Adirondack Museum

Adirondack Museum Offers More Quilt Exhibits

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The Adirondack Museum has launched a new online exhibit, &#8220Common Threads: 150 Year of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters&#8221 that will share quilts and Adirondack quilting history. The online exhibit includes quilts, text, and historic photographs and is a companion piece to a special exhibition, also named &#8220Common Threads&#8221 that will open to the public at the Blue Mountain Lake museum on May 22, 2009.

The exhibit will include more than forty quilts: historic pieces from the Adirondack Museum’s textile collection, as well as contemporary quilts, comforters, and pieced wall hangings on loan from quilters in communities throughout the region. Demonstrations of handwork will accompany the exhibit throughout the summer. According to an Adirondack Museum announcement:

The Adirondack region has supported an active pieced-textile tradition for over a century and a half. From bedcovers, plain or fancy, meant to keep families warm through long Adirondack winters, to stunning art quilts of the twenty-first century, the quilts and comforters of the North Country mirror national trends and also tell a unique story of life in the mountains. &#8220Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters&#8221 explores the themes of women’s work, domestic life, social networks in a rural area, generational continuity among women, and women’s artistic response to life in the Adirondacks.

&#8220Common Threads&#8221 will include a family-friendly discovery area where kids can explore pattern and design, try simple stitching on child-sized quilt frames, or enjoy illustrated quilt-themed children’s books. The Adirondack Museum has also developed a special &#8220Toddler Tour&#8221 of the quilt exhibit &#8220that will lead the smallest visitors on a fun (and fast) search for color, shapes, and animals among the quilts on display.&#8221

Museum Curator Hallie Bond will offer an illustrated Monday Evening Lecture on July, 27, 2009 entitled &#8220Common Threads &#8211 Adirondack Quilts Tell Their Stories.&#8221 The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in the Auditorium.

The Adirondack Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival will be held on September 12, 2009. A celebration of traditional and contemporary fiber arts, the Festival will include demonstrations, a juried artisan’s market, and hands-on activities. In addition, folksinger, song writer Peggy Lynn will offer a special musical presentation, &#8220A Stitch in Time: Songs Celebrating the Art and Heritage of Quilting.&#8221

Adirondack Museum To Open For Season May 22nd

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The Adirondack Museum will open for its 52nd season on Friday, May 22, 2009. The Adirondack Museum once again extends an invitation to year-round residents of the Adirondack Park to visit free of charge in May, June, and October. Through this annual gift to close friends and neighbors, the museum welcomes visitors from all corners of the Park. Proof of residency is required.

The Adirondack Museum is open daily from May 22 through October 18, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Friday, September 4 and Friday, September 18 are exceptions to the schedule, as the museum will be closed to prepare for special events. All paid admissions are valid for a second visit within a one-week period.

On Saturday, May 23 the Museum Store will host a book signing from 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. as part of the opening weekend festivities. Elizabeth Folwell, Creative Director of Adirondack Life will sign copies of her new book Short Carries &#8211 Essays from Adirondack Life. Betsy Folwell joined the staff of Adirondack Life in 1989. Since then she has written scores of articles and essays on the politics, nature, history and culture of the six million acres Adirondack Park. She has won eight writing awards from the International Regional Magazine Association.

The twenty-two exhibits, historic buildings, outstanding collections, lovely gardens, and pristine views that are the Adirondack Museum tell stories of life, work, and play in the Adirondack Park of northern New York State.

&#8220Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts & Comforters&#8221 is one of two exhibits to debut in 2009. The exceptionally beautiful exhibition will include historic quilts from the Adirondack Museum’s textile collection, as well as contemporary quilts, comforters, and pieced wall hangings on loan from quilters in communities throughout the region. The exhibit illustrates a vibrant pieced-textile tradition nurtured by the Adirondack region for over a century and a half. From bedcovers, plain or fancy, meant to keep families warm through long Adirondack winters, to stunning art quilts of the twenty-first century, the quilts and comforters of the North Country mirror national trends and also tell a unique story of life in the mountains.

