The Magazine of the New York Vol. 6 • No. 1 State Museum summer 2010

INSIDE:

A New Exhibition Mountain’ Gorilla of NYS Landscapes Page 9 New York’s Coyote The Colonial Albany Social History Project

Karner Blue Butterfly Thank you for making the New York

State Museum More than 750,000 visitors learn and discover at the New York State Museum each year. These visitors have a significant economic impact on No. 1! the region, according to a recent study by the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. Visitors to the State Museum and the 21 other cultural “Best Museum” and “Best Museum for Kids” • and historic attractions participating in the survey in the Times Union’s 2010 Best of the Capital Region Readers’ Poll generate an estimated $38 million in sales for the region stretching from Albany to Rome.

“Best Museum” in Capital Region Living • See what makes the State Museum a standout by magazine’s* Best of the Capital Region 2010 visiting the galleries and browsing our website at www.nysm.nysed.gov. • “Best Museum” in Metroland’s Reader’s Picks 2010, “Best Museum (Cultural History)” More than 2,500 people follow the State Museum in Metroland’s Best Of (2010) on Facebook. Become a fan today to receive information about the latest exhibitions, • “Best Museum (Kids)” in Metroland’s programs, and discoveries. Best of the Capital Region 2009

“You can seriously spend hours there … and don’t forget to ride the carousel before you leave!” – A voter in the Times Union’s 2010 Best of the Capital Region Readers’ Poll Vol. 6 • No. 1 contents summer 2010 features

The People of Colonial Albany Up in the Air: Aerobiological Live Online Discoveries at the New York 10 For more than a decade, the Colonial 13 State Museum Albany Social History Project has In the 1950s, State Botanist Dr. Eugene introduced the public to residents of C. Ogden led a statewide study of pollen early Albany through biographies and and spores. He later expanded on those historical documents posted on a studies, and what he discovered helped Above: Fifty years ago Dr. Eugene community history website. modernize the field of aerobiology. C. Ogden devised samplers to by Stefan Bielinski by Dr. Norton G. Miller study of the amount of pollen and spores released in the air.

departments 2 Director’s Note 3 Museum News Discovery Now 6 New York’s Coyote—What Is It? Where Did It Come From? Museum research answers persistent questions about the state’s top predator. With a total of six volunteers, the osteology lab was a by Dr. Roland W. Kays busy place this summer.

Hidden Treasures Above: This photograph, titled 9 Mountain Gorilla Northern Survey Company, is part On the Cover: Renowned painter Louis Agassiz Fuertes of the exhibition Not Just Another Mountain Gorilla captured the essence of a mountain gorilla Pretty Place: The Landscape of (Gorilla beringei beringei) and cast it in bronze. New York. The show opens September 3, in the West Gallery. Louis Agassiz Fuertes (1874–1927) by Ronald J. Burch Cast bronze, 1923 Below: When comparing eastern 8 ¾ inches x 9 inches x 7 ¼ inches diameter and western coyotes, Museum NYSM H-1977.74.121 New York Stories 16 The Karner Blue Butterfly researchers collected and measured 196 skulls. Cover Inset: Now federally listed as an endangered The male Karner blue butterfly species, the striking Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), was first discovered in the United States from the State Museum’s by a State Museum entomologist. entomology collection, measures by Dr. Timothy L. McCabe approximately 1 inch in wing expanse. www.nysm.nysed.gov The Magazine of the New York State Museum

director’s note Maria C. Sparks, Managing Editor Contributors Stefan Bielinski Ronald J. Burch ometimes it’s difficult not getting a “big head” about the Roland W. Kays Museum. The excellence embodied in our public spaces, Timothy L. McCabe Sresearch, stewardship, and programming is continuously Norton G. Miller recognized. A recent Capital Region survey ranked the Museum as the “Best Museum” and “Best Museum for Kids” in the Advisory Board area. The award cited the expansive galleries, breadth of exhibits, Clifford A. Siegfried the ever-popular carousel, and free admission as some of the John P. Hart reasons why the State Museum wins this category year after year. Mark Schaming These awards are just the most recent of many the Museum has Jeanine L. Grinage received (see the inside front cover of this issue). Robert A. Daniels Our recognition for excellence derives not only from the terrific exhibitions that we mount in our galleries but also from the overall visitor experience our staff delivers day after day, week after week. Editorial Board The graphic panels that announce our exhibitions, posters based Carrie Bernardi on our exhibits, and calendars celebrating our collections have won Cecile Kowalski national awards. Our magazine and our media relations office have Charles E. Orser Jr. Geoffrey N. Stein won awards for excellence. Year after year, our staff members are Chuck Ver Straeten singled out by their peers with awards that applaud their contributions and with competitive grants that support their important research. The New York State Museum is a treasure for all New Yorkers. Legacy is published quarterly by the We appreciate the support and recognition we receive from our New York State Museum, Cultural visitors and our peers, and we pledge to strive for excellence in Education Center, Albany, NY 12230. every aspect of our operations. We invite you to connect with the Members can receive the magazine Museum—visit our galleries, browse our website, and become a via e-mail. For information about fan on Facebook—and see why this is such an extraordinary place. membership, call 518-474-1354 or send an e-mail to: [email protected].

