Adk Museum Acquires Architecure Collection

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The library of the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York has acquired the archives of a major Adirondack architectural firm that include what museum officials are calling &#8220the most important collection of historic architectural records in the Adirondack Park.&#8221

The Saranac Lake firm began as William L. Coulter, Architect and ended more than a century of notable work as Wareham, DeLair Architects (WDA). Principals in the firm over time included Coulter- his partner, Max H. Westhoff who practiced solo after Coulter’s death- William G. Distin, Coulter’s protege and Westhoff’s partner- Arthur Wareham, Distin’s partner- and Ronald H. Delair, partner since 1970.

The Adirondack Museum received the materials as a donation from Ronald DeLair, the firm’s final principal. According to museum librarian Jerry Pepper, the process to receive the collection began in the late 1970s. Official transfer of custody was completed in the late summer, 2010.

Pepper notes that DeLair took extraordinary care of the collection over time, and that the extensive material is very well organized. The collection is diverse as well as wide-ranging. The index alone is comprised of forty single-spaced pages.

Including thousands of architectural drawings and renderings for camps, residences, businesses, sanitarium, Olympic facilities, municipal buildings and churches, a certificate signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, as well as forty boxes of records and three-dimensional models, the collection documents some of the region’s most important architects.

Coulter was the first resident architect to establish a practice in the Adirondacks. Distin was a pioneer of the Adirondack style of architecture. A sample of his classic designs include “Camp Mossrock” on Upper Saranac Lake, “Camp Wonundra” built for William Rockefeller in 1934, and Eagle Nest, designed for Walter Hochschild in 1938.

Westhoff was a member of the original class at Pratt Institute and introduced a Swiss motif into the firm’s repertoire. Wareham completed design work for the Trudeau Institute and worked on numbers of libraries and municipal buildings. DeLair designed fewer camps than his predecessors, concentrating on public projects.

Wareham DeLair Architects, which celebrated it centennial in 1997, is the fifth oldest firm in continuous practice in New York State.

In addition to capturing the wide spectrum of regional architecture, the collection also illustrates changing tastes and building technology over time, and provides a unique and invaluable insight into the history of the Adirondacks.

Jerry Pepper says that the DeLair material builds on the Adirondack Museum’s already significant collections of architectural records that include drawings by William West Durant, Grosvenor Atterbury, Augustus Shepard, and John Burnham.

Photo: Trudeau Foundation Research Laboratory, Saranac Lake, NY. Distin and Wareham Architects, 1964. Collection of the Adirondack Museum.

Huntington Painting Returns to Historic Jay Estate

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The Jay Heritage Center (JHC) celebrated the recent anniversary of John Jay’s birthday on December 12 with news of an extraordinary gift from one of his descendants. In celebration of the continued restoration of the 1838 Jay House in Rye, Ada Hastings of Great Barrington, Massachusetts and her family magnanimously donated a portrait of John Jay’s great granddaughter that once hung in the mansion’s Drawing Room. The luminescent painting of a young Alice Jay by pre-eminent artist Daniel Huntington is documented in sepia toned family photos from 1886- it is visible hanging in a prominent location next to two other famous artworks originally owned by the Jays of Rye: Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of John Jay (which today is on view at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.) and Asher Durand’s depiction of Peter Augustus Jay (which belongs to New York Hospital where Peter Augustus Jay served as President of the Board.

The young subject of the painting, Alice Jay, along with her parents and siblings, lived both in New York and at the Rye estate during the mid and late 19th century. Windows into Alice’s life and times, particularly during the Civil War, are well documented in family letters and diaries. Alice’s father, Dr. John Clarkson Jay, was John Jay’s grandson and a vocal opponent of slavery like his grandfather and father before him. Through the local Episcopal church where he served on the vestry, he was instrumental in spearheading efforts in Rye to recruit volunteers for the Union efforts during the Civil War, a campaign which drew enlistments from Alice’s two older brothers, Peter, who became Captain of a local militia, and John, who served as an assistant surgeon. Alice’s sister kept a diary in which she wrote proudly in 1862, “Rye is called the banner town of the county for she has raised more men by volunteering than any of the other towns.”

The artist of the painting, New Yorker Daniel Huntington (1816 – 1906), trained with Jay family friends and esteemed colleagues like John Trumbull (who accompanied Jay as his secretary to Europe during treaty negotiations but also achieved renown as a painter, most notably for his grand scale Declaration of Independence now at the Capitol Rotunda) and Samuel F. B. Morse (whose successful career as an artist preceded his renown as an inventor and earned him the nickname of “America’s Da Vinci.”) Under the tutelage of men like these, Huntington rose to prominence both during and after the Civil War. He was a member of the National Academy of Design for most of his life and acted as its President for 22 years- he was also Vice-President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 33 years and helped that institution expand and grow in stature.

