New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Fraunces Tavern Museum

American Experience in the West Indies, 1740-1742

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disaster on the spanish mainThirty-five years before the battles of Lexington  and Concord, the British colonies in North America raised a regiment to serve in the British Army for an expedition to seize control of the Spanish West Indies.

Colonial volunteers, 4,000 strong, joined 9,000 British soldiers and 15,000 British sailors in a bold amphibious campaign against the key port of Cartagena de Indias.  The expedition marked the first time American soldiers deployed overseas.

[Read more…] about American Experience in the West Indies, 1740-1742

Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington

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female geniusFraunces Tavern Museum will host “Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution,” a free program by Mary Sarah Bilder on Thursday, May 19th.

In this lecture, Mary Sarah Bilder looks to the 1780s, the Age of the Constitution, to investigate the rise of a radical new idea in the English-speaking world: female genius. [Read more…] about Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington

Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award Winners

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The Compleat VictorySince 1972, the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award has been presented annually to the author of the best newly published work on the American Revolutionary War, combining original scholarship, insight, and good writing.

This award is one way the Museum fulfills its mission to educate the public about the Revolution and acknowledge the historical community dedicated to the study and public education regarding the Revolution. [Read more…] about Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award Winners

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik To Receive Religious Freedom Award

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Mill Street SynagogueThe Lower Manhattan Historical Association will honor the 292th anniversary of the consecration of the first synagogue in North America on April 8th. The ceremony will involve the presentation of the Gershom Mendes Seixas Religious Freedom Award to Rabbi Joseph Potasnik who has fostered Rabbi Seixas’ ideals of religious freedom. [Read more…] about Rabbi Joseph Potasnik To Receive Religious Freedom Award

Noble Volunteers: British Soldiers in the American Revolution

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noble volunteersMilitary histories often focus on battles campaigns, overlooking the soldiers who fought them. Don N. Hagist’s Noble Volunteers: British Soldiers Who Fought in the American Revolution (Westholme, 2020) takes a look at the red-coated soldiers who formed the ranks of the British Army in the 1770s.

Hagist investigates where British soldiers were from, what they did before joining the army, what motivated them to enlist, how they were trained, how they lived in America on campaign and in garrison, and what became of them after the American Revolution. [Read more…] about Noble Volunteers: British Soldiers in the American Revolution

The Bronx Battle of Pell’s Point in the American Revolution

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map of the bronx during the American RevolutionRoger McCormack, Director of Education at The Bronx County Historical Society will give a talk about the significance of The Bronx in the American Revolution.

This lecture will highlight the Battle of Pell’s Point, the impact of the war on ordinary Bronx farmers and inhabitants, and the general history of the war in the Bronx. [Read more…] about The Bronx Battle of Pell’s Point in the American Revolution

Washington at the Plow: Agriculture and Slavery (Virtual Event)

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washington at the plowThe Fraunces Tavern Museum will host Bruce Ragsdale for a conversation on his book Washington at the Plow: Agriculture and Slavery in the New Nation (Belknap Press, 2021) on Thursday, February 17th. [Read more…] about Washington at the Plow: Agriculture and Slavery (Virtual Event)

Medicinal Foods & Colonial Public Health (Virtual Program)

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tavern tastingsThe Fraunces Tavern Museum will host “Tavern Tastings: Medicinal Foods,” a virtual presentation set for Thursday, February 8th at 6:30 pm.

In this installment of Tavern Tastings, Jeanne E. Abrams, author of Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and in Health, will join Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center’s Catherine Prescott and Fraunces Tavern Museum’s Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli in exploring the history of public health in colonial North America and the role a handful of Founding Fathers and Mothers played in its evolution. [Read more…] about Medicinal Foods & Colonial Public Health (Virtual Program)

Reevaluating Our Revolutionary French Allies (Virtual Program)

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Bataille de Yorktown by Auguste CouderThe Fraunces Tavern Museum will host “Reevaluating Our Revolutionary French Allies,” a free virtual lecture looking at the French Count de Rochambeau’s army during the American Revolution by Norman Desmarais, set for Thursday, January 13th. [Read more…] about Reevaluating Our Revolutionary French Allies (Virtual Program)