History, Natural History & the Arts
The Lombardy city of Cremona is the birthplace of the violin. The name of Antonio Stradivari became a metaphor for perfection, and his presence sparked a cult of Cremonese violins.
Born in 1644, he continued a lengthy line of local luthiers who since the sixteenth century had produced fine instruments. [Read more…] about NY Music History: Wurlitzers, Martin Guitars & Saxon Immigration
Hidden Histories of Jazz Age New York: From the Suppressed to the Strange (SUNY Press Excelsior Editions, 2026) by Jonathan Ezra Goldman offers a fresh look at 1920s New York City, unearthing stories of everyday life and marginalized communities.
In sections that intertwine entertainment, politics, art, technology, crime, shopping, eating, and recreation, the book portrays sweeping events such as the Harlem Renaissance, Prohibition, and immigration through anecdotes of individual experiences that counter the era’s popular conceptions of ballooning wealth and uproarious celebration. [Read more…] about Hidden Histories of Jazz Age New York
Peter Bennett is a photographer who grew up in Greenwich Village and lived in the East Village from 1979-1988, bartending by night and photographing the neighborhood around him by day.
In the latest addition to the Village Preservation historic image archive, he has shared some of his photographs of the East Village in the early 1980s. [Read more…] about 1980s East Village Photographs Go Online
Peter Pan in the Catskills and Other Historical Essays (Purple Mountain Press, 2026) is a collection that evokes the magic of the region, from Rip Van Winkle to Maude Adams, whose renowned portrayal of Peter Pan made her famous.
This illustrated volume celebrates all that is extraordinary about the Catskill Mountains. In 33 essays, 28 writers dig into Catskills culture and history, bringing to light fossils, flora, and fauna, as well as art, railroads, baseball, and more. [Read more…] about Peter Pan in the Catskills and Other Historical Essays
April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and Village Preservation in New York City is celebrating with a new way to explore the history of this art form in their neighborhoods: an interactive Jazz Map of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo.
This map traces the legacy of jazz in these streets, where legendary musicians lived and groundbreaking performances and recording sessions took place. [Read more…] about New Interactive Map Celebrates Greenwich Village Jazz History
Economic history is a tale of bubbles and booms in which assets such as commodities, land, or stocks, quickly inflate in price above their intrinsic value. Such sudden movements, driven by greedy investors and speculative hype, are invariably followed by a bust. Loss of confidence causes a collapse in prices, resulting in a crash of “panic selling.”
There are many such examples, most of them well-documented. Tulip-mania in the Dutch Republic during the 1630s was the first real financial bubble. Then there were the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles (1720), both followed by a spectacular crash. More recently, we have seen the Dotcom Bubble, driven by mad speculation in internet-based stock.
While the assets may change over time, from tulips to technology, the factors of greed and fear are the ever-present psychological drivers of economic upheavals. Of all the bubbles known to historians, the “Plume Boom” is one of the more obscure tales. [Read more…] about The Plume Boom: Feathers, Fans, Funerals, Fashion & Filth
America has been the world’s most diverse nation since its founding 250 years ago. New York has been the nation’s most diverse city. New York has led the way in welcoming immigrants, integrating them into American life and, at the same time, enabling them to retain something of the culture that they brought with them from abroad.
New York City’s America’s Making Exposition just over a century ago undertook to demonstrate the contributions of various national and ethnic groups and to show how they contributed to and enriched American society. [Read more…] about Beyond ‘Americanization’: New York’s 1921 Celebration of Diversity
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced the 2026 recipients of its Malcolm Gordon Fund Awards, an initiative supporting environmental education programs, experiences that connect people to the land, and efforts to inspire the next generation of nature lovers in New York’s Hudson Valley.
For its 32nd annual round, awards were given to programs including a gardening tool-lending library in Rosendale, free guided river exploration for young people and families in Newburgh, and more. [Read more…] about OSI Supports Hudson Valley Environmental Programs
It was 1938 and the United States was in the midst of the “depression within a depression” a particularly difficult time during the Great Depression. As with most American communities, money was tight at Lake George, NY.
