New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

ephemera

Circus Broadsides: Preservation of New York History

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LaFayette's Circus advertisement between 1824 and 1825 (New York State Library)The New York State Museum’s circus posters, shared as part of their “Look at This” social media series, inspired the State Library to digitize circus-related documents found in their collections.

Their search for NYS Library circus materials began in the Manuscripts and Special Collections Unit, where they found circus broadsides from NYS and beyond. Most of these date back to the mid-nineteenth century and are over 150 years old, making their condition and the vibrancy of the ink all the more striking. [Read more…] about Circus Broadsides: Preservation of New York History

Objects Collected at New York’s First State Historic Site

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A display of historic collections on view in the Hasbrouck House at Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in 1891 (State Parks)In April 1850, the 1750 Hasbrouck House in Newburgh was transformed into New York State’s first state historic site: Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site.

Since then, New York State has collected objects, archival materials, and other items related to New York’s history. 2025 marks the 175th anniversary of New York’s state historic sites – which now number over 35 locations, over a million historic objects, and over three million archaeological objects. [Read more…] about Objects Collected at New York’s First State Historic Site

Rare Documents Highlight Temperance & Suffrage History

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1853 Womens New York State Temperance Society certificat signed by Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Raab Collection)Two documents which connect Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who helped women organize to secure the right to vote, are being offered for sale.

The newly discovered 1853 documents certify Mr. P.S. Kingsley and Mrs. Angeline Kingsley of Minetto in Oswego County, NY, as members of the first organization founded by Anthony and Stanton, the Women’s New York State Temperance Society, formed in 1852. [Read more…] about Rare Documents Highlight Temperance & Suffrage History

Collecting for Posterity: America’s First Curators

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St Dominic woodcutCurators are the keepers or custodians of a museum, library or other collection. The term is derived from the Latin curare, meaning to take care. Its linguistic history is intriguing, but the connotation of “guardianship” was maintained throughout.

In Ancient Rome, curatores were civil servants in charge of public works, overseeing the Empire’s aqueducts, bathhouses and sewers. From the early fifteenth century onward to the medieval period, the curatus was a parish priest devoted to the care (cura) of minors, “lunatics,” and other vulnerable people. During the 1660s, individuals charged with the care and preservation of precious collections of art, books and artifacts (initially at private estates) were referred to as curators. [Read more…] about Collecting for Posterity: America’s First Curators

Albany Activist Aaron Mair’s Papers Now At Library of Congress

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Photo of Aaron Mair by Nancie Battaglia provided by the Adirondack CouncilDozens of boxes of paper files and computer discs containing campaign records, strategic plans, letters to the editor, action alerts, and lots and lots of maps were among the materials turned over to the Library of Congress from Aaron Mair’s home office and his Adirondack Council office in Albany recently, all in crates bound for the Library of Congress Manuscript Division. [Read more…] about Albany Activist Aaron Mair’s Papers Now At Library of Congress

Call for Papers: Fort Ticonderoga Material Culture Conference

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Material Matters LogoThe vast majority of participants in the military events of the long 18th century left no written traces of themselves.

Fortunately for scholars, and the public, evidence of their presence survives in material form. From the arms they carried, to the archaeological evidence of their presence, the material experience of soldiering extensively survives if we look carefully. [Read more…] about Call for Papers: Fort Ticonderoga Material Culture Conference

McKinley Assassination Medical Ephemera Being Sold

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McKinley Assassination and Autopsy Documents (provided by Raab Collection)On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz stepped forward and shot McKinley twice at close range.

Doctors quickly attended the president, and even given the constraints of medical knowledge at the time, the initial surgery appeared successful. [Read more…] about McKinley Assassination Medical Ephemera Being Sold

47th Annual Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair Oct 19th

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Rochester book fest

Three dozen dealers from more than a half dozen states, from Minnesota to the Carolinas, be in Rochester October 19, to offer a trove of biblio-treasures including rare, collectible, first edition and scholarly titles as well as prints, maps, photographica, illuminated manuscripts and collectible ephemera.

Dealer inventories embrace a broad breadth of subject categories: art, advertising, politics, religion, sociology and psychology, medicine and science fiction, mystery and cooking are among the centuries of printed culture to be on view. [Read more…] about 47th Annual Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair Oct 19th

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