A lecture and book signing by a Smithsonian paleontologist will be among the activities at the "10th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale," which will be held Saturday, February 22 and Sunday, February 23 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the museum's concourse level, the show will help to fund new acquisitions for the museum's gem and mineral collections. It will feature vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools.

Available for sale at the museum's publications booth will be publications produced by the New York State Museum's Research and Collections Division documenting research in natural and human history in New York. Materials on display will include data in geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

Dr. Ellis Yochelson, who also is retired from the US Geological Survey, will lecture Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Clark Auditorium on "Mystery Fossils: 500 Million-Year-old 'Motor-Cycle Tracks' from Northeastern New York." His lecture on Sunday at noon in the Clark Auditorium will be on "A Life Well Lived: The Utica and Albany Years of C.D. Walcott, America's Greatest Geologist."

The Saturday lecture will focus on Dr. Yochelson's research with Michael Fedonkin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This work led to a new interpretation of how large marine animals produced giant track-ways in ancient sandstones near the New York-Canadian border.

Dr. Yochelson's lecture on Walcott will begin with Walcott's birth near Utica and trace his career in geologica research that led to his becoming head of the Smithsonian and a member of the American Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yochelson will also sign copies of his biography on Walcott. On Saturday at noon in the Clark Auditorium, Dr. Marian Lupulescu, a mineralogist for the State Museum, will lecture on "The World of Minerals." He will explain what a mineral is, the relationship between its structure, shape and properties, and in what environments minerals can form. Minerals from the museum's extensive collections will be shown as examples.

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club throughout the weekend.
• A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the museum's senior cartographer, about map making processes and methods for producing the State Museum's new geologic quadrangle map.
• Guided tours of the Minerals of New York gallery, highlighting recent acquisitions, by Michael Hawkins, the State Museum's mineralogy collections manager, on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Meet in museum lobby
• Guided fossil tours of the expanded Ancient Life of New York and the new Burgess Shale exhibitions by Dr. Ed Landing, state paleontologist, on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Meet in museum lobby.
• Identification by museum scientists of fossils and minerals brought in by the public, throughout the weekend.

The gem and mineral show was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the museum's geological staff, and has become one of the museum's most popular and well-attended annual events.

There will be an admission fee of $3 per person and no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. There also will be a $5 combination ticket available that will include admission to "New York in Bloom," which will be held at the museum the same weekend. Tickets may be purchased at the door.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the 14th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held Saturday, February 24 and Sunday, February 25 at the New York State Museum. 
Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Museum’s 4th floor Terrace Gallery, the show is part of the Museum’s annual fundraising weekend, the only time admission is charged at the Museum. Proceeds will help fund new acquisitions for the museum’s gem and mineral collections. Among recent acquisitions are several new collections purchased with funds from last year’s show.
The show will feature over 20 vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be lectures, children’s activities and guided exhibition tours. 
Available for sale at the Museum's publications booth will be publications produced by the New York State Museum’s Research and Collections Division documenting research in natural and human history in New York. Materials on display will include data in geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history. 
Dr. Marian Lupulescu, curator of geology at the New York State Museum, will lecture Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Carole F. Huxley (former Museum) Theater on “The Many Forms of Calcite.” Dr. Lupulescu will highlight many of the mineral treasures held by the State Museum.
On Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, Dr. Ed Landing, the state paleontologist at the State Museum, will lecture on “Critter Minerals - the Minerals That Plants and Animals Create.” 
Other activities over the weekend will include:
•A mineral dig for children, held throughout the weekend, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club.
•A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the Museum’s senior cartographer, about map-making processes and methods for producing the State Museum’s new geologic quadrangle map.
•Guided tours of the expanded Ancient Life of New York exhibition by Dr. Landing on Saturday at 2 p.m. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.
•Guided tours of the Minerals of New York gallery highlighting recent acquisitions, by Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager, both Saturday at noon and Sunday at 2 p.m. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.
•Identification by Museum scientists of fossils and minerals brought in by the public, throughout the weekend.
There is a general admission price of $6 per person, which also admits visitors to the “New York in Bloom” event the same weekend. There is no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. Tickets may be purchased at the door and there is limited free parking.
The “Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show” was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s geological staff, and has become one of the Museum's most popular annual events.
The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the “18th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 4th floor Terrace Gallery, the show is part of the Museum’s annual fundraising weekend, the only time admission is charged at the Museum. Proceeds will help fund new acquisitions for the museum’s gem and mineral collections.

There is a general admission price of $6 per person, which also admits visitors to the “New York in Bloom” event the same weekend. There is no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. Tickets may be purchased at the door and there is limited free parking.

The show will feature more than 20 vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, as well as stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be children’s activities, mineral identification and guided exhibition tours.

Publications, produced by the Museum’s Research and Collections staff, documenting research in New York’s natural and human history, will also be for sale. Materials on display will include information on geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children, held throughout the weekend, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club.
• Guided tours on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p. m. of the Minerals of New York gallery. Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager, will highlight recent acquisitions. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.

The “Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show” was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s geological staff, and has become one of the Museum's most well-attended annual events.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the State Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the “19th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held February 25- 26 at the New York State Museum.

The Museum is open Saturday and Sunday for this special event, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the fourth-floor Terrace Gallery. The show will help fund new acquisitions for the Museum’s gem and mineral collections. Admission will be $4. Children aged 12 and under will get in free when accompanied by an adult. There is a separate $5 admission fee for “New York in Bloom,” on February 24-26.

The show will feature more than 30 vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, as well as stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be children’s activities, mineral identification and guided exhibition tours.

Publications, produced by the Museum’s staff, documenting research in New York’s natural and human history, will also be for sale. Materials on display will include information on Geology, Archaeology, Paleontology, Anthropology, Biology, and History.

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children, held throughout the weekend, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club.
• Guided tours on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p. m. of the Minerals of New York gallery. Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager, will highlight recent acquisitions. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.

The “Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show” was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s Geology staff, and has become one of the Museum's most well-attended annual events.

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Visitors to the New York State Museum’s “13th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale February 25-26th will have the opportunity to learn about the Earth’s oldest trees found in New York’s Catskill mountains, hear about the latest research on new minerals from New York and see new gem and mineral collections on display

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Museum’s 4th floor terrace, this show is part of the Museum’s annual fundraising weekend, the only time admission is charged at the Museum. Proceeds will help fund new acquisitions for the Museum’s gem and mineral collections. Among recent acquisitions are several new collections purchased with funds from last year’s show.

The show will feature more than 20 vendors who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be lectures, children’s activities and guided exhibition tours.

Available for sale will be publications produced by the New York State Museum’s Research and Collections Division documenting research in natural and human history in New York. Materials on display will include data in geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

Dr. Marian Lupulescu, the State Museum’s curator of geology, will lecture Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Museum Theater on “What’s New in New York State Mineralogy.” Dr. Lupulescu will highlight many of the mineral treasures in the Museum’s collections and reveal what his new research has uncovered about these minerals.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Museum Theater Dr. Ed Landing, the state paleontologist at the State Museum, will deliver a lecture titled “Earth’s Oldest Trees -- A 360 Million Year Old Logjam in the Catskills.”

Other activities over the weekend will include:

A mineral dig for children, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club, Saturday and Sunday

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A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the Museum’s senior cartographer, about map-making processes and methods for producing the State Museum’s new geologic quadrangle map. Guided tours of the expanded Ancient Life of New York exhibition by Dr. Landing on Sunday at 2 p.m. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby. Guided tours of the Minerals of New York gallery, highlighting recent acquisitions, by Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager, both Saturday and Sunday at noon. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby. Identification by Museum scientists of fossils and minerals brought in by the public, throughout the weekend.

The Gem and Mineral show was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s geology staff, and has become one of the Museum's most popular and well-attended annual events. This is the only weekend the Museum charges admission. There is a general admission price of $5 per person, which also admits visitors to the “New York in Bloom” event at the Museum the same weekend. There is no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. Tickets may be purchased at the door and there is limited free parking.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY – As part of a nationwide project to identify and assess new sources of renewable geothermal energy that could help mitigate global warming, the New York State Geological Survey (NYSGS) has received a $280,000 federal grant to collect data that will help scientists to better understand the potential for geothermal resources in New York State.

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu has announced awards totaling $338 million for geothermal energy research across the country that includes the creation of a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource data system by the nation’s State Geological Surveys to help identify and assess new fields.

The New York State Geological Survey, the geological research arm of the New York State Museum, will contribute to this effort as part of a coalition of 40 states organized to contribute to a new National Geothermal Data System with relevant state-specific geothermal data. The project, which will begin in New York by next summer, will receive $17.79 million from the Department of Energy (DOE) over three years under the auspices of consortium of states organized by the Association of American State Geologists (AASG).

“This project will help us understand the geothermal potential in New York to an extent never before possible,” said New York State Geologist Bill Kelly. “It’s exciting to be part of this national effort, involving other state geological surveys, to address such a critical energy need for the state and the country.”

Geothermal energy is power extracted from heat stored in the earth. It is considered to be a dependable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy source that has become more accessible due to recent technological advances. Although geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, the emissions are much less than they would be with conventional fossil fuels. If geothermal energy is widely used instead, it could help alleviate global warming.

Compiling state-specific geothermal data into integrated and searchable data systems distributed to several locations around the country should drive renewed efforts to identify, assess and exploit geothermal energy resources across America. This national collaboration of state and federal agencies, universities, and industry, has the potential to reshape America’s energy landscape, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and leverage non-renewable petroleum resources well into the 21st Century.

As a member of AASG, the NYSGS is a partner in the Geothermal Data Coalition, based at Boise State University, which will design and build the National Geothermal Data System under contract to DOE. AASG member surveys will adapt the U.S. Geological Survey Geoscience Information Network to provide data discovery, access, and exchange services as a component in the developing data system. The U.S. Geoscience Information Network is a collaboration between AASG and U.S. Geological Survey online data providers and user applications linked together by shared web services and interchange formats for the purpose of finding, accessing, and using geoscientific information. 

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY –New York State Museum geoscientists will discuss their investigations of New York’s past and present and the state’s relationship to the larger world in a series of weekly lectures in April at the Museum.

The free lectures will be offered on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. Scientists will explain how their research in the field lab and office is mixed, on a daily basis, with work involving Museum collections and exhibitions, as well as with outreach to government agencies, teachers, industry and the public.

The schedule and topics are:

• April 1 – “It’s Mines, All Mines.” Dr. William Kelly, state geologist, will discuss his research on the economic impact of mining in New York. He also recounts the adventure of the 1994 collapse of the world’s largest rock salt mine, located in western New York.
• April 8 – “Dates, Rates, and Geologic Hazards: Surficial Geology.” Dr. Andrew Kozlowski, a glacial geologist, will describe several current research projects investigating sediment-landforms, their chronology, and geologic hazards.
• April 15 – “Old Bones, Caves, and Chemistry.” Dr. Robert S. Feranec, curator of vertebrate paleontology, will discuss the importance of recent excavations of fossil mammals in New York and Spain. He also will talk about how paleontologists glean information about paleoecology and dating from the fossils after they are removed from the ground.
• April 22 – “Ancient Seas, Ancient Volcanism.” A geologist’s job is to better understand geological processes and the Earth’s history. Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten, a sedimentary geologist, will examine the mysteries of New York and the world around 400 million years ago and reveal the fate of volcanic ash layers in ancient seas and lakes.
• April 29 – “Understanding the Geology of the Adirondacks.” Dr. Marian Lupulescu, curator of geology, talks about his research topics and how he uses the Museum’s collections and field data to uncover geologic secrets of the Adirondack Mountains and Hudson Highlands.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY - "New York State Girls," an exhibition highlighting the history and diversity of girls and their role in the culture of New York State, will open Tuesday, October 15 at the New York State Museum.

The exhibition explores activities common to many girls, but from a New York perspective. It is centered around the themes of education, recreation, work and rites of passage, which serve as windows to understanding the roles of girls in New York culture. The exhibition celebrates the cultural diversity of New York girls and the many ways they marked the transition from girlhood to womanhood.

"Girls Education - A Tradition in New York" focuses on formal and informal education. Although Dutch settlers in "Niew Netherlands" provided for the public education of girls, many European settlers believed educating girls was a waste of time. Before the Civil War, academic education for girls was rare. Well-to-do girls were taught the necessary skills to read the bible, as well as the "graces" (watercolor painting, embroidery and music). Included in this section is schoolgirl art, a style of art popular during the 19th century, including a sampler, landscape on sandpaper and theorem painting. The education section details New York State's role as an innovator in academic education for women for over two centuries. Items from the Emma Willard School in Troy help to tell the story of the pioneering academic institution established in Troy in 1821 with the encouragement of the progressive thinking Governor Dewitt Clinton. Many other girls' schools quickly followed.

The recreation section chronicles the growth of leisure activities for girls in New York State. Victorian rules on appropriate behavior, based on class and gender, limited girls' enjoyment of play well into the 20th century. To prepare them for future roles as wives and mothers, girls used toys, such as dolls, tiny cooking and tea sets, an ironing board, wash tub and other items to mimic and learn the work their mothers did.

In a break from this tradition, camps opened for girls in the state in the late 1800s. In the early 1920s they were segregated according to religion, gender, economics and race. Over time they evolved and became more inclusive. In 1898, a camp opened in Altamont for older working girls. A church sponsored camp for black children was established in New Paltz between 1928 and 1935 and a rare integrated, co-educational camp opened in Pauling in the 1930s.

The exhibition also documents the growth of the Girl Scout organization in the state, dating back to the 1930s when its facilities were segregated, to the present time when girls of all races are welcome. Girl scout apparel, pins, badges and other items will be on display.

The rites of passage, which girls observe as they pass from girlhood to womanhood, are documented through the display of various items that reflect cultural diversity in New York State. These include objects associated with a girl's religion, such as the Bat Mitzvah in the Jewish religion and the First Communion ceremony of the Catholic faith. It includes a dress, parasol, tiara and other items associated with LaQuinceanera, a celebration of a Latino girl's 15th year that emerged from several customs, including some with Catholic overtones.

