Culper Spy Day has been an annual tradition on Long Island for over a decade. Created by Margo Arceri in conjunction with the Three Village Historical Society, it has grown into a weekend-long celebration of resilience and resistance during the Revolutionary War. I made the trip this year to experience the sights and sounds and mingle with people who share a similar passion for local history.

You'll hear from organizers, authors, librarians, historical reenactors, and visitors from near and far. Each has their own story to tell about how they became fascinated with the Culper Spy Ring and figures such as Benjamin Tallmadge, Abraham Woodhull, and Anna (Nancy) Smith Strong.

And if you missed it, don't worry. Next year will be a mega Culper Spy Day coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

Further Research

• Three Village Historical Society
• Three Village Community Trust
• Setalcott Indian Nation
• George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring (Emma S. Clark Library)
• Second Regiment Light Dragoons
• The Brewster House
• 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers
• Drowned Meadow Cabin
• Tri-Spy Tours
• Authors Row
  • Sarah Beth Durst, Spy Ring
  • Peggy Wirgau, To Outwit Them All
  • Mark Sternberg, Culper Spy Austin Roe…the Joiner?
  • Kristina Raevsky, Marriage or Espionage: Read Between the Lines
  • Richard Welch, General Washington’s Commando
• Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
• Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

Are you curious about the past and love talking to people? Do you have a keen eye for detail and a persistent yet welcoming demeanor? Then oral history may just be right for you! Today we're talking with Erica Fugger, oral historian and PhD candidate at Rutgers, about the art and craft of oral history.

We'll be discussing the development of oral history as a practice since the mid 20th century, detailing how to plan an oral history project, and offering tips for recording that first interview. Along the way you'll hear about the fascinating projects Erica has been involved in, from Queer Newark to the National Homefront Project. Now pursuing research into peace activists in the 1960s, Erica has her own ties to Long Island and is the perfect guide if you're thinking about getting involved in oral history yourself.

Further Research

• Erica Fugger
• Queer Newark Oral History Project
• National Home Front Project
• Columbia Center for Oral History Research
• “Before Columbia: The FWP and American Oral History Research.” (JSTOR)
• Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
• Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

Chances are that your local public library has a local history librarian who oversees a rich collection of images, artifacts, and information about your community. Today we highlight and celebrate one of this unique group - Natalie Korsavidis. She is the local history librarian at Farmingdale Public Library in Nassau (and a little bit of Suffolk) County.

Natalie walks us through how she became a local history librarian and the collection she oversees at the library. From this treasure trove she can tell the story of the early days when the area was known as Hardscrabble, through the years of agricultural development, to the heyday of aviation giants like Grumman, Fairchild, Republic, and Liberty. You’ll also hear how she engages with the community and about the two bygone businesses that never fail to bring a smile to Farmingdalers (hint: Stern’s Pickles is one).

Further Research

• Farmingdale Public Library Local History Resources
• Farmingdale Historical Collection (New York Heritage)
• American Airpower Museum
• Beyond the Rotunda podcast
• Intro Music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
• Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

We continue our tour of Long Island-based oral history collections. This time out, Robert Anen (LILRC Project Archivist) and I sat down with the Long Beach Historical & Preservation Society. Robert helped digitize their extensive oral history collection. The recordings cover a wide range of memories and experiences from residents of the City by The Sea. You’ll hear about the father of Long Beach, developer, politician, and consummate self-promoter William H. Reynolds. You’ll also hear about the highlights of the city’s Roaring 20s golden age, the political intrigues of a growing city, and the transformations brought on by World War II.

In the room with us are Phyllis Ginsberg, Dan Moran, Joanne Belli, Kathi Lismore, and current society president Jeanne Browne. But the real special guests are the people on the tapes, expertly interviewed by Florence Reich First. Florence was a founding member of the society and undertook this oral history project in the early 1980s.

