As part of its ongoing excavation and study of the Ticonderoga‘s Liberty Hill site, Fort Ticonderoga is announcing the discovery, documentation and preservation of more than five hundred new artifacts at the site – where the Declaration of Independence was read to the Continental Army at Ticonderoga for the first time in July 1776 — with several of the most compelling examples dating from the American Revolution in 1776. [Read more…] about Revolutionary War Artifacts Discovered in Ticonderoga
Material Culture
Workers Unearth Mysterious Cannonballs in Lake George
The Williams Monument lies several miles south of the head of Lake George along Route 9. On September 21, 1921, workers digging a hole for a sign near the obelisk revealed five cannonballs believed to date to the French & Indian War (1754–1763).
Following the unexpected discovery, made in 20 inches of soil, the laborers refilled the excavation. They then dug a post-hole in a different spot. [Read more…] about Workers Unearth Mysterious Cannonballs in Lake George
Marlene Dietrich: Park Avenue’s Goddess of Smoke
Born in Berlin-Schöneberg in December 1901, Marie Magdalena (Marlene) Dietrich made an early career in her home city before achieving international stardom. Mentored by the legendary Max Reinhardt at his Deutsche Theaterschule (German drama school), she then joined his stage company.
Throughout the 1920s, she performed in Berlin and Vienna, including roles in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah. [Read more…] about Marlene Dietrich: Park Avenue’s Goddess of Smoke
1928 Angler Catches Jug of Liquor Fishing Lake Champlain
Whitehall‘s Patrick J. Harvey was lucky when it came to fishing and foraging. In late February 1928, spring-like weather had already arrived. With the milder temperatures, Harvey was fishing from a boat on Lake Champlain. Beneath lay the sunken wreck of the British battlecraft Confiance from the War of 1812.
The once-mighty warship lay near the mouth of the Poultney River. [Read more…] about 1928 Angler Catches Jug of Liquor Fishing Lake Champlain
Museums, Diplomats & Art Thieves
In September 1887, in broad daylight, a robbery took place at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). The thieves got away with a pair of ancient bracelets described in a New-York Tribune crime report as “solid gold, about four inches in diameter, richly carved and studded with all manner of precious gems.”
The police did not recover the items, but Tiffany & Co. created fine replicas (the firm acted as “sole agents” for the reproduction of the Museum’s works of art). Originating in Cyprus, the bracelets were part of the Museum’s “Cesnola Collection,” the formation of which itself was a story of mass thievery. [Read more…] about Museums, Diplomats & Art Thieves
Mechanicville’s WWII & Korean War Veterans Photo Collection
The National WW II Museum in New Orleans is home to about 250,000 artifacts, including more than 100,000 photographs ranging from battlefield pictures captured by military and press photographers to individual albums full of wartime snapshots donated by veterans and their families. [Read more…] about Mechanicville’s WWII & Korean War Veterans Photo Collection
Royal Savage: Neglected Champlain Warship Finally ‘On View’
Veteran journalist and newspaper editor Anthony Hall of the Lake George Mirror alerted us to this story. Subscribe (or just make a gift) to the Mirror to support the important work of local journalists.
In the murky depths of Lake Champlain, the skeletal remains of the Continental Navy schooner Royal Savage rested for over 150 years, a silent witness to the birth of the American Navy.
However, after recovery in 1934 through turbulent years of improper storage, possibly being sold off to the highest bidder, and the government’s rescue of artifacts, countless hours of preservation, 3D-scans of original timbers and 1:12 scale models, visitors to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington, DC, can finally see history re-imagined. [Read more…] about Royal Savage: Neglected Champlain Warship Finally ‘On View’
NY Music History: Wurlitzers, Martin Guitars & Saxon Immigration
The Lombardy city of Cremona is the birthplace of the violin. The name of Antonio Stradivari became a metaphor for perfection, and his presence sparked a cult of Cremonese violins.
Born in 1644, he continued a lengthy line of local luthiers who since the sixteenth century had produced fine instruments. [Read more…] about NY Music History: Wurlitzers, Martin Guitars & Saxon Immigration
Women & The Hidden History of Delftware
Delftware is a renowned type of tin-glazed earthenware, predominantly featuring white pottery with blue cobalt designs, originating in The Netherlands during the 17th century to mimic Chinese porcelain.
When over seventy-five pieces of 17th and 18th century Delftware were rediscovered in an historic Manhattan townhouse, decorative art advisor and writer Genevieve Wheeler Brown recognized the pieces could tell an amazing story. [Read more…] about Women & The Hidden History of Delftware
Cellar Holes and Old Foundations
As I kneel digging in the dirt of the gently collapsing stone foundation, birds singing, knees aching, and dirt permanently embedded under my fingernails, I try to imagine life here in Vershire, Vermont, in the 1880s.
I’ve been excavating the bottle caches and midden (trash) heaps of this foundation for three years now, sifting artifacts from the soil. I’m trying to assemble the story of the people who lived here 140 years before me, to anchor myself and my partner within a broader continuity of relationship with this land. [Read more…] about Cellar Holes and Old Foundations
Spectral Database Planned for Museum of Natural History Mineral Collection
![Beryl (/ˈbɛrəl/ BERR-əl) is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2(SiO3)6.[6] Well-known varieties of beryl include emerald and aquamarine.](https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Mineral-Beryl-e1774449180809.jpg)
Wiley, which calls itself “a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation and learning,” has announced a new collaborative project with the American Museum of Natural History to extend access to the Museum’s renowned mineral collection to scientists around the world.