The section on work focuses in on a key period of American history highlighting the pivotal role girls played in the labor movement. In pre-industrial New York, girls were considered an extra pair of hands to do chores around the house or on the farm. They assisted in cooking, dishwashing, sewing, house cleaning and farm chores. With the introduction of machines, particularly in the textile industry, girls left the farm for the cities where they could earn money for their work. Immigrant girls also flooded into the urban labor force. By the early 20th century, over half of the laborers were women, 65 percent were between the ages of 16 and 25 and their average workweek totaled 56 hours.

In the so-called "Shirtwaist Strike" of 1909-1910, socialists and socialites faced police beatings and threats by employers and powerful newspapers in their fight for decent working conditions for girls and women toiling in sweatshops and garment factories all over the country.

The New York Girls exhibition was sponsored and assembled by the New York State Museum and the Governor's Office Division for Women.

The New York State Museum, a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education, was founded on a tradition of scientific inquiry. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

ALBANY – The State Museum will receive a $400,000 federal energy grant and additional state funds to investigate the potential for storing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in New York geological formations in an effort to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere.

The project is part of a public-private climate change research program being conducted in conjunction with the New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), which is working with research firms, energy developers, universities, and government agencies.

Geologist Dr. Taury Smith will lead the Museum project to evaluate gas shale formations for CO2 sequestration and enhanced gas recovery potential throughout the state. This will build upon a current NYSERDA contract with the Museum’s geologists to assess New York’s formations for sequestration potential.

Carbon sequestration involves chemically capturing carbon dioxide from power plants or other sources before it is released into the atmosphere. The CO2 is then compressed and piped underground to an appropriate site to be injected and stored or “sequestered” in geological formations deep underground.

The Museum will provide an assessment of geologic sequestration potential in New York in support of the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership. This is one of seven regional partnerships across the U.S. formed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy. The area of review includes New York State, with a focus on adjacent states in the Appalachian Basin (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio). Museum researchers will study an area starting from the counties just south of Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border and east to Otsego and Delaware counties.

The Museum will work with other Geological Survey teams in the partnership to better define key geologic formations that were mapped in adjacent states.

This grant is one of several major grants the Museum has received in recent months. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded four grants to the New York State Museum, an unusually high number for a single research institution. Although the NSF receives about 40,000 grant applications a year for research, education and training projects, the current funding rate hovers at only about 8-10 percent.

Dr. Roland Kays, the Museum’s curator of mammals, received two NSF grants. One was for $1.1 million to establish Movebank (Movebank.org), a project to collect data about animal movement, in collaboration with Princeton University and the San Diego Computer Center. Movebank will provide a mechanism for biologists who track animals to save and compare data to address such questions as the effects of global climate change and human-caused landscape change. It also will complement new technologies for collecting data in real-time by providing live interaction and alerts. Theoreticians will be able to use the site to test ideas related to ecological patterns, evolutionary processes and disease spread. The site will allow conservation managers to show population changes over time and space. Educators will be able to go to the site to find examples to illustrate biological principles and let students ask and answer their own questions about wild animals.

Kays also was awarded a $558,770 NSF grant to study the role of rodents in seed dispersal. He and Martin Wikelski of Princeton University are working at the Smithsonian Research Station in Panama, using a new motion-sensitive radio transmitter they have invented to follow the fate of a seed until it either sprouts a seedling or is eaten.

The study will focus on how seeds are dispersed and allowed to germinate once they fall away from the mother plant. Kays and Wikelski will test the theory that predators kill rodents after they bury the seed but before they come back to eat it. The factors affecting whether rodents are dispersers or predators are very important for forest management, where rodents are viewed as pests that should be killed.

Dr. Jason Cryan, director of the Museum’s Laboratory for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, received a $328,616 NSF grant to conduct a large-scale investigation into the evolution of spittlebugs, a group of plant-feeding insects found in most terrestrial ecosystems. Worldwide, they inflict heavy economic damage on such crops as sugar cane, corn, rice and improved pasture grasses, causing up to a 70% reduction in agricultural yields in infested areas. The understanding of spittlebug evolution, generated by this research, will be particularly important to the control of several known crop pests, and could help to prevent future outbreaks of novel spittlebug pests. Also, the cutting-edge evolutionary analyses carried out through this research will serve as a model for similar studies on other plant and animal groups.

The NSF awarded a $121,396 grant to Dr. Julieann Van Nest to conduct archaeological research at a large unusual group of annular mounds at Perch Lake, east of Lake Ontario in northern New York. Construction of earthen mounds, as integral components of humanly-built landscapes, extends back 5,000 years and more in eastern North American prehistory. The 2,000 year-old Perch Lake mounds have long been the focus of interest but their purpose has remained a mystery. Working with members of the New York State Archaeological Association, Museum researchers will explore several proposed hypotheses, including a new hypothesis that the structures were large earthen ovens used to process aquatic plant foods.

State Geologist Dr. William Kelly, director of the New York State Geological Survey (NYSGS), has also announced several grants. These include a $394,000 grant for a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – NYSGS cooperative program, which is part of the National Geological Mapping Act. This provides for bedrock and surficial geologic mapping at a scale useful for the needs of municipal planners, emergency responders, architects and developers. This also provides funds to digitize geologic maps.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded $15,000 to NYSGS for the second phase of a study to locate and map all of the abandoned underground mines in New York. NYSGS also has received $5,000 in seed money from the USGS to begin documenting the state’s holdings of drill core, oil and gas well logs, minerals and fossils. This will help to preserve the large amount of geological information, collected from thousands of drilling, mining and other projects, which is in grave danger of being lost.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The Lake George Opera at Saratoga will perform “The Billy Goats Gruff,” a musical retelling of the popular fairy tale, on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the New York State Museum.

Performances at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. will be in the Huxley Theater on the Museum’s first floor and offered free of charge. The show is part of “Opera to Go,’’ a program for children presented by the Lake George Opera at Saratoga.

Set to the operas of Amadeus Mozart, Gaetano Donizetti and Gioacchino Rossini, the adaptation by John Davies is based on “Three Billy Goats Gruff,’’ the Norwegian tale of what happens when three goats attempting to cross a bridge encounter a fearsome troll. The result is a lesson in kindness.

With “Opera to Go,’’ the Lake George Opera at Saratoga is able to expose children throughout upstate New York and western New England to a fully-staged opera, complete with professional performers, sets and costumes. Created in 1962, the opera company now performs for 25,000 people annually.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – New York State Paleontologist Dr. Ed Landing has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), a high honor bestowed upon a select group of geologists nationwide.

Fellows are recognized by their peers for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications. Landing is one of only 10 fellows selected from the Geological Sciences. All of those elected will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum during the annual AAAS meeting in Chicago on February 14.

This award follows another major award Landing received last May when he became the first U.S. citizen and first paleontologist to win the R.J.W. Douglas Medal. The medal is bestowed annually by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists to recognize scholars who make outstanding contributions to the understanding of the sedimentary geology of Canada.

In awarding the medal, the organization cited Landing’s work tracking the evolution of Earth’s oldest animals, particularly his data on their origins in eastern Newfoundland. The research led to definition of a time standard known as the Precambrian- Cambrian boundary, which has provided scientists with far more accurate chronology than they once had. Landing also has used evidence supplied by the rocks in New York and Canada to propose the likely production of major gas and oil deposits when ancient seas were very high.

The state paleontologist and curator of paleontology at the State Museum since 1981, Landing

has authored six books, 13 New York State Museum bulletins and has received more than a dozen competitive grants. Forty-seven of his 115 peer-reviewed papers are based on his field work in Canada and he has conducted field studies in all but three provinces and territories. That work has helped provide a more complete understanding of early life in New York.

Landing also has been honored by the New York State Assembly and was cited by the U.S. Paleontological Society for having the “1989 Best Paper” for work published on the origin of animals in the Journal of Paleontology and “1979 Best Paper” from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists for research on oolitic limestones published in the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology.

He has devoted five National Science Foundation grants, totaling about $1.5 million, to tracing the evolutionary origins of modern marine groups worldwide. He co-authored a paper published in the journal Nature about the Museum’s discovery of the Earth’s oldest tree fossil in the Catskill Mountains, providing an important glimpse of what the forests looked like 380 million years ago.

Landing also has worked on several Museum exhibitions including Ancient Life of New York, and worked to restore two Museum parks in Saratoga County – Lester Park and Stark’s Knob. He also has participated in numerous museum programs and events including annual lecture series, field trips and the

“James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale.”

Landing became interested in Early Paleozoic rocks and fossils as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his masters and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, devoting his doctoral thesis to Early Paleozoic Biostratigraphy based on field work along the St. Lawrence River, in southern New Brunswick and parts of western Newfoundland. He has conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo, with the United States Geological Survey in Denver and at the University of Toronto.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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A new exhibition celebrating the 100th birthday of world-renowned photographer Gordon Parks opens on January 26, 2013 at the New York State Museum. Gordon Parks: 100 Moments showcases six decades of Parks’ photographs, including numerous never-before-seen images and Parks’ most famous photo, “American Gothic, Washington, D.C”.

On display at the State Museum through May 19, 2013, the stunning visual collection is organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The exhibit also includes images from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (OWI) collections at the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

“Gordon Parks was a true Renaissance man – musician, writer, film director and, most notably, world-class photographer,” said State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. “His work helped drive the Civil Rights movement by exposing the stark realities of life faced by so many African Americans. We are honored to exhibit some of his most important images at the New York State Museum.”

“Gordon Parks is a towering figure in American photography,” said Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “The Schomburg is proud to have this amazing collection of his work and proud to share it with all of New York.”

“The State Museum is honored to present this landmark exhibition by Gordon Parks, one of New York’s greatest photographers,” said State Museum Director Mark Schaming. “This is truly a unique opportunity to see these powerful images from the Schomburg’s vast collections together in a beautifully curated exhibition.”

Known for documenting the ordinary yet compelling lives of African Americans in cities like Harlem and Washington, D.C., Parks began his career in 1948 as a professional photographer for Life magazine, where he was the publication’s first African American employee. Tackling issues in black communities like post-World War II urban migration, the expansion of black newspapers and radio, entrenched segregation and economic discrimination, Parks was a consummate storyteller of urban life through his ever-questioning lens. Parks died in 2006.

The exhibition is curated by Professor Deborah Willis of New York University and was most recently on exhibition at the Schomburg Center through December 2012. The Schomburg Center is a research branch of the New York Public Library and is located in Harlem, New York.

Photos from the exhibit are available at: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/PRkit/2013/gordonparks/index.html

The New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – The thriving cultural life of New York’s Native Americans will be highlighted starting July 28 when the New York State Museum opens a new installation of the Governor’s Collection of Contemporary Native American Art.

The centerpieces of the long-term exhibition are objects representative of a traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Longhouse wedding ceremony, including beaded man’s and woman’s bridal outfits the Museum commissioned from Samuel Thomas (Cayuga, Wolf Clan) and Rosemary Hill (Tuscarora, Beaver Clan).

The new installation will also include contemporary baskets, woodwork, pottery, carved stone and antler, beadwork, and silverwork made in the past two decades. The artists all are affiliated with groups whose traditional homelands were within what is now New York State. The exhibition will be located next to the Longhouse in the Native Peoples of New York Gallery on the first floor.

This exhibition precedes the opening at the State Museum in November of Ska-Ni-Kwat: The Power of the Good Mind, a traveling exhibition that also includes work by Thomas and his mother, Lorna Thomas-Hill. The Thomases, whose bead work appears in museums around the world, involved hundreds of people from 25 countries in making two traditional Iroquois outfits that are part of the Ska-ni-Kwat exhibition.

Through the work in these exhibitions, the Museum is telling the story of not only the history of New York’s native peoples but also the important cultural contributions they continue to make.

“This is what’s happening now. We want to get it out in front of people,’’ said Penelope Drooker, curator of anthropology. “Some of these artists might be very traditional, but there is always something new. Many New York residents have no idea that New York has among the largest populations of Native Americans east of the Mississippi.’’

The Museum has collected the art and functional objects of New York Native Americans since soon after its founding 170 years ago. But acquisitions had waned during the mid-20th century until 1996,

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when the Governor’s Collection of Contemporary Native American Art was inaugurated. The private- and state- funded project has allowed the Museum to work with Native American artists to collect examples of beadwork, basketry, sculpture, silverwork, clothing, carving and pottery by artists recognized as masters by their peers. Contemporary art represents from five to 10 percent of the full Native American collection, which numbers more than 3,000 objects.

The new installation includes such award winning artists as Peter B. Jones (Onondaga, Beaver Clan), Larry “Many Hats’’ Jacobs (Stockbridge-Munsee) and Stanley R. Hill (Mohawk, Turtle Clan), in addition to beadworkers Rosemary Hill and Samuel Thomas.

In creating the groom’s outfit, Thomas incorporated a hummingbird and strawberry design. The pattern is not traditional but, he said, represents the duality Iroquois believe in, with strawberries representing goodness and the hummingbird, mystery or magic.

“If you only copy the old items over and over, it remains a craft,’’ said Thomas, 41, who lives in Niagara Falls, Ontario, but spent part of his childhood in western New York. “The important thing to know is our work flourishes today just as it did in the 1800s. People think it was all done in the 1800s and then all the Indians died.’’

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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Governor George E. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced the opening of Windows on New York, a major new permanent exhibition at the New York State Museum. The new gallery will feature spectacular collections of images from across the State and will be home to a World Trade Center Memorial, dedicated to the thousands of lives lost on September 11.

"As we continue to come to terms with the events of September 11, it is important to not only remember those who were lost in the World Trade Center attacks, but also to reflect on the illustrious history of New York City and the Empire State," Governor Pataki said. "Windows on New York exhibits the tremendous strength and character that New Yorkers have displayed throughout the years."

Senator Bruno said, "This exhibit will not only enable visitors to look through windows into regions of New York, it will enable them to look through windows into New Yorkers themselves and see the courage, the determination, and the heroic sacrifices that have been made since September 11. The exhibit is a window on our history, and it shows New Yorkers at their very best on our worst day."

Speaker Silver said, "Before September 11, I was able to view the majestic Twin Towers through the windows of my lower Manhattan district office. Now through these very same windows, I see the smoking remains of the Trade Center, as well as the brave workers who continue the recovery efforts. While the windows in my office have not changed, the view certainly has. Just as it now provides scenes of both devastation and determination, so too will this important Windows on New York exhibit be an opportunity to acknowledge the State's tremendous loss, while highlighting its splendor and rich history."

