History, Natural History & the Arts
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
Macaroni Craze
During the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Londoners saw the bizarre spectacle of the so-called “macaroni craze.” Young aristocratic men who had returned home from their educational Grand Tour through Continental Europe to Italy, displayed a liking for pasta. [Read more…] about The Dutch & Flemish Roots of Yankee Doodle Dandy
In settlements along the Hudson River Valley and in Albany on the hill where the New York State Capitol sits today, enslaved and free African descendants once gathered with family and friends to celebrate Pinkster. [Read more…] about Pinkster: How A Dutch Holiday Became an African-American Cultural Celebration
Museums, museum professionals, industry partners, and legislative leaders will be recognized for their exceptional achievements at the Museum Association of New York‘s 2024 annual conference “Giving Voice to Value” in Albany from April 6 to 9, 2024. [Read more…] about Museum Association of New York’s 2024 Awards of Distinction
On Saturday, September 16, 2023, Crailo State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Crailo will present Harvest Faire, a 17th–18th century inspired agricultural faire designed to highlight the traditional fall festivals held in the Hudson River Valley throughout the colonial era. [Read more…] about Crailo State Historic Site’s Harvest Faire Set for September 16th
The Schuyler Mansion in Albany and Crailo State Historic site , across the Hudson River in Rensselaer, NY, have announced “Salutations of the Season!,” a virtual Twelfth Night celebration set for Wednesday, January 6th, 2021. [Read more…] about Schuyler Mansion, Crailo Hosting Virtual Twelfth Night Celebration
Crailo State Historic Site (also known formerly as Fort Crailo) on the Hudson River in Rensselaer, once the Van Rensselaer family’s fortified home, has reopened to the public.
[Read more…] about Fort Crailo State Historic Site Has Reopened
On Saturday January 6, 2018 Crailo State Historic Site is planned to host their annual Twelfth Night Celebration from 4 to 7 pm.
The evening will include decorations, seasonal music, seventeenth century re-enactors, games, and Hearthside cooking demonstrations. In addition the Marketplace Museum Shop will be open, with a selection of unique items. [Read more…] about Seasonal Celebrations Planned at Crailo, Schuyler Mansion
On April 22, 2017 from 11 am to 4 pm, Crailo State Historic Site will host a Pinkster celebration featuring the performance and education group, The Children of Dahomey.
Once a Dutch holiday commemorating Pentecost, Pinkster became a distinctly African American holiday in the Hudson River Valley during the colonial era. During the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved and free African Americans transformed Pinkster from a Dutch religious observance into a spring festival and a celebration of African cultural traditions. All along the Hudson River and on Albany’s “Pinkster Hill” (the current site of the NYS Capitol), enslaved African Americans reunited with family and friends and celebrated Pinkster with storytelling, food, music, and dance. Other Pinkster traditions, like the selection of the Pinkster King, created opportunities for enslaved African Americans to honor respected members of the community and to subtly mock their white enslavers. [Read more…] about Pinkster Celebration at Fort Crailo Saturday
Although it played a highly significant role in the settling and development of the Capital Region, Fort Crailo, the birthplace of “Yankee Doodle” and the manorial seat for generations for one branch of the Van Rensselaer family, remains relatively little known, even within the Capital Region itself.
Shirley W. Dunn’s new book, Fort Crailo and the Van Rensselaers: The Dutch Colonial Origins of Greenbush & the City of Rensselaer (Black Dome Press, 2016) traces the history of Crailo and the Van Rensselaers from the years leading up to the building of Fort Crailo in 1663, through the war years and through the many additions and renovations over the centuries and generations of Van Rensselaers, to the present day in its role as the museum of Dutch history in the Hudson River Valley. [Read more…] about Shirley Dunn’s Book: Fort Crailo and the Van Rensselaers
In the latest episode of the New Netherland Praatjes podcast Crailo State Historic Site Director Heidi Hill chats with Russell Shorto about the history surrounding the settlement of the 17th-century Dutch patroonship of Rensselaerswijck, the history of the building itself, and the evolution of the site as a museum. [Read more…] about Crailo Features On New Netherland Podcast
The public is invited to the opening day of Crailofest, a celebration of African culture in the New World, on April 2, 2016.
From 12:30 until 2 pm, Crailo will be open for self-guided exploration of a new exhibit A Dishonorable Trade: Human Trafficking in the Dutch Atlantic World and the permanent exhibit A Sweet and Alien Land.
Two more Crailofest days will take place on May 7 and June 4 with dramatic performances, poetry readings, stringed instrument performances, jazz, dance, art and food.
[Read more…] about Crailofest Celebrates New World African Culture
On Saturday, September 12th, Crailo State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Crailo present a Harvest Faire.
