• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

New York State Archives

David Lowe Dodge: The Merchant Peacemaker

January 24, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

David Lowe Dodge by Charles HowlettWhile carrying a large sum of money on a business trip in 1805, the well-to-do city of New York merchant, David Low Dodge, who had been fast asleep in a tavern, was suddenly awakened by the noise of someone jiggling the lock to his bedroom door. Startled by the rattling doorknob and as the door slowly opened, Dodge, not taking any chances, quietly turned and reached for the pistol he always carried for protection.

And then, just before he was about to discharge his pistol, he recognized the suspected intruder as the innkeeper who had come to prepare the room for other guests. [Read more…] about David Lowe Dodge: The Merchant Peacemaker

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: New York City, New York State Archives, Pacifism, Peace Studies, Religious History, War of 1812

Archives Magazine To Expand Reach To Young Readers

January 13, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York Archives Jr!The award-winning New York Archives Magazine is expanding to include a new Jr! educational insert and other related enhancements thanks to a $150,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.

The Jr! insert is expected to expand access to young New Yorkers and offer educators another tool for bringing primary sources into the classroom. Each issue will contain learning activities specific to a local history story published in the quarterly magazine and geared to building historical thinking and civic literacy skills that meet 4th-7th grade curriculum standards. [Read more…] about Archives Magazine To Expand Reach To Young Readers

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Archives, Archives Partnership Trust, Education, New York State Archives

Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

January 2, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Franklin WilliamsLarger-than-life figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King and, going back further, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, functioned as the “celebrities” of the equal rights movement, the public face of the crusade for racial justice.

But outside the spotlight, “bridge figures” such as New Yorker Franklin H. Williams — men and woman unencumbered by the sometimes blinding “star quality” of the Kings and Marshalls while also shunning the divisive tactics of militants such as Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, and Malcolm X — made enormous but often underappreciated contributions. [Read more…] about Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Jim Crow Laws, John F. Kennedy, Legal History, Lyndon Johnson, NAACP, New York City, New York State Archives, Peace Corps, Political History, Queens, Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall

New York State’s Movie Censorship History

December 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Movie Censorship in New YorkIn the days before the Motion Picture Association developed a film rating system, movie producers and distributors had to apply for a permit with New York’s Division of Motion Picture to show their film in the state.

The New York State Archives preserves one of the largest collection of film scripts from 1921-1965 in the world. [Read more…] about New York State’s Movie Censorship History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Events, History Tagged With: New York State Archives

Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring

November 7, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Selah StrongIn late 1777, Patriot and Long Island-native Selah Strong was arrested for what in present-day terms would be regarded as spying. While Selah’s spouse, Anna “Nancy” Strong, and his close friends would be considered part of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, only a few historians have included Selah as a member.

This network of spies operated during the Revolutionary War and smuggled information out of the British headquarters in New York City via British-occupied Long Island and across the Long Island Sound, eventually to the Commander-in-Chief himself. By re-examining primary sources for the first time in hundreds of years, Selah’s heroic role in the Culper Spy Ring finally comes to light. [Read more…] about Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Culper Spy Ring, Long Island, Long Island Sound, Military History, New York City, New York State Archives, Port Jefferson, Setauket, Suffolk County

Defending New York City in 1814 Program Set For Wednesday

September 13, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

defending gothamThe New York State Archives will host “Defending Gotham in 1814: Why New York City is not the Home of the Star-Spangled Banner,” a program set for Wednesday, September 14th. [Read more…] about Defending New York City in 1814 Program Set For Wednesday

Filed Under: Events, History, New York City Tagged With: New York State Archives

1813: Fall of Fort Niagara & Burning the Niagara Frontier

May 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

new yorks war of 1812In December 1813, during the War of 1812, there was a human catastrophe as a result of the burning of the Niagara Frontier. Only one home was spared along the 37-mile-long border and upwards of 6,000 refugees fled into the snowy forests heading for the Genesee River and safety.