This new project, a Raman spectral database, serves the museum’s mission to disseminate knowledge about the natural world “through scientific research and education.” [Read more…] about Spectral Database Planned for Museum of Natural History Mineral Collection
A Colonial Spade and Old Fort George Preservation History
In the summer of 1919, groundskeepers at old Fort George at the south end of Lake George discovered what was then called a “hand made spade” that dated to colonial times.
The artifact was uncovered during routine maintenance of the grounds around the fortification, whose construction was begun by British General Jeffery Amherst’s engineers in 1759. The find was made several feet below a large tree stump that was dug up by maintenance workers. [Read more…] about A Colonial Spade and Old Fort George Preservation History
1973: A Reputed Lake George Colonial Anchor As Folk Art
As part of New York State’s early celebration of the United States Bicentennial, in May 1973, the Museum of American Folk Art (today the American Folk Art Museum) in Manhattan opened its “The Metal of the State” exhibit. One of the artifacts on view was described in the catalogue as “a large Revolutionary [War] anchor found in Lake George.”
It remains an enigma as to where the anchor was actually found however, and if it even was from the American Revolution (1775–1783), since most colonial military operations at Lake George were during the French & Indian War (1755–1763). (An exception was the Battle of Diamond Island in 1777.) [Read more…] about 1973: A Reputed Lake George Colonial Anchor As Folk Art
Philistine Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, and the Arts & Crafts Movement
The principles of beauty and artistic taste and its appreciation in nature and art are very personal, yet aesthetics can often be shared. During the nineteenth century the industrial revolution, first in Europe and later North America, left a dearth of creative aesthetics among inhabitants. Many felt the impersonal civilization, where industrialization forced movement from agrarian societies to urban social life, stripped creativity and aesthetic expression.
Like the industrial revolution itself, what would become an international trend originated in England and would be spread to British colonies and former colonies of the Empire, with origins in the 1850s. This was an arts and crafts movement, spurred on by those with both a grasp of mechanical design and a gift for expressing themselves in writing and lecture, such as John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle and William Morris. Art of pre-industrial times, produced by the skills of craftsmen, were championed and embraced by the movement. [Read more…] about Philistine Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, and the Arts & Crafts Movement
Venice Design & Manhattan’s Skyline
Spread over an archipelago of islands nestled amongst the marshes of the northern Adriatic coast, Venice was founded in the fifth century AD by refugees who fled the “barbarian” onslaught after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
In 811 its seat of government transferred from the island of Malamocco (one of the earliest settlements) to an area corresponding to present St Mark’s Square which was less vulnerable to attacks from sea. [Read more…] about Venice Design & Manhattan’s Skyline
The Irish 100th Regiment at Sackets Harbor & A Mysterious Button
Recent artifacts donated and purchased at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site include a War of 1812 uniform button. The one-piece copper button with low-convex face with Prince of Wales’s plume, coronet, and motto with “100” below is in excellent shape and appears to be a water recovery. It comes with the original card stating it was recovered in Sackets Harbor in 1961.
This may not seem a particularly desirable purchase, but it has a unique story. Although the 100th Regiment arrived May 29th, 1813 with the Crown Forces, of the many war-era buttons in the site’s collection there were no 100th Regiment buttons. [Read more…] about The Irish 100th Regiment at Sackets Harbor & A Mysterious Button
Coffee: A Commodity That Transformed Early America
Have you ever wondered why so many Americans drink coffee in the morning? In early America, colonists drank a lot of coffee — and less tea that we usually think. Coffee is among the most common goods traded and consumed worldwide, and so omnipresent its popularity is often taken for granted.
But even everyday habits have a history. When and why coffee become part of North American daily life is at the center of the book Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025). [Read more…] about Coffee: A Commodity That Transformed Early America
Art Dealer William Schaus, Sugar Baron Henry Havemeyer & America’s First Rembrandt
The “Gilded Age,” a term coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 novel of that title, indicates a period in American history from the 1870s to the early 1900s in which rapid industrialization and growing prosperity contrasted with extreme poverty and social deprivation.
The era encountered an evolving cultural landscape. Tycoons like Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, J. P. Morgan and others used their fortunes to collect art, build museums or sponsor libraries. Critics argued that these “robber barons” masked the exploitation of the workforce by acts of cultural philanthropy. [Read more…] about Art Dealer William Schaus, Sugar Baron Henry Havemeyer & America’s First Rembrandt
The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous History
The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous Peoples in the Adirondack Upland (Globe Pequot/North Country Books, 2025) challenges the widespread, long-standing belief that the Adirondacks of Northern New York were uninhabited before the arrival of European colonizers.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Through local indigenous traditions and supporting findings by natural science, authors David Fadden and Curt Stager expose, document, and honor the long human presence in the Adirondacks, helping not only to redefine what it means to be an Adirondacker, but also contributing to a more complete understanding of America itself. [Read more…] about The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous History
The Forgotten Artists of the American Revolution
Have you ever noticed how conversations about the American Revolution often center on great battles, founding documents, and famous statesmen?
What if, instead, we explored that world through the eyes—and the hands—of everyday people who shaped it through art? [Read more…] about The Forgotten Artists of the American Revolution