History, Natural History & the Arts
William T. (Chip) Reynolds, Director, New Netherland Museum and Captain, Replica Ship Half Moon has announced that volunteer crew are needed to move the Half Moon from its winter berth at King Marine, in Verplanck, NY, to Peckham Wharf, Athens, NY from April 9 to 11th.
This will be the first shake down cruise of the season as the ship is moved to Peckham Wharf in Athens for outfitting. [Read more…] about Replica Ship Half Moon Seeks Volunteer Crew
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site will present “Remember the Ladies: Women Artists of the Hudson River School”, believed to be the first exhibition ever to focus solely on women artists associated with the 19th century landscape painting movement. The exhibition, which opens on May 8, 2010 is co-curated by Jennifer C. Krieger, of Hawthorne Fine Art in Manhattan and Nancy Siegel, Associate Professor of Art History at Towson University, Towson, MD. [Read more…] about Celebrating Women of the Hudson River School
The entry deadline for the 2010 Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region Juried Exhibition, which will be held at The Hyde Collection this fall, is Friday, March 26, 2010. [Read more…] about Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region Deadline Near
The Olana New York State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark, and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Hudson Valley and upstate New York has announced a series of upcoming events.
Named for a fortress treasure-house in ancient Persia, Olana was the home of Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), one of America’s most important artists, a student of Thomas Cole, and a major figure in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Olana stands high on a hill near Hudson, New York and offers sweeping vistas of the Catskill Mountains, the Hudson River and the Taconic Hills.
Family Tour at Olana
Saturday, March 13, 11:30AM
Explore the house, its paintings and treasures from a child’s perspective. Tours are geared for families with 6-12 year olds, but all ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Reservations are required by 4PM the preceding Friday. Call (518) 828-0135 for information. $9/adult; $8/students and seniors, free for children under 12 and members of The Olana Partnership.
First Spring Weekend Hike
Sunday, March 21, 1PM
Celebrate the first weekend of spring (and the Vernal Equinox) by getting outside for a little fresh air. Pre-registration required by 4PM the Wednesday preceding. Dress for the weather and meet in front of the Visitor Center.
Local Flora and Fauna: Nature Photography
Monday, March 22, 10AM-12PM
Larry Federman, Assistant Warden/Educator for Audubon New York’s Rheinstrom Hill, Buttercup Farm, RamsHorn-Livingston Audubon Centers and Sanctuaries offers this exciting lecture on the flora and fauna of our community. In the course of daily routines, Larry always has a camera with him at Audubon sites; now you can too discover the plants and animals that call these sanctuaries home through his incidental photos. After the presentation we’ll head out for a landscape walk; bring your binoculars and cameras! Children sized binoculars and sketch pads will be available for borrow. Come out and capture the first of spring. All ages. Free. Meet at Olana’s Wagon House Education Center. Register: codonnell@olana.org or (518) 828-1872 ext. 110.
Green Gardening
Friday, March 26, 2-4PM
Spring is almost here! Watch your own kitchen garden grow: come to Olana’s farm complex to create your own fairy garden to bring home. Plant herb, vegetable and/or flower seeds in recyclable/re-used containers and then decorate your garden pots with art supplies inspired by Olana. Ages 3-5 and their caregivers. Free. Register: codonnell@olana.org or call (518) 828-1872 x110.
Family Tour at Olana
Saturday, March 27, 11:30AM
Explore the house, its paintings and treasures from a child’s perspective. Tours are geared for families with 6-12 year olds, but all ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Reservations are required by 4PM the preceding Friday. Call (518) 828-0135 for information. $9/adult; $8/students and seniors, free for children under 12 and members of The Olana Partnership.
Landscape Yoga
Sunday, March 28, 3-4PM
Does your New Year’s resolution include time for well-being? Nourish body and soul this winter in our education center that has radiant floor heating! This gentle yoga class will bring the inspiring picturesque landscape views inside, celebrating the spirituality of nature. Yoga instructor Ed Sisk from the Yoga With Ed studio in Hudson, NY will provide mats and modification tools, or you are welcome to bring your own. $10/adult; $5/member. Space is limited. Register: (518).828.1872 x110.
April Fools Olana!
Thursday, April 1 – Sunday, April 4
Tours at 11AM, 1PM and 3PM daily
Olana’s been pranked! Objects that just don’t fit in are scattered throughout the house, some better hidden than others. Bring the family and see who has the sharpest eye. Admission is free for members of The Olana Partnership. $9/adult; $8/students and seniors, free for children under 12. Standard tours available on the hour and half hour except for the times listed above. Call (518) 828-0135 for information.
FIRST FRIDAYS SERIES:
April 2 (Also May 7, June 4)
Easy Tai chi, 10:00AM-12PM
Tap into the spirituality of nature (like a Hudson River School artist but without the paint)! Tai chi is a mind-body practice that originated in China as a martial art. The body moves slowly and gently, while breathing deeply and meditating. Many practitioners believe that Tai chi helps the flow throughout the body of a proposed vital energy called qi, increasing our wellness. Join John Middlebrooks (Omega Institute) as he guides you in this intro class. Classes will meet at the education center; if weather permits we will practice out in the landscape that day. Please attend all three classes as they go in sequence and allow time for practice. Space is limited; register by the preceding Thursday: codonnell@olana.org; (518)828- 1872×110. Wagon House Education Center/Farm Complex. Adults. Free.
Visual Arts Workshop, 1-3PM
Retired? Ready to finally explore your love of art? It is never too late! Adults with little or no formal art training will realize that creating art can be accomplished through a variety of materials and techniques. Create a work of art in a safe setting with new friends, providing a personal sense of accomplishment and ownership. Wagon House Education Center/Farm Complex. Adults (50+). Free. Register: codonnell@olana.org or (518) 828-1872 x110.
MyStory in History: Contemporary Art in a Historical World, 4-5PM
Use the life of Frederic Church and his home, Olana, as inspiration, to take a new look at the world. In this mixed media after school drop-off art class lead by local art teacher Claudia Brehse, you will begin to think about the importance of art as a form of communication, about the “message of the medium” and why people collect and create art. Students will work in the studio to create the newest history- the history of you. Great for homeschoolers or teen art club members. Register: codonnell@olana.org or (518) 828-1872 x110.
Landscape Yoga, 5:30-6:30PM
This gentle yoga class will bring the inspiring picturesque landscape views inside. Celebrate the spirituality of nature with yoga instructor Ed Sisk from the Yoga With Ed studio in Hudson, NY. Mats and modification tools will be provided; you are welcome to bring your own. Space is limited. Free. Register: codonnell@olana.org or (518).828.1872×110.
Educator Tour
Tuesday, April 6, 10am
Join area educators for a tour with Olana’s Director of Education. Discussion will include history as well as practical application, and participants are invited to sit down together after the tour to discuss content and classroom applications. Educator resources will be available. Reservations are required by 4pm Monday, April 5th. Regular tour rates apply, $9/adult, $8 student/senior. Call 518.828.0135 to reserve a space.
The USS Slater, located in the Hudson River north of the Port of Albany is preparing to begin their 13th season. Each year they hire 6-8 part-time tour guides who learn the history and technology of World War II with “on-the-job” training from veterans, as well as from experts in historic ship preservation. Guides have an opportunity to improve their “people” skills by interacting with a variety of age groups on a daily basis; the
hours are flexible.
For an application, contact Business Manager Rosehn Gipe at info@ussslater.org or by
phone at 518-431-1943.
In a unique collaboration, the New York Council for the Humanities has joined forces with the Senate House State Historic Site, in uptown Kingston, to offer “Reading Between the Lines: Cultural Crossroads at the Hudson River Valley,” a free reading and discussion series that runs from March through July 2010, meeting on Saturday afternoons once a month.
Reading Between the Lines is designed to promote lively, informed conversation about humanities themes and strengthen the relationship between humanities institutions and the public. Reading Between the Lines series are currently being held in communities across New York State.
At Senate House, the discussion leader will be A.J. Williams-Myers, Professor of Black Studies at the State University of New York, New Paltz. He will lead discussions of each series book: Les Sauvages Américains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Literature, by Gordon M. Sayre; Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson River Valley, by Judith Richardson; The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in 17th Century North America, edited by David Alan Greer; and Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African American Presence in the Hudson River Valley to the Early Twentieth Century, by A.J. Williams-Myers. All books are loaned to participants.
