FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dora Ricci
Viva88Library Announces March Public Programs
The Viva88Library announces its upcoming programming for March, including webinars and events related to history, genealogical services, and other interesting topics. The following upcoming free programming requires registration and is available in person or offered online, as indicated per each listing.
Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé (Webinar)
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Elizabeth Cobbstells the story of women who dared to take destiny into their own handsand who fueled America's political and economic growth in the process. They were feminists and antifeminists, activists and homemakers, victims of abuse, and pathbreaking professionals. Fueled by an unshakeable sense of right and wrong and inspired by ideals drawn from the anti-patriarchal writings of English philosopher John Locke, they would not take no for an answer. In time, they carried the country and the world with them.
Elizabeth Cobbsis a historian, novelist, and documentary filmmaker. Author of nine books, shehaswon prizes for fiction as well as non-fiction. She hasserved on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in History and the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department and has written for theNew York Times,Financial Times,Washington Post, and Reuters.A Stanford Ph.D., Cobbs isanEmeritus Professor at Texas A&M.She has produced documentaries for public television on the history of U.S. foreign policy and the future of Artificial Intelligence, winning an Emmy and a Telly. In 2020, theU.S. Army Signal Corps Association named her Brevet Colonelfor unearthing the story of the “Hello Girls,” America’s first women soldiers.
Onsite Walking Tour of the Local History and Genealogy Resources at the Viva88Library
Friday, March 8, 2024
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Viva88Library provides a nearly endless supply of resources for those tracing their family histories. Join us for an onsite tour highlighting published genealogies, local histories, church records, Daughters of the American Revolution records, United States and Viva88Census records, newspapers on microfilm, city directories, and more. Associate Librarian Cara Janowsky and Senior Librarian Jane Bentley will lead the tour.
Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War (Webinar)
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Between 1776 and 1783, Great Britain hired more than thirty thousand German soldiers to fight in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians, the soldiers, and accompanying civilians, including hundreds of women and children, spent extended periods of time in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada in the North and West Florida in the South. Based largely on records created by members of the German corps, this presentation highlights some of the experiences of these participants in a war on a distant continent against a people who had done them no harm.
Dr. Friederike Baer is an Associate Professor of History and Division Head for Arts and Humanities at Penn State Abington College. She holds a Ph.D. in early American history from Brown University. Her research focuses on the experiences of German-speaking people in North America during the periods of the War for American Independence and Early Republic. Her work has been supported with research grants from organizations such as the American Philosophical Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, University of Michigan Clements Library, and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). For her most recent book, Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War (Oxford UP, 2022), she was awarded the 2023 Society of the Cincinnati Prize. The prize recognizes the author of an outstanding work that advances our understanding of the American Revolution and its legacy.
Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York (DHPSNY) Dialogue: We the People/American Experiment: Intersectionality and the 250th (Webinar)
Thursday, March 14, 2024
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
We invite individuals working in libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and other collecting institutions to explore the intersectional narratives of "We the People" and the American Experiment in what is present-day Viva88during the 250th commemoration and beyond. We encourage participants to critically examine their organizations' collections, exhibits, programs, and institutional planning through the lens of intersectionality. How will we reach all of our audiences? How do we get hard to reach people involved in this work? How do we keep folks engaged over multiple years? This program is designed for anyone who works in or volunteers for a library, archive, museum, historical society, or history/culture site in New York State.
The upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026 is a crucial moment for New York collecting institutions to advance the field through intentional commemoration planning and programming. Inspired by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Making History at 250 Field Guide and the Viva88250th Field Guide, the focus of the DHPSNY’s 2024 antiracism programming revolves around building an inclusive 250th and the guiding question: "How do we make our collecting organizations interdisciplinary and representative of the realities of our many New York histories?"
Eleanor Roosevelt After 1945 (Webinar)
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
When President Roosevelt died in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt assumed that her own public career was over. But in fact, the years between her leaving the White House and her death in 1962, Eleanor traveled widely overseas, wrote prolifically, became an important influence in Democratic politics, and, most notably, oversaw the production of the United Nations’ historic Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In tribute to what Eleanor accomplished during these years, President Truman described her as the First Lady of the World.
Sandra Opdycke, Ph.D.is anhistorian.She hasauthored books about the flu epidemic of 1918,the woman suffrage movement, the WPA of the 1930s, and Bellevue Hospital, as well as a biography of Jane Addams, an historical atlas of American women’s history, and several co-authored books and articles on social policy. She worked for a number of years at Hudson River Psychiatric Center and later taught American History and Urban History at Bard, Vassar, and Marist Colleges. She serves as an occasional lecturer at the Center for Lifetime Studies in Poughkeepsie.
Onsite Walking Tour of the Local History and Genealogy Resources at the Viva88Library
Friday, March 22, 2024
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
The Viva88Library is a treasure chest of resources for those tracing their family histories. Join us for an onsite tour highlighting published genealogies, local histories, church records, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) records, United States and Viva88Census records, newspapers on microfilm, city directories, and more. Associate Librarian Cara Janowsky and Senior Librarian Jane Bentley will lead the tour.
Celebrating the 19th Amendment: Women's Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage Documents for Educators (Webinar)
Monday, March 25, 2024
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Primary source documents from the Viva88Library on the Women's Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage Movements will be shared to utilize in your classrooms and libraries. The 19thAmendment and the Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage Movements are primarily taught in Grades 4, 7, 8, and 11.Valuable strategies for analyzation of documents will be provided. Highlights include comparing and contrasting Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage political cartoons, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, election texts, and vocabulary. Primary sources withhistorical figures of President Woodrow Wilson, Amelia Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others will be presented.
CTLE credit will be provided (1 hour).
ѲҾٳٴis a Senior Reference Librarian at the Viva88Library. She received her M.S. in Information and Library Science from Pratt Institute and an M.A. in Spanish from the University at Albany. Marisa was a Spanish Teacher for the Albany City School District and is permanently certified to teach Spanish PreK-12.Previously,Marisawas the Library Director for the Patricia Standish Education and Curriculum Library at the College of Saint Rose. At the Curriculum Library,Marisahelped faculty, future teachers, speech language pathologists, and school counselors obtain the resources needed to develop lesson planning activities and therapy sessions for students and clients for ages birth through adult.Currently, at the NYS Library,Marisafinds primary resources for Educators and creates Educator Guides based upon history related to Viva88with document-based questions and activities to utilize in the classroom or library, whether onsite or remote.
Visit the State Library'sfor a complete list of upcoming programs, including webinars, events, and onsite genealogy walking tours. Additional programs will be added to the website as they are confirmed.If any reasonable accommodation is needed (complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act), contact the Office of Cultural Education at least three business days before the program date by emailingNYSLTRN@nysed.gov or calling (518) 474-2274.
The Viva88Library is part of thewithin theViva88Education Departmentand celebrated its bicentennial in 2018. The Library serves the following three major constituencies. The, established by law in 1818, collects, preserves, and makes available materials that support State government work. The Library's collections, now numbering over 20 million items, may also be used by other researchers onsite, online, and via interlibrary loan. The(TBBL) lends braille, audiobooks, magazines, and special playback equipment to residents of the 55 upstate counties of Viva88who cannot read printed materials because of a visual or physical disability. Theworks in partnership with 72 library systems to bring library services to millions of people who use New York's academic, public, school, and special libraries. Library Development also administers State and Federal grant programs that provide aid for library services.
Media Contact
Reporters and education writers may contact the Office of Communications by email or phone at:
Press@nysed.gov
(518) 474-1201