Journalism

Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York

January 19, 2023 by John Warren 4 Comments

Dennis Warren left his job as a coal shoveler on the New York Central Railroad in Albany to ship out to the First World War. His transport ship had a close call with a German submarine on the way over, but got there in time to take part in what one of the bloodiest military campaigns in American history.

For Americans after the war, the Argonne would mean what Normandy meant just 25 years later – sacrifice. Sadly, that sacrifice in the Argonne Forest was never repaid to Dennis Warren, who met the death of a smuggler – running from an officious and invasive law on a treacherous mountain road near Port Henry on Lake Champlain.

According to the newsman who reported his death at the age of 29, “Canadian Ale was spread across the road.” [Read more…] about Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York

Misinformation Nation: Truth in Revolutionary America

November 21, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The new book Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) by Jordan E. Taylor reveals how foreign news defined the boundaries of American politics and ultimately drove colonists to revolt against Britain and create a new nation.

“Fake news” is not new. Just like millions of Americans today, the revolutionaries of the eighteenth century worried that they were entering a “post-truth” era. Their fears, however, were not fixated on social media or click-bait, but rather on peoples’ increasing reliance on reading news gathered from foreign newspapers. [Read more…] about Misinformation Nation: Truth in Revolutionary America

Lake George’s Arthur Knight Writes Home From World War One

October 24, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall 1 Comment

On November 11th, 1918, German delegates signed the armistice formally ending the “Great War,” four years of killing and unprecedented – at least at the time – mass destruction.

Lake George resident Arthur Knight, who within a few years would become editor of the Lake George Mirror and serve in that capacity until 1969, was among the two million Americans who, in answer to their nation’s call, joined the American Expeditionary Force to fight on the side of Britain and France and their allies. [Read more…] about Lake George’s Arthur Knight Writes Home From World War One

Universal Newsreels In The National Archives

October 24, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Universal Newsreel Collection is the largest donated newsreel collection in the Moving Image and Sound Branch at the National Archives. The popular collection includes nearly 4,000 edited releases which were originally shown in movie theaters, as well as 8,500 reels of unedited outtakes. [Read more…] about Universal Newsreels In The National Archives

Stephen Myers of Albany: Abolitionist Writer, Advocate & Underground Railroad Activist

August 30, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Stephen Myers was a Black activist in connection with the Underground Railroad and African American rights in general. He was born and enslaved in Hoosick, Rensselaer County, New York State and raised when it was a slave state working on progressive abolition. He was the principal agent and a key writer for the Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate, he was also the editor of The Elevator and The Telegraph and Temperance Journal.

As early as 1831 he was assisting fugitives from enslavement making their way to Canada. He was also active in 1827 with a group of little-known significance called the Clarkson Anti-slavery Society. As time went on he was involved in organizing and serving as a delegate to many of the Colored Men’s Conventions of the 1830s to the 1860s, to secure African American rights. He was involved in voting rights campaigns through the NYS Suffrage Association, was involved in organizing a school, and sued Albany Schools over segregation. [Read more…] about Stephen Myers of Albany: Abolitionist Writer, Advocate & Underground Railroad Activist

Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grift

August 17, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The new book The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism (Citadel Press, 2022) by Bill Shaffer takes a look one of the greatest scandals of the Gilded Age, and the story that helped give rise to the sensational tabloid journalism still driving so much of the news cycle in the 21st century. [Read more…] about Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grift

July 4th Riots in Lake George: Some History

July 6, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

The July 4th, 1965 weekend in Lake George Village culminated in riots in which 350 youths were arrested, at least according to the newspapers of the day.

Two hundred police officers were required to keep “the Bermuda clad, barefooted, out-of-state college kids” under control, one newspaper stated.

That was not the first Lake George youth riot, nor would it be the last. [Read more…] about July 4th Riots in Lake George: Some History

1875: The Ticonderoga Sentinel Returns

June 30, 2022 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

The Ticonderoga Sentinel resumed publication on June 4th, 1875 after several weeks of dormancy — a “New Sentinel” printed on a new Fairhaven brand press, sporting a new masthead and laid out in a new format with additional front-page advertising.

Ticonderoga is in Essex County, NY, between the outlet of Lake George and Lake Champlain. [Read more…] about 1875: The Ticonderoga Sentinel Returns

The Red Scare: A Personal History

June 29, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall 2 Comments

The Seagle Festival will present the contemporary opera “Fellow Travelers” in Schroon Lake, NY August 3rd through 6th.

“Fellow Travelers” is set in the Washington, DC of the 1950s, as the anti-communist crusades of Richard Nixon, Joseph McCarthy and their ilk infiltrate and all but overwhelm every department, agency and office in government.

I can not help but reminded of my own family’s experience with “the Red Scare” during the administration of President Harry Truman. [Read more…] about The Red Scare: A Personal History

Socialism, Greenwich Village & ‘The Masses’

June 28, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

The socio-political and economic turmoil of the early twentieth century transformed American society. Between the conclusion of the Civil War and the end of the First World War, the country went from being a predominantly rural farming society to an urban industrial one. [Read more…] about Socialism, Greenwich Village & ‘The Masses’