New York State Women's History

These are all the Almanack stories about New York State women's history. Under separate tags you can also find stories about related topics such as the suffrage movement, feminism, or the temperance movement. New York Almanack seeks to present history that’s inclusive of a variety of perspectives – in other words, history that is careful, considered, and complicated - but we can’t do it without your help. Please support this work.

LGBTQ+ Experiences of the American Revolution

October 28, 2026 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

All year New York Almanack and the Ben Franklin’s World podcast have explored the American Revolution from many vantage points, from its politics and battles to the experiences of women, enslaved and free people of color, Native Americans, and Loyalists.

The latest Ben Franklin’s World podcast episode takes a new lens to the Revolution, an LGBTQ lens, to ask: what does the history of the American Revolution and its legacy look like through LGBTQ history? [Read more…] about LGBTQ+ Experiences of the American Revolution

New Money, Old Titles: Dollars, Dreams and Dowries

October 21, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

The Gilded Age, roughly from the late 1870s to the late 1890s, was an era of economic expansion and technological advance in which American industrial tycoons made massive fortunes. New elites competed to define their place in a society in flux, giving rise to an obsessive craving for status.

The desire for validation manifested itself in the building of mansions that mimicked castles or palaces. Their owners toured European capitals, ordering paintings and antiquities to decorate these grand homes. [Read more…] about New Money, Old Titles: Dollars, Dreams and Dowries

Upstate NY Incidents in the Life of Louisa Jacobs

October 14, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Louisa Matilda Jacobs (1833-1917), daughter of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl author Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897), was born enslaved by Dr. James Norcom in Edenton, North Carolina, but spent considerable time in Upstate New York. [Read more…] about Upstate NY Incidents in the Life of Louisa Jacobs

Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: A Thimble Party

October 11, 2026 by Phil Brown Leave a Comment

Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week. [Read more…] about Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: A Thimble Party

‘Gelatine,’ The Knox Company Dirigible

October 7, 2026 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

June 1906, Rose Knox looked across the field through the window of her 35-room mansion at the top of the hill in Johnstown, NY. A 41-foot, cigar-shaped dirigible was floating across the street.

Just a half dozen existed in all of the United States. Her husband Charles Knox, founder of Knox Gelatine, had financed construction of what was initially known as the Knox Torpedo Airship. Knox hoped he could sell it to the US Navy. [Read more…] about ‘Gelatine,’ The Knox Company Dirigible

Katharine Bement Davis & America’s First Sexual Revolution

September 29, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Decades before Alfred Kinsey released his famous “Reports” on human sexuality, Katharine Bement Davis (1860-1935) conducted a pioneering study of female sexuality.

Published in 1929, Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-Two Hundred Women was notable not only as the first major study of women’s sexuality and the first such study conducted by a woman, but also as the first published study of “normal” women’s sexuality ― what Davis defined as the study of women who were “not pathological mentally or physically.” [Read more…] about Katharine Bement Davis & America’s First Sexual Revolution

Friedrich, Poe, & Hitchcock: A Murder of Crows

September 24, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Members of the Corvidae family (corvids) like crows and ravens are intelligent birds with a vocal repertoire that enables them to mimic words; they cooperate and use tools; they recognize human faces and, if hostile, alert the flock. They hold long-lasting grudges.

Featuring in myriads of myths and legends, corvids have received contrasting symbolic meaning. For some, they stand for adaptability and divine wisdom (in Greek mythology they served as sacred messengers for Apollo); for others, they are associated with plague, warfare, and death. Paradoxically, corvids are seen as both wise guides and grim omens. [Read more…] about Friedrich, Poe, & Hitchcock: A Murder of Crows

Anne LaBastille: A Biography of the Woodswoman

September 23, 2026 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Photographer, award-winning wildlife ecologist and bestselling author Anne LaBastille (1935-2011) was a trailblazer.

Perhaps best known for her seminal wilderness book Woodswoman, recounting her years spent living in a cabin on the shores of Twitchell Lake, in the western Adirondacks near Old Forge (she used the pseudonym “Black Bear Lake” in her books to conceal its true location). [Read more…] about Anne LaBastille: A Biography of the Woodswoman

The Knox Athletic Field Complex in Johnstown

September 13, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

On October 1, 1930, as America was sinking toward the depths of the Great Depression, the people of Johnstown, NY celebrated. The Knox Athletic Field complex officially opened.

The fifteen-acre plot in the town located between Albany and Utica was gifted to the Johnstown School district by Mrs. Charles B. (Rose) Knox, the President of Knox Gelatine from 1908-1947 and a resident of Johnstown for all of her adult life. [Read more…] about The Knox Athletic Field Complex in Johnstown

Rose Knox’s Gelatine, Leadership, Mixed Kitchen & Boardroom

September 10, 2026 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

In 1914, after secretly running Knox Gelatine for six years, Rose Knox revealed that she’d assumed her deceased husband’s position as the company’s president.

As President of company from 1908 to 1947, she drew on traditional ideals of domesticity and womanhood to turn the company into an iconic American brand and herself into a business celebrity. [Read more…] about Rose Knox’s Gelatine, Leadership, Mixed Kitchen & Boardroom

Rapping with the Dead: New York’s Spiritualist Fox Sisters

August 27, 2026 by Thomas Rosenthal, MD 2 Comments

The first indication that the Fox Sisters had spiritualist talents occurred on the evening of March 31, 1848 when 11-year-old Kate and 14-year-old Maggie Fox claimed they heard knocking sounds coming from the east bedroom of their parents’ rented farmhouse in Hydesville, Wayne County, NY, about 30 miles east of Rochester.

