Last week, Donald Trump claimed to have renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America. He didn’t. What he did do – in an effort to troll our biggest trading partner – was sign an executive order (14420) directing federal agencies and the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to use the new name: [Read more…] about Trump Changes Lake Ontario’s Federal Name; New Yorkers Are Not Amused
Technology
Battle of Brooklyn 250th Anniversary Spawns Battlefield App
Just six weeks after Patriots at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia declared independence on July 4, 1776, tens of thousands of troops clashed in one of the largest engagements of the American Revolution, across now-unrecognizable areas of New York City. [Read more…] about Battle of Brooklyn 250th Anniversary Spawns Battlefield App
A New Theodore Roosevelt Interactive Hologram
Thanks to the North Creek Depot Museum in the Adirondacks in Warren County, visitors can now experience Theodore Roosevelt in a dynamic and engaging new way: an interactive hologram of the 26th president.
The hologram, which was developed in partnership with TimeLooper, Inc., recently made its debut at a reception held at the Tannery Pond Center in North Creek, where it will be entertaining and educating guests until it moves to its permanent home at the Museum in late September. [Read more…] about A New Theodore Roosevelt Interactive Hologram
Landscape & Social Change in Poughkeepsie
SUNY Press has re-published Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie by Harvey K. Flad and Clyde C. Griffen in a Second Edition. A social and urban history of the city on the Hudson River in Dutchess County, NY, tracing its transformation from a 19th-century market town to a 21st-century urban region.
The book examines economic shifts, immigration, race, housing, and revitalization efforts through a blend of social history and spatial analysis, using Poughkeepsie as a case study for broader trends in American small-city development. [Read more…] about Landscape & Social Change in Poughkeepsie
LiDAR Archaeology Reveals Former Black Adirondack Farmsteads
When most people think of archaeology, they might picture researchers digging in the dirt or trekking through a remote landscape searching for artifacts.
But on a recent morning outside of Lake Placid, a team of researchers traded shovels for handheld tablets as they watched a drone lift off from a bright orange landing pad, tilting forward and beginning its programmed flight over a dense stretch of Adirondack forest. [Read more…] about LiDAR Archaeology Reveals Former Black Adirondack Farmsteads
Spectral Database Planned for Museum of Natural History Mineral Collection
![Beryl (/ˈbɛrəl/ BERR-əl) is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2(SiO3)6.[6] Well-known varieties of beryl include emerald and aquamarine.](https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Mineral-Beryl-e1774449180809.jpg)
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
Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing & Self-Surveillance
For consumers living in a digitally-connected world, smart technologies have built an inescapable trap of digital self-surveillance. Smart cars, smart homes, smart watches, and smart medical devices track our most private activities and intimate patterns.
While these devices allow users to receive personal insights by monitoring their every move, that data can be accessed by police and prosecutors looking to find incriminating clues. Digital technology exposes everyone, everywhere, all at once, and we have few laws to regulate it. [Read more…] about Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing & Self-Surveillance
A New History of Environmental Law
The relationship between humans and the environment in the United States reflects tales of countless contrasting and overlapping trends, movements, and tensions. Law has cultivated both the planet’s biggest environmental threats and its most creative innovations for protecting human and ecological health.
U.S. laws have driven both exploitation and temperance; destruction and restoration; and resistance and adaptation. [Read more…] about A New History of Environmental Law
Anatomy of an Infographic: BRI’s Visual Information Artists
Before humans had spoken language, they had infographics. The earliest humans communicated information through drawings on cave walls. Over the course of history, people understood that visual representations were invaluable to teach (best hunting practices), create a writing system (hieroglyphs), provide directions (maps), and explain intricate relationships (graphs and charts).
Visual data exploded with the use of social media and the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) in Portland, Maine, has jumped on that bandwagon big time. [Read more…] about Anatomy of an Infographic: BRI’s Visual Information Artists
Few Friends and Many Foes’: Early Railroad Engineer Zerah Colburn
Zerah Colburn (1832–1870) was a mechanical engineer, author, and prominent technical journalist who specialized in steam locomotive and railway design. He was known for his sharp intellect, influential writings, and volatile personality.
