Representatives from 15 historic sites and cultural institutions will engage visitors in fun, educational activities January 16 during Hudson Valley History Day at the New York State Museum. The free event will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is the highlight of Family Fun Weekend, January 16-17. The snow date will be Saturday, January 23. Activities will be held throughout the Museum’s first floor.
Participants include the State Museum, New York State Library, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt-Springwood, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site, Olana State Historic Site, Hudson River Heritage Organization/Montgomery Place, Albany Heritage Area Visitor Center and Henry Hudson Planetarium, Thomas Cole National Historic Site/Cedar Grove, Clermont State Historic Site, Shaker Heritage Society, Albany County Historical Society/Ten Broeck Mansion, Albany Institute of History and Art, Historic Cherry Hill and Crailo State Historic Site.
Visitors will be able to play the Hudson River Valley Trading Game on a 32-foot long game board at the Historic Cherry Hill table; sketch, write poetry and add to a community landscape at the Thomas Cole table; try weaving and grinding peppermint at the Shaker Society table; design their own stained glass at the Museum table; meet the life-sized Henry Hudson puppet at the Albany Heritage Area Visitor Center table and see historic documents, photographs and other objects at the other locations.
Jeffrey Urbin from the Roosevelt site will offer a lecture at 1:30 p.m. in the Huxley Theater on “How to Prepare Family Archives and a Time Capsule.” At 11 a.m. and noon, he also will provide tours of the This Great Nation Will Endure, an exhibition designed and curated by staff from the FDR site. The exhibition showcases the works of a legendary group of photographers who documented the lives and struggles of Americans enduring the Great Depression.
Tours will also be offered at 1 and 2:30 p.m. of the 1609 exhibition. Michelle Stefanik, a senior exhibition planner at the State Museum, will share information about Henry Hudson and his crew’s exploration of the Hudson River 400 years ago. She also will discuss the Mohican and Native Peoples who were living along the shores, as well as their relationships with the Dutch settlers.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 4 p.m., visitors will also be able to touch bear fur, try on a cradleboard and learn more about the Haudenosaunee at the hands-on Native Peoples cart, presented by Nancy Berns, a member of the State Museum’s Visitors Services staff.
On Sunday from 1-4 p.m., as part of Family Fun Weekend, the Museum will offer the same stained glass activity as the one on Saturday.
Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities on the third weekend of the month.
The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at .
Leave a Reply