History, Natural History & the Arts
Who is American democracy for and who could participate in early American democracy?
Women and African Americans were often barred from voting in colonial and early republic elections. But what about Native Americans? Could Native Americans participate in early American democracy?
[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty
Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Miller was on such a tight schedule on October 12th, 1920 that one of the keynote speakers in his entourage got left behind at the railroad depot south of Ticonderoga village, on Lake Champlain.
At least that’s the official explanation. [Read more…] about Teddy In Ticonderoga: Get Me From the Train On Time
Independence from Great Britain provided the former British American colonists the opportunity to create a new, more democratic government than they had lived under before the American Revolution.
What did this new American government look like? Who could participate in this new American democracy? And what was it like to participate in this new democracy?
[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic
On the October 2020 episode of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” Clare Sheridan welcomed Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey who reflected on her career as Congresswoman from the 17th District of New York, and then Becky Savell appeared to discuss the life and career of her grandmother Historian Isabelle Savell. After a career as a journalist, and then working for Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Isabelle Savell authored many books, including Ladies Lib: How Rockland Women Got The Vote. [Read more…] about Politics & History On The Crossroads of Rockland History Podcast
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The new book A College of Her Own: The History of Barnard (Columbia University Press, 2020) by Robert McCaughey offers a comprehensive and lively narrative of Barnard College from its beginnings to the present day. [Read more…] about A Lively New History of Barnard College Published
Back in July 1962 I was in the Deep South, working to register Black voters. It was a near-hopeless project, given the mass disenfranchisement of the region’s Black population that was enforced by Southern law and an occasional dose of white terrorism. [Read more…] about Memories of Voter Suppression
After the 1884 Democratic National Convention closed at Chicago, the nation’s attention turned to Albany, where nominee-in-waiting Grover Cleveland was doing his best not to make news prematurely. [Read more…] about Albany Celebrated Grover Cleveland’s 1884 Nomination for President
The British North American colonies formed some of the most democratic governments in the world. But that doesn’t mean that all early Americans were treated equally or allowed to participate in representative government.
So who could vote in Early America? Who could participate in representative government?
[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: Democracy & Voting in British North America
Beginning with George Washington, it has been a custom for the President of the United States to have an official portrait sculpted or painted during his time in office.
From the beginning artists were faced with conflicting demands of aesthetics, the need to evoke the significance of the nation’s highest office, and the personal inclination of the sitter (varying from modesty to pomposity). How to reconcile such different strands in a work of art? [Read more…] about Portraying Presidents: A Sketch of Cultural History
Frances 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