History, Natural History & the Arts
The Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) will honor The Troy Savings Bank Charitable Foundation at its 2014 Annual Gala Benefit at the Franklin Plaza Ballroom, on Thursday, October 30, 2014.
The Annual Gala is Rensselaer County Historical Society’s main fundraiser to support the public programs offered by RCHS. [Read more…] about Rensselaer County Historical Gala Will Honor Foundation
On Saturday, September 13th, Crailo State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Crailo present Harvest Faire, an outdoor event free to the public (a nominal donation is asked to enter the museum exhibit), and part of the Hudson River Ramble. In case of inclement weather, the event will be held on Sunday, September 14th. The festivities run from 11 am to 4 pm.
Crailo’s grounds set the scene for 17th- and 18th-century re-enactors, music, and demonstrations. Among the re-enactors are 17th-century Dutch settlers, a rope-maker and tinsmith, and Native Americans with a recreated wigwam. This year will also include demonstrations of wheat threshing. [Read more…] about Harvest Faire At Fort Crailo September 13th
The Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) will debut a new, rotating exhibit, Prospect of America: Selections from the Edgar Holloway Art Collection, on Monday, September 8th at 7pm at the 87th Annual Meeting. The exhibit series runs through December 20, 2014. The exhibit is sponsored in part by the McCarthy Charities.
In the early 1970s, Rev. Thomas Phelan was inspired to raise awareness of Troy and the surrounding area’s amazing architectural and industrial heritage. Valuing the power art has to move people to action, Rev. Phelan commissioned English artist Edgar Holloway to spend three summers, from 1973 to 1975, in Troy to document the historic buildings and street scenes. His three years in New York resulted in over 80 watercolors and 15 etchings that have become a historical record themselves of the way Troy, Cohoes, and other outlying areas looked in the mid-1970s. Through Holloway’s art, people began to see the inherent beauty in these often neglected buildings. Advocacy groups formed and several buildings were preserved through the actions of individuals inspired by art. [Read more…] about New Exhibit: The Edgar Holloway Art Collection
Crailo State Historic Site has announced its annual Summer Sampler History Camp for kids. This year’s Summer Sampler takes place August 4-8 from 10 am to 12 pm each day.
Participants can pick and choose the days to attend, from just one day up to all five. Each day will include activities, crafts to take home, and a snack. Historic reproductions, interactive games and exploration of the river’s edge will bring a different theme related to Crailo and the area’s rich history to life each day: [Read more…] about Summer Sampler History Camp at Crailo
Crailo State Historic Site has announced that the historic Yankee Doodle Band will be performing in Crailo’s riverside park in Rensselaer, NY on July 10 at 7:00 pm. Bring chairs or blankets and a picnic dinner and join us for the patriotic and stirring songs of the Yankee Doodle Band as the sun sets over the Hudson River. This event is free to the public.
Organized in 1928 the Yankee Doodle Band has played all over the country from Miami to New Orleans to Hawaii. Members of the band range in age from their teens to their 90’s and will play a blend of Sousa marches, Broadway show tunes, popular hit songs, and music from the movies. [Read more…] about Yankee Doodle Band Concert at Crailo
Professional genealogist Jane E. Wilcox of Forget-Me-Not Ancestry in Kingston will present a talk on New York tenant farmers at the New York Public Library in New York City on Tuesday, May 20 at 5:30 p.m.
Wilcox’s presentation, “Looking for Your New York Tenant Farmer: Little-Used Resources,” will focus on the tenants of the major colonial manors and patents of the Hudson Valley between Westchester and Rensselaer and Albany counties. Wilcox will discuss the types of records that were created in New York’s manorial lease-holding land system and will explain how and where to find documents that recorded the lives of the tenants. Included with the talk will be a handout with genealogical resources. [Read more…] about New York Tenant Farmers: Little-Used Resources
The staff of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Archives has digitized more than a century of The Polytechnic student newspaper. The Poly archive is available online through the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Digital Collections, and can be searched by date or keyword.
The archive offers a window into the way Rensselaer students saw themselves and their Institute through history. [Read more…] about RPI Student Paper Archive Goes Online
Historic Cherry Hill has been awarded funding from the Pine Tree Foundation of New York for the conservation, rehousing, and select digitization of the museum’s collection of Van Rensselaer family receipt books and related clippings.
In all, there are 13 receipt books and numerous clippings and recipe fragments (in both manuscript and printed form) dating from the mid-eighteenth century through the early 20th century. The receipt books belonged to members of the Cherry Hill household. [Read more…] about Historic Cherry Hill to Conserve Rare Receipt books
Here’s a quick look at some of the latest New York history resources to hit the web:
The University of Rochester has posted an online archive of over 6,000 AIDS information/activism posters. “The posters provide a visual history of the first three decades of the HIV/AIDS crisis from 1981 to the present. Depending on their audience, creators of the posters used stereotypes, scare tactics, provocative language, imagery, and even humor to educate the public about the disease.” The project was launched in 2011 and includes posters from 124 countries in 68 languages and dialects. It’s available online at http://aep.lib.rochester.edu/. [Read more…] about New Online Collections Related to New York History
Crailo State Historic Site will host a St. Nicholas Day Open House, on December 7, 2013 from 12:00pm until 4:00pm.
For the Dutch settlers of this region The Feast of St. Nicholas Day was a day of celebration with favorite food and treats. Children checked their shoes, left out the previous night, for presents from Sinterklaas. [Read more…] about Crailo To Celebrate St. Nicholas Day