History, Natural History & the Arts
Private developers are planning for the clean-up and reuse of the historic Victory Mills complex located on Fish Creek in the Village of Victory, Saratoga County.
Developers are working to turn the 1918 cotton mill into 186 apartments and a brewpub at a cost of about $60 million. [Read more…] about Plans Afoot For Historic Victory Mills Near Saratoga Battlefield
Life as they knew it changed overnight. For years there had been fear, causing hardships day-by-day, but after this event their lives would never be the same. Much like our response to Pearl Harbor or September 11, October 16, 1780 was a day the people along Middleline Road in the Town of Ballston would never forget. [Read more…] about War on the Middleline: Munro’s Raid On Saratoga County in 1780
As neighborhoods in New York City and towns in New York State face a COVID-19 resurgence, it’s time to learn a lesson from New York’s past and marshal kids to combat the crisis.
Not only can school children play an important role in convincing adults to wear masks, wash hands, and maintain social distancing, activism will give young people a sense of efficacy during trying times where they feel isolated from friends, teachers, and extended family members. Enlisting our kids helped New York and the country address past crises and can again. [Read more…] about Take A Lesson from History, Marshal Kids to Defeat COVID-19
Since the saxophone was invented and patented by a young man from French-speaking Dinant, in Belgium’s Walloon Region, American musicians have paid credit to the instrument by producing memorable performances which include John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme,” Dino Soldo’s smooth jazz solos, or Clarence Clemons’s relentless drive.
Over time, the sax has found its way into almost every genre of music with one exception. The saxophone is not part of the orchestral repertoire. It was and remains a rogue instrument. [Read more…] about The Saxophone: Born In Belgium, Raised In The USA
This week on The Historians Podcast, Jennet Conant discusses her book The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster That Launched the War on Cancer. Also heard is film maker Nick Spark who lobbied for U.S. government recognition of medical doctor Stewart Alexander whose work chronicling the Bari disaster in southern Italy was the impetus to developing chemotherapy. [Read more…] about Secrets, Poison Gas and Chemotherapy (Podcast)
In 1914, Major Benjamin Koehler faced a court martial on Plum Island, off the eastern end of the North Fork coast of Long Island. A number of men under his command at the island’s Fort Terry had accused this career officer of immoral conduct. The resulting trial and verdict, after an initial flurry of notice in the press, is largely forgotten now.
Marian Lindberg, a lawyer with the Nature Conservancy and a former journalist, has gone to great lengths to retrieve Major Koehler’s ordeal from obscurity. Her book, Scandal on Plum Island: A Commander Becomes the Accused (East End Press), uncovers the possible motives for the court martial as well as the social and political climate surrounding it. [Read more…] about Scandal on Plum Island: A Commander Accused
The new book Old Stone Fort – Guardian of Schoharie County History Since 1772 by Jeff O’Connor features over 79 maps, illustrations, and photographs that help narrate the history of one of upstate New York’s oldest and most beloved museums. [Read more…] about A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort
This year’s commemoration of the Battles of Saratoga of October 1777 coincides with the 250th birthday of The Marshall House, a Schuylerville home that bore witness to those momentous events.
Albany merchant Peter Lansing began construction of the house overlooking the Hudson River in 1770. It was commandeered as a field hospital by the invading army of British General John Burgoyne in the fall of 1777. Following the British rout in the second Battle of Saratoga, the makeshift field hospital filled with wounded soldiers as well as women and children attached to the army. [Read more…] about Schuylerville’s Revolution Era Lansing-Marshall House Celebrating 250 Years
During the Revolutionary Era much of New York State was a heavily forested frontier, sparsely populated but bitterly divided.
Although the only major campaign in the Adirondacks would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war.
Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams details many of those frontier raids in her new book The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness (Arcadia Publishing, 2020). [Read more…] about New Book: The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks
When most people think about the Battles of Saratoga, they think of those at Freeman’s Farm (Sept. 19) and Bemus Heights (Oct. 7). Also well known is the siege period in the modern Schuylerville area from October 10th to the 17th.
There were many combat actions however, both great and small, that get less notice. One small skirmish, occurred at Jones Mill, near Grangerville in the town of Saratoga on October 2, 1777. [Read more…] about The Burning of Jones Mill During Battles of Saratoga