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New Deal

The Origins of Rockwell Kent: The Development of an Artist and His Craft

December 19, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall 1 Comment

Our America a series designed by Kent for sets of chinaRockwell Kent, the artist who made the Adirondacks his home from 1928 until his death in 1971, mastered more media than any of his contemporaries, even if one were to include Andy Warhol.

And no one was more skillful than he at agitprop – exhorting the masses to political action through expressive combinations of images and words, in posters, pamphlets, books and even bottle caps, those he used to seal the milk bottles from his Ausable Forks dairy farm. [Read more…] about The Origins of Rockwell Kent: The Development of an Artist and His Craft

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Adirondacks, Art History, Ausable Forks, Clinton County, Cultural History, Essex County, New Deal, Plattsburgh, Political History, SUNY Plattsburgh

Marjorie Sewell Cautley: Renowned Landscape Architect

December 14, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

aerial view of Bolton Landing’s Rogers ParkMarjorie Sewell Cautley (1891–1954) was the first woman landscape architect to design state parks, the first to plan the landscape of a federally funded housing project, the first to lecture in a university’s city planning department – and the first person to design a plan for D.L. Rogers Memorial Park in Bolton Landing on Lake George. [Read more…] about Marjorie Sewell Cautley: Renowned Landscape Architect

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Brooklyn, Lake George, Landscape Architecture, New Deal, New York City, Queens, Saratoga County, Warren County, womens history

FDR’s Landslide Victory in 1936

October 21, 2022 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, David Pietrusza discusses his latest book, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal (Diversion Books, 2022). [Read more…] about FDR’s Landslide Victory in 1936

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, New Deal, Podcasts, Political History

Granville’s WPA Mural of Working in a Slate Quarry

September 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Men Working in Slate Quarry Granville Mural“Men Working in Slate Quarry,” the 1939 Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded mural displayed at the Slate Valley Museum in Granville, Washington County, NY is as good an example as you will find of “Art for the People.”

The subject of the museum’s current exhibition “One Painting, Many Stories,” explores many of the artistic, cultural and political contexts within which the mural was created. [Read more…] about Granville’s WPA Mural of Working in a Slate Quarry

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Events, History Tagged With: Art History, Geology, Granville, Labor History, New Deal, painting, Slate Valley Museum, Washington County, WPA

Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People

March 14, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

out of work men during the Great Depression (retouched)In 1933, during Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s first year as President, the Democrats launched a number of New Deal social welfare and economic recovery efforts to combat the Great Depression.

Among the more popular and successful of these was the creation of the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), jobs programs which were modeled on similar programs in New York State. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Agricultural History, Charles Evans Hughes, Culinary History, Dairy, Economic History, FDR, Financial History, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, Industrial History, Labor History, Legal History, New Deal, New York City, Political History, Supreme Court, Wall Street, Wall Street History Series, World War Two

The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

March 9, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 4 Comments

Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression (ca 1931)Initially many thought the severe Wall Street crash of October 1929 was a temporary phenomenon and like many subsequent crashes (i.e. 1987, 2008) the stock market would recover in a few months or years.

Unfortunately, this did not prove to be the case. After some upward spurts, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange continued to fall for the next three years and economic conditions throughout the country continued to worsen, so that by 1932 the market closed at 41, a drop of 89% over its 1929 high of 381. Employment in Wall Street firms plummeted, as the once heady activity evaporated and the Great Depression took hold.

The response would require a great reset between Wall Street and working Americans. [Read more…] about The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Agricultural History, Al Smith, Disability History, Economic History, FDR, Financial History, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, Labor History, Manhattan, New Deal, New York City, NYC, Political History, Wall Street, Wall Street History Series

Albany County’s West Mountain: Some History

November 23, 2021 by Harold Miller Leave a Comment

Lewis Sherman HouseWest Mountain refers to the highlands in the southwest quadrant of the Town of Berne, NY, and is the highest point in Albany County at 2,160 ft.

A map of Van Rensselaer Patroonship leases made in 1787 does not shows anyone living on West Mountian, but white settlers probably started clearing land there within a few years of that date.  A few years later there were enough folks to organize the Baptist Church of Christ, just north of the Rensselaerville-Berne town line. A schoolhouse was built next door, jointly operated by both towns. [Read more…] about Albany County’s West Mountain: Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Agricultural History, Albany County, Berne, Environmental History, Great Depression, New Deal, Partridge Ridge WMA, Rensselaerswijck, Rensselaerville

How New York’s Suburbs Got So Segregated

July 6, 2021 by Alan J. Singer 2 Comments

Levittown 1948 NYT Why is the population of Massapequa in New York’s Nassau County 98% percent white? Why do almost no Black families live in suburban Levittown, New York? Are we looking at free choices by families or underlying housing patterns that reflect the impact of past and current racist practices?

Newsday exposed racial channeling by Long Island realtors in an investigation that showed how they steered potential home buyers to particular towns based on their race and ethnicity. [Read more…] about How New York’s Suburbs Got So Segregated

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, development, FDR, Financial History, Housing, Long Island, New Deal, New York City, Urban History

Trailblazing Women: Mary McLeod Bethune

March 14, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Mary McLeod Bethune, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway HallAs a presidential advisor of African American Affairs during the Roosevelt administration, Mary McLeod Bethune formed the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, which would become known as the Black Cabinet. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Mary McLeod Bethune

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Black History, FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt, National Archives, New Deal, Political History, Women, womens history

Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

September 23, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

Frances Perkins meets with American workersFrances Perkins, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in all four terms of his administration, is often credited with designing many of the New Deal’s social welfare programs, including Social Security.  As such, she ranks among the most influential women of the 20th Century.

Few however, know that Perkins began her career in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city of New York, work that as inspired inn part by a chance meeting an Irish Tammany Hall District Leader Tom McManus. [Read more…] about Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Al Smith, Albany, FDR, Frances Perkins, Greenwich Village, Housing, Labor History, New Deal, New York City, Political History, Prohibition, Tammany Hall, womens history

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