History, Natural History & the Arts
The Shaker Museum in Chatham, NY has announced the Claudia Gould has been named Executive Director.
“Claudia is a dynamic leader with years of strategic experience at some of our nation’s most well-regarded cultural institutions, most recently the Jewish Museum in New York City,” chair of the museum’s Board of Directors Paul Cassidy said in an email announcing the selection. [Read more…] about Shaker Museum Names New Executive Director
Shaker Museum, which stewards the most comprehensive collection of Shaker material culture and archives, held a groundbreaking celebration to mark the commencement of the construction phase on its new museum home in downtown Chatham, Columbia County, NY.
The new facility will exhibit more than 18,000 pieces of Shaker material culture and was designed by Selldorf Architects, the design firm behind the enhancement and expansion of The Frick Collection and the National Gallery in London. [Read more…] about Shaker Museum Breaks Ground on New Chatham Facility
From the Hudson to the Taconics: An Ecological and Cultural Field Guide to Columbia County, New York (Black Dome Press, 2024) written by Anna Duhon, Gretchen Stevens, Claudia Knab-Vispo and Conrad Vispo with the support of The Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program and Hudsonia features 36 discreet natural habitats in the Hudson Valley’s Columbia County and is beautifully illustrated with over 750 full-color photographs, maps, graphs, tables, and charts. [Read more…] about A Cultural & Ecological Field Guide to Columbia County, NY
Shaker Museum will open a new library, archive, and administrative facility at 29 Jones Avenue in Chatham, Columbia County, NY, thanks to a donation from longtime Shaker Museum supporter Jack Shear. [Read more…] about New Home Planned for Shaker Museum’s Library, Archives and Admin Office
The Hudson River Valley Greenway (HRVG) released the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail 2023 Trail Use Report. The report includes visitation numbers to eight different trail sections on the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail (AHET) from 2022 to 2023 using automated counters to count users and a visual trail use survey to analyze user types. [Read more…] about Albany-Hudson Electric Trail 2023 Trail Use Report Released
The 128th New York Infantry Regiment was a volunteer regiment from Columbia and Dutchess Counties during the American Civil War. Formed in Hudson, New York, on September 5, 1862, by Colonel David S. Cowles, the regiment fought at the Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana and was part of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
Over the course of the war, many of the regiment died or were taken prisoner and sent to the infamous Confederate Libby Prison. Colonel Cowles died with many of his men in battle at Port Hudson, while attempting to reopen the Mississippi River to the Union . [Read more…] about The 128th NY Regiment & Columbia County Contributions to the Union Army
Seth Wheeler was born in Chatham, Columbia County, NY on May 18th, 1838 to a successful and affluent family. His father, Alonzo Wheeler, owned Wheeler, Melick & Co. one of the foremost manufacturers of agricultural equipment; his mother was Harriet Hatch Wheeler. At the time, agriculture was the foremost industry supporting the Upstate New York economy and demand for agricultural equipment was strong. Begun in 1830, Wheeler, Melick & Co. moved to Albany in 1849. [Read more…] about Albany’s Seth Wheeler: Inventor of Modern Toilet Paper
The Hudson River Valley Greenway (HRVG) has released the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail 2022 Trail Use Report. HRVG constructed and operates the Albany–Hudson
Electric Trail (AHET), a 36–mile recreational “rail trail” in Rensselaer and Columbia Counties.
The report includes visitation numbers to four different trail sections on the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail (AHET) using automated counters to count users and a visual trail use survey to analyze user types. [Read more…] about Albany-Hudson Electric Trail 2022 Use Report
Bordered by the Hudson River and the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, few know Columbia County is noted for a mastodon tooth that rolled down a farmer’s hill in Claverack changing the world’s understanding of prehistoric times.
President Martin Van Buren lost his wife, Hannah, in Kinderhook and hardly mentioned her again. Hudson’s gallows were the scene of New York’s last hanging, as hundreds of ticket holders looked on. “Pondshiners” in the hills of Taghkanic made fantastic baskets.
Local author Allison Guertin Marchese explores these little-known stories of people and places in
Hidden History of Columbia County, New York (History Press, 2014). [Read more…] about Hidden History of Columbia County, NY
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