• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Material Culture

Albany Artist Ezra Ames: A Biography

June 23, 2022 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

self portrait of Ezra AmesEzra Ames was born on May 5th, 1768 in Framingham, Massachusetts. He was the fourth child of Jesse Emes and Betty Bent.

Prior to the 1800s, printed documents were scarce and there was usually no generally accepted spelling for many words. Most words were written phonetically; whatever combination of letters caused a person to say the intended word was accepted. [Read more…] about Albany Artist Ezra Ames: A Biography

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, art, Art History, Cultural History, Ezra Ames, Freemasonary, Massachusetts, Material Culture, painting

Museum Acquires Revolutionary Era Powder Horn Reproduction

June 23, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Horn craftsman Hank Yost presents the powder horn to Old Stone Fort MuseumThe Old Stone Fort Museum and Schoharie County Historical Society have received a donation of a Revolutionary War era powder horn.

Skillfully created by horn craftsman Hank Yost, the piece presented reflects the architecture and engraving styles of the Revolutionary period and was specifically designed to represent the life and times of the Hartmansdorf House’s original occupant Philip Bartholomew. [Read more…] about Museum Acquires Revolutionary Era Powder Horn Reproduction

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: American Revolution, French And Indian War, Material Culture, Military History, Old Stone Fort, Schoharie County, Schoharie County Historical Society

Paintings Stolen 50 Years Ago Returned to Historic Huguenot Street

June 9, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Stolen paintings postcard from 1972 The New York Art Crime Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently returned two paintings by 19th-century portrait artist Ammi Phillips to Historic Huguenot Street (HHS).

The two portraits, depicting prominent New Paltz residents Dirck D. Wynkoop (1738-1827) and his wife Annatje Eltinge (1748-1827), were missing for fifty years, after they were stolen on February 16th, 1972 while on display at the 1799 Ezekiel Elting (aka LeFevre) House on Huguenot Street. [Read more…] about Paintings Stolen 50 Years Ago Returned to Historic Huguenot Street

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Art History, Crime and Justice, Folk Art, Historic Huguenot Street, Material Culture, Museums, New Paltz, painting, Ulster County

Mayken van Angola’s Life Under New Netherland Slavery

May 24, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Request of Mayken van Angola, LucretiaOn December 28th, 1662, a woman named Mayken van Angola pursued freedom in New Amsterdam. She did not stand alone. Two other women — Susanna and Lucretia — stood with her and together, they petitioned the colonial government for their freedom. It was granted with the caveat that they must clean the Director General Petrus Stuyvesant’s house once a week as a condition of that freedom. [Read more…] about Mayken van Angola’s Life Under New Netherland Slavery

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Dutch History, Dutch-American History Series, Labor History, Material Culture, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Slavery, womens history

Don’t Be a Dope: Will Eisner’s World War II Posters

May 22, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

World War II Poster by Will EisnerThe Still Picture Branch at the National Archives safeguards many series of posters used during World War II by the United States Government. The messages range from the promotion of Victory Gardens and the war effort to military recruitment, education, safety and more.

Cartoonist and writer Will Eisner (1917-2005) was one of the most significant pioneers and innovators within the 20th-century comic book industry. Though his career spanned over half of the century, Eisner is perhaps best known for one of his earliest works — his comic strip The Spirit, which debuted in newspapers in 1940. [Read more…] about Don’t Be a Dope: Will Eisner’s World War II Posters

Filed Under: Arts, History Tagged With: Art History, Material Culture, Military History, National Archives, World War Two

American Sporting Prints: 19th Century Horses & Horsemen

May 17, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Detail from Alvan Fisher's "Eclipse with Race Track" (1823) courtesy Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts InstituteThe American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, as early as 1829, had pictures of noted horses, engraved by well-known steel-gravers from paintings by Alvan Fisher [1792-1863] and J. Cone [possibly J. Cone Ruitiar]. A few years later the New York Spirit of the Times was issuing engravings from paintings principally by Edward Troye [1808-1874].

