History, Natural History & the Arts
Over the last three-plus decades, Bill Kauffman has written about and interviewed upstate New York novelists, politicians, and civic activists who have given the region much of its interest to the author.
Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets and Bush-League Heroes of Upstate New York (SUNY Press, 2026) collects these into a single volume. [Read more…] about Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets & Bush-League Heroes
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently announced the acquisition of 284 acres at the former Babcock-Hovey Scout Camp in the Town of Ovid in Seneca County.
Located between Willard Wildlife Management Area and Bonavista State Park, the acquisition will provide protection for 2,800 feet of Seneca Lake shoreline. [Read more…] about Former Scout Camp Purchase Protects Seneca Lake Shoreline
According to J. Leander Bishop’s A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860 among the early settlers on Manhattan Island was a glass maker Jan Smeedes who is supposed to have been among the first to receive an allotment of land on the present [1880] South William Street between Wall and Pearl.
He probably carried on the business of glass making on the east side of the street just north of Hanover Square. This street formerly bore within the above limits the name of “the Glass maker’s street” and afterward Smee Street from its original occupant. [Read more…] about The Early History of Glass Making in New York State
A stately but weathered factory stands on watch over the west entry to the historic Village of Seneca Falls in Seneca County.
The bulk of the 314 Fall Street complex was completed in 1916 to house the production and offices of the Seneca Falls Machine Company, manufacturers of scroll saws, table saws, and lathes used to make machines for the early automobile industry. [Read more…] about Seneca Falls Machine Company Plant Offers A Historic Redevelopment Opportunity
New York’s canal building boom and the urban explosion that it triggered dramatically accelerated the dispossession and disruption of traditional life ways of the region’s Native American inhabitants that had been initiated by the introduction of European trade, diseases, colonial wars, the American Revolution, and encroaching settlement by non-natives. [Read more…] about The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
The Preservation League of New York State‘s annual Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards program shines a light on the people who are using historic preservation to create positive change — through exemplary restoration projects, indispensable publications, individual action, and organizational distinction.
Recipients of the Excellence Award represent the very best of what the League stands for and supports in historic preservation. [Read more…] about Preservation League Announces Award Winners
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced that 13 projects and individuals have been recognized with 2025 New York State Historic Preservation Awards. This year’s awards recognize several preservation advocates for their work in the field and highlight historic rehabilitation projects that have made impacts in New York’s communities, including initiatives that address food insecurity, generate incubator spaces for businesses, and create affordable housing units. [Read more…] about 2025 New York State Historic Preservation Awards Winners
Those who recognize the name Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) usually do so because of bloomers, the clothing item named after her.
While she was a rational dress advocate for a time — calling on women to abandon rigid corsets and heavy petticoats and opt for long trousers, shorter skirts, and sensible boots — it was “but an incident” in the larger story of her life and impact.
Bloomer edited and published The Lily, one of the first newspapers for and by women. Founded to promote temperance, it soon broadened to include some of the most important issues to women in that day, including the right to vote, and included contributions from thinkers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton. [Read more…] about Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-fashion Icon
Through the nineteenth century in the Empire State a system of “blue laws” at every civic level were enforced, prohibiting all types of activities on the Christian Sabbath. As the twentieth century began, these “blue laws” prevented Sunday baseball.
The sport of baseball had swept the nation, and was popular since the Civil War; played anywhere a bat and ball could be put in use. Americans were baseball mad, they had the fever, and had it bad. [Read more…] about Sunday Baseball and the Titanic Game
The Finger Lakes National Forest is New York’s only National Forest. “Whether to hike, ski, or admire the fall foliage, diverse recreation opportunities draw in visitors year-round,” says the U.S. Forest Service website.
The Trump regime is planning to cut down more of the Finger Lakes National Forest in order to reach a goal of increasing United States timber production by 25%. “All relevant agencies shall eliminate, to the maximum extent permissible by law, all undue delays within their respective permitting processes related to timber production,” Trump’s Executive Order says. [Read more…] about Trump Seeks Increased Logging of Finger Lakes National Forest
A National Park for Women’s Rightschronicles a little-known story in American history: the establishment of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York; the first “idea park” in the National Park system.