Dr. Clifford A. Siegfried Director, New York State Museum

www.nysm.nysed.gov

2 n Legacy museum news

Not Just Another Pretty Place: The Landscape of New York Must-See Exhibitions

Current Exhibitions:

Focus on Nature XI Through October 31

Citizen Soldier: New York’s National Guard in the American Century Through March 2011

Not Just Another Pretty Place: The Landscape of New York Through March 2011

The Cut, Cecil Chichester (1891–1963). Oil on canvas, c. 1938. 24 ¼ inches x 30 ¼ inches. Sheraton side chair, attributed to Thomas NYSM 1997.11.1 Ash II. Painted and stenciled maple, c. 1820. NYSM H-1971.141.1

he new exhibition Not Just admiration, residents and visitors Great Depression. Not all the Another Pretty Place: The have been fascinated by the landscapes are actual locations Landscape of New York wide variety of vistas that New in the state; several landscapes T The exhibition Derby Doings: The explores the different ways York provides. are imaginative works that All-American Soap Box Derby, on artists, photographers, scientists, The exhibition discusses several reflect the artist’s impression view in the Main Lobby through and others have depicted our ways the landscape has been of New York State. August 18, provided a brief history state. It is the first exhibition of recorded, including documentation The exhibition opens of the All-American Soap Box Derby and the Capital District’s participa- landscape art entirely from the of the land, birds-eye views of September 3 in West Gallery. tion over the years. Albany’s first State Museum’s collections. communities, and photographs A companion exhibition, Wish competition dates to 1940 when Visitors will see more than 100 of the family home. It also You Were Here, featuring 15,000 people watched 100 boys landscape scenes in the form of explores how artists romanticized photographs of New York’s compete in the first races on paintings, photographs, prints, the landscape in their attempts varied landscapes, opens the Clermont Street. The exhibition featured a Soap Box Derby Car ceramics, furniture, engravings, to capture the natural beauty of same day. Members of the from 1949 (NYSM H-1995.71.1) and sketchbooks that span nearly the state in their paintings, pho- Exhibitions staff selected the and a contemporary Super Stock 200 years. The rich and varied tographs, and prints. In addition, photographs from hundreds model built in 2007. landscape of New York State the exhibition presents cityscapes of images submitted by people has been a subject of interest to that have inspired artists. Other throughout the state. When artists, photographers, historians, sections of the exhibition show viewed together, the photo- and scientists for hundreds of how New York’s landscapes have graphs confirm that New York’s years. Whether documenting the been used to encourage tourism, varied landscapes continue to landscape for political and scien- decorate home furnishings, and fascinate. Additional images can For more details on tific reasons or creating beautiful provide financial assistance to be viewed in an online exhibition exhibitions, go to www.nysm.nysed.gov/. paintings for contemplation and the arts community during the on the Museum’s website. n

Summer 2010 n 3 museum news

What’s New at www.nysm.nysed.gov

lthough the earthquake tremors that shook New York state on June 23 might seem like a rare occurrence, earthquakes happen in New York with some regularity. A new website for the New AYork State Geological Survey provides details on popular geology topics such as earthquakes, rocks, minerals, and fossils as well as information on continuing research by Museum staff. It also offers teaching resources, links to geology publications published by the Museum, highlights of the geological collections— rocks and minerals, oil and gas, and paleontology, a guide to the rocks of the Empire State Plaza buildings, and more. http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/nysgs/

early 50 years after its initial publication, former State Archaeologist Dr. William A. Ritchie’s Typology and Nomenclature for New York Projectile Points (1961, revised 1971) remains a basic reference for Narchaeologists working in the Northeast. The new online version of the book includes color images of selected artifacts that accompany the original text and illustrations of projectile points from New York. Many of the projectile points shown in the color images are from the Museum’s collections. http://collections.nysm.nysed.gov/projectilepoints/

he catalog for Focus on Nature XI, the natural history illustration exhibition on view through October 31, can be browsed and downloaded from the Museum’s website. The catalog, which is presented as a T PDF document, includes an image and artist’s description for each of the 93 illustrations in the exhibi- tion. The Focus on Nature Web page also includes a pictorial gallery of the illustrations; viewers can click on an image to read the artist’s statement about the work. In addition, viewers can see which Focus on Nature XI works were chosen as award winners. This year, the Museum granted 13 Purchase Awards and the selected works will be added to the Museum’s illustration collections. http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/fon/exhibitions/index.html Marcos Antonio dos Santos-Silva, Brazil, Barata do coqueiro (Coraliomela thoracica) Watercolor, 2009, 35 x 25 inches. NSF Grants Support Undergraduate Researchers on Museum Projects

