New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Woodstock

3-Year-Old Lost in Adirondacks Located; Angler Rescued From Icy Waters; Rescues in Ulster, Greene Schoharie Counties

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Forest Ranger Rusher with injured hiker on Plateau Mountain in May 2023New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people.

What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about 3-Year-Old Lost in Adirondacks Located; Angler Rescued From Icy Waters; Rescues in Ulster, Greene Schoharie Counties

State Sues 29 Companies for Illegal Dumping in Ulster County; Owner Charged In Killing

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Joseph Karolys at a Saugties landfill (courtesy Mid-Hudson News)Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced a lawsuit against 29 waste haulers and brokers for illegally dumping waste at a site in Saugerties, Ulster County, owned by a man who also faces up to 25 years in state prison in the beating death of a 66-year-old excavation company owner. [Read more…] about State Sues 29 Companies for Illegal Dumping in Ulster County; Owner Charged In Killing

Joseph Pollet Self-Portrait Acquired by Woodstock Historical

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Joseph C. Pollet (1897–1979) “Self Portrait” after conservationBorn in Switzerland, Joseph C. Pollet (1897–1979) emigrated to New York City in 1911 from Albbruck, Germany. By age 21 he had a promising career as an advertising copywriter, while studying painting at the Art Students League with John Sloan, Robert Henri, and Homer Boss.

An important member of the Woodstock Art Colony, Pollet was best known for his portraits and realistic rural landscapes. He settled near Woodstock where he retained ties, even during the several years from 1954 until 1961 when he lived in Paris and Italy. In 1971, a fire destroyed nearly 150 of his paintings in his Greenwich Village studio. [Read more…] about Joseph Pollet Self-Portrait Acquired by Woodstock Historical

William Henry Arlt’s Painting ‘Flowers’ Being Conserved

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Flowers, William H. Arlt, 1949The Historical Society of Woodstock‘s goal of conserving works in need of care in its fine art collection received a boost this month when the Historical Society was awarded a grant of $2,750 to conserve an important floral still life on paper by William Henry Arlt (1868-1952).

The grant, from New York State Council on the Arts and the Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Conservation Grant Program, will be used to conserve the gouache which dates from 1949. [Read more…] about William Henry Arlt’s Painting ‘Flowers’ Being Conserved

Parisian-Style Speakeasy Salon Arts & Foodie Event in Woodstock

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Cafe de la CultureCafe de la Culture, a global community that connects artists, activists, academics and audiences through intimate, immersive literary salons, will host an immersive Speakeasy Literary Salon in the Woodstock area on Saturday, November 19th. [Read more…] about Parisian-Style Speakeasy Salon Arts & Foodie Event in Woodstock

The Doomed 1979 Hurleyville Music Festival

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Leon Greenberg in the 1970sThe weekend of August 24th to 26th in 1979 was supposed to be a significant one in Sullivan County, NY history. Plans had been made for some of the top musical acts in the business to appear at the site of the defunct and burned out Columbia Hotel in Hurleyville for a three-day festival that was envisioned as the precursor to an upscale performance venue that would have reversed the area’s sagging economic fortunes. [Read more…] about The Doomed 1979 Hurleyville Music Festival

Restored Paintings on View at the Historical Society of Woodstock

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Arnold Blanch, Portrait of Hervey White, 1926, 22 x 26 in, Oil on canvas.Two signature paintings in the permanent collection of the Historical Society of Woodstock – Arnold Blanch’s Hervey White in his Studio (1926) and Edmund Rolfe’s Landscape (1914) – have been restored and are currently displayed at the Historical Society’s Eames House Museum at 20 Comeau Drive. [Read more…] about Restored Paintings on View at the Historical Society of Woodstock

Woodstock at 50: A New Online Exhibit

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Operate a Safe Fair Pamphlet provided by NYS ArchivesThe New York State Archives has announced a new online exhibit, The Woodstock Festival, August 15th – 18th 1969 – “An Aquarian Exposition,” in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival.

The exhibit features documents from New York State Department of Health Commissioner’s Office, and highlights the role that State Government played in helping the organizers of the festival prepare for the 50,000 people that they expected to attend and the lessons that were learned from the experience. [Read more…] about Woodstock at 50: A New Online Exhibit

New Deal Idealism At Camp Woodland, Near Woodstock

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the improbable communityCamp Woodland was founded in 1939 by a group of idealists inspired by the New Deal who put American democracy into practice by creating an inclusive summer camp for city kids in the Catskills near Phoenicia, in Ulster County, NY.

Although detractors would refer to it as “Camp Red” during the McCarthy era, they helped to incubate the folk music movement in America, influenced music in Woodstock, and brought together city and rural communities through the collection and preservation of Catskills folklore and folk music. [Read more…] about New Deal Idealism At Camp Woodland, Near Woodstock

Native American Music History Program in Woodstock

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turtle whistleEvan Pritchard, best-selling Native American author and musician, is set to lead an illustrated lecture on the development of local Native American music from lithophonics to shakers, drums and flutes, on Saturday, July 27th, at noon, at the Historical Society of Woodstock. This event is free and open to the public. [Read more…] about Native American Music History Program in Woodstock