The second new exhibit, &#8220A &#8216-Wild, Unsettled Country’: Early Reflections of the Adirondacks&#8221 will include paintings, maps, prints, and photographs that illuminate the untamed Adirondack wilderness discovered by early cartographers, artists, and photographers. The exhibit will showcase more than forty paintings from the museum’s exceptional collection, including works by Thomas Cole, John Frederick Kensett, William Havell, and James David Smillie. Also featured are fifty of the engravings and lithographs of Adirondack landscape paintings that brought these images to a wider audience and provided many Americans with their first glimpse of the &#8220howling wilds&#8221 that were the Adirondack Mountains. A dozen rare and significant maps from the collection of the museum’s research library demonstrate the growth of knowledge about the Adirondacks.

&#8220A &#8216-Wild Unsettled Country’&#8221 will feature photographs sold as tourist souvenirs and to &#8220armchair travelers.&#8221 The first photographic landscape studies made in the Adirondacks by William James Stillman in 1859 have never been exhibited before. Photos by Seneca Ray Stoddard will also be included. The exhibit will include special labels and text just for kids in addition to the traditional presentation. The Adirondack Museum encourages parents and children to explore and discover together.

The Adirondack Museum’s 2009 Photobelt exhibition will feature rarely-seen images from the extensive postcard collection. &#8220Wish Your Were Here&#8221 will showcase Adirondack views of hotels, campsites, tally-ho rides, scenery, boat trips, restaurants, and roadside attractions &#8211 sent home to friends and relatives from 1900 to 1960. Postcards have always been treasured souvenirs and the perfect way to say, &#8220Wish you were here!&#8221

Five newly acquired boats will be displayed in the exhibition &#8220Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks.&#8221 These include a very rare 1918 Moxley launch, a Hickman Sea Sled (forerunner of the Boston Whaler), a Grumman canoe, a Theodore Hanmer guideboat, a Grant Raider, and a 1910 William Vassar guideboat.

Rochester: Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, NY &#8211 known for its superb boat collection &#8211 will offer a special program entitled &#8220Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks&#8221 this Thursday, May 7, 2009. The illustrated talk by museum Curator Hallie E. Bond, will tell the unique Adirondack story of boats, drawing on the rich collections of artifacts, documents, and historic photographs at the Adirondack Museum.

The presentation will be held in the auditorium of The Harley School at 1981 Clover Street, Rochester, N.Y., and will begin at 7:30 p.m. The program will be offered at no charge to members of the Adirondack Museum- admission will be $5 for non-members. For additional information please call (518) 352-7311, ext. 129 or visit www.adirondackmuseum.org

The Adirondack Museum’s boat collection currently numbers more than 200, a reflection of the importance of waterways for transportation in the region. Seventy-two examples of the guideboat, the watercraft indigenous to the Adirondack
region, are represented.

The Adirondack region has 2,300 lakes and ponds and 1,200 miles of rivers fed by more than 30,000 miles of brooks and streams. Waterways were once not only the preferred paths from place to place, they were often the only way to get about. The guideboat was &#8220the pickup truck&#8221 of the Adirondacks.

From birch barks and dugouts to canoes, guideboats, steamboats, and gasoline powered racing boats, Bond will describe regional craft in the context of the people who made and used them.

Hallie E. Bond has been Curator at the Adirondack Museum since 1987. She has written extensively on regional history and material culture including Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks, published by Syracuse University Press in 1995 and &#8220A Paradise for Boys and Girls&#8221 Children’s Camps in the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press, 2005.

Wild, Unsettled Country At The Adirondack Museum

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The Adirondack Museum has announced a new exhibit, A &#8216-Wild, Unsettled Country’: Early Reflections of the Adirondacks, that will look at the early efforts to convey the Adirondacks visually to the wider world. The exhibit will open on May 22, 2009 &#8211 meaning that year-round Adirondack Park residents should be able to catch the exhibit for free the last week of May.

The first Europeans to see the Adirondack landscape of northern New York State came to explore, to document important military operations and fortifications, or to create maps and scientifically accurate images of the terrain, flora, and fauna.
These early illustrations filled practical needs rather than aesthetic ones.

The exhibition will showcase approximately forty paintings from the museum’s exceptional art collection, including works by Thomas Cole, John Frederick Kensett, William Havell, John Henry Dolph and James David Smillie.

