Confronting Racism: Arthur Garfield Hays and the Fight for Equality, 1925–1954 by Richard Hamm explores how and why an elite member of the legal profession, Arthur Garfield Hays, confronted and fought against the ingrained racism of his society, illuminating key aspects of the long civil rights era.

Filming on location in New York City became more appealing after Mayor Lindsay signed EO #10 in 1966, consolidating the permitting process within the NYC Department of Commerce. Later the Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting was established, considered the oldest film commission in the US.

Mass Italian immigration into Manhattan began in the 1880s, establishing Little Italy (Piccola Italia) as a buzzing district. Most of the newcomers came from the poverty-struck southern regions and settled in Manhattan according to the regions they came from.

Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) will host its 40th Anniversary Celebration and Living Traditions Awards Ceremony, taking place on Friday, January 16th, 2026 from 7 pm until 10 pm at The TAUNY Center (53 Main Street) in Canton, NY.

DEC has released a draft Access and Public Use Plan APUP for the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The draft plan is available for public comment until February 5, 2026.

The brook trout is New York’s state fish and an iconic symbol of the Adirondacks, but about 90% of brook trout pond habitat has been lost due to poor management.

The massacre at Fort William Henry in 1757 has been told in newspaper accounts, witness diaries, by historians, movie makers, and of course the famed novelist James Fenimore Cooper. Another attack at Half-Way Brook a year later has been overshadowed by the carnage at Lake George.

In Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Print Culture, Media Change, and Democracy in the Late Nineteenth Century by Kelley Kreitz uncovers the network of Spanish-language writers and editors in 19th-century New York, whose media innovations fueled anti-colonial struggles and democratic ideals.

Veterinary emergency rooms are seeing more cases of pets with accidental exposure to marijuana. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabinoid in marijuana that produces psychoactive effects on the brain, can be toxic to dogs and cats.

An accessible trail was recently completed in the Town of North Hudson, Essex County in the Adirondack Park.

New Netherland Research Grants cover a period of one week up to six months, part of which may be devoted to residency at the New Netherland Research Center (NNRC) in Albany, and provides a stipend of $1,000 to $5,000, depending upon the scope of the project.

By the 1770s, as tension between Britain and its American colonies reached a breaking point, Fort Ontario which had been constructed during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), was essentially abandoned.

How Donald Trump and the Republican Party destroyed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) - some history and context.

The 1735 trial of New York printer John Peter Zenger, which acquitted him for seditious libel in publishing articles critical of the colonial governor, established the power of a jury to be a check on government power and inspired the freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment. #history

Longtime @newyorkalmanack.bsky.social contributor Bruce Dearstyne has edited a collection of essays exploring how New York State understanding of freedom and liberty has evolved, and its relevance in American and world history.

Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in Adams in Jefferson County, NY. Her father William Jarvis Allen published the weekly Jefferson County Journal. Mabel, as she was known, attended Stanford and later Syracuse University. In 1908, while at Syracuse, she kept this diary.

We are beginning the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It may be interesting to recall how New York celebrated in the past, including the Bicentennial (reviewed in a previous post) and the Sesquicentennial a century ago.

Masked shrews are one of our smallest mammals, tipping the scales at between 3 and 6 grams (one to two pennies), with a 2.5-inch-long body, and a 1.5-inch tail. They have a long, pointed snout full of sharp teeth, and a powerful nose surrounded by extremely sensitive whiskers.

In September of 1876, a group of men led by a reporter from a Saratoga newspaper, visited the Saratoga County Poor House in Ballston Spa. Their purpose was to meet a “centenarian” who was there under the charge of Keeper of the Poor House George D. Story.

Carl George, Professor Emeritus at the Biology Department of Union College, died in December at age 95, leaving his wife Christine, and legions of friends at Union College, and around the world.

Twitchell Lake is one of highest inhabited lakes in the Adirondacks, surrounded on three sides by the Forest Preserve, and located in Big Moose, New York. There is a new website to showcase its history.

As Rick Cotton retires as the latest in a long line of executive directors of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, it’s worth thinking about the original, lurching journey to create the agency a century ago.

A new Creative New York report by The Center for an Urban Future shows that the city’s creative sector is facing serious new threats, in large part due to an affordability crisis that is hitting artists and creative workers especially hard.

In one of his final acts in office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans for development of empty City-owned land at 388 Hudson Street (at Clarkson Street) across from James J. Walker Park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.