The 25,000 square-foot Windows on New York, which opens to the public on Nov. 23, occupies the dramatic fourth-floor Terrace Gallery and is laid out to introduce and orient visitors to New York State and the collections of the State Museum. The gallery brings together popular culture, history, science and art with rich examples from the Museum's legendary collections.

It also showcases the New York State Museum Carousel, a fully restored, working carousel that was made in New York State and operated throughout the Southern Tier and Northern Pennsylvania from 1916 to 1972.

Within the new gallery is the World Trade Center Memorial, featuring two tower forms suspended in two, twenty foot high windows made up of more than 4,000 small bronzed squares. Each square will represent one of the individuals lost at the World Trade Center. The gallery will also contain an artifact case with objects from the site, an American Flag and images of the World Trade Center. A kiosk with a computer installed will display the photographs and profiles from the New York Times "Portraits of Grief" series.

State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, "The inclusion of the World Trade Center Memorial in the State Museum brings our visitors closer to this national and especially, New York State tragedy. We hope to offer a dignified tribute to the people lost and offer a place of solace for the public."

New York State Regent Robert Johnson said, " Now, more than ever before, the people are looking to museums as places that hold sacred the evidence of history, the material of science and the ideas that shape the world. The State Museum's Windows on New York exhibition and the Memorial to the World Trade Center are the first step to realizing a vitally new State Museum for this century."

Museum Director Clifford Siegfried said, "Windows on New York not only showcases some of the biggest and best objects in the State Museum's collections, but transports the visitor into the heart of the Museum and across the vast and historic State. To ride the New York State carousel is to be immersed in our history."

Objects and specimens from the Museum's vast collections include: Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 Packard; a facade from Matthew Vassar's Springside Cottage; a stock trading post from the New York Stock Exchange; Roycroft furniture; a biplane used in the Adirondacks; a bronze bust of Theodore Roosevelt by James Earle Fraser; Erie Canal artifacts; natural history specimens; and objects from Native American collections.

The New York State Museum carousel occupies a glass enclosure overlooking Albany's Lincoln Park and riders can get a taste of old-time carnivals and amusement parks. The carousel horses, carved in Brooklyn around 1895 by Charles Dare, are also masterful examples of American Folk Art.

Windows on New York also tells the story of commerce: from Upstate farming to logging in the Adirondacks, to oyster harvesting on Long Island. On display are glass beads and brass trade goods Europeans exchanged for the valuable beaver pelts of Mohawks and Iroquois Indians; photographs of ironworkers who built Manhattan's first skyscrapers and a replica of an Erie Canal batteau that transported freight and passengers in the 1790s.

In addition, the exhibit draws attention to the State's geology, flora and fauna. Visitors learn, for instance, why the depth and location of Manhattan bedrock, coupled with new construction technology, influenced the growth of New York City and the height of skyscrapers.

Windows on New York has been in development for over two years. It was made possible with funds from the 1997-98 New York State Budget. It is the first phase of the implementation of the Museum Master Plan completed in October 1999.

The nation's oldest and largest State museum, the New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Department of Education. It is a leading research Museum in human and natural history with collections that total over six million objects and specimens.

ALBANY, NY -- The New York State Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) has awarded $547,255 in grant funds for biodiversity research, conservation and education efforts in New York State.
These grants support research projects that will improve basic understanding of the variety of plants and animals that inhabit New York State. With this support, scientists will examine how threats, such as habitat fragmentation, residential development, invasive species, and mercury deposition affect a variety of species and natural communities in the state. They will also gather important baseline data that can be used to assess effects of climate change on the biodiversity of the state. These results will be used to better direct conservation efforts, such as prioritizing state land acquisition to preserve biodiversity and improve connections among habitats. Funds will also be used for a variety of projects that aim to educate the public about the importance of biodiversity and enable active participation in conservation.
The Biodiversity Research Institute, based on the recommendations of leading researchers in the fields of environmental science and education, selected the following projects to support over the coming year:
1. Title: Audubon Enhancement of the New York Dragonfly and Damselfly Survey 2007/08
Principal Investigators: Pamela A. Musk (Audubon New York) and Larry J. Federman (Audubon New York)
Award: $28,890

2. Title: Climate Change and the Adirondack Alpine Zone: Establishing Baselines 
Principal Investigator: Timothy G. Howard, Ph.D. (New York Natural Heritage Program)
Award: $34,420

3. Title: An Inventory of Mayflies, Stoneflies and Caddisflies of the Adirondack Park 
Principal Investigators: Boris C. Kondratieff, Ph.D. (Colorado State University) and Luke Myers (Colorado State University)
Award: $12,792

4. Title: Vouchered Floras of Underreported Counties of New York State. Phase II: Fulton County
Principal Investigators: Donna W. Vogler, Ph.D., Adam K. Ryburn, Ph.D. (State University of New York College at Oneonta), and Laurie Freeman (Fulton-Montgomery Community College of SUNY)
Award: $14,306

5. Title: The Decline of Southern Leopard Frogs from Long Island: Investigating Causes and Conservation Strategies 
Principal Investigators: Jeremy A. Feinberg (Rutgers University) and Joanna Burger, Ph.D. (Nelson Biological Laboratories)
Award: $19,713

6. Title: Inventory and Analysis of Vegetation in Remnant Inland Salt Marshes of New York 
Principal Investigator: Donald J. Leopold, Ph.D. (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Award: $39,467

7. Title: Effect of Habitat Fragmentation on Bryophyte Communities in Northern White Cedar Swamps in New York State
Principal Investigators: Robin W. Kimmerer, Ph.D. (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) and Keith C. Bowman (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Award: $32,104

8. Title: "Invasional Meltdown" Mediated by Mutualism Between the Non-Native European Fire Ant and Japanese Knotweed
Principal Investigators: Joshua H. Ness, Ph.D. (Skidmore College) and Manuel A. Morales, Ph.D. (Williams College)
Award: $31,719

9. Title: Modeling Adirondack-Tug Hill Connectivity
Principal Investigator: Dirk A. Bryant (The Nature Conservancy)
Award: $26,506

10. Title: Mercury Accumulation and Food Web Magnification in Two Forest-Dwelling Songbirds of New York’s Upland Forests
Principal Investigators: Jason Townsend (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) and William M. Shields, Ph.D. (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Award: $26,093

11. Title: Impacts to Wildlife from the Ecological Consequences of Exurban Development in the Adirondack Park
Principal Investigators: Michale J. Glennon, Ph.D. (Wildlife Conservation Society) and Heidi E. Kretser (Cornell University)
Award: $22,776

12. Title: Testing a Model to Predict the Effects of Residential Development on Breeding Bird Community Integrity 
Principal Investigator: Michale J. Glennon, Ph.D. (Wildlife Conservation Society) 
Award: $13,299

13. Title: Determining Acquisition Priority of Lands Adjacent to NY State Parks to Preserve Biodiversity and Connectivity 
Principal Investigator: Amanda J. Stein (New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation)
Award: $24,864

14. Title: Assessment of Residential Developmental Impact on the Integrity of Mammal Communities in New York 
Principal Investigator: William F. Porter, Ph.D. (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Award: $28,279

15. Title: Is Mercury Deposition Having Impacts on New York’s Biological Diversity?
Principal Investigators: David C. Evers, Ph.D. (Biodiversity Research Institute), Michael S. Bank, Ph.D. (Harvard School of Public Health), and David P. Braun, Ph.D. (The Nature Conservancy)
Award: $27,200

16. Title: Stream Corridors of Columbia County: Sharing their Biodiversity Value and Encouraging their Conservation
Principal Investigators: Conrad R. Vispo, Ph.D. (Farmscape Ecology Program) and Claudia Knab-Vispo, Ph.D. (Farmscape Ecology Program)
Award: $27,970

17. Title: An Education Campaign to Increase Support for Beach-nesting Bird Conservation on Long Island 
Principal Investigator: Jillian M. Liner (Audubon New York)
Award: $26,712

18. Title: The Adirondack Biodiversity Challenge: K-12 Teachers Designing, Testing, and Publishing Curriculum Exploring Biodiversity 
Principal Investigators: Sandra Bureau (Indian Lake Central School) and Paul Hai (Roosevelt Wild Life Station at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Award: $26,800

19. Title: Passage Through New York: A Listening Network Tracking Songbird Migration from Boreal to Austral Forests
Principal Investigators: Susan B. Elbin, Ph.D. (Wildlife Trust) and Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D. (Boreal Songbird Initiative)
Award: $20,500

20. Title: Adopt-A-Shoreline: Engaging Waterway Users in the Management of Invasive Aquatic Plants
Principal Investigator: Amy Samuels (Cornell Cooperative Extension-Onondaga County)
Award: $32,545

21. Title: Expanding and Enhancing a Web-based Flora for Tompkins County, New York
Principal Investigator: Kevin C. Nixon, Ph.D. (Cornell University)
Award: $30,300

The BRI serves as a comprehensive source of biological information, which is used to advise both public and private agencies on matters relating to the status of New York’s biological resources. The New York State Legislature created the Institute in 1993 to help meet the challenges associated with preserving the state’s biodiversity. The BRI is housed within the New York State Museum and is funded through the Environmental Protection Fund. The BRI is a collaboration between the State Museum, Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, State University of New York, New York Natural Heritage Program, American Museum of Natural History, Audubon New York, and The Nature Conservancy. Further information is available at: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/bri/ or by calling 518-474-6531.
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ALBANY, N.Y. – State historic sites and cultural institutions will provide fun hands-on activities and educational artifacts to explore to acquaint visitors with “New York State’s Great Places and Spaces” January 15 at the New York State Museum.

The free event, which is part of the Museum’s January Family Fun Day, will be held from noon to 4 p.m. in several first floor galleries including Adirondack Wilderness, Birds of New York, Native Peoples of New York and South Hall.

Participants include the State Museum, State Library, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site, Olana State Historic Site, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Clermont State Historic Site, Shaker Heritage Society, Albany County Historical Society/Ten Broeck Mansion, Historic Cherry Hill, Crailo State Historic Site, Johnson Hall Historic Site, the Underground Railroad History Project, Salem Art Works, the Adirondack Museum, the New York State Military Museum, the Arkell Art Museum, Schoharie Crossing Historic Site, the Empire State Aero Space Museum, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and the Living History Education Foundation.

Visitors will be able to play the Hudson River Valley Trading Game on a 32-foot long game board, explore objects from Thomas Cole’s studio and add to a community landscape, try landscape drawing, weave on a small loom and view reproduction 1870’s stereographs of the Shaker site. There also will be many hands-on activities, including opportunities to touch bear fur, try on a cradleboard and learn more about the Haudenosaunee at the State Museum’s Native Peoples cart.

Also, Craig Gravina, a State Museum exhibition designer, will provide a behind-the-scenes tour to discuss the design and installation of the Museum’s Citizen Soldier: New York’s National Guard in the American Century exhibition.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – State historic sites and cultural institutions will provide exciting hands-on activities, unique artifacts and information about upcoming regional events during the fourth annual “New York State’s Great Places and Spaces” on Saturday, January 12 from noon to 4 p.m. at the New York State Museum. The free event is inspired this year by the Museum’s Civil War exhibit, “An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War.”

Visitors will learn more about the important role New York State played in the Civil War through activities and information provided by fifteen state historic sites and cultural institutions. The event will be held in several first floor galleries including Adirondack Wilderness, Birds of New York, and South Hall. 

The Iron Jacks, a singing group that specializes in songs about U.S. sailors of the Civil War era, will perform throughout the afternoon. There will also be a guided tour of the Civil War exhibit at 1 p.m. and a “hands-on” cart of Civil War era reproduction objects where visitors can get first-hand experience with materials used by soldiers and citizens during the Civil War era. 

Participating institutions include the Grant Cottage State Historic Site, Watervliet Arsenal Museum, John Brown State Historic Site, Shaker Heritage Society, Iroquois Indian Museum, Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, North Country Underground Railroad Museum, Gerrit Smith Estate National Landmark, National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum, Olana State Historic Site, Thomas Cole Historic Site, Johnson Hall State Historic Site, Crailo State Historic Site, the U.S. Naval Landing Party as well as the State Museum and Library. 

The New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Two students from the Capital District were among SUNY Plattsburgh geology students who recently discovered the rare bones of an ancient harbor seal that have now been donated to the geology collections of the New York State Museum.

Jason Klein of Cohoes and Zachary Irwin of Burnt Hills were with Jake McAdoo and other students collecting mud samples at the site of the old Plattsburgh Air Force Base on Lake Champlain when McAdoo’s shovel hit something hard.

“Jake said that he thought he hit a railroad spike. Then, he dug further down and said, ‘No, I think it’s a bone,’” said Dr. David Franzi, SUNY distinguished teaching professor of earth and environmental science, who had gone to the site with his students to lead them in a landslide study for his environmental geology class. “I told him, ‘No, it’s not a bone,’” said Franzi. “You almost never find bones.”

But Franzi was wrong. It was a bone, and a very special bone at that.

Dr. Robert Feranec, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the State Museum, verified that the fossilized bones belong to a harbor seal. He believes they date back to the existence of the Champlain Sea, during the end of the last glacial cycle about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

According to Feranec, the bones that have now been uncovered at the site include fibula, tibia, four vertebrae, a jaw bone and what may be ankle and foot bones. 
“Seal fossils are a pretty rare find for New York,” said Feranec. “We only have two single fossil specimens in the State Museum collections now, so this find of about 15 bones, including the jaw, is significant.”

Feranec said the next steps are to carbon date the fossils and conserve them before placing them in the New York State Museum’s permanent collections. They then will be available for research, as well as for exhibits and education.
Franzi said his students were very excited about the find, which relates peripherally to what they are learning in the classroom. For students in his sedimentology and geomorphology classes, however, there is a direct connection, and, according to Franzi, the find helps bring his subject to life.

The other students on the field trip were Brian Gamache of Plattsburgh, Jacob Barnhart of Unadilla, Gregory Colucci of Ithaca and Katherine Bazan of Poland, N.Y.

SUNY Plattsburgh offers more than 60 majors and a wide range of special programs that prepare graduates for professional life and advanced studies through a foundation in liberal arts and an experience that celebrates excellence, ethical values, lifelong learning and responsible citizenship in a global community. The college has been recognized two years in a row by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine as one of the "Top 100 Values in Public Colleges" and has been named among the top master level schools in the North "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – Using objects from its extensive collections and exhibit galleries, the New York State Museum will open its Haunted Museum Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22 and 23; and Oct. 29 and 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Student Center.

