gives preschool children and their adult companions a chance to become familiar with the museum and explore and grow through art. Gallery visits are followed by an art activity in our studio. Workshops last one-and-a-half hours and are taught by a NYS certified art educator. Program fee: $5 per person for non-members or $4 per person for members.

July 7–Fishy Drawings

July 14–Resist Painting

July 21–Textures and Shapes

July 28–Funny Faces Sculptures

August 4–Popsicle Stick Buildings.

August 11–Animal Collage

August 18–Vegetable Growth Cycles Book

August 25–Landscape Collage

SUMMER IN THE CITY

Wednesdays through July and August, 1:00–4:00 p.m. (ages 12–15)

Experience the art of Albany. Instructors will lead neighborhood walks to examine shape, color, pattern, texture, and architecture. Use a variety of materials to create a collage inspired by the landscape design of Washington Park. Classes are taught by a NYS certified art educator. A fee of $20 per class for non-members and $15 for members per class includes materials and museum admission. Great for home school students.

July 7–One-Point Perspective Drawings

July 14–Watercolor Facades

July 21–Collagraph Building Prints

July 28–Ceramic Gargoyle Faces

August 4–Tunnel Book Cities

August 11–One Picture, Many Media

August 18–Botanical Brown Bag Books

August 25–Landscape Collage

THURSDAY ART WORKSHOPS

Through July and August, 9:00 a.m.–noon (ages 6–8); 1:00–4:00 p.m. (ages 9–11)

Emphasizing fine art techniques, materials and vocabulary, children will experience inspiration and the many ways in which artists work. Classes are taught by a NYS certified art educator. A fee of $20 per class for non-members and $15 for members per class includes materials and museum admission.

July 8–Creating Mystery Creatures

July 15–Still-Life

July 22–Fabric Collage Totes

July 29–Textured Tessellations

August 5–My Fantastic Room

August 12–Photography: Making the New Old

August 19–Botanical Brown Bag Books

August 26–Narrative Collage

More information and online registration is available through the Albany Institute’s website at www.albanyinstitute.org. Public requests for additional information should be addressed to Barbara Collins, Education Coordinator, (518) 463-4478, ext. 405; collinsb@albanyinstitute.org.

Soap Box Derby Exhibit Opens at NYS Museum

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Seventy years after the debut of Albany’s first Soap Box Derby, the New York State Museum will mark the occasion with the opening of a small exhibition on the Derby June 8, followed by an awards ceremony at the Museum in conjunction with this year’s Albany competition. “Derby Doings: The All-American Soap Box Derby,” will be open in the Museum lobby until August 15.

The annual Capital District Soap Box Derby competition will be held in front of the State Museum on Madison Avenue on Saturday, June 12th and Sunday, June 13th. The awards ceremony in the Museum’s Huxley Theater will immediately follow Sunday’s races at approximately 5 p.m. The winners in three divisions will advance, all expenses paid, to the World Championships in Akron, Ohio later in July.

The exhibition traces the history of the Derby to the summer of 1933 when Dayton, Ohio Daily News photographer Myron Scott saw three boys racing down the hill and proposed what he expected would be a one-time competition. Nineteen children showed up and Scott was compelled to arrange for another competition on August 19, 1933. Intensely publicized, the event attracted 362 contestants and about 40,000 spectators.

The first national championship which Scott called the All-American Soap Box Derby was launched the following year with promotional and financial support from newspapers, magazines and Chevrolet. In 1935, the Derby relocated to Akron, Ohio.

Albany’s first competition dates to 1940 when 15,000 people watched 100 boys compete in the first races on Clermont Avenue. The Derby was locally sponsored and promoted chiefly by Chevrolet automobile dealers and the Albany Times Union. Ongoing support from both allowed such large events to continue through the 1940s. The Derby was televised by WRGB in 1949. Racing continued off and on at various locations, with different sponsors, until it ceased in the 1970s.

However, the Albany Derby was revived in 2006, managed by Ginger Miller. Boys and girls, ages 8-18, are now invited to participate.

The Derby was also held in Schenectady at one time. Richard Russell built two cars – one in 1948 and the other in 1949 — for the annual races on Fehr Avenue in Schenectady. He constructed both of his cars in a building at the Mattice service station and Mattice Fuel Oil service facility at 1025 Altamont Ave. in Schenectady, a business dating from the 1920s. It is still operated by the Russell family, including Richard Russell and his son, Richard Russell Jr., who donated the Russell car to the State Museum in 1995.

