New York State Library Announces September Public Programs

The New York State Library announces its upcoming programming for September, including various webinars relating to National and State history. The following upcoming free programming requires registration.

Planning for a Library Construction Project (Webinar)
Tuesday, September 12
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

A construction project is one of the most daunting challenges a librarian can undertake. In partnership with the design firm Sasaki, the Massachusetts Board of Library (MBLC) Commissioners has developed a set of best practices for designing library space that may be applied to libraries across the nation.

In this webinar for library staff and trustees, MBLC Library Building Specialists Lauren Stara and Andrea Bono-Bunker will provide an overview of the resource and answer questions about library design and construction.

Register for Planning for a Library Construction Project

Hero and Also-Ran: The Life of Thomas E. Dewey (Webinar)
Wednesday, September 13
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

As a young prosecutor in the 1930s, Thomas Dewey won national fame with his courtroom victories over several of New York’s most notorious gangsters. Later, he gained further recognition as a progressive three-term Republican governor of New York State. He played a significant role in the Republican Party’s nomination of Dwight Eisenhower for president in 1952. Yet today, we remember Dewey mainly because of his two failed campaigns for the presidency — against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and against Harry Truman in 1948. In this lecture, Sandra Opdycke will seek to put those losses in context, exploring how they fit into the broader story of Thomas Dewey’s life.

Sandra Opdycke, Ph.D. is an historian. She recently published When Women Won the Vote, a book about the woman suffrage movement. She also has written books about the flu epidemic of 1918, the Works Progress Administration 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.

Register for Hero and Also-Ran: The Life of Thomas E. Dewey

How Children’s Literature Helped Build America’s Empire (Webinar)
Wednesday, September 20
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

America’s empire was not made by adults alone. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, young people became essential to its creation. Authors used children’s literature to promote America’s power and celebrate its growing global hegemony. As children eagerly read dime novels, series fiction, pulp magazines, and comic books that dramatized the virtues of empire, they helped entrench a growing belief in America’s indispensability to the international order. The modern era has been called both the “American Century” and the “Century of the Child.” This talk will illustrate how those conceptualizations came together by depicting children in their influential role as the junior partners of US imperial enterprise.

Brian Rouleau is a professor in the History Department at Texas A&M University. He teaches courses covering the United States, international relations, and childhood.

Register for How Children’s Literature Helped Build America’s Empire

Lincoln, the Founding, and an America Worth Saving (Webinar)
Friday, September 22, 2023
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

The most important influence on Abraham Lincoln’s political thought and practice was what he learned from the leading figures and especially founding documents of the birth of the United States. From George Washington, to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Lincoln learned about the promise and challenges of American self-government. He also drew from the Founding Fathers’ compromise over slavery to address the growing political divide of his time over the future of slavery in the United States. Without the ideals of the American Revolution, Lincoln’s most famous speeches would be unrecognizable. In understanding Lincoln, we understand the essential principles and structures of American self-government, as well as what is required of a free people to maintain their republican way of life. By reminding the nation of its noblest ideals, Lincoln hoped that “the better angels of our nature” would heal the divided country and preserve “the last best hope of earth.”

Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. He is a former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society; a consultant for the Library of Congress and National Archives; and currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which will plan activities to commemorate the founding of the United States of America.

Register for Lincoln, the Founding, and an America Worth Saving

Tasting History (Webinar)
Tuesday, September 26
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Enterprising culinary artists and fearless taste-testers at the New York State Library and New York State Archives came together to forge a series called “Tasting History.”  All recipes were discovered in the collections of the Library and Archives and brought to fruition – including amazing meat sculptures, wartime “salads,” yummy desserts, and perhaps too much gelatin? Elizabeth Jakubowski (New York State Library) and Heather Carroll (New York State Archives) will showcase some of the recipes they found, how said recipes reflected the tastes of the times they were written, and share some of their favorites.

Elizabeth Jakubowski is a Senior Librarian in the NYS Library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections unit. She received her MS in Information Science with a concentration in Archives and Records Administration from the State University of New York at Albany and her BA in history from SUNY New Paltz.

Heather Carroll is an archivist in the Archival Advisory Services unit of the New York State Archives. She helps oversee delivery of technical support services, training, and grant funding opportunities for non-profit record repositories across the state through the Documentary Heritage Program. She also serves as a reference archivist within the New York State Archives Researcher Services unit. Heather holds a BA in Art History from Bard College.  

Register for Tasting History

Visit the State Library’s website for 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 one week prior to the program date by emailing NYSLTRN@nysed.gov or calling (518) 474-2274. 

The New York State Library is part of the Office of Cultural Education within the New York State Education Department. The New York State Library celebrated its bicentennial in 2018. The Library serves three major constituencies. The Regent Joseph E. Bowman Jr. Research Library, established by law in 1818, collects, preserves, and makes available materials that support State government work.

The Library's collections, now numbering more than 20 million items, may also be used by other researchers onsite, online, and via interlibrary loan. The Talking Book and Braille Library (TBBL) lends braille, audiobooks, magazines, and special playback equipment to residents of the 55 upstate counties of New York State who cannot read printed materials because of a visual or physical disability.

The Division of Library Development works 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.

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