New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Medical History

‘Vermont for the Vermonters’: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

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Vermont for Vermonters“Vermont for the Vermonters”: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State (Vermont Historical Society, 2023), written by Mercedes de Guardiola, is a new examination of one of Vermont‘s darker chapters, and sheds new light on the factors that helped bring it about.

Eugenics is a pseudo- scientific field of selective human breeding that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and was the foundation of Nazi Germany. [Read more…] about ‘Vermont for the Vermonters’: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

Albany’s Distressed Children & The Albany Orphan Asylum: Some History

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Children at the Albany Orphan Asylum in a photo probably dating to the late 19th centuryIn 1652, New Netherland Dutch Director General Peter Stuyvesant granted land to the Dutch Church in Albany to construct a house to shelter the poor. In 1683, English Governor Thomas Dongan convened the first representative Assembly in the Colony of New York.

One of the first laws passed by the Colonial Assembly was a law regarding the treatment of orphans. [Read more…] about Albany’s Distressed Children & The Albany Orphan Asylum: Some History

Sigmund Freud, Adirondack High Peaks and American Colitis

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Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (Library of Congress)The modern era has produced a number of great speeches that have withstood the test of time. Amongst them are Winston Churchill’s “Fight on the Beaches” (June 1940), John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner”(June 1963) and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” (August 1963), but the speech that may have had the biggest impact in the history of political thought was Abe Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” (November 1860). [Read more…] about Sigmund Freud, Adirondack High Peaks and American Colitis

Deciding Vote: Film Tells Story of George Michaels Deciding NYS Abortion Vote

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New York State Assemblyman George Michaels (D-Auburn) holds his head after changing his vote to "yes" which, after expected passage by the Senate, will give New York the most liberal abortion law in the U.S.The Cayuga Museum’s Carriage House Theater will screen a new documentary from Wheelhouse Creative, “Deciding Vote”, which explores the story of former New York State Assemblyman George Michaels, a prominent member of Auburn, NY’s Jewish community and a veteran of World War Two.

Michaels entered politics in the tumultuous era of the 1960s, and became a central figure in paving the way for abortion rights in the US when his switched vote barely passed New York’s law legalizing abortion in 1970. [Read more…] about Deciding Vote: Film Tells Story of George Michaels Deciding NYS Abortion Vote

Lake George Officials Hope to Acquire Revolutionary Burial Ground

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volunteers working with archaeologists in Lake George VillageA vacant lot adjacent to the site where Revolutionary War soldiers and others who died at the smallpox hospital at Fort George at the south end of Lake George were buried may be preserved as open space, with a historical marker denoting its historical significance. [Read more…] about Lake George Officials Hope to Acquire Revolutionary Burial Ground

Growing Support for Reinternment of Lake George Colonial War Dead

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ruins of Fort GeorgeLake George’s drive to honor the many who died at the smallpox hospital at Fort George in the first years of the American Revolution has gained new momentum. [Read more…] about Growing Support for Reinternment of Lake George Colonial War Dead

Caring for Albany’s Poor: Some History

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Albany County Almshouse in 1932Albany, New York’s Dutch Church started a “Poor Fund,” probably shortly after the arrival of Dominie Johannes Megapolensis (1603–1670) in 1642. Disbursements were being made from the fund by 1647. Albany’s Patroon, Dutch merchants and others contributed to the collections of the church and the church in turn was made contributions to support the community’s impoverished residents. [Read more…] about Caring for Albany’s Poor: Some History

A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City

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British poster campaign against spitting in publicOn his tour of America Charles Dickens was disgusted by the “odious practices of chewing and expectorating” tobacco, a “filthy custom” that he had observed in both streets and public buildings. From courts of law to hospitals, spittoons could be seen where men were permitted to “spit incessantly” (American Notes, chapter VIII). [Read more…] about A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City

The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons

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Without Concealment, Without CompromiseOf some 12,000 Union Civil War surgeons, only 14 were Black men. Jill Newmark’s book Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons (Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 2023) is the first-ever comprehensive exploration of the surgeon’s lives and service. [Read more…] about The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons

William Beaumont, Father of Gastric Physiology

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One of the important historical figures of Clinton County, who is not often mentioned, is Dr. William Beaumont (1785 – 1853), considered “The Father of Gastric Physiology.”

His name is honored across the nation on schools and hospitals and locally on historic markers, a SUNY Plattsburgh building, and a local medical practice. [Read more…] about William Beaumont, Father of Gastric Physiology