In the latest episode of The History Twins, Carla Lynne Hall and Jim Keyes discuss Christmas traditions in Colonial New York.The ingredients of modern Christmas are believed to have started in New Netherland, the Dutch colony founded in 1625, which later became New York. [Read more…] about Christmas Traditions in Colonial New York
Washington Irving
Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse Nominated to NYS Register of Historic Places
The Columbia County Historical Society has announced the ca. 1850 Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, located on Route 9H in Kinderhook, has been nominated to the New York State Register of Historic Places after a unanimous vote by the State Board for Historic Preservation.
The nomination will now be reviewed by the National Park Service for inclusion on the National Register. A second Columbia County structure, the Harder Mill in Hudson, was also nominated. [Read more…] about Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse Nominated to NYS Register of Historic Places
Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Podcast)
The topic of this week’s The History Twins podcast is Washington Irving‘s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and storytelling duo Carla and Keyes discuss the classic 1819 tale of a headless goblin that haunts Sleepy Hollow, in the town of Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, NY, in search of his missing head. [Read more…] about Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Podcast)
Hulda of Bohemia: The Accused Witch of Sleepy Hollow
Each fall, tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York to visit the burial ground made famous in Washington Irving’s 1819 tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In Irving’s tale of “the Headless Horseman,” a German soldier is said to return to the grave-site, in search of his head that was lost during America’s Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about Hulda of Bohemia: The Accused Witch of Sleepy Hollow
Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse & Luykas Van Alen House Get Interpretive Panels
The Columbia County Historical Society (CCHS) has announced a new permanent outdoor exhibit featuring eight narrative panels set along the treeline of its rural properties on Roue 9-H: the c.1850 Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse and the 1737 Luykas Van Alen House located at 2589 Route NY-9H in the Town of Kinderhook. [Read more…] about Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse & Luykas Van Alen House Get Interpretive Panels
Andalusian Allure: From Washington Irving to Thomas Edison
Washington Irving was the son of immigrants. His father was a Presbyterian Scot, his mother Cornish. He was born on April 3rd, 1783, the same week that New Yorkers celebrated the ceasefire that ended the American Revolution. His parents named their son after George Washington. They had settled at 131 William Street, Manhattan, and were part of the city’s merchant class.
Washington began writing letters to the New York Morning Chronicle in 1802. He gained recognition as a satirical author in 1809 with A History of New York using the pseudonym Dietrich Knickerbocker. He riveted readers with his irreverent combination of fact and fancy. [Read more…] about Andalusian Allure: From Washington Irving to Thomas Edison
19th Century Hudson River, New England Travel Diaries Published
The new book The Majestic Nature of the North: Thomas Kelah Wharton’s Journeys in Antebellum America through the Hudson River Valley and New England (SUNY Press, 2019), edited by Steven A. Walton and Michael J. Armstrong, features the travel diaries of nineteenth-century artist, educator, and architect Thomas Kelah Wharton, documenting his trips in the lower Hudson River Valley and New Orleans to Boston and back. [Read more…] about 19th Century Hudson River, New England Travel Diaries Published
Historic Hudson Valley & Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an historian and writer. Some historians and biographers have called him the first great American author.
In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Michael Lord, Director of Education at Historic Hudson Valley, joins us to explore the life of Washington Irving, his home, Sunnyside, and the historic Hudson Valley region he immortalized in stories such as Diedrich Knickerbocker’s History of New York, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and “Rip Van Winkle.”
[Read more…] about Historic Hudson Valley & Washington Irving
Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow
It was once without question the best known ghost story set in Sullivan County, written by one of America’s most respected writers, and yet it is largely unknown today.
It combines detailed descriptions of the rich and bountiful beauty of this area in the 19th century with cleverly conceived ghouls as hideous as any in American literature.
It is Washington Irving’s 1838 short story “Hans Swartz: A Marvelous Tale of Mamakating Hollow” and it is still appropriate reading this Halloween season, more than 170 years after it was penned. [Read more…] about Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow
Washington Irving and the (Re)Creation of Dutch NY
The history of Kinderhook is rich with the lore of headless horsemen, love-struck schoolmasters and a sleepy small town. This is primarily due to Washington Irving, his wild imagination, and the short-story “Legends of Sleepy Hallow.”
On August 2, New York Times bestselling biographer Brian Jay Jones will speak on the life of Irving and his habit of using artistic license when it came to the history of the area. At 4:00 pm at the Kinderhook Reformed Church (21 Broad St in Kinderhook), Jones will address the historical myths plucked from Irving’s satirical history The History of New York written in 1809 in his talk, “Washington Irving and the (Re)Creation of Dutch New York” as part of the Columbia County Historical Society’s Dutch New York: Fact and Fiction lecture series. [Read more…] about Washington Irving and the (Re)Creation of Dutch NY