Press

ALBANY, NY – Nationally-known historian Kenneth T. Jackson will present a lecture on “The Future of History in New York State” on Thursday, November 19 at the New York State Museum.

One of the country’s leading scholars in American history, Jackson will address New York State’s powerful and unique, but largely unheralded role in American history in a free public lecture at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater.

Jackson has for years championed the importance and excitement of New York State history. He appeared at the State Museum in 2006 when he delivered an essay “But it was in New York: America Begins in the Empire State.” It challenged historians to convince their “fellow citizens that today’s America took shape in yesterday’s New York.” Expanding on that theme Jackson will examine subsequent events, including the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, the State Museum’s proposed permanent exhibition on state history, the creation of the New York Academy of History, new public school curricula and more.

Jackson is currently the Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences and director of the Herbert Lehman Center at Columbia University.

Funded in part by the New York State Council for the Humanities, the lecture is part of a two-day conference November 19-20 on “Researching New York: Perspectives on Empire State History.” The conference brings together historians, librarians, teachers, researchers, archivists, museum curators and documentary producers, enabling them to share their interest and their work in New York State history. It provides a forum for the exploration of all aspects of state history, in all time periods and from diverse perspectives.

Other conference programs, open to registrants only, will be held at the University at Albany’s uptown campus. The conference is sponsored by the New York State Archives Partnership Trust and the University at Albany’s Department of History, the History Graduate Student Organization and the M.E. Granander Special Collections & Archives.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. 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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