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Archives: Events

The American Revolution in New York

Date: March 6, 2010

Location: Manhattanville College, 2900 Purchase Street, Purchase, NY
Contact Hours:7.5
Time: 9:00-4:30
Cost: $25 (includes lunch)
Click here for registration form

New York and the Hudson River Valley in particular played a critical role in the American Revolution that is often overlooked. The Yankee-Red Sox rivalry has precedents in the telling of the story of the American Revolution. For too long Massachusetts writers have made Massachusetts the cosmic center of the confrontation. Now it is time for New Yorkers to have their say. Hear and met the scholars who are telling the New York story. See the displays of the historic organizations that preserve and tell the New York story. Share ideas on how to bring this knowledge back to the classroom.

Program

9:00 – Welcome and program overview: Peter Feinman, IHARE

9:15 – Britain and the American Revolution: A Reassessment, Ray Raymond, United States Military Academy (West Point), SUNY

This lecture will separate myth from reality. It will examine how and why the noble dreams of the liberal founders of the 18th century British Empire ended in failure; how the underlying cause of the American Revolution was the new geopolitical realities created by the scale of the British victory in the French and Indian War combined with differing interpretations of the British constitution within the two halves of the transatlantic British community. Finally, the lecture will explore how opportunities for reconciliation that were lost and how the American Revolution was an entirely avoidable war.

Ray Raymond is a former British Diplomat; currently the Thomas Hawkins Johnson Visiting Professor of Government at the United States Military Academy and Associate Professor of Government and History at the State University of New York. He also is a Fellow of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He is writing a biography of John Jay and producing a documentary for PBS on Benedict Arnold.

10:15 – The American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley Jim Johnson, Hudson River Valley Institute, Marist College

The topic is the decisive role that the Hudson River Valley played in the American Revolution. As the center of the colonies at the time of the American Revolution, the Hudson River Valley provided a nexus for the conflict and hosted many key figures, battles, and political events throughout the eight years of war. He will focus on the 230th anniversary of Benedict Arnold’s attempt to sell Fortress West Point to the British and Major John Andre’s capture near Sleepy Hollow.

He is the Executive Director of the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College and teaches history there as well. As the Military Historian of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, he is responsible for the American Revolutionary interpretive theme. He is the author of Militia, Rangers, and Redcoats, has a Duke Ph.D. and is a retired U.S. Army colonel. He is an expert on the War for Independence in the Hudson River Valley and taught military history at West Point for 15 years.

11:15 – The POWs of Occupied New York City, Ed Burrows, Brooklyn College

As the principal base of the Crown’s military operations, New York became the jailhouse of the American Revolution. Beginning with the bumper crop of American captives taken during the 1776 invasion of New York, captured Americans were stuffed into hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships. As many as 18,000 may have died in these prisons, more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. This is their story.

Ed Burrows Distinguished Professor of History at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He is the co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 which won the 199 Pulitzer Prize for History and the author of Forgotten Patriots, The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War. Her serves on the board of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Manhattan.

12:15 – Lunch roundtables, Speakers, historic organization staff, teachers, and general public

1:30 – An Object of Great Importance: Teaching about the Hudson River during the American Revolution, Chris DiPasquale, author and middle school teacher

He will discuss various strategies and topics to coincide with the NY Social Studies curriculum. Our local history is often over looked in favor of larger topics. He will demonstrate how one can fit local history into the bigger picture and different way to get students interested in the history of their own backyards.

He is the Social Studies Teacher Coordinator for Mildred E Strang MS in Yorktown NY and the author of An Object of Great Importance, the Hudson River during the American War for Independence. He has a BA and MA in American History and is PhD candidate. He has spoken throughout the area for historical societies, graduate classes ,historical round tables and museums on the topic and is a member of the 5th NY Regiment reenactment group.

2:30 – Historic organizations – Presentations by historic organizations with connections to the American Revolution

3:30 – Teaching the American Revolution in the Hudson Valley – Using the information presented today in the classroom and working with historic organizations.

