Archives for new york history

Vanderbilt: The First Tycoon

Thursday, January 27th 7:00–8:00 p.m. Click here to register. Join Professor Rick Feingold as he explores the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the first tycoon. Cornelius Vanderbilt began operating his own ferry in New York Harbor at the age of 16. He would work from dawn until dark ferrying passengers between Staten Island and the tip of Manhattan. The tiny business would grow into a massive steamship company. Vanderbilt would undercut his competitors by pricing his services so low that he would drive them out of business. Eventually he built a railroad empire from New York to Chicago and the First
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Categories: Library News.

Local History: Winter in Westchester

The local history blog will be taking a short break during the next two weeks, returning to weekly posting in 2017. To finish out the year, I thought it was appropriate to look at the history of winter in Westchester. While this post is by no means scientific, it will hopefully serve to help readers appreciate our climate and persuade some to venture into it! The earliest mentions of Westchester's weather in the White Plains Collection are from the published journals of English colonists. Daniel Denton arrived in New Netherland (as New York was then called) in 1644 and was
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Categories: Local History.