Press

ALBANY – The New York State Museum will host free lectures in March on historical archaeology and African-American history and also offer an encore presentation of two popular lectures on “Global Warming” and “Peak Oil.”

State Museum Geologist Dr.Taury Smith, curator of oil and gas, will present “Global Warming – What Can Be Done to Stop It” on Thursday, March 1 at noon in the Carole F. Huxley Theater. Most scientists agree that the earth is warming and that the burning of fossil fuels has been a major contributor to that warming. Smith will review the possible consequences of further warming and what needs to be done to slow or stop it, including significantly reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

On Thursday, March 8 at noon in the Huxley Theater, Smith will present a lecture on “Peak Oil.” Several recent studies suggest that world oil production will peak in the near future and start to decline, possibly leading to a worldwide economic catastrophe. Smith will discuss the past, present and future of oil production, the concept of peak oil and the issues surrounding this controversial topic.

Jennifer Lemak, an African-American historian and curator at the State Museum, will present a lecture on “The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey” on Tuesday, March 13 at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. Lemak will also provide an artifact tour on Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Artifacts from Black Capital: Harlem in the 20s will be featured.

The other lectures are part of the March Museum Series and will be held on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater.

The schedule is:

• “Shoes, Wheels and Tools -- a Blacksmith's Business in St Lawrence County” on March 7, presented by Martin Pickands, Cultural Resources Survey Program archaeologist. Pickands will describe excavations on the site of the Parishville Center blacksmith and wagon shops that highlight the self-sufficiency of this remote farming community in the early 1800s.

• “The Rhodes Site: At home on the D&H Canal” on March 14, presented by Scott Cardinal,
Cultural Resources Survey Program archaeologist. He will describe his 2004 investigations of a
mid-19th century household adjacent to the Delaware & Hudson Canal National Historic
Landmark in Orange County.

• “Before Albany: An Introduction” on March 21, presented by archaeologist and author James
Bradley. He will highlight some of the findings presented in his new book “Before Albany: An
Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region, 1600-1664.” Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.

• “Archaeological Research at Fort La Presentation, Ogdensburg, New York” on March 28, presented by Cultural Resources Survey Program archaeologist Aaron Gore and Museum geologist Andrew Kozlowski. They will highlight ongoing historic and archaeological field research at Fort La Presentation, a French fort and mission established in 1749, and evacuated in 1760. The location was subsequently used as a fort by the British (1760 to 1796) and the United States during the War of 1812.

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

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