Richard V. Barbuto’s book New York’s War of 1812: Politics Society and Combat (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021), looks back to the War of 1812, from the beleaguered Fort McHenry to the burning White House to an embattled New Orleans. [Read more…] about 1813: Fall of Fort Niagara & Burning the Niagara Frontier

Filed Under: Books, Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Erie County, Genesee River, Military History, New York State Archives, Niagara County, Niagara River, Old Fort Niagara, War of 1812

Documents Reveal Sojourner Truth’s Battle to Free Her Son from Slavery

March 15, 2022 by Alan J. Singer 1 Comment

Sojourner TruthIn February 2022, the New York State Archives announced that archivists had uncovered court records detailing the 1828 legal battle by Sojourner Truth to secure her enslaved son Peter’s freedom. According to archivist Jim Folts, this case was the first time in United States history that a Black woman successfully sued a White man for a family member’s freedom.

After passage of the New York State Gradual Emancipation Act in 1799, some slaveholders illegally sold enslaved Africans to Southern planters for the expanding cotton industry. When Sojourner Truth, then known as Isabella Van Wagenen, escaped from enslavement in 1826, her former “owner,” John J. Dumont of New Paltz, Ulster County, NY, sold her five-year old son Peter to Eleazer Gedney who planned to take the boy with him to England.

When this plan fell through, Eleazer Gedney sold Peter to his brother, Solomon Gedney, who resold Peter to their sister’s husband, a man named Fowler, who was a wealthy Alabama planter. [Read more…] about Documents Reveal Sojourner Truth’s Battle to Free Her Son from Slavery

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abolition, Archives, Black History, Legal History, New Paltz, New York State Archives, Political History, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, Ulster County, womens history

Bruce Dearstyne’s ‘Spirit of New York’ Reissued In Expanded Edition

January 24, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Bruce Dearstyne Spirit of New YorkBruce W. Dearstyne’s expanded new edition of The Spirit of New York (SUNY Press, 2022; first published 2016) explores nineteen dramatic events from New York State’s history that altered the course of U.S. history.

From the launch of the state government in April 1777 thru the tragedy of September 11th and through the debut of the musical play Hamilton in 2015, Dearstyne’s chapters describe great political changes, historical turning points, and struggles for social, racial, and environmental reform.
[Read more…] about Bruce Dearstyne’s ‘Spirit of New York’ Reissued In Expanded Edition

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: 1964 World's Fair, Aviation History, Baseball, Cultural History, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Environmental History, Glenn Curtiss, Jackie Robinson, John Jay, Legal History, New York, New York State Archives, Office of State History, Political History, Public History, Robert Moses, Sports History, The Spirit of New York, womens history

State Archives Research Residency Applications Available

December 6, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Albany Cultural Education Center State Museum Archives and LibraryThe New York State Archives is now accepting applications for their Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program, which supports advanced work on New York State history, government, or public policy using historical records in the State Archives. [Read more…] about State Archives Research Residency Applications Available

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: New York State Archives

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 11
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Help Finish Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Bob Meyer on Poetry: Stairway from Heaven
  • Carol Drew-Peeples on Manhattan Street Names Tied to Slavery Listed from A to Z
  • Edythe Ann Quinn on Poetry: Stairway from Heaven
  • Ellen Brown on How Does A Land Trust Protect A Watershed? One Parcel At A Time
  • Nell Rapport on Transforming The Niagara Falls Experience
  • Jimmy on World War II POW Camps in Upstate New York
  • Paul Huey on Advocates: Pass The Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act
  • NOEL A SHERRY on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
  • NOEL A SHERRY on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
  • Jim Fox on Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

Recent New York Books

battle of harlem hights
Ladies Day at the Capitol
voices of wayne county
CNY Snowstorm book front cover
The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era
Expanded Second Edition of Echoes in These Mountains
historic kingston book
Buffalo Sports cover re-re-sized.indd
With an Ax and a Rifle Vol I

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide