My first brush with the artifacts of history came when I was a youngster on a family vacation to Cooperstown, Otsego County, NY. I found the famous Baseball Hall of Fame, with its baggy uniforms, battered bats and flattened fielders’ mitts, decidedly ho-hum. I couldn’t wait to get to the nearby Farmers’ Museum and see something that I had heard of with wonder: the Cardiff Giant. [Read more…] about There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days
Cooperstown
Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant
In 1866, NY State Geologist James Hall received a message from T.G. Younglove, an official at Harmony Mills in Cohoes, New York, informing Hall that while conducting some excavations to expand the mill they uncovered a “great pothole” at the foot of Cohoes Falls where the Mohawk River begins to empty into the Hudson.
The “great pothole” contained a large jawbone “of some unknown beast,” much larger than that of an elephant. [Read more…] about Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant
DEC: Animal Killed By Hunter In Cooperstown Was A Wolf
On September 21st, 2022, after a second independent DNA study confirmed that the wolf killed outside of Cooperstown, in Otsego County, NY, was really a wolf, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) reversed course and announced the wolf was indeed a wolf.
DEC had been calling the Cooperstown wolf a coyote since it examined the dead animal in December 2021 and conducted a DNA study in early 2022. DEC publicly called the wolf a coyote in July in many news reports, after the release of an independent DNA study by Trent University in Canada, organized by the Northeast Ecological Recovery Society (NERS).
The Trent University DNA analysis found that the Cooperstown wolf had 98% wolf genes. [Read more…] about DEC: Animal Killed By Hunter In Cooperstown Was A Wolf
38 Groups Call On DEC To Protect Wolves in New York State
The plot continues to thicken around the killing of an 85-pound wolf near Cooperstown in December of 2021 and the response by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Under state and federal law, a wolf that wanders into New York State is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The wolf shot near Cooperstown by a coyote hunter clearly enjoyed no such protections. [Read more…] about 38 Groups Call On DEC To Protect Wolves in New York State
Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District
John Jordan left Edinburgh, Scotland in 1755 arriving in White Plains, colony of New York, the same year. Edinburgh had been the family home since Jordan’s father and grandfather fled France for Scotland following the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Huguenots in the late 1600s. John struck out on his own and decided to immigrate to America.
John married Mary Ann Daniels, a young woman of Dutch descent, and in 1758 they had a son, John Jordan, Jr. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, John Jordan, Sr. and his wife left New York and helped found the loyalist colony of St. John, New Brunswick, just across the Maine border. Their 19-year-old son, John Jr., stayed behind. [Read more…] about Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District
Food & Farming Conference at Farmers’ Museum Saturday
The Farmers’ Museum, located at 5775 State Hwy. 80, Lake Road, in Cooperstown has announced their sixth annual “Celebration of Our Agricultural Community: Annual Conference on Food & Farming” has been set for Saturday, November 2nd, from 9 am to 2 pm. The topic this year is Opportunities in Agriculture. [Read more…] about Food & Farming Conference at Farmers’ Museum Saturday
Ballston Spa’s Abner Doubleday and Baseball
This week’s guest on The Historians Podcast is Ballston Spa author and historian David Fiske who questions the persistent claim that Ballston Spa native and Civil War general Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball in Cooperstown. [Read more…] about Ballston Spa’s Abner Doubleday and Baseball
Nineteenth-Century Baseball Myths, History (Podcast)
The Opening Day of Baseball edition of the Capital District Civil War Round Table Podcast features Tim Wiles, the former director of research at the Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown and current director of the Guilderland Public Library.
Tim talked about his time in Cooperstown, the Doubleday Myth, Troy-native Johnny Evers, the story behind ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ the services offered by the Guilderland Public Library, and much more. [Read more…] about Nineteenth-Century Baseball Myths, History (Podcast)
Museum Association of NY Announces Awards of Merit
The Museum Association of New York (MANY) has announced their 2019 Awards of Merit that will be presented to twelve individuals, museums, exhibitions, and programs from across New York State.
The Awards of Merit were judged for programs conducted in 2018 and will be presented as part of the Museum Association of New York’s 2019 conference “Access and Identity” at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, on Monday, April 8, 2019 at 8 am. [Read more…] about Museum Association of NY Announces Awards of Merit
Annual NY Museums Conference Registration Now Open
The Museum Association of New York (MANY) has officially opened registration for their 2019 Annual Conference “Access and Identity.”
The MANY Annual Conference is the largest gathering for both established and emerging museum professionals in New York State. This year’s conference will bring more presenters and sessions than ever before and will cover topics on fundraising, education, collections, and discussions on diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. [Read more…] about Annual NY Museums Conference Registration Now Open