A sculpture of Brigadier General Peter Gansevoort stands in a city park named in his honor at Rome, Oneida County, NY. This bronze, dedicated November 8, 1906, was created by Emilio F. Piatti. It presents the General in dress uniform grasping his sword and holding what is perhaps one of the most impactful tools (or weapons) ever devised – an accurate map. [Read more…] about General Peter Gansevoort’s Map
Maps
Egbert Ludovicus Viele: Engineer, Soldier, Politician
Egbert Ludovicus Viele died on April 22nd, 1902 at the age of 77 in the city of New York after an eventful life that began in Waterford, New York.
He was born in 1825, son of Kathlyne Schuyler (Knickerboacker) and State Senator John L. Viele. The title of his newspaper obituary notice “Veteran of Two Wars and Indian Campaigns Passes Away” did little justice to his varied career, nor his personal foibles. [Read more…] about Egbert Ludovicus Viele: Engineer, Soldier, Politician
Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism
The 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
Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project
The Raquette River, from Raquette Falls to the State Boat Launch on Tupper Lake, is one of the nicest stretches of flat-water anywhere in the Adirondacks. Paddling this river corridor under a clear cerulean blue sky, on a sunny autumn day with the riverbanks ablaze in orange and red, is exquisite. For me, though, the river’s history is as captivating as its natural beauty. [Read more…] about Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project
Huguenot Pirates on the Barbary Coast and the Mapping of New Amsterdam
Huguenots were followers of Jean Calvin’s teachings for which they were persecuted in Catholic France. Many were forced to leave the country and settled in the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, and South Africa.
Nicolas Martiau was one of a number of refugees who made their way to America (Virginia) via England. A surveyor and engineer in the service of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntington, he was an ancestor of George Washington. [Read more…] about Huguenot Pirates on the Barbary Coast and the Mapping of New Amsterdam
Adirondack Survey Markers: A Conservation Minute
On many hikes, I never truly feel like I have reached the summit of a peak until I’ve found a tiny metal disc set into the rock.
These small plates of metal are called survey markers, or benchmarks, and they are put in place by surveyors to mark important points on the Earth’s surface. [Read more…] about Adirondack Survey Markers: A Conservation Minute
Adirondack Mapping Exhibit in Ticonderoga, Program Planned
The Ticonderoga Historical Society is set to present a free public program “Mapping the Adirondacks,” on Friday, August 21st at 7 pm at the Hancock House in Ticonderga.
“Mapping the Adirondacks” will open the museum’s newest exhibit, featuring more than 18 military, political and romance maps from its collection, some on display for the first time. [Read more…] about Adirondack Mapping Exhibit in Ticonderoga, Program Planned
New Website Maps 1660 New York
Created by the New Amsterdam History (NAHC) Center, Mapping Early New York, is digital map with a time-slider linked to information from the Castello Plan of 1660.
The database includes information on families from detailed sources and connected with map features, particularly tax parcels. [Read more…] about New Website Maps 1660 New York
47th Annual Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair Oct 19th
Three dozen dealers from more than a half dozen states, from Minnesota to the Carolinas, be in Rochester October 19, to offer a trove of biblio-treasures including rare, collectible, first edition and scholarly titles as well as prints, maps, photographica, illuminated manuscripts and collectible ephemera.
Dealer inventories embrace a broad breadth of subject categories: art, advertising, politics, religion, sociology and psychology, medicine and science fiction, mystery and cooking are among the centuries of printed culture to be on view. [Read more…] about 47th Annual Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair Oct 19th
Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
How do empires come to be? How are empires made and who makes them?
What role do maps play in making empires?
Christian Koot is a Professor of History at Towson University and the author of A Biography of a Map in Motion: Augustine Herrman’s Chesapeake (NYU Press, 2017). Christian has researched and written two books about the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch World go better understand empires and how they are made. He joins us in this episode of Ben Franklin’s World to take us through his research and to share what one specific map, Augustine Herrman’s 1673 map Virginia and Maryland, reveals about empire and empire making. [Read more…] about Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake