Buffalo

A New York State 19-Century Baseball All-Star Team

July 13, 2026 by Phil Brown 2 Comments

Major League Baseball’s annual all-star game (taking place Tuesday in Philly) invariably fosters debates. Who’s the more worthy first-baseman, Vladimer Guerrero Jr. or Ben Rice? Should Aaron Judge be on the roster if he hasn’t played in over a month? Why is Cody Bellinger starting in the outfield over Randy Arozarena?

Baseball fans love arguing these sort of questions every year as the midsummer classic approaches. They lead naturally to questions about who was the greatest of all time. Babe Ruth? Ted Williams? Barry Bonds?

I don’t have the answers, but I would like to recognize a class of players who are often overlooked in these debates: the nineteenth-century greats. [Read more…] about A New York State 19-Century Baseball All-Star Team

16 Socialists Poised for State Legislature, Most in New York State History

June 25, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

At least seven Democratic Socialist candidates have won primary elections for the New York Legislature in districts considered safe in November. The primary sweep included multiple victories over incumbent Democrats and in competitive open seats.

Not only will it more than double the socialist contingent in the state house to 16 across both chambers, it will mark the largest socialist contingent in the state legislature in New York history. [Read more…] about 16 Socialists Poised for State Legislature, Most in New York State History

Chauncey Olcott: Saratoga & A Song In His Heart

June 18, 2026 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Chauncey Olcott (1858-1932) celebrated his 71st birthday with a legion of friends at his home in Saratoga Springs, Inniscarra, on July 21st, 1931. Greetings arrived by mail, telephone and telegram. Less than a year later Chauncey passed away leaving his wife Rita with a house full of memories and mementos that told the story of his life.

Rita’s book Song in his Heart: The Story of Chauncey Olcott’s Life was published in 1939. In 1947 the biography was adopted as the film My Wild Irish Rose. [Read more…] about Chauncey Olcott: Saratoga & A Song In His Heart

19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers

June 8, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 19 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The nominations include a nineteenth-century church in Jefferson County that developed and promoted Universalism in Upstate New York, a pre-Revolutionary War house owned by seven generations of the Hulse family on Long Island’s North Shore, and additional documentation for New York City’s Hotel Chelsea recognizing its significance as a center of LGBTQ cultural and creative life. [Read more…] about 19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers

The Man Buffalo Forgot: Harry Altman’s Lost Entertainment Empire

May 20, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

History is often kindest to people who leave something permanent behind — a building, a business, a name etched onto a marquee. Their legacy remains visible. But those who built careers around live entertainment worked in a far more fleeting medium. The worlds they created existed in sound, light, energy, and memory, disappearing almost as quickly as they arrived.

Harry Altman (1890-1966) was one of those people: a once-prominent Buffalo nightclub owner and entertainment promoter whose name has largely faded from New York’s cultural memory, despite decades spent shaping the nightlife of Western New York. [Read more…] about The Man Buffalo Forgot: Harry Altman’s Lost Entertainment Empire

Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame

May 6, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The institution of race-based slavery in what is now New York dates to 1627 when 22 enslaved Africans were brought to New Amsterdam (now New York City) by the Dutch West Indies Company. From that day forward some Americans opposed slavery and sought its abolition.

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Madison County, NY, has announced four abolitionists will be inducted this fall: Black Americans William Wells Brown and Samuel Ringgold Ward, and also William and John Jay II – descendants of American Patriot John Jay. [Read more…] about Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame

George Morton Wolfe: A Wide-Ranging Buffalo Architect

May 1, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

George Morton Wolfe (1885-1966) was a prolific Buffalo, NY architect who specialized in commercial and industrial architecture. Born in 1886 in Middletown, Connecticut, Wolfe spent two years at Hartford Technical High School in Hartford, Connecticut, before settling in Buffalo in 1903.

In the first stage of his career, Wolfe worked as a draftsman in the contracting business of S.H. Woodruff. In 1908, he started his own architectural and engineering practice specializing in “factory, warehouse, and commercial building construction in their many forms.” [Read more…] about George Morton Wolfe: A Wide-Ranging Buffalo Architect

Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist

April 26, 2026 by William M. Goodman 2 Comments

Many New Yorkers before the Civil War contributed to the abolition of slavery, and the dangerous work of helping enslaved African-Americans flee their captors. Take Calvin Fairbank, a New York Methodist pastor born 1816, who spent 17 years in prison for his missions to help enslaved people escape.

Seth Concklin, a New Yorker whose name and sacrifice were more familiar in the 19th century, died tragically in 1851 while trying to help a mother and her three children escape from slavery. [Read more…] about Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist

Recent Wildlife Rescues Around New York State

April 19, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York State Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) made several wildlife rescues recently including a Red-Tailed Hawk on Long Island, two rabbits in Erie County, and an Red-Necked Grebe in Columbia County. [Read more…] about Recent Wildlife Rescues Around New York State

25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers

March 15, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) have announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 25 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The nominations include an intact 1905 metal casting foundry complex in Hudson, an 1873 house that reflects Syracuse’s layered history of immigration, urban renewal, and grassroots historic preservation, a cohesive group of Colonial Revival apartment buildings in Kenmore built during the 1920s and 1930s suburban housing boom, and an amendment to the 1971 nomination for Revolutionary-era Senate House in Kingston to include its 1920s commemorative museum annex. [Read more…] about 25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers

Philistine Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, and the Arts & Crafts Movement

February 26, 2026 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

The principles of beauty and artistic taste and its appreciation in nature and art are very personal, yet aesthetics can often be shared. During the nineteenth century the industrial revolution, first in Europe and later North America, left a dearth of creative aesthetics among inhabitants. Many felt the impersonal civilization, where industrialization forced movement from agrarian societies to urban social life, stripped creativity and aesthetic expression.

