To celebrate Warren County’s Bicentennial the Chapman Museum in Glens Falls is partnering with the Warren County Clerk’s Records Center to feature an exhibit of rare manuscripts, maps and legal documents, many of which date back to the early days of the county.
Parchments, Papers & Prints: 200 Years of History from the Warren County Archives will be on display at the museum, located at 348 Glen Street, Glens Falls, NY through September 1.
Tom Lynch, who served as Warren County Records Manager from 2004 to 2012, is guest curator of the exhibit. Of the thousands of documents stored at the Records Center he selected sixty five that represent a sampling of the types of records that the county has kept over the past 200 years and now preserves. This public program was funded by grants from Warren County, the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation and the Waldo T. Ross & Ruth S. Ross Charitable Trust Foundation.
The exhibit features such items as the 1774 Land Grant for the Robert Kennedy Patent, the 1813 naturalization application of Elizabeth Norman, the 1820 pension application of Revolutionary War veteran Philaster Pinney, and the Field Book of the Essex & Warren County Line, a survey undertaken in 1844. Also included are appointments by governors Clinton, Seward and Tompkins, an early map of Caldwell, Civil War enrollment books, jury rosters, a Firemen’s Exemption certificate from 1872, and the County Almshouse register.
There is an 1848 school report from Johnsburg and an 1863 Vital Records report for Stony Creek. One also will find a computer display of early 20th century photographs of public works projects undertaken throughout the county. These provide glimpses of the Warren County landscape almost 100 years ago.
Related Programs
To complement the exhibit the Chapman Museum will present a series of programs in collaboration of the Crandall Public Library’s Center for Folklife, History & Cultural Programs. The programs will take place in the Crandall Library Community Room.
Thursday, May 9th, 7 pm
Performance: The War of 1812: Songs & Stories from NY
Musician Dave Ruch has dug deeply into archival recordings, diaries, old newspapers and other historical manuscripts to unearth a wealth of rarely-heard music which, alongside some of the classics from the war, offers a rounded and fascinating picture of this “second war of independence.”
Thursday, May 23rd, 7 pm
Talk: Glens Falls, the Adirondacks & the Photography of Richard Dean
Hailed as the “dean of Adirondack photographers”, Richard Dean produced thousands of pictures of resort villages, hotels, lodges, stores, restaurants, tourist attractions and people. His grandson and Adirondack photographer, Mark Bowie, will present many of Mr. Dean’s classic images from the 1950’s and ’60’s, with personal anecdotes of the man behind the lens.
Thursday, June 6, 7 pm
Talk: Behind the Scenes: Intriguing Stories from the Warren County Archives
As Warren County Records Manager from 2004 to 2012, Tom Lynch organized many thousands of governmental records. In the process he gained a familiarity with the unique and fascinating stories to be found in the county’s archives. For this program he will present some of his favorites and talk about their significance to the county’s history.
The Chapman Museum, located at 348 Glen Street, Glens Falls, is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm; and Sunday, noon to 4 pm. For more information call (518) 793-2826 or go to www.chapmanmuseum.org. To learn about other Warren County Bicentennial activities go to http://warrenny200.org/.
Illustration: Map of Warren County (Asher and Adams Atlas, 1871); courtesy Harvest of History.
im inquiring about mr. deans photography, I live in the Adirondacks trying to locate my biological father back in 1966 in the summer he worked at a ranch called love valley ranch it would have been on east Schroon river road off of diamond point road were my mother used to live she doesn’t want me to know anything about him I asked her once and she got upset and said your dad now is your real dad but my grandmother told me the whole story and so did my great aunt just want to find out if there were any photos of that dude ranch maybe there would be a photo of my mother and him. thank you sincerely jerri marie wood.
Richard Dean’s grandson, Mark Bowie has contact information about Dean Studios on his website. Plug this address into your browser: http://www.markbowie.com/dean
As related on that web page, Dick’s son-in-law Everett Bowie and daughter Wendy Chitty continue to operate Dean Studios from Lewis New York – probably not far from your location. You can still purchase prints from them of any image they have on record. I was fortunate to visit the Dean Studios in 2006 while they were still located on Philo Avenue in Glens Falls. I recall bookshelves full of photo albums and indexes to browse through. Contact Everett and Wendy to discuss your options for continuing your search.
Good Luck!