Dear colleagues,

We cordially invite you to join us and thousands of history professionals at the 138^th annual meeting of the American Historical Association in New York City from Friday, January 3 to Monday, January 6, 2025.

Teachers in New York state are eligible to receive Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) credit for attending any of around 80 selected sessions and workshops at the AHA’s 2025 annual meeting through an agreement with the New York City Department of Education. Eligible sessions and workshops are listed in the meeting program. Questions can be emailed to annualmeeting@historians.org.

The AHA annual meeting features more than 500 sessions, including an array of panels geared toward K—12 teachers. Participate in hands-on workshops focused on writing assignments in the age of AI, the art of historical podcasting, and teaching with primary sources form the Library of Congress. Pose questions to leading scholars in our State of the Field for Busy Teachers series, with sessions focused on recent developments in graphic history, Native American history, LGBTQ+ history, the American Revolution, and Africa in world history. Or take advantage of the opportunity to sample from hundreds of panels focused on research covering diverse and varied in both US and world history.

Éirinn go Brách

Tyler Anbinder, professor emeritus at George Washington University, has a new book out entirely rooted in wonderful primary source materials. In Plentiful Country: The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York, the myth of the poverty-stricken Irish immigrant being a drain on American society is dispelled all because of a treasure trove of bank records. The records of the Emigrant Savings Bank, housed at the NY Public Library, show that even day laborers were averaging $150 in their savings accounts -- equivalent to about $6000 today!  

How can primary sources be used to disprove other stereotypes? 

Why is this set of data significant to American history?

What other primary sources can be combined with this bank data to get a clearer picture of the lives of Irish immigrants to America?

How are the reactions to the 19th century mass emigration of Irish to America similar to events happening today? 

Irish Americans Free to Use and Reuse

Herald of the Times, and Rhode Islander, January 18, 1847 -- Famine! 

No Irish Need Apply, 1862 

What Irish Boys Can Do

The Irish Republic Newspaper, 1867-68, Chicago

Irish American Song

Irish Colonists in New York, 1906

Where the blame lies, 1891 (anti-immigration cartoon)

Immigration Challenges for New Americans

Adaptation and Assimilation

Irish-Catholic Immigration to America

Immigrant Laborers in the Early 20th century, audio recording.

Irish Contributions to the American Culture

The Immigrant Experience: Down the Rabbit Hole

US Census Records

Only a small portion of the Emigrant Savings Bank Records have been digitized, but they are fascinating! The bank records span from 1841 through 1923. 

Immigration: The Irish, New York, PBS Media

EPIC: The Irish Immigration Museum

Irish-American Heritage Museum

When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century Refugee Crisis

  3 - 5    6 - 8    9 - 12    13+    Social Studies/History    museum    Irish  

https://www.loc.gov/item/2018696738/

The Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking invites teachers and professors to attend the July Weeklong Workshops at Bard's beautiful campus on the Hudson River.  Nine different workshops will be on offer, including two funded by a generous grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program.  These workshops -- Writing to Learn and Thinking Historically Through Writing -- focus on writing-to-read strategies for analyzing primary documents, secondary texts, and visual artifacts so that participants learn how historians interpret evidence and construct stories based on those interpretations. Many imaginative teaching strategies enrich and enliven students’ appreciation of the past. Writing is the least used and yet perhaps the most versatile of these strategies, since it allows students to discover worlds that differ from our present and to explore varied—and often conflicting—interpretations of our histories.

The July Weeklong Workshops are held July 9-14, 2023 at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.  For more information, please visit: https://iwt.bard.edu/july/

  Mark Johnson  a member of the TPS Network will be at the Museum of Chinese in America https://www.mocanyc.org/event/moca-writes-history-as-mystery/

Nov 7 - 4:00-6:00 History as Mystery

Nov 7 - 6:00-8:00 An Evening of Letters, Stories, & Narratives

Registration is free.  

Mark is an amazing teacher and speaker and has recently published the book, "The Middle Kingdom Under the Big Sky"

  Middle Kingdom    Big Sky    Announcements    Museum of Chinese in America  

Hi all,

I came across an item in the Library of Congress called "The Pulse of New York" which appears to be the front of a playbill? I am really curious to know more about the play, and who is Gracie Emmett and Howard Taylor - anyone????

  newyorkhistory  

Thanks,

Heidi

Before there were the Williams sisters, there was Althea Gibson. The first African American (and first person of African descent) to win a Wimbledon Championship (Arthur Ashe won the men's title in 1975) was born in South Carolina, but raised in Harlem, New York. You can read about her in a NY Times article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/sports/tennis/althea-gibson-statue-us-open.html. One of the interesting things about Gibson is how she tried to avoid letting herself be defined in the media by her race, nor did she accept the public expectation she would represent her race in her sport - there are examples of her views on this in the many news articles covering her in New York State Historic Newspapers. 