Admission is $5 and proceeds will go to the Museum’s after-school youth programs, which serve low-income children and depend entirely on grants and contributions. The Haunted Museum is so scary that no one under age 10 will be admitted. Children ages 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

But, this year for the first time, the Museum will also open a Pumpkin Patch for younger people and the faint of heart. Children are encouraged to wear costumes as they take part in arts and crafts, face painting and a Halloween parade through exhibit halls. The Pumpkin Patch, which costs $2 per person, will be open from noon to 4 p.m.

“We wanted to provide a place for people to go that is pleasant and light and fun,’’ said Truemaster Trimingham, a Museum educator and the mastermind behind the Halloween events. “The Haunted Museum definitely isn’t for everyone. ‘’

As guests wait to enter, stalks of corn quiver unexpectedly, “scare-acters’’ appear from nowhere and a piano plays itself. Inside, walls move and horror movies even come to life. Last year, about 900 people visited the Haunted Museum, a number expected to rise as Trimingham makes it bigger and more horrific.

A lifelong theme park aficionado, his hobby is traveling the country to see how parks create illusion. But Trimingham also keeps his eyes on the extensive collections and exhibits at his own workplace for props that help convert the 4,000 square foot Student Center into a hall of doom.

Cases full of stuffed skunks, foxes and birds are the centerpiece for a “Trophy Room,’’ in which a taxidermist shows off his handiwork. Dust-collecting medical and science texts in French and German accessorize the “Die-brary.’’ A bust that was once the head of a character in the New York City exhibit now tops a nine-foot scarecrow in the Haunted Museum’s “Scornfield.’’ Backdrops and décor from fossil

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exhibits and art shows would hardly be recognizable thanks to the macabre touches added.

“Coming Soon, You are Dead,’’ reads the movie marquee that invites people in at their own risk to encounter characters from “Scream,’’ “Friday the 13th’’ and other horror movies. There, visitors sit in real movie theater seats scavenged from an auditorium the Museum no longer uses.

Trimingham warns to watch for blood in the “Emergency Room.’’ “There’s ‘Prison Break,’’ he said. “You see a guard in a coat of armor and the prisoner. But they’ve changed places. The guard is in the electric chair. The criminal is at the controls.’’

A Staten Island native, Trimingham is so enthusiastic about theme parks that he took a part-time job as a Delta Airlines baggage handler in order to use the free travel to visit them. Trimingham received his Bachelor degree at the State University of New York at Albany and a Master of Education at the College of St. Rose.

Eight years ago, he turned down a classroom teaching job offer to become an educator at the State Museum. There, he has the creative freedom to engage students in educational projects not found in schools, including the Haunted Museum.

“The kids participate in some of the construction, and learn about set design and characters and building themes,’’ he said. “And, as it has all grown, they are still the first ones through it. Sometimes, if they’re really scared I take them through there with the lights on.’’

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY – The New York State Museum’s 9h annual “Haunted Museum of Unnatural History” will feature a tribute to characters and ghouls from Hollywood and storybook legends.

The “Haunted Museum” will be open October 23 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and October 30 from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., reopening from 6 to 10 p.m. On Halloween, October 31 visitors are welcome between 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The event will be located in the Student Center on the Museum’s first floor.

The “Monster Mash & Bash” will provide light-hearted fun for younger children, ages 10 and under. Children and their families are invited to come in costume to the Museum’s fourth floor Terrace Gallery on October 23, 24, 30 and 31, from noon to 4 p.m. for face-painting, Halloween crafts and goofy games. A costume parade around the Museum will be held at 1 p.m.

Brave souls who enter the “Haunted Museum” will weave their way through a dark maze and encounter the unknown (and undead) around every corner. Monsters, real and imagined, will appear and disappear when least expected. A heart-pounding soundtrack and light show will amplify the anticipation. Frankenstein’s monster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a host of werewolves, zombies and mummies will make an appearance. Visitors will encounter the Tomb of the Undead, Zombie Place, the Wolf’s Den, Blood Castle and Clown Town.

The “Haunted Museum” is too intense for children under 10 and is designed especially for teens, college students and adults who love to be scared. Visitors are asked not to wear costumes for safety reasons.

Proceeds from both events will benefit the Museum’s award-winning after-school programs for Albany city youth. Admission to the “Haunted Museum” is $8. “Monster Mash” admission is $2. Museum Club and Discovery Squad teens work with a Museum educator throughout the fall to design, build and decorate the Haunted Museum. Local high school and college students, artists, musicians, carpenters and actors all contribute their time and talent.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuouslyoperating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518)

474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

# # #

ALBANY – New York State Museum researchers and collection specialists will lead walks to explore the biology and geology of John Boyd Thacher and Thompson’s Lake state parks on Saturday, July 12.

The “New York State Museum Goes to the Parks” daytime programs will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by an “Insects at Night” program that will begin at sunset. All activities are free and open to the public, with age limitations for some programs. There is a $6 parking fee charged at the park. Participants must provide their own transportation and register by July 7 by calling 518-473-7154 or emailing psteinba@mail.nysed.gov. Directions and the day’s schedule will be sent with confirmation.

The program schedule is:

• Mammal Walk ? 8–10 a.m. Dr. Roland Kays, the Museum’s curator of mammals and author of “Mammals of North America,” leads a one-mile walk to check live traps and learn about mammal species that are caught. Limited to 15 people. Children may attend with an adult.
• Morning Bird Walk ? 8–10 a.m. Dr. Jeremy Kirchman, the Museum’s curator of birds, guides a slow walk on easy park trails to identify local birds and set up mist nets to catch and band some birds. Participants should bring their own binoculars. Limited to 15 people, ages 12 and up.
• Insect Walk ? 10 a.m.– noon. Museum Entomologists Dr. Jason Cryan and Dr. Tim McCabe lead an easy walk to discuss major morphological and behavioral adaptations of insects. Limited to 20 people, all ages welcomed. Collecting nets will be provided.
• Bedrock Geology I: Ancient Coasts ? 10 a.m–noon. Sedimentary Geologist Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten leads a moderate-level hike along Indian Ladder Trail to explore rocks and fossils from ancient coastal environments. Limited to 20 people, ages 8 and up with an adult.
• Glacial Walk in the Helderbergs ? 1–3 p.m. Glacial Geologist Dr. Andrew Kozlowski guides a walk that focuses on landforms and deposits within the park, and the broader influence of glaciation on the Capital Region, as observed from scenic overlooks. Limited to 20 people, ages 12 and up.
• Fish and Crayfish Wade ? 1–3 p.m. Thompson’s Lake State Park. Ichthyologist Dr. Robert Daniels leads a group to capture, look at, and discuss the ecology and behavior of fish and crayfish found in Thompson’s Lake. Seines and dipnets will be provided. Participants should wear shoes and clothing that can get wet. Limited to 20 people. Children may attend with an adult.
• Bedrock Geology II: 30 Million Years of Seas and Life ? 3–5 p.m. Sedimentary Geologist Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten leads this exploration of Thacher Park’s geological past. Limited to 20 people, ages 12 and up with an adult.
• Insects at Night ? Sunset (rain or shine). Emma Treadwell Nature Center, Thacher Park. Dr. Tim McCabe and Dr. Jason Cryan explore nocturnal insect activity and diversity through the use of special light traps that bring night-flying insects to the scientists. Participants should bring a flashlight. There is a $6 parking fee.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, it is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ABANY, NY – The New York State Museum will present a film Sunday, Nov. 18 documenting the gripping expedition of 11 wounded Iraqi and Afghanistan War veterans, a Gold Star mother and a blind adventurer who climb a 20,000-foot Himalayan mountain in an attempt to heal the emotional and physical scars of war.

“High Ground” will be shown Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. Albany native Scott Watts, the coordinating producer, will introduce the film, which was produced by Don Hahn (The Lion King). Following the 92-minute free screening, News Channel 13 co-anchor Benita Zahn will lead a Q&A discussion featuring a panel of Capital Region veterans including First Sergeant (Retired) Pat Abrams, Major Joseph Chodnicki, Staff Sergeant Kelly Kenyon and Specialist Dan Swift. Scott Watts, the film’s coordinating producer, will also participate.

The film chronicles a showcase expedition called “Soldiers to Summit” that brings together war veterans and world-recognized climbers to demonstrate what can be achieved by climbing a Himalayan mountain. In October 2010, ten years after blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer made his historic ascent of Everest, the same team of mountain guides who assisted Weihenmayer reunited to lead the group of warriors. The event was organized with the help of World T.E.A.M. Sports, a veterans support organization.

Representing all four branches of the military, the veterans and the Gold Star mother set out to climb the peak of Lobuche East, 8.7 miles from Everest. Director Michael Brown, a three-time Emmy winner, captured the breathtaking, vertigo-inducing cinematography as the team makes its way high into the Himalayan mountains through the villages of Nepal, over raging rivers and up terrifying steep terrain.

The film allows veterans to tell their stories in their own way and in their own words. The mountain itself is a metaphor for one of the basic concepts of military action – the high ground is the safest, most defensible place with the greatest perspective.

Those wishing to attend the program are asked to register by Friday, Nov. 16 by calling (518) 474-0076. More information on the film is available at http://www.highgroundmovie.com/

The State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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.

ALBANY, N.Y. - The New York State Museum will host The High Line: A City Divided, A City United from May 4, 2001 through February 24, 2002. The exhibition tells the story of the construction of elevated railways in Elmira, New York, in the 1930s, and of their impact on the community.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Elmira was served by four railroads: the Pennsylvania; Erie; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; and Lehigh Valley. By the mid-1920s, the automobile had become popular and the expanded volume of auto traffic meant these two forms of transportation were increasingly in conflict. The solution that was settled on was to elevate the railroads.

"We're very proud of this exhibition," said Constance Barone, Director of the Chemung Valley History Museum, which organized it. "It serves as a focal point for placing the Chemung Valley's historical events into a broader perspective and expands on two major themes of Valley history - transportation and urban life. It could not have happened without the assistance of staff at the New York State Archives and the New York State Museum."

The exhibition features nearly 100 photographs from the New York State Archives that document the project. Images are included of the workers and the machinery involved, and of the structures themselves in various stages of completion.

"The photos show how intimately urban dwellers once lived with railroads and how pervasive those railroads were," said Geoffrey Stein, a historian with the New York State Museum who served as a consultant on the exhibition. "It's hard for modern New Yorkers to realize how important railroads once were for transportation of people and goods. And it's difficult to conceive how many tracks there once were and how close to those tracks were roadways, sidewalks, commercial buildings, factories and residences."

"Today there will be, for the first time in more than 100 years, a united Elmira," declared Governor Herbert Lehman on October 25, 1934, celebrating the completion of the project. However, the elevated railway system merely created a new problem, one that left the city more literally divided.

"Unfortunately for the city, the new, overhead structure, which runs about six city blocks north from the Chemung River, provided a visual divide where before it was only the passing trains which seemed a barrier between east and west," said Geoffrey Stein.

For further information about The High Line: A City Divided, A City United, the public may call (518) 474-5877.

*Color slides are available by calling 518-486-2003.

The New York State Museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

ALBANY, NY – Fifty-eight middle and high school students from throughout the Capital District won top prizes in the Capital Region History Day Contest at the Cultural Education Center and will advance to the state competition in Cooperstown on April 23.

The contest, held March 24, attracted 135 students and 90 entries from schools in Albany, Clifton Park, Delmar, Guilderland, Granville, Voorheesville, Troy, and Schenectady. They competed in the preliminary regional competition of the National History Day Contest. The national theme for this year’s competition is “Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in History.”

After working on their entries for many months, competitors qualified for the regional contest by doing well at contests held at individual schools throughout the area. Students researched history topics of their choice related to the theme to create exhibits, documentaries, performances, research papers and website designs. Participants included students in grades 6-8 in the Junior Division and grades 9-12 in the Senior Division. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest June 10-14 at the University of Maryland.College Park.

There were two special prizes for those in the regional competition. This year’s Archives Partnership Trust awards for the best use of historical records were won by Emily Couper, Granville Junior High School for "The Red Scare: America's Reaction to Communism" (Junior Individual Documentary) and Rachel Clare Lee of Clayton A. Bouton High School in Voorheesville for "Civilian Conservation Corps: Employment with a Purpose” (Senior Individual Exhibit). Each of these winners will receive a $100 savings bond.

National History Day is the nation’s leading program for history education in the schools.

It makes history come alive for America's youth by engaging them in the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past. Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers and parents nationwide, participate in the contest.

The Office of Cultural Education (OCE), housed in the Cultural Education Center, operates three major institutions with stewardship responsibilities for collections — the New York State Museum, State Library, and State Archives — and the Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Cultural Education Center is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about OCE programs and events can be obtained by visiting the OCE website.

# # #

EDITORS NOTE: The list below identifies the winners in the regional competition who will go on to the state competition.

