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I recently learned about a New York City street photographer that’s a big fan of New York history. New York Photography by James Maher focuses on both the architecture and the people on the streets of the city, but Maher also writes historical photo articles on some of the more interesting aspects of the city, such as the construction of the brooklyn bridge, the old Atlantic Avenue Tunnel and the old City Hall subway station.
Photo: Housing for patients, Ellis Island. Courtesy James Maher.
Historic Huguenot Street (HHS), located on the banks of the Wallkill River, is where small group of French-speaking Huguenots settled in 1678. Today, just steps from downtown New Paltz, the site features seven stone houses dating to 1705, a burying ground and a reconstructed 1717 stone church – all in their original village setting. HHS offers six acres of landscaped green space and public programming to the local community and visitors from around the world. For more information about Historic Huguenot Street visit www.huguenotstreet.org or call (845) 255-1660.
Saturday, November 6, 10am to12pm
Behind the Scenes: Coverlets with the Curator
This program is offered in conjunction with the Binary Visions Exhibit at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Limited to 15, the morning offers an opportunity to see up close the historic coverlets too fragile to exhibit. Cost: $25/$20 for Friends of Huguenot Street
Saturday, November 13, 7 to 9pm
Second Saturdays: The Lenape, Lower New York’s First Inhabitants
In this lively and engaging talk, David M. Oestreicher combines archaeological and historical evidence with decades of firsthand ethnographic and linguistic research among present-day Lenape traditionalists, to arrive at a full picture of the Lenape from prehistory to the present. The presentation includes a slide program featuring native artifacts, maps, illustrations, and photographs, as well as images of contemporary Lenape who are among the last repositories of their culture. This lecture offers a unique opportunity to learn about lower New York’s original inhabitants, the Lenape —- not the romanticized figures of popular mythology or new-age literature, but a living people as they really are. Dr.David M. Oestreicher is recognized as a leading authority on the Lenape (Delaware), our region’s first inhabitants. Cost: $8/$6 for Friends of Huguenot Street
Friday, November 19, 5 to 8 pm
Downtown Unwrapped/ Tree Lighting
What a great way to do your holiday shopping. Downtown New Paltz, including Huguenot Street, will be open late to start the holiday shopping season. Start the evening with the traditional tree lighting ceremony being held on Huguenot Street. Stop in the museum shop, enjoy some homemade hot chocolate and find some unique items in the shop, including holiday decoration and cards.
Saturday, November 20, 4-7 pm
Third Saturday Art Walk: As the Seasons Turn, Holiday Greetings Card
The collections at Historic Huguenot Street include an impressive collection of holiday cards from the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries. Many are richly detailed. Others contain “holiday” motifs that are just puzzling in our modern world. This exhibit gives guests rare opportunities to see the celebration of holidays through cards that span several decades.
Friday, November 26, 11am to 3pm
Giving Thanks Day
It’s Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and you’re all cooped up in the house. Don’t go to the mall. Come enjoy a special “Giving Thanks” day at HHS. Cost: For this day only, tours are just $5 per person or $20 for the whole family.
Saturday, November 27, 11am to 2pm
Photos with Vintage Santa | 11am to 2pm
Come and have your picture taken with our vintage Santa Claus seated next to the period fireplace in the historic Jean Hasbrouck House. These are timeless photographs, of exceptional quality, taken by a professional photographer familiar with the interesting backdrops that our house interiors offer. Every photo will be inserted in a replicated card form the vintage holiday card collection we have here at HHS. For this event we will again partner with Rite Aid, a trusted local business and, at your request, send a .jpg oh your photograph so that they can create your holiday cards with convenience and ease. Imagine, pictures with the most authentic Santa in New Paltz and your holiday cards all wrapped up – and it isn’t even December yet!! Cost: $15 first photo, $5 for each additional photo
Saturday, November 27, 11am to 2pm
Christmas Quest
Children will search through the grand Deyo House on Huguenot Street looking for Christmas themed clues (vintage cards, stockings, antique cookie cutters…-). Exploring this stately colonial revival will be a delightful challenge as you discover the clues and solve the mystery of the hunt! Holiday treats and warm cider will be provided back at the DuBois Fort Visitor Center upon completion of the hunt. Please note this event is suitable for ages 5 and up. Cost: $7 per child
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Talented artisans will make this year’s Adirondack Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival at the Adirondack Museum the premier needlework event of the season. The festival will be held on Saturday, September 25, 2010. Activities are planned from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. All are included in the price of general museum admission.
The festival will include demonstrations of rug hooking, quilting, felting, spinning, and weaving, a regional quilt show, textile appraisals, an artisan marketplace, a “knit-in” for a good warm cause, hands-on activities, and the museum’s beautiful exhibit, “Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters.”
Demonstrations will be held from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. at locations throughout the museum campus. Returning participants include the Serendipity Spinners, members of the community-based needlework group Northern Needles, the Adirondack Regional Textile Artist’s Association, as well as felter Sandi Cirillo and mixed-media quilter Louisa Austin Woodworth.
