New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Cultural History

John Jay Homestead’s Curator on American Silver

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Curator’s Fabulous Finds, a series of artifact talks at John Jay Homestead, will continue on Sunday, May 15 at 2:00 p.m., and will be repeated on Thursday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m. This spring’s lecture will examine and discuss British, Spanish, and American silver from the Homestead’s historic collection. The cost of admission will be $10.00 per person; members of the Friends of John Jay Homestead may attend at no charge.

Like all members of the upper class in the early 19th century, the Jays used fine silver on a day-to-day basis. Among the objects to be examined are John Jay’s elegant, Neoclassical Sheffield plate hot water urn and a very rare, early 18th-century sterling silver teapot made for his wife’s grandmother by the noted silversmith, Pieter Van Dyck.

Attendees will also view up close such unusual objects as an 18th-century silver table fork from Spain, a Bull’s Eye lamp (which burned whale oil), a silver and coral whistle and bells (a baby’s toy for play and for teething), and a mote spoon, used for removing stray tea leaves from one’s cup of tea. The differences between sterling silver, coin silver, and Sheffield plate will be discussed, as will the techniques of hand working silver in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Space at the talk is limited, and reservations are strongly suggested. To reserve seats, call John Jay Homestead at (914) 232-5651, extension 105.

John Jay was a President of the Continental Congress, the second U.S. Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the second Governor of New York State. He retired to Bedford in 1801 to live the life of a gentleman farmer. His home is now a beautiful sixty-two acre historic site that includes lovely walks, several gardens, farm buildings, and a richly-decorated main residence restored to the 1820s, the last decade of Jay’s life.

John Jay Homestead State Historic Site is located at 400 Route 22, Katonah, Westchester County, NY. John Jay Homestead is regularly open for guided tours Sunday through Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and at other times by appointment.

Photo: John Jay’s silver tea urn. Courtesy john Jay Homestead.

Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War

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Stanford University Hoover Institute Fellow Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman is offering perspective on a little-known, yet pivotal, Civil War moment in her debut novel Broken Promises: A Novel of the Civil War (Ballantine Trade Paperback).

Originally self-published as In the Lion’s Den, Ballantine has published Hoffman’s novel for a broader audience just in time for the Civil War sesquicentennial.

In 1861, fearing that England will support the Confederate cause, President Lincoln sends Charles Francis Adams — son of John Quincy Adams — to London. Charles has long awaited an opportunity to make a significant impact on the Union his ancestors fought so hard to establish. But when he arrives, accompanied by his son, Henry, he discovers that the English are building warships for the South — and it may be too late to prevent dissolution.

As Charles embarks on a high-stakes game of espionage and diplomacy, his son reconnects with college friend Baxter Sams, a Southern doctor who has found a kindred spirit in Englishwoman Julia Birch. But Julia’s father reviles Americans — indeed, he is instrumental in supplying the warships that may help pull the nation apart — and Baxter finds himself torn between his growing love for Julia, his friendship with Henry, and his obligation to the Confederacy, when his father asks him to run medical supplies across the naval blockade. As tensions mount, irrevocable choices test the bonds of brothers, lovers, fathers, and sons—and change the fate of an entire country.

Based on the lives of the son and grandson of John Quincy Adams, as recorded in their memoirs and wartime correspondence, Broken Promises reveals how close America came to experiencing a very different future.

Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, PhD, is a winner of the Allan Nevins Prize for Literary Distinction in the Writing of History. She is currently a Hoover Institute Fellow at Stanford University and she holds the Dwight Stanford Chair in American foreign relations at San Diego State University. Dr. Hoffman is a native Californian, graduate of Stanford, wife, and mother of four. She is the author of several books of history. Broken Promises, which she began writing on a Fulbright grant, is her first novel.

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

Women’s Rights: Race, Class and Ethnicity

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This Saturday, April 9th, at 7:00 pm, Historic Huguenot Street will host another in its Second Saturdays Lecture Series. The featured speaker will be Harriet Davis-Kram, Professor of American History at Queens College in New York City. The title of her talk is “Women’s Rights: A Struggle of Race, Class and Ethnicity.”

The quest of American women for equal rights dates back to the 18th century. One need only read the letters Abigail Adams sent to her husband John at the Constitutional Convention, warning him, “You’d better not forget the ladies.”

By the early 19th century, women’s voices were often heard in the debate over the abolition of slavery, and a number of educated women began to see similarities between their own social, economic, and political status, and that of the slaves they were fighting to emancipate. A small group of abolitionists would go on to found the movement for women’s equality. Davis-Kram will explore this history and the internal tensions that were part of the fight for women’s equality.

