New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Massachusetts

The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journey

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The Odyssey of Phillis WheatleyAdmired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led an extraordinary life. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age.

Mastering the Bible, Latin translations, and literary works, she celebrated political events, praised warriors, and used her verse to variously lampoon, question, and assert the injustice of her enslaved condition. [Read more…] about The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journey

Henry Cabot Lodge’s Bronze Hot Dog

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Henry Cabot Lodge Bronze Hot Dog (Massachusetts Historical Society)In the mid-20th century, Americans had a great enthusiasm for all manner of keepsakes and mementos cast in bronze. On October 17, 1960, the National Hot Dog Council presented a life-size hot dog cast in bronze on a marble base to Republican vice-presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr (1902-1985).

In the blur of events during the hard-fought presidential campaign, Lodge came to mistakenly believe that he had received the unusual gift during a visit to Nathan’s, the famous hot dog emporium in New York City. [Read more…] about Henry Cabot Lodge’s Bronze Hot Dog

Allegiance: The Life and Times of William Eustis

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Allegiance The Life and Times of William EustisThe book Allegiance: The Life and Times of William Eustis (Riverhaven Books, 2021) by Tamsen Evans George creates the vivid portrait of William Eustis, a patriot witness to and participant in many of the major events that shaped American history from the Revolution to the country’s fiftieth anniversary. [Read more…] about Allegiance: The Life and Times of William Eustis

The Revolutionary Samuel Adams

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ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, joins us to explore and investigate the life, deeds, and contributions of Samuel Adams using details from her book, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (Little Brown, 2022).

During this episode, Schiff reveals what we know about Samuel Adams’ life and education; How Adams made politics his career and his successes and failures in politics; And some of the work Adams did transform protests and debates over imperial taxation into a revolution for social and political change. [Read more…] about The Revolutionary Samuel Adams

Hell’s Acres in the Taconic Mountains

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a new york minute in history podcastIn this episode of A New York Minute In History Podcast, State Historian Devin Lander and Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts tell the story of Boston Corners, also known as Hell’s Acres, which once belonged to Massachusetts, but was ceded to New York State by an act of Congress in 1855. [Read more…] about Hell’s Acres in the Taconic Mountains

Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era

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The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War EraIn her book No Right to an Honest Living (Basic Books, 2023), Jacqueline Jones reveals how Boston was the United States writ small: a place where the soaring rhetoric of egalitarianism was easy, but justice in the workplace was elusive.

Before, during, and after the Civil War, white abolitionists and Republicans refused to secure equal employment opportunity for Black Bostonians, condemning many of them to poverty. [Read more…] about Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era

The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

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the grimkesSarah and Angelina Grimke are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives. [Read more…] about The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

Contagion of Liberty: Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution

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The Contagion of LibertyInoculation, a shocking procedure introduced to America by an enslaved African, became the most sought-after medical procedure of the eighteenth century. The difficulty lay in providing it to all Americans and not just the fortunate few. Across the colonies, poor Americans rioted for equal access to medicine, while cities and towns shut down for quarantines. In Marblehead, Massachusetts, sailors burned down an expensive private hospital just weeks after the Boston Tea Party.

The Revolutionary War broke out during a smallpox epidemic, and in response, General George Washington ordered the inoculation of the Continental Army. But Washington did not have to convince fearful colonists to protect themselves against smallpox ― they were the ones demanding it. [Read more…] about Contagion of Liberty: Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution

The Great Boston Fire of 1872

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the great boston fireFor two days in November, 1872, a massive fire swept through Boston, leaving the downtown in ruins and the population traumatized. Coming barely a year after the infamous Chicago Fire, Boston’s inferno turned out to be one of the most expensive fires per acre in US history.

Yet today few are aware of how close Boston came to total destruction. [Read more…] about The Great Boston Fire of 1872

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

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The Revolutionary: Samuel AdamsThomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the American Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history.  Adams amplified the Boston Massacre and helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party.

He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts he became the most wanted man in America: When Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason. Despite his celebrated status among America’s founding fathers as a revolutionary leader however, Samuel Adams’ life and achievements have been largely overshadowed in history books. [Read more…] about The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams