The Society seeks to, through its museum and other means, collect, preserve, and publish any material and knowledge about the history of Afton.
The museum offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.
This mini documentary, produced by NBC, describes the Articles of Confederation, which suited the goals of the Americans when they were fighting for freedom from the monarchy. These documents, which favored state's rights over federal power, were inadequate after the Revolution when a strong central government became necessary.
To view the documentary, follow the link below and scroll down past "Thomas Paine and 'Common Sense'" and "Women in the American Revolution."
Throughout the Ages was created to meet the primary source needs of New York state K-6 history teachers. The site collection includes more than 500 photographs, letters, paintings, advertisements, and maps.
To navigate the site, choose an area of interest and subtopic (for example "leisure" under the heading "community"), and scroll to a source of interest. The source will offer a caption. In some cases, historical context, focus questions, and the correlating New York state standards will also be listed. Be sure to click on each of these section titles, as items such as resources and historical background only display once selected.
One feature to look into is the automatic handout maker. For each image, you can automatically generate a handout by selecting any or all of the following categories: caption, historical background, standards/key ideas, historical challenge, interdisciplinary connections, and resources. For some images, these will already be filled out. For others, you can type anything you want for all, some, or one of those categories. Don't worry about deleting existing text if you don't want it on your handout. It will be back the next time you load your page.
Who is William Steinway, and what makes his diary so noteworthy? From some perspectives, Steinway is a perfectly average person, giving readers a view into daily life in the 1800s. However, he also happened to be a partner in the newly formed (and later famed) family business Steinway and Sons, a name likely familiar to readers who have played the piano. Another point in the favor of the importance of the diary is that its 2,500 pages begin just eight days after the beginning of the Civil War and three days before William's wedding—a time of personal and national change. While William was not a soldier, his younger brother Albert was, giving the diary a perspective on both home and military life in the Civil War. The diary continues until November 8, 1896, within a month of William's death.
The website offers a digitized and fully transcribed version of William's diary. For any page, you can view both the original and the transcribed text. It's also possible to enter any date of your choosing, and go straight to that page. Users can also find a family tree with short biographies of William and Albert Steinway, as well as William's first wife Elizabeth Roos Steinway; more than 50 photos of the family, useful for putting faces to William's story; and Resources such as scholarly articles on the piano industry of the day and lists of abbreviations and German words and phrases found within the diary.
Eventually, users will be able to search the diary by topic as well.
Also see the Cornell University branch of the project here.
Together, these two websites provide more than 1.5 million pages of text in a collaborative effort to digitize more than 11,000 volumes and 100,000 journal articles from the 19th century. The websites present full-text access to 32 journals, including literary and political magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The list includes specialized journals as well, such as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, Ladies Repository, and the American Missionary. The websites also offer an abundance of novels and monographs.
A recent addition provides 249 volumes on New York City, some from the early 20th century. At present, the two collections remain separate and must be searched individually. The institutions plan to integrate their sites, however, and to include material from other major research libraries. Access to many "Making of America" texts is also available through the Library of Congress American Memory site, "The Nineteenth Century in Print".
![Photo,"Immigrants aboard [...],"1892, American Family Immigration History Center](/sites/default/files/website_image/EllisIsland.jpg "Photo, detail from \"Immigrants aboard a ship heading for the Port of New York,\" 1892, American Family Immigration History Center")
Records on the more than 25 million passengers and ship crew members who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 are available through this website. Most passengers came from Europe and Russia, although there are some records from Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
The website requires a free, simple registration to view detailed records that include name, residence, date of arrival, age on arrival, ethnicity, place of residence, marital status, ship of travel, place of departure, and a copy of the original ship manifest (a transcription is also available). The website includes extensive contextual information about Ellis Island, immigration, and genealogical research. "Family Histories" illuminates the genealogical research experiences of six Americans of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
The "Peopling of America" exhibit covers six periods from pre-1790 to 2000, with graphs, photographs, and immigration statistics geared to place of origin. Additional information is available for an annual fee.
P. T. Barnum's American Museum burned down under mysterious circumstances in 1865 after nearly a quarter century of patronage. The original museum tried both to entertain and educate with exhibits on natural history, American history, and reform efforts along with attractions of a sensational nature. With the exception of African Americans, who were barred from entry until the Civil War, New Yorkers of diverse ethnic, gender, and class identities mingled in the museum's shared cultural space.
Visitors to this website can explore an interactive 3D recreation of the museum or an archive of images, documents, accounts, and essays on 16 original Barnum exhibits, including the Fejee mermaid; Joice Heth, a former slave advertised as George Washington's nursemaid; "Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind; John Brown; Jefferson Davis; the Lincoln assassination; the Civil War in New York; and phrenology. The website allows visitors to immerse themselves in the popular culture of Barnum's era.
From the Bowery Boys website:
"New York City Hall sits majestically inside a nostalgic, well-manicured park, topped with a beautiful old fountain straight out of gaslight-era New York. But its serenity belies the frantic pace of government inside City Hall walls, and disguises a tumultuous, vibrant history. There have actually been two other city halls -- one an actual tavern, the other a temporary seat of national government -- and the one we're familiar with today is a little less than 200 years old. Join us as we explore the unusual history of this building, through ill-executed fireworks, disgruntled architects, and its near-destruction -- to be saved only by a man named Grosvenor Atterbury. PLUS: We look at the park area itself, a common land that once catered to livestock, British soldiers, almshouses and a big, garish post office."
Author Danny Cassidy describes the origins of the word "dude," which he claims first came into use in late 19th-century New York among the Irish immigrant community.
Charles McCurdy of the University of Virginia discusses the ways in which states originally legally established or abolished slavery. He discusses particularly the gradual abolition of slavery (based on age and date of birth of African Americans) in states including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.