Special Features Archive
Department of History ~ University at Albany, SUNY

Jacques Derrida, Professor of Philosophy, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, spoke at SUNY-Albany on October 9, 1999. Click on photo to access links to audio program.

Audio Collection–Harvard Law School Forum. An outstanding collection of speeches and panel discussions from the last 40 years. The project is ongoing and present programs include Barry Goldwaters, Walter Reuther, Jimmy Hoffa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Graham, Dr. Timothy Leary, Hans Morgenthau, Robert Novak, Werner Von Braun, Allen Dulles, Justice Tim Clark, General Maxwell Taylor, General Lewis Hershey, Henry Kissinger, General Westmoreland, Casper Weinberger, Daniel Ortega, Shimon Peres, and many more.

THE DEAN STREET EXCAVATION

Take a look at this wonderful Web site designed by Brian Tomaszewski detailing the history of a small area in Albany, New York and the work of archaeologists in reconstructing life and labor there over the past 500 years. From the introduction: "Hartgen Archeological Associates of Rensselaer, NY has been engaged by the State University of New York Systems Administration, and U.W. Marx Construction Company to excavate the Dean Street and Maiden Lane block in the City of Albany, New York, U.S.A. A parking structure will be constructed after the study is complete. The project is located in a National Register historic district in Albany. Excavation of the study area was completed in August 1999. This site will continue to provide the public with information about the results of the excavation."

SUFFRAGISTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, REGIONAL ORAL HISTORY OFFICE, UC BERKELEY LIBRARY Interested in 20th century suffragist history? Check out the following Berkeley oral history WWW site (click on the photo) which includes full-length oral histories of: "Alice Paul, founder and leader of the more militant organization called the National Woman's Party, which made suffrage a mainstream issue through public demonstrations and protests; Sara Bard Field, a mother, lover, poet, and social and political reformer, whose interactions with California artists and political activists gave her a national profile; Burnita Shelton Matthews, a District of Columbia federal judge; Helen Valeska Bary, who campaigned for woman's suffrage in Los Angeles and later had a prominent career in labor and social security administration; Jeannette Rankin, a Montana suffrage campaigner and the first woman elected to Congress, who recalls Carrie Chapman Catt, the League of Women Voters, and her lifelong work for world peace; Mabel Vernon, who is credited for the advance work of gathering the throngs of people to greet Alice Paul and her entourage on their famous coast-to-coast suffrage campaign in the fall of 1915; and Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, who gives an account of working with Alice Paul in organizing the Woman's Party."

Federal Bureau of Investigations FOIPA Files. Thousands of pages of released FBI files on Paul Robeson, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Robinson, Eliot Ness, John Wayne, John Lennon, Pablo Picasso, Thurgood Marshall, Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Wallace D. Fard (Elijah Muhammad), Klaus Barbie, Bonnie and Clyde, The Hindenburg Disaster, Will Rogers, Nikola Tesla, Francis Cardinal Spellman, Leon Trotsky, Baby Face Nelson, Errol Flynn, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and more.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930. [http://womhist.binghamton.edu/] "This website is intended to introduce students, teachers, and scholars to a rich collection of primary documents related to women and social movements in the United States between 1830 and 1930. It is organized around editorial projects completed by undergraduate and graduate students at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Each project poses a question and provides 15-20 documents that address the question. These projects offer students an opportunity to understand historical research as an interpretive process. The website, now a year and a half old, is co-directed by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin, and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities."

"A significant civil rights event occurred in Albany in 1947. At that time, during Mayor Erastus Corning's tenure in office, the legendary artist, scholar, civil rights champion and political figure Paul Robeson scheduled a concert of Negro spiritual music in Philip Livingston Junior High School in Albany. . . ."