In addition to the book discussions, Senate House staff will offer a brief presentation of a related artifact or document from the site’s collections at the end of each session, so that participants can get a taste of the site’s historical treasures.
For more information about Reading Between the Lines: Cultural Crossroads at the Hudson River Valley visit www.nyhumanities.org/discussion_groups.
More enigmatic than they should be in this late age, even among historians of New York, the Munsee are less known than the story for which they are best known – the purchase of Manhattan Island for veritable pittance in 1626. One reason the Munsee (a northern sub-set of sorts of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware, as they were called by Europeans) have been ignored by historians is their rather early refugee status by the 1740s.
Anthropologist Robert S. Grumet’s The Munsee Indians: A History attempts to paint a portrait of the Munsee, whose territory stretched form the lower Hudson River Valley to the headwaters of the Delaware, as an Indian Nation in their own right. Previous histories, particularly those of the Lenape, have generally ignored the important role of the Munsee.
Grumet marshals archeological, anthropological and archival evidence to bring to life the memorial lives of Mattano, Tackapousha, Mamanuchqua, and other Munsee leaders who helped shape the course of American history in the mid-Atlantic before the American Revolution. The Musee emigrated to reservations in Wisconsin, Ontario, and Oklahoma where their descendants live to this day.
Grumet is the senior research associate at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Historic Contact: Indian People and Colonists in Today’s Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries.
The Munsee Indians: A History is part of the Civilization of the American Indian Series by the University of Oklahoma Press.
“Bon Appétit: Food and Dining in the Hudson Valley,” a conference organized by the Great Estates Consortium, will be held on Saturday, March 20, 2010 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the Roosevelt Library and Home.
Bon Appétit, which celebrates the rich history of food in the Hudson Valley, has been planned to coincide with Hudson Valley Restaurant Week 2010. This fourth annual event will take place between March 15 – 28, and will showcase this scenic New York State region as a premier culinary destination.
Heidi Hill, Historic Site Manager of Crailo and Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site, will open the conference by exploring 17th century food. Using Dutch genre paintings paired with archaeological evidence, Dutch documents and 17th century artifacts from New Netherland and Indian lands, the speaker will illuminate the colorful and sometimes surprising daily life of both the colonists and Native Americans through the foods they ate and their table and cook ware.
Valerie Balint, Associate Curator at Olana State Historic Site will explore evolving mid-century dining tastes and trends using Olana and the daily practices of the Church family as an example. Drawing upon primary source materials from the museum’s collections Ms. Balint will focus on issues relating to emerging ideals about etiquette, domesticity and cosmopolitanism. In particular, she will examine the increased emphasis, even in middle-class homes on formalized table settings, exotic foods and elaborate floral decor.
After a brief coffee break Frank Futral, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, will explore the food customs of millionaires during the Gilded Age. Mr. Futral will be followed by Melodye Moore, Historic Site Manager at Staatsburgh State Historic Site. Ms. Moore will explore the behind-the-scenes work of the 24 domestic servants that needed to take place in order to present a “Dinner of Ceremony” in a Gilded Age mansion. The as yet unrestored servants’ quarters of Staatsburgh will illustrate where much of this work took place.
Lunch will be provided by Gigi Hudson Valley and will feature local food. Laura Pensiero, RD chef/owner, Gigi Hudson Valley, will introduce the lunch and share with the participants how she uses local farm products for her business and the current state of farming in Dutchess County.
Following lunch conference attendees will have the opportunity to visit participating Great Estates where they will be given an opportunity to engage in special food related tours and activities. Each site will pair with a restaurant offering visitors a Hudson Valley treat. While there is no additional cost for visits to the historic sites, participants must pre-register for the sites they expect to visit.
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site – Servants To Stewards tour. Guests are assigned the character of a servant and learn about their role in the running of the household. This tour requires climbing 74 stairs and is not handicap accessible. Comfortable shoes are strongly recommended. Following the tour Twist Restaurant of Hyde Park will provide attendees with a Hudson Valley treat.