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

Slavery in New York

Date: March 13, 2010

Location: Manhattanville College, 2900 Purchase Street, Purchase, NY
Contact Hours:7.5
Time: 9:00-4:30
Cost: $25 (includes lunch)
Click here for registration form

Gone with the Wind defined slavery for generations of Americans. Now we know better. Slavery wasn’t something that simply occurred somewhere else with people we could look down on as morally inferior to the righteous abolitionist North. In recent years scholars have been working more successfully to publicly alter the traditional image of slavery in America by showing it was part and parcel of New York State history for over two centuries. Hear this story. Meet these scholars. Bring back to your classroom a new insight, experience, and contacts on slavery in New York State.

9:00 – Welcome and Program Overview: Peter Feinman, IHARE

9:15 – Traveling the NY African American Experience, Sherrill Wilson, Urban Anthropologist

This slide presentation focuses on the people, places and events that highlight the history of the Africans presence in 17th and 18th century NYC. Enslaved Africans in 18th century NYC made up the 2nd largest group of enslaved people in colonial America, second only to Charleston South Carolina. NYC’s role as a major port was instrumental in this business of selling human beings under both Dutch and British occupation. Locations such as the Slave Market at Wall Street, the National Monument NY African Burial Ground, Seneca Village, and Harlem, USA all document the stories of Africans who helped to build NYC.

Sherrill D Wilson earned a Ph.D. in Urban Anthropology from the New School for Social Research. She is the author of New York City’s African Slave Owners. She lectures and writes on the subject of the African presence in northern colonial era cities. She has lectured at the Smithsonian Institute, Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, NY National Monument African Burial Ground and numerous other organizations and institutions, nationwide and internationally.

This lecture, which is free and open to the public, is made possible through the support of the New York Council for the Humanities’ Speakers in the Humanities program.

10:15 – Plantation on the Hudson, Thom Thacker, Site Director, Philipsburg Manor, Union Church, and Kykuit

The talk will provide an overview of enslavement in the colonial North and at Philipsburg Manor. It will present the various ways that Philipsburg Manor has approached the subject with students and the public given the change in the understanding of slavery in New York. Among the topics of discussion regarding the changes in approach at Philipsburg manor will be object-based interpretation, an art contest based on runaway slave advertisements, a boat-building program, dramatic vignettes, and document-based education programs.

Thom Thacker has been with Historic Hudson Valley since 1993. He began his career as a high school history teacher and then served as the Deputy Director for Education and Operations at the American Museum of the Moving Image for over a decade. He holds a BA in Political Economy from The Evergreen State College, a Secondary Social Studies Teaching Certification from the University of Washington, and an MA in Media Studies from the New School.

11:15 – Afro-Dutch Foodways in the Atlantic World. Fred Opie, Marist College

Fred Opie is the Associate Professor of History and Director of the African Diaspora Program at Marist College. He is a news junky who studies transnational movements, ethnicity, foreign relations, labor, and foodways. His first book, Hog and Hominy which is a global look at African American foodways (including the Caribbean and Brazil), that organically developed out of a public lecture he gave and his own love of cooking (and eating). His second book, Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, tells the story of a turn of the century frontier region with railroad and banana plantation towns populated by Garifuna, Black Americans, West Indians, and Latin American workers. The book looks at multiple points of black identity in this Afro-Hispanic Diaspora, foreign relations, and Garveyism. His current book project is a study of the inter-ethnic relationships which developed between African Americans and Latinos (Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Panamanians, Dominicans, and others) in metro New York City (inclusive of several Westchester County suburbs). It looks at labor strikes, local politics, and links to international movements in Africa and Latin America.

12:15 – Lunch roundtables – Speakers, historic organization staff, teachers, and general public

1:30 – Slavery, Rebellion, and Revolution: An American Assessment, A,J. Williams-Myers, SUNY New Paltz

The talk will be a succinct look at African resistance to slavery in the Americas. Examples will be drawn from slave theaters within the Americas (includes the United States) along a histroical continuum. Along that continuum will be day-to-day resistance, run aways, conspiracies, rebellions, and finally revolution.

A. J. Williams-Myers holds the Ph.D. in African History from UCLA, and is a professor in Black Studies at SUNY-New Paltz. Among his books are: In Their Own Words: Voices from the Middle Passage; African Dreams to Tell Their Story of Old New York (historical novel); destructive impulses: An Examination of an American Secret in Race Relations – White Violence.

