New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Religious History

Noah Webster’s Dictionary for Independence

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New York Grand Federal Procession, July 22 1788 (a ship tribute to Alexander Hamilton navigates the parade at Bowling Green)On July 23, 1788, a colorful “Federal Procession” of nearly 5,000 citizens marched through Lower Manhattan in celebration of the ratification of the Constitution. The Order of the Procession was divided in ten divisions representing various trades and professions. One of those involved in the manifestation was a young Federalist and lexicographer by the name of Noah Webster.

Noah was a member of the Philological Society of New York. Founded in March 1788 for the purpose of “improving the American Tongue,” the Society was eager to take part in the event. Solemnly dressed in black, the philologists paraded in the Ninth Division with lawyers, college students and merchants. [Read more…] about Noah Webster’s Dictionary for Independence

American Culture and 1920s Netherlands

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The interior of dancing Pschorr, Coolsingel, Rotterdam ca. 1928-1932 (Stadsarchief Rotterdam, collection topography Rotterdam)During the 1920s, the Netherlands excelled in dullness, it is said. But Kees Wouters shows how the cobwebs of pillarized society were blown away by a new musical wind from the West: Jazz! Exalted by many, vilified by others, Dutch musicians playing American jazz conquered music halls and radio waves alike and even made the Dutch dance.

According to Dutch historian Hermann von der Dunk, writing in the early 1980s, life in the Netherlands after World War I was as exciting as in a girls’ boarding school. Nothing much happened. Despite the presence of about a million destitute Belgian refugees, the horrors of the war had largely passed the Netherlands by. [Read more…] about American Culture and 1920s Netherlands

Anna Elizabeth Dickinson: ‘America’s Civil War Joan of Arc’

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Mathew Brady photo of Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, taken between 1855 and 1865On a cold, snowy January evening in 1874, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson became one of the first women of national prominence to speak on women’s suffrage in Clinton County, NY. Those gathering to hear her at the Palmer Hall, located upstairs at 60 Margaret Street in downtown Plattsburgh, were described as the most intellectual and cultivated in the community.

The crowd that night would have known her reputation. [Read more…] about Anna Elizabeth Dickinson: ‘America’s Civil War Joan of Arc’

Jehudi Ashmun: A Founder & Historian of Liberia

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Map of Liberia Colony in the 1830s, created by the ACS, and also showing Mississippi Colony and other state-sponsored coloniesBorn and raised in the town of Champlain, Clinton County, NY, Jehudi Ashmun (1794 – 1828) was a religious leader and social reformer who helped lead efforts by the American Colonization Society to “repatriate” African Americans to a colony in West Africa.

The organization, formed in 1816 by Quakers and slaveholders, founded the colony of Liberia as a place to resettle free people of color from the United States, believing in part that Black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. [Read more…] about Jehudi Ashmun: A Founder & Historian of Liberia

New Netherlanders’ Views of Indigenous People

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First Dutch Church at Albany as it appears in several of the works of James EightsBy 1642, the number of inhabitants of Rensselaerwyck (spelled Rensselaerswijck in Dutch), at the time basically what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, had grown and Patroon Kiliaen Van Rensselaer willingly complied with a requirement of the Dutch West India Company to secure a clergyman for a Dutch Church to conduct services for the settlers. [Read more…] about New Netherlanders’ Views of Indigenous People

Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

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Map of the State of New York (1802) by Simeon DeWitt, (Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division)The Treaty of Paris of 1783 officially ended hostilities between the British and Americans; however, the treaty did not include the allied Indian Nations, leaving their legacy treaties with the Europeans unresolved and their future to be resolved through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

Albany’s Distressed Children & The Albany Orphan Asylum: Some History

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Children at the Albany Orphan Asylum in a photo probably dating to the late 19th centuryIn 1652, New Netherland Dutch Director General Peter Stuyvesant granted land to the Dutch Church in Albany to construct a house to shelter the poor. In 1683, English Governor Thomas Dongan convened the first representative Assembly in the Colony of New York.

One of the first laws passed by the Colonial Assembly was a law regarding the treatment of orphans. [Read more…] about Albany’s Distressed Children & The Albany Orphan Asylum: Some History

Historic New Paltz Documents Translated

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Demand for payment to Simon DuBois (New Paltz Dutch slavery document)Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) in New Paltz, NY, recently commissioned the translation of historic documents from Dutch to English, thanks to a grant of $25,000 as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York. The project encompasses early-American documents ranging from the mid-1600s through the 1700s, part of a larger project to digitize and make these documents available online with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. [Read more…] about Historic New Paltz Documents Translated

1913: Glens Falls’ Sunday Baseball Law

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Glens Falls area school children playing a pickup baseball game ca 1900 (courtesy Crandall Public Library)There was an early-season exodus of semi-professional baseball talent from Glens Falls, NY in 1913 as theology and politics collided. “George ‘Ham’ Wagner, one of the most popular players that donned a spiked shoe in this city, will leave tomorrow for Port Henry to affiliate himself with the team representing that village in the Essex County League,” The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported on July 11, 1913. [Read more…] about 1913: Glens Falls’ Sunday Baseball Law

Schoharie Valley & New York’s Western Frontier, 1687-1702

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Skohere and the Birth of New York's Western Frontier Volume IIThe Schoharie Valley is one of New York’s three great colonial valleys, its history closely connected to, but overshadowed by, the more famed Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. When the Palatines arrived there in 1712, the world they stepped into was a century in the making. Until now, this formative period of the valley’s history has never been fully told, nor has the true impact these rebellious German refugees had on New York’s western frontier. [Read more…] about Schoharie Valley & New York’s Western Frontier, 1687-1702