Also featured are fifty of the engravings and lithographs of Adirondack landscape paintings that brought these images to a wider audience and provided many Americans with their first glimpse of the &#8220howling wilds&#8221 that were the Adirondack Mountains.

While tourists were flocking to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. in the 1830s, few ventured north into the &#8220lofty chain of granite&#8221 visible from Lake George. One guidebook described the mysterious forms as &#8220a wild repulsive aspect.&#8221 Little was known of these yet-unnamed mountains.

In 1836, the New York State legislature authorized a survey of the state’s natural resources. Artist Charles Cromwell Ingham was asked to join geologists Ebenezer Emmons and William C. Redfield during one of the first exploratory surveys. During the trip, he painted The Great Adirondack Pass, &#8220on the spot.&#8221 The original painting will be shown in the exhibition.

The exhibit will also include photographs-stereo views and albumen prints-sold as tourist souvenirs and to armchair travelers. William James Stillman took the earliest photos in the exhibition in 1859. These rare images are the first photographic landscape studies taken in the Adirondacks. Photos by Seneca Ray Stoddard will also be displayed.

Significant historic maps will illustrate the growth of knowledge about the Adirondack region. In 1818, it was still a mysterious &#8220wild, barren tract&#8230-covered with almost impenetrable Bogs, Marshes & Ponds, and the uplands with Rocks and evergreens.&#8221 By 1870, the Adirondacks had become a tourist destination with clearly defined travel routes, hotels, beaches, and camps.

&#8220A &#8216-Wild, Unsettled Country’&#8221 will be on exhibit in the Lynn H. Boillot Art Galleries. The space includes the Adirondack Museum Gallery Study Center &#8211 a resource for learning more about American art. In addition to a library of reference books, a touch screen computer allows visitors to access images from the museum’s extensive fine art collection.

The Gallery Study Center will include a media space as part of the special exhibit. The documentary film &#8220Champlain: The Lake Between&#8221 will be shown continuously. The film, part of the Lake Champlain Voyages of Discovery project, has aired on Vermont Public Television in recent months.

&#8220A &#8216-Wild, Unsettled Country’&#8221 is not just for adults. Family-friendly elements include Looking at Art With Children &#8211 a guide for parents as they investigate the arts with youngsters- the Grand Tour Guide &#8211 a colorful and engaging map that encourages exploration of the Adirondack sites shown in the paintings- and ten different Wild About! guidebooks that urge kids to be &#8220wild&#8221 about maps, prints, history, and more.

Photo caption: View of Caldwell, Lake George, by William Tolman Carlton, 1844. Collection of the Adirondack Museum.

Adirondack Museum To Process Petty Collection

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake has announced the appointment of Melissa Tacke as Project Archivist to describe and arrange the collections of personal papers belonging to two of the founding fathers of the Adirondack Park Agency: Clarence Petty and Richard Lawrence.

The Clarence Petty Papers consist of correspondence, subject files, memoranda, aviation and weather records, newspaper clippings, government documents, books and other publications, audio recordings, memorabilia, awards, photographs, and 62 maps. These records document Clarence Petty’s long career with the Conservation Department and the Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as his influential role in the creation of the Adirondack Park Agency and the Adirondack Park Land Use Master Plan.

The papers also reflect Petty’s relationship with contemporary environmentalists, environmental organizations and government agencies, and his position as an authority and spokesman on environmental issues throughout the country. The collection dates from circa 1939 through 2006. Clarence Petty donated the papers to the Adirondack Museum in November 2006.

The Richard Lawrence Papers consist of correspondence, subject files, memoranda, notes, publications, books, government documents, memorabilia, awards, and photographs. They document Richard Lawrence’s work as a member of the Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks and as the founding Chairman of the Adirondack Park Agency. The records date from the mid 1960s to the 1990s and were donated to the museum by the Lawrence family in 2006.

Tacke’s position has been funded by a grant in the amount of $9,669 from the New York State Archive’s Documentary Heritage Program. The Documentary Heritage Program (DHP) is a statewide program established by law in 1988 to ensure the identification, sound administration, and accessibility of New York’s historical records. The DHP provides grants to not-for-profit organizations in New York State that collect, hold, and make available historical records. Tacke will work in the Adirondack Museum’s research library from April 6 through June 30, 2009 under the terms of the grant.

