In 1934, Doctor Helen Hosmer opened a physician’s office on West Street in the Village of Galway, in Saratoga County, NY. Originally from Billerica, Massachusetts, when Hosmer arrived in Galway, she was 50 years old, and though an experienced chemist and scientist, she was just beginning her career as a physician. [Read more…] about Dr Helen Hosmer’s Rural Healthcare in the US & Canada
General Electric
1925 Radio News from Northern New York
It was said to be the closest thing to actually being in the grand stand at Forbes Field for the Pittsburgh Pirates attempt to unseat the reigning champion Washington Senators.
“Today is probably one of the most exciting World Series ever played. Throughout the series, the Simpkins hardware store has entertained a goodly portion of the baseball fans in Ticonderoga with a running account of the games by that most marvelous invention, the radio,” The Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on Oct. 15, 1925. “Seats have been installed for the convenience of listeners.” [Read more…] about 1925 Radio News from Northern New York
Owen D. Young: WWI Statesman, GE Radio & TV Pioneer
On a warm, sunny day amid the winding hills of Herkimer County, the world descended on Van Hornesville, a small Mohawk Valley community, without a train station but home to a global, widely respected statesman of commerce and international finance.
Ninety-five years ago this June, Owen D. Young (1874-1962), architect of the Young Plan on Germany’s fiscal rehabilitation after World War I, and longtime chairman of General Electric Company, presided over graduation ceremonies for the town’s newly built seven-room schoolhouse replete with a swimming pool, a playground, and an auditorium “wired for talkies.” [Read more…] about Owen D. Young: WWI Statesman, GE Radio & TV Pioneer
Paul Schaefer’s Coming of Age in the Adirondacks
Paul Schaefer’s life in the Adirondacks began in 1921 on account of his mother, Rose. Gertrude Fogarty and Peggy Mearns Allen, Paul’s sisters, described their arrival in the small Adirondack hamlet of Bakers Mills in northern Warren County. The family had heard of this area of the Adirondacks from Rose Schaefer’s brother, their Uncle Frank Holtslag.
Rose Schaefer was an accomplished musician, but she “had hayfever and asthma and she was this time in such poor health that her doctor said she would not live through another year unless she left the Schenectady area during the hay fever season…until a hard frost killed the ragweed in town.” [Read more…] about Paul Schaefer’s Coming of Age in the Adirondacks
1925 Northern New York Radio History
Orrie Gould had a radio and would travel. “Gordon Russell and George Wilson were at J. Hebert Bly’s Sunday evening and enjoyed a radio entertainment furnished by Orrie Gould of Ticonderoga. The main feature was a church service from Albany, after which several stations were tuned in for musical selections,” the Crown Point Merchant’s Row correspondent reported in the Ticonderoga Sentinel on April 11, 1925.
“A few of our members were privileged to listen to a radio entertainment at the home of John Andre Saturday yesterday evening,” the Crown Point correspondent reported April 23rd. Orrie Gould of Ticonderoga brought the radio. [Read more…] about 1925 Northern New York Radio History
Immigrant Stories: Michael and Wladyslawa Murawski
In 1908, sensing the winds of political change were howling in Russian occupied Poland, Franciczek Debicki wanted more for his children than what he could see in a future in Poland.
He and his wife Ewa Domugalska Debicka decided to arrange a marriage for their oldest daughter, Wladyslawa, to a young man who had emigrated to America with his family; this meant her passage was paid and she would have a place to live. [Read more…] about Immigrant Stories: Michael and Wladyslawa Murawski
Kurt Vonnegut in Rochester & Schenectady
Kurt Vonnegut’s visits to Rochester, NY, left an indelible mark, weaving his literary legacy into the fabric of the city’s history. In 1986, he appeared at the Unitarian Universalist Association’s convention, where he delivered his characteristic wit and a biting critique aimed at then-President Ronald Reagan. Before the event, Vonnegut signed books at Monroe Avenue’s Village Green Bookstore, a beloved literary institution that has since closed but remains warmly remembered by locals. [Read more…] about Kurt Vonnegut in Rochester & Schenectady
24 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced the nominations of 24 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include bank buildings, factories, historic district updates, and more. [Read more…] about 24 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
Vincent Schaefer & The Adirondacks As Sanctuary From Air Pollution
Fifty-four years ago this August, Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks met at Eagle Nest, the great camp of its chairman, Harold Hochshild. Members brought their spouses, and it seems as though the gathering was a long, country house weekend as much as it was an official meeting. [Read more…] about Vincent Schaefer & The Adirondacks As Sanctuary From Air Pollution
J Robert Oppenheimer in Schenectady
On October 21, 1941, 46 days before Pearl Harbor, The National Academy of Sciences Uranium Committee met in the office of Dr. William C. Coolidge, director of the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady. This top-secret meeting was historic for two reasons. [Read more…] about J Robert Oppenheimer in Schenectady
When Mommy Was a Commie
This week on The Historians Podcast, When Mommy Was a Commie (Troy Book Makers, 2022) is a comic historical novel set in Schenectady in the early 1950s, inspired by real-life episodes from America’s spy war with Russia. Author Jon Sorensen was a newspaper reporter for The Schenectady Gazette, Buffalo News and New York Daily News. [Read more…] about When Mommy Was a Commie
Schenectady and the Adirondacks: A Legacy of Conservation
Schenectady has a long history of its residents being active in conservation and outdoor recreation – in Schenectady County and in the wilderness of the North Country, alike.
