History, Natural History & the Arts
The Old Stone Fort Museum and Schoharie County Historical Society have received a donation of a Revolutionary War era powder horn.
Skillfully created by horn craftsman Hank Yost, the piece presented reflects the architecture and engraving styles of the Revolutionary period and was specifically designed to represent the life and times of the Hartmansdorf House’s original occupant Philip Bartholomew. [Read more…] about Museum Acquires Revolutionary Era Powder Horn Reproduction
In February 1826 one of America’s seminal works of historical fiction, James Fenimore Cooper‘s The Last of the Mohicans, was first published. Last of the Mohicans has also been adapted to film at least eight times, most recently in 1992 starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. The novel is one of five Cooper wrote that make up the Leatherstocking Tales series, all of them set in Upstate New York between the years 1740 and 1804.
Warren County, NY is where many of the real-life actions of 1757 depicted in the novel occurred, including at what is now Lake George Battlefield Park, the location of several other important historical events. [Read more…] about Lake George Battlefield, More Than Just A Setting for Cooper’s ‘Last of the Mohicans’
William Shirley was the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, appointed by the King of England. Shirley had been a British official in England serving on negotiating committees with French officials determining boundaries. This had led Shirley to a thorough dislike of the French.
He was very aggressive and had been a stalwart advocate of invading Canada and driving the French out of North America. Shirley had written a strong criticism of the New York Congress for its resistance to an invasion of Canada in 1748. He was upset when New Jersey and Rhode Island refused to cooperate in the invasion because they were not threatened. [Read more…] about The Albany Congress of 1754: Native People, Colonists & the Monarchy
The earliest European settlers in the Mohawk Valley came from what is now southwestern Germany. Under near constant threat of destruction, whether from multiple wars, invasions, or the plague, in the near hundred years leading up to the 18th century, the southwest German population experienced extreme hardship.
In some cases, entire towns and villages were wiped out. Commercial crops in the vineyards either failed or were destroyed. Invading French armies added to the hardship by burdening residents with housing and supporting soldiers, albeit with scant family resources, forcing many German homeowners to flee. [Read more…] about Palatines in the Mohawk Valley: 300 Years of History
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
The biography Catherine Schuyler: A Woman of the Revolution by Mary Gay Humphreys (C. Scribner’s Sons, 1897), highlighting an important figure in Albany and American History, has been republished by HVA Press.
[Read more…] about ‘Catherine Schuyler: A Woman of the Revolution’ Republished
During the turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), many Protestant Germans from the Middle Rhine region of the Holy Roman Empire fled to England, with the largest group of refugees – some 13,000 – arriving there in 1709.
The arrival of these “Poor Palatines” caused a rise in opposition to immigration in England. Most were quickly sent to Ireland, but nearly 3,000 were sent on 10 ships to the colonial Province of New York (a group about a third the size of the population of the city of New York at that time). [Read more…] about The Palatines Along Hoosick Road in Rensselaer County
Fort Ticonderoga has announced they are now accepting proposals for papers broadly addressing the period of the Seven Years’ War for its Twenty-Sixth Annual War College of the Seven Years’ War to be held May 20th through 22nd, 2022. [Read more…] about War College of the Seven Years’ War Call for Papers
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
America’s First Frontier: New York’s Pioneers and Their Fight for Freedom (2020 Reprint by HVA Press) recalls settlers in Upstate New York who sometimes faced hunger and disease, in addition to their ongoing conflicts with resident Native Americans, the French and later British loyalists. Author Francis Whiting Halsey was born in Unadilla, New York in 1851 and graduated Cornell University in 1873. He as an editor at the Binghamton Times (1873–1875) and New York Tribune (1875–1880). [Read more…] about A New Edition of Francis Whiting Halse’s Upstate NY History Published
At the heart of the Ticonderoga peninsula is the Carillon Battlefield and the French Lines, which constitute one of the most important 18th-century military sites on the continent. Here, at the confluence Lake George and Lake Champlain, a French Army commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm defeated a British Army four times its size on July 8, 1758.
The Battle of Carillon is believed to have been the bloodiest battle fought in North America until the Civil War. About 21,000 combatants were involved. Some 1,100 were killed, 2,000 wounded, and 100 whose bodies were not recovered (another 150 were captured). [Read more…] about Fort Ti Assessing Carillon Battlefield Ruins
Fort Ticonderoga holds one of North America’s largest collections of military material culture, covering the colonization of North America and the ensuing colonial conflicts, the Seven Years’ War (a.k.a. French & Indian War), the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. [Read more…] about Featured Collections: Fort Ti’s Early American History Materials