The 1949 Russell car will be on display in the exhibition, along with a contemporary Super Stock model built by Michael Morawski in 2007. He won with it on Madison Avenue in 2008 and went on to compete in Akron later that summer. Visitors can also see a helmet worn by Russell at the Schenectady races in 1948 and 1949, a trophy won by Donald Matthews in the Albany derby in July 1941, and several photographs that appeared in the Times Union and Daily Gazette in Schenectady.

Photo: Richard Russell in his car that is on display in the New York State Museum exhibition “Derby Doings: The All-American Soap Box Derby.” This photograph was used in a Mattice ad which appeared in the Schenectady Gazette on July 30, 1949. (Courtesy of NYS Museum)

Albany Institute to Host Free Exibition Preview

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Tomorrow, Friday, June 4, 2010, the Albany Institute of History & Art will host a free reception and preview of the Tomorrow’s Masters Today exhibition, and will name a Master Class of 10 artists. Recently, the Art Auction Committee of the Albany Institute selected 50 original works of art from Capital Region artists to be included in Tomorrow’s Masters Today, an art exhibit and silent auction which will be a feature of the Institute’s 2010 Museum Gala on Friday, June 11, 2010. Tomorrow’s Master Today is part of an effort to promote up-and-coming artists of the Capital Region and highlight the growing artistic wealth of this area. Proceeds from the June 11 auction and gala will support the ongoing programming of the Albany Institute.

The June 4 reception and preview will be held at the Institute, 125 Washington Ave., Albany, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Additionally, on Friday, June 4, the Institute will remain open until 8:00 p.m., and admission to the galleries will be free as part of 1st Fridays, the downtown arts walk that showcases the thriving and lively art scene in downtown Albany. Live music by The Next Station will also be featured.

The Tomorrow’s Masters Today exhibition will be on display at the Albany Institute from June 4 through June 27. To view any of the 50 selected works online, visit www.albanyinstitute.org/tmt.htm. For more information about, or to purchase tickets online for the 2010 Museum Gala on June 11—honoring philanthropists John D. Picotte Family/Equinox Foundation and renowned artist, Stephen Hannock, visit www.albanyinstitute.org/gala.htm.

Tracing Your Ancestors to the Dutch Settlers

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Theodore P. Wright, Jr., Ph.D., Vice President of the Dutch Settlers Society of Albany and a trustee of the New Netherland Institute, will discuss resources to aid in tracing your ancestors to the Dutch Settlers, specifically in an area under the jurisdiction of the Court of Rensselaerswijck prior to the year 1665 or in Esopus (Kingston, NY) prior to the year 1661. The program will be held in Librarians Room, New York State Library, Cultural Education Center, 7th floor 310 Madison Avenue, Albany 12230 on Thursday, June 17th, 12:15 – 1:15 PM Online registration is available.

The Dutch Settlers Society of Albany was founded in 1924, in connection with the celebration of the tercentenary of the settlement of the City, and was instituted to: perpetuate the memory and virtues of the individuals who resided here during the time it was a Dutch colony; and to collect and preserve records and information concerning the history and settlement of Albany and its vicinity, including genealogical records of the settlers and their descendants without regard to race, creed, or country of origin.

For more information about this program, contact Sheldon Wein or Mary Beth Bobish at NYSLTRN@mail.nysed.gov, or call at 518-474-2274.

Books: Kenneth Salzmann’s Albany Scrapbook

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Over the past few days I’ve been enjoying a lighthearted and wide-ranging romp through Albany history while reading Kenneth Salzmann’s Albany Scrapbook. The book is a montage of sorts of life in Albany, often neatly tying the city’s past with its present. Salzmann wrote the essays collected in this volume while working as a freelancer for the now-defunct weekly magazine Albany, New York. The author debunks a few of legends, such as the story that Fidel Castro was once scouted by the Albany Senators, and delves into four centuries worth of the people and places. Salzmann’s fascination with Albany is evident in his introduction, where he writes:

“Where else, after all, do Henry Hudson, a slave named Pomp, Mario Cuomo, Philip Schuyler, the inventor of basketball (perhaps), Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, a flamboyant nineteenth century detective named Elisha Mack, a geographer named Simeon DeWitt, Charles Dickens, the putative Dauphin of France, Fidel Castro, Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Evers, early stage star Joseph Kline Emmet, a nineteenth century renaissance man named Solomon, both Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, and a host of other colorful and compelling characters cross paths?”