It would be interesting to develop a lesson for students that explores the ideas around role models or "pioneers" maybe around the career of someone like Althea Gibson. Images (https://www.loc.gov/resource/van.5a52013/ and https://www.loc.gov/item/2004662917/)and blogs from the Library of Congress could be used such as this one: https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2014/03/althea-gibson-points-the-way/, and this one: https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/07/althea-gibson-tennis-turmoil-and-triumph/

What do you all think?!

Did you know? Today (March 28, 2022) marks the 43rd anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in Pennsylvania? And just a few short years later, Western New York would face its own manmade disaster when in 1977, it was discovered that over 200 toxic chemical compounds were seeping through the ground and into the basements and water of residents living in an area of Niagara Falls called "Love Canal," causing abnormally high rates of cancers and stillbirths and abnormalities of children born in the area. At the same time, a growing awareness about another potentially hazardous nuclear waste site in Western New York was capturing attention, and is today current topic of concern in the region: The West Valley Nuclear Demonstration Project, as seen in New York State Historic Newspapers.

Both the Love Canal Images from the University at Buffalo Archives and local television news broadcast video from the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Archives - both collections in New York Heritage - capture some of the often tense and heartbreaking stories from the past that are still being told today - in places like Flint, Michigan and its contaminated water supply, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill off the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi Delta Dead Zone. Here is an interesting site about man-made disasters called Owlcation. 

The fact is, man-made disasters did exist, still exist, and will continue to exist - this cannot be changed. How we view them and respond to them - and maybe even prevent some - is what can be changed, and can be informed in part with our knowledge of past events. Educators can use these resources to show students that civic action and civic discourse can be successful and impactful. That people, just like them, can make a difference. Maybe start a lesson by offering them both sides of an argument such as this one where Forbes comes out pro-nuclear and Thunberg anti-nuclear:  nuclear waste    New York State   (https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/02/17/if-they-are-so-alarmed-by-climate-change-why-are-they-so-opposed-to-solving-it/?sh=5c0458b36b75 and https://www.bmk.gv.at/dam/jcr:8f7d896c-c5ab-47f0-a6e2-04f35779b570/nuclear-power-plants_climate-killers.pdf

  Social Studies/History    Technology    English/Language Arts    6 - 8    9 - 12    13+    climate change    environment    civic action    man-made disasters    New York State  

March 25th marked the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire where 146 garment workers lost their lives in a fatal fire. However, in 1909 Clara Lemlich organized the Uprising of 20,000, a large demonstration where the female garment workers demanded better pay and shorter hours. When the shop doors reopened, the women’s demands were met. Yet, the improvements were not enough, less than two years later the fatal fire would take the lives of many of the workers. When it comes to thinking about civic action, when is it the right time to demand and organize? The deadly fire led to a series of reforms, but was it too late? The 1909 strike had been successful, but was it enough? 

Here is a joyous image of women gathering to strike during the Uprising of 20,000. 

Here is a much starker image of coffins from the aftermath of the fire.

  Social Studies/History     civicaction    protest    workershistory labormovements

Hi NY Group! I'm looking for any resource sets or primary sources about New York State forests and early settlers of NYS, who settled near, in or around these forests. Looking to create a set of units around a local teacher's needs and questions:

Why did the 1st New Yorkers settle along the Hudson River? How did living in forests meet their needs? What kinds of animals could they hunt/crops could they grow? 3 - 5 Social Studies/History

One odd reference to the term potter's field from the "Montalbano" mystery series I've been watching on MHz Choice sent me on an interesting sleuthing experience of my own. I decided to post about it here in the New York State Discussion group because I ended up learning about Hart Island, New York. I thought this might make for an interesting National History Day project for a New York State young person.

First of all, it was not easy to find agreement on the exact derivation of potter's field, but I found the most complete etymological explanation on a website called "The Grammarphobia Blog." It's complicated!

Next, I searched for the term on loc.gov, and one photo in particular caught my attention. It's a Carol Highsmith photo from Washington State. It is described as "An unkempt field behind the Northern State Hospital for the Insane, outside Sedro-Wooley, Washington, which closed since 1973, used to be a sort of potter's field for patients who died there."

https://www.loc.gov/item/2018698918/ 

I thought I remembered reading something recently about a potter's field in New York City, and a quick Google search brought up a number of articles about Hart Island. According to this 2019 article from the New York State Historical Society, "Off-limit to the public for over 35 years, Hart Island — a mile-long island off the eastern coast of the Bronx — has remained one of New York City’s most closely guarded secrets. It is the home of New York’s 'potter’s field,' for those who can’t afford to pay for burial, or whose identity is unknown."

It would not surprise me that every state has a potter's field and an accompanying history worth examining. I know folks in the Disability History group have learned about the treatment of the mentally ill and people with disabilities throughout history, so this might be of interest to them, too. The same goes for burial grounds of slaves and other groups that experts and descendants are actively investigating in more recent times. It's an area with real research potential, I think. 

6 - 8 9 - 12 Social Studies/History burial grounds National History Day Rich Cairn