Staatsburgh State Historic Site – Visit the “downstairs” rooms of the mansion that until recently had served as offices for the employees of the Taconic Region of the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. These rooms, including the kitchen, the sculleries, the pastry room, the Butler’s office and the male servant’s bedrooms, will soon be restored by the Friends of Mills Mansion. Leave with a special treat that might have been enjoyed by the servants from Terrapin Restaurant of Rhinebeck, New York.
Locust Grove Estate – You’ll have the chance to tour, in-depth, the kitchen, cook’s bedroom, dining room, and butler’s pantry at the historic Poughkeepsie estate. Learn more about service “below stairs” in a wealthy Hudson Valley home, and how the family upstairs expected their staff to cope with day-to-day living. You’ll also step behind-the-scenes into the china room – not usually open during tours. After your tour, enjoy a special treat from Babycakes Café in Poughkeepsie with Locust Grove’s Director.
Clermont State Historic Site – At Home with the Livingstons: A mansion tour highlighting the historic 1930s kitchen and dining room. View the cook books and secret family recipes of Alice Clarkson Livingston. Learn what quirk of Livingston dining etiquette irked the butler. Enjoy an exclusive look at the 19th century kitchen that nourished the Chancellor’s daughter, Margaret Maria and her family. Take away a scrumptious treat from Tivoli Bread and Baking in Tivoli, New York.
Space is limited, and meals and refreshments are included in the conference fee, so pre-registration is strongly recommended. The $60 per person registration fee includes coffee/tea in the morning, luncheon catered by Gigi Hudson Valley and afternoon Great Estates site tours. For additional information please call (845) 889-8851.
Conference attendees are encouraged to dine at fixed prices in nearby restaurants and stay in local hotels offering special rates for Restaurant Week. More information is available at www.hudsonvalleyrestaurantweek.com. For information on nearby Dutchess County restaurants go here. For information regarding lodging specials there is a pdf here.
Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz is known for its unique architecture and for the preservation of the houses built by the community’s founding families. On Saturday, Huguenot Street continues its Second Saturday’s Lecture Series with a lecture by Rob Sweeney, local historian and old house enthusiast, titled “Early Hearths of the Hudson Valley.”
The talk will begin at 7pm on Saturday, February 13th in Deyo Hall, which is located on Broadhead Avenue between Chestnut and Huguenot Streets in downtown New Paltz. There is a $7 charge per person ($5 for Friends of Historic Huguenot Street). Refreshments will follow Sweeney’s talk. In the case of inclement weather, the talk will be postponed to February 20th.
Rob Sweeney is a board member of Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture, the historian for the Town of Ulster and the owner of the Benjamin Ten Broeck House, a stone house built in 1751. His presentation will trace the evolution of the “jambless fireplace,” a style that dates to medieval Europe and which can be found in the houses of Historic Huguenot Street, to the popularity of the “Rumford Fireplace” of the early 19th century. Sweeney will also explore the role of tradition over comfort among the residents within the region.
Historic Huguenot Street (HHS), located on the banks of the Wallkill River, is where small group of French-speaking Huguenots settled in 1678. Today, just steps from downtown New Paltz, the site features seven stone houses dating to 1705, a burying ground and a reconstructed 1717 stone church – all in their original village setting. HHS offers six acres of landscaped green space and public programming to the local community and visitors from around the world.
“It’s a prime example of American folk art, probably one of the best collections of decorated stoneware in the country,” is how John Scherer, Historian Emeritus of the New York State Museum characterized the Weitsman Stoneware Collection. The over 200-piece collection was donated to the museum by Adam J. Weitsman, one of the leading collectors of 18th and 19th Century stoneware.
Forty unique vessels from the collection titled Art for the People: Decorated Stoneware from the Weitsman Collection are currently on exhibit at the Albany museum’s New York Metropolis Gallery. The show was recently extended due to popular demand through the summer of 2010. “We are delighted with this collection. It attracts a lot of visitors to the museum. They are very, very impressed and almost overwhelmed by the quality of the collection,” said Scherer.
The exhibition features decorated stoneware vessels, including jugs, crocks, pitchers, jars and water coolers. The designs are considered premier examples of American folk art. Most were created in New York State and many are “presentation pieces,” oversized and often richly decorated with cobalt blue designs and folk art illustrations. Decoration tools, early pottery related graphics and photography complement the exhibit.
