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Union College

The Adirondack Raised Relief Map: Some History

March 21, 2022 by David Gibson 4 Comments

Paul Schaefer, back to camera, hosts an Adirondack discussion with, left to right, Joe Martens, Governor Mario Cuomo’s environmental secretary, standing in background with film camera Carl Schaefer, Paul’s brother, seated Dave Gibson with the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Dan Luciano, deputy environmental secretary for the governor, and on the stool Tom Cobb, Trustee and later President of the Board of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. Photo by Ken Rimany.The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks had hired me the previous winter. It was now the spring of 1987. Windows and doors were again opening to the hope and then the reality of spring’s warmth. The director of the Schenectady Museum William (Bill) Verner had given me, practically rent free, a desk and telephone from which to begin work as the Association’s first Executive Director in over 60 years.

It helped that Bill was a member of my board of trustees, and that his knowledge and love for the Adirondacks and Adirondack history from a home base in Long Lake was long and deep. [Read more…] about The Adirondack Raised Relief Map: Some History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondack Research Library, Adirondacks, Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Geography, Maps, Mount Marcy, Paul Schaefer, Schenectady Museum, Union College

The Volunteers Behind the Adirondack Research Library

February 22, 2022 by David Gibson Leave a Comment

Interior of the Adirondack Research Library in the Kelly Adirondack Center of Union College Photo by David GibsonMany organizations introduce their work with the words “were it not for the volunteers, we could not…” That can be justifiably said of the Adirondack Research Library (ARL), formerly part of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (AfPA). [Read more…] about The Volunteers Behind the Adirondack Research Library

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Research Library, Adirondacks, Archives, Kelly Adirondack Center, Libraries, Niskayuna, Paul Schaefer, Schenectady, Schenectady County, Union College

Radio Station WGY’s 100th Anniversary of Broadcasting

February 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

WGY Radio Players performing a scene from William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide in 1923Capital Region radio station WGY, New York State’s oldest broadcaster, will celebrate their 100th year with a live afternoon of broadcasting on Sunday, February 20th.

WGY’s original licensee was General Electric (GE), headquartered in Schenectady. In early 1915, the company was granted a Class 3-Experimental license with the call sign 2XI. That license was canceled in 1917 due to the First World War, but 2XI was re-licensed in 1920. [Read more…] about Radio Station WGY’s 100th Anniversary of Broadcasting

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, Events, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Cultural History, General Electric, Musical History, Radio History, Theatre, Troy, Union College, WGY Radio

Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies Call for Submissions

January 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Adirondack Journal Volume 24The Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies (AJES) is now accepting submissions for Volume 25. Articles of a broad disciplinary scope will be accepted for review, including topics in natural and social sciences, arts and humanities related to the region or more general environmental issues. [Read more…] about Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies Call for Submissions

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Research Consortium, Adirondacks, Kelly Adirondack Center, Union College

Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

September 27, 2021 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

Ira HarrisIra Harris was born at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY on May 31st, 1802 to Fredrick Waterman Harris and Lucy Hamilton. When he was six years old, his family moved to Preble, NY where his father became one of the largest landowners in Cortland County.

Harris attended Homer Academy and graduated from Union College in 1824. He studied law for one year in Homer, New York and then moved to Albany where he assisted one of that city’s most highly regarded jurists, Ambrose Spencer. [Read more…] about Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: 1846 NYS Constitution, Abe Lincoln, Albany, Albany County, Albany Law School, Albany Med, Albany Rural Cemetery, Anti-Rent War, Cortland County, Crime and Justice, Horace Greeley, Legal History, Medical History, Montgomery County, Political History, politics, Supreme Court, Temperance, Union College, Vassar College, William Seward, womens history

Adirondack Surveyor Frank Tweedy: A Botanist of Distinction

January 10, 2021 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

Calamagrostis canadensisAfter discovery of the corner to Townships 42 and 41 on the Totten & Crossfield Line, Adirondack surveyor Frank Tweedy and crew encountered beautiful but challenging terrain in their march southeast to Big Moose Lake, where they camped in a high beaver meadow by Ledge Pond (now Jock Pond). Tweedy recorded the following:

“A short distance beyond we met a cliff 70 feet in height and deep ravine and ledges. Climbing very difficult. Completed our work on a slope to the S. Went forward to the cutting party and camped in a beaver meadow. Saw species of Calamagrostis canadensis 5.6 [ft] in Length.” [Read more…] about Adirondack Surveyor Frank Tweedy: A Botanist of Distinction

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, botany, Frank Tweedy, Native Plants, Science, Science History, Union College, wildflowers

Wally Foote: ‘The Most Handsome Man in Congress’

May 10, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Wallace Turner Foote JrThe Plattsburgh Daily Press in late 1894 fact-checked the boasts of M.W. Howard, age 32, of Alabama, and George M. Southwick, age 31, of Albany, who each claimed to be the youngest member of the incoming U.S. House of Representatives.

Actually, it was local Representative-elect Wallace T. Foote Jr., who would still be 30 when he took office, that would have the distinction. Foote represented New York’s 23rd District, which included Essex, Clinton, Franklin, Warren and Washington counties. [Read more…] about Wally Foote: ‘The Most Handsome Man in Congress’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Clinton County, Essex County, Franklin County, Lake Champlain, Political History, Port Henry, Union College, Warren County, Washington County

Featured Records: The Jeanne Robert Foster Papers

June 19, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Jeanne RobertThe Jeanne Robert Foster papers are available at The Adirondack Research Library of Union College.  Jeanne Robert Foster (1879-1970), born Julia Elizabeth Oliver in the Adirondacks, had numerous vocations during her lifetime: fashion model, literary editor, poet, and social worker. During the 1920s, she became immersed in European literary and artistic circles, including a friendship with Irish poet William Butler Yeats. [Read more…] about Featured Records: The Jeanne Robert Foster Papers

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondack Kelly Center, Adirondacks, Featured Collections, Literature, Mohawk Valley, Schenectady, Union College, Warren County

One of America’s Most Prominent Doctors

January 29, 2015 by John Conway 6 Comments

Alfred Loomis Oval (1)It was Saturday, January 26, 1895, and throngs of mourners were gathered at the Church of the Incarnation in Manhattan for the funeral of one of America’s most prominent doctors.

Dr. Alfred Lebbeus Loomis, who had revolutionized the way tuberculosis was treated in this country, had died on January 23rd, just two days after his own personal physician had ordered him confined to bed because of a spiking fever.   Dr. Loomis, diagnosed with tuberculosis some thirty years earlier, had contracted pneumonia, and would never recover.  [Read more…] about One of America’s Most Prominent Doctors

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Manhattan, Medical History, New York City, New York University, Saranac Lake, Union College, Vermont

Charles Shaw: Ace Adirondack Attorney

January 5, 2015 by Lawrence P. Gooley 1 Comment

NYH1 CPShawAmong those to rise from humble Adirondack roots and pursue life in the big city was Charles P. Shaw, a native of Jay, New York, where he was born in 1836. “Humble,” meaning relative poverty, aptly described most North Country citizens in those early days. Shaw may have had an advantage since there were two doctors in the family: his father, Daniel, and his grandfather, Joshua Bartlett. As schooled professionals, they were more likely to emphasize among their family the importance of education.

For whatever reason, Charles was an excellent and precocious student. There survives in old newspapers an anecdote suggesting he was indeed an unusually bright pupil. [Read more…] about Charles Shaw: Ace Adirondack Attorney

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, Civil War, Essex County, Martin Van Buren, New York City, NYC, Political History, Tammany Hall, Union College

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