News Articles

Lead Balls from Fort Franklin

New Acquisition: Revolutionary War Military and Domestic Artifacts from Long Island

Published September 7, 2021 | Historical Archaeology

In August 2021, the New York State Museum acquired 200 artifacts from the LAMAR Institute in Savannah, Georgia. These artifacts are the result of the only systematic archaeological study of three Revolutionary War battlefield sites on the north shore of Long Island. 

Fort Franklin...

Divers Collecting Tagged Mussels

Science Tuesday: Malacology Fieldwork

Published July 27, 2021 | Malacology

Zebra and quagga mussels can be aggressive invaders of waterbodies and, when they reach high densities, can be devastating to native mussel populations (among other impacts).  Many lakes and rivers that once supported abundant and diverse communities of native mussels have seen declines after...

Decorative Stoneware

New Acquisition: Decorative Stoneware

Published July 1, 2021 | Cultural History

Since 1996, Adam Weitsman has donated over 500 pieces of decorated stoneware to the New York State Museum.  While only a portion of these are on view in the galleries, this collection receives lots of attention from researchers and other museums requesting loans.  Here are two new pieces...

Pride Center of Capital Region Panel Exhibition

Pride Center of the Capital Region Panel Exhibition

Published June 1, 2021 | Exhibitions

The New York State Museum is pleased to announce a panel exhibition highlighting the 50-year history of the Pride Center of the Capital Region, the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ community center in the country. To commemorate the Pride Center’s anniversary in 2020, the New York State...

Ball Clay Pipes

ScienceTuesday: What We Can Learn from Ball Clay Tobacco Pipes

Published May 11, 2021 | Historical Archaeology

Ball clay tobacco pipe fragments are one of the most common artifacts found on archaeological sites from the 17th through the 19th centuries. There are many reasons for this including the fact that most people smoked, tobacco pipes were relatively cheap and broke easily, and they survive well in...

Albee Square Collection

New Acquisition: 420 Albee Square Collection

Published May 6, 2021 | Historical Archaeology

In March of 2015, archaeologists excavated 3 wells, 3 cisterns, and one possible privy at 420 Albee Square in Brooklyn, New York. The New York State Museum acquired the resulting collection in 2020. The artifacts recovered from the excavations illustrate the changing demographics in Brooklyn at...

Tim McCabe, Cicada

What's all the Buzz about?

Published April 19, 2021 | Entomology

Get the official buzz about the emergence of periodical cicadas this summer! In a recent interview with WAMC’s Lucas Willard, Dr. Timothy McCabe, New York’s State Entomologist, discusses the impending appearance of Brood X (10) cicadas after 17 years underground and where New Yorkers might be...

Nevin’s Street, 1974 Oil on linen 23 ¾ x 19 ¼ in. H-2020.22.3

New Acquisitions: Artwork by Ken Rush

Published April 8, 2021 | Cultural History

The NYSM History Collection recently acquired a collection of paintings by Ken Rush (b.1948). Rush divides his time between Vermont and Brooklyn producing rural and urban subjects that move between the realistic and the abstract.  In this group of quiet, almost haunting subway paintings, he...

Finger Lakes Terrain

Science Tuesday: Deepest Continuous Cores of Glacial Sediments Ever Collected from Cayuga Lake Basin

Published March 11, 2021 | Quarternary Landscape Materials (QLM)

The layers of rock and sediment on the Earth's surface represent both a time capsule and vessel of stored resources. Geologist at the New York State Museum recently completed deep drilling exploration investigations near Ithaca, New York, to investigate Ice Age history. Over the last 2.8 Million...

Artifacts from the Pierce House Collection

New Acquisition: The Pierce House Collection

Published March 8, 2021 | Historical Archaeology

The NYSM Historical Archaeology Collection recently acquired the Pierce House Collection containing a wide variety of mid-nineteenth century household artifacts from a farmstead located in the town of Lewis, Essex County, New York. Documenting the transition from a tenant to owner occupied...

