History, Natural History & the Arts
The National Park Service has awarded a $22 million construction contract to make repairs to the historic fort that serves as the foundation for the Statue of Liberty and its pedestal.
Funded by the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), the project is expected to make drainage and safety improvements that will help preserve the structure and enhance accessibility for visitors. [Read more…] about Statue of Liberty National Monument To Begin Improvement Project
In June, the Hudson River Valley Greenway fielded a call from Alan Jay, who just completed paddling the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Waterford with his brother-in-law Michael.
The next day Jay would start his solo adventure paddling the Hudson River toward New York City – he needed a Hudson River Water Trail Guide. [Read more…] about Kayaker Alan Jay Paddles From Buffalo to Manhattan in 31 Days
Traditionally, liberty has been portrayed as a woman. The Roman Republic built a temple to Libertas, the Goddess of Liberty. The figure of Britannia was the embodiment of British Isles. Initially, America honored Miss Columbia as its Goddess of Freedom. Her authority declined during the 1920s as she was replaced by Lady Liberty as the nation’s iconic symbol. [Read more…] about Mother of Exiles and Allegories of Liberty
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
Angelica Shirley Carpenter’s new children’s picture book The Voice of Liberty (South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2020), with illustrations by Edwin Fotheringham, tells the story of three women’s rights activists, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Lillie Devereux Blake, and Lillie’s daughter, Katherine Devereux Blake, who staged a protest at the dedication of the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886.
Why protest that statue? Because they thought it wrong for Liberty to be portrayed as a woman when women had no liberty, not even the right to vote, in the United States. [Read more…] about Statute of Liberty Protest: Picture Book Highlights Women’s 1886 Demonstration
An often overlooked and forgotten New York City landmark, Castle Clinton welcomed many of the city’s residents into its walls as a place of innovation, entertainment, and new beginnings.
The circular sandstone fort which currently stands in Battery Park, was built to improve harbor fortifications in 1811. The Southwest Battery, as it was known, never fired a shot. [Read more…] about Castle Clinton: New York’s Almost Forgotten Landmark
The National Park Service has announced that Liberty and Ellis Islands will continue to be open to visitors using revenue generated by National Park Service (NPS) recreation fees and support from its partners. Castle Clinton National Monument at Battery Park in Manhattan, where ticketing for ferries to the Statue of Liberty occurs, will also remain open.
The parks have been open since the beginning of the lapse in appropriations thanks to a previous donation from the State of New York. [Read more…] about Statue of Liberty Remains Open On Fee Revenues
Funds from New York State will reopened the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island today, in the wake of the U.S. government shutdown that closed the two iconic federally operated historic sites on Friday.
The two sites have played important parts in America’s immigration history and have a significant impact on the New York State economy. According to an annual report by the National Park Service, 4.5 million people visited Liberty Island in 2016, generating $263.2 million in visitor spending per year and supporting 3,400 jobs, with an economic output of $364 million. [Read more…] about Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Reopen With NYS Funds
Hurricane Sandy’s damage to historic areas was concentrated along the waterfronts, islands and harbor in the New York area. Information is quite sparse at present, since power is still lacking in many places, and officials have not made damage assessment tours. [Read more…] about Sandy Damage Along Historic Waterfront, Islands
A new book written in celebration of the Statue of Liberty’s 125th birthday (October 28, 2011) has been published to support projects of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The Statue of Liberty: A Symbol of Hope and Freedom for 125 Years, is a commemorative, photo-and-fact-filled journal that spans the statue’s beginnings as an idea of French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, to becoming a symbol of welcome to millions of immigrants, her quirky role in American pop culture, and the historic 1986 restoration.
The book is offered for $9.99 through the Ellis Island online gift shop. Proceeds support the The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.
Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers.
Past Preservers and Crimson Bamboo have launch two new historical walking tours related to New York History for Rama, an app for the iPhone. The first explores the construction of the Statue of Liberty; the second that takes you through the immigrants’ ordeal of Ellis Island. Both were written by Hannah Murray.
“From disembarkation to medical inspection to entrance into the land of opportunity (or, for the unlucky or politically unpalatable few, deportation back home), Hannah Murray’s Ellis Island shows this place as the hopeful immigrants who arrived her experienced it,” stated Michael Carroll, co-founder of Crimson Bamboo, the creator of the Rama app. “The tour recreates on your iPhone the history of this point of entry for the aspiring immigrants to whom over 40% of Americans trace their ancestry.”
Ellis Island is the sequel to Murray’s Land of Liberty tour, which captures the history and idealism behind the construction of the nearby Statue of Liberty. For $1.99 the tour continues to explore the theme of distinctive sites symbolic for Americans and their heritage, and the stories of the thousands of individuals who left the Old World for the New. It is illustrated with thought provoking and evocative contemporary archival photographs.
“I have been captivated by Ellis Island ever since I visited New York nine years ago,” explained Murray, who has previously worked as a volunteer at the Benjamin Franklin House in London, as well as at the British Museum. She describes history as her passion above all others and will shortly be taking a Masters degree in Public History at Royal Holloway. “I have studied the immigrant experience at university and the impact that it had on American society is what drew me to Ellis Island – the myth of an inclusive environment is somewhat dented by the restriction of Asian and eastern European immigrants, however. Photographs from the early 1920s show immigrants in detention pens, waiting to be sent back home, a part of Ellis Island which has been downplayed in contrast to the thousands leaving its shores to pursue the American Dream — a life which, for some, was never that smooth in reality.”
Rama can be downloaded from iTunes and was named as one of the ten best new travel apps by BBC Travel in 2010.