• 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
  • RSS
  • 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

Religious History

Raines Law, Loopholes and Prohibition

May 25, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

Pro-Temperance cartoon from the 1900sA loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a legal text or a set of rules that people identify and use to avoid adhering to it. Exploiting loopholes in tax legislation by big corporations or wealthy individuals is a preoccupation of our time. The authorities fight a losing battle trying to plug them as lawyers specialize in finding new and profitable flaws. [Read more…] about Raines Law, Loopholes and Prohibition

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: beer, Crime and Justice, Culinary History, Cultural History, Legal History, liquor, Manhattan, New York City, Political History, Prohibition, prostitution, Religious History, Theodore Roosevelt, Vice

New Yorkers Serving in Alaska Territory, 1908-1910

May 14, 2023 by Rebecca Rector 1 Comment

Schmitter_divorceWhile transcribing Alaska Territory records for the National Archives, I noticed two interesting men who were working with the native tribes. A little research revealed they were both from New York State. Here are their stories. [Read more…] about New Yorkers Serving in Alaska Territory, 1908-1910

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Cultural History, Folklore, Herkimer COunty, Indigenous History, Montgomery County, Religious History

The Moravian Church in North America

May 3, 2023 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Paul Peucker, an archivist and the Director of the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, joins Liz Covart to investigate the establishment of the Moravian Church in North America. [Read more…] about The Moravian Church in North America

Filed Under: History Tagged With: German-American History, Immigration, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Podcasts, Religious History

There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days

April 17, 2023 by Jack Kelly 3 Comments

Cardiff GiantMy first brush with the artifacts of history came when I was a youngster on a family vacation to Cooperstown, Otsego County, NY. I found the famous Baseball Hall of Fame, with its baggy uniforms, battered bats and flattened fielders’ mitts, decidedly ho-hum. I couldn’t wait to get to the nearby Farmers’ Museum and see something that I had heard of with wonder: the Cardiff Giant. [Read more…] about There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: 1901 Pan-American Exposition, Archaeology, Cardiff Giant, Circus, Cooperstown, Farmers' Museum, Fossils, Geology, Museums, Onondaga County, Otsego County, Paleontology, PT Barnum, Religious History, Science History, sculpture, Syracuse

Freedom in New York: Chenango County, the Underground RR & US Colored Troops

April 4, 2023 by Harry Bradshaw Matthews 2 Comments

Chenango County, NY Map (1897)During Black History Month 2023, I received an email from Jill Mirabito, a longtime resident of Norwich, Chenango County, NY, and Associate Vice President for University Advancement at SUNY Oneonta. The note pertained to the Chenango County Historical Society having honored Benjamin J. Tillett, an African American resident of Norwich during and after the Civil War. He had been a slave in Northeast North Carolina before arriving in Norwich.

In November 1863, Tillett enlisted in the 11th United States Colored Heavy Artillery (also known as the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery). He returned to Norwich after the war and died there in 1902. Before his death, he had a membership with the E.B. Smith Post, GAR, A Knight Templar of Palestine Commandery, and attended religious services frequently at the local AME Zion Church. The admiration that Tillett received from his adopted residence caught my attention. I was intrigued. [Read more…] about Freedom in New York: Chenango County, the Underground RR & US Colored Troops

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Cemeteries, Chenango County, Chenango County Historical Society, Civil War, Genealogy, Military History, Norwich, Otsego County, Religious History, Slavery, Susquehanna River, Underground Railroad, US Colored Troops

NYS Nominates 13 Places for State, National Registers of Historic Places

March 23, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

An information table set up by the Gay Liberation Front on the University of Rochester’s Eastman Quadrangle in 1970 (Photo by Anthony Boccaccio)The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 13 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places and submitting one request to the Columbia Turnpike East Toll House to the National Park Service.

The nominations include a key site associated with Rochester‘s LGBTQ+ history, a historic synagogue in Manhattan‘s Upper West Side, a public park in Ithaca, a church connected to Yonkers’s civil rights history, a re-built Lustron House in Erie County, the Oneida County History Center, and more. [Read more…] about NYS Nominates 13 Places for State, National Registers of Historic Places

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Architecture, Beacon, Black History, Brooklyn, Columbia County, Dutchess County, Eden, Erie County, Fishkill, Hillsdale, Historic Preservation, Ithaca, LGBTQ, Long Island, Manhattan, Monroe County, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, New York City, New York State Register of Historic Places, Nissequogue River State Park, Oneida County, Oneida County Historical Society, Oneida County History Center, Pittsford, Prattsburgh, Religious History, Rochester, Rome, State Parks, Stueben County, Suffolk County, Tompkins County, University of Rochester, Upper West Side, Westchester County, Yonkers