Small Footed Crucible

Science Tuesday: The Power of a Closer Look - Unearthing Personal Possessions of Enslaved African Americans

Published February 11, 2021 | Historical Archaeology

Many of the Historical Archaeology Collections at the New York State Museum were recovered during compliance work prior to the construction of roads, buildings, and other structures. Larger compliance projects can result in the recovery of 100,000 artifacts or more. Time and budget constraints...

Let’s Vote, Big Apple!, 2020 Emily Ree Digital print on card stock, 11 in. x 17 in.

New Acquisition: Voter Campaign Poster by Emily Ree

Published February 11, 2021 | Social History

Since 2017, LinkNYC Wi-Fi stations have been used to display the work of local artists on digital billboards across New York City. Hudson Valley comic artist Emily Ree’s work was one of 40 submissions chosen for the “Visualize the Vote” campaign in the fall of 2020. The project was a...

Excavation Site

Science Tuesday: CRSP Excavation and Discovery

Published January 26, 2021 | CRSP

In late Fall 2020, the Museum’s Cultural Resource Survey Program (CRSP) conducted a Phase 2 site examination of a historic period archaeological site in Central New York (see the NYSM Science Tuesday post from 11/24/2020).  Among the goals of the excavation were to delineate the site’s...

Mohican beaded purse with heart motif

Clan Mothers, Spinners, Attorneys and Stateswomen: Mohican Women in New Stockbridge - online talk on February 10, 2021

Published January 26, 2021 | Ethnography

Please join the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation for a Facebook Live 1-hour presentation entitled, “Clan Mothers, Spinners, Attorneys and Stateswomen: Mohican Women in New Stockbridge,” on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time.

...

Onondaga and Empire (cover)

New Publication: Onondaga and Empire; An Iroquoian People in an Imperial Era

Published January 8, 2021 | Archaeology

Just released! The NYSM has published the latest volume in the Bulletin Series entitled, Onondaga and Empire; An Iroquoian People in an Imperial Era. As author James W. Bradley notes, the publication “continues the story of the Onondaga, central nation in the League of the Five Nations...

Excavation Site showing Stone Foundation and Drain Pipe

New Acquisition: West Family Farm Shaker Archaeological Collection

Published January 6, 2021 | Historical Archaeology

Ann Lee founded the first communal settlement of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly known as the Shakers, in Watervliet New York in 1776. Lee died in 1784, but the community she established continued until 1915. Archaeological excavations at the West family...

Ice Age Bear Vertebra (anterior)

Science Tuesday: New York's First Ice Age Predator

Published January 5, 2021 | Vertebrate Paleontology

Predators are important parts of ecosystems, and while we know species like dire wolves and saber-toothed cats lived elsewhere, there are currently no published records of Ice Age predator fossils having been found in New York. One reason for this is that predators are represented by...

Harriet Alonso - My Autobiographical Bag  

New Acquisition: Harriet Alonso Needlework

Published December 7, 2020 | Social History

Harriet Alonso began working with embroidery in 1974. Influenced by the imagery of political posters, she soon used the medium to express her ideas about the causes she was passionate about, including women’s rights,...

Painting: "Still Life with Fruit" by Pieter Claesz (1644)

Newly identified - and edible! Re-analyzed privy soil yields increases knowledge of New Netherland diet

Published November 17, 2020 | Historical Archaeology

Archaeologists can glean a tremendous amount of information from soil sediments collected at archaeological sites. Pollen grains, phytoliths, seeds, and other remnant plant material can survive for thousands of years below ground under the right conditions. These data allow for the...

Silk Beaded Bag by Ken Williams Jr. (front)

New Acquisition: Silk Beaded Bag by Kenneth Williams Jr. (Cattaraugus Seneca and Arapaho)

Published November 4, 2020 | Ethnography

Inspired by the path-breaking beadwork artistry of Gahano (Caroline Parker Mt. Pleasant, Tonawanda Seneca), Ken Williams Jr.’s hand stitched silk and beaded bag pays tribute to the artistry of Seneca and Haudenosaunee beadwork in every detail. From the shape and construction of the bag, the tiny...

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