The Saratoga County History Center has announce the publication of Off the Northway (Saratoga County History Center, 2022), a compilation of 83 articles written by longtime local journalist Stephen Williams, who retired after a 42-year career at the Daily Gazette in Schenectady, NY. [Read more…] about Off the Northway: A New Book by Journalist Stephen Williams
Journalism
The Spirit of the Times: A 19th Century Chronicle of American Sports
In the early 1800s it was unusual for Americans to be interested in sporting matters on their own shores. News from Europe was the only sporting news of merit, and publishing an American sporting journal was considered a risky use of capital.
The first attempt along these lines may have been in 1829 Baltimore, where John S. Skinner published a monthly magazine which focused on race horse pedigrees called The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. Another early attempt was published in New York by the recognized writer and horseman Cadwallader R. Colden, whose organ was called The New-York Sporting Magazine and Annals of the American and English Turf, first published in 1833.
Among the most notable of the sporting press arrived in 1831, when William T. Porter and James Haw published the first issue of The Spirit of the Times, focusing on horse literature and sporting subjects. They had chosen the name for their broadsheet from a quotation in Shakespeare’s King John, “The spirit of the times shall teach me speed.” [Read more…] about The Spirit of the Times: A 19th Century Chronicle of American Sports
Trailblazing Women: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett
Born enslaved in Mississippi in 1862, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to fighting for racial and gender equality. She was a journalist, suffragist, advocate of racial justice, and anti-lynching activist. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett
In 1883 The Glens Falls News Cycle Was Cut In Half
Breaking news from Sandy Hill was published at 5 am Monday April 2, 1883, the day the Glens Falls news cycle was cut in half from 24 to 12 hours.
“A bout of fisticuffs occurred at the freight depot yesterday afternoon in which several glove handlers were engaged. No less than forty spectators were present. No damage was done beyond desecration of the Sabbath,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported in its debut issue. [Read more…] about In 1883 The Glens Falls News Cycle Was Cut In Half
Troy’s Media Sanctuary Marks WikiLeaks Film Anniversary
The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY, is marking the tenth anniversary of WikiLeaks’ Collateral Murder: U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord’s Eyewitness Story, the community media arts production facility’s most watched film.
In it, McCord narrates military footage depicting the indiscriminate slaying of more than a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff. [Read more…] about Troy’s Media Sanctuary Marks WikiLeaks Film Anniversary
Words From Underground: Madness and the OED
In the first edition of his Dictionary of the English Language (1755) the term lexicographer is defined by Samuel Johnson as a ‘harmless drudge that busies himself in … detailing the signification of words’. A dunce, in other words. Really?
Rogue’s Lexicon
Born in New York, George Washington Matsell was the son of an immigrant family from Helhoughton (near Fakenham), Norfolk. His father ran a bookshop on Broadway. Following in his footsteps, George opened up his own premises on Chatham Street, Manhattan (renamed Park Row in 1886). A man of words (in 1866 he acquired ownership of the National Police Gazette), he also took an interest in matters of law and order. He became a magistrate in 1840 and was appointed the first Commissioner of the New York City Police Department after its formation in 1844. [Read more…] about Words From Underground: Madness and the OED
Charles Evans Hughes Lecture In Ticonderoga
Longtime Glens Falls Post-Star reporter Maury Thompson will present a program on local figure Charles Evans Hughes on April 12th in Ticonderoga.
Hughes served as Governor of New York from 1907 until 1910. After serving as governor, Hughes was a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice. He resigned from the Court in 1916 to accept the Republican nomination for President, losing by a narrow margin to incumbent Democrat Woodrow Wilson. He would go on to serve as U.S. Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. [Read more…] about Charles Evans Hughes Lecture In Ticonderoga
Nellie Bly: Blackwell’s Island And Beyond
Nellie Bly gained her reputation as a reporter when she exposed poor conditions at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Bly reported on issues of importance to women, producing an important interview with Susan B. Anthony and covering major events in the suffrage campaign.
A free lecture, Nellie Bly: From Blackwell’s Island to Well Beyond, has been set for Thursday, June 14th at 6:30 pm at the New York Public Library Branch on Roosevelt Island, 525 Main Street. [Read more…] about Nellie Bly: Blackwell’s Island And Beyond
Panel: Journalists to Discuss Free Press, First Amendment
Women March in Seneca Falls will host a panel discussion of media professionals, “People for Free Press…a First Amendment Right,” on March 25, 2017 at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. This non-partisan, inclusive event seeks to inform about the U.S. Constitution’s right of a free press. Panelists will focus remarks on the First Amendment right to a free press and their personal/professional experience with efforts in the US to diminish that right. A Q&A will follow the presentations. [Read more…] about Panel: Journalists to Discuss Free Press, First Amendment