Adirondack Museum

Adirondack Museum Offer Free Days For Locals

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This year, the Adirondack Museum has introduced two new programs just for year-round Adirondack Park residents. The museum invites year-round residents of the Adirondack Park to visit free of charge every Sunday, and on all open days in May and October. Proof of residency such as a driver’s license, passport, or voter registration card is required.

The Adirondack Museum has also introduced a new &#8220Friends and Neighbors&#8221 Adirondack Park Resident Membership Program. Year-round Park residents can now enjoy all the museum has to offer every day of the season through a very special program that makes museum membership more affordable than ever before &#8211 half the regular price at the Individual, Companion, and Family

levels. Call the membership office for more information: (518) 352-7311 ext. 112 or email [email protected].

The museum is open 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., 7 days a week, including holidays, from May 27 through October 17, 2011. There will be an early closing on August 12, and adjusted hours on August 13- the museum will close for the day on September 9.

Adirondack Museum Welcomes 4 Millionth Visitor

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York welcomed its 4 millionth visitor, Katie Alexander of Ewing, N.J., on August 16, 2011. Katie was accompanied by her parents, Daniel and Jean, and sisters, Emma and Hannah. To recognize this milestone in their fifty-four year history, the museum provided its special and significant visitor with a membership for her family and a $100 gift certificate to the Museum Store.

The Adirondack Museum, which opened to the public in 1957, is a regional outdoor history museum that has been sharing the stories of the region with more than 70,000 visitors each year. The museum has grown from one building in 1957 to more than 22 indoor and outdoor exhibit spaces today. Offerings include continuously changing exhibits, public programs, lectures, field trips, and school programs.

The Adirondack Museum welcomed its one millionth visitor in 1976, two millionth in 1987, and three millionth in 1998.

The Adirondack Museum, accredited by the American Association of Museums, tells stories of the people &#8211 past and present &#8212- who have lived, worked, and played in the unique place that is the Adirondack Park. History is in our nature. The museum is supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. For information about all that the museum has to offer, please call (518) 352-7311, or visit www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Photo: Left to right: Michael Lombardi, Interim Director, Adirondack Museum- Emma, Hannah, Jean, Daniel, and (in front) Katie Alexander. Katie Alexander was the 4 millionth visitor to the Adirondack Museum in it’s 54-year history.

Mountain Men Encampment at the Adk Museum

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The Adirondack Museum will host the annual American Mountain Men Rendezvous on Friday, August 19 and Saturday, August 20, 2011. The event features educational interpreters in period dress showcase a variety of historical survival skills.

Visitors will see demonstrations of firearms and shooting, tomahawk and knife throwing, fire starting and campfire cooking. There will be displays of pelts and furs, clothing of eastern and western mountain styles, period firearms and much more.

All of the American Mountain Men activities and demonstrations are included in the price of regular Adirondack Museum admission. There is no charge for museum members. The museum is open 7 days a week from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., including holidays.

Participants in the museum encampment are from the Brothers of the New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts segment of the national American Mountain Men organization. Participation in the encampment is by invitation only.

Mountain men are powerful symbols of America’s wild frontier. Legends about the mountain man continue to fascinate because many of the tales are true: the life of the mountain man was rough, and despite an amazing ability to survive in the wilderness, it brought him face to face with death on a regular basis.

The American Mountain Men group was founded in 1968. The association researches and studies the history, traditions, tools, and mode of living of the trappers, explorers, and traders known as the mountain men. Members continuously work for mastery of the primitive skills of both the original mountain men and Native Americans. The group prides itself on the accuracy and authenticity of its interpretation and shares the knowledge they have gained with all who are interested.

New Executive Director Named for Adk Museum

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Kevin J. Arquit, Chairman of the Board of the Adirondack Museum has announced that the Board of Trustees has unanimously confirmed the appointment of David M. Kahn as the new Executive Director.

“The Board was very fortunate to identify Kahn as the museums next Director,” said Arquit. “This is an exciting time for the Adirondack Museum to bring in someone as accomplished as David because he has devoted his entire career to the museum profession. His skills, experience, and passion for history will undoubtedly continue to move the museum forward as a rich cultural resource and intellectually engaging place.”


A native New Yorker, David Kahn will be coming to the Adirondack Park from San Diego, C.A. He is currently Executive Director of the San Diego History Center, and prior to going to San Diego, Kahn was Director of three other institutions. He was Executive Director of the Brooklyn Historical Society from 1982 &#8211 1996. While he was there, the institution built a national reputation for its community history projects that focused on topics ranging from new Chinese immigrants to the Crown Heights Riots. From 1996 – 2006 David served as Executive Director of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, the seventh oldest historical organization in the United States. During his tenure, the Society’s annual operating budget grew from $1.7 million to $5 million and the institution quadrupled its audience to 70,000.

