History, Natural History & the Arts
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George Washington and his Continental Army braving the frigid winter at Valley Forge form an iconic image in the popular history of the American Revolution. Such winter camps were also a critical factor in the waging and winning of the War of Independence.
This week on The Historians Podcast, Hudson Valley historian and contributor to New York Almanack A.J. Schenkman has stories from his upcoming book Patriots and Spies in Revolutionary New York (Globe Pequot, 2021) – including a plot to kidnap General George Washington. [Read more…] about Patriots and Spies in Revolutionary New York
Many Americans believe that at the end of the Revolutionary War, while headquartered in Newburgh, George Washington received an offer to become king of the United States.
According to this legend, Washington rejected the overture and said that “I did not defeat King George III to become King George I.”
But did this really happen? Did George Washington turn down the crown? Although there is a grain of truth to the story, it has largely been exaggerated. [Read more…] about Did George Washington Turn Down the Crown at Newburgh?
The Red Jacket Peace Medal, an object of cultural patrimony under federal law, has been returned to the Seneca Nation by The Buffalo History Museum.
The medal, considered to be of central importance by many in the Nation, was gifted to Seneca Chief Red Jacket by President George Washington in 1792 to commemorate discussions that culminated in the Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794, in which the Seneca Nation played a crucial role. The medal was meant to be a symbol of peace, friendship, and enduring relationships among the United States and the Six Nations. [Read more…] about Red Jacket Peace Medal Returned to Seneca Nation by Buffalo Museum
Christmas conjures up images of festivity, family, and especially sumptuous dinners but it wasn’t that way for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He served as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from May 1775 to December 1783 or about 104 months.
During that time, he visited his beloved Mount Vernon just once, in 1781 following the victory at Yorktown before returning to his home for good in 1783. [Read more…] about George Washington At Christmas
Beginning with George Washington, it has been a custom for the President of the United States to have an official portrait sculpted or painted during his time in office.
From the beginning artists were faced with conflicting demands of aesthetics, the need to evoke the significance of the nation’s highest office, and the personal inclination of the sitter (varying from modesty to pomposity). How to reconcile such different strands in a work of art? [Read more…] about Portraying Presidents: A Sketch of Cultural History
The early Christian Church taught the “virtue” of suffering. Pain in our messed-up world was God’s will. It intensified faith.
Thinkers of the Enlightenment rejected such notions. Having declared medical practice and religious doctrine as being incompatible, they initiated research in anesthetics. In 1799, chemist Humphry Davy undertook his exploration of the therapeutic potential of nitrous oxide (laughing gas).
The benefits of this gas were not fully tested for some time, which opened up opportunities for quacks to fool an eager but gullible public. [Read more…] about The Democracy of Dentures: Samuel Colt To Charles Goodyear
As the first President of the United States, George Washington set many precedents for the new nation. One of the biggest precedents Washington set came in the form of the Cabinet, a body of advisors from across the U.S. government who advise the president on how to handle matters of foreign and domestic policy.
In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, we investigate Washington’s creation of the Cabinet and how it became a government institution with Lindsay Chervinsky author of the book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard Belknap Press, 2020).
This week on The Historians Podcast, Matthew Costello, author of The Property of the Nation: George Washington’s Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President Costello explains how Washington’s reputation evolved in the 1800s. [Read more…] about How George Washington’s Reputation Evolved (Podcast)
During the American Revolution (from July 6 until August 18, 1781), the Odell House in the present Westchester County hamlet of Hartsdale served as the headquarters of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien d e Vimeur (comte de Rochambeau).
Nearby fields and hills in the current Town of Greenburgh accommodated approximately 6,000 soldiers in the French expeditionary forces under his command. [Read more…] about Revolutionary War Farmhouse Will Be Preserved