Crailo’s historic grounds and Hudson River park set the scene for the event which features both 17th and 18th century re-enactors, music, and demonstrations, as well as crafts and games for children. Among the re-enactors are 17th-century Dutch settlers, a tinsmith, a doctor and Native Americans. [Read more…] about Harvest Faire at Crailo State Historic Site
On February 22, 2015 at 1 pm Crailo State Historic Site in Rensselaer, NY will present “Peter Stuyvesant’s Guide to Style: What to Wear in the Seventeenth Century,” a lecture on the clothing of the Dutch colony of New Netherland by Anne Matusiewicz.
She will discuss the dress of the colonists as well as resources for researching and recreating their clothing. [Read more…] about 1600s Clothing: Peter Stuyvesant’s Guide to Style
Twelfth Night was one of the traditional holidays celebrated by the Dutch and English colonists of early New York. Twelfth Night was the final holiday of the season and was marked with unsurpassed feasting and revelry.
On Saturday January 10, 2015 Crailo State Historic Site in Rensselaer, NY, will welcome visitors for its annual Twelfth Night Celebration from 4 until 7 pm. [Read more…] about Twelfth Night Celebration at Crailo Historic Site
Crailo State Historic Site in the City of Rensselaer will host a St. Nicholas Day Open House on December 6, 2013 from 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm. For the Dutch settlers of this region The Feast of St. Nicholas was a day of celebration with favorite food and treats.
Children checked their shoes, left out the previous night, for presents from Sinterklaas. In Washington Irving’s History of New York (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into “Santa Claus” (a name first used in the New York press in 1773) and helped popularize today’s Christmas traditions. [Read more…] about St. Nicholas Day at Crailo Historic Site Dec 6th
Mixing food and history in a celebration of Dutch and American Christmas traditions, award-winning food historian Peter G. Rose’s new book, Delicious December: How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats: A Holiday Cookbook (Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press, 2014), provides more than one hundred tried-and-true recipes. For planning purposes, complete menus and recipes for the parties that might happen between the feast days are also provided.
Rose draws on traditions that date back to the Middle Ages as well as her own reminiscences of her native country, and she suggests many ways to incorporate these true Dutch treats into American celebrations. The public is invited to join the Friends of Fort Crailo and Crailo State Historic Site at the Rensselaer Public Library for their Annual Meeting and lecture on Sunday November 16 at 4:30 pm. After a brief business meeting, Peter Rose will present “Joyful Traditions: How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents and Treats.” [Read more…] about Peter Rose Authors New Cookbook, Crailo Event Planned
On Saturday, September 13th, Crailo State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Crailo present Harvest Faire, an outdoor event free to the public (a nominal donation is asked to enter the museum exhibit), and part of the Hudson River Ramble. In case of inclement weather, the event will be held on Sunday, September 14th. The festivities run from 11 am to 4 pm.
Crailo’s grounds set the scene for 17th- and 18th-century re-enactors, music, and demonstrations. Among the re-enactors are 17th-century Dutch settlers, a rope-maker and tinsmith, and Native Americans with a recreated wigwam. This year will also include demonstrations of wheat threshing. [Read more…] about Harvest Faire At Fort Crailo September 13th
Crailo State Historic Site has announced its annual Summer Sampler History Camp for kids. This year’s Summer Sampler takes place August 4-8 from 10 am to 12 pm each day.
Participants can pick and choose the days to attend, from just one day up to all five. Each day will include activities, crafts to take home, and a snack. Historic reproductions, interactive games and exploration of the river’s edge will bring a different theme related to Crailo and the area’s rich history to life each day: [Read more…] about Summer Sampler History Camp at Crailo
Crailo State Historic Site has announced that the historic Yankee Doodle Band will be performing in Crailo’s riverside park in Rensselaer, NY on July 10 at 7:00 pm. Bring chairs or blankets and a picnic dinner and join us for the patriotic and stirring songs of the Yankee Doodle Band as the sun sets over the Hudson River. This event is free to the public.
Organized in 1928 the Yankee Doodle Band has played all over the country from Miami to New Orleans to Hawaii. Members of the band range in age from their teens to their 90’s and will play a blend of Sousa marches, Broadway show tunes, popular hit songs, and music from the movies. [Read more…] about Yankee Doodle Band Concert at Crailo
On Saturday, May 31, 2014 Crailo State Historic Site will host a lecture by Frans Klein entitled “Rise and Fall of Dutch Tiles, 1600-1900″.
Klein is a graduate of the University of Delft and the University of Leiden with a degree in Art History. He currently owns his own business in the Netherlands and is in the United States only briefly. He is the author of Tegel ABC: Tile Tales, which will be available after his talk. The public is invited to bring Dutch tiles to the lecture, and he will date and provide information about them. [Read more…] about Lecture: Rise and Fall of Dutch Tiles, 1600-1900
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