After the exhibition, it will become a permanent part of the New York State Museum. The collection is also the subject of a color, coffee-table format book being published by the museum that will be released this spring. The book is being funded by the generosity of Mr. Weitsman.
“We had a few important pieces of stoneware, but nowhere near the quality that Adam donated. The Weitsman Collection is supreme,” said Scherer.
Adam Weitsman collected his first piece of stoneware in 1980 at age 11 and the experience sparked his passion for the genre. Since then he acquired rare pieces at antique shows, estate sales and auctions. One example was a water cooler decorated with a portrait of a Civil War general and his wife. He purchased it at auction for $88,000 which set a record price for American stoneware at the time.
In 1996, Weitsman donated 100 pieces to the museum to ensure his collection would be preserved. From those and pieces acquired subsequently, 40 were carefully selected for the current exhibition. Most have never been publicly displayed.
Stoneware was vitally important to the development of New York State and its central role in western expansion of the country via the Hudson River, the Erie Canal and its network of feeder canals, and through the Great Lakes to the western river systems. Stoneware was in high demand for storage and preservation for things like drinking water, milk, butter, eggs, beer, ale, whisky, pickles and salted meat. Clay deposits ideal for making stoneware were found in what is now South Amboy, New Jersey, lower Manhattan and eastern Long Island. As a result, New York State became a large stoneware producer.
Potters sprang up along the Hudson River and throughout the New York State canal system making vessels of various shapes and sizes. During kiln firing, salt was applied to vessels that combined with clay silica to create a smooth, lustrous finish. Chocolate brown Albany Slip, named for where the clay was mined, was used to coat the insides of vessels. To identify or decorate the vessel, a painter applied a metallic oxide clay slip that turned a rich blue when fired. Sometimes manganese that turned purplish-brown was used. Simple identification included the makers’ mark and the vessel’s capacity. Elaborate designs and highly creative illustrations such as those found in the Weitsman Collection represent the sublime expression of this folk art period.
Historically significant of examples of stoneware from the Weitsman Collection include:
A Jar made by Paul Cushman of Albany in 1809–Weitsman acquired it from the personal collection of PBS’ Antique Road Show host Leigh Keno.
A Jug created by William Lundy & Co. of Troy, New York in the 1820s that depicts cobalt blue caricature of a merman, a male version of mermaid.
Crocks displaying a prancing zebra and a camel were inspired by the traveling circuses of the era.
A Jug displaying a fisherman with a pole on a lake signed Nathan Clark, Lyons, NY.
A Crock decorated with a Dutch or German-style church with a gambrel roof and round tower and a weather cock, signed W. A. Maquoid, Little West 12th Street, New York City.
A two-gallon crock made by Charles W. Braun of Buffalo around 1870 is decorated with what appears to be a caricature of Buffalo Bill.
A humorous long-necked gooney bird on a six-gallon water cooler made by M. Woodruff of Cortland, New York around 1860. It was acquired from the collection of Donald Shelley, former director of the Henry Ford Museum.
A highly decorated five-gallon water cooler came from the famous George S. McKearin Collection. It was created by Julius and Edward Norton of Bennington, Vermont and shows three types of decoration commonly associated with potters at Bennington, Troy and Fort Edward, New York.
One of the rarest is a six-gallon crock made by Nathan Clark & Co. of Rochester, New York in about 1845. Decorated with the mythical phoenix firebird, it was rendered in such detail that it has a three-dimensional quality.
“I emphasized to Adam how important his collection was and how important it is to New York State. He not only donated it, but also acquires new pieces every year to add to it which is wonderful for us,” Scherer concluded.
While not engaged in collecting stoneware and fine art, Mr. Weitsman is busy with his other passion as President of Upstate Shredding LLC. With numerous locations, Upstate is the largest privately owned metal processing and recycling operation on the East Coast.
Photo: Two-Gallon Jug, (c. 1815) by Israel Seymour (1784-1852) of Troy, New York. The finely incised figure of an American Indian decorates this early ovoid jug. He carries a sword in one hand and a banner with the letter T (for temperance) in the other. Some intricately decorated stoneware pieces commemorate special events and historical figures. The Indian is believed to be Handsome Lake (c. 1734-1815), the Seneca religious prophet who in 1799 began to tell his people to refrain from drinking and doing evil.