• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Instagram

America’s First Christmas Card & An Early Albany Department Store

December 24, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

America's First Christmas Card, Designed and printed by Richard H. Pease for his "Pease's Great Variety Store in the Temple of Fancy" c.1851. Image courtesy of Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections.Before F. W. Woolworths’, Whitney’s, or even Myer’s department store, there was Pease’s Great Variety Store, located in the Temple of Fancy at 516 and 518 Broadway in Albany, NY.

As with other fancy goods stores, Pease’s catered to the middle and upper middle class selling highly decorated goods like ceramics, prints, furniture and other decorative household items that progressively thinking people might have wanted to purchase. [Read more…] about America’s First Christmas Card & An Early Albany Department Store

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Institute For History and Art, Art History, Christmas, Cultural History, Holidays, Instagram, Pop Culture 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, womens history

Study: Most Migratory Birds Rely On a Greening World

November 1, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Indigo Bunting by Bob HowdeshellA new study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology confirms that most birds — but not all — synchronize their migratory movements with seasonal changes in vegetation greenness.

The study’s authors say it’s the first of its kind to cover the Western Hemisphere during the year-long life cycle of North American migratory birds that feed on vegetation, seeds, nectar, insects, or meat. The findings were published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. [Read more…] about Study: Most Migratory Birds Rely On a Greening World

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Bird Migration, birding, birds, hummingbirds, Instagram, nature, Wildlife

Bat Week: Protecting Bat Populations

October 27, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Northern Long Eared BatIn observance of Bat Week, an internationally recognized week-long focus on raising awareness about the important role bats play in our environment, avoid visiting caves and mines that may serve as seasonal homes for hibernating bats at this time of year.

Human disturbance is especially harmful to the State’s bat populations since the arrival of the disease known as white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has killed more than 90 percent of bats at hibernation sites in New York. [Read more…] about Bat Week: Protecting Bat Populations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: bats, DEC, Instagram, nature, Wildlife

Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism

October 22, 2020 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

View of Caldwell, Lake George, by William Tolman CarltonThe first Europeans to see the Adirondack landscape of Northern New York came to explore, to document important military operations and fortifications, or to create maps and scientifically accurate images of the terrain, flora, and fauna.

These early illustrations filled practical needs rather than aesthetic ones.  In 1818, the Adirondacks was still a mysterious “wild, barren tract…covered with almost impenetrable Bogs, Marshes & Ponds, and the uplands with Rocks and evergreens.” [Read more…] about Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Museum, Adirondacks, Art History, Early America, Instagram, Maps, Museums-Archives-Historic Sites, Natural History, Tourism

Primary Sidebar

Help Finish Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Edythe Ann Quinn on Poetry: Stairway from Heaven
  • Ellen Brown on How Does A Land Trust Protect A Watershed? One Parcel At A Time
  • Nell Rapport on Transforming The Niagara Falls Experience
  • Jimmy on World War II POW Camps in Upstate New York
  • Paul Huey on Advocates: Pass The Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act
  • NOEL A SHERRY on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
  • NOEL A SHERRY on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
  • Jim Fox on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
  • Big Burly on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
  • MATTHEW J BURDEN on When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch?

Recent New York Books

battle of harlem hights
Ladies Day at the Capitol
voices of wayne county
CNY Snowstorm book front cover
The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era
Expanded Second Edition of Echoes in These Mountains
historic kingston book
Buffalo Sports cover re-re-sized.indd
With an Ax and a Rifle Vol I

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide