Moving Bricks on the Hudson Gallery Tour

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On the closing day of the exhibit, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, at 2 pm and at 3 pm curator T. Robins Brown will lead a gallery tour of Moving Bricks on the Hudson, the Haverstraw Brick Museum’s Hudson Fulton Champlain Quadricentennial exhibit. The show highlights the sloops, schooners, towboats, tugs and barges that transported bricks on the Hudson in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Visitors will discover the stories of the captains, crew, and boat builders that were part of the maritime enterprise that carried up to 1,000,000,000 (yes, billion) bricks annually. The exhibit brings together for the first fascinating illustrations and items donated or loaned to the museum by descendants of brick boatmen and from other individuals and museums including the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, the Peabody Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, and the Historical Society of Rockland County.

A slide show documents the dangers of transporting brick by water. A short film of 1903 gives viewers a speedy trip on the Hudson River from Haverstraw to Newburgh. A unique three-foot model of a barge with cutouts on loan from the Reynolds Shipyard Corp. allows visitors to inspect the structural system used to carry the very heavy brick cargo.

Through Jan. 31 the exhibit is open during the museum’s regular hours, Wed., Sat., and Sun, 1-4 pm. Children are welcome. A gallery guide for children encourages them to find fascinating items in the exhibit and they can also build a “tow” with model boats.

Photo: On Minisceongo Creek, a “bricker,” a brick-carrying schooner, awaits its cargo of bricks from the Shankey brickyard. On board are brickyard workers as well as the brick boat’s crew. The two women, the wives of the captain and first mate, were likely part of the boat’s crew. They lived aboard and cooked, watched tides, pumped bilge water, and performed other tasks that required less strength. Photograph from de Noyelles, Within These Gates.

Adirondack Research Librarys Adk Chronology

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Fans of Adirondack history will want to check out the Adirondack Chronology. The Chronology is a project of the Protect the Adirondacks!’s Adirondack Research Library at the Center for the Forest Preserve in Niskayuna. The Chronology consists of a chronological listing of significant events (natural or human-made) over the years and centuries, back to prehistoric times, that have taken place directly in the Adirondacks or which directly impacted the Adirondacks. The document, available as an online pdf, stretches to more than 300 pages and covers everything from the Big Bang (15 billion years before present) to a sunspot cycle in 2012 and 2013 that is predicted to causing major impacts on global electronics. The Chronology also includes an extensive and useful bibliography of relevant sources.

The Chronology is easily searched using the pdf search function, making it one of the most important documents for Adirondack history. Here is a short description of some of the kinds fo things you’ll find there from the Chronology’s introduction:

The Adirondack Chronology deals with all aspects of the Adirondack region to best suggest the various causal processes at work- several examples: forest exploitation leading to forest fire, in turn leading to protective legislation- trails of the Haudenosaunee leading to roads fostering development and then protective legislation, and so on. Crucial events also often occur well outside of the Adirondack region, e.g. invention of the snowmobile, the building of coal burning plants in the Mid-West, the growth of nickel-copper smelting in the Sudbury region of Ontario, the explosion of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, federal and state legislation, the introduction of the European Starling in New York City, the painting of a great picture or the writing of an inspirational poem.

The Chronology, last revised and enlarged in November 2009, is edited by Carl George, Professor of Biology, Emeritus at Union College, Richard E. Tucker of the Adirondack Research Library, and newest editor Charles C. Morrison, Conservation Advocacy Committee, Protect the Adirondacks!

The Adirondack Research Library holds the largest Adirondack collection outside the park boundaries. The library’s collections include maps, periodicals, technical reports, photos, slides, video and audio tapes, and archival materials from prominent Adirondack conservationists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Photo: The Center for the Forest Preserve, located in Niskayuna, NY, is owned and operated by Protect the Adirondacks!

John Steinbeck, Saratoga History Museum Fundraiser

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A talk entitled &#8220Steinbeck’s Wrath, 1936-1939: The Santa Clara Valley Years&#8221 will be given by noted author and Steinbeck authority Susan Shillinglaw on February 5 from 7-9 PM. The event will be held at the Foothill Club of Saratoga Springs (20399 Park Place) and is a fundraiser for the Saratoga History Museum (SHM). The cost will be $15 for SHM members, $20 for nonmembers. To purchase a ticket, call (408)255-1883 during regular business hours. Coffee and dessert will be served.

