History, Natural History & the Arts
Before the first dinosaurs, before the first mammals, just as the very first forests were beginning to form on Earth, the land that makes up New York State today was covered by an ancient ocean.
It was a tropical landscape located south of the equator, home to the world’s first true forests, which played a pivotal role in cooling the Earth’s climate by drawing down carbon dioxide. [Read more…] about Once Ancient Oceans: How Geology Shaped New York Waterways
Friends of Historic Kingston is a volunteer membership organization founded in 1965 to support the preservation of the Kingston community’s historic and architecturally significant places. The group fulfills this mission through guided walking tours, educational programming, preservation advocacy, and annual exhibits. [Read more…] about Friends of Historic Kingston: 60 Years of Historic Preservation Activism
Hosted by the Sailing School at Hudson River Maritime Museum and Kingston Sailing Club, the Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference will be held in-person, on land at the Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY on Sat., March 29, 2025.
Dawn Riley, the youngest and only woman named to the National Sailing Hall of Fame and the international America’s Cup Hall of Fame, will speak at a pre-conference event on Friday, March 28th, that is free and open to the public. [Read more…] about Sailing Pioneer Dawn Riley at Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference in Kingston
The Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY, will host a guided walking tour of the community’s rich waterfront maritime and industrial history on Saturday, November 30, 2024, beginning at 3 pm. [Read more…] about Kingston Waterfront Industrial History Walking Tour
African Americans played a vital role both before and after slavery as skilled captains and boatmen on the Hudson River. Built circa 1870 to carry lumber, Little Martha was captained by African American Clint Williams and his two brothers. [Read more…] about Little Martha: An African American Captained Hudson River Scow Sloop
In 1825, during the building of the Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Canal from the coal fields of Pennsylvania to the Hudson River at Rondout, it was discovered that a local rock unit could be used to manufacture a high-quality natural cement. Thus began the Rosendale, Ulster County, NY, natural cement industry which lasted up until the last mine closed in Rosendale in 1970. [Read more…] about Rosendale Cement Industry Geology & History
In August of 1839, the Cuban ship, La Amistad was captured in Montauk, Long Island, from there, New Yorkers were heavily involved in the fight for freedom for the kidnapped Africans aboard the ship. [Read more…] about Replica Slave Ship Amistad in Kingston August 3-7th
The Hudson River Maritime Museum is presenting a new exhibition,”Working Waterfronts,” a retrospective of the paintings of the late maritime artist Peter K. Eagleton. His strikingly vibrant and carefully composed paintings celebrate the world of working waterfronts and the graceful shapes of freighters, tugs, ships, lighters, yard oilers, and tankers that plied the waters of New York Harbor. [Read more…] about Working Waterfronts Paintings Exhibit at Hudson River Maritime Museum
The Buffalo Maritime Center will be launching the full-scale operational traditionally-built plank-on-frame replica of the Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief, which opened the Erie Canal in 1825. Completed after four years of construction, the 73-foot long, 44 ton vessel will be launched at Canalside (Erie Canal Harbor), the recreation of the western terminus of the Erie Canal. [Read more…] about Erie Canal Boat Replica ‘Seneca Chief’ Launching May 7th
The canal boat Seneca Chief was built in 1825 in anticipation of the completion of the Erie Canal‘s western section.
It famously carried Governor DeWitt Clinton and other dignitaries to the city of New York in the fall of 1825 to celebrate the completion of the Canal. [Read more…] about In 1825 Buffalo’s Seneca Chief Opened the Erie Canal in NYC
We are barely three weeks into January and already storms have reeked havoc and caused major damage to many Hudson River waterfront communities and businesses — the Hudson River Maritime Museum included. The museum’s yard and waterfront, and, more significantly, the Wooden Boat School were flooded as a result of the storm surge and rising water levels. [Read more…] about Hudson River Maritime Museum Hit By Flooding
New York State was once one of the great brick making centers of the world, with scores of brickyards on both sides of the Hudson River.
Countless mansions, houses, schools, and factory buildings were built from Hudson River bricks, whose legacy can also be found in piles of reject bricks found along the shoreline today. Many of these bricks were molded with the name of the brickyard owner or company. [Read more…] about Bricks and Brick Ruins of the Hudson Valley
Rondout in Ulster County, NY, is located on the Hudson River at the mouth of Rondout Creek. Originally a maritime village, the arrival of the Delaware and Hudson Canal helped create a city that dwarfed nearby Kingston. [Read more…] about A Roundout, Delaware & Hudson Canal History Boat Tour
The following text is an except from Fifteen Minutes around New York by George G. Foster (New York: DeWitt & Davenport 1854) and was transcribed by George A. Thompson of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
It was very warm — a sort of sultry, sticky day, which makes you feel as if you had washed yourself in molasses and water, and had found that the chambermaid had forgotten to give you a towel. The very rust on the hinges of the Park gate has melted and run down into the sockets, making them creak with a sort of ferruginous lubricity, as you feebly push them open. The hands on the [New York] City Hall clock droop, and look as if they would knock off work if they only had sufficient energy to get up a strike. The omnibus horses creep languidly along, and yet can’t stand still when they are pulled up to take in or let out passengers — the flies are so persevering, so bitter, so hungry. [Read more…] about A Stroll in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1854
The Hudson River Maritime Museum has announced the sixth annual Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference (RWSC) is set to kick off on Friday, March 24th in Kingston, NY. Co-sponsored by the Kingston Sailing Club, the RWSC welcomes women and people who have not traditionally been able to learn to sail into the maritime community and offers them opportunity to grow and improve their sailing skills. [Read more…] about Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference in Kingston
The newest collection of Hudson River Maritime Museum material on the New York Heritage website are steamboat images from the Tracey Irving Brooks photograph collection.
Tracey Irving Brooks was a professional quality photographer based in the Capitol Region of New York State. Born in 1888, Brooks photographed Hudson River steamboats during the first half of the 1900s. The collection covers an extensive variety of steamboats on the upper portion of the Hudson River. [Read more…] about Hudson River Steamboat Images Go Online
The Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston will host a “Celebration of Woodworking,” event on Saturday, October 1st.
The event will include artisans and craftspeople sharing their woodworking skills with the public, youth activities, build-your-own demonstrations, the Kingston Boat Building Challenge and more. [Read more…] about Hudson River Maritime Museum Hosting Celebration of Woodworking
The Hudson River Maritime Museum has an extensive collection of oral histories interviews of Hudson River commercial fisherman, including Edward Hatzmann, who was recorded on April 25th, 1992.
Hatzmann recalled a story told to him by fellow fisherman Charlie Rohr, about a prison break from Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. [Read more…] about Sing Sing Prison Break: A Hudson River Fishing Tale
On October 7, 1665, a peace treaty was signed between the indigenous Esopus people (the Ramapough Munsee Lunaape Nation / Ramapough Lenape Nation) and European settlers in what is now Ulster County, NY. The treaty brought to a close hostilities between the two parties that had begun in 1659, known as the Esopus Wars. [Read more…] about Ulster County, Ramapough Lenape Renewing 1665 Esopus Treaty
The Hudson River Maritime Museum (HRMM) has announced “A New Age of Sail,” a new exhibit examining the history of sailing cargo vessels on the Hudson River, from the 17th century until their decline in the mid-20th century, and how the lessons of that era might help us combat the challenges of climate change in the 21st century. [Read more…] about History & Future of Hudson River Sail Freight Exhibit Opens Sunday
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