Back when New York was a mere colony of Britain, Philipsburg Manor was the seat of a commercial empire founded by one of the most powerful men in the territory, Frederick Philipse. He created Philipsburg Manor to serve as a provisioning plantation for the Atlantic sea trade and as a headquarters for a worldwide shipping operation. At about the same time, he also became involved in another aspect of the Atlantic economy - the slave trade.

Prior to 2001, visitors to Philipsburg Manor (which is on Route 9 in Sleepy Hollow) learned primarily about the Philipse family and the European tenant farmers who worked the land there. But after years of planning, Historic Hudson Valley launched a new interpretative program, focusing on the story of slavery in the colonial north from the perspective of the enslaved Africans who toiled for the Philipses at the manor. This powerful, unusual - indeed, radical - approach to museum education will be part of a panel discussion and paper presentation at next year's Organization of American Historians conference, taking place March 26-29 in Seattle. The panel will examine how enslavement is (or is not) told at a variety of American museums.

Founded in 1907, the Organization of American Historians is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history and encourages wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of all practitioners of history. The organization has a membership of more than 11,000 academic and public historians and publishes the award-winning quarterly "Journal of American History." Check them out at www.oah.org.

Kudos to the Philipsburg Manor community for being deemed panel-worthy.

Your faithful HVBLogger was on the scene at Van Cortlandt Manor yesterday and shot this video of Dikki Ellis, king of the slack rope walkers (and a pretty good comedian/magician, too).

Yes, Dikki will be there today for those of you who still haven't made it to Animals & Acrobats.

A Journal News reporter and photographer came to Van Cortlandt Manor yesterday and filed this report on Animals & Acrobats.

Cool stuff!

Jennifer Pena and her Flight of the Raptors show is one of HVBLogger's favorite parts of his favorite springtime HHV event: Animals & Acrobats, which kicks off today (right now, as we "speak"!), at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton.

Jennifer will be offering her amazing birds of prey demonstrations throughout the weekend. Animals & Acrobats takes place today, tomorrow, and Monday from 10-5. Make it easy on yourself and buy your tickets online. Thousands of visitors tend to flock to the site during this Memorial Day classic. And the weather is looking mighty fine...

If you go, post your thoughts here and feel free to send me some pics or vids and I'll post ‘em.

Ladies of Liberty: The Women who Shaped our Nation is the latest book by noted political correspondent and author Cokie Roberts. It's a companion volume to Founding Mothers, in which the author pays homage to the women whose patriotism and sacrifice helped create a new nation.

Much to HVBLogger's delight, the newly published book features Louise Livingston (1782-1860) on the front and back cover. Louise was the cosmopolitan and well-traveled widow of Edward Livingston. She and her daughter Coralie Livingston Barton used Montgomery Place, Historic Hudson Valley's Dutchess County jewel, as a summer home and remade its architecture and landscape over a forty-year period. They transformed the site into a handsome, self-sufficient estate.

(Cokie also writes about Rebecca Gratz, who has links with Washington Irving. He gets a couple of mentions, too.)

In 2007, Cokie Roberts worked with Kate Johnson, curator of Historic Hudson Valley, and Catalina Hannan, librarian of Historic Hudson Valley, on the project that would become Ladies of Liberty. The author offers warm thanks to both of them in her Acknowledgements. Bravo to Kate and Cat!

If you want to learn more about the book click here.

Don't know of Cokie Roberts? Oh, come on. Yes you do! Among other career highlights, she is a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio. From 1996 to 2002, she and Sam Donaldson co-anchored the weekly ABC interview program, This Week.