Kilboy Was Here: The Erie Canal Balladeer with David Brooks (Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site)
Wednesday, January 17th, 6pm
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This program explores the life of a canal towing company operator along the notorious “Sixteens” of the Erie Canal. Discover the mayhem, graft, and dirty underside of the canal. Truth will ring out, proving that Kilboy was here!
David Brooks is the Education Director at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter, N.Y. – within the system of sites operated by the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Schoharie Crossing interprets and preserves the significant history of the Erie Canal and its contributions to the state as well as the nation.
Entertaining Fulton County: The Kasson and Schine Legacies with Samantha Hall-Saladino
Wednesday, February 7th, 6pm
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From the construction of Alexander J. Kasson’s Memorial Hall and it’s grand live performances to the opeing of the Schine brothers’ Glove Theater and the introduction of “talkies” and beyond, explore the stories of the men who brought opera, vaudeville, musicals, and the best films of the day to Fulton County.
Samantha Hall-Saladino is the Executive Director of the Fulton County Historical Society and has served as the Fulton County Historian since 2013.
This Old House: Constructing a House History with John Scherer (Town of Clifton Park Historian)
Wednesday, February 21st, 6pm
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To many, Home Sweet Home is the house that they call home. Join Town of Clifton Park Historian John Scherer will explain how to put together the history of a house, examining the many sources available and how to use them. Scherer will begin by looking at architectural styles and building techniques to date the structure and the changes made throughout its lifetime, and end with sources to identify the occupants, their family dynamics, and their role in the community.
John L. Scherer has been the Historian for the Town of Clifton Park since 1978. He is Historian Emeritus at the New York State Museum and Deputy Regional Coordinator of the Association of Public Historians of NYS (APHNYS) Region 5.
Landslide: Adirondack Gentrification and the Erosion of Local Memory with Dr. Eliza J. Darling
Wednesday, February 28th, 6pm
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The Adirondacks are gentrifying, displacing working class residents in the wake of rising rents, a depleted year-round housing stock, the domination of the AirBnB economy and the overall casualization of the built environment. When longtime Adirondack locals leave, they take more than their possessions with them: they take their experiences, their stories, their memories and their family folklore, leaving behind gaping holes in the social history of a wilderness landscape where human artifacts struggle to endure in the face of harsh climate, acidic soil, public retrenchment and bureaucratic indifference. Does it matter? What is at stake in the loss of working class histories in a region where the very nature of work itself has changed so drastically with the deindustrialization of the twentieth century? This talk considers the postwar challenge of historiography in the southern Adirondack foothills in at the intersection of housing, memory and labor.
Dr. Eliza Jane Darling is an anthropologist specializing in the social and environmental history of the Adirondacks. She currently teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.
Songs of the Labor Unions (1850-1940) with Cosby and Tom
Saturday, March 16th, 1pm
Free
Join Cosby and Tom at the FCHS for “Songs of the Labor Unions.” The labor union movement in the United States was a just short of a revolution with rioting by thousands of workers, weapons, and skirmishes. Songs were used to communicate and to inspire the unionizers, with many being written by labor leaders themselves. The resulting victory over the oppressors was important for the whole world as it brought fairer workplace practices that continue today.
This program is made possible by the Fulton County Board of Supervisors Office and the Fulton County Historian.
Vanishing Views: 20th Century Urban Renewal in Gloversville
Wednesday, April 17th, 6pm
$5 donation
Beginning in 1949, the federal government provided grants and loans to cities through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fund urban renewal projects. This process involved the seizure and demolition of property in an effort to improve infrastructure and modernize cities. In reality, this often meant the destruction of historic structures, and disproportionately affected low-income communities and small businesses. The Empire State Plaza in Albany is perhaps one of the state’s most well-known urban renewal projects, spearheaded by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. But smaller cities, like Gloversville, also undertook these projects, for better or for worse.
Utilizing newspaper archives, city records, and other resources, explore the history of Gloversville’s urban renewal projects, from the proposed Midtown Park to the never-completed “ring road.” Learn how these efforts affected the community and take a tour through photos to see just what has changed downtown.