2:30 – Historic organizations – Presentations by historic organizations with connections to slavery

3:30 – Teaching Slavery in New York – Using the information presented today in the classroom and working with historic organizations.

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

Life on the Hudson

Date: March 20, 2010

Location: Locust Grove, Route 9, Poughkeepsie
Contact Hours:7.5
Time: 9:00-4:30
Cost: $25 (includes lunch)
Click here for registration form

Life on the Hudson began over four hundred years ago and continues now that the Quadricentennial has ended. Many peoples have lived along the river and interacted with each other. The story of life on the Hudson is one of art, culture, ecology, history, and history. No mere symposium can cover all its facets. The speakers here provide a glimpse in to the majesty and significance of a river that once defined America and still does although it does not received the attention it deserves.

9:00 – Welcome and Program Overview: Peter Feinman, IHARE

9:15 – The Hudson: America’s River: Fran Dunwell, author

How has the Hudson River transformed American history, politics, and culture? How has its unique geography, scenic beauty and a culture of entrepreneurship inspired people to innovate in the fields of engineering, environmental conservation, art and architecture? Here is a chance to find out.

Drawing on material from her book The Hudson: America’s River, this talk recounts how the Hudson powered the growth of the country’s greatest industrial and financial empire and also produced America=s leading artists, writers, engineers and environmentalists. These dramatic tales bring to life the stories of visionary people, inspired by their deep relationship with the river, changed the direction of national history still today. The talk makes the case for conserving the Hudson River as a source of creative inspiration and demonstrates that the river continues to be a creative force.

Fran Dunwell is the author of The Hudson River Highlands and The Hudson: America’s River. She is a renowned conservationist who has devoted thirty years to protection of the natural and historic heritage of the Hudson River, serving in a number of nonprofit and governmental positions. She was instrumental in the successful designation of the Hudson River as an American Heritage River and the Hudson River Valley as a national heritage Area. Her work has resulted in the clean-up of river pollution and the protection of scenic vistas, historic sites, and fish and wildlife habitants.

10:15 – Sailing on the River of Dreams, Hudson Talbott, author

The Hudson River has been a source of inspiration and a means of livelihood to all who have lived along its shores. It played a key role in the settling of the New World and the outcome of the Revolutionary War, and was the birthplace of the environmental movement. Each appealing spread sheds exciting light on the river’s strategic, economic and cultural significance. Based on his book, River of Dreams, he will speak about how great river valley was a source of inspiration for generating prosperity as well as culture for our nation.

Hudson Talbott is the author of River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River. It was written to be accessible for young readers it serves as an introduction to our regional and state history.

11:15 – The Lenape: Lower New York’s First Inhabitants: David M. Oestreicher

For over twelve thousand years, the region that is now lower New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware was home to groups of Lenape (Delaware Indians) and their prehistoric predecessors. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, however, after a tragic series of removals had taken them halfway across the continent, the broken remnants of these tribes finally came to settle in parts of Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ontario. By the late 20th century, only a handful of elders could still speak their native language, or had knowledge of the traditional ways.

This talk combines archaeological and historical evidence with decades of firsthand ethnographic and linguistic research among the last Lenape traditionalists. This talk combines archaeological and historical evidence with decades of firsthand ethnographic and linguistic research among the last Lenape traditionalists.

Dr. David M. Oestreicher is recognized as a leading authority on the Lenape (Delaware), our region’s first inhabitants, having conducted linguistic and ethnographic research among the last tribal traditionalists for over 30 years. The late renowned elder and traditionalist Touching Leaves Woman (Nora Thompson Dean, 1907 1984) called him her “Key in the East,” and she and other elders relied upon him to help preserve and disseminate knowledge of her people.

Oestreicher is curator of the award winning traveling exhibition, In Search of the Lenape: The Delaware Indians, Past and Present. His writings have appeared in leading scholarly journals and books.

