2023-2024 New York Archives Magazine Speaker Series
Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark and the Struggle for Racial Integration
Originally Aired Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Please join us for a presentation by historian Tom Spofford about "The Doll You Like Best," an important test created in the 1960s by Mamie Phipps and Kenneth Clark who used dolls to prove the value of racial integration. Retired New York State Archivist Tom Ruller will host this online event.
A Genealogy Workshop
Originally Aired Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Curious about your own family history? Join professional genealogists Pamela Vittorio, Jane Wilcox, and archivist John Diefenderfer as they answer your questions about how to conduct genealogy research using state records held in the New York State Archives, Albany, NY. Submit your questions to aptrust@nysed.gov for live answers!
Reading New York
Originally Aired Tuesday, April 23, 2024
New York State has been at the forefront of historical and environmental movements that have blazed a trail for change and progress across the country. New Yorkers have access to that cultural heritage via two award-winning magazines published by state agencies whose work has been instrumental in creating a record of that progress. Join New York Archives Editor Josie Madison and The Conservationist Managing Editor Maria VanWie for a conversation about these two publications highlighting the state’s history and environment and the role they play in understanding and celebrating its legacy.
A Woman's Place: The History of the New York State Women's Division
Originally Aired Tuesday, March 12, 2024
The New York State Women’s Division was responsible for promoting equal opportunity and status for women. Join Jasmine Bumpers, archivist, NYS Archives, and Jordan Jace, Assistant Director of Education & Development, NYS Archives Partnership Trust to learn more about this little known government agency and the Women’s Division records held by the State Archives.
Space of Enslavement
Originally Aired Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Scholar Andrea Mosterman walks us through her new book “Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York” to relay “how spatial analysis can be used to better understand how enslavers used space to control the people they enslaved, and how enslaved people resisted in these spaces.” Professor Mosterman’s groundbreaking research will ensure that the next time you drive past an 18th Century stone house in New York you will search out its spaces of enslavement that are hidden in plain sight, reminders of the cruel treatment of African and African Americans in early New York.
Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration
Orginally Aired Tuesday, February 15, 2024
In his new book Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration, prize-winning Lincoln historian Harold Holzer describes the 16th President's efforts to come to terms with the politics of immigration in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
New York's Contribution in Foreign Wars
Originally Aired December 19, 2023
New York State has a long and notable record of contributions to our Nation's wartime efforts. World War I saw the activation of New York National Guard units that included the Harlem Hellfighters and the famous “Lost Battalion.”Join Trust Steward Retired Col. Richard Comstock, and Executive Director Chuck Baylis, Military History Society of Rochester, as they shed light on the efforts and hardships of New Yorkers during wartime, and the challenges of those who served in the armed forces in foreign wars, particularly World War I.
The Freedom Seeker's Experience through New York State
Originally Aired November 28, 2023
New York State was key in the “Underground Railroad” network that sheltered and escorted Freedom Seeker's from southern parts of the country to freedom in the north in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Representatives of three cultural-heritage organizations dedicated to New York’s Underground Railroad will present on the freedom seeker's experiences: Saladin Allah (Niagara Falls), Mary Liz and Paul Stewart (Albany) and Charlotte Jackson (Queens).
Fun Finds in the Archives!
Originally aired October 24, 2023
Join us for this “Archives Month” special as we peer into New York State government records and locate surprising, unexpected, and just-plain-fun finds! While many government records may appear dry or dull, some items transferred to the New York State Archives from other State Agencies might startle you as they have the archivists on staff. Hosted by Thomas J. Ruller
Mapping the Erie Canal— Yesterday and Today
Originally Aired - September 19, 2023
Did you know the completion of the Erie Canal took place 200 years ago? And yet to this day the Canal is the subject of constant study and inspiration. Our speakers will describe their projects to digitally map the modern Erie Canal together with archival maps from the mid-19th Century. Resulting data shall be incorporated into a GIS system that covers the entire length of the Erie Canal and will be freely available to the public. The map’s zoom feature provides opportunities for revealing historic Canal structures in today’s settings. Plus catch a glimpse at a remarkable new artistic vision for the Albany Waterfront, itself the starting locus of the entire Erie Canal.
GIS professional, researcher, and Larry J. Hackman Research Resident Steven Talbot; Chair of the Albany WaterWayCanal Project BJ Costello; artist Len Tantillo of the Albany WaterWayCanal Project; and retired New York State Archivist Tom Ruller