Melissa Tacke holds three degrees from SUNY Albany. Her Bachelor’s degree was awarded for a double major in Women’s Studies and Africana. She holds one Master’s degree in Women’s Studies and a second in Information Studies. She is a native of Lawrence, Kansas. Tacke comes to the Adirondack Museum following nearly a year of work at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont as a Project Archivist, funded by a Getty Campus Heritage Grant. She also served as a Digital Images Archivist.

Photo Caption: Project Archivist Melissa Tacke at left with Adirondack Museum Librarian Jerry Pepper. Adirondack Museum Photo.

400 Years of The Champlain Valley Event

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Rich Strum, Director of Interpretation and Education at Fort Ticonderoga, will offer a program entitled &#8220Conquest, Commerce, and Culture: 400 Years of History in the Champlain Valley&#8221 at Saranac Village at Will Rogers in Saranac Lake on Sunday, March 8, 2009.

Samuel de Champlain first saw the great expanse of Lake Champlain, the Green Mountains to the east, the Adirondacks on the west in 1609. New York State, Vermont, and the Province of Quebec are commemorating the 400th anniversary of Champlain’s explorations this year through a variety of programs and events.

Strum will provide an illustrated overview of four centuries of the Champlain region’s history. He will discuss military contests for control of the vital Champlain corridor, the role the lake has played in economic growth and expansion, the lasting impact of 150 years of French dominance in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The presentation will begin at 2:00 p.m. and is offered at no charge to member sof the Adirondack Museum and children of elementary school age or younger. Free admission will be extended to all residents of Saranac Village at Will Rogers. The fee for non-members is $5.00. For additional information, please call the Education Department at (518) 352-7311, ext. 128 or visit the museum’s web site at www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Rich Strum has been the Director of Interpretation and Education at Fort Ticonderoga since 1999. He serves as North Country Regional Coordinator for New York State History Day. He is the author of Ticonderoga: Lake Champlain Steamboat, as well as two books for young readers: Causes of the American Revolution and Henry Know: Washington’s Artilleryman. He lives in Ticonderoga, N.Y. with his wife and daughters.

In Stoddards Footsteps at Adirondack Museum

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His career spanned the settling of the Adirondacks, the heyday of the guide, the steamship, and the grand hotel. Pioneer photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard produced over 8,000 images of a changing landscape &#8212- the largest documentary record of regional life in the late nineteenth century. Adirondack photographer Mark Bowie followed in Stoddard’s footsteps more than a century later, faithfully photographing once again the exact locations of many of his classic images.

Join Bowie on Sunday, February 15, 2009 at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York as he compares the Adirondacks of today with Stoddard’s. The comparisons are fascinating, sometimes surprising, in every case, illuminating.

Mark Bowie is a third generation Adirondack photographer. He is a frequent contributor to Adirondack Life and Adirondack Explorer magazines. His photos have been published in Natural History, as well as by the Sierra Club, Conde Nast Publications, Portal Publications, and Tehabi Books.

Bowie’s first book, Adirondack Waters: Spirit of the Mountains (2006) is a landmark regional publication. In Stoddard’s Footsteps: The Adirondacks Then & Now was recently published. He has recently completed work on a third book, The Adirondacks: In Celebration of the Seasons, to be released in the Spring 2009.

Mark Bowie leads digital and landscape photography workshops, has produced several multi-format shows about the Adirondacks and has been featured on the Public Television programs &#8220Adirondack Outdoors&#8221 and &#8220Insight.&#8221 He lives with his wife, Rushelle, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The program, &#8220In Stoddard’s Footsteps&#8221 will be the second in the museum’s popular Cabin Fever Sunday series. Held in the Auditorium, the presentation will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m. Cabin Fever Sunday programs are offered at no charge to museum members. The fee for non-members is $5.00. There is no charge for children of elementary school age or younger. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, please call the Education Department at (518) 352-7311, ext. 128 or visit the museum’s web site at www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Adirondack Museum Receives Special Exhibit Funds

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York has received an anonymous gift from &#8220someone who loves the Adirondacks&#8221 in the amount of $50,000 in support of a very special exhibition that will open this summer. The new exhibit, A &#8220Wild Unsettled Country&#8221: Early Reflections of the Adirondacks will open on May 22, 2009. Paintings, maps, prints, and photographs will illustrate the untamed Adirondack wilderness discovered by the earliest cartographers, artists, and photographers.