Oral history recordings from the podcast (by order of appearance):

• Florence Reich (w Helen Smith Hart)
• Andrew Carlo
• Foster Vogel
• Daphne Mulligan Schlaich
• Mary Hoff Katris
• William McGovern
• William Schwartz (w Roberta Fiore)
• Amy Rabinowitz Cohen nee Schloss
• Peggy Wood Lieberman

Further Research

• Long Beach Oral History Collection (NY Heritage)
• Long Beach Historical and Preservation Society
• The Lido Club Hotel
• Dreamland Postcards (Coney Island History Project)
• Music
  • Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
  • Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

Robert Beattie was many things: an architect, a designer of iconic public buildings on Long Island, and a decorated World War II veteran. But most importantly, he was the father of today’s guest, Richard Beattie. So we’re celebrating Father’s Day by celebrating the life and work of Robert Beattie.

As an architect, Beattie’s specialty was mid-century modern architecture. Working with clean lines, natural light, and an appreciation of the surrounding landscape, he designed many iconic buildings in our area. If you live in the town of Islip, you’ll know his MacArthur Airport terminal, the core buildings of Suffolk County Community College’s Ammerman Campus, and St. Lawrence Church in Sayville.

Richard takes us on a tour of his father’s buildings and details his life. Robert was part of the Greatest Generation, earning a Silver Star as an Alamo Scout in the Philippines. He got his start in architecture with the firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon in New York City. Robert then founded his own firm, Dobecki & Beattie, and embarked on a storied career on Long Island. We discuss the changing architectural landscape of Long Island in the 1960s, the Beattie family’s connections to Oakdale, and Robert’s devotion to being a father and an architect.

Further Research

• Robert Beattie, Architect (Facebook Memorial page)
• Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr
• AIA Long Island
• “Pockets of Long Island Once Went Crazy for Modernism. Why?” (Metropolis)
• Audio Footnotes
  • Episode 192 Jones Beach Theater with Richard Beattie
  • Episode 34 Old Mansions (Oakdale) with George Davies
  • Episode 94 Flying on Long Island with Walter Winnicki and Bob Mott
• Music
  • Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
  • Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

There’s a rough stretch of water between Australia and Tasmania called the Bass Strait. Within the strait there’s a group of islands called the Furneaux Group. Within the group lies Long Island, a small, mostly-uninhabited stretch of grass and trees that attracted the attention of Madeleine Bessel-Koprek and her colleagues.

We’re traveling far afield on today’s episode, discussing paleoecology with Madeine, a Ph.D. student at Australian National University. Along with Simon Graeme Haberle, Stefania Ondei, Stephen Harris, and David MJS Bowman, she recently published a study unraveling the ecological history of their Long Island. It’s a fascinating combination of diligent field work – digging through mud and picking through moss- and meticulous lab work – pouring through microscopic samples and digitally deciphering aerial photographs.

Their scientific detective work uncovers a natural world that has in some ways persisted since the last Ice Age and helps inform our understanding of the impact of aboriginal and colonial activities in the area.

Further Research

• Madeleine Bessell‑Koprek
  • at Australian National University
  • at LinkedIn
• Bessell-Koprek, M., Haberle, S. G., Ondei, S., Harris, S., & Bowman, D. M. (2025). Reconstructing the long-term ecological history of Long Island, Furneaux Group (Bass Strait), Lutruwita/Tasmania. Regional Environmental Change, 25(1), 1-15.
• The Land Bridge: A World Beneath the Sea (A Wind & Sky Project)
• Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas
• Music
  • Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
  • Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

The voices of the past are all around us, if you know how to listen. And sometimes those voices are trapped on small thin strips of tape wrapped in cheap plastic. That’s where Robert Anen comes in. As project archivist for the Long Island Library Resources Council, he works with historical collections across Nassau and Suffolk counties. Specializing in audio preservation and digitization, he’s rescued a number of collections – copying them to digital media and making them publicly available online.

Today we focus on Robert’s work with one of the oldest oral history collections on Long Island at the Manhasset Public Library. Library director Maggie Gough introduces us to the scope and depth of their oral history collection while Antonia Mattheou, their consulting archivist, helps us unpack the history contained on the recordings.