It all amounts to a gallery of horse notables: Fashion, Glencoe, Lightning, Shark, Leviathan, Monarch, and down the list. There are interesting side-lights on the costume of the boys holding their equine charges, one with an Eton jacket and a cap much like that worn by the American troops during the Mexican War, another brave in Hessian boots and epaulets. It is, however, principally the quicker lithographic process that pictured His Majesty the Horse. [Read more…] about American Sporting Prints: 19th Century Horses & Horsemen

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Cultural History, Horses, Library of Congress, Material Culture, painting, Social History, Sports History, Vice

Historic Saranac Lake Acquires Béla Bartók Artifacts

March 17, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The Saranac Laboratory Museum Historic Saranac Lake has announced that the Saranac Laboratory Museum has received an important donation, a collection of personal effects that once belonged to Béla Bartók.

Widely regarded as one of the great composers, Bartók spent the last three summers of his life in Saranac Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains. Historic Saranac Lake maintains the cabin where Bartók stayed the year of his death, in 1945, and shows it to the public by appointment. [Read more…] about Historic Saranac Lake Acquires Béla Bartók Artifacts

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History Tagged With: Cultural History, Historic Saranac Lake, Material Culture, Musical History, Performing Arts, Saranac Laboratory Museum, Saranac Lake

NYC-Long Island Conservation Treatment Grants Available

February 27, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

material cultureThe New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHHN) have announced the Conservation Treatment Grant Program is now open. [Read more…] about NYC-Long Island Conservation Treatment Grants Available

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Archives, Grants, Greater Hudson Heritage Network, Libraries, Material Culture, Museums, New York State Council on the Arts

The Casket of Hair (The Object of History Podcast)

February 16, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

the object of history podcastThe most recent episode of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Object of History podcast takes a close look at an artifact known as the “casket of hair.”

Join Massachusetts Historical Society President Catherine Allgor as she talks about this little wooden box displaying the hair of First Lady Dolley Madison and Presidents George Washington, James Madison, and John Quincy Adams. [Read more…] about The Casket of Hair (The Object of History Podcast)

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Cultural History, Massachusetts Historical Society, Material Culture, Museums, Podcasts

Making Ink From Oak Galls: Some History & Science

November 13, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Developing Oak Marble gall caused by the insect Andricus kollari on Quercus robur Chapeltoun, North Ayrshire, Scotland by Wikimedia user Rosser1954What do the following items have in common: the Declaration of Independence, Da Vinci’s notebooks, Bach’s musical scores, Rembrandt’s drawings, Shakespeare’s plays, and the Magna Carta?

Give up?

These examples, along with countless other documents ranging from the historically important to the more mundane, were all recorded using iron gall ink, which is made – in part – from the protrusions created after oak gall wasps lay their eggs within oak trees. [Read more…] about Making Ink From Oak Galls: Some History & Science

Filed Under: Arts, History, Nature Tagged With: bees, insects, Material Culture, oaks, Printing, Science History, trees, wasps

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 19
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Edward Elkins on Henry Hudson & The Founding of Albany
  • Adrienne Saint-Pierre on The Smith Family of Acrobats and Clowns & Saratoga Springs
  • Bob Smith on The Smith Family of Acrobats and Clowns & Saratoga Springs
  • Bob Smith on The Smith Family of Acrobats and Clowns & Saratoga Springs
  • John Tepper Marlin on 1875: The Ticonderoga Sentinel Returns
  • Amy Godine on The Red Scare: A Personal History
  • Charlesarles R. Cormier on Beacon Oil: New York’s Lighthouse Gas Stations
  • peter Waggitt on Socialism, Greenwich Village & ‘The Masses’
  • Adrienne Saint-Pierre on The Smith Family of Acrobats and Clowns & Saratoga Springs
  • Pat B on Socialism, Greenwich Village & ‘The Masses’

Recent New York Books

stewards of the water
off the northway
Horse Racing the Chicago Way
The Women's House of Detention
Long Island’s Gold Coast Warriors and the First World War
Public Faces Secret Lives by Wendy Rouse
adirondack cabin
Spaces of Enslavement and Resistance in Dutch New York
ilion cover

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide