New York State Series – serie

Edith Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses (1897), co-written with the architect Ogden Codman Jr., brought transatlantic fame to a writer best known as a chronicler of Gilded Age New York. In their decorating guidebook, Wharton and Codman, who collaborated on the design of the author’s Massachusetts home, The Mount, advocated for simple but classically informed choices that resonate profoundly today. The book crystallizes what Wharton found to be troubling in Americans’ enthusiasm for ostentation at the turn of the twentieth century—the late Victorian equivalent of the modern "McMansion."This annotated edition includes a comprehensive introduction that provides relevant biographical information on Wharton, as well as her literary work and how her perspectives on homeownership and décor informed her writing. The reproduction of the book’s original illustrations alongside new annotations allows readers to visualize how Wharton’s aesthetic preferences informed her writing, life, and charitable works. Valuable to Wharton scholars as well as students of design, The Decoration of Houses presents a definitive look at the tastes of a literary icon.

This beautiful book, with its more than 100 superb photographs and perceptive text, makes visible an awareness of the relationship of past to present, of old to new, that will give all readers, wherever they live, new eyes with which to see their own familiar streets.For the people in Rochester and Monroe County, resident or visitor, the book is arranged geographically and is designed as a guide and itinerary, with maps of walking and driving routes for viewing neighborhoods and downtown areas of the city and villages in the county. The focus is never on isolated ""notable buildings,"" but on their relation to the areas of which they are an integral part. For those whose interest is architectural history there are abundant photographs or beautiful buildings—old as well as new, commercial as well as residential—with the text providing architectural and historical information.This book is sponsored by the Landmark Society of Western New York, with assistance from the New York Council on the Arts.

A superb blend of good story-telling and sound scholarship this book provides a fascinating record of what "country New Yorkers" have had to say and sing about themselves as they made their way through three centuries. You'll find stories and songs about pioneers," Injun fighters," canallers, outlaws, "uncanny critters," lumberjacks, farmers lovers, murderers, and tricksters. You’ll even be reminded that piracy and whaling are part of New York’s many-faceted tradition. One chapter examines the origins of New York’s strange place-names. Another is devoted to an engrossing account of New York’s proverbs and folk wisdom.

In 1800, the Holland Land Company assigned surveyor Joseph Ellicott the task of selling at a profit 3.3 million acres of land west of the Genesee River in New York State. By 1821, when Ellicott’s career as Resident-Agent ended, the area’s population had grown from only a few settlers to over 100,000. This study traces the evolution of western New York from the time the Indians relinquished control to the solidification of institutional life.As a land promoter in the wilderness, Joseph Ellicott quickly discovered that business and politics went hand in hand, for the factors that affected land sales were frequently political. Although his contract with the Holland Land Company expressly forbade it, he became deeply involved in the political life of western New York, playing a decisive role in the creation of Genesee County and its further divisions into four counties. Ellicott used his influence to advance the Erie Canal project, particularly from Rochester westward, and persuaded the state legislature to grant a charter for the Bank of Niagara. Although the rest of the state fluctuated in its political preferences, from his base in Batavia he kept western New York loyal to the Republican Party, building up close relations with DeWitt Clinton.During his long career, Ellicott made many enemies. The postwar nationalists resented him as the agent of the Dutch-owned company. Taxpayers fought him because he blocked a road tax on land owned by nonresidents; his employers were irritated when he could not persuade the state to buy Holland Land Company property; his increasing melancholy angered customers; and his break with Clinton during the 1820 gubernatorial campaign set off a chain reaction of political pressures that led to his dismissal as Resident-Agent the next year. Ellicott direct in 1826.Based on extensive research in the Holland Land Company Papers in Amsterdam’s City Archives, Professor Chazanof’s study presents a previously unexplored part of the political history of New York State on regional, national, and international levels. Illustrations and maps are included.

Adirondack Portraits: A Piece of Time is a moving poetic statement about the Adirondack wilderness and the people who fought the mountains’ relentless environment to settle there at the end of the nineteenth century. The book is also about the remarkable Jeanne Robert Foster (1879–1970). Born in poverty in the Adirondacks, as a young woman she emerged in the center of the literary and artistic circles of her day, an associate of Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and the Yeatses, father and son. Adirondack Portraits gives us a glimpse into the early life of Jeanne and some of the influences that helped her step from a harsh physical existence into the unforgettable world of New York, Paris, and London in the 1920s. Above all, her poems and prose pieces are, in the words of Alfred Kazin, "an attempt to recover a vanished time, to record with love and admiration and enduring wonder a life of hardship, endless exertion, and perhaps above all, the kind of isolation that used to dominate country life in America.

Thirty years ago, John Keats and his family purchased a two-acre island in the St. Lawrence River, at a time when boats were still lovingly crafted of wood and an island could be had for $4,000. Depending on the elements and on their own resourcefulness, the Keats family thrives in the rhythms of island life-fishing, learning to navigate the river and read the clouds for weather, acquiring an "Indian" view of time, maintaining a house, several boats, and three children on a windswept rock. But more than a book about a single family's adventures, this one is strong witness that we all need islands of our own in the midst of life. Originally published in 1974, Of Time and an Island was chosen as a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection.

Written by an experienced antiquarian, this book explores the history of utilitarian pottery production in New York State, beginning with the Dutch in Manhattan. The subject matter ranges across the entire state, from Long Island and the Mohawk and Hudson valleys, to the St. Lawrence, Lake Erie, and the Southern Tier.This completely revised and updated edition of a highly praised 1970 book brings our knowledge of New York State potters and potteries to the present, incorporating extensive research in specific localities and information from excavations that have been carried out in recent years.The author discusses the types of wares that were made in New York potteries and suggests why the industry flourished. A general introduction to pottery types and methods of glazing and firing orient the reader in what was an important industry in early New York State.Supplemented by dozens of photographs and line drawings, this book contains the only existing lists of marks used by New York potters, as well as an appendix listing more than 1,400 of the state’s individual craftsmen, including the communities in which they worked, their active dates, and the types of ware they produced.The book will be valuable for ceramists, collectors, antiquarians, and those interested in the social, cultural, and economic history of New York State.

Throughout his career as a photographer, writer and conservationist, Paul Schaefer has been the Adirondack's leading spokesperson and the driving force behind negotiating New York State's ""forever wild"" laws. In this autobiography, Schaefer recalls life in the mountains.

In this work Terrie offers an assessment of the roles that the Adirondacks have played in American history. He brings to life the scientists and scholars, the travellers and sportsmen, the publicists and bureaucrats, who together have contributed to the wilderness aesthetic.

This is a historical study of acculturation in New York City. It documents the Americanization of foreign enclaves within the city, showing the effects produced by church, school, foreign-language press and libraries - the methods by which the Democratic Party enlisted the immigrant vote.

In the many photographs magnificently reproduced in this collection, Andrews has captured the incredible range of the architecture of New York State, from Manhattan Island to Chautauqua County. Something of the scope of this work is indicated by the fact that A. J. Davis, Richard Upjohn, James Renwick, Richard M. Hunt, Henry Hardenbergh, Daniel Burnham, Carrere & Hastings, Cass Gilbert, John Russell Pope, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Marcel Breuer, Eliel Saarincn, and Paul Rudolph are among the architects whose works are illustrated.

This first-person narrative documents one man's adventure down the Hudson River by canoe - from its source at the peak of Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks to Battery Park.

Nature and the mid nineteenth-century American landscape is beautifully revealed in this journal of the seasons. Susan Fennimore Cooper, daughter of the great American novelist, wrote this book in 1850, four years before Walden was published. She described it as her "simple record of those little events which make up the course of the seasons in rural life."As with the works of Thoreau and others in this contemplative genre, including that of Joseph Wood Krutch and Henry Besten, Cooper’s work, with its treasury of information about a way of life of which only remnants remain, is for the nature lover, the folklorist, and history buff.This is the first paperback edition of a book that, when it was originally published, William Cullen Bryant called" one of the sweetest books ever printed." It went through several editions during Cooper’s life and was very popular in the United States and England.

These letters from the Albany Orphan Asylum in New York demonstrate how institutions in the late 19th century provided a social service. The volume comprises letters from parents to their children and to the asylum superintendents, as well as letters from children placed out to indenture.

This is the story of how one of America's first national resorts gave birth to the first national sport of horse racing. It introduces a parade of champions and their spectacular supporting characters.

Moses Hazen, commander of the Second Canadian Reiment, was an unusual and influential man during the period of the American Revolution. The Tories who fled to Canada have received careful study, but little attention has been paid to the Canadians who came south to aid the colonists in their fight against the British.Hazen was one of the leading agents of the Continental Congress in the efforts to recruit Canadians from Quebec and Nova Scotia. This book is more than a biography of Hazen; it is also the story of the Canadians who left their homes, farms, and businesses to join the Continental Army. Allan Everest analyzes the war, in particular its norther theater, and discusses the shabby treatment the Canadians and their families received during and right after the war. In addition, he provides new information on frontier land grants as a reward for army service, the vast speculation in land, and finances of the young republic. Hazen, a prime example of the speculators right after the war, stuck by his Canadian troops until they, too, were rewarded with land grants on the northern frontiers of New York State.This book was published for the New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission. The Commission was created by the New York State legislature in 1968 to plan and conduct statewide commemorative programs for the 200th anniversary of the American Revolution and the birth of New York State.