Liz Alpert Fay will make her first appearance at the festival, demonstrating the art of rug hooking. Fay studied at Philadelphia College of Art, and then participated in the Program in Artisanry at Boston University, where she received a BAA in Textile Design in 1981.
Fay created art quilts for seventeen years, exhibiting nationally and in Japan. Her work was exhibited in shows such as “Quilt National” and at the American Craft Museum in New York City. In 1998 she became intrigued with the technique of traditional rug hooking. Since then she has created colorful hand hooked rugs of her own design. The rugs have been purchased for private collections, and many have been selected for juried shows and invitational museum exhibitions. In 2002, Fay’s rugs were featured in the October issue of Country Living magazine- in 2005 she was filmed in her studio and her rugs featured on HGTV (the Home and Garden Channel).
Thistle Hill Weavers, Cherry Valley, N.Y. will offer a weaving demonstration from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The company is a commercial weaving mill that produces reproduction historic textiles for museums, designers, private homeowners, and the film industry. Textiles created by Thistle Hill have appeared in more than thirty major motion pictures. The business was founded by Rabbit Goody, who is also the owner and current director. For more about Thistle Hill Weavers, visit www.rabbitgoody.com.
Museum visitors can learn more about personal antique and collectible fabrics with Ms. Goody who is a textile appraiser and historian. For a small donation to the Adirondack Museum, she will examine vintage textiles and evaluate them for historical importance and value. Appraisals will be held in Visitor Center from 9:30 a.m. until 12:00 noon.
The second annual “Great Adirondack Quilt Show” will feature a display of nearly three-dozen quilts inspired by or used in the Adirondack Mountains.
A presentation, “Knitting in the North Country: History and Folklore,” will be offered by Hallie Bond and Jill Breit at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. in the museum’s Auditorium. Bond, a museum curator and novice knitter, will share her ongoing research about the place of spinning and knitting in local history including traditional techniques and the wearing of knitted garments. Breit, Executive Director of Traditional Arts in Upstate New York and a superb knitter, will discuss the vital and vibrant knitting scene in
the North Country today.
A special knit-in, “Warm Up America!” will create afghans that will be donated to Hamilton County Community action, an organization that helps people help themselves and others. The knit-in will be held in the Visitor Center from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Participants will knit or crochet 7″- by 9″- rectangles that will be joined together to make cozy afghans.
A dozen regional artisans will sell handmade fabrics and fiber specialty items in a day-long marketplace as part of the Adirondack Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival.
The Adirondack Museum tells stories of the people – past and present —- who have lived, worked, and played in the unique place that is the Adirondack Park. History is in our nature. The museum is supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. For information about all that the museum has to offer, call (518) 352-7311, or visit www.adirondackmuseum.org.
Known throughout the region for its unique architecture and for the preservation of the early stone houses, Historic Huguenot Street also boasts an extraordinary collection of carefully preserved furniture and accessories spanning over a three-hundred year period. This intimate tour will focus on the many treasures found in the house museums as well as in the collections storage.
Antiques expert Sanford Levy has a particular love for and knowledge of historical items from the Hudson Valley. Owner of Jenkinstown Antiques, Levy specializes in furniture, fine art, and accessories from the Valley, including kasten, country and formal pieces in original surfaces. He is also well-known as a dealer in regional artists such as D.F. Hasbrouck, T.B. Pope, Michael Kelly, Joseph Tubby, and Julia Dillon.
The tour begins at 4pm on Sunday, September 26th, at the DuBois Fort Visitor Center at 81 Huguenot Street in New Paltz. Two hours in length, the event is limited to 15 guests. Reservations are strongly suggested. There is a $25 charge per person ($20 for Friends of Historic Huguenot Street).
The Hudson River Valley Institute (HRVI) at Marist College and the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum come to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area to pay tribute to Glenn Curtiss on Saturday, October 9. Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Air Shows President, Hugh Schoelzel expressed appreciation for the choice of the Aerodrome as a fitting venue and explained the special air show: “Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome’s replica of the 1911 Curtiss “D” Pusher…very similar to Glenn Cutiss’ Albany Flyer… will be on display to greet guests entering the Aerodrome courtyard.
At 2 PM, the Pioneer and Barnstorming Air Show will feature the Curtiss “D” Pusher in a taxi demonstration of its unique flight controls, flying exhibitions of an original Curtiss JN-4 H Hisso Jenny built for the Great War in 1918 and a Curtiss Wright Junior CW-1 built by Curtiss as an economical flying machine for recreational pilots in 1931.” The museum and grounds open at 10 AM with four hangars full of antique airplanes and related artifacts to browse through- biplane rides will also be available.
Following the air show, the Hudson River Valley Institute is sponsoring a lecture by Trafford Doherty, Executive Director of The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum of Hammondsport, New York. There will also be a special static display and photo opportunities of the Curtiss airplanes.