National History Day Capital Region Contest Winners

Junior Historical Paper

1st place Abigail Bemis, “Ida Tarbell,” Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place Jonah Goldstein, “The Spark that Lit the Fire,” Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Individual Documentary

1st place Sean Quinn, “Feeding the World? The Green Revolution,” Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place Emily Couper, “The Red Scare: America's Reaction to Communism,”

Granville JHS, Granville (Teacher: Ann O'Brien)

Junior Group Documentary

1st place Sami Dawood, Set Elbnat Eltayeb, Asiyah Moore, Amanda Ewiss, Amnah Dhailia, “Troy: A Bloodless Revolution,” An Nur Islamic School, Schenectady (Teacher:

Sharifa Din)

2nd place Robert Willard, Johan Melanson, Dan Connolly, “The Lenin Legacy: Reform,” Bethlehem Central MS, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

Junior Group Performance

1st place Eman Khan, Alina Mufti, Badia Dhailia, “The Queen Stands Alone,”

An Nur Islamic School, Schenectady (Teachers: Nasibah Elmi, Sharifa Din)

Junior Individual Exhibit

1st place Erik Zilgme, “How Countries Reactions to Chernobyl Changed Nuclear Safety For the Better,” Bethlehem Central MS, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

2nd place Matthew Kinnally, “Berthe Morisot,” Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher:

Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Exhibit

1st place Arzoo Nasrat, Felicia Yasin, Farhat Ahmad, Fatima Kareme, “Through the Artist's Eyes,” An Nur Islamic School, Schenectady (Teacher: Sharifa Din)

2nd place Stephanie Konas, Erin Metz, Desiree Larrivee, “Life in the Japanese Internment Camp: A Reaction to the Bombing of Pearl Harbor,” Bethlehem Central MS

(Teacher: Kristen Burns)

Junior Individual Web Sites

1st place Will Wang, “Newsboy Strike,” Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place Sarah Jones, “Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Farnsworth MS (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Web Sites

1st place Lindsey Garrant, Naomi Carter, “Coco Chanel,” Farnsworth MS (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place Jordyn Sommo, Samantha Stern, “Grace Hopper,” Farnsworth MS (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Historical Paper

1st place Daniel Janeczko,”The Erie Canal: Revolution of Transportation and Internal Improvement,” Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain−Quinn)

2nd place Michelle Kang, “Love Canal,” Guilderland HS (Teacher, Deborah Escobar)

Senior Individual Documentary

1st place Anthony Segreto, “Robert Oppenheimer: Pioneer of the Atomic Age,”

Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain− Quinn)

Senior Group Documentary

1st place Noah Hanson, John Michalowski, Jerome Pabulayan, Theodore Kruk,

“The Revolution of Aviation,” Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain− Quin n)

Senior Individual Performance

1st place Courtland Ingraham, “American Savoir−Faire: Benjamin Franklin's

Ultimate Game Of Chess,” Guilderland HS (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place Molly Poniatowski, “Little Steps of Bravery,” Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain− Quinn)

Senior Group Performance

1st place Kristyn Donohue, Olivia Acker, “Revolution, Reaction and Reform for

Women's Suffrage,” Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain−Quinn)

2nd place Olivia Nadel, Fiona McAuley, Leslie LaBrecque, Jenny Appel, “Clara Barton −Angel of the Battlefield,” Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain−Quinn)

Senior Individual Exhibit

1st place Rachel Lee, “Civilian Conservation Corps: Employment with a Purpose,”

Clayton A. Bouton HS, Voorheesville (Teacher: Tom Gladd)

2nd place Zoe Elwell, “The Hippie Movement,” Guilderland HS (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Group Exhibit

1st place Abigail Schnoor, Lixinbei Jing, “Shaping the U.S. Constitution —The

Revolution, Reaction, and Reform,” Guilderland HS (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place Montana Stone, Siena Marcelle, “A Crude Awakening: The Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969,” Bethlehem Central HS, Delmar (Teacher: Nick Petraccione)

Senior Individual Web Sites

1st place Marc Billow, “The Digital Revolution,” Granville JHS (Teacher: James Marsfelder)

2nd place Betheny Crescenzi, “Benjamin Franklin,” Shenendehowa HS (Teacher: Amber McLain− Quinn)

Senior Group Web Sites

1st place Sky Sardi, Allan McNeil, Alex Listing, “The Revolution of Aircraft Materials,” Questar III−Rensselaer Education Center, Troy (Teachers: John Mahony, Mary Bayham, Mary Bayham, Michael Gerrish)

2nd place Jacob Parslow, Justin Ryan, “Video Game Engine Development: Revolutionizes Play,” Questar III−Rensselaer Education Center, Troy (Teachers: Mary Bayham, Lewis Cappelli)

ALBANY, NY – Forty-seven middle and high school students from throughout the Capital District won top prizes in the Capital Region History Day Contest at the New York State Museum and will advance to the state competition in Cooperstown on April 29.

The contest, held March 26, attracted 101 students and 65 entries from schools in Albany, Clifton Park, Delmar, Guilderland, Granville, Voorheesville and Schenectady. They competed in the preliminary regional competition of the National History Day Contest. The national theme for this year’s competition is “Debate and Diplomacy in History: Success, Failures, Consequences.”

After working on their entries for many months, competitors qualified for the regional contest by doing well at contests held at individual schools throughout the area. Students researched history topics of their choice related to the theme to create exhibits, documentaries, performances, research papers and website designs. Participants included students in grades 6-8 in the Junior Division and grades 9-12 in the Senior Division. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest June 12-16 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

There were two special prizes for those in the regional competition. This year’s Archives Partnership Trust award for the best use of historical records was won by Michael Zhu from Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland for his historical paper entitled "The Week That Changed the World: Nixon's Visit to China.” The second Archives award went to Ashley Visker also of Farnsworth Middle School for her junior individual documentary entitled, "Child labor and How its Laws Were Passed.” Each of these winners will receive a $100 savings bond.

The other prize, the Daphne C. Cotter Women's History Award, is given "in hopes that young people will study and reflect on the courage of women.” The recipient is Katelynn Leavey of Granville Senior High School, Granville whose historical paperis entitled "Anna Howard Shaw's

-more-

-2-

Contribution to Women's Rights.” She won a $25 gift card from Barnes and Noble.

National History Day is the nation’s leading program for history education in the schools. It makes history come alive for America's youth by engaging them in the discovery of the historic, cultural

and social experiences of the past. Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands

of teachers and parents nationwide, participate in the contest. Further information on the state History Day contest is available at http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/Contest.htm.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

# # #

EDITORS NOTE: The attached list identifies the first place winners in the regional competition who will go on to the state competition.

CAPITAL REGION HISTORY DAY WINNERS

Junior Historical Paper: “The Cuban Missile Crisis: On the Brink of Nuclear War,” Bill Dong, Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Individual Documentary: “How Sweet It Is! The Berlin Candy Bomber,” Sean Quinn, Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Documentary: “Opposition to Rock and Roll,” Shannon Gerety, Kerry Gerety, Hayley Kmack, Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Performance: “It Cannot Be Helped,” Shadeh Din, Fatimah Ikram, Saffura Ahmad, Suad Abdalla, Cemile Antal, An Nur Islamic School, Schenectady (Teacher: Sharifa Din)

Junior Individual Exhibit: “The March on Washington,” Sindhu Mateti, Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Exhibit: “The Women’s Suffrage Debate: Let Us Vote,” Montana Stone, Olivia Lukasiewicz, Siena Marcelle, Bethlehem Central Middle School, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

Junior Individual Web Sites: “From Yalta to the Cold War,” Sarah Jones, Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Web Sites: “Home Rule in Northern Ireland,” Abigail Bemis, Lindsey Garrant, Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Historical Paper: “On the Brink: Debate and Diplomacy,” Michelle Kang, Guilderland High School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Individual Documentary: “Harriet Tubman,” Lyndsey Schafer, Shenendehowa High School, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

Senior Individual Performance: “Benjamin Franklin: America’s Diplomat,” Cody Ingraham, Guilderland High School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Group Performance: “Tradition vs. Science: The Scopes Trial,” Kristyn Donohue, Emily Snyder, Shenendehowa High School, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

Senior Individual Exhibit: “Conservation, Competition, Coexistence: Making Peace with Wolves,” Rachel Lee, Clayton A. Bouton High School, Voorheesville (Teacher: Tom Gladd)

Senior Group Exhibit: “When Debate and Diplomacy Fails: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,” Abigail Schnoor, Lixinbei Jing, Guilderland High School, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Individual Web Sites: “Cuban Missile Crisis,” Matt Gauvreau, LaSalle School, Albany (Teacher: Jerald Hensler)

4/4/11

ALBANY, NY – Fifty-five middle and high school students from throughout the Capital District won top prizes in the Capital Region History Day Contest at the New York State Museum on Saturday, March 29th and will advance to the state competition in Cooperstown on May 2.

The contest attracted 170 students from schools in Albany, Clifton Park, Delmar, South Colonie, Guilderland, Voorheesville, Troy, and Granville. They competed in the preliminary regional competition of the National History Day Contest. The national theme for this year’s competition is “Conflict and Compromise in History.”

After working on their entries for many months, competitors qualified for the regional contest by doing well at contests held at individual schools throughout the area. Winners at the regional level received gold, silver and bronze medals.

The New York State Archive Partnership Trust presented a special award for outstanding use of primary source materials and use of historical documents to Sarah Aronson and Jessica Fiore from Bethlehem Central High School. They won for their documentary movie, “We Shall Breathe the Air Again: Prisoners of War in the Civil War.” The judges were impressed with the quality of the production and the research that was involved in making the movie.

“History Day is a natural fit for the New York State Learning Standards.” said John Buchinger, associate director of education at the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown. “Students can create projects based on historical subjects that range from state and local, to national and international topics. History Day encourages the retention of the information more than ‘traditional’ methods because students go beyond the classroom texts to explore academic thought on their topic.”

National History Day in the nation’s leading program for history education in the schools. The program annually engages 2 million people in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Students research history topics of their choice related to an annual theme and create exhibits, documentaries, performances, research papers and, for the first time this year, website designs. They may enter in competition at the regional, state and national level. Participants include students in grades 6-8 in the Junior Division and grades 9-12 in the Senior Division. National History Day also provides educational services to students and teachers, including a summer internship program, curricular materials, internet resources and annual teacher workshops and training institutes. The Capital Region History Day committee hosted a daylong teacher workshop at the State Museum last fall.

Further information on the state History Day contest is available at www.nyshistoryday.org/Contest.htm. Winners of the state contest will go on to compete in the national contest, June 15-19 at the University of Maryland www.nationalhistoryday.org/NationalContest.htm

Information on the 2009 Capital Region History Day Contest can be obtained by contacting Patricia Jordan, the State Museum’s director of community relations, pjordan@mail.nysed.gov518-474-4458.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

# # #

Sixty-one middle and high school students from throughout the Capital Region won top prizes in the Capital Region History Day Contest at the Cultural Education Center in Albany, New York and will advance to the state competition in Cooperstown, New York on April 29.

The preliminary regional competition of the National History Day Contest, held March 23, attracted 132 students and 75 entries from schools in Albany, Clifton Park, Delmar, Guilderland, Granville, Troy, and Schenectady. Participants included students in grades 6-8 in the Junior Division and grades 9-12 in the Senior Division. The national theme for this year’s competition is "Turning Points in History."

After working on their entries for many months, competitors qualified for the preliminary regional contest by doing well at contests held at individual schools throughout the area. Students researched history topics of their choice related to this year’s theme to create exhibits, documentaries, performances, research papers and website designs. Winners of the state competition will advance to the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest June 9-13 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers and parents nationwide, participate in the National History Day program. The program makes history come alive for America's youth by engaging them in the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past.

EDITORS NOTE: The list below identifies the winners in the regional competition who will advance to the state competition.

Capital Region History Day Contest Winners

Junior Historical Paper
1st place: Avery Roberts, "How the Watergate Scandal Changed the Presidency," Granville JSHS, Granville (Teacher: Ann O'Brien)

2nd place: Jennie Tang, "The Stock Market Crash," Bethlehem Central MS, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

Junior Individual Documentary
1st place: Conor Quinn, "Cuban Missile Crisis," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place: Ashley Visker, "The Polio Vaccine," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Documentary
1st place: Asiyah Moore, Amanda Ewiss, Set-Elbnat Eltayeb, Amnah Dhailia, Badia Dhailia, "Their Fight for Our Right: The Seneca Falls Convention," An Nur Islamic School, Schenectady (Teacher: Ashley Legenbauer-Sigond)

Junior Group Performance
1st place: Sahera Ahmad, Khalida Abdullah, Aliya Ahmad, Ayah Osman, "RAWA" An Nur Islamic School, Schenectady (Teachers: Ashley Legenbauer-Sigond)

2nd place: Sophia-Mae Scott, Brianna Thomas, "Women's Suffrage: Years of Fighting and Influential Women", Granville JSHS, Granville (Teacher: Ann O'Brien)

Junior Individual Exhibit
1st place: John Cheu, "Sputnik: A Technology Wake Up Call," Bethlehem Central MS, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

2nd place: Katherine Wallace, "Harvey W. Wiley: The Forgotten Father of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)
 

Junior Group Exhibit
1st place: Natalie Mitchell, Sarah Davis, "The Black Death," Bethlehem Central MS, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

2nd place: Morgan Labar, Lauren Namkoong, Delaney Corrigan, "Titanic," Bethlehem Central MS, Delmar (Teacher: Kristen Burns)

Junior Individual Web Sites
1st place: Nicole Chiang, "Robert Goddard: We Have Touched the Stars He Reached For," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place: Daniel Bemis, "Theory of Relativity," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Junior Group Web Sites
1st place: Priyan Pathirana, Edward Yu, Daniel Zhu, "The Ironclads," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland, (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

2nd place: Henry Li, James Gu, Sidharth Shamshabad, Kevin Huang, "D-Day," Farnsworth MS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Historical Paper
1st place: Michelle Kang, "The New Deal," Guilderland HS, Guilderland (Teacher, Deborah Escobar)

2nd place: Michael Zhu, "The Battle of Saratoga: A Turning Point in History," Guilderland HS, Guilderland (Teacher, Deborah Escobar)

Senior Individual Documentary
1st place: Sean Quinn, "Battle of Saratoga," Guilderland HS, Guilderland (Teacher, Deborah Escobar)

2nd place: Connor Reed, "The Lincoln Assassination," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

Senior Group Documentary
1st place: Liam Campbell, Jacob Landis, "Ford's Assembly Line," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

2nd place: Shannon Gerety, Rachel Wilson, Gloria Zhao, "Watergate," Guilderland HS, Guilderland (Teacher: Deborah Escobar)

Senior Group Performance
1st place: Gabriella Selbe, Maymunah Sarujamohaden, Ejaniia Clayton, Cheyenne Alvarez, "The Sounds of the French Revolution," Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls, Albany (Teacher: Emma Steckman)

2nd place: Brittany Reed, Lisa Leggieri, Amanda Pendergast, "Alice Paul & The 19th Amendment," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)
 

Senior Individual Exhibit
1st place: Ali Digena, "Upton Sinclair: Food for Thought," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

2nd place: Taliah Tillman, "Flying to the Top: An Aviation Woman," Questar III−Rensselaer Education Center, Troy (Teachers: Mary Bayham, John Mahony, Lewis Cappelli)

Senior Group Exhibit
1st place: Jordan Druckreier, Zach Frye "Stonewall Riots," La Salle School, Albany (Teacher: Jerald Hensler)

2nd place: Amanda Farley, Lauren Bausch, "The Impact of 9/11," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

Senior Individual Web Sites
1st place: Sarah Jones, "The City That Kept A Secret," Guilderland HS, Guilderland (Teacher, Deborah Escobar)

2nd place: Devashish Chaturvedi, "LBJ & The Great Society," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

Senior Group Web Sites
1st place: Robbie Benson, Henry Hance, Jacob Evans, "Penicillin: The Medical Miracle," Shenendehowa HS, Clifton Park (Teacher: Amber Quinn)

2nd place: Travis Sauer, Bailey Gatus, Ryan Harrington, "Pressure for Aviation Perfomance," Questar III−Rensselaer Education Center, Troy (Teachers: John Mahony, Mary Bayham, Lewis Cappelli)

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

The Office of Cultural Education (OCE), housed in the Cultural Education Center, operates three major institutions with stewardship responsibilities for collections — the New York State Museum, State Library, and State Archives — and the Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting. Further information about OCE programs and events can be obtained by visiting the OCE website.