Built in 1864 as the nation's first horse racing facility, Saratoga (New York) racecourse is one of the sport's hallowed sites. This text details the development and social history of Saratoga the resort, historically a magnet for the wealthy and famous.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams: ""There is a Mr. Vanderkemp of New York, a correspondent, I believe, of yours, with whom I have exchanged some letters, without knowing who he is. Will you tell me?"" Adams replied: ""The biography of Mr. Vanderkemp would require a volume...My acquaintance with him began at Leyden, in 1780. He was the minister of the Mennonite congregation, the richest in Europe, in that city, where he was celebrated as the most elegant writer in the Dutch language... In 1788 when the king of Prussia threatened Holland with invasion, his party insisted on his taking a command of the most exposed and most important post in the seven provinces. He was soon surrounded by the Prussian forces, but he defended his fortress...till, abandoned by his nation, destitute of provisions and ammunition, still refusing to surrender, he was offered the most honorable capitulation...despairing of the liberty of his country, he ...determined to emigrate to New York; he wrote to me...requesting letters of introduction. I sent him letters to Governor Clinton and several others of our little great men. His history in this country is equally curious and affecting.… His head is deeply learned, and his heart is pure... 'he is a mountain of salt to the earth,'...Had he been as great a master of our language as he was of his own, he would at this day have been one of the most conspicuous characters in the United States.""Francis Adrian Van der Kemp was a writer, minister, and political leader of some prominence in his native Holland when he fled from religious and political persecution in 1788 to settle in Oneida County in upstate New York. He became one of the area's important citizens during its formative period. His active, inquiring mind ranged far beyond his rural village of Oldenbarneveld. Politics, religion, history, government, scientific agriculture geology, the Erie Canal, the conduct of the War of 1812, and any threat to political or religious freedom stimulated him to research and writing. Van der Kemp's views were sought and respected not only by his friends and neighbors, but by state and national leaders as well. His warm friendship with John and Abigail Adams endured till their deaths, and John Quincy Adams continued the friendship.This is an absorbing biography of an active and influential citizen and resident of central New York State.

Houses and gardens created in America between 1860 and 1917 were ""modern"" manifestations of nineteenth century art, science, and industry, conveying cultural values in their form, function, style, and materials. Now Increasing public interest in the restoration of nineteenth-century properties has provoked curiosity about their physical surroundings.While many buildings from the period survive intact, their landscape and garden settings, in most cases, have long since disappeared. Natural cycles of growth and decay, together with manmade changes, have left only remnants of the historic landscape – a dilapidated fence post, the arching canopy of a venerable tree, some persistent spring bulbs at a dooryard,Based on a careful study of historic photographs from museums, libraries, archives, and private collections, Gardens of the Gilded Age explains the history, design, and social function of ornamental gardens and homegrounds in New York State during the latter parts of the nineteenth century.As early as 1820, New York State had become the nation’s leader in population, foreign and domestic commerce, transportation, banking, and manufacturing. New York also took the lead in influencing the rest of the nation in the theory and practice of horticulture and landscape gardening.The more than one hundred photographs featured in Gardens of the Gilded Age were not selected for their aesthetic quality alone, or for their uniqueness. While including magnificent proprieties such as Sonnenberg, Lorenzo, and Box Hill, many show ordinary gardens which reflect the character of common people in the art and craft of garden making. Taken together, these garden photographs provide a new perspective on American customs in landscape gardening from 1860 to 1917.

Here, in a pictorial history, Jim Shaughnessy turns an eloquent photographer's eye to the Delaware & Hudson, the line that began in 1823 as a canal system to transport Pennsylvania coal to New York State. The D&H extended from Montreal to the coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania. It was active for 170 years, when the route was sold in 1993 to the Canadian Pacific Railway Corporation. The line made early railroad fame by importing from England the famous Stourbridge Lion, the first steam locomotive in America. This occurred during a great expansion into gravity, an interesting phase which took advantage of the mountainous terrain.The nineteenth century saw a period of economic growth and amalgamation, which was shaped by extremely able and ambitiou company presidents. Eventually the D&H advertised itself as "the Bridge Line to New England and Canada." Mountainous terrain around the coal mines challenged the line with heavy grades, so it was natural for one of its presidents, L. F. Loree, to be fascinated with experimental traction power. The many Loree locomotives, leaders in progressive design, are pictured and described herein.Because a good railroad history is always an economic history of a region, this book will surely pleasehistorian, too. Delaware & Hudson is a definitive work, encompassing the mining of the region and detailingthe steamboat operations on Lakes George and Champlain. Syracuse University Press is pleased to reissue thisexemplary study of a railroad. Delaware & Hudson has—and will—continue to raise the standards for allfuture railroad books.