New York women were very much a part of this movement. Sojourner Truth is well known for her leading role in advocating for the end of slavery. Less well known is the key role she played as an African-American woman in the later struggle for women’s rights. She was a contemporary of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, among others. So too was Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, the Middletown woman who made her mark as a dress reformer and as the publisher of “The Sybil,” a 19th century women’s rights periodical. Saturday’s talk is a prelude to the reinterpretation of the Abraham Hasbrouck House at Historic Huguenot Street. When this house reopens in 2012, the story told will focus on the lives on women in early New Paltz.

Davis-Kram, who has been teaching for over 30 years, specializes in the areas of American Women’s History, American Labor History, Immigration, and New York City History. Dr. Davis-Kram also guides walking tours in New York City focusing mostly on the 19th-century up through 1920. Her talk is made possible through Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Speakers in the Humanities lectures are made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Legislature, and through funds from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

The talk will be held in the LeFevre House, located at 54 Huguenot Street in downtown New Paltz. There is a suggested donation of $5. For more information, call 845.255.1660 or visit www.huguenotstreet.org.

Artistic Visions Exhibit at Iroquois Museum

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“Iroquois Artistic Visions: From Sky World to Turtle Island” is an exhibition featuring new works by contemporary Iroquois artists in addition to art from the Museum’s permanent collection that will run from April 1 through December 31, 2011 at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howe’s Cave, NY. [Read more…] about Artistic Visions Exhibit at Iroquois Museum

Auburn Founders Day Committee Seeks Input

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The committee in charge of Auburn’s Founders Day festival is asking the public for input on themes for future celebrations. Founders Day is an annual festival held in Auburn, Cayuga County, New York, focusing each year on an influential person or institution from the area. The day’s celebration offers speakers, entertainment, vendors, artists, shopping, food and refreshments in an atmosphere of fun for the entire family.

Founders Day began in 2009, as a way of bringing attention to Auburn’s rich historical legacy. The 2009 festival focused on William Seward, and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin was the guest of honor. Last year’s festival celebrated the work of Theodore Case, Auburn’s native son who made talking movies possible. The 2011 Founders Days was going to celebrate the work of Harriet Tubman, but the committee decided to wait until 2013, the 100th anniversary of her death, to focus on Tubman.

This year’s Founders Day, scheduled for Saturday, August 13, will celebrate History on Wheels. Auburn’s Antique Car Club will be the focus; more than 50 other car clubs have been invited to participate. Hundreds of vintage cars will line the streets of downtown, while live bands, food vendors, artisan crafters and children’s activities entertain visitors.

The Founders Day committee is looking for ideas on which individuals or institutions to celebrate in future years. “Founders Day is in its infancy,” said this year’s co-chair Eileen McHugh, “and we intend for it to get bigger and better every year. Someday, Founders Day can be for Auburn what Harborfest is for Oswego. We’re planning now for the next several years. And we want suggestions from the community.”

Whom do you think should be celebrated on Founders Day? The committee has settled on Harriet Tubman for 2013, but needs a theme for 2012 and beyond. Send your idea, along with a brief statement of why that person or organization should be celebrated, to the Founders Day Committee at Downtown Auburn BID. Phone in your suggestion at 252-7874, drop it off in person at 128 Genesee St., or email connie@auburndowntown.org.

New York Folklore Society Latino Artists’ Gathering

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The New York Folklore Society, in collaboration with Go Art!, will hold its second Latino Artists’ Gathering on March 19, 2011 At the Homestead Event Center, Batavia City Center, Batavia, New York.

Supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, the gatherings provide an opportunity for Latino artists residing in non-metropolitan New York State to come together to discuss issues and solve common problems. March’s theme will be “Challenges and Opportunities for Traditional Artists in Rural New York”, and we will hear of some of the current initiatives being tried to link artists across distances.

[Read more…] about New York Folklore Society Latino Artists’ Gathering

Dorsky Museum to Feature Historic Textile Expert

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Rabbit Goody, a leading expert in the study and manufacture of 18th and 19th century textiles, will be featured at a panel discussion at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz on Sunday, February 20th at 3pm.

The panel discussion is coincides with the exhibit currently on view at the Dorsky: Binary Visions: 19th Century Woven Coverlets from the Collection of Historic Huguenot Street. This exhibit features more than 20 coverlets woven from cotton and wool on water-powered looms in small factories across the mid-Hudson Valley during the first half of the 19th century. The exhibition is a particularly important opportunity for historians and scholars to conceive new ways of thinking about the visual power of these coverlets.

Rabbit Goody is owner of Thistle Hill Weavers in Cherry Valley, New York. For more than 20 years, Thistle Hill Weavers has been weaving luxurious custom fabrics, carpet, and trim for designers, home owners, museums, and the film industry. Goody specializes in creating accurate historic reproductions, working from surviving examples, documented patterns, and period weavers’ drafts. Goody was a consultant for the Binary Visions exhibit.