Schenectadians’ interest in protecting and exploring wilderness has its roots in the mid 1800s with industrialization and westward expansion. The wilderness was at risk of disappearing, and influential nature lovers used their writings to convince Americans that preserving land and wildlife was vital. Many Americans, including people in Schenectady, could easily see the case for this. [Read more…] about Schenectady and the Adirondacks: A Legacy of Conservation
General Electric & Lake George: Lasting Links
A lot has changed in Sweet Briar Bay on Lake George since 1936, the first year Dr. Doug Langdon looked out upon the lake from the property he now owns. Horace Barber’s Boat Livery is gone, and so is the Algonquin Hotel above the lake road.
The hotel’s lakefront has been replaced by the Algonquin restaurant and Chic’s Marina, and the level of boat traffic in the bay probably could not have been imagined in 1936. [Read more…] about General Electric & Lake George: Lasting Links
The WGY Players: A Pioneering Radio Acting Troupe
A century after the first commercial radio station began broadcasting, 83% of Americans ages 12 or older listen to the radio in a given week. It’s a technology that we may take for granted now, but the rapid development of radio technology and programming in the early 1920s led to significant changes in American culture and communication. [Read more…] about The WGY Players: A Pioneering Radio Acting Troupe
The Night the Lights Came On: Electricity on New York State Farms
Few New York State farms had electric power in the 1920s. Even as late as 1930 ninety percent of farm families nationwide had no line-run electricity. On long winter evenings city dwellers could read and sew long past sunset, but farm families sat in near darkness and did chores, such as milking the cows, in the dim light of kerosene lanterns.
Some farmers used Delco-Light Plants made up of ranks of glass-jarred lead-storage batteries located in dirt-floored basements for electric power. As Delco’s slogan was, “Delco systems sell best by night,” Delco salesman cleverly arrived at dusk with small Delco systems to demonstrate to farmers how these DC-units, when sufficiently massed, could bring to the farm what folks in the cities enjoyed. But Delco systems were expensive, and the batteries had to be recharged with a generator powered by a gasoline engine. [Read more…] about The Night the Lights Came On: Electricity on New York State Farms
High Quality Music in Radio’s Early Years
This week on The Historians Podcast violinist Ann Marie Barker Schwarz discusses the high quality of music aired in the early days of WGY radio in Schenectady in the 1920s.
Barker Schwarz said WGY when it began in 1922 “was really at the cutting edge of technology and the caliber of the music being played was of such high quality.” Violinist Edward Rice played a piece called “Romance” by renowned Polish composer Henri Wieniawski during WGY’s first broadcast on February 20th, 1922. [Read more…] about High Quality Music in Radio’s Early Years
Farm Paper of the Air: WGY & The Sage of Lawyersville, Jared van Wagenen
The boom in home radio usage began in the early 1920s. The Department of Commerce issued regulations to control the chaotic spread of radio stations in December of 1921.
A listing from March 10th, 1922, included 67 stations that were officially licensed to use the public airwaves. One of those would become extremely significant in the life of Jared van Wagenen, Jr., a graduate of Cornell University and a farmer who lived at Hillside Farm at Lawyersville (north of Cobleskill) in Schoharie County. [Read more…] about Farm Paper of the Air: WGY & The Sage of Lawyersville, Jared van Wagenen
New Documentary Celebrate Schenectady Black History
In Celebration of Black History Month, the Schenectady County Historical Society has released A History Erased: Rediscovering Black Schenectady, a new documentary exploring the history of Black people in Schenectady.
A History Erased: Rediscovering Black Schenectady is produced by SCHS and investigates the missing story of Schenectady’s 19th century Black population. From the beginning, Schenectady’s African American population was a small and marginalized community. This documentary looks at what happened to Black Schenectadians over the course of the 1800s; how they responded to the end of slavery, to industrialization, and to ongoing racial concerns; why the small community nearly vanished; and the marks it left on Schenectady’s culture and society. [Read more…] about New Documentary Celebrate Schenectady Black History
Radio Station WGY’s 100th Anniversary of Broadcasting
Capital Region radio station WGY, New York State’s oldest broadcaster, will celebrate their 100th year with a live afternoon of broadcasting on Sunday, February 20th.
WGY’s original licensee was General Electric (GE), headquartered in Schenectady. In early 1915, the company was granted a Class 3-Experimental license with the call sign 2XI. That license was canceled in 1917 due to the First World War, but 2XI was re-licensed in 1920. [Read more…] about Radio Station WGY’s 100th Anniversary of Broadcasting
New York’s First Radio Station WGY Celebrates 100 Yrs
This week on The Historians Podcast, a look at the 100th anniversary of WGY, the pioneer Schenectady radio station founded by General Electric in 1922. GE sold the station in the 1980s. Featured are the voices of broadcasters Kolin Hager, Martha Brooks, Howard Tupper, Earl Pudney, Don Tuttle, Elle Pankin and Diane Ward. [Read more…] about New York’s First Radio Station WGY Celebrates 100 Yrs