The History Department at the New York State Museum cares for and interprets over 4 million artifacts, researches the state’s history, and disseminates this history through books, articles, exhibitions, public programs, and social media. The History Department works with scholars, municipal historians, curators, archivists, librarians, and members of the public around the state to interpret the past and collect for the future. The New York State Museum History Collections are vast – from an 18th century colonial Dutch armchair to a Norden bombsite from WWII to a painting by Romare Bearden. The artifacts in our collection tell the stories of the people of New York State. To better manage these collections, they are divided into the categories of social history, political history, cultural history, and economic history.
Research Staff & Curators
Dr. Jennifer Lemak
Chief Curator of Historyjennifer.lemak@nysed.gov
Prior to my current position as the chief curator of history, I served as the senior historian/curator of social history for a decade. My major exhibition and publication projects include Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial (2017) and An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War (2012). I am also the author of Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany’s Rapp Road (SUNY Press, 2008), which focused on a community that migrated to Albany from Shubuta, Mississippi, and the greater migration experience in Albany.
John Abeel
Medical and Sports Collections
Emily Finelli
Popular Entertainment Collections
Karen Quinn
Senior Historian/Curator, Art and Culturekaren.quinn@nysed.gov
As an art historian my primary research has focused on American paintings, concentrating on nineteenth-century landscape artists and early twentieth-century modernists. I am especially interested in painters’ working methods as well as the attraction of specific places to the artist,
Ashley Hopkins-Benton
Senior Historian and Curator, Social Historyashley.hopkins-benton@nysed.gov
As curator of social history, my research and collections work primarily focuses on women’s history (especially the history of the fight for women’s rights), LGBTQ+ history, immigration, and religion, as well as the collections areas of sculpture, toys, glassware, and ceramics.
Dr. Jennifer Lemak
Chief Curator of Historyjennifer.lemak@nysed.gov
Prior to my current position as the chief curator of history, I served as the senior historian/curator of social history for a decade.
Aaron Noble
Senior Historian and Curator, Political and Military Historyaaron.noble@nysed.gov
My areas of research and collection primarily focus on the political, governmental, and military history of New York State and its citizenry, and how that history impacts the broader historical narrative.
Brad L. Utter
Senior Historian/Curator, Science and Technological Historybrad.utter@nysed.gov
My areas of research revolve around the development of industry and transportation in the State of New York and how that development impacted the lives of New Yorkers.
Provides resources and news for historians throughout New York State
News Articles
Human Frogs in the History Collections!
Published December 9, 2013 | Cultural History
The New York State Museum’s history collections contain two frog costumes for humans and one frog costume for a dog. These costumes belonged to Harry and Friede DeMarlo, a vaudeville couple that once played circuses and vaudeville houses all over ...