wo Museum scientists re- Dr. Kays. Earlier this summer, Dr. called Auchenorrhyncha, which For cently received supplemental Kays spent two weeks introducing includes Cicadoidea (cicadas), a look back Tgrants from the National Brian Watts to his field research Cercopoidea (spittlebugs), and at an important Science Foundation (NSF) to hire project on the dispersal and Fulgoroidea (planthoppers)— scientific discovery undergraduate students to work predation of seeds by mam- three groups of under-studied but on their ongoing research projects mals at the Smithsonian Tropical economically important insects. that ultimately helped this summer. Research Institute in Panama. The project, funded by NSF since provide relief from Dr. Jason Cryan, who directs Watts, a student at the University 2005, is a partnership between allergy symptoms, research in the Museum’s DNA of Georgia, works as part of a the New York State Museum, sequencing laboratory, and Dr. team of researchers investigating Illinois Natural History Survey, see page 13. Roland Kays, curator of mammals, how rodents, when they disperse University of Connecticut, and an were awarded NSF Research or eat seeds, affect forest regen- international team of collabora- Experience for Undergraduates eration. The study uses motion- tors with expertise in the field. (REU) supplements. This was the sensitive radio transmitters to The REU supplement he received first time Museum scientists have track what happens to seeds. supports the summer research received this type of grant. Dr. Cryan is the principal of three undergraduate students “The summer field season is a investigator on a five-year NSF from the University of Connecti- busy time, and we always need grant to train new experts in cut, each of whom are working more field help to make the most the taxonomy and evolution of on revising the taxonomy of a of the experimental setup,” says a group of plant-eating insects different group of cicadas. n

4 n Legacy volunteers in action museum news Volunteers Interpret Skeletal Remains While Gaining Critical Experience

uring her last year of college, readily available to students study- enjoy,” says Dawn, explaining that to study anthropology in college Melanie Brasor interned in ing anthropology or pursuing a she feels a sense of satisfaction as and described her time in the lab Dthe Museum’s osteology lab career in bioarchaeology. she helps analyze skeletal remains. as an “invaluable experience.” where she documented skeletal Shoko Kubitera, a May graduate “You learn so much by seeing many Part of that experience included remains. This summer, while she of Binghamton University, aug- different collections, you learn about meeting and learning from the completed her master’s thesis and mented her school work with the variations of human bones.” other volunteers. The lab has looked ahead to starting on her the hands-on experience of All the volunteers agree that volunteers and interns year-round, teaching degree, she returned inventorying skeletal remains. hands-on experience is the only but with six volunteers this sum- to the lab—this time to examine “I’ve seen so many things that way to become familiar and expe- mer, it was the largest number of human juvenile remains from a I didn’t see at school,” she says, rienced with identifying bones. volunteers at one time. 4,000-year-old archaeological site. such as juvenile skeletons and Keenya Oliver, a long-term volunteer “There are other people who “It was recreation,” says Melanie, bones with evidence of trauma. who is in the Ph.D. program at are this passionate about what I who received a master’s degree in The opportunity to gain research UAlbany, studies paleoanthropol- love,” says Annika. “I like being anthropology from the University experience with bones showing ogy—the study of fossil humans able to put the person back to- at Albany in August. “Other people signs of trauma also drew Lori —and learns osteology by doing. gether to who they were.” go boating, I go look at bones.” She Critcher back to the lab for the She has inventoried several collec- Their passion did not go un- was not alone in this pursuit, or in month of July. Lori, a former tions, which sometimes contain noticed by the Museum staff. “In her passion for interpreting what intern in the lab who is now in bone fragments, to determine this time of cutbacks, volunteer human skeletal remains can reveal. the Ph.D. program at Ohio State the age, sex, and possible back- help is more important than ever Melanie and five other women University, studies warfare in ground of individuals. “You’re but these volunteers have been volunteered in the lab this summer, ancient societies and related forced to learn it when it’s hands extraordinary,” says Lisa Ander- inventorying and documenting topics. For her, identifying and on,” she says. son, curator of bioarchaeology at bones. The State Museum receives documenting bones provides The opportunity to learn led the Museum. “They are all very skeletal remains when, for example, essential experience that can’t Annika Anderson, a senior at Emma talented, and I can’t say enough bones are donated in an archaeo- be gained from books or in the Willard, to spend two weeks in the about how fortunate we’ve been logical collection or an unmarked classroom. “I could be in that lab lab. While she studied osteology to have their help. To spend time cemetery is accidentally uncovered for 12 hours, and it never feels on her own, she inventoried skel- here when they could be working during a construction project. For like work,” she says. etal remains recovered from an or on vacation is true dedication the volunteers, the lab provides Dawn Lawrence, a past graduate accidental discovery. Annika plans and we really appreciate it!” n opportunities to work with real assistant intern at the lab who bones and learn the subtle clues is now pursuing a Ph.D. at the The volunteers, who included one high school student, a recent college graduate, a graduate student, and three Ph.D. students, shared an interest in interpreting skeletal used to interpret them. This is an University at Albany, would likely remains. Top, from left to right: Shoko Kubitera, Melanie Brasor, Annika Anderson, important experience not always agree. “I’m doing something I really Dawn Lawrence, Keenya Oliver, and Lori Critcher.