For more information, click on the bold title (above) or picture of Robeson (to the left). Additional documents and audio files pertaining to Robeson's life, career, and the aforementioned incident will be added to this site soon.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. A web exhibit/archive of images and primary sources related to the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. From the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University. This is an excellent site. It includes newspaper clippings, oral interviews with survivors (audio files), photographs, factory investigation reports, letters, autobiographical accounts, and more.

Listen to an interview with D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, conducted by Julian Zelizer, Assistant Professor of History, University at Albany ~ SUNY. Pennebaker and Hegedus are renowned documentary filmmakers who have perfected the art of cinema verité. This interview was broadcast on WRPI-FM, Troy, on 10-1-98, as a segment of Talking History. Recorded on 9-25-98; produced and edited by Prof. Gerald Zahavi, co-produced by Susan McCormick. Produced at the University at Albany production center of Talking History. Click on the photo of Pennebaker and Hegedus to listen to an archived copy of the radio program. Pennebaker and Hegedus appeared at the University at Albany on September 25, 1998 as part of the New York State Writer's Institute Visiting Writers Series. Our thanks to the Writer's Institute for help in arranging this interview.
 

On April 9, 1998 Laurie Kahn-Leavitt was the featured guest on Talking History. She was interviewed by Talking History Assistant Producer and SUNYA doctoral student Susan McCormick. Kahn-Leavitt spoke about the practical and technical challenges of bringing historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, to the screen.

To listen to the half-hour broadcast, now archived on our site, click on the highlighted linked phrase that follows or on the photo of Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich to the left: Interview with Laurie Kahn-Leavitt. The interview with Laurie Kahn-Leavitt was optimized for 28.8 kb/sec. and faster modems. Photo of Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich by Aaron Berman.

Previously shown on Public Broadcasting's The American Experience, A Midwife's Tale "tells the true tale of two women, -- Ulrich and Ballard -- two hundred years apart, linked by the diary one left behind." Kahn-Leavitt conceived, raised the funding for, and developed the innovative structure of the film over a five year period that included extensive research of primary source materials, collaboration with historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, workshop development, and film production. Prior to founding Blueberry Hill Productions, an independent film production company, Kahn-Leavitt worked on many award-winning documentary projects -- including Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, Frontline, The American Experience, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered.

 A Midwife's Tale follows author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich as she deciphers the massive, but cryptic, diary of Martha Ballard. Traditional accounts of the past often leave out the lives of ordinary people, especially women, because they leave so few written records. Ulrich analyzes and integrates diverse primary documents of the period into her narrative, not only to understand Martha, but also the larger world she lives in. We come to know Martha as the primary healer in her community, coping with births, deaths, epidemics, her unruly son and the judge who has raped the minister's wife. We see Martha struggle to survive in a period of great social change, religious conflict, and economic boom and bust. A Midwife's Tale is not only a reenactment of Martha Ballard's life, but also an exploration of how historians, using primary source materials, bring history to light. To learn more about A Midwife's Tale go to The American Experience. Go to A Midwife's Tale to read Laurel Ulrich's thoughts on Martha, the book, and the film; go to the making of the film for more details on the filmmaking process.

In addition to the Talking History interview, Laurie Kahn-Leavitt was also a guest of the Department of History on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14th and 15th, 1998. She presented her film A Midwife's Tale and spoke about the joys and problems she faced in transforming Ulrich's book to a film; on Wednesday, she ran a two-hour workshop on historical documentary filmmaking.

 To view still shots from A Midwife's Tale, click here: A Midwife's Tale: Image Files. To see a short video clip from the film (in slide-show format), click on the photo to the left (you'll need a recent version of RealPlayer plug-in software, or Microsoft's Media Player to view the video clip).

On February 12th, 1998

More recently, on May 28, 1998, Prof. Wittner was interviewed by Gary Carter on WMHQ-TV. To hear and see a selection from this interview, click on the photo to the left.

"The Amistad case: 'Outright Plagiarism' or 'Who Owns History?": Cornell University Law School's excellent WWW site on the Amistad case(s).  

Updated February 16, 2002

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