Hyde Collection Announces 2010 Exhibition Schedule

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The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls has announced its 2010 Exhibition Schedule. This year’s schedule includes American Impressionist landscape paintings, twentieth-century Modern art, a regional juried high school art show, a major exhibition of the work of Andrew Wyeth, and the museum will also play host for the first time to the long-running Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, an annual juried show founded in 1936. The complete schedule from the Hyde Collection announcement is below.

Through Sunday, March 28, 2010
An Enduring Legacy:
American Impressionist Landscape Paintings from the Thomas Clark Collection

This exhibition presents sixty-four paintings from the private collection of Saratoga
County, New York resident Thomas Clark. For twenty years, Clark has been amassing a significant group of pre-1940 American Impressionist landscape paintings with more than 100 works in the collection. Considered one of the finest private collections of this genre in upstate New York, it is testament to the enduring legacy of Impressionist painting in American art.

The collection, on public display for the first time, comprises examples from the last
great generation of landscape painters who emerged during, and in the aftermath of, the American Impressionist movement (1880-1920). Many of these artists were students and/or sketching partners of the seminal figures in Impressionism in America, such as William Merritt Chase and John Henry Twachtman. The Collection offers a comprehensive treatment of the regional schools of Impressionist activity in America. Forty-seven artists are featured in the exhibition, including Walter Emerson Baum, John Joseph Enneking, Emile A. Gruppe, Hayley Lever, Frederick Mulhaupt, George Loftus Noyes, and Harry A. Vincent. The exhibition is curated by Erin Coe, chief curator and deputy director of The Hyde Collection and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. Clark has announced his intention to make a future donation of his remarkable collection to The Hyde where it will greatly enhance the Museum’s current holdings of American art.

Through February 28, 2010
Divided by a common language?
British and American Works from the Murray Collection

Approximately twenty works of twentieth-century Modern art, donated to the Museum by the late Jane Murray, are on display in Hoopes Gallery. Works included in this exhibition were part of the first significant donation of twentieth-century art received by The Hyde and helped to form the foundation of the Museum’s Modernist holdings. Jane Murray passed away in April 2009 and bequeathed the remainder of her substantial collection to the Museum.

Curated by The Hyde’s Executive Director David F. Setford, the exhibition reflects one woman’s journey into the world of art and the creative process itself. Represented in the exhibition are British artists including Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, Howard Hodgkin, and Paul Mount. American artists include Gregory Amenoff, American, b. 1948, Gregory Amenoff, Betty Parsons, Stuart Davis, and Ellsworth Kelly. The works selected examine the similarities and differences between American and British works of the period, as both are areas of particular strength in the Murray
Murray Collection.

April 11 through May 23
Nineteenth Regional Juried High School Art Show

The Hyde proudly hosts one hundred works in various media by the best of area high
school art students. Entries into the competition average approximately 1,200 per year
and the top 100 works were chosen by jurors to be highlighted in this annual spring event, showcased in the Museum’s Charles R. Wood Gallery.

This unique show allows participating students to experience the preparation, submission, and jurying process crucial to their artistic development. The young artists entering the competition hail from as many as forty area schools located in Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Hamilton, and Essex counties.

June 12 through September 5
Andrew Wyeth: An American Legend

The Hyde Collection introduces the broad span of work by Andrew Wyeth in its major summer exhibition for 2010. Organized by The Hyde and curated by Executive Director David F. Setford and Deputy Director and Chief Curator Erin B. Coe in association with the Farnsworth Art Museum of Rockland, Maine, the exhibition will mark the first opportunity since the artist’s death in 2009 to begin to critically reevaluate his contribution to and position in American art of the twentieth century. Works will include pencil, watercolor, dry brush, and tempera works, and will feature sections devoted to early coastal watercolors and landscape paintings, as well as a look at Wyeth’s models, his interest in vernacular architecture, and his connection
with the Regionalist tradition and Magic Realism.