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ALBANY, NY – Twenty five middle and high school students from throughout the Capital District won top prizes in the Capital Region History Day Contest at the New York State Museum and will advance to the state competition in Cooperstown on April 30.

The contest, held March 27, attracted 175 students from schools in Albany, Clifton Park, Delmar, Guilderland, Schenectady, and Granville. They competed in the preliminary regional competition of the National History Day Contest. The national theme for this year’s competition is “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.”

After working on their entries for many months, competitors qualified for the regional contest by doing well at contests held at individual schools throughout the area. Students researched history topics of their choice related to the theme to create exhibits, documentaries, performances, research papers and website designs. Participants included students in grades 6-8 in the Junior Division and grades 9-12 in the Senior Division. The winners will go on to the state competition in Cooperstown April 30. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest June 13-17 at the University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland.

There were two special prizes for those in the regional competition. This year’s Archives History Award was won by Michael Gao and Nate Costello of Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, under the supervision of teacher Amber Quinn. Their winning project, submitted in the Senior Websites Division, was “The Curtis Steam Turbine: A Case Study of American Innovation in Engineering.” They each won a $100 savings bond each.

The Daphne C. Cotter Women's History Award went to Rachel Nash of Shenendehowa High School, who also worked with teacher Amber Quinn. Her project in the Senior Individual Exhibits category was on the “Impact of the Special Olympics.” She won a certificate and a $20 Borders gift card.

National History Day is the nation’s leading program for history education in the schools. It makes history come alive for America's youth by engaging them in the discovery of the historic, cultural

and social experiences of the past. Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands

of teachers and parents nationwide, participate in the contest. Further information on the state History Day contest is available at http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/Contest.htm.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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EDITORS NOTE: The attached list identifies the winners in the regional competition who will go on to the state competition.

The New York State Museum will celebrate the holidays with a series of interactive programs designed to educate, entertain and engage visitors of all ages December 27-30.
All activities are free and will be held Tuesday through Friday between1 and 4 p.m. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the winter constellations, watch a film, warm up with winter stories, do arts and crafts projects, celebrate Kwanzaa and engage in other hands-on activities. Activities are open to all ages unless otherwise noted.
“Winter Stars” are the topic on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Visitors will enter an inflatable planetarium where they will explore the constellations viewable during the holiday season and learn techniques to guide them through the nighttime sky. The origins of constellation myths will also be discussed during this 30-40 minute presentation. Tickets are free but limited and must be picked up in the main lobby. This program is recommended for ages 7 and up.
“The Second Day,” a 40-minute documentary that looks at 9/11 through the eyes of a child, will be presented on Friday at 1 and 3 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. Filmmaker Brook Peters was attending his second day of kindergarten a few blocks from the World Trade Center when the planes struck the Twin Towers. At age 11, he decided to make a film about that fateful day and its aftermath to give his fellow students and teachers at schools near Ground Zero an opportunity to share their experiences with the world. “The Second Day” is the touching and inspirational documentary that he completed when he was 14. The film provides a unique and hopeful perspective on 9/11 through the eyes of young people and educators who lived through it.

A Kwanzaa celebration will be held on Tuesday from 3-8 p.m. on the Museum’s fourth floor Terrace. There will be an African marketplace, singing and traditional foods.
Museum educator Truemaster Trimingham will lead a hands-on program “All About Whales” on Wednesday at 1 and 3 p.m. Also on Wednesday, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Laura Payack of the New York State Office of Mental Health will show participants how to build a model of a neural network using recycled packing peanuts. 
Museum staff member Ann Winnicki will read “Winter Time Tales” to young visitors, ages 3-6, in front of the Sesame Street exhibit on Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. 
On Thursday from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Regina Keenan from Hudson River Fish Advisory Outreach will present “The Who’s Who of Hudson River Fish.” Participants can create a fish imprint to take home using the Japanese art of "gyotaku" and get some health advice about eating Hudson River fish. Also on Thursday during the same time, Museum art instructor Peggy Steinbach will show the beautiful artwork the Shakers created for their seed packets and invite participants to design their own packets and pack some seeds inside to take home or give as a gift. 
Museum staff member Nancy Berns will present a hands-on activity about owls on Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. She will show participants how to dissect owl pellets to determine what owls eat and why their delicate bodies are not damaged by the bones they eat every day.
For further information visit http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/programs/holidayweek/
Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will celebrate the holidays with a series of interactive programs designed to educate, entertain and engage visitors of all ages December 27-30.

All activities are free and will be held Tuesday through Friday between1 and 4 p.m. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the winter constellations, watch a film, warm up with winter stories, do arts and crafts projects, celebrate Kwanzaa and engage in other hands-on activities. Activities are open to all ages unless otherwise noted.

“Winter Stars” are the topic on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Visitors will enter an inflatable planetarium where they will explore the constellations viewable during the holiday season and learn techniques to guide them through the nighttime sky. The origins of constellation myths will also be discussed during this 30-40 minute presentation. Tickets are free but limited and must be picked up in the main lobby. This program is recommended for ages 7 and up.

“The Second Day,” a 40-minute documentary that looks at 9/11 through the eyes of a child, will be presented on Friday at 1 and 3 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. Filmmaker Brook Peters was attending his second day of kindergarten a few blocks from the World Trade Center when the planes struck the Twin Towers. At age 11, he decided to make a film about that fateful day and its aftermath to give his fellow students and teachers at schools near Ground Zero an opportunity to share their experiences with the world. “The Second Day” is the touching and inspirational documentary that he completed when he was 14. The film provides a unique and hopeful perspective on 9/11 through the eyes of young people and educators who lived through it.

A Kwanzaa celebration will be held on Tuesday from 3-8 p.m. on the Museum’s fourth floor Terrace. There will be an African marketplace, singing and traditional foods.

Museum educator Truemaster Trimingham will lead a hands-on program “All About Whales” on Wednesday at 1 and 3 p.m. Also on Wednesday, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Laura Payack of the New York State Office of Mental Health will show participants how to build a model of a neural network using recycled packing peanuts.

Museum staff member Ann Winnicki will read “Winter Time Tales” to young visitors, ages 3-6, in front of the Sesame Street exhibit on Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

On Thursday from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Regina Keenan from Hudson River Fish Advisory Outreach will present “The Who’s Who of Hudson River Fish.” Participants can create a fish imprint to take home using the Japanese art of "gyotaku" and get some health advice about eating Hudson River fish. Also on Thursday during the same time, Museum art instructor Peggy Steinbach will show the beautiful artwork the Shakers created for their seed packets and invite participants to design their own packets and pack some seeds inside to take home or give as a gift.

Museum staff member Nancy Berns will present a hands-on activity about owls on Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. She will show participants how to dissect owl pellets to determine what owls eat and why their delicate bodies are not damaged by the bones they eat every day.

For further information visit http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/programs/holidayweek/

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY -- The legacy of African-American farming and the unique reasons for its demise are the subject of a PBS documentary that will be shown Sun., March 4, 2001, at the New York State Museum.

Homecoming ... Sometimes I am Haunted by Memories of Red Dirt and Clay, a 60-minute film that aired on 11 public television stations last year, will be presented at 2 p.m. in the Clarke Auditorium. The screening will be followed by a question and answer period from the filmmaker, Charlene Gilbert, and Albany-based photographer Vickie Smith, who participated in the project.

Homecoming uses the story of Gilbert's family, who grew cotton and vegetables in Montezuma, Ga., to tell the story of black agriculture in the south from the Civil War. By 1920, there were nearly one million black farmers in American, a number that dropped to fewer than 18,000 by the end of the century. While those figures parallel the decline of farming nationwide, Homecoming points out how racist practices played out for black growers.

"Understanding the government-supported and legal ways in which black people lost land is really important,'' said Smith, an African-American whose family farmed in Virginia. "When black farmers took their crops to market they got less money for them, making life even harder and exacerbating their level of poverty."

The film, narrated by Charles S. Dutton, joins the growing literature on the topic.

Homecoming features archival footage of farms and the voices of Malcolm X and Julian Bond. Also included are excerpts from the testimony of freed slaves who went on to farm. The film, produced for the Independent Television Service, has won many awards including Best Documentary by the Prized Pieces International Film and Video Festival.

A companion book by the same name will be for sale after the screening.

Gilbert is an independent filmmaker living in Cambridge, Mass., where she is a Bunting Fellow at Harvard University. She received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.F.A. from Temple University. Her works have been shown at national and international festivals. Smith took still photographs for both the film and book.

More information on the film and the topic is available at www.itvs.org/homecoming

NYSM

ALBANY --- Three Gulf Coast high school interns have spent the past week assisting a New York State Museum scientist with his zebra mussel research after meeting him earlier this year in Biloxi, Miss. where he was assisting residents in a Cambridge community-funded hurricane relief project.

Sarah Foster, Heather Ramon, and Michele Smith arrived in the Cambridge area on July 23rd and will return home on Tuesday, August 1st. They have been assisting Dan Molloy, director of the State Museum’s Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge, in collecting zebra mussels from local lakes and rivers and examining them for any naturally occurring diseases. Molloy’s research centers on finding natural methods to control zebra mussels, an invasive species that causes one billion dollars of damage annually.

Molloy met the students in January when he took vacation time to go to Biloxi to assist in the cleanup and reconstruction efforts in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Molloy was among a group of Cambridge area residents who traveled to the area as part of a 9-day trip organized by Bob Cheney, a former high school teacher. Cheney founded the not-for profit Volunteers for Southern Construction Activities (VOSCA). Its members are primarily high school seniors whom Cheney has been taking down south since Hurricane Hugo hit in 1990. There have been 20 VOSCA funded trips during the past 16 years. After Katrina hit, Cheney immediately starting planning and raising funds for the January trip that Molloy participated in.

Although Molloy focused most of his time in Biloxi gutting a community day care center that had been under water, he took time out to give a presentation to biology

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students at an area high school at Cheney’s suggestion. He told the class he and Cheney wanted to invite a few students to come to the Cambridge laboratory for a hands-on internship. Three students applied and were accepted. VOSCA paid for their plane fares and the students stayed with Cambridge area families.

“They have had a real impact on our lab’s research progress,” said Molloy. “In the week that they have been with us, we have been able to accomplish so much together, both in the lab and field. They are bright, intellectually curious, and hard working. Our NYS Museum lab and VOSCA are pleased to have been able to offer this research experience to these three deserving students from the Katrina area.”

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York

State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – Representatives from 15 historic sites and cultural institutions will engage visitors in fun, educational activities January 16 during Hudson Valley History Day at the New York State Museum.

The free event, sponsored by the State Museum, will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is the highlight of Family Fun Weekend, January 16-17. The snow date will be Saturday, January 23. Activities will be held throughout the Museum’s first floor.

Participants include the State Museum, New York State Library, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt-Springwood, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site, Olana State Historic Site, Hudson River Heritage Organization/Montgomery Place, Albany Heritage Area Visitor Center and Henry Hudson Planetarium, Thomas Cole National Historic Site/Cedar Grove, Clermont State Historic Site, Shaker Heritage Society, Albany County Historical Society/Ten Broeck Mansion, Albany Institute of History and Art, Historic Cherry Hill and Crailo State Historic Site.

Visitors will be able to play the Hudson River Valley Trading Game on a 32-foot long game board at the Historic Cherry Hill table; sketch, write poetry and add to a community landscape at the Thomas Cole table; try weaving and grinding peppermint at the Shaker Society table; design their own stained glass at the Museum table; meet the life-sized Henry Hudson puppet at the Albany Heritage Area Visitor Center table and see historic documents, photographs and other objects at the other locations.

Jeffrey Urbin from the Roosevelt site will offer a lecture at 1:30 p.m. in the Huxley Theater on “How to Prepare Family Archives and a Time Capsule.” At 11 a.m. and noon, he also will provide tours of the This Great Nation Will Endure, an exhibition designed and curated by staff from the FDR site. The exhibition showcases the works of a legendary group of photographers who documented the lives and struggles of Americans enduring the Great Depression.

Tours will also be offered at 1 and 2:30 p.m. of the 1609 exhibition. Michelle Stefanik, a senior exhibition planner at the State Museum, will share information about Henry Hudson and his crew’s exploration of the Hudson River 400 years ago. She also will discuss the Mohican and Native Peoples who were living along the shores, as well as their relationships with the Dutch settlers.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 4 p.m., visitors will also be able to touch bear fur, try on a cradleboard and learn more about the Haudenosaunee at the hands-on Native Peoples cart, presented by Nancy Berns, a member of the State Museum’s Visitors Services staff.

On Sunday from 1-4 p.m., as part of Family Fun Weekend, the Museum will offer the same stained glass activity as the one on Saturday.

Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities on the third weekend of the month. The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – The New York State Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) and the New York State Museum will present weekly lectures in May focusing on the effect of non-native organisms on the environment and economy of New York State.

The free lectures are being held in conjunction with the Invaders exhibition, which will be at the Museum through March 15, 2009. All lectures are free and will be held on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. Lecture topics and dates are:

• May 7 – “Confronting Biological Invasions: A Growing Environmental Problem.” Species that are deliberately or accidentally introduced to new environments cause billions of dollars in economic damage and endanger native species worldwide. In New York, introduced invasive species have transformed most of the state’s ecosystems, and more problematic species are on the way. Dr. David Strayer, of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will review the history and impact of a few prominent invaders, the extent and causes of these introductions, and proposed solutions to this growing problem.