12:15 – Lunch roundtables

Speakers, historic organization staff, teachers, and general public

1:30 – Life &anp; Lessons in Local Lore – How to use your locale’s history and heritage to teach, Jonathan Kruk, storyteller

Every community has a history. This talk will demonstrate with lively local stories, how to turn your community’s heritage into an engaging tale designed to teach. I come from Cold Spring on Hudson. for example, where legend has it George Washington drank from a stream and gave the village it’s name. It’s both a myth and a teachable moment. Come join me and see how.

I am Jonathan Kruk, know for performances of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and my New York lore programs, Hudson Valley magazine named me Best Storyteller in the Hudson Valley.

2:30 – Historic organizations

Presentations by historic organizations with connections to life on the Hudson.

3:30 – Teaching Life on the Hudson River

Using the information presented today in the classroom and working with historic organizations

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

From Ice Age to Global Warming

Date: April 24, 2010

Location: Various in the historic Town of Rye
Contact Hours:8
Time: 9:00-6:00
Cost: $25 (includes lunch)
Cutoff Date: April 19
Click here for registration form

Human history has unfolded over the millennia on the stage first set during the Ice Age. For a day, participants will examine the natural environment from the remnants of the Ice Age to the world humans have created. We will learn of the first settlements in the area and of the struggle to maintain our civilized world as the flora and fauna once thought banished reappear. We will travel the waterways of the community and observe the changes which have occurred from colonial times to what has happened in the Village of Port Chester and the City of Rye and hear of the effort to bring a showboat to these waters while sailing on the lone commercial fishing boat of the area.

9:00 – During and After the Ice: The First Americans in the Hudson Valley: Eugene Boesch, Rye Free Reading Room, 1061 Boston Post Rd., Rye, www.ryelibrary.org

This lecture describes current views on the peopling of the Western Hemisphere at the end of the Wisconsin Ice Age. Traditional ideas see migrants from western Asia entering North America via the Barent Strait land bridge more than 15,000 years ago. Known to archaeologists as PaleoIndians, these migrants soon reached the United States where, it has been suggested, they were responsible for the extinction of large ice age mammals. By 12,000 years ago, these early Americans appear in the Hudson Valley. Evidence for their activities have been recovered along the present day Milton Harbor coast line of Rye, at the time a valley far inland from the ancestral Long Island Sound, potentially making the City one of the most important areas in the northeastern United States for understanding the lifestyles and adaptations of these early Americans

Eugene Boesch has undertaken archaeological investigations in the Hudson Valley area for over 30 years. He received his Ph.D. and other graduate degrees from New York University. Dr. Boesch’s work has primarily focused on Pre-Contact cultures and adaptations in the Eastern Woodlands of North America and on early Euro-American settlement in the Hudson Valley region. He also has worked in Israel, Egypt, Mexico, California, and throughout the mid-western United States. Currently Dr. Boesch is a faculty member in the Anthropology Department at Adelphi University and operates his own cultural resources consulting firm in Putnam County. He also has taught at New York University, Vassar College, SUNY Buffalo, Rutgers University, and Nassau Community College. In addition, Dr. Boesch has worked closely with Rye’s Jay Heritage Center on numerous archaeological investigations at the Peter Augustus Jay Mansion, a National Historic Landmark property. A concern for local historic preservation issues has led him to become a member of the Westchester County Historic Preservation Advisory Committee and the Putnam County Historic Preservation Advisory Commission.

10:15 – Edith G. Reed Natural Park and Wild Life Sanctuary Tour [enter through Playland Park]

Located on the shore of the Long Island Sound, along a migratory flyway, this 179-acre sanctuary is home to a great diversity of marine life. In winter months, the 85-acre lake, a mixture of salt and fresh water, hosts over 5,000 ducks. The sanctuary has been recognized by the National Audubon Society of New York as an Important Bird Area due to its significant habitats and flyway. There are three miles of trails through forest and field. Along the half-mile of publicly accessible shore, the intertidal habitat harbors a wide diversity of plants and animals.