Summer 2010 n 5 museum discovery now news

New York’s Coyote—What Is It?

Where Did It Come From? Dr. roland w. kays

Right: A motion-sensitive Over the next 60 years, there camera trap catches a pair of ho are you? Where did over the ensuing 30 years, coyotes exploring the Albany you come from? were periodic reports of wolves and today they are a relatively Pine Bush. WThis pair of questions and coyotes around the state. common, if elusive, species in greets any newcomer, be they a Some of these turned out to wild, rural, and urban areas. new family moving in down the be feral dogs, others were pet street or a new species of animal wolves. Some were coyotes, New York’s New Top Predator colonizing an area. A coyote-like brought into the state mistakenly But what is this thing? animal moved into New York by fox-hunting clubs. Dishonest Everyone recognized that these 70 years ago, but never gave its animal dealers would sell coyote animals were larger than western name. It also failed to mention pups as foxes to the clubs. As coyotes. Typical western coyotes how it got here; from the west or they grew up and revealed their weigh 25–30 pounds while New north? On four feet or in some- true identity, some were set loose. York animals were averaging one’s truck? Maybe it was always By the 1940s the records 35–40 pounds, with a few max- here and we just never noticed? of coyote-like creatures were ing out around 50 pounds. They The fossil record provides an becoming more of a regular looked different too; hunters and answer for the last question— occurrence. These records started trappers were bringing back a there is no evidence for coyotes in St. Lawrence County and radi- variety of odd-looking animals, living in New York since it was ated out in all directions, eastward including some that were all black covered in tundra at the last into New England, south toward or very pale-colored; others had glaciation. Instead wolves were New York City, and even back reddish fur, shaggy coats, or even here, hunting deer, beaver and in a westward direction toward German-shepard like markings. elk, and threatening colonist’s the Finger Lakes. These were no The widespread assumption livestock. Fear made the wolf longer a few escaped pets, but a was that coyotes had hybridized Dr. Roland W. Kays public enemy number one, and breeding population. These wild with dogs, and the name “coy- is the curator of the government paid bounties animals apparently crossed the dog” became popular. Coyotes, mammals at the New to encourage their persecution. St. Lawrence River from Ontario dogs, and wolves are all close York State Museum. Sometime in the 1890s the last and were finding prime habitat evolutionary cousins, all part of wolf was shot and the state everywhere they went. Their the genus Canis, and all biologi- had no wild canid population. populations continued to grow cally able to cross-breed and

6 n Legacy foster fertile offspring. In the map out geographic patterns. percentage of genetic material 1960s two biologists from We obtained data from almost of individual animals that comes Harvard studied the skulls of all 700 animals collected from coy- from either wolves or coyotes. three canids to compare them ote hunters in Ohio east to New However, eastern coyotes are with eastern “coydogs.” The Jersey, and north into Maine and more similar in size and appear- skulls of eastern coyotes were southern Quebec. This included ance to coyotes than wolves, and most similar to western coy- 350 New York animals from coyote-like genotypes were more otes, with some resemblance to 45 different counties. common in our study. Therefore, wolves. The eastern coyote skulls The results were simple, but it seems that eastern coyotes are had little in common with dog striking. The Northeast population more like coyotes with a dash of skulls, or even with the skulls of coyotes had strong evidence wolf than vice versa. of known coy-dog hybrids raised for past hybridization with wolves, We found only one animal in captivity. but almost none for dog hybrid- with dog-like DNA. We can The mystery continued over ization. Approximately 20 percent not rule out the idea that there the next four decades, with of the eastern coyotes we tested was initially more hybridization many theories but little new had a type of DNA typical of with dogs when coyotes first data. Were the eastern coyotes wolves from eastern Canada and colonized an area but that this larger because of genetics the Great Lakes region, while genetic signature has since been (i.e. wolf hybridization) or the only one sample was dog-like. swamped out by coyote and wolf environment? Western coyotes This is strong evidence for recent genes. The rarity of dog genes prefer to use open country and (last 100 years) hybridization surprised us a bit, since many of eat primarily rabbits, mice, and with wolves. Since that initial the animals we analyzed looked fruit. Eastern coyotes use all cross-breeding, hybrid animals like what you would expect from types of forests and eat more have continued to cross back a coy-dog. deer and fewer mice. Maybe the with coyotes, wolves, and other In addition to analyzing genetic abundance of food and differ- hybrids, producing what is known samples, we also collected and ent environment allows eastern as a “hybrid swarm.” All popula- measured 196 skulls from the coyotes to grow larger without tions we examined contained Northeast. We confirmed the any genetic influence—just like people would with different diets and exercise regimes. ... all northeastern coyotes contain a blend of wolf and coyote