Exotic Animals, The Van Amburgh Circus & The Lion King of Fishkill

March 22, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Van Amburgh’s MenagerieThe term “exotic pet” refers to wild animals kept in captivity in a domestic setting for the purpose of personal interest or entertainment. With globalization the trade has increased dramatically, although its real scope is difficult to ascertain because for most species there is no registration requirement. Its scale may be a contemporary concern, but the practice itself has a long history. The public has always been obsessed with non-native animals. [Read more…] about Exotic Animals, The Van Amburgh Circus & The Lion King of Fishkill

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Circus, Dutchess County, Fishkill, Manhattan, Museums, New York City, Newburgh, Orange County, Performing Arts, Religious History, The Bowery, Theatre, Westchester County, Wildlife, zoology

Dutch-American Stories: Growing Up Dutch

February 20, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Portrait of Hendrik Peter ScholteWhat does it mean to be of Dutch extraction in the United States? Pella, situated on the Iowa plains, was the destination of choice for hundreds of Dutch families, led by Hendrick Pieter Scholte, after the Afscheiding (Secession) of 1834 split the Dutch Reformed Church. What is still Dutch and what has changed over time? Valerie Van Kooten, Executive Director of the Pella Historical Society and Museums, tells us about her childhood. [Read more…] about Dutch-American Stories: Growing Up Dutch

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Cultural History, Dutch History, Genealogy, Immigration, Netherlands, New Netherland, Religion, Religious History, Social History

Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant

February 9, 2023 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Cohoes Mastodon exhibit at the New York State Museum, Albany New York (photo courtesy Kenneth C. Zirkel)In 1866, NY State Geologist James Hall received a message from T.G. Younglove, an official at Harmony Mills in Cohoes, New York, informing Hall that while conducting some excavations to expand the mill they uncovered a “great pothole” at the foot of Cohoes Falls where the Mohawk River begins to empty into the Hudson.

The “great pothole” contained a large jawbone “of some unknown beast,” much larger than that of an elephant. [Read more…] about Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Archaeology, Board of Regents, Cardiff Giant, Cohoes, Cooperstown, Farmers' Museum, Fossils, Geology, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Journalism, Mohawk River, Native American, nature, New York State Education Department, New York State Museum, Newspapers, Onondaga County, Otsego County, Paleontology, PT Barnum, Religious History, Science History, sculpture, Wildlife

Assassin in Utopia: The Oneida Community & The Garfield Assassination

February 9, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

an assasin in utopiaThe new book An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President’s Murder (Pegasus Crime, 2023) by Susan Wels is a true crime odyssey that explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the reader from a free-love community in Upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield. [Read more…] about Assassin in Utopia: The Oneida Community & The Garfield Assassination

Filed Under: Books, History, Western NY Tagged With: Books, Crime and Justice, Horace Greeley, James Garfield, Madison County, Oneida, Oneida Community, Political History, Religious History, Vice

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 9
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

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

Recent Comments

  • Ed Zahniser on Poetry – ‘Wir Haben Wegener Gefunden Tod Im Eis’
  • Linda El Bey on The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and NYC’s Minority Plumbers
  • Will on A New History of the Wallkill Central Schools
  • Jim Osekowsky on Working the Bugs Out of Firewood
  • Pamela Carlucci on The Rise and Fall of NY’s Taylor Wine Company
  • Lynne Westra on NY’s Frank Myers Of The 54th Massachusetts: Correcting The Historical Record
  • Catherine Berkley on The Shooting of Adirondack Guide Alex White
  • Michael A Mazza on French Canadian Rev War Veteran Antoine Paulin’s Grave Being Marked in Champlain
  • peter Waggitt on Raines Law, Loopholes and Prohibition
  • Anthony St Phillips on War of 1812: Carrying the Great Rope

Recent New York Books

Without Concealment, Without Compromise
Washington’s Marines
Major General Israel Putnam hero of the American Revolution
v is for victory
The Motorcycle Industry in New York State
Unfriendly to Liberty
weeds of the northeast
Putting Out the Planetary Fire: An Introduction to Climate Action and Advocacy
Seneca Ray Stoddard An Intimate Portrait of an Adirondack Legend
rebels at sea

Secondary Sidebar

Mohawk Valley Trading Company Honey, Honey Comb, Buckwheat Honey, Beeswax Candles, Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar
preservation league