The exhibition will feature approximately fifty works, with the core from the Farnsworth Art Museum. Also on view will be The Hyde’s own Wyeth – The Ledge and the Island, 1937 – and major works from Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hood Museum of Art, as well as from other museums and private collections.

The Museum continues its summer collaborations with other arts organizations in the region by coordinating a series of lectures, exhibitions, and performances with Wyeth-related themes.

October 10 through December 12
Exhibition by Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region

For the first time, The Hyde Collection is host of the Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, one of the longest-running collaborative juried exhibitions in the country. The Museum joins the Albany Institute of History and Art and the University Art Museum at the University at Albany as the third collaborative sponsor of the exhibition, which is hosted by the organizations on a rotating basis. Founded in 1936, this annual show provides a leading benchmark for contemporary art in the Upper Hudson Valley. The exhibition is open to artists residing within a 100-mile radius of either Glens Falls or the Capital District. Past jurors have included artists, curators, critics, art historians, and art dealers such as Edward Hopper (1941), George Rickey (1971), Kenneth Noland (1977), Wolf Kahn (1980), Grace Gluck (1984), Dan Cameron (1997), and Ivan Karp (2005).

For the 2010 exhibition, The Hyde has invited Charles Desmarais, the Deputy Director of Art at the Brooklyn Museum, to be the guest juror. Mr. Desmarais leads the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, conservation, education, exhibition, and library departments.

Photo: George Loftus Noyes, American, 1864-1954, River Reflections, Evening ca. 1900, Oil on canvas on artist’s board, 9 7/8 x 11 in., Promised gift of Thomas Clark to The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY.

VT Archeologist Named Historic Preservation Officer

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Vermont’s long-time State Archeologist has been named State Historic Preservation Officer and Director of the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Giovanna Peebles will assume the post immediately, according to Kevin Dorn, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

“Giovanna Peebles has served the people of Vermont as State Archeologist since 1976. Her long experience in this field and in historic preservation overall, as well as her passion for our state’s extraordinary heritage, makes her well-qualified to take over as State Historic Preservation Officer for Vermont.”

As State Historic Preservation Officer, or SHPO, Peebles, is responsible for administering the state’s historic preservation program under the federal National Historic Preservation Act and under the Vermont Historic Preservation Act.

“I’m looking forward to continuing the important work of the Division for Historic Preservation in helping keep Vermont the special place that it is,” Peebles said. “Vermont’s people are deeply connected with the history of their state and their own community, and they value and are proud of that heritage. Historic preservation is a large part of what makes Vermont look like Vermont and I’m honored to continue serving Vermonters in this new capacity.”

Historic preservation is also an important economic development tool, Peebles said, noting that money spent on the rehabilitation of historic buildings benefits the state’s economy as local contractors often perform the work.

Peebles takes over from acting SHPO Nancy Boone, who had held the position since 2008 when Jane Lendway, who had led the Division for Historic Preservation since 2003, retired after 33 years in state service.

Peebles, 58, of Montpelier, joined the Division for Historic Preservation, part of the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, in 1976 as Vermont’s first State Archeologist.

She has undergraduate and graduate degrees in anthropology, respectively, from Cornell University and Idaho State University and has published numerous scholarly works and has given many presentations on various aspects of Vermont archeology and history locally and nationally. Peebles is currently a candidate for a PhD in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Her dissertation centers on a recent initiative for which she received a national grant to create a prototype Internet-based Vermont archeology “museum” to share the wealth of information about the state’s 12,000-year-old history.

During her tenure she has been a passionate advocate for Vermont archeology, working from the beginning with federal and state agencies, non-profits, developers, and landowners to develop processes to protect archeological sites and sensitive lands whenever possible.

Recently she helped establish the Vermont Archaeology Heritage Center in South Burlington, where a large portion of the state’s collections of artifacts, many of which had been held out of state, can be accessed by students and scholars in one place.