New Data genes. Because we only looked at a small portion of their DNA, Modern genetic techniques we can not estimate the percentage of genetic material of indi- offer biologists a more sophis- ticated tool for studying this vidual animals that comes from either wolves or coyotes. However, question. Instead of just ranking eastern coyotes are more similar in size and appearance to coyotes how similar animals are through skull measurements, we can also than wolves, and coyote-like genotypes were more common in deduce their origins by tracking our study. Therefore, it seems that eastern coyotes are more like the evolutionary history recorded in their DNA. Together with two coyotes with a dash of wolf than vice versa. colleagues from the New York State Museum, I explored the genetics of eastern coyotes to try a combination of wolf-like and earlier work showing that eastern and provide a better answer as to coyote-like genes. coyote skulls were larger than what it is and how it got here. Thus, all northeastern coyotes western coyotes, especially in Our approach was to examine contain a blend of wolf and being extra-wide. In addition, a relatively small portion of the coyote genes. Because we only eastern coyotes are sexually canid DNA, but to do this across looked at a small portion of their dimorphic, with males being as many animals as possible, to DNA, we can not estimate the larger than females. This dimor-

Summer 2010 n 7 an influence on the colonization of the region by coyotes. If these introduced animals had survived and bred, they would have injected more genetic diversity into the population, which would still be evident today. The genetic pattern we observed in Ohio was much different with a high variety of genetic types and no wolf-like influences. This is typical of western coyote populations, and suggests these animals faced no hybridization or major barriers to their movement. Above: Two specimens from the phism is also seen in wolf popula- and ensuing rapid evolution into Western Pennsylvania and Museum’s mammal collections tions, but not in coyotes. Larger a larger type of coyote, allowed western New York are now a sort show the difference in skull skulls would help an animal hunt them to be better deer hunters. of contact zone between these width between the western and eat deer. The increased con- different types of coyotes; western coyotes found in Ohio and This, in turn, helped the northern the larger eastern coyote-wolf sumption of deer in the east is front move five times faster than coyotes are spreading from Ohio hybrids found in New York. one of the primary ecological the animals moving through while northeastern coyotes, or differences vs. western coyotes. Ohio, which never encountered “coy-wolves” are moving in from Our data suggest that hybridization wolf populations. the north and east. How these with wolves allowed eastern Eastern coyote populations types interact is anyone’s guess. coyotes to rapidly evolve larger that originated from this northern Do they recognize each other as skulls, which made them better colonization front have a unique being different? Will they breed adapted to eastern forests where genetic signature. First, about and further mix up the genetics deer offer an abundant food option. 20 percent of animals have wolf- of eastern coyotes? Will the strains like mitochondrial DNA. Their with a dash of wolf DNA survive Where Did It Come From? migration also left a second unique better because they are more Coyotes made headlines as pattern in their genetics—very efficient deer hunters? Or, will they spread east from their low diversity, with only three the pure coyotes survive better original range in the Great Plains. genetic types present throughout because they are better able to The arrival of a new top predator the region. Typical western coyote sneak around and avoid conflict does not go unnoticed, and populations include many dozens with humans? scientists and newspapers alike of genetic types. We believe that Last but not least—what should took notice. From these records this low diversity is the result of we call this animal? Coydog is we can trace their route into New a very limited dispersal of inaccurate, since we found so York along two separate fronts: coyotesfrom Ontario across the little evidence for dog genes in a slow-moving front coming St. Lawrence River into New the population. Coywolf might eastward from Indiana through York. Possibly just a handful of be more accurate, but may also Ohio and Pennsylvania and a females made it across. This very overstate the amount of wolf fast-moving front from the Great low diversity is seen in all popula- influence. For now I prefer the Lakes south through Ontario. tions from central New York and term “Eastern Coyote,” since it Coyotes moving through the Pennsylvania east through New implies the animal is still a coyote, Great Lakes and Ontario encoun- England and into Quebec, and but is different than its western tered wolf populations and this suggests that the sporadic intro- cousin. Just as wiley, no doubt, seems to be where the hybridization duction of coyotes by hunting but even more adaptable, with a occurred. This influx of wolf genes, clubs or pet owners did not have little help from the wolves. n