   

• May 14 – “Biological Invasions: How Mild Species Go Wild.” Invasive species owe their aggressiveness and influence to inherent traits combined with other factors. Scientists are developing ways to predict the potential for a newly introduced organism to become a problem species. Dr. George Robinson, of the Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, will use case studies that illustrate potential “rules” for reducing risky introductions, although the ability to predict invasiveness is still limited due to evolutionary “wild cards.”

   

• May 21 – “Worm Invasions: Predatory Planarians, Earthworms, and Novel Ecologies” Dr. Peter K. Ducey, of the Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Cortland, will discuss flatworms from Asia, as well as earthworms, presumably from Europe and Asia, that are now widely distributed in the United States. These earthworms and predatory flatworms could negatively affect a variety of environments by altering physical and biological components. The extent of the effects may depend on ecological interactions among invaders, and interactions between invasive and native species.

   

• May 28 – “Detecting Invasive Species: The NYS Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey Program” The early detection of introduced species, which could damage agricultural crops, is the primary mission of the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Kenneth L. Carnes, State Survey coordinator, will address survey technologies, present trapping protocols, and provide handouts of the 2008 NY-CAPS targets. He will provide information about early detection of invasive species and how the public can become involved.

The New York State Legislature created the Biodiversity Research Institute in 1993 to help meet the challenges associated with preserving the state’s biodiversity. The BRI serves as a comprehensive source of information, which is used to advise both public and private agencies on matters relating to the status of New York’s biological resources. Housed within the New York State Museum, the BRI is funded through the Environmental Protection Fund. The BRI includes several collaborators, including the State Museum, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, State University of New York, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Audubon New York, the New York Natural Heritage Program, and The Nature Conservancy. Further information is available at: www.nysm.nysed.gov/bri or by calling (518) 474-6531.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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The New York State Museum, a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education, has received an Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) for its groundbreaking exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War. The 7,000 square-foot exhibit, which opened on September 22, 2012 in Exhibition Hall, is now extended through March 23, 2014.

“The New York State Museum continues to be a jewel for all New Yorkers to share,” New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said. “The exhibition features hundreds of important historical artifacts and objects that tell the story of New York State’s role in the Civil War. The Board of Regents is proud of Museum Director Mark Schaming and his team at the State Museum. They truly deserve this award.”

“This Award of Merit is an acknowledgment of the State Museum team and the collaborators who developed this remarkable exhibit,” State Education Department Commissioner John B. King, Jr. said. “The exhibition offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the American Civil War. Every New Yorker – indeed every American should understand this defining event in American history that continues to shape the nation. The exhibit provides that understanding in a deep and meaningful way.”

For 68 years, the AASLH has bestowed Leadership in History Awards to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all Americans. By publicly recognizing superior and innovative achievements, the Award of Merit serves as an inspiration to others in the field.

“We are especially honored that the American Association of State and Local History has recognized An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War with a 2013 Award of Merit,” said State Museum Director Mark Schaming. “This powerful exhibition that tells the story of the American Civil War from the New York and national perspective is unique, enlightening and memorable. The State Museum is grateful to the AASLH for this nationally significant award.”

An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War is open through March 24, 2014, in Exhibition Hall. As the wealthiest and most populous state, the Empire State led all others in supplying men, money, and matériel to the causes of unity and freedom. New York’s experience provides significant insight into the reasons why the war was fought and the meaning that the Civil War holds today. The exhibition includes a brass collar worn by a slave in Canajoharie, New York, the earliest known photograph of human rights champion Frederick Douglass (on loan from the Onondaga Historical Association), Abraham Lincoln's 1860 life mask (New-York Historical Society), a steel plate made for the USS Monitor (Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway), handmade artifacts produced by Confederate prisoners at Elmira Prison (Chemung County Historical Society), and a Ku Klux Klan robe from Greene County, New York.

In addition, the poster for An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War has won an honorable mention in the American Alliance of Museums 2013 Museum Design Competition. The poster was created by State Museum designer Craig Gravina. The poster can be seen here: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/PRkit/2013/irrespressibleconflict/index.html.

More information about the exhibit is available here: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/civilwar/.

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Nationally-known historian Kenneth T. Jackson will present a lecture on “The Future of History in New York State” on Thursday, November 19 at the New York State Museum.

One of the country’s leading scholars in American history, Jackson will address New York State’s powerful and unique, but largely unheralded role in American history in a free public lecture at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater.

Jackson has for years championed the importance and excitement of New York State history. He appeared at the State Museum in 2006 when he delivered an essay “But it was in New York: America Begins in the Empire State.” It challenged historians to convince their “fellow citizens that today’s America took shape in yesterday’s New York.” Expanding on that theme Jackson will examine subsequent events, including the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, the State Museum’s proposed permanent exhibition on state history, the creation of the New York Academy of History, new public school curricula and more.

Jackson is currently the Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences and director of the Herbert Lehman Center at Columbia University.

Funded in part by the New York State Council for the Humanities, the lecture is part of a two-day conference November 19-20 on “Researching New York: Perspectives on Empire State History.” The conference brings together historians, librarians, teachers, researchers, archivists, museum curators and documentary producers, enabling them to share their interest and their work in New York State history. It provides a forum for the exploration of all aspects of state history, in all time periods and from diverse perspectives.

Other conference programs, open to registrants only, will be held at the University at Albany’s uptown campus. The conference is sponsored by the New York State Archives Partnership Trust and the University at Albany’s Department of History, the History Graduate Student Organization and the M.E. Granander Special Collections & Archives.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The president emeritus of the New-York Historical Society will speak at the State Museum on Monday, March 20 about New York State’s powerful and, unique, but largely unheralded role in American history, laying the foundation for a major new exhibition plan involving the State Museum, Archives and Library.

“But it was in New York: American begins in the Empire State” will be the topic of a 7:45 p.m. presentation in the Museum Theater by Kenneth T. Jackson, director of the Herbert H. Lehman Center for the Study of American History, a current Jacques Barzun professor of history at Columbia University and editor-in-chief of The Encyclopedia of New York City. Jackson will argue that events in New York, more than in any other state, have played a dominant role in shaping American history. But, for a variety of reasons, most Americans are not aware of this.

A new initiative in Governor Pataki’s proposed 2006-2007 budget provides $20 million for the public display of the collections of the state Office of Cultural Education (OCE) – the State Museum, Library and Archives. If approved, this plan would allow OCE to chronicle the state’s history in a more comprehensive, visible and tangible way, using state-of-the-art technology. The expanded display would also allow the Museum, Library and Archives to bring to the public exhibit floors many more artifacts currently stored away. Several rare artifacts from these collections will be on display March 20th.

OCE’s goal is to change the popular perception of New York through a “re-imagination” of its exhibition spaces to more accurately reflect the state’s paramount position in American history. Jackson will highlight the topics in which the places and citizens of the state played a dominant role. These would include the first settlement, Native Americans, immigration and diversity, tolerance and human rights, African Americans and civil rights, New York as a battleground, the Civil War, science and industry, visual arts, agriculture, world trade and globalization and the transportation revolution.

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A portion of the funds provided for in the budget proposal also could be used to develop a natural history gallery at the Museum. There also is an additional $20 million proposed that would be used toward the construction of a new climate-controlled OCE Collection and Research Center. The proposal also creates a Cultural Education Trust within the State Education Department to advise the Board of Regents on the expenditure of the funds.

The proposed new state-of-the-art collections center would be a “green” facility that would utilize modern technology to reduce pollution and save energy. It would accommodate all of the Museum’s collections and research laboratories, the State Records Center and parts of the collections of the Library and Archives. The Cultural Education Center (CEC) on Madison Avenue would continue as the primary public service and education space for the three OCE institutions, including the Museum’s exhibition galleries, the Research Library and Archives public spaces and other OCE public and educational program areas.

In 2003 a blue ribbon panel of distinguished experts from the nation’s major cultural institutions visited Albany and concluded that both the State Museum and the State Records Center, located at the Harriman State Office campus, are filled beyond capacity and their irreplaceable collections are threatened by insufficient space and obsolete and substandard storage facilities. The Museum currently stores larger items in its collections in a non-insulated, partially heated, leased warehouse in Rotterdam. It also leases laboratory facilities in North Greenbush. The new facility would ensure that the collections are properly stored in an environment with appropriate temperature and humidity controls.

The State Museum, Library and Archives house historic treasures that reflect over 170 years of collecting and research in the earth sciences, biology and human history and 375 years of documentation by New York’s colonial and state governments. The Museum has 12.5 million specimens and artifacts and the Archives and Library have more than 140 million documents, volumes and manuscripts.

The March 20th event is free but seating is limited. Those wishing to attend should RSVP at (518)

408-1033 by March 15th.

The New York State Museum, Library and Archives are programs of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Further information on the Museum can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov. Information on the State Archives is available at www.archives.nysed.gov or by calling (518) 473-9098 and State Library information can be found at www.nysl.nysed.gov or by calling (518) 474-5355.

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ALBANY, NY –Family Fun Weekend at the New York State Museum on January 7th and 8th will focus on “Life in the Winter” and feature a mask making presentation and a Star Lab Planetarium Show.

Patrick Wadden, the co-founder and director of Arm of The Sea Mask and Puppet Theater Group from Saugerties, will host the interactive mask making presentation on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. The snow day will be January 8th from 1 to 4 p.m.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Star Lab Planetarium “Winter Sky” show will be presented from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Museum Theater. “Story Time” will be featured at 3:30 p.m. All other activities will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. both days in the Adirondack Hall by the Elk Pond.

The “Stay Warm” experiment will provide an interactive learning experience using insulated mittens to show the ways nature keeps animals warm in the winter. Throughout the afternoon there also will be a scavenger hunt with prizes and visitors will be able to make and take home snowflake crafts.

Family Fun Weekends are offered the first weekend of every month at the State Museum. For further information please contact Noreen Yost at nyost@mail.nysed.gov or Cathy Cozzens at ccozzens@mail.nysed.gov or call (518) 486-1569.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Department of Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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A free jazz concert and Earth Day celebration are among the many activities planned at the New York State Museum during school-break week April 18-25th.

The New York State Museum, in partnership with the Albany Musicians' Association 14, AFM and the Recording Industries Music Performance Fund (MPF) will celebrate the Great American Music called Jazz with a concert featuring the Nate Phipps Quartet on Wednesday, April 20th from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Nate Phipps, a jazz pianist originally from Newark, N.J., will be joined by local drummer Joe Sorrentino, Peter Toigo on bass and Paul Couch on flute, clarinet and saxophone.

Phipps has spent most of his professional career playing in New York City and New Jersey. He has led several jazz groups that featured performers who went on to become jazz celebrities including Wayne Shorter, Chris White, Woody Shaw and others. He has also played as a sideman in groups led by jazz greats such as George Benson, Booker Irving and Rahassan Roland Kirk.

Earth Day activities will be featured Friday, April 22nd from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors will be able to see Smokey the Bear, an earth friendly Eco Car and see plants, bugs and other wildlife specimens. There also will be various educational programs, demonstrations and hands-on activities presented by scientists and educators from the New York State Museum, Junior Museum of Troy, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Hudson River Estuary Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension and Saratoga and Thacher State Parks. A complete schedule and map can be picked up at the main desk in the Museum lobby.

As part of the Museum’s Spring 2005 Film Series there will be a film Wednesday at noon in the Museum Theater on Jasper Johns, an artist whose work is featured in Extra-Ordinary: The Everyday Object in American Art, Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art in the Museum’s West Gallery.

There also will be arts and crafts activities from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Scheduled are: · April 18 – “Stained Glass Flowers” and “Something Fishy is Going On!” · April 19 – “Make Your Own Nine Spotted Lady Bug” and “Bee Buzz” · April 20 -- “Something Fishy is Going On!” · April 21 – “Egg Carton Tulips” and “Spring Flowers”

Throughout the week there also will be Scavenger Hunts and Exploration Stations, as well as rides on the Museum’s historic carousel. Discovery Place also offers hands-on learning from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation’s longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

- Favorite nursery rhymes and children's songs, colored by jazz and the blues, will be heard at the New York State Museum in July and August during a concert series presented by The Mother Goose Jazz Band. Performances will be at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays from July 7 through August 15th, with the exception of Monday, July 14th. During that week there will be a concert on Tuesday, July 15th, as well as the Friday concert.

The 40-minute interactive performances introduce children, ages 2-10, to the world of jazz. There will be music by jazz greats Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, as well as "This Old Man" and "Jack Be Nimble," in the style of jazz great Sonny Rollins. The performances provide a fun way to teach children about steady beat and syncopation, improvisation and the Afro-European roots of the blues.

Special guest vocalist Laurel Massé, founding member of the Manhattan Transfer, will join the musicians. The band is directed by Josh Greenberg, a composer, educator and saxophonist whose jazz albums have won awards from the National Library Association, Parents' Guide to Children's Media and Family Life magazine. Also, four songs of the band have been selected for a children's jazz exhibition that will open in the Boston Children's Museum in June and then travel nationally and internationally for the next five years.

The band also includes jazz pianist Lee Shaw, who has appeared on "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" show on National Public Radio; Rich Syracuse on bass, a former member of Nick Brignola's group; drummer Gene Garone of Doc Scanlon's Rhythm Boys and trombonist Ken Olsen of Alex Torres and The Latin Kings. A youth chorus of high school and college age girls round out the band.

Admission is $5 for children ages 2-12, $6 for adults, and children under two are free. Tickets may be purchased by calling (518) 869-4324 or visiting the band's website at www.mothergoosejazzband.com. A limited number of tickets will be available for purchase at the museum prior to each performance. Reservations are suggested for groups or families.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

ALBANY, NY – Music historian and Santana percussionist Hal Miller will speak about the history of Jazz at the New York State Museum on Friday, November 3 at 7 p.m. in the Museum Theater.

When Miller isn’t traveling the world with Grammy award-winning band Santana, he speaks at universities and cultural institutions to promote an appreciation for jazz. The presentation by the Albany native will be liberally illustrated with film clips from his own video collection of classic Jazz performances, which is one of the largest in the country. Miller has provided video for numerous television programs, including Ken Burns’ PBS series on Jazz. His presentation will also include anecdotes and inside stories about the giants of Jazz. He has written liner notes for recordings by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Carlos Santana.

