The Time and the Valleys Museum in the Catskills, has announced a virtual program The Story of New Netherland: Dutch Colony 1624 – 1664, set to be held on ZOOM on Sunday, July 12th, with historian and former teacher Thomas Riley of New Jersey. [Read more…] about Story of New Netherland Virtual Talk
Sullivan County
Nathaniel Sackett: Godfather of American Intelligence
On May 23, 1789, Nathaniel Sackett sent a long, rambling letter to newly inaugurated president George Washington. The letter informed Washington that Congress had denied Sackett’s proposal that he be granted federal lands in order to create a new state bounded by the Ohio, Scioto, and Muskingum Rivers and Lake Erie. [Read more…] about Nathaniel Sackett: Godfather of American Intelligence
Monticello Steamship Company
Online auction sites regularly offer a number of collectibles — postcards, brochures, tickets, even china — bearing the name and logo of the Monticello Steamship Company of San Francisco.
Most of these items offer little information about the company, and the average collector would have little reason to believe that one of the most well-known enterprises on the West Coast around the turn of the 20th Century had any connection at all to Sullivan County, NY.
But it did. [Read more…] about Monticello Steamship Company
Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell
Late in the month of January in 1840, Elnathan Sears returned home to the town of Mamakating, then part of Ulster County, NY, after an exhausting trip to Washington, D.C. There he had presented an impassioned argument to Congress in hopes of procuring the military pension he had earned as an officer in the Revolutionary War.
A few days later, on February 2, he was dead. [Read more…] about Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell
Catskills Historian John Conway Virtual Talk May 17th
The Time and the Valleys Museum have announced a virtual program, “In Further Retrospect,” with author and Sullivan County Historian, John Conway, set for Sunday, May 17th. [Read more…] about Catskills Historian John Conway Virtual Talk May 17th
Barricaded Bears In Sullivan County
On April 15, NYS Environmental Conservation Officers Glen Parker and Ricky Wood reported that they responded to a bear complaint in Rock Hill, Sullivan County.
Upon arrival, the ECOs said they found two yearling black bears stuck inside a shed. [Read more…] about Barricaded Bears In Sullivan County
Time and the Valleys Interactive K-12 Field Trips
The Time and the Valleys Museum provides two interactive field trips to immerse students in the importance of water to all life, and the history of how water has changed both the environment and our culture over thousands of years.
Guided by trained Museum educators, students handle million year old fossils and Native American artifacts, build tunnels, visit an outdoor 1930s farm with a farm house, barn, milk house and working waterwheel, experience an interactive exhibition on NYC’s water supply system, and more. [Read more…] about Time and the Valleys Interactive K-12 Field Trips
Phebe Reynolds Thwarts The Tories
James Eldridge Quinlan’s History of Sullivan County is generally regarded as one of the most thorough and entertainingly written local histories. Published in 1873, Quinlan’s history is the undisputed bible of Sullivan County’s past, and yet it is not without its shortcomings. Some have criticized what they view as his selective exclusion of material – he does not, for instance, write much about the Civil War, and it has been said that this was because he was a Copperhead, or a southern sympathizer. And each year in March, Women’s History Month, we are reminded that he afforded minimal space in his writings to the women of the era.
That makes the few women he does write about stand out even more than they might otherwise, and no woman receives greater praise from Quinlan than Phebe Reynolds Drake. [Read more…] about Phebe Reynolds Thwarts The Tories
Denning, Claryville History Afternoon in Catskills
The Annual Denning and Claryville History Afternoon at the Time and the Time and the Valleys Museum in Grahamsville in the Catskills, has been set for Sunday, September 29th.
The Museum’s rich collections of photos, records, books, oral histories and more from Claryville and the Town of Denning, which looks at the history of the Upper Neversink and Upper Rondout valleys, will be open to all visitors from 1 pm to 4 pm. [Read more…] about Denning, Claryville History Afternoon in Catskills
Time and the Valleys Museum Hoedown July 27th
An old fashioned 1930s Lost Catskill Farm Hoedown has been set for Saturday, July 27th, from 5 to 9 pm, at the Time and the Valleys Museum on State Route 55 in Grahamsville, Sullivan County.
Back in the 1930s, neighbors, family and friends shared good times socializing and dancing to live music during warm summer evenings. The Museum is inviting everyone to join with them to recreate those times at an old fashioned 1930s country hoedown. [Read more…] about Time and the Valleys Museum Hoedown July 27th