As told by Judy Hart, its founder and first superintendent, the park’s story is one of struggle and perseverance, opposition and solidarity. [Read more…] about A National Park for Women’s Rights: The Campaign That Made It Happen
The Revolutions of 1848 set Europe ablaze. The flames erupted in Paris on February 22nd and spread to the German states, the Austrian Empire, the Italian states, Scandinavia and beyond. In their geographical extent alone, these revolts were unique. From a historical perspective, this was the only truly European wide uprising that would – in the longer run – alter the Continent’s political and philosophical landscape.
In spite of the scale and ferocity of the upheaval, its immediate impact on the political status quo was relatively small as most of the short-lived struggles failed in their aims and intentions. In fact, one could argue that the real impression of 1848 was felt more strongly in the United States. [Read more…] about 1848 European Upheavals & The Seneca Falls Convention
What is now New York State saw multitudes of American settlers moving inland from the Atlantic seaboard, especially those “locusts of the east” from New England. Traveling long distances overland before the 20th century was however, difficult to say the least.
In the 1600s their movement was constrained by topography, and settlements were limited to areas in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys previously inhabited or improved by Indigenous People. Some Indigenous portage trails were described by the earliest settlers as wide paths that a capable ox team and wagon could manage. [Read more…] about Early Upstate New York Roads: Some History
Into the waning decade of the 1700s, only fords, ferries, or makeshift timber bridges, all highly vulnerable to frequent destruction by ice and flood, were used to cross streams. As Americans in greater numbers began moving west to more remote parts of New York and Pennsylvania, carpenters and entrepreneurial inventors began envisioning new designs but still using posts, beams, and trestle bents for crossing narrow and slow-moving streams in order to expedite the movement of people and goods as well as to make a profit. None of these earliest timber bridges were covered with a roof and siding.
These early timber bridges were precursor structures to the arches and trusses that soon followed, making it possible to span broader streams with stronger structures, many of which heralded the arrival of the covered timber bridge era. [Read more…] about The Great Cayuga Lake Long Bridge: Beams & Trestles
The roughly 50,000-acre Montezuma Wetlands Complex in Central New York is a globally significant Important Bird Area situated at the outlet of Cayuga Lake, and consists of the National Montezuma Wildlife Refuge, the State’s Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area, and lands owned by The Nature Conservancy and other private parties. [Read more…] about Montezuma Wetlands Projects Completed
One of America’s most historic ships, which spent most of its career traveling between New York City and Southampton, England, will serve as a kind of metaphor for our times when it’s hauled to Florida, loaded with explosives and purposely sunk.
It’s just one of several historic vessels with ties to New York State that have recently been abandoned for lack of funding. [Read more…] about New York’s Historic Vessels Highlight Preservation Failures
The National Wildlife Refuge System began on March 14, 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt established the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Since then the system has expanded to include more than 570 different refuges. There are 13 National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: two in Western New York, two in the Lower Hudson Valley/Catskills region, and nine on Long Island. [Read more…] about National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: A Guide
Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor has received an Open OutDoors for Kids grant from the National Park Foundation to expand education programs throughout the National Heritage Corridor. The grant will enable Erie Canalway to engage 1,500 students from lower income schools in free field trips to the Erie Canal Museum (Syracuse), Fort Stanwix National Monument (Rome), Saratoga National Historical Park (Stillwater), and Women’s Rights National Historical Park (Seneca Falls) during the 2023-24 school year. [Read more…] about Erie Canalway Corridor Receives Grant to Expand Education Programs
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced $350,000 in grant awards to help partners in the Finger Lakes watershed restore and protect water quality.
The eight projects funded though DEC’s Finger Lakes Watershed Grants Program complement federal, private, and DEC grant programs, as well as achieve the goals outlined in the Great Lakes Action Agenda and aid the implementation of clean water plans in the Finger Lakes. [Read more…] about $350k in Grants Awarded to Finger Lakes Watershed Projects
The geology and climate of the Finger Lakes region presented a landscape of great natural beauty that has attracted tourism and recreation for more than 200 years.
Wealthy elites from the city of New York began building homes at Skaneateles Lake as early as 1809, and mineral springs in Livingston County in the western portion of the greater Finger Lakes region attracted visitors starting in the 1820s. [Read more…] about A Short History of Finger Lakes Tourism
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