The Saratoga born Colburn “had a career of breakneck speed; he was a restless man, quick of brain and quick of temper; he fell into jobs and fell in with people, but then throughout his life, fell out with them too,” it’s been put diplomatically. [Read more…] about Few Friends and Many Foes’: Early Railroad Engineer Zerah Colburn
1925 Northern New York Radio History
Orrie Gould had a radio and would travel. “Gordon Russell and George Wilson were at J. Hebert Bly’s Sunday evening and enjoyed a radio entertainment furnished by Orrie Gould of Ticonderoga. The main feature was a church service from Albany, after which several stations were tuned in for musical selections,” the Crown Point Merchant’s Row correspondent reported in the Ticonderoga Sentinel on April 11, 1925.
“A few of our members were privileged to listen to a radio entertainment at the home of John Andre Saturday yesterday evening,” the Crown Point correspondent reported April 23rd. Orrie Gould of Ticonderoga brought the radio. [Read more…] about 1925 Northern New York Radio History
The Rise & Fall of Radio Shack: A Short History
Radio Shack once sold everything from ham radios to the earliest personal computers to components of powered space missions. It was a technology empire that fueled innovation and captured the imagination of countless inventors and hobbyists. But how did such a seemingly ubiquitous company with such a legacy fall apart?
In 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts two brothers Theodore and Milton Deutschmann’s passion for amateur radio led them to open a small retail and mail order store named Radio Shack. The name refers to a small wooden structure that housed a ship’s radio equipment. [Read more…] about The Rise & Fall of Radio Shack: A Short History
Birthplace of Sound Film Re-Opening for Public Tours
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
The Hawkeye Plant: Kodak’s Enigmatic Landmark Languishes
Kodak’s role in global photography is legendary. The name Hawkeye is a key part of the company’s legacy and the 759,000-square-foot “Hawkeye Plant” a totem pole of Kodak’s storied past. [Read more…] about The Hawkeye Plant: Kodak’s Enigmatic Landmark Languishes
Envisioning Seneca Village: A 3D Model of History
Seneca Village was a community established by African American landowners in 1825 and destroyed by the City of New York in 1857 for the construction of Central Park.
Research beginning in the 1990s has shed light on the once-forgotten village: a stable, successful, rural home to dozens of families. Much is still unknown, however, and no images or above-ground traces remain, making imagining the village challenging. [Read more…] about Envisioning Seneca Village: A 3D Model of History
National Archives Uses AI To Advance Revolutionary War Service Records Access
The National Archives, through a partnership with FamilySearch, has used AI to extract text for all 2,322,137 pages of the Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, ca. 1800 to ca. 1912. The records are now available in the National Archives Catalog. [Read more…] about National Archives Uses AI To Advance Revolutionary War Service Records Access
‘A Lively Radio War in Upstate New York’: Radio Pioneer George Bissell (1904-1976)
“Great are the uses of radio — at least in Tupper Lake,” The Lake Placid News mused on February 14, 1930, reporting about the wedding in Tupper Lake a few days previous of Myrtle E. Ives and B. Harrison Budlong. For wedding music, the mother of the bride had simply tuned in to Tupper Lake radio station WHDL. [Read more…] about ‘A Lively Radio War in Upstate New York’: Radio Pioneer George Bissell (1904-1976)
Hello, Operator? The Galway Telephone Company 1903-1932
On December 13, 1882, Nicholas Shaul’s store in Barkersville, Town of Providence, Saratoga County was destroyed by fire. While the contents were a total loss, it was noted in the Daily Saratogian that 20-year-old Charlie Steele took time away from fighting the fire to save the store’s telephone.
Today we would scratch our heads if this made the news, but 140 years ago it was vital information as this was the only telephone for miles around this isolated hamlet. [Read more…] about Hello, Operator? The Galway Telephone Company 1903-1932
National Archives’ Inventor & Engineering History Records
Lately, you can’t look at the news without coming across a story about artificial intelligence and how it will shape our future. But inventors and engineers have been using creativity and ingenuity for centuries to design the future. [Read more…] about National Archives’ Inventor & Engineering History Records
Finger Lakes Technology: From Agriculture to Auto Racing
In 1904, the New York State legislature passed a bill to create the New York State College at Cornell. The bill created a land-grant college with an agriculture focus within Cornell and guaranteed fields of study related to agriculture would receive significant public funding. [Read more…] about Finger Lakes Technology: From Agriculture to Auto Racing