One would be challenged to find a railroad to compare scenically and historically with the Rutland Railroad. With Yankee persistence, it struggled for its existence in the snows of Vermont and northern New York for more than one hundred years. Running through territory amply covered by larger and stronger lines, it survived bankruptcy, receivership, flood, unequal competition, seizure, depression, and strikes. Its vestigial remains operate in a small area to this day.Jim Shaughnessy—award-winning railroad photographer and authority—discusses the Rutland's entire history thoroughly, from preconstrnction in 1831 to the present. In this updated edition, the author covers the history of the three lines that continued to operate after the demise of the Rutland Railroad-the Vermont Railway, the GreenMountain Railroad, and the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority.Lavishly illustrated with more than 500 incomparable photographs (including those by railroad photographer Philip R. Hastings), The Rutland Road has other features for the railroad enthusiast and historian alike: maps, charts, reproductions of advertisements, a detailed index with engine rosters, a chronology of the Rutland Railroad, and other significant statistical information.

At the turn of the twentieth century, New York City philanthropist, arts patron, and scholar Archer M. Huntington became the foremost collector and face of Spanish art in the United States with the founding of the Hispanic Society of America. This organization, which served as a bridge between artists in Spain and wealthy patrons in the States, was the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship and passion for Spanish culture for Huntington, one he would grapple with throughout his public and intellectual life.In Archer M. Huntington: Founder of the Hispanic Society of America, Patricia Fernández Lorenzo offers, for the first time in English, a complete biography of Huntington, tracing his enthusiasm for Spain and the arts from his childhood, to his marriage to sculptor Anna Hyatt and his crisis of conscience in the wake of the violence of the Spanish Civil War. Drawing heavily from Archer’s correspondence and from Anna Hyatt Huntington’s papers, housed at Syracuse University, Fernández Lorenzo offers a full, deeply human portrait of one of the great patrons of Spanish art, giving a comprehensive look at Huntington’s role in defining Hispanicism in the United States.

Seneca Ray Stoddard’s photographic and literary work paralleled the era of exploration of this region as well as the early years of photography. It was during his lifetime—as a result of the changing perceptions of the wilderness—that the area first attracted artists, tourists, and summer residents.Jeffrey L. Horrell’s book explores the nature of this Adirondack pioneer’s work and examines how it influenced and was influenced by the changing attitudes toward wilderness in the last half of the nineteenth century. It is the first complete volume to provide an in-depth study of both Stoddard’s writing and photography. Through his photographs and publishing ventures, Stoddard moved from recording the wilderness landscape to defending it against the logging industry and other developers.Stoddard was instrumental in creating the modern perception of the ""forever wild"" landscape of the Adirondacks. Although there had been a well-established tradition of guidebooks for American tourist regions, Stoddard’s practice of including illustrations based on photographs represented a new departure. Horrell shows how Stoddard’s work reflected matters of class and power on the emerging tourist industry and its effect on the popular literature of the day.

The most favored Dutch cookbook of the seventeenth century, The Sensible Cook (De Verstandige Kock) had a major impact on the foodways of the Dutch in the Netherlands and in their New World territories.As a part of the larger work, The Pleasurable Country Life, The Sensible Cook records the foodways of rich middle-class households, the cooking methods and typical dishes they prepared, and the implements and ingredients they employed.Often the recipes are surprisingly sophisticated. From braising a chicken with orange peel and cinnamon to stuffing pigeons with a mixture of parsley, ginger, sugar, butter, and raisins, many of the dishes are still appealing today. Peter G. Rose has, in fact, adapted some two dozen of the recipes for contemporary use―tempting dishes such as “Shoemaker’s Cake,” a delicious combination of bread crumbs, butter, eggs, and stewed apples.Handsomely illustrated with Dutch genre paintings, The Sensible Cook will interest cooks, food historians, students of social and cultural history, and the large number of Dutch descendants in America. Most important, this book will be welcomed by all who enjoy good food.