The next night, the young ladies revealed this strange knocking spirit to their mother and older sister, Leah. The family’s excitement about communicating beyond the grave took no note that the inaugural demonstration had been staged on April first. [Read more…] about Rapping with the Dead: New York’s Spiritualist Fox Sisters

Dr Helen Hosmer’s Rural Healthcare in the US & Canada

August 26, 2026 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

In 1934, Doctor Helen Hosmer opened a physician’s office on West Street in the Village of Galway, in Saratoga County, NY. Originally from Billerica, Massachusetts, when Hosmer arrived in Galway, she was 50 years old, and though an experienced chemist and scientist, she was just beginning her career as a physician. [Read more…] about Dr Helen Hosmer’s Rural Healthcare in the US & Canada

Gertrude Ederle: The Queen of the Waves Hits a Speed Bump

August 14, 2026 by Randall Whitestone Leave a Comment

Gertrude Ederle led a long and amazing life. Born in New York City in 1905 to German immigrant parents who ran an Upper West Side butcher shop, Ederle became an Olympic swimming champion at age 19 in 1924, and in August 1926, a century ago this month, became the first woman – and the fifth person – to successfully swim the English Channel.

Henry Ederle promised his daughter a red roadster if she did it, and in a companion boat he and Trudy’s sister shouted reminders about the car as encouragement on the turbulent route from France to England. [Read more…] about Gertrude Ederle: The Queen of the Waves Hits a Speed Bump

Newcomers: Anthony and Grietje and the Founding of New York

August 11, 2026 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

A man thought to be a Muslim from Morocco and a German barmaid fleeing poverty are hardly the images we have of America’s august founders. In Newcomers (Liveright, 2026), Alan Mikhail upends the traditional story of America’s origins through the revelatory tale of a seventeenth-century immigrant couple by the names of Anthony and Grietje.

Married in Amsterdam, the destitute pair emerged from lives of piracy and prostitution in Europe and arrived in 1630s Dutch New Amsterdam, hoping to build a new life. Upon landing on New York City’s shores, the swarthy Anthony was attacked for being the Muslim he was not, while Grietje, branded a whore by crude harbor denizens, would become the model of an independent colonial American woman, defiantly mooning her attackers rather than accepting their derision. [Read more…] about Newcomers: Anthony and Grietje and the Founding of New York

1934: Lake George Cracks-Down On Swimwear

August 11, 2026 by Joseph W. Zarzynski Leave a Comment

In June 1934 the Town of Caldwell (now the Town of Lake George) began regulating sunbathing and swimwear on its downtown streets. Law enforcement officials were tasked with a new job while patrolling the lakeshore and avenues at the head of the 32-mile-long Lake George. [Read more…] about 1934: Lake George Cracks-Down On Swimwear

Smut: An 1883 Obscenity Trial and Its Echoes Today

August 3, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In June, 1883, Jefferson and Helen Beardsley of Ithaca, New York, were indicted, tried, and sentenced for “selling and exhibiting obscene pictures.”

In Smut: An 1883 Obscenity Trial and Its Echoes Today (Paul Dry Books, 2026), historian Carol Kammen draws directly from the trial transcript and reveals the fascinating history surrounding the case and its surprising relevance today. [Read more…] about Smut: An 1883 Obscenity Trial and Its Echoes Today

Two Bathing Suits Highlight History in Everyday Life

July 20, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Two bathing suits from the textile collection of The Buffalo History Museum highlight the long and varied history of swimsuits. In the early 1900s, women wore long gowns with bloomers underneath for swimming.

These bathing gowns were weighted down by several heavy layers of material, occasionally with weights sewn into the hem so the material would not float. Fabrics were chosen for bathing suits that would not become transparent when wet. [Read more…] about Two Bathing Suits Highlight History in Everyday Life

1832: A Stuyvesant Lighthouse Disaster Kills Four Children

July 19, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The following text is from articles printed in March 1832 about the destruction of one of the Hudson River lighthouses on a tidal marsh flat near Stuyvesant Landing, only shortly after its construction in 1830.

A massive, moving field of spring ice crushed the 20 by 34 feet stone structure and killed four children. [Read more…] about 1832: A Stuyvesant Lighthouse Disaster Kills Four Children

Patience Wright: A Revolutionary NY Artist in England

July 10, 2026 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

The American Revolution was not only fought militarily in the colonies, artists also played an integral role. In The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2025) Dr. Zara Anishanslin highlights the intertwined lives of three of them: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah and Patience Wright.

Of particular interest to New Yorkers, Wright was born a Quaker (and a relative of the Townsend family) in Oyster Bay, Nassau County, on Long Island. She had a talent for sculpting and her medium was the wax figure. Her museum in the city of New York was a popular attraction, featuring lifelike replicas of notable figures. [Read more…] about Patience Wright: A Revolutionary NY Artist in England

Charity Clarke Moore: American Revolutionary Writer

July 3, 2026 by Alan J. Singer 1 Comment

Charity Clarke was born in the colonial city of New York on June 28, 1747, and lived through the momentous times that gave birth to the United States. She grew up on her father’s “Chelsea” estate (now the Chelsea neighborhood) in Manhattan.

Clarke married the Rev. Benjamin Moore, the pastor of Trinity Church, in 1778. Their son, Clement Clarke Moore was author of the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas. [Read more…] about Charity Clarke Moore: American Revolutionary Writer

New York State Women's History

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