The new exhibit will showcase more than forty paintings from the museum’s exceptional collection, including works by Thomas Cole, John Frederick Kensett, William Havell, and James David Smillie.

Engravings and lithographs of Adirondack landscape paintings will also be
featured. Prints brought these images to a wider audience and provided many
Americans with their first glimpse of the &#8220howling wilds&#8221 that were the
Adirondack Mountains.

A &#8220Wild Unsettled Country&#8221 will include photographs &#8211 stereo views and albumen prints &#8211 sold as tourist souvenirs and to armchair travelers. William James Stillman took the earliest photos in the exhibition in 1859. These rare images are the first photographic landscape studies taken in the Adirondacks.

A dozen significant maps from the collection of the Adirondack Museum’s research library will demonstrate the growth of knowledge about the region.

Acknowledging the generosity of the gift that has made A &#8220Wild Unsettled Country&#8221: Early Reflections of the Adirondacks possible, Chief Curator Laura S. Rice said that, &#8220Through this exhibit, museum visitors will be able to discover, the Adirondacks through the eyes of late 18th and early 19th century artists as a place of great beauty.&#8221

Songs and Stories of Adirondack Lumberjacks and Miners

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Begin the New Year with an afternoon of engaging tunes and tales. Join the staff of the Adirondack Museum for &#8220Working for the Man: Songs and Stories of Adirondack Lumberjacks and Miners.&#8221 The special program will be held at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek, (Warren County) on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. There will be no charge for museum members and children of elementary school age or younger. The fee for non-members is $5.00.

The historic work of loggers and miners was framed by dangerous conditions, back breaking work, long hours, and low pay. Although daily life was hard and often heartbreaking, it was also filled with music, laughter, stories, and strong community ties.

&#8220Working for the Man&#8221 will feature musician Lee Knight singing traditional ballads of logging, mining, and rural life. Museum Educator Christine Campeau will join Knight to share historic photographs, artifacts from museum collections, and stories of work, family, and life in Adirondack logging and mining communities.

Born in the Adirondacks, Lee Knight now lives in Cashiers, North Carolina. He is a singer, storyteller, song collector, and teacher of folklore, folk life, and folk music. He performs regularly at concerts, folk festivals, and summer camps, where he tells stories, sings ballads, and calls dances. He has appeared with Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie, Bill Monroe, Alan Lomax, and many others. He will play traditional hand-made instruments.

Following the program, Lee Knight will perform at the Copperfield Inn from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. Extend the afternoon and make it a party! Join friends and neighbors to enjoy good music and sample food and drink specials offered by the Copperfield.

Photo: Ruby Mountain Mine, North River Garnet Company. Collection of the Adirondack Museum.

Adirondack Museum Offers Virtual Exhibits

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The Adirondack Museum has announced that it will offer a series of online exhibitions created especially for people who are unable to visit Blue Mountain Lake. Web exhibits can be found on the Adirondack Museum’s web site at www.adirondackmuseum.org.

December marks the launch of &#8220Adirondack Rustic: Nature’s Art, 1876-1950,&#8221 the first web exhibit. The new online feature offers artifacts, text, and historic photographs from the special exhibition that shared the multi-faceted story of Adirondack rustic traditions and charmed museum visitors throughout the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

The web exhibit examines the rich history of Adirondack rustic in three units that examine furniture and designs inspired by wilderness, share stories of local men who hand crafted rustic furniture, and explore the lives and influence of wealthy Gilded Age railroad magnates who designed and built elaborate Great Camps.

The virtual exhibition is lavishly illustrated with images of rustic furniture and historic photographs from the museum’s extensive collections. The museum’s Chief Curator Laura Rice and Web Coordinator Erin Barton developed the content of the online exhibit.

In 2009 the museum will introduce &#8220Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters&#8221 as a companion piece to the special exhibition of the same name that will open at the museum on May 22, 2009.