Science History

Astronomical Observatories & Early US Boundary & Coastal Surveys

August 14, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Boundary disputes such as the those around the New Hampshire Grants came up everywhere in the colonies. Many colonial grants had been based on parallels of latitude or meridians of longitude. It was no easy matter to mark out these lines.

One famous boundary historically is the Mason and Dixon line between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Mason was an astronomer as well as a surveyor and more astronomical observations were probably made in connection with this line than any other. [Read more…] about Astronomical Observatories & Early US Boundary & Coastal Surveys

Alvah Dunning: The Guide Behind the Adirondack Hermit

August 8, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

In March 1902, eighty-five-year-old Alvah Dunning traveled from the Adirondacks to New York City for a sportsmen’s exhibition. By then, photographs and newspaper profiles had made his white beard and weathered face familiar. Visitors were not meeting an unknown woodsman.

They were being introduced to “Uncle Alvah,” a man presented as one of the last survivors of the Adirondacks before railroads, hotels and private preserves changed the region. [Read more…] about Alvah Dunning: The Guide Behind the Adirondack Hermit

The Stench of Old New York: Pollution and Public Health

July 8, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Between 1748 and 1751, Swedish botanist Pehr (Peter) Kalm (1716-1779) made a journey through Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Canada. The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences had selected him to explore the territory and collect plants that would thrive in Scandinavia’s cold climate.

On his return, Kalm published a three-volume journal of his experiences, translated into English in 1770/1 as Travels into North America. By 1772, there were renderings in German and Dutch, as well as a second English edition. The book provided a reasonably reliable account of America’s natural history and social structure in the eighteenth century. [Read more…] about The Stench of Old New York: Pollution and Public Health

Henry Davis Minot’s Adirondack Warbler & ‘Diary of a Bird’

June 15, 2026 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Henry Davis Minot was born near Forest Hills (part of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston) in 1859, the sixth of seven children of William and Katharine Maria Sedgwick Minot.

He took an early interest in ornithology (the study of birds), recording careful observations, including, at the age of 11, what he believed to be a new species of bird in 1871 (it turned out not to be the case). [Read more…] about Henry Davis Minot’s Adirondack Warbler & ‘Diary of a Bird’

Spectral Database Planned for Museum of Natural History Mineral Collection

March 25, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Wiley, which calls itself “a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation and learning,” has announced a new collaborative project with the American Museum of Natural History to extend access to the Museum’s renowned mineral collection to scientists around the world.

This new project, a Raman spectral database, serves the museum’s mission to disseminate knowledge about the natural world “through scientific research and education.” [Read more…] about Spectral Database Planned for Museum of Natural History Mineral Collection

History Supplies Leads to Rare Carnivorous Bladderwort

February 8, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

In April 2025, the Sand Lake Historical Society was contacted by Will Lenihan, who is the Gardner and Curator for the Native Flora Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

He was curious about a small perennial carnivorous plant that was documented by Charles Horton Peck (1833-1917) of Sand Lake, in eastern Rensselaer County, who was the New York State Botanist from 1867-1915. [Read more…] about History Supplies Leads to Rare Carnivorous Bladderwort

From Lake Champlain to the Search for Africa’s Mysterious Mokele-mbembe

January 20, 2026 by Joseph W. Zarzynski Leave a Comment

My introduction into exploring the depths of waterways began at Lake George on June 14, 1981. On that date, I completed a check out dive off Diamond Island to acquire my scuba certification.

Diamond Island, four miles north of Million Dollar Beach, has for over six decades been the site where thousands of scuba students have taken their practical “exam” to become certified scuba divers. [Read more…] about From Lake Champlain to the Search for Africa’s Mysterious Mokele-mbembe

Naturalist & Bathysphere Explorer William Beebe

January 8, 2026 by Joseph W. Zarzynski 1 Comment

In the 1930s William Beebe (1877–1962), director of the Bermuda Oceanographic Institution sponsored by the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society), was described as “the most popular scientist in the world.”

Beebe began his career studying exotic birds, insects, and marine biology. The Brooklyn-born naturalist then gravitated to exploring the Atlantic Ocean’s abyss. [Read more…] about Naturalist & Bathysphere Explorer William Beebe

Vito Corleone, Alonzo Blauvelt & Smallpox in Italian Harlem

September 3, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

The year was 1901 when the steel barque Moshulu sailed into New York Harbor carrying many Sicilian immigrants for inspection at Ellis Island.

This is the gripping fictional opening scene of The Godfather II, although considerable artistic license was taken by its producer and director Francis Ford Coppola. [Read more…] about Vito Corleone, Alonzo Blauvelt & Smallpox in Italian Harlem

New York’s Enlightenment Legacy: Science and Social Mobility

August 15, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

The French Revolution abolished the privileges that were traditionally reserved to noblemen. Military careers were opened to all talent instead. [Read more…] about New York’s Enlightenment Legacy: Science and Social Mobility

Deportations, Convict Ancestors, Rattlesnakes & American Identity

July 23, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

For Europeans planning or being forced to migrate, the concept of the United States as a virtually border-less society remained alive until the passing of the Immigration Act of 1917 (this was not the case for other groups). It offered an opportunity to governments to “shovel out” troublesome subjects.

