Grey background with red text and image of mermaid and fish, red banner across middle with white block text, bold black border around edge with white block text

New York State consists of over 7,600 freshwater lakes, ponds and reservoirs, nearly 600 miles of ocean and Great Lake coastline, and 1,500 square miles of marine estuaries and over 70,000 miles of rivers and streams.  In 1972 Congress passed the Clean Water Act to monitor water quality nationally but places the responsibility primarily on the states.  Over the past 40 years the NYSDEC has funded hundreds of projects to improve water quality in New York.

An illustration of a foaming beer mug with blue text above and below the image on a white background.

This anti-prohibition button has the popular "We Want Beer" slogan as its message. Many Americans shared this sentiment, including US troops coming back from foreign wars to discover one of their favorite freedoms had been taken away.  Prohibition was mandated in the US in 1920 by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and repealed in 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment.

Black lettering on metallic gold background.

The Women's suffrage movement began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. The NWSA became the foremost organization lobbying for suffrage.  The movement merged with other groups and achieved gradual progress at state and local levels until the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."