Three Winter Weekend events to be held in 2026 at the Historic Adirondack Great Camp Santanoni in the town of Newcomb, Essex County.

In attempts to maximize proximity to valuable trade with the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous nations, Europeans established outposts and forts farther and farther into the interior of Haudenosaunee territory and the Great Lakes.

Winter finch species are often in the Fringillidae (“true finch”) family, and are known for their “nomadic and erratic” irruptions, meaning they sometimes disperse south in winter, seeking more abundant food crops.

Using visa revocations and similar actions to stifle foreign scholars’ political speech is a violation of the First Amendment.

Recent artifacts donated and purchased at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site include a War of 1812 uniform button.

Have you ever wondered why so many Americans drink coffee in the morning? In early America, colonists drank a lot of coffee — and less tea that we usually think. #culinaryhistory #history #coffee

Slattery, commonly known by the nickname “Slats,” had celebrity status in the region. “Jimmy Slatttery of Buffalo, who is spending his vacation at Indian Lake, was in town Monday,” the Enterprise reported that August.

Oneida County Sheriffs requested assistance for an ice water rescue of a 10-month-old Great Pyrenees trapped in the middle of a pond off Fairchild Road in the Town of Remsen.

Lichens, the remarkable symbiotic partnerships between fungi and algae, are helping scientists unlock a new understanding of biodiversity in some of North America’s most sensitive forest ecosystems.

A last-ditch effort to save the historic ocean liner SS United States from being sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida got a boost last week when the the NYC Council unanimously passed Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s resolution calling on the federal government to prevent the sinking.

The windchill temperature was 0 degrees. One of the hikers was wearing jeans and un-insulated boots. The other was wearing cotton athletic pants and running sneakers. They did not have traction devices for their footwear or headlamps to hike in the dark.

The New York Historical Society has digitized their Evert Wendell collection, including five account books in Dutch and English covering the period from 1695 to 1758 and one docket book (in English).

For many birdwatchers in New York, this is an exciting time of year — backyard bird feeders can go back up. To avoid conflicts with bears, wildlife advocates highly recommend only feeding wild birds when black bears are inactive.

Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) have characteristic red fur, black “stockings” on their legs, and bushy, white-tipped tails (although their coats have some color variation).

On a cold December night in 1906, when the Champlain Canal still bisected the village of Mechanicville, in Saratoga County, NY, a 61-year-old woman living alone in a second-floor apartment on Canal Street heard a cry for help. Locals called her "Mrs. Cats."

Storytelling in the filmmaking process is the essence of the New York State Writers Institute’s Albany Film Festival planned for Saturday, March 28, 2026 and featuring a short film contest - submit now.

The 2026 New York History Conference will be held at Marist University on June 11-12, 2026. The new Proposal Deadline is January 5, 2026.

A cursory view of free online aerial imagery displays various race tracks in Saratoga Springs. There are nine locations that appear in the imagery, and each has its own horse racing record.

Nineteen properties and districts have been recommended for inclusion in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The Lake George Land Conservancy’s newly acquired Pilot Knob Mountain – 517 acres of densely forested mountainside, a 2,159-foot summit and ridgeline and 1.6 miles of streams that feed the Lake’s Kattskill Bay – has been identified as a place situated to help nature thrive amid climate change.

Protect the Adirondacks recently commissioned a desktop analysis of the 36,000-acre Whitney Park’s natural resources data. “The analysis shows that this remote tract faces severe constraints for large-scale residential and golf course development,” according to Protect.

Amid the political turmoil of 2025, the abolitionist John Brown has been popping up in the social feeds of the left. The phrase “Don’t argue with people John Brown would have shot” jumps out as a bold statement, and insists on a knowledge of this particular figure in American history.

The Palmer and Lusk Committee raids were among the most egregious constitutional violations of what is now known as The First Red Scare.

The son of Anglo-Irish gentry, Richard Montgomery joined the British army at 17. During the Seven Years’ War (the French and Indian War) of the 1750s he fought against the French, against Spaniards in Havana, and against Native Americans in the wilderness around Detroit.

As Adolf Hitler rose in the late 1920s, Leon Schleifer (William Sharp) adopted various pseudonyms while contributing anti-Nazi cartoons to the press.

In 1854, a white marble obelisk was erected at the grave of Colonel Ephraim Williams. The site is located three miles south of Lake George.