12:00 – Lunch at Rye Nature Center – outdoor picnic tables or indoors if inclement weather. 873 Boston Post Rd, Rye, www.ryenaturecenter.org

1:00 – Rye Nature Center Tour: Ice Age, Archaeological Ruins, Bow-Hunting in the 21st Century

The Rye Nature Center is a Rye City-owned facility offering environmental programs through the cooperative efforts of the Friends of Rye Nature Center and the City of Rye. The Center is located on 47 acres of wildlife preserve, with over two miles of hiking trails, ponds, streams and granite outcroppings. The Nature Center has comfortable classroom and museum spaces for visiting classes and special events.

2:30 – Westchester Country Marshlands Conservancy Tour Route 1, Rye [next to the Jay Heritage Center, 210 Boston Post Road]www.westchestergov.com

Marshlands Conservancy is a 173-acre wildlife sanctuary composed of a diversity of habitats. Forest, meadow, salt marsh and shore can be explored and appreciated here. There are three miles of trails and one-half mile of shoreline along the Long Island Sound. Located along the Atlantic migratory flyway, Marshlands is an excellent birdwatching location; more than 230 species have been sited. The Marshlands salt marsh is one of few in New York accessible to the public for study and enjoyment.

4:00 – Byram River/Long Island Sound boat ride: Kevin Reynolds, captain and owner Snow Goose2 with Billy Frenz, owner Showboat (Byram River): leave from Port Chester Yacht Club, 84 Fox Island Road, Port Chester www.portchesteryachtclub.com

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

Life on the Hudson: A Day in Cold Spring

Date: May 1, 2010

Location: various in Cold Spring
Contact Hours: 7.5 [this can be combined with other IHARE programs for teachers needing 15]
Time: 9:00-5:30
Cost: $50 [includes lunch]
Click here for registration form

The Hudson River is an interdisciplinary classroom. In a continuing effort to bring the riches of the Hudson River experience to the classroom, this program focuses on the life a single community, Cold Spring. Every time period taught under New York State Social Studies standards can be found locally if one makes the effort to look and this one-day program will examine the art, ecology, literature, history, and politics of a single community now seeking to define its place in the global world of the 21st century.

9:00 Constitution Island
http://www.constitutionisland.org
Meet at Cold Spring train station

Constitution Island is part of West Point, the United States Military Academy, a National Registered Landmark. The Island is most famous for the Great Chain that was placed across the Hudson during the Revolutionary War and the Warner family who lived on the Island during the 19th century. The Warner House and ruins of the Revolutionary War fortifications are the primary points of interest. The Island’s 280 acres are covered with hiking trails that are enjoyed by the Island’s visitors. The Constitution Island Association was founded in 1916 to preserve and protect the history and traditions of this unique American site.

Meet with Executive Director Richard DeKoster

11:15 Cold Spring Heritage Walk

A guided walk along the historic main street of the community. In addition to the sights, stops will be made to meet with the proprietors of stores in the Cold Spring Merchants Association who will discuss the economics of a small store in an online and box store world where the village’s lone book store recently closed.

12:30 Lunch Depot Restaurant
1 Depot Square
http://www.coldspringdepot.com/

Relax overlooking the Hudson River while owner Tom Rolston continues the discussion of defining a community and the role of the train in it.

1:30 Putnam County Historical Society and Foundry Museum
63 Chestnut Street
http://www.pchs-fsm.org/

The Putnam County Historical Society was founded in 1906 by a group of prominent Philipstown residents and chartered the next year to be the first historical society in the county. Its dedicated early members were prominent Cold Spring residents: A. Augustus Healy, Gouverneur Paulding, William Henry Haldane, Robert Floyd-Jones, and William Wood. Galvanized by the desire to collect and preserve historical and cultural materials pertaining to Putnam County, especially the Philipstown area, and the Hudson Highlands, while both looking back to the nineteenth century and forward into the twentieth, the members initially concentrated on the assemblage of information related to many county families, the compilation of a list of local Civil War veterans, and a study of the milestones on the Putnam County segment of the New York to Albany Post Road. During these early years, the members met in private homes, where objects collected by the society were stored, as well as in libraries, where special programs were held.

