History, Natural History & the Arts
In August of 1790 President George Washington composed a letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, and to its leader, Moses Seixas (1744–1809). Seixas had written a letter to Washington several days earlier.
Washington responded with the brief letter below, expressing America’s enduring commitment to the principle of tolerance and the freedom of conscience. [Read more…] about George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, 1790
On May 21st, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will officially end after being canceled by CBS. With that, the doors to the Ed Sullivan Theater will be shuttered for the foreseeable future.
While the immediate implications of Colbert’s cancellation are dire (considering the blatant censorship of political opinion and corporate cow-towing of CBS’ parent company Skydance Media) there is also a dramatic loss for the arts that comes with the uncertainty of closing such a historic venue. [Read more…] about Ed Sullivan Theater Closing Marks A Century of Performance
The American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association are welcoming a ruling Tuesday by Judge Colleen McMahon allowing video footage of depositions that went viral to be published online again.
The depositions are evidence in a lawsuit to restore the function and funding of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The organizations sued to halt the unlawful dismantling of the NEH, which included the cutting of grants and staffing by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). [Read more…] about First Amendment Win in Decision to Make DOGE DEI Videos Public
An outspoken critic of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, Jewish photojournalist Gisèle [Gisela] Freund fled her native Germany in 1933 with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Having settled in Paris, she obtained her PhD at the Sorbonne in 1936 and would become the most talented chronicler of the vibrant and multi-national bohemian community of artists and writers that made its home in Paris during the 1930s.
By 1939, Freund had photographed many of the greatest writers and artists of the twentieth century, amongst them Henri Matisse, Samuel Beckett, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, Colette, André Malraux, Paul Valéry, Tennessee Williams, Peggy Guggenheim, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre. [Read more…] about The Battle for Ulysses in Paris & New York
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and if you lived through the 1960s, you’ll never forget that turbulent decade. Even turbulent is putting it mildly: weekly classroom drills for nuclear attacks (Get under my desk? What the heck is this thing made of?); riots over race, poverty, the draft, and the Vietnam War; the assassinations of JFK, King, and Bobby Kennedy; and so much more.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading figure of those times, beloved and hated nationally and internationally. Love him or hate him, he was remarkable. Against the worst of odds, he effected change through peaceful protest. The impact was clear, even here in Northern New York. [Read more…] about Martin Luther King’s Northern New York Legacy
Using visa revocations and similar actions to stifle foreign scholars’ political speech is a violation of the First Amendment, according to an amicus brief filed by the American Historical Association (AHA), in collaboration with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The brief is in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit against the federal government over the university’s ability to host foreign scholars and students. Seventeen other scholarly humanities organizations joined the AHA on the brief, which was filed with the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. [Read more…] about American Historical Association Files Brief in Support of Foreign Scholars
A ruling this week from Franklin County Supreme Court has awarded legal fees and costs to defendants Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve and Adirondack Explorer magazine after they successfully defended themselves against a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) during 2024. [Read more…] about Adirondack Park Advocates Win Free Speech Case
When we think of early American champions of religious liberty, one name often rises above the rest: Roger Williams (ca. 1603 – 1683).
Williams is widely remembered as the founder of Rhode Island and a strong advocate for the separation of church and state. But what kind of man turns down a prestigious ministerial position in Boston, only to be banished – and then builds an entirely new colony grounded in radical ideas? [Read more…] about Roger Williams, A Rogue Puritan & Religious Freedom
The 6th Attorney General of New York State, Ambrose Spencer was born on December 13, 1765, in Salisbury, Connecticut. He attended Yale and graduated from Harvard University in 1783 at just 17 years old.
He studied law with John Canfield (ca.1740-1786) in Sharon, Connecticut and also with John Bay in Claverack, Columbia County, NY, and then with Ezekiel Gilbert in nearby Hudson. [Read more…] about Ambrose Spencer: Libel, Blasphemy & Reform
Born on April 14, 1766, in Newark, New Jersey, Josiah Ogden Hoffman was destined for a life that intertwined law, politics, and a significant legacy.
After receiving his legal education in his uncle’s law office, Hoffman rose to prominence as a skilled litigator, often crossing paths with notable figures like Alexander Hamilton and steamboat pioneer and one-time Chancellor of New York James Kent. [Read more…] about NY’s Sixth Attorney General Josiah Ogden Hoffman
In 1766 jurist William Blackstone published his Commentaries on the Law of England in which he defined the term “enemy alien” as it was understood in common law. He confirmed that during a time of war “alien enemies have no rights, no privileges.” The Crown exercises absolute power. In a simple turn of phrase, the Oxford professor anticipated the agony of millions of migrants. [Read more…] about Italian-Americans as Alien Enemies: Westchester Opera Star Ezio Pinza
If you think the spread of sensationalism and “alternative facts” and their divisive effect on the American people are 21st century phenomena, think again. There may be no comparison between the instantaneous, often individually provocative communication of our Internet and the communication technologies of the mid-19th century.
Nevertheless, the pre-Civil War media landscape was hardly calm or trustworthy. [Read more…] about Sensationalism In Historical Context: Wide-Awakes & The Civil War
Censorship is the official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression conceived as a threat to the sociopolitical or moral order. Attempts by the authorities to suppress freedom of the press in the American colonies were recurrent. These efforts would eventually lead to a confrontation at the Supreme Court in the case of New York v. John Peter Zenger in August 1735. [Read more…] about The Palatine Printer & Three Scots Behind The First Amendment
In Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World (Simon & Schuster, 2020), a crisply-written, well-researched book, Lesley Blume, a journalist and biographer, tells the fascinating story of the background to John Hersey’s path-breaking article “Hiroshima” and of its extraordinary impact upon the world. [Read more…] about John Hersey and the Hiroshima Cover-up
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