Paul Smith’s College students have completed construction of the Akwesasne Mobile Cultural Center. This new cultural center is a result of a partnership between Paul Smith’s College and the Nia’s Little Library – a nonprofit that promotes literacy and preserve the Mohawk language. [Read more…] about Paul Smith’s Students Create the Akwesasne Mohawk Mobile Cultural Center
Education
What Do We Tell Our Children about the Holocaust?
This week on The Historians Podcast, Meryl Frank in her book Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Hachette Books, 2023) tells the story of her cousin Franya Winter, a celebrated Yiddish stage actress in Vilna in Eastern Europe who died in the Holocaust. [Read more…] about What Do We Tell Our Children about the Holocaust?
SUNY Albany Renames Pond in Honor of First Indigenous Students
The New York State University at Albany’s University Council voted Friday, May 5th, to formally change the name of Indian Pond to Parker Pond, and Indian Pond Lane to Parker Pond Lane. The new names acknowledge and honor the contributions of the Parker family, of which three siblings — Caroline (Ga:hahno), Nicholson (Gye-wah-go-wa) and Isaac Newton (Gane-yo-squa-ga-oh) — were among the first nine Indigenous students to enroll at UAlbany around 1850. [Read more…] about SUNY Albany Renames Pond in Honor of First Indigenous Students
Lucy Hobbs Taylor: Northern NY’s ‘Girl Against the World’
Lucy Beaman Hobbs was born in Constable, in Northern New York, raised in Ellenburg and later schooled in Malone. Early in her life she made it her mission to earn her living by the use of her brain, not by the sweat of her brow. One obstacle stood in the way more than others – she was a woman. [Read more…] about Lucy Hobbs Taylor: Northern NY’s ‘Girl Against the World’
Project Seeks to Document Confederacy & Civil War Memorials on College Campuses
The basic objective of the new Locating Slavery’s Legacies database (LSLdb) is to collect information about monuments and memorials identified with the Civil War and Confederacy on the campuses of American colleges. This information will in analysis and understanding of the impact of pseudohistorical Lost Cause movements on higher education in the United States in the 160 years since emancipation and the end of the war. [Read more…] about Project Seeks to Document Confederacy & Civil War Memorials on College Campuses
William O. Stillman: Leader of Humane Societies, Friend of Animals & Children
William O. Stillman was born on September 9th, 1856 in Normansville, now known as Elsmere in the town of the Bethlehem, Albany County, NY. His parents were Rev. Stephen Lewis Stillman and Lucretia (Miller) Stillman.
Rev. Stephen Lewis Stillman was a Methodist minister at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Adamsville (now Delmar) and a descendant of a family that had emigrated from London, England. Lucretia (Miller) Stillman was of Dutch descent. Rev. Stephen suddenly died in 1869, when William was 12 years old. After his father’s death, William and his mother moved to Albany. [Read more…] about William O. Stillman: Leader of Humane Societies, Friend of Animals & Children
The Barryville Family School for Young Ladies
Chauncey Thomas was one of the most prominent residents of the Upper Delaware River Valley in the 19th century, a successful entrepreneur who, among other accomplishments, built the first suspension bridge connecting Barryville in the town of Highland, Sullivan County, NY and Shohola, PA, and envisioned the Shohola Glen Amusement Park that was eventually built by bluestone magnate John Fletcher Kilgore and attracted tourists from far and wide.
One of Thomas’ first and most ambitious projects was undertaken with his first wife, Margaret Bross Thomas, and was ultimately unsuccessful. It was the Barryville Family School for Young Ladies. [Read more…] about The Barryville Family School for Young Ladies
Conservationist for Kids in Spanish
Starting with the Winter 2023 “Rocks Rock!” issue of Conservationist for Kids, a Spanish version is available as a PDF download on DEC’s website. Since 2008, Conservationist for Kids has been mailed free of charge in classroom packets to all 4th grade classes in New York State, reaching more than 275,000 students each issue. [Read more…] about Conservationist for Kids in Spanish
The Struggle to Integrate Lockport’s Schools
On this episode of A New York Minute in History, Devin Lander and Lauren Roberts discuss the Mossell family in Western New York, and their efforts to successfully integrate the Niagara County city of Lockport’s public schools in the late 19th century — nearly 80 years before legal segregation ended nationwide. [Read more…] about The Struggle to Integrate Lockport’s Schools
Thurgood Marshall & Rockland County School Desegregation
On the February 2023 Crossroads, host Clare Sheridan revisited the 2011 interview with Dr. Travis Jackson (1934–2021) about his personal memories and his extensive research related to the desegregation of the Hillburn schools and the role that Thurgood Marshall played in this important piece of Rockland County history.
Dr. Travis Jackson was born and raised in Hillburn. He was entering the fourth grade in 1943 when Hillburn families of color and the NAACP worked together to desegregate the Hillburn schools. [Read more…] about Thurgood Marshall & Rockland County School Desegregation