History, Natural History & the Arts
As America marks its 250th anniversary, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is launching Revolutionary Experiences, road trips along New York’s historic waterways.
These self-guided itineraries invite participants to explore the people, places, and ideas that helped shape the nation. [Read more…] about Erie Canalway Launches “Revolutionary Experiences” Tours
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
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
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
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
Canals were the first transportation revolution in New York, but they were eclipsed in a few decades by extensive railroad development. Starting in the 1840s, railroads shipped goods faster than canal barges and provided additional inland routes to the Midwest as it emerged as the breadbasket of the expanding nation. [Read more…] about Railroads, Food, Economic & Cultural Diversification in the Finger Lakes
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
Central New York communities that flourished with canal-related development and rail connections throughout the 19th century also became hotbeds for religious and social movements of the early 1800s as the area’s population rapidly grew.
Religious freedom granted by the United States Bill of Rights combined with rapid societal and technological changes experienced by Americans living through western expansion fueled an American spiritual movement that was exemplified in the newly opened frontier of New York. [Read more…] about Social and Religious Movements in Central New York
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced what she called the largest state investment in renewable energy in United States history.
The conditional awards include three offshore wind and 22 land-based renewable energy projects totaling 6.4 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power 2.6 million New York homes and deliver approximately 12 percent of New York’s electricity needs once completed. [Read more…] about New York State Makes Large Investment in Renewable Energy
As the population of interior New York increased, developers pushed for a faster method of transportation between the area and developed population centers like the city of New York.
The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, revolutionized inland travel and ushered in a broader era of canal construction across the state, connecting the state capital of Albany on the Hudson River to Western New York and the Great Lakes. [Read more…] about The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes
According to archeological records, groups of nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled through the Finger Lakes region approximately 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Small bands of these hunters and gatherers followed large game during the last stages of the Ice Age when the glaciers that formed the area’s notable lakes were receding.
Somewhat more recent early archaic archeological sites scattered across Western New York reflect a culture that was highly mobile and left little in terms of an archeological record. [Read more…] about Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region
Approximately 600 million years ago, during the Neoproterozoic Era, the Earth’s supercontinent began to break apart, and an ocean formed between land masses that roughly correlate to Europe and North America today. For the next 100 million years, this ocean continued to widen until the continents changed course and began to move back towards each other.
The eventual collision of these land masses formed a tall mountain range now known as North America’s Appalachians. [Read more…] about Geologic Formation of the Finger Lakes
On Tuesday, July 18th, the National Park Service delivered the Finger Lakes National Heritage Area Feasibility Study to Congress. The feasibility study determined that the study area in the Finger Lakes region of New York state meets the criteria to be eligible for inclusion as part of the National Heritage Area System. [Read more…] about National Park Service Declares Finger Lakes Eligble For National Heritage Designation
On February 17th, Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) Gross and Levanway responded to a call from a teller at the Lyons National Bank in Seneca Falls, Seneca County, NY, reporting a fisher running laps around the building. [Read more…] about Erratic Fisher Spurs Emergency Response
The Women’s Rights National Historical Park and The Friends of Women’s Rights National Historical Park have announced the opening of Radical Optimism: The Enduring Power of the Women Who Won the Vote, a new exhibit at the Fall Street Visitor Center in Seneca Falls, NY. [Read more…] about Suffrage Centennial Exhibit Now on Display in Seneca Falls
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