Joining Goody on the panel will be Leslie LeFevre-Stratton, Curator of Collections at Historic Huguenot Street and Jessica Poser, Assistant Professor of Art Education at SUNY New Paltz. Poser has used the textile collections at Historic Huguenot Street as the inspiration for some of her most recent works of art. The panel will be moderated by Brian Wallace, Curator at the Dorsky Museum.

The panel discussion will be held in the Student Union Building closest to the campus entrance off South Manheim Boulevard and is free and open to the public.

For more information about the exhibit and the panel discussion, visit www.huguenotstreet.org or www.newpaltz.edu/museum.

Fort Ticonderoga Presents Material Matters Workshop

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Fort Ticonderoga presents the next “Material Matters: It’s in the Details” Winter Weekend Workshop on Saturday, February 26th. This workshop, focusing on the Revolutionary War era, takes place in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center at Fort Ticonderoga from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Pre-registration is required.

Designed for those who want a deeper understanding of the everyday objects that help tell the story of life during the 18th century, this workshop is a part of a series examining the material culture of the 18th century as it relates to Fort Ticonderoga’s role in the 18th-century contests for North America.

The February 26th workshop features William Hettinger, an expert on 18th-century jewelry; Jenna Schnitzer, who will speak on 18th-century women’s clothing; Chris Fox, the Fort’s Curator of Collections, whose presentation focuses on 18th-century lighting devices; and Eric Schnitzer, from Saratoga National Historical Park, who will discuss the use of artworks when researching 18th-century material culture. The workshop concludes with an opportunity for participants to examine examples of 18th-century artifacts with the panel of experts.

The cost for the day-long workshop is $35 and includes morning refreshments and lunch. To register, contact Rich Strum at 518-585-6370 or you can download a registration form at www.Fort-Ticonderoga.org and select “Adult Programs” under the “Education Programs” button.

Black History Month at Brooklyn Museum

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The Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday attracts thousands of visitors to free programs of art and entertainment each month. The February 5 event celebrates Black History Month and the contributions of African Americans during the thirties, forties, and fifties with programs inspired by the exhibition Lorna Simpson: Gathered.

Throughout the evening, a cash bar will offer beer and wine, and the Museum Café will serve a wide variety of sandwiches, salads, and beverages. The Museum Shop will remain open until 11 p.m.

Some Target First Saturday programs have limited space available and are ticketed on a first-come, first-served basis. Programs are subject to change without notice. Museum admission is free after 5 p.m. Museum galleries are open until 11 p.m. Parking is a flat rate of $4 from 5 to 11 p.m.

Highlights include:

5-7 p.m. Music
The Fat Cat Big Band plays bebop and swing.

5:30 p.m. Film
The Great Debaters (Denzel Washington, 2007, 126 min., PG-13). True story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College in Texas who inspired students to form the school’s first debate team in the segregated South of 1935. Writer Trey Ellis introduces the film and leads a discussion following the screening. Free tickets are available at the Visitor Center at 5 p.m.

6-7 p.m. Discussion
Writer Kalia Brooks on Lorna Simpson: Gathered.

6:30-8:30 p.m. Hands-On Art
Create a triptych portrait inspired by the work of Lorna Simpson. Free timed tickets are available at the Visitor Center at 5:30 p.m.

7 p.m. Curator Talk
Sharon Matt Atkins, Curator of Exhibitions, on Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera. Free tickets are available at the Visitor Center at 6 p.m.

7-8 p.m. Interactive Project
Bring your photos to contribute to a collaborative artwork on African American history.

8 p.m. Young Voices Talk
Student Guides on American Identities: A New Look.

8-10 p.m. Dance Party
DJ Stormin’ Norman, resident DJ of Harlem’s Sundae Sermon, hosts a hip-hop and soul dance party highlighting African American contributions to music.

9-10 p.m. Artist Talk
Hank Willis Thomas discusses his installation Unbranded and issues of race and class in magazine advertisements.

9-10 p.m. Performance
The Small’s Jazz Club All-Stars play big-band music of the thirties, forties, and fifties.

Photo: Fat Cat Big Band. Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Times Square Photos Wanted by New-York Historical Society

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Photographers are encouraged to share their perspective on historic location in New York City by January 31, 2011 for a chance at a first place prize of $500. The New-York Historical Society is soliciting digital photographs of contemporary Times Square from West 42nd to 47th Streets at Broadway or Seventh Avenue. Photographers should look to capture exterior architecture, outdoor portraits, group snapshots, billboards and advertisements and interior images of notable area buildings. Everyone, from serious amateur photographers to tourists is welcome to participate.

Photograph submissions should be sent to contest@nyhistory.org in either GIF, JPG, or PNG format, and be at least 3000 x 3600 pixels to 6000 x 7200 pixels (or 20” x 24”). Please include a title for the photo, a description of the relevance of the photo to Times Square, where and when the photo was taken and the identity of each person who is depicted in the photo and the photographer’s name so work can be attributed. Complete submission guidelines are online.

Photo: Times Square, 1922.