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Labor History

New York City In the Roaring 20s: A Primer

May 29, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Jazz, the Charleston, flappers, prohibition and a lot moreAs the ravages of the First World War and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic receded into the past, a new spirit gripped New York City. Energy seemed to infuse every aspect of city life, from business to leisure and everything in between. For a decade, New Yorkers by and large lived, worked and partied with abandon. [Read more…] about New York City In the Roaring 20s: A Primer

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Cultural History, Economic History, Great Depression, Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Immigration, Labor History, Literature, New York City, Prohibition, Roosevelt Island Historical Society, Vice, womens history

Resources Available for New York’s Working Mothers

May 16, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Mother and Baby (Courtesy NYS Department of HealthThe New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) is reminding New Yorkers there are a variety of resources available to help working mothers. NYSDOL found in the 2023 Gender Wage Gap Report that mothers face significant challenges in the workplace that contribute to the wage gap. The report also found the pivot to remote learning and pandemic-driven closures of childcare facilities elevated the severe impact of childcare access, which has long been a major problem for working women. [Read more…] about Resources Available for New York’s Working Mothers

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga Tagged With: Department of Labor, Labor History, Women

Abandoned Stone Quarries of Schoharie County

May 5, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Schoharie Quarry in CobleskillLate in the 19th century, stone was king of building materials and much of the cut stone which helped transform New York into the Empire State came from Schoharie County. There were eight limestone quarries in the town of Cobleskill, with six in the village alone. The largest, located near Barnerville, employed 450 men to fulfill a huge contract with the city of New York, worth the equivalent of approximately $65 million today. [Read more…] about Abandoned Stone Quarries of Schoharie County

Filed Under: Events, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Geology, Industrial History, Labor History, Schoharie County, Schoharie County Historical Society, Stone Quarries

NY’s Paid Family Leave Helping Millions of Workers

May 3, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Paid Family Leave Laws 2021Payments under New York’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) program rose steadily between 2018 and 2021 as the amount of allowable time off and weekly cash benefits increased. Almost eight million workers were covered under PFL, with $872 million paid on approximately 156,000 claims in 2021, the latest year for which PFL data is available from the state Department of Financial Services, according to an analysis by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. [Read more…] about NY’s Paid Family Leave Helping Millions of Workers

Filed Under: History Tagged With: healthcare, Labor History, Medical History, politics

Memorial Planned For Workers Who Died While Serving NYS

May 2, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany (courtesy the NYS Office of General Services)The New York State Department of Labor (DOL) marked Workers’ Memorial Day on April 28th by unveiling plans for a new, permanent memorial that will pay tribute to the State employees who passed away, including line of duty deaths, while serving New York State. The memorial site, which will feature a plaque, will be located near the reflecting pool in front of the Department’s office on the Harriman State Office Campus in Albany. [Read more…] about Memorial Planned For Workers Who Died While Serving NYS

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Department of Labor, Labor History, Monuments

Sam Patch: Early American Daredevil

April 23, 2023 by Jack Kelly Leave a Comment

High Falls of the Genesee RiverOn a chilly November day in 1829, a man dressed completely in white stood before a crowd on the precipice of the High Falls of the Genesee River in the middle of Rochester, New York. Many watching had traveled for days to view the spectacle. All eyes were riveted on one of the most famous men in America. [Read more…] about Sam Patch: Early American Daredevil

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Circus, Cultural History, Genesee River, Labor History, Madison County, New Jersey, Niagara County, Niagara Falls, Niagara River, Rochester, waterfalls

Plattsburgh’s Cigar Industry: 1860s-1940s

April 17, 2023 by Helen Allen Nerska 1 Comment

Levy Brothers Cigar BoxPlattsburgh, from the 1860s through to the Second World War, was a manufacturing center for the 5 cent cigar.  The smell of a quality cigar could be detected walking down Margaret Street between Court and Broad Streets. What began with small businesses in the late 1860s, turned into a major cigar manufacturing industry for the City of Plattsburgh thanks to the Scheier, Mendelsohn, Levy, Merkel and Payette families, to name a few.

The handmade cigar industry in Plattsburgh employed dozens of workers and produced thousands of cigars. [Read more…] about Plattsburgh’s Cigar Industry: 1860s-1940s

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Cigar Industry, Clinton County, Clinton County Historical Association, Immigration, Industrial History, Jewish History, Labor History, Plattsburgh, Urban History

Justus Schwab & East Village Radicalism

April 9, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

Portrait of Justus Schwab Today, the city of Frankfurt-am-Main is the largest financial hub in Continental Europe, home to the European Central Bank (ECB), the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The same city was at one time the epicenter of a liberal uprising that swept the German states. The Frankfurt Parliament was convened in May 1848; its members were elected by direct (male) suffrage, representing the full political spectrum. In the end, the revolution of 1848 failed and was suppressed with excessive force and retribution. [Read more…] about Justus Schwab & East Village Radicalism

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Anarchism, Crime and Justice, Emma Goldman, German-American History, Greenwich Village, Jewish History, Labor History, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, Newspapers, Political History, Revolutions of 1848, Socialism

The Nature of Slavery: Environment & Plantation Labor

March 16, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

the nature of slaveryIn the late 18th century, planters in the Caribbean and the American South insisted that only Black people could labor on plantations, arguing that Africans, unlike Europeans, had bodies particularly suited to cultivate crops in hot climates.

Katherine Johnston’s The Nature of Slavery (Oxford Univ. Press, 2022) disrupts this longstanding claim about biological racial difference. [Read more…] about The Nature of Slavery: Environment & Plantation Labor

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Atlantic World, Labor History, Massachusetts Historical Society, Medical History, Slavery

Madam C. J. Walker: Black Hair Care Entrepreneur

March 3, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

History Twins PodcastThe latest History Twins podcast is about Madam C. J. Walker (1867 – 1919), who made a fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for Black women, especially through the business she founded, the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company.

The first child of her large family born free. Sarah Breedlove was a child near Delta, Louisiana where her parents die and she was orphaned by the age of seven. She moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the age of 10, working as a domestic servant. [Read more…] about Madam C. J. Walker: Black Hair Care Entrepreneur

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Financial History, Greenburgh, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Labor History, New York City, Podcasts, Pop Culture History, Westchester County, Women, womens history

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