In 1960, with funds from the estate of a longtime supporter, the noted writer Laura Spencer Porter Pope (1907–1957), the society acquired the Foundry School building, which was built in about 1830, enlarged in the 1860s, and used for the education of the foundry’s teenage apprentices as well as its employees’ children. In 1971, a wing was added to house the society’s holdings related to the West Point Foundry. Since the establishment of this museum, the society’s members, many of them extraordinarily informed about the history of the Highlands and the county, have continued to dedicate their time and talents as docents, researchers, and educators.

The West Point Foundry, currently owned and run by Scenic Hudson, was a functioning factory from 1818-1911 and was a hub of the Industrial Revolution. It produced steam engines, water wheels and most importantly, the Parrott Gun used during the Civil War, which is basically a small cannon. Abraham Lincoln visited the site in 1862 to check out its firepower (and you can stand where he probably watched a demonstration), and Jules Verne even mentions the site in the 1865 book “From the Earth to the Moon.”

We will tour the archaeological ruins of the Foundry, see the exhibits of the Museum, and discuss the education programs of the historical society and museum on bringing local history into the classroom.

3:30 Hudson River Art Walk
Little Stony Point Park
3011 Rt. 9D
http://www.littlestonypoint.org/

Local resident and renowned painter Don Nice will lead a walk through NYS Little Stony Point Park and share his own artistic perspective of the breathtaking Hudson River vistas.

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

War and Peace: Israel and Its Neighbors in Ancient Times – Part I

Date: October 2, 2010

Location: The Castle, Manhattanville College, Purchase
Time: 9:00-5:30
Contact Hours: 7.5 each day; 15 in total
Cost: $45 each day
Cutoff Date: September 27, 2010
Click here for registration form

The political entity Israel first emerged in the archaeological record thousands of years of ago and has a long history of relationships with its neighbors. While there is no direct correlation between the events in the past and the actions today, there are continuities and surprising twists in the experiences of Israel with what is today Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Politicians today are not above misusing the past to an ignorant public to support agendas in the present… This program will explore what we know about ancient Israel and its neighbors, what actually happened regardless of what we want to have happened. Handouts will be distributed at each session of primary source documents mainly from Egypt and Mesopotamia.

October 2
Israel and Egypt – Genocide or Intifada?: What did Pharaoh mean when he claimed to have destroyed the seed of Israel as revealed in a discovery in 1896? Did Israel originate as part of a rebellion against Egyptian rule in the land of Canaan?

Israel and Canaan – Occupation or Settlement?: What was the relationship between the new political entity Israel and the other people in the land of Canaan? What did Cecil B. deMille leave out?

Israel and Assyria (I) – The First Summer Olympics: How did the peoples of the Levant react to the display of power by a Mesopotamian king renowned for his violence and brutal killing of enemies?

Israel and the Arabs – Cain and Abel or Isaac and Ishmael?: When the Arabs first emerged in the archaeological record was it as a friend or foe of Israel? Why?

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

Rome and Israel: Metropolitan Museum, New York

Date: October 3, 2010

Location: Metropolitan Museum of New York
Time: 9:30-5:30
Contact Hours: 7.5
Cost: $55 [lunch included]
Cutoff Date: October 28, 2010
Click here for registration form

Hear the first-hand story of the spectacular discovery and the meticulous work undertaken to excavate and conserve the impressive Roman mosaic floor that has now been brought to the Museum for a special exhibition.

In 1996, workmen widening the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv road in Lod (formerly Lydda), Israel, made a startling discovery: signs of a Roman mosaic pavement were found about three feet below the modern ground surface. A rescue excavation was conducted immediately by the Israel Antiquities Authority, revealing a mosaic floor that measures approximately 50 feet long by 27 feet wide. It is of exceptional quality and in an excellent state of preservation. The mosaic, comprising seven panels, is symmetrically divided into two large “carpets” by a long rectangular horizontal panel, and the entire work is surrounded by a ground of plain white. To preserve the mosaic, it was reburied until funding was secured for its full scientific excavation and conservation. Recently removed from the ground, the three most complete and impressive panels will be exhibited to the general public for the first time when they go on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 28. The pavement is believed to come from the home of a wealthy Roman living in the Eastern Roman Empire in around A.D. 300. Because the mosaic’s imagery has no overt religious content, it cannot be determined whether the owner was a pagan, a Jew, or a Christian.

