UTICA — Oneida County History Center, 1608 Genesee St., will host the following programs this week:
• The center, along with the Bosnian American Community Association, will honor Bosnian Statehood Day at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1. Dr. Sandro Sehic will present the history of the Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina from medieval times to the recent war in Bosnia, and discuss why so many Bosnians settled in the Utica area. The event is free, and refreshments will be served.
Sehic was born in Bosnia (former Yugoslavia) in 1978 and came to Utica in 1995. He graduated from Thomas R. Proctor High School in 1998 and holds a doctorate in education from Northcentral University. He currently works as a social studies teacher for Oneida-Herkimer Madison BOCES and serves as an editor-in-chief for the International Journal of Contemporary Education.
• Jim Coulthart, a local amateur military aviation historian, will share his research on Mohawk Airlines, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3.
The hour-long presentation covers the history of Central New York’s regional airline, from the early years as Robinson Airline through to its demise in the early 1970s. This program is free.
First headquartered in Ithaca, Mohawk Airlines operated from the Oneida County Airport in Whitestown. It was a regional passenger airline that covered the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States from the mid-1940s until it was bought by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its peak, it employed more than 2,200 personnel. It was a pioneer in regional airline operations, including being the first airline in the United States to hire an African American flight attendant and the first to offer a pressurized cabin. Coulthart will discuss the organization’s evolution, key personalities, aircraft, and several air crash tragedies.
