The Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown reopened to the public on Memorial Day Weekend with new additions and exhibits.
The lobby and ground floor rooms and halls feature the history of fishing in the Adirondacks with “Gone Fishin’,” a look at how lakes, ponds, and rivers sustained and challenged fishermen going back to the earliest inhabitants of these lands. Some of the Essex County Historical Society’s most rare fishing rods, lures and reels are on display.
The Rosenberg Gallery art show, “A Woman’s View~Recognizing Artists in the Adirondacks,” features numerous works of Adirondack women artists, including an internationally known multimedia and fiber artists, and three painters who found inspiration in such varied places as Antarctica, Labrador, and Mexico as well as the Adirondack Mountains. Exhibited in the gallery collection are works from Shirin Neshat, Cynthia Schira, Elena Borstein, Laura Von Rosk, and Linda Fisher. The Museum will host a celebration with the artists and curator, Elena Borstein, on August 6th.
Permanent exhibits, such as “Hiking in the High Peaks” and “Adirondack Suffragists,” have been expanded with additions from the Essex County Historical Society collection. The hearty and well-worn pack basket owned and carried by famed Adirondack Guide Jim Goodwin, of Keene, has been placed in the High Peaks room, along with additions to a growing collection of Adirondack 46er canisters that once marked a hiker’s ascent of each mountain over 4,000 feet.
Despite a shortened 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, museum staff remodeled various rooms and storage areas. Work progressed in cataloguing hundreds of historic items, as well as cleaning, organizing, and making improvements to better protect the collections.
The Adirondack History Museum was established inside the former Elizabethtown High School on Court Street nearly 70 years ago.
The museum recently purchased new equipment to digitize all types of images: print, negatives, film, slides, and glass lantern slides. And in this process, several well-known exhibits and educational programs were moved online for use by area schools or historical interest groups.
For more information, including a new digital exhibit, “Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks,” and a series of educational programs, visit the Adirondack History Museum website.
Photo of Jim Goodwin pack basket courtesy Adirondack History Museum.
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