Like the industrial revolution itself, what would become an international trend originated in England and would be spread to British colonies and former colonies of the Empire, with origins in the 1850s. This was an arts and crafts movement, spurred on by those with both a grasp of mechanical design and a gift for expressing themselves in writing and lecture, such as John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle and William Morris. Art of pre-industrial times, produced by the skills of craftsmen, were championed and embraced by the movement. [Read more…] about Philistine Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, and the Arts & Crafts Movement

Canal Boat Replica Lois McClure Moved to Port Byron

February 3, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Canal Society of New York State completed a multi‑year effort to move the full‑scale replica 1860s‑era canal boat Lois McClure to a land berth at Erie Canal Heritage Park in Port Byron in Cayuga County, NY, on December 23, 2025.

Launched in 2004 by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, the Lois McClure spent nearly twenty years traveling the NYS Canal System as an educational “time machine” helping people better understand the state’s maritime history and culture. [Read more…] about Canal Boat Replica Lois McClure Moved to Port Byron

State Parks Outlines New Investments Hoped for 2026

January 26, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In support of the goals outlined in Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State and executive budget, New York State Parks has announced support for several initiatives they say are designed to create jobs, enhance state park experiences, improve access to outdoor recreation and preserve state history. [Read more…] about State Parks Outlines New Investments Hoped for 2026

Strike! 13 Strikes Every New Yorker Should Know About

January 23, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Today the state of Minnesota is engaged in the first General Strike in nearly 80 years. There have been thousands of strikes in American history, but only about a dozen General Strikes. One of the first strikes took place in the city of New York in 1677. Afterward a dozen cart-men (one-horse cart operators) were criminally prosecuted “for not obeying the Command and Doing their Dutyes as becomes them in their Places” and fined.

About 80 strikes in the U.S. have involved over 100,000 workers. Here are 13 strikes every New Yorker should know about: [Read more…] about Strike! 13 Strikes Every New Yorker Should Know About

A Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change

January 4, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Longtime New York Almanack contributor Bruce Dearstyne has edited a collection of essays exploring how New York State understanding of freedom and liberty has evolved, and its relevance in American and world history.

Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change (SUNY Press Excelsior Editions, 2025) collects essays from several experts focusing on the struggle to fulfill the American Revolution‘s ideals of freedom and equality for all people over the history of New York. The State has often led the nation toward expanding its peoples’ rights. [Read more…] about A Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change

Buffalo’s Boxing Champion Jimmy Slattery in the Adirondacks

December 22, 2025 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Fans might have easily forgiven Indian Lake, NY pitcher Jimmy Slattery for being on the losing end of a 9-0 shutout against rival Warrensburg. Slattery had rushed back to the Adirondacks after winning a professional light heavy-weight boxing match by unanimous decision at Coney Island Stadium the previous evening.

“Jimmy Slattery of Buffalo, who pitched the first five innings for the Indian Lake team, returned yesterday morning from New York, where on Saturday night he defeated Maxey Rosenbloom in an important bout,” The Glens Falls Times reported on August 29, 1925. [Read more…] about Buffalo’s Boxing Champion Jimmy Slattery in the Adirondacks

19 Nominations to State and National Registers of Historic Places

December 15, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Nineteen properties and districts have been recommended for inclusion in the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include an office building with a pioneering design in energy efficiency in Buffalo, an Arts and Crafts church on Staten Island, a new historic district in Essex County, and the Cortland home of a leader in New York’s Women’s Club Movement.

The nominations were reviewed on December 3, 2025, at a meeting of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation. [Read more…] about 19 Nominations to State and National Registers of Historic Places

Albert Benton Pullman: Gilded Age Entrepreneur

December 9, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Simon Cordery’s Gilded Age Entrepreneur: The Curious Life of Albert Benton Pullman (Cornell University Press, 2025) illuminates the fascinating and chaotic business world of Albert Pullman (1828-1893).

The influential but little-known older brother of George Pullman (1831-1897) and the craftsman of the family, Albert designed the first luxurious Pullman railroad cars and hosted promotional trips to show them off. In those heady early days, he met national business and political leaders and hired the first Pullman porters. [Read more…] about Albert Benton Pullman: Gilded Age Entrepreneur

Nature Conservancy Awards Climate Change Resilience Grants

December 2, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Nature Conservancy in New York has awarded $500,000 through its 2025 Climate Resilience Grant Program to support 12 projects that will protect more than 1,200 acres and strengthen climate resilience across the state.

Now in its fifth year, the Climate Resilience Grant Program funds land trusts, local governments, Tribal Nations and nonprofit organizations working to conserve resilient lands, protect floodplains and shorelines, and build local capacity to adapt to climate change. [Read more…] about Nature Conservancy Awards Climate Change Resilience Grants

The Burning of Buffalo during the War of 1812

November 24, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

On December 10, 1813, two New Yorkers raged at each other in the entryway of Joseph McCarthy’s store on Queen Street in the Upper Canada village of Newark, known today as Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Soldiers held back a crowd as the ranking officer in charge of the American troops occupying nearby Fort George, Brigadier-General George McClure (1771-1851) cursed a Buffalo physician and militia captain, the forty-four-year-old Dr. Cyrenius Chapin (1769-1838). Both were part of the New York State militia assigned by the United States regular army to occupy Canada’s Fort George. [Read more…] about The Burning of Buffalo during the War of 1812

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