Special shout out to Manhasset’s first librarian Ruth Cowell who conducted most of the oral history interviews. Her foresight, along with a committed group of patrons, means that we get to listen to memories of the Blizzard of 1888 and the Vanderbilt Cup Races from those who experienced them. Recorded in 1953 on a reel to reel recorder, the interviews were converted to cassette tapes sometime in the 1980s before Rob digitized them in the 21st century,

On today’s episode you’ll hear from these Manhasset residents:

• Ernest Willets
• Herbert Fish
• Laura Schneider
• Ernest Willets
• George D. Smith

Further Research

• Manhasset Public Library Oral History Collection (1953-1988)
• Manhasset Public Library History Center
• Long Island Library Resources Council
• The Whitney Greentree Estate
• Spinney Hill, the African American History of Manhasset and Great Neck
• Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
• Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

Isle of Ever is Jen Calonita’s newest middle grade novel, a story grounded in the history of Long Island’s North Fork. On today’s episode, Jen discusses growing up on Long Island and spending many summers at her grandparents’ house in Mattituck. It was here, in between trips to Greenport, that she first heard tell of Captain Kidd’s lost treasure. She tried digging up the local beach, came up empty, but the idea buried itself in Jen’s mind.

Now she has worked her experiences into the tale of Benny Benedict, a young girl caught up in a race to solve a puzzle and claim an inheritance. The plot and the clues to the mystery are tied up in Greenport’s history. Jen walks us through the Greenport locales and local legends that made it into the book in one form or another.

We also talk about her love of reading and of middle grade and young adult fiction.

Further Resources

• Jen Calonita
• Isle of Ever (Sourcebooks)
• Long Beach Bar ‘Bug’ Light 
• Preston’s 
• Greenport Carousel (temporarily closed)
• Sweet Valley High (Good Reads)
• Steven Kellogg
• Music:
  • Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
  • Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

Tom McKeown lived and breathed basketball throughout junior and senior high school in Babylon. As an eighth grader in 1974-1975, he got to experience the thrill of watching the varsity team win their league and the Suffolk County championships. As fate would have it, this was also the first year that New York State allowed county champions to play each other, setting up a showdown between Babylon’s Panthers and Nassau County’s champs, the South Side Cyclones of Rockville Center.

It was an epic season that engaged Tom so deeply that he has written his version of the story as This Is Panther Country. We don’t want to spoil the outcome but the subtitle is A Memoir of Youth, Underdog Spirit, and Basketball Glory. Available March 18, 2025, the book chronicles life on the court, in the school hallways, and in the McKeown family home on Coppertree Lane. You’ll learn a lot about the ins-and-outs of basketball tournaments but you’ll also be pulled back to your own high school days of close friend groups, petty slights, unrequited crushes, and weekend parties.

Further Research

• This is Panther Country by Tom McKeown
• Babylon Jr/Sr High School
• Glenn Vickers (Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame)
• “The ABA was Short Lived, but Its Impact on Basketball is Eternal” (Smithsonian Mag)
• Audio Footnotes:
  • Mickey Quinn and St. John the Baptist High School (episode 133)

When Jessie Pierson and Lodowick Post argued over a fox in early 19th century Southampton, they probably didn’t think the resulting court case would echo down the ages. Yet here we are 220 years later talking with legal historian Angela Fernandez about the odd, improbable history of Pierson v Post.

A professor of law and history at the University of Toronto, Fernandez has delved deep into the case. Her “legal archaeology” uncovered important, presumed-lost information on the early phases of the proceedings. Her 2018 book Pierson v. Post, The Hunt for the Fox: Law and Professionalization in American Legal Culture, unpacks more of the impact and context around the decision.

On today’s episode we discuss the local history surrounding the case, more about the Piersons and the Posts, and the surprisingly whimsical inner life of the legal profession.

Further Research

• Angela Fernandez (University of Toronto)
  • Fernandez, Angela. Pierson v. Post, the hunt for the fox: Law and professionalization in American legal culture. Cambridge University Press, 2018. (Find in a library via WorldCat)
  • Fernandez, Angela. “The lost record of Pierson v. Post, the famous fox case.” Law and History Review 27, no. 1 (2009): 149-178.
• Pierson v Post NYS Supreme Court