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Samuel de Champlain

New York, New France: French Ambitions at Oneida Lake in 1634

November 30, 2021 by Daniel Koch 1 Comment

Detail from Samuel de Champlain, “Carte de la Nouvelle France, 1632” from Les Voyages de la Nouvelle FranceWhen a Dutchman, Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, traveled from Albany (then Fort Orange) to the main village of the Oneidas in the dead of winter 1634, he was on a mission to thwart the French, who had found their way to Oneida Lake.

In the struggle for influence in Iroquoia, there was no time to lose. The Dutch had a firm hold on the Hudson Valley at this point and a profitable relationship with the Mohawk, but New Netherland’s trade was threatened by New France, which controlled the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic. [Read more…] about New York, New France: French Ambitions at Oneida Lake in 1634

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Black River, Dutch History, Fort Orange, French History, fur trade, Great Lakes, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, New France, New Netherland, Oneida, Oneida Lake, Samuel de Champlain

Champlain History Center Gets Collections Grant

February 25, 2020 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

samuel de champlain history centerThe Samuel de Champlain History Center has received a grant for $3,500 from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership.

The grant, made through CVNHP’s Collections Grant program, will fund the digitization, cataloging and preservation of the History Center’s photograph collection. [Read more…] about Champlain History Center Gets Collections Grant

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Champlain Valley, Grants, Historic Preservation, Lake Champlain, Photography, Samuel de Champlain

Lecture: Lake Champlain as Battleground, 1609-1815

February 28, 2012 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Lake Champlain Basin Program will be hosting John Krueger, City Historian of Plattsburgh and executive director of the Kent-Delord House, for a presentation titled The Lake as Battleground: 1609-1815 on Thursday, March 1st at 6:30 p.m. in the LCBP office in Grand Isle, Vermont. This program is part of the LCBP’s Love the Lake speaker series.

John Krueger began promoting Lake Champlain’s history as a guide at Fort Ticonderoga in 1970. His talk will focus on Lake Champlain as a corridor for warfare, beginning with Samuel de Champlain’s exploration and the conflict of European powers for control of the corridor.
[Read more…] about Lecture: Lake Champlain as Battleground, 1609-1815

Filed Under: History Tagged With: American Revolution, Battle of Plattsburgh, Crown Point, Fort Ticonderoga, French And Indian War, Lake Champlain, Maritime History, Military History, New France, Plattsburgh, Samuel de Champlain, Vermont, War of 1812

Have Dinner With Samuel de Champlain Oct. 24th

October 19, 2009 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Rogers Island Visitors Center in Fort Edward is hosting dinner with Samuel de Champlain on October 24th at the Tee Bird North Golf Club (30 Reservoir Road, Fort Edward). Local Chefs, Neal Orsini owner of the Anvil Restaurant in Fort Edward and Steve Collyer, researched the stores list aboard Champlain’s ship, the Saint-Julien, to develop a dinner menu using European, 17th century ship and New World ingredients. Some menu items were standard fare aboard 17th century ships, but the Saint-Julien was 500 tons, carried more than 100 crew and had a galley which meant that even livestock was brought on board aboard, if only for the captain and officers.
Don Thompson, who has spent this Quadricentennial year traveling throughout New York, Vermont and Canada portraying Samuel de Champlain, will serve as a special guest presenter bringing the story of de Champlain’s North American explorations to life.

There will be a cash bar at 5 pm; and dinner served at 6 pm. The price is $22 for Rogers Island VC members, $25 for non-members and $8 for children under 12. Special prize baskets have been donated for a raffle.

For reservations call Rogers Island Visitor Center at 518-747-3693 or e-mail rogersisland@gmail.com. Proceeds benefit the Rogers Island Visitor Center.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 400th, Fort Edward, Maritime History, Rogers Island Visitors Center, Samuel de Champlain, Washington County

A New Biography of Samuel de Champlain

October 28, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

David Hackett Fischer‘s new biography of Samuel de Champlain is out. He will be at the New York State Writers Institute on Thursday to discuss the work, and there’s a review in the Albany Times Union by Paul Grondahl:

Published this month to capitalize on planned 2009 quadricentennial celebrations of Hudson and Champlain, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian has written a comprehensive, magisterial biography, Champlain’s Dream. It is intended to resurrect the extraordinary accomplishments of a protean figure largely overlooked in today’s history courses…

That dream of creating a French colony in North America began circa 1570 on the Atlantic coast of France, where Champlain grew up tolerant of religious differences in an era of brutal sectarian warfare. It is unclear whether Champlain was baptized Catholic or Protestant and much of his lineage remains murky. Fischer does not entirely discount historians who have suggested that he was an illegitimate son of the illustrious French king Henri IV — who gave financial support to Champlain’s explorations, granted him special access and provided a pension for him.

“The hard evidence to support such an idea is zero,” [Fischer] said.

Regardless of his paternity, Champlain went to sea as a youth and acquired exceptional sailing and navigation skills. In his jam-packed career, he was a soldier, spy, explorer, cartographer, author, artist and, above all, a conciliator among warring Indian tribes in the New World.

Unlike other agents of imperialism, Champlain did not go in search of gold or conquest, but rather to spread the culture of France, to discover new places and to bring together diverse people in a spirit of harmony.

His travels are prodigious. He made at least 27 Atlantic crossings between 1599 and 1635 without losing a ship; traversed six Canadian provinces and five American states by land and water; created maps more detailed and accurate than his contemporaries; wrote in-depth accounts of his trips that fill six large volumes. Oddly, he never learned to swim.

It is as the father of New France that Champlain deserves the most recognition, according to Fischer. As the founder and leader of the first permanent French settlements in North America, he went so far as to subsidize new families with his own money.

Although Champlain had some stains on his character, including shabby treatment of his French servants and an inability to absorb criticism, by the time of his death in 1635 he had succeeded in permanently planting French culture in the New World.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: French History, Lake Champlain, New France, Samuel de Champlain

Call For Papers: When The French Were Here

August 26, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

As part of the quadricentennial of Samuel de Champlain’s exploration of Lake Champlain, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont is hosting an international academic symposium on July 2-5, 2009. Scholars from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are invited to participate.

The theme, “When the French Were Here,” invites the broadest possible consideration of Samuel de Champlain’s achievements, his life, and of his world as a cultural, social and ideological context. [Read more…] about Call For Papers: When The French Were Here

Filed Under: History Tagged With: 400th, Calls for Papers, Champlain College, French And Indian War, Lake Champlain, Samuel de Champlain, Vermont

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