History, Natural History & the Arts
The Hudson Valley is more than just scenic vistas — it is a birthplace of American history. From Native Americans to the Gilded Age, history has unfolded all along the Hudson River.
Local historian and occasional New York Almanack contributor A.J. Schenkman traces the histories of one of America’s most historic regions in A History Lover’s Guide to the Hudson Valley (History Press, 2026). [Read more…] about A History Lover’s Guide to the Hudson Valley
The occupation of New York Harbor, and the capture of the city of New York were the most conspicuous British successes of the summer and fall of 1776 during the Revolutionary War. In June, Commodore Peter Parker (1721-1811) and General Henry Clinton (1730-1795) were meeting with defeat at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island at Charleston, SC, and Benedict Arnold was racing to construct a makeshift naval fleet to stall a British invasion from Canada on Lake Champlain.
At the same time, two brothers, General Sir William Howe (1729 –1814) and Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, Richard Howe (later Earl Howe, 1726-1799), were arriving in New York Bay. [Read more…] about Naval Power & The 1776 Taking of New York City
Just after sunset on a toasty evening in May 1903, a two-year-old trotting horse named Princewell, startled by “a noisy automobile,” bolted for freedom in the Bronx.
Trainer Frank Ferris was leading the young colt across the tracks of the Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad, turning onto the Boston Post Road at King’s Bridge, when the motorcar “rushed past,” according to a New York Times report. [Read more…] about Memories of Old Put: NY Central Railroad’s Putnam Division
Musicologist and composer Charles Louis Seeger Jr., a pacifist and conscientious objector, was the father of folk singers Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger and Peggy Seeger all of whom were associated with anti-war movements later in the twentieth century. His younger brother Alan Seeger was a Greenwich Village poet and bohemian who had settled in Paris in 1912.
When Germany declared war on France he joined the French Foreign Legion and was killed in 1916 in action at the Battle of the Somme. His writings were published posthumously and would cement his reputation as an American war poet. In France, his memory is revered to this day. [Read more…] about Poems, Books & Bullets: The Seeger Family & World War One
What follows is an excerpt from the diary of Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816), who traveled through the United States between 1783 and 1784. A Venezuelan who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution and the Spanish American wars of independence, his diary was later published as The New Democracy in America: Travels of Francisco de Miranda in the United States, 1783-84 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1963). It has been transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson and annotated by John Warren.
Tired from the toil of the trip [from Philadelphia, through New Jersey] and having formed some acquaintances in New York, I thought I would visit Boston and then return to New York, whence I would embark for England. The harshness of the winter held me suspended for some time and finally made me change the plan. The sound and the rivers remained frozen for a long time, obstructing all navigation, and the roads, although covered with snow, became impassable with the frequent thaws — neither sledge nor wheels could attempt them. [Read more…] about Up the Hudson River: New York to Stillwater in 1783
What follows is an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald of New South Wales, Australia on January 23, 1852. Chartered in 1846, the Hudson River Railroad was built to connect the Troy and Greenbush Railroad with the city of New York.
On Wednesday, [October 3, 1851] the ceremony took place of opening the Hudson River Railroad, in its entire length from New York to Albany. Hitherto the portion of the road between Poughkeepsie and Tivoli [in Dutchess County] (twenty-six miles) was not in operation, and the passengers were conveyed in a steamboat between those two points. Last week the road was completed, and the cars ran over it privately. Last week it was [also] publicly opened, by running two excursion trains each way and returning. [Read more…] about 1851: The Opening of the Hudson River Railroad
Twenty-five miles north of New York City on the eastern shore of the Hudson River lies Tarrytown in an area called Tappan Zee (Tappan for the local people of the Lenape; zee is Dutch for sea) in Westchester County, NY. It was home to the Weckquaesgeek who cultivated the land, fished and hunted there. [Read more…] about Printing Machinery & Bibliophily: A New York History
The topic of this week’s The History Twins podcast is Washington Irving‘s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and storytelling duo Carla and Keyes discuss the classic 1819 tale of a headless goblin that haunts Sleepy Hollow, in the town of Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, NY, in search of his missing head. [Read more…] about Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Podcast)
Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow (1897, reprinted by HVA Press in 2018) tells of the many myths and legends that surround the Sleepy Hollow area in Westchester County, NY, from the Headless Hessian, known to grab at travelers in the night, to the sightings of the ghostly ship The Flying Dutchman.
This new edition features a foreword by Hudson Valley Master Storyteller, Jonathan Kruk. [Read more…] about Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow
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