Although slavery in New York State was abolished on July 4, 1827, the institution of slavery in the United States did not officially come to an end for another thirty-eight years. On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Procla...

The Museum recently acquired a series of 1917 Franklin County women's suffrage petitions from Jean Kubaryk, a teacher at North Warren Central School District. Ms. Kubaryk had been displaying the petitions in her classroom for years, but ...

The State Museum recently acquired a fully-restored 1947 Tavern Television made by the United States Television Manufacturing Corporation (USTMC). Made in New York City, this unit is believed to be one of only five known sets left in the United St...

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, educational equality, and peac...

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 i...

One sewing machine, two stories: Some artifacts in our collection hold the stories of multiple individuals. This ca. 1972 Singer industrial sewing machine, recently donated to the NYSM, belonged to Tsui Ping Chu, an immigrant from Hong Kong. Ch...

Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919) was a successful entrepreneur, businesswoman, philanthropist, and social and political activist during a time when both African Americans and women were not common in the world of business. In 1906, she started her o...

A liquor chest used by soldiers in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 was recently donated to the New York State Museum. The chest was donated by the descendants of Captain Abraham Swartwout (an officer on General George Washington...

On October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal officially opened from Albany to Buffalo. The canal was an immediate success: shipping costs plummeted, and new services and goods became widely available. Cheap, reliable transportation opened new markets ...

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 ...

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 thi...

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 muse...

A gift to the NYSM last year, Charles Clough's monumental painting—an awe-inspiring 9 x 16 feet—has just been installed in New York Hall. To create it, Clough invited visitors to Art Omi, a contemporary art gallery and sculpture park in Ghent, New...

This screen-printed linen handkerchief was designed by Marion Weeber (1905-2000) in honor of King George VI’s coronation in England on March 8, 1937. It was manufactured by Burmel and sold at finer department stores. The handkerchief was framed an...

This impressive stoneware water cooler is incised and impressed with decorations that depict the celebration of the Great National Jubilee of the Order of the Sons of Temperance, an organization founded in New York City in 1842. Temperance icon...

This set of child-sized furniture was a birthday gift to the donor, Mary Alice Cole, from her parents, in the 1960s. She recalled many families in Watervliet, NY, having play houses in the back yard, where “playing house” was a popular activity fo...

Daniel Huntington (1816–1906) The Atlantic Cable Projectors, 1895 Oil on canvas

Mortimer Spiller was born in 1922 to Russian immigrants who settled in LeRoy, New York. Spiller’s college training in business and advertising was interrupted by service in World War II. After the war, he was eager to complete his education and pu...