8 n Legacy hidden treasures

’ mountain Gorilla by Ronald J. Burch

n the August 1925 issue of the French periodical him on expeditions to the American southwest, Mountain Gorilla Revue du Vrai et du Beau [Review of the True and the Bahamas, the Pacific Coast, Canadian (Gorilla beringei beringei) Louis Agassiz Fuertes I Beautiful], a brief article and a photograph Rockies, Mexico, South America, and Jamaica. In (1874–1927) document a pair of bronze bookends, each of the early 1920s he participated in an expedition Cast bronze, 1923 8 ¾ inches x 9 inches x which depicts a gorilla contemplating a butterfly. to Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia), where he was 7 ¼ inches diameter The sculpture had been loaned to an exhibition exposed to the habitat of Africa’s mountain gorilla NYSM H-1977.74.121 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in (Gorilla beringei beringei). This strong, powerful, Philadelphia by the artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes. yet shy and gentle creature apparently captured Significantly, the reviewer cites the bookends Fuertes’ imagination. Using photographs and zoo as “the only sculpture which this artist has specimens to create the original clay model, he ever executed.” subsequently rendered the primate’s essential A native of Ithaca, N.Y., watercolorist Louis nature in cast bronze. Agassiz Fuertes (1874–1927) has long been Fuertes was killed in a railroad crossing accident renowned as one of America’s finest painters of near Unadilla, N.Y., in August 1927, ironically two birds [More than 40 of his original watercolors years to the month after the bookends appeared were featured in the recent exhibition Birds of New in the French periodical. York and the Paintings of Louis Agassiz Fuertes.] The New York State Museum’s single bookend, That he would begin sculpting at age 50 is indica- one of the pair, apparently arrived in the institution’s tive of an inquisitive intellect active since childhood. collections sometime between 1915, when five As a young man, Fuertes was chosen as a member dozen watercolors of birds by Fuertes were of the Alaska Expedition of 1899, funded by rail- presented by Mrs. Russell Sage, and 1977, when Senior Historian Ronald J. Burch is road magnate Edward H. Harriman. The young art- the Fuertes collection was transferred from the curator of art and ist roamed woods and glaciers, sketching, shoot- Museum’s natural history collections to the art architecture at the ing, and skinning hundreds of birds to study. collection. Its presumed mate is now in the New York State Fuertes’ naturalist interests subsequently took extensive Fuertes collection at Cornell University. n Museum. .

Summer 2010 n 9 The People of Colonial Albany Live Online Since 1999, people have been able to visit early

Albany via a community history website by Stefan Bielinski

The site’s gallery page is the gateway to 19 major themes in Albany’s early history. Click on each one to go deeper into the community’s past.

shared on request, but we were receiving daily queries for more information on the people of colonial Albany and their world. At the same time, I was beginning to understand that the project had the potential to continue to learn about each person, place, and thing related to the early Albany story. This potential appeared limitless as more and more historical resources were uncovered and became available to inform our work. As the overall program was destined to remain a “work in progress,” presenting the information on a website would allow us greater flexibility. We would be able to incorporate new learning about the people, places, other elements of the early Albany story as they were discovered and/or brought to our attention. Editor’s Note: The Colonial Albany Social y the end of the 1990s, Since the project’s overall goal History Project was begun in 1981 to research the Colonial Albany is to present a clearer and more comprehensive understanding and present the lives of Albany residents BSocial History Project of the lives of the people of born before 1801. The website is a work in had amassed substantial research resources that could colonial Albany and their world, progress and currently features more than be focused on the lives of the the Internet has become an 2,000 biographies of the city’s early residents. people who founded and built almost perfect vehicle for us to The site also includes interactive maps and the city of Albany. There were share what we have learned with cityscapes, assessment rolls, censuses, wills more than three dozen printed the largest possible audience. and other documents, family histories, and products, including booklets During the website’s first additional information about early Albany and and pamphlets, articles, how-to year, we focused on producing the people who lived there. Stefan Bielinski, publications, maps and lists, a set of theme essays on impor- the community historian at the Museum, bibliographies, popular offerings tant topics in community history founded and continues to direct this project. such as an annual “Women of (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/ Colonial Albany Community albany/gallery.html). They were History Calendar,” and copies supported by interactive biogra- of more than a dozen works phies, transcriptions of censuses in progress. All these could be and other historical documents,

10 n Legacy The People of Colonial Albany Live Online

and information on Colonial and inquiries. I also began to and our family of associates — Albany Project activities and the include sections of the Guide, most importantly my research resources we use. By the end of the project’s comprehensive assistant, proofreader, office 1999, the website consisted of primer (http://www.nysm.nysed. manager, and trusty sidekick, about 200 items and was attracting gov/albany/guide/intro.html) Joyce Patterson, a staff member considerable attention from peo- that, since 1984, had provided a since the 1980s. ple interested in Albany history. framework and detailed instructions These visitors to the site were for project activities and grown Layers of Information not just local, they were historians to almost 200 printed pages. a Click Away from around the world. During the early 2000s, I was Since then, the website has In the millennial year, the site able to add 20 to 40 new items grown in many directions and expanded with the addition of each month, create internal and has become a useful tool for 150 new pages (see http:// external links to new sources of literally thousands of visitors, www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/ information, and update hyper- students, and a range of client new2000.html). These still were links. I did this while augmenting groups ranging from distinguished mostly individual biographies that and correcting existing Web scholars to a large number of helped illustrate and substantiate pages with the help of our “users” avocational historians—most my belief that a community’s history is the sum of the roles played by its constituent parts (ideally all of the people of colo- nial Albany). But also in 2000, I added pages on relevant places and things such as Fort Orange/ Beverwyck and the Albany Congress (which several thousand people viewed in the month of October alone), nuts-and-bolts information on community history research, and interactive graphical material. Viewers could click on a map, picture, or diagram and link to additional information. Also in 2000, I added an overall site index, an information page on upcoming programs, and a month-by-month listing of recently posted features. All of these pages included links (more than a dozen clickable words on each page) that led the viewer to more descriptive information and deeper into the world of the people of colonial Albany. I posted versions of some of the more popular of my previ- ously published articles that would address directly and easily many frequently asked requests The biography of Dinnah Jackson, the first Afro-Albanian matriarch, is one of more than 2,000 online biographies.