Admission is $8 for Museum members, $10 for non-members. There is limited seating and pre-registration is recommended. Call 518-473-7154 or e-mail psteinba@mail.nysed.gov

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – Capitaland Chorus will perform on Sunday, December 20 during the New York State Museum’s December Family Fun Weekend, which will focus on “International Holidays.”

The lively Albany women's barbershop chorus, and member of Sweet Adeline's International, will entertain visitors from 2 to 2:30 p.m. and 3 to 3:30 p.m. Holiday crafts will also be featured during the free two-day event, December 19-20, from 1-4 p.m., in Adirondack Hall.

Capitaland Chorus, under the direction of Jeffrey Stein, is dedicated to the art of four-part harmony in the A Capella style. The Chorus sings everything from traditional music to modern Broadway musical pieces and has won regional and international awards. They perform for various community events, sing in their annual show and spread cheer at holiday time providing Val-o-grams (singing Valentines) and Harmony-grams. They also hold larger ensemble performances throughout the year.

Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities on the third weekend of the month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling

(518) 474-5877 or visit the Museum website.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – The New York State Museum’s annual “Cooking the Tree of Life” evolution program on February 8 will focus this year on the evolution of milk and offer samples of the popular foods that have resulted.

The program, at 7 p.m. in the Clark Auditorium, celebrates the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution. It will explore the evolutionary origins of the foods we consume, and the ways that human cultures have taken species from the wild and modified them through selective breeding over thousands of generations to suit our nutritional needs and epicurean desires. Audience members will be able to taste samples prepared by local food experts and learn about the natural history of some of America’s favorite foods.

Dr. Jeremy Kirchman, the State Museum’s evolutionary biologist, will lead the presentation, and Dr. Reid Ivy, creamery manager for the award-winning Old Chatham Sheepherding Co, will explain how cheese is made. Together they will consider the evolution of mammals, milk production, and the ingenious ways that humans (with help from bacteria) have used this mammalian adaptation to create some of our richest culinary pleasures. Dr. Ivy and Drue Spallholz from Albany’s Honest Weight Food Co-op, will lead the audience in a cheese tasting.

Lynn Beaumont from Albany’s Cheesecake Machismo will be on hand to describe how to make cheesecake, and will offer the audience samples of cheesecake made at her shop. Fresh local milk from Clarksville’s Meadowbrook Farms Dairy will also be available for sampling.

There will be a $5 admission fee. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – An expert in fossil plants will lead a “tour” of the Earth’s climates, past and future, at the State Museum February 21 as part of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Distinguished Lecturer series.

Dr. Kirk Johnson, vice president of research and collections and chief curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, will discuss how fossil plants reveal lost worlds, extinct biological communities and ancient climates. His free lecture, at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, is titled “Crocodiles in Greenland and Hippos in London: A Fossil-Fueled Tour of Past and Future Climates.” He will demonstrate how more precise dating of fossils has provided scientists with a better understanding of such phenomenon as climate change and global warming.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Museum, the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Albany and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation.

“Dr. Johnson will provide examples of the great changes to the Earth, life, and the climate that occur over time,” says Dr. Charles A. Ver Straeten, a Museum geologist. “We see similar evidence of significant change over time in New York. Geological data shows that the city of Albany was covered by over a mile of glacial ice 20,000 years ago. In contrast, ancient coral reefs in the state indicate that New York was covered by shallow tropical seas 400 million years ago.”

Fossil plants play an important role in recording such change. Dating back 50 million years, they have shown that the Earth’s icy polar regions were once ice-free and densely forested, while rain forests today, found in the tropics, once reached middle latitudes. Johnson’s talk will move from the Amazon basin to the high Arctic, and from today, back to Deep Time, as he explains the Earth’s history by visiting fossil sites on various continents.

Johnson’s popular and scientific articles have covered topics ranging from fossil plants and modern rain forests to the ecology of whales and walruses. His work with fossil plants has provided some of the most convincing evidence that an asteroid caused extinction of dinosaurs. His work has also led to discovery and analysis of a 64-million year-old tropical rain forest in Colorado, indicative of the Earth’s warmer climates at the time.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend on June 3 – 4th will focus on “Bike Safety” and will include a puppet show, bike rodeo and other activities.

The event will be held both days from 1 to 4 p.m. and is free of charge. A Bike Safety Rodeo will be held indoors due to the Freihofer’s Run for Women on Saturday. Museum instructors will cover safe sidewalk riding, road riding, helmets, and safe attire. No bikes will be allowed on Saturday. Sunday’s Bike Safety Rodeo takes place outdoors with an additional presentation to help riders learn more about their bikes and how to operate them. All participants must provide their own bikes and helmets. Also on Sunday, the New York State Police Bicycle Patrol will be present to discuss and demonstrate bike safety.

At 2 p.m. both days, The Brain Injury Association of New York State will present The Kids on the Block Puppet show about helmet safety.

Throughout the weekend, children can make crafts in Bird Hall, including a whistle lanyard. They will be able to pick a whistle, lanyard and beads to wear when they ride their bike. Participants can also make and take home spring flower art. Colorful paper flowers will be provided for children to cut, color, and frame. Activities also will include a scavenger hunt, with prizes, and participants will get an activity pack to take home. A 3:30 p.m. story time will take place both days in Bird Hall.

All activities will be held in Bird Hall except the Rodeo and the N.Y. State Police bike safety demonstration, which will be held in the parking lot on the west side of the Museum. That parking lot will be closed off, with no parking available, to accommodate the rodeo. Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities the first weekend of the month.

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The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New

Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – Alex Katz: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art opens at the New York State Museum on March 31. 
This exhibition, open through August 19 in the Museum’s West Gallery, is the 17th installment of the Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York State’s leading art museums to the State Museum.
Organized by Dana Miller, associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the exhibition includes more than 30 objects drawn from the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum. In 1961 the Whitney was the first museum to acquire a painting by Alex Katz (Richard Bellamy, 1960), considered by many to be one of the most important American artists alive today. Since then, the Whitney’s holdings of Katz’s work have grown to more than 65 pieces. 
Throughout his career, Katz has been committed to representation – depicting what he sees rather than an invented world or abstract image. This exhibition charts the development of Katz’s career over more than four decades while he moved across various media, from painting, collage and sculpture to drawings and prints and back again. 
The exhibition begins chronologically with lesser-known works from early in Katz’s
career – primarily landscape paintings and collages from the 1950s, several created during his summers in Maine. During the late 1950s Katz met his wife during a transitional point in his career. He abandoned collages and began painting contemporary portraits. His wife, Ada, became the subject of more than 250 portraits, several of which are in this exhibition. 
Also included are hallmark paintings from the 1960s through the 1980s -- enormous, brilliantly colored images of Katz’s families and friends that he developed while retaining the flat, solid colors from his collages. Two notable examples in the exhibition are Eli and The Red Smile, both painted in 1963. As Katz’s works grew in scale, he abandoned his method of painting directly from life and created small scale paintings on composition board as an intermediary step before launching into his larger paintings.

Several examples of those are also in the exhibition. 
The State Museum will sponsor several programs this summer that will allow visitors to learn more about Alex Katz’s work. ARTventures, on August 11 from 1 to 3 p.m., will provide a hands-on 
art-making experience as participants explore the style of Alex Katz. Creative Quest: Museum ART Camp will feature two three-day sessions during August in which students will learn history through creative art projects within a daily theme. “Katz and Faces,” one of those themes, will allow participants to explore the sculpture, painting, drawing and collage of Katz. Further information on these programs is available by calling 518/473-7154 or emailing psteinba@mail.nysed.gov. 
The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Bank of America, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly for making the Katz exhibition possible. Support was also provided by Hodgson Russ, LLP, a Buffalo-based law firm with an office in Albany.
The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov. 
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ALBANY -- The construction materials industry in New York State, which accounts for most of the state’s mining of natural resources, generates $5 billion annually, far outpacing other manufacturing industries, according to a new report on the industry’s economic impact.

Working with the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, State Geologist Dr. William Kelly, director of the New York State Geological Survey, recently completed a study on the construction industry’s contribution to the state economy.

Most of the mining in New York State is for construction purposes, involving cement, crushed stone, and sand and gravel. Excluding fuel resources, last year each New Yorker used over 20,000 pounds of minerals to maintain his/her standard of living. Per person, this accounted for more than 18,000 pounds of cement and construction aggregates in roads, bridges, homes, schools, highway repair, parking lots and a host of other projects that require concrete, black top, or stone fill.

Included in the study were the mining industry and the ready mix concrete and hot mix asphalt industries, which consume most of the output of New York’s mines. The economic impact encompassed both the direct expenditures of the industry -- wages paid to miners -- and also the value of the indirect impact of the business. The indirect impact addressed the dollars subsequently spent by those who receive direct expenditures.

The study revealed that the activities of the construction materials industry generate $1.3 billion in labor income for 30,000 jobs in New York, $100 million in taxes on income, sales, fuels and corporations, and roughly $3.5 billion in sales. This accounts for more salary and jobs than what is generated by the state’s warehouse and storage industry. It is twice the salary and employment of the primary metal manufacturing industry, and four times that of New York’s wood product manufacturing sector.

The current economic impact of the construction materials industry also greatly exceeds to potential economic benefits of the very intensely promoted Marcellus gas play in central New York. The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York estimates that the economic impact of natural-gas wells drilled in the Marcellus Shale would generate $1.4 billion in economic activity, $32 million in state tax revenue, and hundreds of jobs.

Mines are not always welcomed into communities in New York but the products of those operations are essential to modern life. The study looked at what the cost would be for transporting aggregates for projects on the New York State Thruway as an example of what would happen if New York did not have a viable mining industry. The mines that serve the Thruway with building materials were located and one-quarter and one-half of them were randomly eliminated as sources of stone. The cost of transporting aggregates for Thruway projects was then recalculated.

Results indicate that if a quarter of mines along the Thruway corridor were not in operation, transportation costs would increase 42 percent. If half of the mines were not available to supply resources, costs would increase roughly 60 percent. This obviously would impact total project costs and, ultimately, the scope of the project. This analysis can be applied to any construction project in New York that makes use of stone, asphalt or concrete.

The New York State Geological Survey (NYSGS)is the geological research arm of the State Museum. 

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – A Lake Placid native, who discovered her life’s passion teaching in Kenya, will talk about her experiences during a presentation at the New York State Museum on Saturday, March 15.

As part of the 1 p.m. program in the Huxley Theater, Keela Dates will also show photographs focusing on her work as a teacher at the Jambo Jipya School. Dates traveled to Kenya to volunteer there shortly after getting her elementary education certificate in 2006. She expected to stay for a short time and then return home to secure a teaching job in New York State. Instead, she found her life’s calling there and plans to return.

Further information on Dates and her experience can be found at www.reason2smile.org.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

P.S. Art, an exhibition of the best artwork from New York City's public schools, opens at the New York State Museum November 1.

The exhibition, at the entrance to Exhibition Hall through December 31, includes 47 works of art, including drawings and two-dimensional paintings, created by students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Also included are the artists' reflections about their works and the processes by which they were generated.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in New York City, co-sponsors of the exhibition, worked with the New York City Department of Education and asked public school arts coordinators to identify extraordinary art work from their schools. A panel of cultural leaders, assembled by Caroline Kennedy, selected the final works from nearly 300 that were submitted.

P.S. Art grew from another project of the Alliance. Following the September 11th tragedy, ARTifacts: Kids Respond to a World in Crisis demonstrated that many of New York City's young people found healing and hope through creative expression. Their compelling works of art also demonstrated the talent and resilience of New York City's students, in kindergarten through 12th grades. The Alliance was asked to work with the NYC Department of Education on P.S. Art as another way of showcasing the artwork of the city's students.

Albany is the last stop on a short tour of the exhibition. It opened at the DFN Gallery in Tribeca on May 2 to coincide with the Tribeca Film Festival and then moved to the Center for Arts Education's Gallery at 180 Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

The October issue of National Geographic Magazine reports a New York State Museum researcher's findings about an unusual rainforest mammal he studied in Panama that lives like a primate, but is actually related to the raccoon and bear families.

The research, by Roland Kays of Albany, the Museum's curator of mammals, reveals new information about the behavior of the kinkajou, a yellowish-brown cat-sized animal sometimes called "honeybear." Kays' findings are published as part of an 11-page full-color photo spread that shows amazing close-ups of the animal as it has never been seen before. Previously, little had been known about the nocturnal animal's behavior because it was hard to find and study in its treetop habitat.

Using ropes, Kays climbed into the rainforest canopy where he set live-traps baited with bananas. The fruit-loving kinkajous became quite fond of these handouts, and Kays was able to capture, mark, and collect blood from 30 animals. Some also received radio-collars, which allowed him to track the animals on subsequent nights and learn more about their nocturnal ways.

"I was amazed at how fast they habituated to me following them at night," said Kays, "I could walk on the ground as they climbed from tree to tree and keep track of where they were going, what they were eating, and who they were interacting with -- they totally ignored me."

Using data from DNA and radio tracking - and by following the "kinks" (Kays' term) with flashlight and binoculars - Kays documented a surprisingly social creature living in family groups, and sleeping the day away in tree holes. These behavioral results appeared in a series of scientific publications highlighting the evolutionary convergence of these social, fruit-eating, tree-climbing raccoon relatives with the Primates. The National Geographic article will be the first to illustrate this story with photographs.

With partial funding from National Geographic Society, Kays conducted most of his kinkajou research in the mid 1990s in Soberania National Park near the Panama Canal while he was a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. One of his study animals from this work, named Lotus, was still in the same area this past winter when he returned to Panama to help the National Geographic writer, Ithaca-based Holly Menino, and photographer, Sweden-based Mattias Klum, produce the story.

"The pictures are really amazing," said Kays, "the kink immediately accepted the photographer once he climbed the tree, sometimes creeping to within one foot to check him out."

Kays hopes the article will help pique people's interest in mammals, and value the habitats they live in. National Geographic Magazine reaches over six million households in the United States each month. Kays most recently traveled to Panama this past spring and plans to go again in October with the aid of new National Geographic funding he received to research carnivores of New York and Panama.

The State Museum, a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education, was founded on a tradition of scientific inquiry. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.