History, Natural History & the Arts
In 1845, a feudal land system that had survived the American Revolution met its match in the Catskills’ hills above Andes, in Delaware County, NY — and the clash left a county undersheriff dead and hundreds of farmers under arrest.
The Anti-Rent War was a massive, organized uprising that had been building since the late 1830s and swept across Upstate New York. [Read more…] about The Anti-Rent War in the Catskills
Fifty years ago, on June 23, 1976, a National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) oil tanker ran aground, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the St. Lawrence River.
The so-called “Slick of ‘76” has become a thing of folklore and a warning of environmental devastation in the Thousand Islands and beyond. It even spawned a musical. [Read more…] about The St. Lawrence River’s ‘Slick of 76’ Oil Spill
Daniel Talbot did not simply show movies. He helped teach America how to watch them.
My father was born in the Bronx in 1926 to Polish Jewish immigrants. He came of age during the Depression and World War II, part of a generation that understood culture not as decoration, but as a way of thinking about the world.
He was tough, funny, exacting, deeply humanistic, and unmistakably New York. [Read more…] about Daniel Talbot, New Yorker Films, and the Art of Cultural Courage
Most people don’t know Nat Fein’s name — but they know his work. Fein, who lived in Tappan, in Rockland County, NY, for many years, captured one of the most iconic images in American sports history.
Babe Ruth’s final appearance at Yankee Stadium occurred June 13, 1948, and the photograph, which earned Fein the 1949 Pulitzer Prize, became known as “Babe Ruth Bows Out.” [Read more…] about Nat Fein: The Man Behind The Iconic Babe Ruth Photo
Peter Bennett is a photographer who grew up in Greenwich Village and lived in the East Village from 1979-1988, bartending by night and photographing the neighborhood around him by day.
In the latest addition to the Village Preservation historic image archive, he has shared some of his photographs of the East Village in the early 1980s. [Read more…] about 1980s East Village Photographs Go Online
A new documentary film unveils a rare and haunting glimpse into “Old Main,” one of America’s oldest asylums, located in Utica, NY. Established in 1843, this facility was the first in New York State devoted to the care of the mentally ill during a time when understanding mental health was still in its infancy.
The imposing structure still stands as a silent witness to the countless inhabitants who lived there until its doors closed for good in 1978. [Read more…] about New Documentary on Utica’s ‘Old Main’ Asylum
Location scouting is a part of the pre-production process of making a film or television show. Before digital files and location-scouting apps transformed the business of film location scouting, New York’s production world ran on hard copies — real photographs, taped into real folders, stored in real boxes. [Read more…] about New York City Location Scout Photo Collections
Spread over an archipelago of islands nestled amongst the marshes of the northern Adriatic coast, Venice was founded in the fifth century AD by refugees who fled the “barbarian” onslaught after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
In 811 its seat of government transferred from the island of Malamocco (one of the earliest settlements) to an area corresponding to present St Mark’s Square which was less vulnerable to attacks from sea. [Read more…] about Venice Design & Manhattan’s Skyline
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, announced Monday that its Board of Directors has voted to dissolve the organization after 58 years, rather than be “vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.”
The decision follows Congress’s rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks by the Trump regime and Republican Party that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 intended. [Read more…] about Once A Educational Powerhouse, CPB is No More
What does it take to bring the American Revolution to life? How can an event that took place 250 years ago be conveyed to us through modern-day film?
Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt and their production team worked to answer these questions in their new, epic six-part documentary, The American Revolution.
Their work promises to deepen, complicate, and transform our understanding of the Revolution over 12 hours of film. [Read more…] about Making Ken Burns’ ‘The American Revolution’
When I decided to attend Skidmore College in April 2021, I had no idea that I was about to step into one of the deepest historical ravines in the country.
Saratoga County and its surroundings witnessed history from the birth of the Iroquois Confederacy, to the tumultuous Battles of Saratoga, which helped secure American Independence. In some ways, New York’s Capital Region is the Cradle of the Nation. [Read more…] about Behind The Scenes: American Revolution & WMHT Film Production
The premiere showing of the documentary video, What Was and What Is: The Communities of Burnt Hills and Ballston Lake and their School District, 1938-1940 and 2025.
The film is based partly on newly-discovered 16 mm film from the years 1938-40. [Read more…] about New Saratoga County Documentary Premiere
Between 1839 and 1845 tenant farmers in New York State revolted against paying rents to the patroon system — a system of land ownership implemented by the Dutch in New Netherland that prohibited farmers from owning their land outright.
Disguising themselves in calico gowns and leather masks to demand change. Their struggle, known as the Anti-Rent War, helped shape the future of American democracy and land ownership. [Read more…] about The Anti-Rent War: A Second American Revolution
This Saturday, August 16 at 2 pm, Bronx County Historical Society will host Drew Stone, and Tish and Snooky (of Manic Panic) at the Museum of Bronx History for a book talk “London ‘77: The Lost Archive,” look at a musical era that changed the face of modern music.
Buried and forgotten for more than 45 years, vivid photos by photographer Gregory Rudolph Smith have been rediscovered. For eighteen months in 1977 and 1978, Smith documented the golden age of the Punk era in London. [Read more…] about London ‘77: A Lost Punk Rock Archive
A new documentary by filmmaker Deke Richards spotlights the little-known story of American and Canadian exiles sent as convicts to the penal colony of Australia after their capture during the 1837-38 Canadian Insurrections against the British (also known as the Patriot War). [Read more…] about American & Canadian Patriot War Exiles Subject of New Doc
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has announced it will shut down. The move follows the Republican Party’s cutting of all the nonprofit’s funding. 89 NPR and PBS station transmitters in New York will be affected.
CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It’s support for more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations nationwide will end in September the organization said. [Read more…] about Trump Regime Kills Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
Narrated by Julien Icher, historian and founder of the “Follow the Frenchman” YouTube series, the new PBS documentary Lafayette: A Hero’s Return explores Lafayette’s enduring legacy in both New York and American history. [Read more…] about ‘Lafayette: A Hero’s Return’ PBS Documentary Premieres June 9th
A new trailer for an in-production feature-length documentary film about the Burned-Over District of 19th-century New York State has just been released. Burned Over focuses on Spiritualism, the belief that the living can communicate with the dead, and the Oneida Community, a free love commune.
Both began in 1848 in the Burned-Over District, an area famous as an incubator of radical religious practice and progressive politics, inspired in part by the Second Great Awakening. [Read more…] about Burned-Over District Documentary Being Produced
A new documentary film coming in November by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, The American Revolution, examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down. [Read more…] about New Documentary ‘The American Revolution’ Coming November 2025
On February 27, 1861, Congress passed an Act that allowed privately printed cards weighing one ounce or less to be sent by the US Postal Service. That same year printer and stationer John Charlton in Philadelphia copyrighted the private postal card.
He later transferred the rights to his friend and inventor Hymen Lipman (who patented an integrated pencil and eraser in March 1858) who first produced cards with a decorative border and a small print reading “Lipman’s Postal Card. Patent Applied For.” They were soon referred to as “postcards.” [Read more…] about Kodak’s Pocket Camera, Lynching & The Song ‘Strange Fruit’
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