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
Crailo Historic Site
Seasonal Celebrations Planned at Crailo, Schuyler Mansion
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
Pinkster Celebration at Fort Crailo Saturday
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
Crailo Features On New Netherland Podcast
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
Crailofest Celebrates New World African Culture
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
Harvest Faire at Crailo State Historic Site
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
1600s Clothing: Peter Stuyvesant’s Guide to Style
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 Celebration at Crailo Historic Site
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
St. Nicholas Day at Crailo Historic Site Dec 6th
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
Peter Rose Authors New Cookbook, Crailo Event Planned
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