Saugerties

$1.4M For Hudson River Estuary Community Projects

October 22, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced grants totaling more than $1.4 million for 23 projects to help communities along the Hudson River Estuary improve water quality and enhance environmental education and stewardship.

The announcement coincides with the 20th Annual ‘Day in the Life of the Hudson and Harbor,’ where 5,000 student scientists are gathering along the Hudson River and New York Harbor to collect data on the Hudson’s fish and invertebrates, track the river’s tides and currents, and examine water chemistry and quality. [Read more…] about $1.4M For Hudson River Estuary Community Projects

The Palatine Printer & Three Scots Behind The First Amendment

June 20, 2021 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Censorship is the official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression conceived as a threat to the sociopolitical or moral order. Attempts by the authorities to suppress freedom of the press in the American colonies were recurrent. These efforts would eventually lead to a confrontation at the Supreme Court in the case of New York v. John Peter Zenger in August 1735. [Read more…] about The Palatine Printer & Three Scots Behind The First Amendment

Impact of Music on Woodstock Culture Discussion Saturday

July 11, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Accomplished Woodstock personalities Happy Traum, Barbara Pickhardt, Gilles Malkine, Rennie Cantine and Michael Birnbaum are set to share their astute, moving and often hilarious experiences of the Woodstock music scene in a panel discussion, “The Impact of Music on Woodstock Culture,” moderated by town historian Richard Heppner, on July 13 at 12 pm. [Read more…] about Impact of Music on Woodstock Culture Discussion Saturday

Old Fashioned Independence Day at Clermont

July 2, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Clermont State Historic Site has announced an Old-Fashioned Independence Day Festival has been set for July 4th, from 2 to 10 pm.

From 2 to 6 pm, the museum will be surrounded by hands-on experiences taken from daily life of the 18th Century. Visitors will be able to sample all kinds of activities, attend polite tea parties, hear a speech by George Washington, learn Palatine cooking and see a musket firing demonstration by Revolutionary War re-enactors, as well as a chance to meet Martha Washington. [Read more…] about Old Fashioned Independence Day at Clermont

Folk Art: New Joseph Hidley Painting Comes to Light?

December 8, 2009 by Editorial Staff 6 Comments

A newly discovered piece of folk art appears to be the early work of Rensselaer County artist Joseph H. Hidley. The work, a small graphite drawing signed “Drawn by Joseph Hidley, 1841, age 11,” was purchased at a Massachusetts auction by Halsey Munson, a Decatur, Illinois a dealer in early American furniture, accessories and folk art. Although the authenticity of the piece has not yet been definitely established, it is an early townscape of the Hudson River village of Saugerties, similar in style and composition to Hidley’s other work.

Joseph Hidley’s short career is well represented in regional, state, and national museum collections. If authenticated, “Saugerties” would be the earliest known work of Hidley who painted genre scenes, religious allegories, and land and townscapes while also working as a taxidermist and house, sign, and wagon painter.

The work is remarkably similar to a portion of William Wade and William Croome’s Panorama of the Hudson River from New York To Albany, which was published in 1846. The finding suggests that Hidley may have known William Croome, and copied his work before it was published.

The first step, according to Munson, is authenticating the work. “In all of this, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time studying the published Hidley works and comparing them with the piece I have,” Munson told me via e-mail. “Even allowing for my understandable desire for this piece to be right, I’ve found enough solid points of similarity to give me quite a bit of confidence that this could easily be by Joseph Hidley.”

The image shows the first lighthouse at the mouth of the Esopus Creek at Saugerties, built in 1838 with funds appropriated from Congress, to guide ships away from nearby shallows and into the Esopus Creek when Saugerties was a major port. The light used five whale oil lamps with parabolic reflectors and was replaced in 1869, by a lighthouse that still stands. The foundation for the original lighthouse can still be seen adjacent to the existing lighthouse.

Photo provided by Halsey Munson.