Perhaps Huntington’s most recognizable work, The Republican Court, was completed in 1861 at the start of one of our nation’s bloodiest engagements. His tableau harkened back to what was sentimentally remembered as a more harmonious time between the states &#8212- the initial founding of our union &#8211and it represented an idealized assembly of the leaders of that period (Northern and Southern) in a European, court like setting. The image prominently features John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay and 62 other identifiable personages of the Revolutionary War. Huntington’s painting was reproduced in 1865 as a very popular engraving. The larger original oil painting is owned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Winter hours for the Jay Heritage Center are Tuesday through Friday, 10am &#8211 5pm and by appointment. Please call (914) 698-9275 or contact JHC Program Director, Heather Craane at [email protected] to schedule group or school tours. The Jay Heritage Center’s Exhibit commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, “The Jays and the Abolition of Slavery: From Manumission to Emancipation” will open in May 2011.

John Jay’s home in Rye is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area selected for its themes of Environment, Landscape and Gardens, Architecture and Freedom and Dignity. It is one of 13 sites on Westchester County’s African American Heritage Trail.

Illustrations: Above, &#8220The Republican Court&#8221 by Daniel Huntington (1861, Brooklyn Museum of Art). John Jay is depicted in the crimson robe on the far left and Sarah Livingston Jay is opposite him in white in the right foreground. An engraving based on this painting was recently donated to the Jay Heritage Center. Middle, &#8220Alice Jay&#8221 by Daniel Huntington- Below, an 1886 photograph of the Jay Drawing Room. Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Jay is on the left of the mirror and Asher Durand’s portrait of Jay’s eldest son Peter is on the right.

Saratoga Battlefields 16th Annual Frost Faire

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The 16th annual Frost Faire will be held from 10:30am to 3pm on Saturday, January 22 at Saratoga National Historical Park, located on Routes 4 and 32 in Stillwater. Bring your snow tube for rides on the “Big Hill” (only snow tubes allowed- no sleds or toboggans) and enjoy horse-drawn carriage rides, winter nature treks, Contra Dancing, special exhibits, games (including Giant Soldier Puzzle, Ice Bowling and Bottle Fishing), plus cocoa and cookies by the bonfire. The event is free.

Popular in the 1700s, a “Frost Faire” eased the effects of “cabin fever” with opportunities to visit friends and enjoy winter activities, refreshments and entertainment.

Ongoing activities in the Visitor Center include contradancing, colonial
handwriting demonstration, children’s craft room including decorative tin piercing
and copper embossing, Stillwater town historian’s exhibit.

Cannon firing demonstrations are scheduled for 10 AM, 11 AM, 12
noon, 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM- musket firing demonstrations at 10:30 AM, 11:30
AM, 12:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 2:30 PM.

This event is sponsored by the Town of Stillwater and Saratoga National Historical Park. For more information on this or other events at Saratoga National Historical Park, please call the Visitor Center at 518-664-9821 ext. 224 or check their website at www.nps.gov/sara.

Illustration: Frost Fair on the frozen Thames River, engraving from Old and New London: The City Ancient and Modern by Walter Thornbury, 1897.

University Courts Online History Audience

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Historians at The University of Texas at Austin have introduced what they are decribing as a &#8220first-of-its-kind Web site to help the public learn more about Texas, American and world history.&#8221

Developed by the History Department, &#8220Not Even Past&#8221 is expected to showcase new articles each month from history professors writing about the time periods and areas of history they study. The inaugural article by Professor Jacqueline Jones focuses on life in Savannah, Ga. during the Civil War.

The site is also expected to include book recommendations, movie clips and podcasts, links to historical documents and artifacts, virtual courses, a daily &#8216-fact checker’ designed to &#8220debunk historical myths.&#8221

&#8220&#8216-Not Even Past’ is our effort to offer history to a wider audience. All of our former students and literally anyone interested in history will find something interesting on our site,&#8221 says Professor Joan Neuberger, who studies Russian history.

Visitors to &#8220Not Even Past&#8221 will be able to take the virtual courses beginning this semester with Pulitzer Prize finalist H.W. Brands, who will offer a course on American leaders- Charters Wynn, who will offer a course on World War II on the Eastern Front- and Frank Guridy, who will offer a course on Cuban-U.S. relations. Each professor will assign three great books to their virtual students and lead a live chat devoted to each book during the semester.

