New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Archives Partnership Trust

Archives Magazine To Expand Reach To Young Readers

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New York Archives Jr!The award-winning New York Archives Magazine is expanding to include a new Jr! educational insert and other related enhancements thanks to a $150,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.

The Jr! insert is expected to expand access to young New Yorkers and offer educators another tool for bringing primary sources into the classroom. Each issue will contain learning activities specific to a local history story published in the quarterly magazine and geared to building historical thinking and civic literacy skills that meet 4th-7th grade curriculum standards. [Read more…] about Archives Magazine To Expand Reach To Young Readers

Three New York Chinatown Stories from Tuck High Company

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Tuck High Company storeThe Tuck High Company store, sold to the New York State Museum in 1980, embodies tens of thousands of stories about what Chinatown was truly about.

Jack Tchen, cross-cultural historian and co-founder of the Museum of Chinese in America, will share three stories interweaving the lives of a tea merchant, a “laundryman” and the Irish “Mayor of Chinatown” on Wednesday, June 15th at the State Museum’s Huxley Theatre. [Read more…] about Three New York Chinatown Stories from Tuck High Company

Abolition, Civil Rights Talk With Underground RR Experts Mary Liz and Paul Stewart

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Black History MonthThe New York State Archives Partnership Trust will host “Risk-Takers and Change-Makers,” an online conversation looking at the men and women whose efforts empowered the abolitionist cause and laid the foundation for today’s civil rights movement in the United States, set for Tuesday, February 1st. [Read more…] about Abolition, Civil Rights Talk With Underground RR Experts Mary Liz and Paul Stewart

The Lemmon Slave Case: A Defense of New York State Abolition

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Juliet and Jonathan Lemmon (photos courtesy Shirley Craft, from findagrave.com)Lemmon v. New York, or Lemmon v. The People (1860) was a freedom suit begun in 1852 with a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The case brought up questions about the legality of slavery within the United States , especially challenging the slavery laws between the northern and southern states.

While relocating to Texas by way of New York State, Virginia enslavers Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon brought to the city of New York eight enslaved people. They made up two family groups, each headed by a young woman: the first was Emiline (age 23), Edward (age 13), brother of Emiline; and Amanda (age 2), daughter of Emiline. The second was Nancy (age 20); Lewis (age 16), brother of Nancy; Lewis and Edward (age 7), sons of Nancy; and Ann (age 5), daughter of Nancy.

[Read more…] about The Lemmon Slave Case: A Defense of New York State Abolition