Summer 2010 n 11 This theme essay (at left) illustrates the physical growth and development of Albany during its formative years.

Colonial Albany Live Here Web Site” includes more than 3,000 individual items. Features range from interactive biographical profiles, sketches, and notes to publications such as the entire project guide and chapters from The Other Revolutionaries (an in-progress book on groups of Albany people during the American Revolution). The more than 2,000 biographical entries represent about half of the individuals among our overall community population whose lives had become historically significant. Interactive transcrip- tions of more than 200 probate documents (chiefly wills and estate inventories), descriptions of more than 200 important places and things within the city and beyond, and about 50 linked maps, diagrams, paintings, and drawings are also available. Each The website presents a significantly genealogists. The century Albany-related observa- website presents a view of Albany tions (14 paragraphs) of Swedish of these items is considered to be view of Albany that is that is based on the experiences naturalist Peter Kalm (http:// in-progress and all are destined based on the experiences of the community’s actual resi- www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/art/ to be augmented and improved of the community’s dents. It is fundamentally different kalm.html) are the best known whenever possible. At this point, I believe that the actual residents. It is from previous scholarship based example, and they were selected on the published observations from the text of a two-volume website is perhaps half complete. fundamentally different of outsiders. Much of what they work. To accommodate the My hope is to more than double from previous scholarship had said about Albany cannot addition of new research, the the offerings in each category in based on the published be readily reconciled with the development of the “Visitors” the years to come. The design and presentation no doubt will observations of outsiders. community-based portrait that page is open-ended and ongoing. has emerged from the research Additional transformed ver- evolve as well. However, my focus conducted by the Colonial Albany sions of historical manuscripts remains on adding profiles of Social History Project. The inter- and printed documents now people and other features relating active Web format enables number more than two dozen. to the early Albany story in the most me to address the published For example, these describe user-friendly and most accessible impressions of outside observers community events such as the ways possible. These human and more directly. fire of 1793, or the travails of descriptive elements are the basic Senior Historian Stefan First, I created a chronological Sheriff Abraham Yates, Jr. during tools or building blocks of the Bielinski is the founder “access page” entitled “Visitors the 1750s, or the city “Laws community mosaic. That wish and director of the New to Albany” (http://www.nysm. and Ordinances” as published in may be difficult to realize. But it York State Museum’s nysed.gov/albany/res/visitors.html) 1773. They are clicks away from is and remains my hope and pas- Colonial Albany Social and then began to link to online the relevant webpages, or you sion. Then I, for one, will be able History Project. This versions of the actual historical can quickly find these by with a to realize my original intentions is his 40th year at the observations. Wherever possible, Internet search or by consulting and ambitions as a community New York State Museum. I decided to faithfully copy the the formal website index. historian—to tell the story of Albany-related passages directly (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/ people and community in the early to our website so they would be albany/pcalhindex.html) Albany setting and to make it available for study. The mid-18th- Currently, “The People of available to everyone 24/7/365! n

12 n Legacy

Aerobiological Discoveries at the New York State Museum

By dr. norton g. miller

he former New York State distinctive it can be identified by released into the air. The pub- Botanist, Dr. Eugene C. microscopic examination. Using lished results continue to serve TOgden (1905–2001), was compound microscopy, these as reference points for growing- an early leader in the field of differences allow pollen to be season counts that are reported aerobiology—the study of bio- identified, even when it is found daily to the public. logical processes and particulates dispersed and at a distance from Ogden later expanded these (especially pollen and spores) in the parent plant. Spores pro- studies into an informative series Impact samplers (two per pole) the atmosphere. Every hay fever duced by non-flowering plants of experiments performed with and a planted stand of timothy as sufferer knows that allergies are and fungi also have distinguish- meteorologist Gilbert Raynor. the pollen source at Brookhaven triggered by contact with air- ing morphological features. Ogden, Raynor, and their asso- National Laboratory. borne pollen and fungal spores, In the early 1950s Dr. Ogden ciates, including Donald Lewis and thus the importance of led a statewide study of atmo- and other State Museum staff, aerobiology in human health. spheric pollen and spore load, adapted field sites and towers Pollen is produced in the flow- during which daily samples at originally designed for radiation Dr. Norton G. Miller is ers of trees, shrubs, and herbs, 35 stations between Montauk studies at Brookhaven National curator of bryology and and in the cones of conifers. In Point and Lockport, Ogdensburg, Laboratory on Long Island to curator of Quaternary many, pollen is released into the and Binghamton were taken and document pollen dispersal char- paleobotany at the air and moved about by wind. counted. This work established acteristics. The experiments used New York State Museum. Pollen often differs in its structure growing-season abundance small-area source plots of living among plant species, and when patterns of pollen and spores plants or stained pollen grains