The book is broken into five sections: “Yesterday’s News,” “Polling Places,” “Public Safety,” “Stage Directions,” “Character Studies,” “Sportin’ Life,” and “Recommended Reading.” Each section contains interesting and well researched details, mostly about Albany, but occasionally straying to Saratoga and Troy, as with a short look at one of my favorite Trojans, John “Old Smoke” Morrissey. All-in-all, an entertaining and engaging read.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

Albany Institute’s 50 ‘Tomorrows Artists Today’

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The Albany Institute of History & Art is pleased to announce the 50 artists selected for its Tomorrow’s Masters Today Exhibition and Silent Auction. Selected from more than 120 entries, these 50 artists represent some of the Capital Region’s most promising new artists. Tomorrow’s Master Today is part of an effort to promote local artists and highlight the area’s growing artistic wealth.

The exhibition will be a highlight of the Albany Institute’s 2010 Museum Gala on Friday, June 11, and the works will be available for purchase in a silent auction to benefit the Albany Institute. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, June 4, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Ten of the exhibiting artists will be named to a “Master Class,” which will be announced at the reception. The exhibition will be on view at the museum throughout the month of June.

The 50 artists selected for the Tomorrow’s Masters Today Exhibition and Silent Auction are: David Arsenault, Gabrielle Becker, David Brickman, Joleen Button, Lorraine Chesin, Peter Combe, John Connors, Kristin DeFontes, Paul Deyss, Scott Donohue, Chip Fasciana, Raymond Felix, Jim Florsdorf, Mark Gregory, Audrey Grendahl Kuhn, Robin Guthridge, Theresa Hayes, Brian Hofmeister, Stephen Honicki, Tony Iadicicco, Sylvie Kantorovitz, Jenny Kemp, Chloe Kettlewell, David Kvam, Christopher Lislio, Stacy Livingston, Patricia Loonan Testo, Jason Blue Lake Hawk Martinez, Sarah Martinez, Gary Masline, Jessy Montrose, Gail Nadeau, Clifford Oliver, Dorothea Osborn, Wren Panzella, Bill Pettit III, Laurie Searl, Amy Shafer, Scott M. Smith, Susan Sommer, Susan Stuart, Marie Triller, Carl Voegtling, Catherine Wagner Minnery, Eileen Rice Walker, Sarah Walroth, Tommy Watkins, Michael Weidrich, John W.Yost, and Leif Zurmuhlen.

The selected works may be viewed online.

Documenting Leadership: Symposium on Public Executive Records

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The New York State Archives Partnership Trust and the Albany Law School’s Government Law Center have joined forces to sponsor a two-day event focused on the need for effective record keeping by elected government executives. Entitled Documenting Leadership: A Symposium on Public Executive Records in the 21st Century, the program is designed to explore the importance of the records generated by governors and other
high ranking elected public executives, such as presidents, attorneys general, and mayors. The symposium will be held on the Albany Law School campus, New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY on May 20-21.

Panelists for the program are coming from throughout the nation and represent government, the media, academia, and law. Among the presenters will be former U.S. Attorney General and former Governor of Pennsylvania Richard Thornburgh, nationally renowned presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, and former NYS Comptroller Ned Regan.

Sessions will include: Public Policy and the Public Interest; Transparency, Executive Records, and the Media; Executive Records: Access and Disclosure; Access in the Digital Age; and Executive Records as Legacy.

The event is free and open to the public. For information about the program and to register, go to www.albanylaw.edu/executiverecords/

Court of Appeals Hosts ‘The Hudson: Yesterday and Today’

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The New York Court of Appeals has announced “The Hudson: Yesterday and Today” featuring Frances F. Dunwell, Hudson River Estuary Coordinator at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and William T. (Chip) Reynolds, Captain, Replica Ship Half Moon, along with an exhibit of Hudson River photographs by the Half Moon crew on Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. A reception sponsored by The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York will follow. [Read more…] about Court of Appeals Hosts ‘The Hudson: Yesterday and Today’