The exhibition will highlight the three large panels found in what was probably a large audience room. Within the central panel—which measures 13 feet square—is a series of smaller squares and triangles depicting various birds, fish, and animals that surround a larger octagonal scene with ferocious wild animals—a lion and lioness, an elephant, a giraffe, a rhinoceros, a tiger, and a bull. Such animals were well known to the Romans since they appeared at gladiatorial games, where they were pitted either against each other or against human adversaries. The mosaic may therefore represent the largesse that the owner had conferred by staging games with wild animal hunts. Flanking the central panel to the north and south are two smaller, rectangular end panels. The north panel explores the same theme as the main panel with various creatures; the south panel is devoted to a single marine scene. A striking feature of all the mosaics is that none of them contains any human figures.

The exhibition will also relate the history of the discovery and the story of the mosaic’s removal, conservation, and eventual journey to New York.

Historical Background
Lod is located near Tel Aviv, and the site was initially settled in the fifth millennium B.C. Its name appears in the written record as early as 1465 B.C.—in a list of towns in Canaan that was compiled during the reign of the pharaoh Thutmose III—and also in the Old and New Testaments. In the first century A.D., the inhabitants of Lod were sold into slavery and subsequently the town was razed. A Roman city was established there in A.D. 200, and at that time most of its inhabitants were Christian.

During the lifting of the mosaic in September 2009 preliminary sketches were found etched in the mortar setting bed. The footprints of several workers involved in laying the floor—some wearing sandals and others working barefoot—were also found.

9:30 Welcome: What Do You Teach Now? – Peter Feinman, IHARE
10:00 Masada: The True Story – Peter Feinman
11:00 Ancient Greece and Rome Workshop: Metropolitan Museum Education Curator
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Guided tour of the mosaics plus related areas
3:00 The Lod Mosaic: From Excavation to Exhibition – Jacques Neguer, Director of Art Conservation, Israel Antiquities Authority, The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
3:45 The Lod Mosaic Floor and Its Menagerie: Roman Influence on Local Mosaic Art – Miriam Avissar, Senior Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority, The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
4:45 What Will You Teach Now? – Peter Feinman

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

War and Peace: Israel and Its Neighbors in Ancient Times – Part II

Date: October 9, 2010

Location: The Castle, Manhattanville College, Purchase
Time: 9:00-5:30
Contact Hours: 7.5 each day; 15 in total
Cost: $45 each day
Cutoff Date: September 27, 2010
Click here for registration form

The political entity Israel first emerged in the archaeological record thousands of years of ago and has a long history of relationships with its neighbors. While there is no direct correlation between the events in the past and the actions today, there are continuities and surprising twists in the experiences of Israel with what is today Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Politicians today are not above misusing the past to an ignorant public to support agendas in the present… This program will explore what we know about ancient Israel and its neighbors, what actually happened regardless of what we want to have happened. Handouts will be distributed at each session of primary source documents mainly from Egypt and Mesopotamia.

October 9
Israel and Moab – Is Child Sacrifice Martyrdom?: What does the story of child sacrifice in II Kings 3 mean in the ancient Canaanite context? What is the relationship between the biblical and Moabite accounts discovered in 1868 of the same war?

Israel and Damascus: Assassination in International Diplomacy – A Double Murder Mystery: Who killed the kings of Israel and Judah? What is the relationship between the murders in II Kings 9-10 and the Tel Dan Stele discovered in 1993?

Israel and Assyria (II): Allies Against Damascus – Tribute or Hired Hand? What does the Black Obelisk discovered in 1846 reveal about the relation of Israel, Assyria, and Damascus?

Israel and Assyria (III): Saving Israel – The Assyrian Liberation of Israel from Damascus Imperialism – How can we reconstruct history using the biblical texts and archaeological discoveries?