The German term Übersiedelung (literally: relocation) was used by officials of the Kingdom of Hanover to describe the practice of exiling “unwanted” subjects to America. From the early 1830s to 1866 (when Hanover was conquered by Prussia), some three thousand individuals – most of them petty criminals or paupers – were expelled from the territory. [Read more…] about Deportations, Convict Ancestors, Rattlesnakes & American Identity

Twitchell’s Troubled Waters: Adirondack Water Quality History

June 15, 2025 by Noel Sherry 3 Comments

As heir to a log cabin in the Adirondacks, I have caught myself imagining the mile-high glacier that carved out its lake and melted to fill it with crystal pure water. The scrape marks on outcrops of stone here and there in the forest remain as testimony to that primeval event.

Big Moose’s Twitchell Lake became host to a native population of brook trout that sportsmen in the 1860s and following decades measured by the pound rather than the inch. But my summers in the 1950s bring up a very different image, water unfit to drink or even swim in, laced with dangerous e. Coli bacteria and a dumping ground for used-up appliances. This essay will tell the story of “troubled waters” and one lake community’s painstaking quest for good water quality. [Read more…] about Twitchell’s Troubled Waters: Adirondack Water Quality History

Birthplace of Sound Film Re-Opening for Public Tours

May 18, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

While attending Yale University, Theodore (Ted) Case explored his love of science through the transmission of light and the reproduction of sound, developing a method of photographing sound waves which he referred to as a “lightograph.”

Upon his return to Auburn, NY, Case would establish laboratories in the basements of the family homes on Genesee Street and Casowasco on the shores of Owasco Lake. When his father inherited the Willard Mansion, the two restructured one of the greenhouses on the property into a working laboratory: The Case Research Laboratory. [Read more…] about Birthplace of Sound Film Re-Opening for Public Tours

Outcasts: Mary Elizabeth Banning’s World of Mushrooms

April 6, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Long before mushrooms and mycology captivated the public imagination, self-taught scientist Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822–1903) dedicated her life to the study of fungi. However, due to her gender, her work remained unrecognized for almost 100 years.

Banning was one of America’s first mycologists, who uncovered, documented, and illustrated 23 fungal species new to science in the mid-1800s. [Read more…] about Outcasts: Mary Elizabeth Banning’s World of Mushrooms

Understanding Climate Data: Sources, Normals, and Regional Trends

April 3, 2025 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Climate is defined as a a description of the aggregate (or collective) weather conditions; the sum of all statistical weather information that helps describe a place or region. The National Weather Service says “Climate encompasses the weather over different periods of time and also relates to mutual interactions between the components of the earth system (e.g., atmospheric composition, changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, etc.).”

In other words, when someone looks out their window, they observe the weather, which shapes the climate each day. A single weather event, such as a lake-effect snowstorm, contributes to the overall climate but cannot define it. [Read more…] about Understanding Climate Data: Sources, Normals, and Regional Trends

‘Everything Is Tuberculosis’ Relates TB Scientific and Social History

March 6, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

Known as consumption in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the term tuberculosis was introduced in 1834. TB became associated with industrialization which forced poorly nourished working class people to live in drafty and damp dwellings. [Read more…] about ‘Everything Is Tuberculosis’ Relates TB Scientific and Social History

Long Island’s Eugenics Record Office

January 22, 2025 by Chris Kretz 1 Comment

The science of genetics took a wrong turn in the early 20th century and it ran through Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Here overlooking a former whaling port, Charles Benedict Davenport, PhD, created the Eugenics Record Office and served as director of the Carnegie Institution’s Station for Experimental Evolution.

From these posts he promoted and pushed the Eugenics Movement in the US, in Nazi Germany, and throughout the world. [Read more…] about Long Island’s Eugenics Record Office

Long Island’s Legacy of Eugenics

January 12, 2025 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

In the early 20th century, eugenics was at the forefront of scientific discourse in the quest to understand human genetics. On Long Island and throughout the nation, eugenicists were granted unfettered access to conduct experiments on prisoners, psychiatric patients, Coney Island circus performers, Native American communities, and more, all in an effort to legitimize a false science.

The origins of the eugenics movement can be found within the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, under the direction of Charles Davenport from 1910-1939. [Read more…] about Long Island’s Legacy of Eugenics

How Historians Define Ben Franklin’s World

December 27, 2024 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

How do historians define Ben Franklin’s “world?” What historical event, person, or place in the era of Ben Franklin do they wish you knew about?

In celebration of the 400th episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, we posed these questions to more than 20 scholars. [Read more…] about How Historians Define Ben Franklin’s World

The Old State Museum: Old Bones, Extinction & Climate Change

November 15, 2024 by Anthony F. Hall 1 Comment

To commemorate the start of another school year, the New York State Museum posted a series of photos on social media from field trips to the original museum, now occupied by the New York State Education Department.

That building, completed in 1912 and distinguished by a colonnade of pillars facing the capitol building, is the place where many of us first saw the State Museum’s zoological collection, which famously included fossils, skeletons and life-sized reconstructions of extinct ice age mammals. [Read more…] about The Old State Museum: Old Bones, Extinction & Climate Change

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