History, Natural History & the Arts
Americana Insights, a new nonprofit e-journal and multi-faceted resource center, has been launched by Jane Katcher, Americana and American folk art collector, in collaboration with David A. Schorsch, an authority on American antiques and folk art.
The digital publication is supported by an advisory board of museum and art-world professionals and edited by independent scholar, author, and curator Robert Shaw. [Read more…] about New Publication Focuses on American Folk Art and Americana
In fiction, poetry or song, houses are treated as living organisms. They are noble, respectable, or infamous. There are houses of high rank and those of low repute – houses have human characteristics and their individual biographies.
The Isokon Building in Hampstead tells a striking tale of recent historical events. At the time of completion, it was one of the few modernist dwellings in London’s cityscape; the block of flats housed a number of notable refugees from Nazi Germany; almost simultaneously it served as a recruitment office for Soviet spies. Crucial aspects of post-war American cultural and political developments originated in a few flats in this leafy corner of North West London. [Read more…] about Concrete, Plywood and Soviet Spies
The East Hampton Historical Society on Long Island has announced their signature summer event, the East Hampton Antiques & Design Show, will be held in a virtual format this year. [Read more…] about Annual East Hampton Antiques & Design Show Goes Virtual
The Office of Cultural Education (OCE), made up of the New York State Archives, Library and Museum, has been working to support New York State’s cultural community throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. [Read more…] about NYS Pandemic Documentation Initiative Underway
Said to be born somewhere in “America” on September 11, 1905, Kathryn Hamill is an intriguing figure whose presence has been strangely ignored.
Typically mentioned in the context of her fling with novelist Patricia Highsmith, little else is known about her. Even photographic images appear to be missing. A one-time Ziegfeld dancer, she married a British publisher, studied medicine in Cambridge, lived in one of London’s iconic modernist houses, and committed suicide. A biographer’s challenge. Surely. [Read more…] about A Modernist Merry-Go-Round
Virtually the entire collection of the Warrensburgh Museum of Local History in Warren County, NY, is now available online.
[Read more…] about Warrensburgh Local History Museum Goes Online
Martin V. Melosi’s new book Fresh Kills: A History of Consuming and Discarding in New York City (Columbia University Press, 2020) tells the story of Fresh Kills ― a monumental 2,200-acre site on Staten Island ― that was once the world’s largest landfill.
From 1948 to 2001, it was the main receptacle for New York City’s refuse. [Read more…] about Fresh Kills: A History of Consuming and Discarding
George Washington’s brown Inauguration suit may have been plain for the times, but it was tailored from American-made broad cloth. The majority of cloth used in the United States in 1789 was imported from Britain, said Eliza West, an expert on 18th century textiles.
Wearing a suit of British-made fabric would have been a faux pas in the young nation that won its independence from Britain, so Washington asked cabinet member Henry Knox, of Fort Ticonderoga fame, to locate a suit of American-made cloth. The irony, West said, is that the cloth was of such quality that many people would not believe it was American made, and accused Washington of political incorrectness any way. [Read more…] about Artifacts: History’s Primary Sources
Fort Ticonderoga has been named a recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for Humanities Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program in the amount of $40,000.
The funds are expected to be utilized to develop a Master Preservation and Storage Needs Plan for the collections of historical artifacts housed in the Thompson-Pell Research Center on Fort Ticonderoga’s 2,000-acre museum campus and historic site. [Read more…] about Fort Ticonderoga Receives NEH Collections Planning Grant
Fort Ticonderoga recently acquired a unique ceramic pitcher, which is decorated with printed designs and text. The text includes a quote from Thomas Jefferson, from his first inaugural address. The pitcher was made in the 1810s in the Staffordshire Potteries, in England.
Due in part to the availability of clay, salt, lead and coal, potteries around Staffordshire formed a center of ceramic production in the early 1600s. By the late 1700s, North Staffordshire was the largest producer of ceramics in Britain. In the 19th century Staffordshire pottery was widely distributed around the world. [Read more…] about Fort Ticonderoga Acquires 1810s Staffordshire Pitcher