Summer 2010 n 13 Graphic depiction of variation in pollen and spores trapped over a seven-month released from point sources. vegetation, such as hedgerows period in Albany, New York, in 1955. Trees, shrubs, and herbs are the black They confirmed that ragweed and pine forest. They found silhouettes; fungus spore variation is shown in the patterned silhouettes. The (Ambrosia) releases pollen start- pollen concentration decreased greater the silhouette height, the larger the number of pollen or spores recorded. ing an hour or two after sunrise, rapidly during airborne dispersal, For example, in 1955 grass pollen in Albany appeared in May and continued to with a peak a few hours later, with timothy pollen attenuating be recorded through September, with maxima in June and July. and then a decrease during the over a distance of a few hundred afternoon; whereas in the grass, feet horizontally and 25 feet timothy (Phleum), pollen shed vertically in fields under summer begins during the night, peaks weather conditions. Some of the Some of the information gathered in these a few hours after sunrise, and information gathered in these declines during the rest of the studies was later used in the studies was later used in the development day. Such patterns go far to development of mathematical explain why pollen sufferers can models of pollen dispersal in or the testing of mathematical models of be worse off during one part of forest, field, and mixed settings. the day than another and may Such models are now used in pollen dispersal in forest, field, and mixed find relief during the evening. the interpretation of pollen settings. Such models are now much used Ogden and co-workers used assemblages extracted from Brookhaven tower arrays to sediment in lakes and other in the interpretation of pollen assemblages investigate pollen and spore natural traps that have been concentrations at different receiving pollen since the end extracted from sediment in lakes and other heights above source plants of the Ice Age. These assem- and at increasing distances blages are evidence of changing natural traps that have been receiving from them. They also studied vegetation in response to plant the amount of pollen filtered migration and post-Ice Age pollen since the end of the Ice Age. through different types of warming. This is where my

14 n Legacy investigations of ancient pollen Below: Dr. Eugene Ogden testing as signals of paleovegetation different types of pollen and spore and paleoclimate intersect the samplers in ragweed plots at results of Dr. Ogden’s work. Lake Brookhaven National Laboratory, basins of different sizes and the Long Island, in the early 1950s. type of surrounding vegetation have varied pollen trapping char- acteristics and therefore pollen content. The models developed by Ogden’s team, using contem- porary experimental simulations of natural pollen dispersal, help explain the differences. All this work would not have been possible had Eugene Ogden not been a born tinkerer and gadgeteer. Dr. Ogden was not satisfied with the standard pollen traps in use at the time, so he developed a completely new kind. His improved sampler collected 500 percent more pollen. The new sampler was also efficient at sampling the medically important pollen. These important discoveries helped modernize studies of airborne pollen and spores. Several decades of this work was summarized in Manual for Sampling Airborne Pollen, by E. C. Ogden, G. S. Raynor, J. V. Hayes, D. M. Lewis, and J. H. Haines, which was published in 1974 in New York City by Hafner Press. This summary influenced the further development of aerobiology and continues as an important reference. Ogden’s pollen and spore collections, plant-voucher specimen backups, and examples of traps he and others developed are preserved in the New York State Museum. n

Right: An array of tall towers in field and pine forest at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, with a plot of ragweed plants as the pollen source. This arrangement was used to test ragweed pollen movement upward and downwind above and through a forest. Samplers were placed at several heights on each tower.

Summer 2010 n 15 new york stories

The Karner Blue Butterfly These male and female Karner blue butterflies By Dr. Timothy L. McCabe (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), from the State Musuem’s entomology collection, measure approximately 1 inch in wing expanse.

Dr. Timothy L.McCabe is the State Entomologist and curator of the entomology collection at the New York State Museum. His research interests focus on the natural history of cat- he Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa Endangered in the United States in 1992. erpillars as well as their samuelis) was first discovered in Canada The Karner blue is restricted to a special kind of evolutionary history and T near London, Ontario, by William Saunders dry, sandy habitat where its only caterpillar foodplant, relationships. in 1861, and near Albany (Karner), New York, by Wild Blue Lupine (Lupinus perennis), grows. Similar Joseph Lintner in 1869. Lintner was employed by sand plains occur along major rivers in northeastern the New York State Museum and was New York’s North America. These well-drained eastern sands third state entomologist. Vladimir Nabokov, famous mimic prairie conditions where annual precipitation author of the novel Lolita, also studied butterflies is much less than in the East; such sands harbor and described the Karner Blue as new to science many prairie relicts [relictual species are those that in 1943. This butterfly disappeared from Canada were established under different environmental in the early 1990s and was federally listed as conditions occurring long ago]. n

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Tell us what you think Clockwise from top left: Life-size fiberglass cast of Coelophysis skeleton, Ancient Life of New York; about Legacy. Send Surveying instrument from the 1896 Buff and Burger Transit in the Colvin Signal Tower, Adirondack your comments to Hall; Model of the Schooner Marble Head, by Carl N. Fuller, Port section of New York Metropolis Hall; msparks@mail Wooden decoy of a Canada Goose, Market Hunting exhibition, Open Spaces section of New York .nysed.gov. Metropolis Hall.

For a schedule of exhibitions, programs, and events, visit www.nysm.nysed.gov/calendar The New York State Museum is a program of The University of the State of New York/The State Education Department