Therefore, to fund a mammoth local history pageant, the event’s organizers came up with a novel idea. They printed wooden nickels called “Lake George Wooden Money” and the best thing about the fake coinage was that it worked. [Read more…] about Lake George Wooden Nickels & The William Johnson Bicentennial
The Clinton County Historical Association’s portrait collection, of over 17,000 photos taken between 1890 and 1929, is a magnificent gallery of images reminding us of life “back in the day,” putting faces to the many hundreds of people who lived in and visited our area – and some were professional actors from the Cliff Haven Stock Company.
Newspaper reporters enthusiastically reported on the Cliff Haven Stock Company, a theater group presenting popular plays with nationally and internationally known actors. The theater group formed sometime around 1908 and was also referred to as the Cliff Haven Theater Group and the Cliff Haven Dramatic Company. [Read more…] about Curtain Calls: The Cliff Haven Stock Company
Music has the power to bring people together in the name of solidarity. There have always been songs to aide in carrying the cries for social justice.
Modern protest music came into mainstream popularity during the Civil Rights Movement; today’s protest music has a different voice. [Read more…] about Eight Modern Songs of Black Solidarity & Resistance
This episode of the ADK Talks podcast features nationally known Theodore Roosevelt reprisor Joe Wiegand to relive T.R.’s deep Adirondack ties — from youthful birding trips and great camp visits to the legendary midnight ride that began at Mount Marcy and ended with the oath of office in Buffalo. [Read more…] about Wild at Heart: Teddy Roosevelt’s Adirondack Adventures
Today the state of Minnesota is engaged in the first General Strike in nearly 80 years. There have been thousands of strikes in American history, but only about a dozen General Strikes. One of the first strikes took place in the city of New York in 1677. Afterward a dozen cart-men (one-horse cart operators) were criminally prosecuted “for not obeying the Command and Doing their Dutyes as becomes them in their Places” and fined.
About 80 strikes in the U.S. have involved over 100,000 workers. Here are 13 strikes every New Yorker should know about: [Read more…] about Strike! 13 Strikes Every New Yorker Should Know About
Location scouting is a part of the pre-production process of making a film or television show. Before digital files and location-scouting apps transformed the business of film location scouting, New York’s production world ran on hard copies — real photographs, taped into real folders, stored in real boxes. [Read more…] about New York City Location Scout Photo Collections
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, announced Monday that its Board of Directors has voted to dissolve the organization after 58 years, rather than be “vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.”
The decision follows Congress’s rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks by the Trump regime and Republican Party that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 intended. [Read more…] about Once A Educational Powerhouse, CPB is No More
There are few things considered more critical to New York City’s economy than the creative sector, the mix of industries that range from performing and visual arts to ad agencies and design firms.
But a new Creative New York report by The Center for an Urban Future (CUF) shows that the city’s creative sector is facing serious new threats, in large part due to an affordability crisis that is hitting artists and creative workers especially hard. [Read more…] about New Report: Affordability Threatens NYC’s Creative Sector
Following six months of significant interior renovations, marking the first comprehensive improvement project since the facility opened in 1976, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center, best known as The Egg, will officially reopen its doors with a ribbon cutting on Thursday, January 8, 2026. [Read more…] about Albany’s Egg Celebrating First Major Renovations in 50 Years
Founded in 1925 in St. Louis, since 1932, the Rockettes dance company have performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
To celebrate the Rockettes’ 100th Anniversary, Madison Square Garden Entertainment has announced all of the ways that businesses and locations across the City are honoring the centennial. [Read more…] about Rockettes’ Celebrating 100th Anniversary
Looming on a corner along Prospect Avenue in the Bronx is a 1905 Neo-Renaissance style apartment building – home to a cornerstone of New York City’s Latin music history.
The triangular Manhanset Building was constructed during a building boom in the Bronx in the early 1900s, which happened after the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) subway was extended from Manhattan in 1904. [Read more…] about Casa Amadeo: A Bronx Latin Music Scene Landmark
The Bowery is one of Manhattan’s oldest “streets,” dating back to the Dutch days of New Amsterdam. It runs along the path Director-General Peter Stuyvesant took from his home at the tip of the island to his farm, which the Dutch called his bouwerij.
In the 1870s, it ran about a mile from Printing House Square to 8th street. Printing House Square was the heart of the city’s newspaper business, where Park Row is today. [Read more…] about A Walk Up the Bowery, Circa 1872
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