Old Rhinebeck Air Shows, The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, and the Hudson River Valley Institute have missions related to education and, with the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, all four are 501c3 non-profit organizations.
Photo: A “Headed” Curtiss Model D (Curtiss photo 1196) Pusher later “Headless” models incorporated elevators around the rudder in the tail (like most aircraft since). Courtesy Wikipedia.
The New-York Historical Society has announced the launch of a new online portal to nearly 12,000 pages of source materials documenting the history of slavery in the United States, the Atlantic slave trade and the abolitionist movement. Made readily accessible to the general public for the first time at www.nyhistory.org/slaverycollections, these documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries represent fourteen of the most important collections in the library’s Manuscript Department.
The collections include account books and ship manifests documenting the financial aspects of the slave trade- legal papers such as birth certificates and deeds of manumission- and political works and polemics. The materials range from writings by the abolitionists Granville Sharp, Lysander Spooner and Charles Sumner to the diary of a plantation manager and overseer of slaves in Cuba, Joseph Goodwin, and that of a former slave in Fishkill, New York, James F. Brown.
The site also provides access to the archives of abolitionist organizations such as the New-York Manumission Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, as well as the records of the African Free School, which document the education of free blacks in early nineteenth-century New York.
“The creative use of digital technology is a key priority in making the Society a highly accessible world-class resource for all,” stated Jean Ashton, Executive Vice President of the Historical Society and Director of the Library. “This project is a landmark achievement in our efforts to offer scholars, educators and students anywhere in the world immediate access to materials from the Society’s museum and library collections.”
The project was completed with the support of a $190,000 appropriation secured by Senator Charles E. Schumer’s office to digitize the Historical Society’s library collections. “As more and more of our world goes online, we must make sure that our historical records keep up,” said Senator Schumer. “By digitizing thousands of pages of materials documenting the history of slavery in the United States, the New-York Historical Society will make this collection accessible to any American interested in our history.”
Over the past six years, the New-York Historical Society has showcased documents, art and artifacts relating to the abolitionist movement and the network known as the Underground Railroad by publishing the papers of the African Free School in print and on the web, and through the following exhibitions:
Grant and Lee in War and Peace
New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War-
French Founding Father: Lafayette’s Return to Washington’s America.
Established in 1804, the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) comprises New York’s oldest museum and a nationally renowned research library. N-YHS collects, preserves and interprets American history and art- its mission is to make these collections accessible to the broadest public and increase understanding of American history through exhibitions, public programs and research that reveal the dynamism of history and its impact on the world today. N-YHS holdings cover four centuries of American history and comprise one of the world’s greatest collections of historical artifacts, American art and other materials documenting the history of the United States as seen through the prism of New York City and State.
Curious what your great-grand-mother’s shawl or old family Bible is worth? The Franklin County Historical and Museum Society will be holding an Antiques Appraisal fund-raising event on September 22, 2010, from 4:00-7:00pm at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 41 Elm St., Malone. Saranac Lake resident Ted Comstock, former curator at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, will be providing verbal appraisals of antiques for the community. Members of the public are encouraged to bring objects from their attics and display cases to the K of C to obtain an independent appraisal of the value of their family heirlooms.
Unlike for-profit ventures which seek to purchase valuables for resale, this appraisal event is independent and for the benefit of the community. Attendees are encouraged to stay to hear Ted Comstock’s fascinating explanations of the objects and their history as it relates to the area. Ted graciously donated his time and expertise in September 2009 for a similar event, which drew a capacity crowd.
The cost to have your antiques appraised is $5 per object or 3 for $12 (limit 3 objects, please). All proceeds go to support the work of the Society. Please call the museum at: 518-483-2750 for more details or for directions to the Knights of Columbus building.
Please omit coins, stamps and jewelry.
The House of History museum is housed in an 1864 Italianate style building, most recently the home of the F. Roy and Elizabeth Crooks Kirk family. A museum since 1973, the House of History is home to the headquarters of the Franklin County Historical & Museum Society and its historic collections pertaining to the history of Franklin County. The recently renovated carriage house behind the museum is the beautiful Schryer Center for Historical & Genealogical Research, which opened in 2006. The Schryer Center contains archival materials and a library of family history information and is open to the public. FCHMS is supported by its members and donors and the generous support of Franklin County.
The House of History is open for tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-4pm through December 31, 2010- admission is $5/adults, $3/seniors, $2/children, and free for members. The Schryer Center for Historical & Genealogical Reseach is open for research Tuesday-Friday from 1-4pm through October 8, 2010 and Wednesday-Friday from 1-4pm October 13-May 1, weather permitting. The fee to use the research library is $10/day and free to members.
Information about Franklin County History, the collections of the museum and links to interesting historical information can be found at the Historical Society’s website.
Please contact the Historical Society with questions at 518-483-2750 or via e-mail at [email protected].