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

The Medieval Experience, The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York

Date: October 16, 2010

Location: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, New York 10025
212 316-7540
info@stjohndivine.org
http://www.stjohndivine.org
Time: 9:00-5:00
Contact Hours: 7.5 [can be combined with other IHARE programs]
Cost: $85 (includes lunch)
Cutoff Date: October 12, 2010
Click here for registration form

Experience the medieval world without having to leave the country. For one-day, you will be immersed in the medieval world as an adult. The programs at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine have been designed to enhance and supplement classroom cirrcula through inquiry, observation, object-based learning, and hands-on activities in compliance with NYS standards in English/Language Arts, Math/Science/Technology, and Social Studies. Participants will be spending the day with the educators and will leave feeling as if they had spent a day in the past.

9:00 Welcome and Introductions: “What Do You Teach Now?” – Peter Feinman, IHARE

9:30 Program Overview, Marnie Weir, The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

10:00 History and Highlights – talk and tour on the art, architecture, and history

11:00 Medieval Journey Tour – explores the historic role cathedrals played as center of culture, worship, art, and pilgrimages while comparing the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to medieval churches.

12:00 Lunch [Medieval Music Presentation]

1:00 Medieval Arts – the arts of the Middle Ages are highlighted including carving a block of limestone, creating an illuminated letter, sculpting a clay gargoyle, weaving on a loom, making a brass rubbing, and designing a stained glass collage

2:00 Architecture and Geometry Tour – experience firsthand the connection between the Cathedral’s strength, function, and appearance; learn the tools of trade

3:00 Vertical Tour – climb more than 124 feet through spiral staircases to the top of the world’s largest cathedral; see the stained glass windows closeup and study the architecture of the nave while standing on a buttress before ending on the roof with a scenic view

4:00 Teaching the Middle Ages Workshop – Peter Feinman and Marnie Weir

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org

In Lady Liberty’s Light: Immigration and the American Dream

Date: October 23, 2010

In Lady Liberty’s Light:
Immigration and the American Dream

Location: Battery Park, New York
Time: 9:00-5:30
Contact Hours: 7.5 [this can be combined with other IHARE programs for teachers needing 15]
Cost: $45
Cutoff Date: October 15, 2010 [to hold the ferry tickets]
Click here for registration form

Over the centuries many different icons have represented America. Perhaps the two that best exemplify the American way of life are the flag and the Statue of Liberty. As Arlington Cemetery and Memorial Day witness the sacrifice of those who gave their lives on behalf of We the People, the Statue of Liberty and July 4 represent what that sacrifice was for: the right to be free and to live dreams. The site of where millions first entered this country is both a museum to those who arrived there and a symbol for all Americans of our better nature no matter when or where they arrived. Share its experience and bring its message back to the classroom.

9:00 Meet tour guides at Battery Park: We will be accompanied by two guides throughout the program

9:25 Board ferry for Statue of Liberty
Located on a 12 acre island, the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986.

A Statue of Liberty Teacher Guide is available free to educators teaching elementary and middle grades (3-6). For a guide or more information call us at: 212 363-3200. (Limit 1 guide per person)

10:45 Board ferry to Ellis Island
Opened on January 1, 1892, Ellis Island became the nation’s premier federal immigration station. In operation until 1954, the station processed over 12 million immigrant steamship passengers. The main building was restored after 30 years of abandonment and opened as a museum on September 10, 1990. Millions of America’s population can now trace their ancestry through Ellis Island.

12:00 Lunch

12:30 Touring Ellis Island Immigration Museum [3 floors]
The Division of Interpretation, Education and Visitor Services and has created several handouts you as an educator and your students may find beneficial as you explore your studies about Ellis Island and immigration:

 

 

“Park in a Pack” is an on-line program for educators to use in the classroom.
This traveling kit contains activities that include the National Park Service, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and immigration. This resource is lent free of charge, for two-week periods.
You may contact the Education Department for more information about how to obtain the kit
at (212)-363-3206 x 178.

2:30 Island of Hope, Island of Tears
An award-winning documentary narrated by Gene Hackman. Each 45 minute presentation includes a 15-minute park ranger introductory talk followed by the 30 minute film.

3:30 Continue Tour (outdoors)
The Statue of Annie Moore: The first immigrant to be processed on Ellis Island American Immigrant Wall of Honor

5:00 Return to Battery Park
5:15 Arrive Battery Park

For further information contact IHARE at 914-939-9071 or email us at: contact@ihare.org