&#8220The students will have the chance to do some great reading with award-winning teachers who are experts in their fields — with no tests,&#8221 says Neuberger. &#8220At the end of each semester, they’ll be honored at commencement with virtual certificates.&#8221

The Web site draws its name from American novelist William Faulkner, who once said, &#8220The past is never dead. It’s not even past.&#8221 Professors and graduate students in the university’s History Department developed the site and will produce most of its content.

&#8220During these difficult budget times, we have developed and plan to maintain this Web site with our existing resources thanks to the hard work of our professors and students,&#8221 says History Department Chair Alan Tully, a scholar in early American political culture. &#8220No other university is doing anything like this. We view it as a way to connect the acumen of our History Department faculty with the inquisitiveness of historically minded members of the general public.&#8221

Public Input Sought for Bridge Reopening Celebration

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The Lake Champlain Bridge Coalition has announced the formation of the Lake Champlain Bridge Community (LCB Community). The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has entrusted the Coalition and LCB Community to create, plan and lead the public festivities that will celebrate the replacement and re-opening of the Lake Champlain Bridge. The celebration will also showcase the reunited regional communities of Addison, Vt. and Crown Point, N.Y.

The LCB Community will hold a public meeting on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. at the Crown Point Historic Site Museum. The purpose of the public meeting is to encourage area residents, business owners, and other stakeholders to join the LCB Community and become involved in the celebration planning by serving on a committee, volunteering time or offering ideas. If anyone is unable to attend this meeting, they are still welcome to join the LCB Community or offer their ideas for the event. The committees will plan and organize a proposed two-day event and coordinate fundraising and marketing of the celebration.

“When NYSDOT entrusted the planning of this historic event to us, they emphasized that this should be a ‘grassroots’ celebration,” said Karen Hennessey, co-chair of the LCB Community and owner of Sugar Hill Manor B&B, Crown Point, NY. “That’s why it’s so important for us to reach out to community members and gather input as to what shape and form these celebration activities should take. We welcome everyone’s input—whether or not you can be at the meeting on January 24th.”

The date of the bridge re-opening is yet to be announced by New York’s and Vermont’s transportation departments and Flatiron Construction, the firm constructing the new bridge. Early indications suggest the re-opening will be in early- to mid-October 2011.

“The 1929 celebration of the first Lake Champlain Bridge has been the inspiration and guiding force for this upcoming event,” said Lorraine Franklin, co-chair of the LCB Community and owner of West Addison General Store. “Forty thousand people attended the opening in 1929, and we hope our event will far surpass that landmark celebration. This will be our celebration, and we all look forward to the day the second Lake Champlain Bridge is open.”

Members of the Lake Champlain Bridge Community include area residents, representatives from local business, historical sites, local governments, and chambers of commerce.

Race Fans Invited to Meet Hall of Fame Members

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The New York State Stock Car Association’s (NYSSCA) annual “Meet the New Hall of Fame Members” program will be held on Sunday, January 23rd at the Saratoga Automobile Museum, site of the permanent NYSSCA Hall of Fame exhibit.

Set for 11 am, the popular event will let fans and racers unable to attend Saturday night’s NYSSCA awards banquet meet and listen to the new inductees, drivers Dickie Larkin and Jack Cottrell, car owner Paul Emerick and officials Hertha and Marty Beberwyk.

“It’s my favorite event of the year,” NYSSCA Hall of Fame chairman and Racing in New York gallery coordinator Ron Hedger said. “It brings together the hard-core racing community and the area’s dedicated race fans in a relaxed setting and lets us relive the highlights of the inductee’s racing careers. We’ll have presenters Tom Boggie, Jim King, Hertha Beberwyk and myself on hand to introduce the inductees, who will then make remarks. After that, I usually ask a few questions and then we’ll take questions from the audience, so everyone gets involved in the festivities.&#8221

For the first time, the event will be held in the museum’s main gallery instead of the Racing in New York exhibit.

The Saratoga Automobile Museum is located on the Avenue of the Pines in the Saratoga Spa State Park. Visitors should exit I-87, the Adirondack Northway, at Exit 13N, then proceed north on Rt. 9 to the Avenue of the Pines park entrance.

NYSSCA Hall of Fame members will be admitted free of charge with other visitors paying the standard museum admission. The current featured exhibit in the Golub Gallery is “Right Coast Rods” while the Racing in New York gallery features a look at the history of NASCAR in New York.

More information is available online.