The Division for Historic Preservation currently has 12 full-time staff and includes grant and technical assistance programs devoted to the rehabilitation and continued use of historic buildings- protection and interpretation of archeological resources- assistance to communities, developers, and landowners- administration of the 10 state-owned historic sites- and heritage education.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Exhibit: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864

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&#8220Healing the Wounds of War: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864&#8243- is the title of an exhibition that will run January 29th to October 17th at the Brooklyn Museum (Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Herstory Gallery, 4th floor). The exhibit will present a selection of artworks and historical objects celebrating the contributions of women to the mid-nineteenth-century Sanitary Movement, which organized Sanitary Fairs in major cities in the Northeast to raise money for the Civil War effort. Although the U.S. Sanitary Commission was headed by men, most of its work was accomplished by thousands of women volunteers. In Brooklyn, women’s organizations orchestrated the hugely successful Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair.

Highlights of the exhibition include a rare doll made by a young woman named Eliza Lefferts and sold at the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair in 1864- engravings created by Winslow Homer- and the rare book History of the Brooklyn and Long Island Fair, February 22, 1864. The Herstory Gallery is dedicated to exhibitions that elaborate on the lives and
histories of the 1,038 women who are named in Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, installed permanently in the adjacent gallery. Represented on The Dinner Party table is Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the country’s first female physician and a dedicated pioneer of the Sanitary Movement.

The exhibition has been organized by Catherine Morris, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Photo: &#8220Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, 1864. View of the Academy of Music as seen from the stage.&#8221 Brooklyn Public Library. Brooklyn Collection.

Adk Museum Gets Newspaper Preservation Support

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, in Hamilton County has received a grant in the amount of $4,253 from the New York Newspaper Foundation in support of microfilm services in the museum’s research library.

According to Librarian Jerry Pepper, the funds will underwrite the partial cost of preserving twelve newspapers published in the Adirondack Park over the next two years.

The Adirondack Museum has long appreciated the unique role played by local newspapers in documenting every-day life in the Adirondacks, and has collected and microfilmed regional newspapers since 1970. The collection now contains 108 different regional newspaper titles in microfilm format, some dating from the early nineteenth century.

Since 2003 the museum has collaborated with the Northern New York Library Network to increase research access to its microfilmed newspapers and make them available for use on the Internet.

The project, called the Northern New York Historical Newspapers Project, has digitized and electronically indexed 1,693,000 individual pages from forty-four newspapers in the region. The initiative has proven to be a great asset to those interested in the region’s unique history: over 12 million online searches of the site are conducted annually.

The Adirondack Museum is grateful for assistance with preparation and submission of the successful grant proposal from John Hammond, Director of the Northern New York Library Network, and Catherine Moore, Publisher of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

Adirondack Book Awards Call For Submissions

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In 2006, the Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) established the Adirondack Literary Awards, a juried awards program that honors books published in or about the Adirondacks in the previous year. Now one of the most popular annual events of ACW, this year’s deadline is March 8, 2010. Those wishing to submit a book published in 2009 to be considered for an award should send two copies of the book to Director Nathalie Thill, at the ACW office with a brief cover letter including author’s contact information and description of the book’s “qualifications.” Is the author from the Adirondack region, or is the book about or influenced by the Adirondacks in some way?

The cover letter should also name which category the author would like the book to be judged under: fiction, poetry, children’s literature, memoir, nonfiction, or photography. There is no entry fee. Do not include a SASE- books cannot be returned but will become part of reading rooms or libraries. The mailing address is: Adirondack Center for Writing, Paul Smith’s College, PO Box 265, Paul Smiths, New York 12970. Questions may be directed to Nathalie Thill at ACW at 518-327-6278 or [email protected].

Winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony to be held in June (date TBA via ACW website) at the Blue Mountain Center, which donates space and resources for the event. In addition to awards in each category mentioned above, there is a People’s Choice Award as part of this festive program. For a complete list of 2009 award winners, please check out the ACW Newsletter/Annual Report at our web site, www.adirondackcenterforwriting.org. Most of the books considered for awards are made available for purchase at the ceremony by the authors, and they are happy to sign their books.

The Adirondack Center for Writing is a resource and educational organization that provides support to writers and enhances literary activity and communication throughout the Adirondacks. ACW benefits both emerging and established writers and develops literary audiences by encouraging partnerships among existing regional organizations to promote diverse programs. ACW is based at Paul Smith’s College and is supported by membership and the New York State Council on the Arts.