New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

New York State Library

State Education Dept Announces $34M For Public Library Construction Projects

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New York State Library with Ukranian FlagThe New York State Education Department has awarded $34 million to 223 public libraries and systems statewide to support construction and renovation projects.

These funds are expected to help libraries construct new buildings, create additions, update electrical wiring and computer technology, improve broadband infrastructure, meet energy-efficiency standards, and renovate facilities to provide full accessibility to library users with disabilities and create meeting spaces to accommodate community needs. [Read more…] about State Education Dept Announces $34M For Public Library Construction Projects

Eleanor Everywhere: A Pioneering First Lady

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eleanor rooseveltEleanor Roosevelt’s achievements as a pioneering First Lady are all the more remarkable when we consider the circumstances under which they took place: the ongoing crisis of the Great Depression, the relentless social pressure to confine herself to genteel hostessing in the White House, and her complicated relationship with her husband. [Read more…] about Eleanor Everywhere: A Pioneering First Lady

State Library Hosting Digital Equity Roundtable

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Albany Cultural Education Center State Museum Archives and LibraryThe New York State Library will host a digital equity roundtable conversation on Friday, September 9th. This program is intended to be an opportunity for digital inclusion practitioners across New York to connect and communicate with one another.

Digital inclusion involves the activities necessary to ensure equitable access to and use of information and communication technologies for participation in social and economic life including for education, social services, health, social and community participation. [Read more…] about State Library Hosting Digital Equity Roundtable

Contested History of American Patriotism

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contested history of patriotismWhen we talk about patriotism in America, we tend to mean one form: the version captured in shared celebrations like the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance.

But that celebratory patriotism is just one of several distinct forms: celebratory, the communal expression of an idealized America; mythic, the creation of national myths that exclude certain communities; active, acts of service and sacrifice for the nation; and critical, arguments for how the nation has fallen short of its ideals that seek to move us toward that more perfect union.  [Read more…] about Contested History of American Patriotism

Black Press in Antebellum New York State

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The Practice of CitizenshipThrough newspapers, political conventions, and petition drives, African American activists in New York State wrangled with the contradictions of living in a state that enshrined emancipation in its constitution even as it restricted black voting rights. They developed an understanding of citizenship and suffrage as natural rights that a state could not abridge without serious consequences to itself and its citizens. [Read more…] about Black Press in Antebellum New York State

New York Newspapers and the American Revolution

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Albany Cultural Education Center State Museum Archives and LibraryDuring the imperial crisis and the Revolutionary War, partisans in the city of New York hotly debated the issues that divided Americans into Patriots and Loyalists. Much of that work occurred in the city’s half-dozen newspapers, which were part of larger networks of circulation in North America and across the Atlantic to Britain. [Read more…] about New York Newspapers and the American Revolution

Race, Schooling, and the Right to Vote in New York

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Albany Cultural Education Center State Museum Archives and LibraryBetween the American Revolution and the American Civil War, New York State transitioned from restricting the right to vote based on property qualifications, to restricting it based on race.

During that period, New York also developed perhaps the most comprehensive system of public schools in the United States. [Read more…] about Race, Schooling, and the Right to Vote in New York

Ukraine Exhibit at the New York State Library

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Ukraine Exhibit at the New York State LibraryThe New York State Library has just installed an exhibit featuring nine display cases of interesting and inspirational material from their collections on the country and people of Ukraine.

The State Library was founded in 1818, and has a wide amount of material to choose from. Categories include general works on Ukraine; history and culture; writing and art; maps; old and current periodicals; and illuminating federal documents and congressional hearings. [Read more…] about Ukraine Exhibit at the New York State Library

NYS Library Acquires Lincoln Scholar Harold Holzer’s Papers

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Hunter College President Jennifer Raab, Harold Holzer, and actor Stephen Lang at the 2017 Empire State Archives & History Award ProgramThe New York State Library has recently acquired the complete works of Lincoln scholar and Archives Partnership Trust Board Member Harold Holzer. The collection covers his 49-year career as a writer, lecturer, and historian specializing in Abraham Lincoln and Civil War era. [Read more…] about NYS Library Acquires Lincoln Scholar Harold Holzer’s Papers