Bicycle Technology: Then and Now

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Bicycles have come a long way. They are one of the most important methods of transportation ever created. Millions of people all over the world rely on them and enjoy them as both a primary means of transport and as a personal means of recreation.

Lifelong bicycle aficionados Rob van der Plas and Stuart Baird have indulged their passion for cycling and created a richly illustrated compendium dedicated to the technology and engineering that goes into the modern bicycle and its key historical components.

Their new book, titled Bicycle Technology, covers every detail and aspect of the bicycle, from the frame materials to the drivetrain, gears, to the wheels, suspension lights, bells and whistles, and more. They have shared their technical know-how and love of the history and the developments of the bicycle from its inauspicious beginnings to the use of space-age materials, and the incorporation of electronic innovations of today.

The book is a thorough and up-to-date treatment of the technical aspects of the modern (and historic) bicycle, illustrated with 800 photographs and other illustrations. This new, 2nd edition was completely rewritten, with up-to-date material and numerous clear illustrations, covering bsoth the modern bike itself and its components in a historical context.

The first bicycle was invented in 1817 by Carl Von Drais (no, not three centuries earlier by Leonardo Da Vinci, as has sometimes been claimed). Drais viewed it as a substitute for a horse, which was in very short supply at the time due to a very harsh winter. His earliest machine was protected by a patent, which was soon copied by many people, some under license, some simply pirated. However, interest soon diminished, and by 1830, they were all but forgotten relics of a short-lived craze.

The pedal-drive was first introduced in the 1950s for use on a workman’s tricycle powered by means of cranks on the front wheel, and later found use on Michaux’s two-wheel velocipeds. Tension wire spokes were introduced in 1869, making it possible to build very large wheels of the iconic high-wheel, or “ordinary” bicycle of the 1870 and 1880s.

The first chain-driven bicycle was patented in 1879. Within a few years of their introduction the safety bicycle, with chain-drive and two equal-sized had superseded the high-wheel bicycle.

During much of the 20th Century, bicycle developments were confined to “tweaking” the details rather than the overall re-design of the bicycle as a whole. The most important development of the 20th Century was the introduction and perfection of gearing systems. A modern bicycle derailleur gearing system in the process of changing gear by literally “derailing” the chain to a smaller or larger rear cog

Technical developments in bicycles continue to undergo subtle refinements. There have been, and continue to be, significant developments in areas like brake systems, gearing, suspension, and frame materials. High-tech, lightweight materials, including carbon and titanium, sometimes in combination, are now used in the frames and components of high-end bicycles.

Many bicycles are now available with full suspension and hydraulic disk brakes. Fully equipped urban commuter bikes are available with carriers for a briefcase or laptop, effective lights for night riding, and other electronic and mechanical accessories.

In recent years, electric-assist bikes, or “E-bikes” have gained popularity amongst casual riders and utility cyclists. There are four E-bike categories: CEBs, which are conventional electric bikes- SABs, or simple assisted bikes- EHBs, or electro-hybrid bikes- and SHBs, or Synergetic Hybrid Bicycles, which can be seen as pedal-powered equivalent of hybrid cars.

Modern lighting systems of course, now use ultra-bright multi-light LEDs with rechargeable battery packs and on board generators. Modern audio warning systems are also electronic.

No matter what advances in technology we may see, some people may still choose on installing an old-fashioned bell or horn.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

Photo: Early High-Wheel or Ordinary Bicycle (c 1872).

This Weeks Top New York History News

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Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top stories about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.

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New Netherland Research Residencies

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The Quinn Library Research Residency consists of specialized research in Dutch-related documents and printed materials at the New York State Library. Researchers interested in the history of New Netherland and the Dutch Colonial Atlantic World are also encouraged to apply for the special Cunningham Grant of $2,500.

The Quinn Archives Research Residency consists of up to one year in Albany, working in the rich collections of the New Netherland Institute and the New York State Archives.

Researchers interested in the history of New Netherland and the Dutch Colonial Atlantic World are also encouraged to apply for the research residency, which carries a stipend of $2,500.

The Quinn Library Research Residency Award application must be postmarked by January 28,2011 and is due January 29,2011. The Archives Research Residency Award application is due January 15,2011. Each award is for $2,500 and the successful candidate has a year from the time the awards are announced to complete his/her research.

A panel of scholars and library staff will review proposals. The panel’s decisions will be announced by April 14, 2011.

More information and the application link can be found at http://www.nnp.org/nni/Research%20&%20Education/quinn.html

If you’d like to discuss the suitability of your research topic for one of these awards, contact [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]