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Immigration

Growing Up in Amsterdam, NY, in the 1950s

January 22, 2021 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, David Pietrusza discusses his memoir Too Long Ago: A Childhood Memory, A Vanished World about his Amsterdam, NY, roots. Pietrusza is a historian who has written books about presidential elections and other topics. He and podcast host Bob Cudmore were raised in the Reid Hill section of Amsterdam, a primarily Polish-American neighborhood in the 1950s. [Read more…] about Growing Up in Amsterdam, NY, in the 1950s

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Amsterdam, Immigration, Montgomery County, Podcasts

‘Monkish Traditions’: 1830s Hatred of Irish Immigrants

January 11, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

"Ruins of the Ursuline Convent, at Charlestown, Massachusetts," historical print, 1834, collection of the Charlestown Historical Society.In the 1830s, anti-Catholic attitudes inflamed by conspiracy theories were reaching a fevered pitch, especially in New York and Massachusetts where attacks on the homes of urban Irish immigrants occurred with some regularity.

In 1834 the bigotry turned particularly violent. Its greatest instigator was Samuel B. Morse who whipped his Protestant brethren into a fury. [Read more…] about ‘Monkish Traditions’: 1830s Hatred of Irish Immigrants

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Immigration, Irish History, Irish Immigrants, Nativism, Political History, Religious History

Anti-Irish Sentiment In New York Before The 1830s

January 4, 2021 by John Warren 11 Comments

Know Nothing Cartoon ca 1850sAlthough there had always been Irish immigrants to the colonies of the Americas, in the 1830s the pace of immigration of unskilled Irish quickened in the United States. (In 1820, only 21 percent had been unskilled laborers; by 1836 nearly 60 percent were.)

These newcomers were mostly Catholic. [Read more…] about Anti-Irish Sentiment In New York Before The 1830s

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Catholicism, Immigration, Irish History, Irish Immigrants, Nativism, Political History, Religious History

Amended Podcast: Embers and Activism

December 27, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

amended podcastOn March 25th, 1911, a fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, claiming the lives of 146 workers. Most of the victims were young immigrant women from Eastern and Southern Europe. In the wake of the fire, a group of women labor activists fought to ensure that the tragedy led to concrete change. [Read more…] about Amended Podcast: Embers and Activism

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Books, Immigration, Podcasts, Suffrage Movement, Women, womens history

New Book: The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902

December 15, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Great Kosher Meat WarBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

Scott D. Seligman’s new book The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City (Potomac Books, 2020) is a full account of the Great Kosher Meat War of 1902, a milestone in the history of Jewish-American women. [Read more…] about New Book: The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902

Filed Under: Books, Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Books, Culinary History, Cultural History, Immigration, Jewish History, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, Religion, Religious History, womens history

Urban Cries: Street Hawkers’ Shouts in New York & London

November 23, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

The Cryes of the City of LondonPictures of street hawkers with their trade shouts recorded in captions of poetry or prose are known as “Cries.” They first appeared in Paris around 1500. This early creation of an urban iconography included socially marginal people such as vagrants, beggars, prostitutes, and others.

Fifty years later, these images were established as a stylistic category across Europe. Eventually, they would make their way to New York. [Read more…] about Urban Cries: Street Hawkers’ Shouts in New York & London

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: art, Immigration, Instagram, Labor History, Literature, Poetry, poverty

Bean Pickers: Upstate Italian-American Immigrants

October 29, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Bean Pickers CoverThe book Bean Pickers, American Immigrant Portraits by Karen Foresti Hempson (Jacobs Press, Inc., 2019) focuses on eight true-life portrayals of Italian immigrants and their families, all beginning their American lives as summer bean pickers in Upstate New York.

The book features over one hundred authentic photos and documents, illustrating personal stories from the early twentieth century immigration wave, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Each character finds his/her way out of poverty through such avenues as bootlegging, playing baseball, joining the military. [Read more…] about Bean Pickers: Upstate Italian-American Immigrants

Filed Under: Books, Food, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Agricultural History, Books, Immigration, Italian History

Children’s Book Features Reformer, Photographer Jacob Riis

August 1, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Jacob Riis's CameraThe new children’s book Jacob Riis’s Camera: Bringing Light to Tenement Children (Calkins Creek, 2020) by Alexis O’Neill and illustrated by Gary Kelley, is a revealing biography of a pioneering photojournalist and social reformer Jacob Riis, showcasing how he brought to light one of the worst social justice issues plaguing New York City in the late 1800s – the tenement housing crisis – using newly invented flash photography. [Read more…] about Children’s Book Features Reformer, Photographer Jacob Riis

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: Books, Immigration, New York City, Photography, Social History

Slum Tours and Muckrakers in London and New York

July 28, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Five Cents a Spot by Jacob RiisThe “Man with the Muck Rake” appears in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as a person who only looks down gathering filth. His vision is fixed on carnal, not on spiritual matters. By seeking out what is disagreeable, he is blind to divine grace.

In a speech on April 15th, 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt referred to this passage when he acknowledged that men with ‘muck rakes’ may be indispensable to social well-being, but that applies only if they know “when to stop raking the muck.” There is a rich Anglo-American tradition of muckraking that has been instrumental in exposing injustice and corruption. Today, investigative journalism is under threat. [Read more…] about Slum Tours and Muckrakers in London and New York

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Immigration, Manhattan, New York City, Photography

Memoir Recounts The Remarkable Life of Sophie Kussmaul

July 12, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

through sophies eyesThrough Sophie’s Eyes (Cahaba, 2008) is a remarkable memoir by Sophie Kussmaul (1875-1968), granddaughter of Princess Regina Henry, first cousin to Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, and niece of Dr. Adolf Kussmaul, a noted Heidelberg physician.

Edited by Sinclair Seevers, the memoir spans her first six decades, two thirds of Kussmaul’s long life.  It’s a vivid account of her shy childhood in the 1870s through the years of the Great Depression. [Read more…] about Memoir Recounts The Remarkable Life of Sophie Kussmaul

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Books, German-American History, Great Depression, Immigration, Medical History, Social History

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