In May 2006 David assumed the directorship of the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans. While in Louisiana he was responsible for 13 facilities and secured major grants including $1.4M from the National Science Foundation for an exhibition about Hurricane Katrina and $2M from the National Park Service for a jazz center.

Throughout his career, David has been involved in a wide variety of professional activities. He has served on peer grant review panels for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Council for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Smithsonian Institution. He was Vice President of the New York State Association of Museums from 1992-1995 and is currently Vice President of the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership. He has been an Editorial Board Member of the journal Curator since 1994 and he has served on two Ford Foundation Advisory Committees, “Documentation, Editing, and Archives” (1998) and “Expanding the Civic Role of the Arts” (1996 –1997). David has moderated panels and presented professional papers at numerous history museum conferences in San Francisco (2009), New Orleans (2008), Vienna (2007), Amsterdam (2005), Sao Paulo (2004), Luxembourg (2000), Istanbul (1999), Quebec (1999), Bonn (1996), and Harrogate (1996). He has published articles in Curator and Museum News as well as a series of travel pieces about Japan (a personal interest) in The New York Times. He earned both a B.A. Magna Cum Laude and a M.A. in Art History from Columbia University.

&#8220I am absolutely thrilled that the Adirondack Museum’s Board has chosen me to lead the organization into the future,” said Kahn. “The challenge for me will be to take what is obviously already a great institution and to find even more new and innovative ways for it to serve its many visitors and the community. I look forward to working with the museum’s dedicated board, its professional staff, and its many volunteers and donors.&#8221

David Kahn will assume the position of Executive Director, Adirondack Museum on September 5, 2011.

Adirondack Museums Antiques Show and Sale

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The Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, will host their annual Antiques Show and Sale on August 13 and 14, 2011. Sixty antique dealers from around the United States will be on hand featuring authentic historical furnishings, vintage boats, folk art,
taxidermy, and everything else for camp and cottage.

Rod Lich, Inc. of Georgetown, Indiana will manage the show. The show will be open from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on August 13, and 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on August 14, and is included in the price of general museum admission. Porters will be on site to assist with heavy or cumbersome items.

The Antiques Show Preview Benefit will be held on August 13 from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Guests will enjoy exclusive early access to the show and an elegant brunch with wine. Proceeds from the benefit will support exhibits and programs at the Adirondack Museum. Tickets may be reserved online or call (518) 352-7311, ext. 119.

A complete listing of dealers can be found online.

Family Overnight Camping at the Adirondack Museum

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The Adirondack Museum and the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts will host an overnight adventure at the museum on Tuesday, August 16, 2011. The event will include exploring exhibits by lantern, getting dramatic about Adirondack history with the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, hearing songs and stories by the campfire, and having a sleepover in the Woods & Waters exhibit. Dinner, an evening snack and breakfast will be served.

Camp Out for Families is open to children ages 7 &#8211 13, and the museum requests one adult chaperone for every one to four children. The program starts at 5:30 p.m. and ends the following morning at 9:30 a.m.

Spaces are limited- pre-registration required by August 11, 2011. E-mail or call to register: [email protected] or (518) 352 &#8211 7311 ext 115- [email protected] or (518) 352 &#8211 7311 ext 128. The program fee includes dinner, evening snack, light breakfast, and all activity materials. $45 per person for Adirondack Museum members and Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts members- $55 per person for non-members.

The museum is open through October 17, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 7 days a week, including holidays. There will be an early closing on August 12, and adjusted hours on August 13- the museum will close for the day on September 9. Visit www.adirondackmuseum.org for more information. All paid admissions are valid for a second visit within a one-week period.

Traveling with Winslow Homer at Adirondack Museum

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Join Robert Demarest for a program entitled &#8220Traveling with Winslow Homer,&#8221 on Monday, August 8, 2011 at the Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York. The program is part of the museum’s Monday Evening Lecture series.

Robert Demarest has traveled the world chronicling Homer sites- his destinations have included Cuba, The North Sea Coast, Bermuda, and the North Woods Club in the Adirondacks. He has fished and painted where Homer fished and painted, and has uncovered many new facts about America’s favorite artist.

Demarest recently retired as head of the medical illustration unit and director of the Center for Biocommunications at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY. His work has appeared in numerous medical textbooks, countless research papers, medical journals, and many popular magazines, such as the Reader’s Digest, Life, Newsweek, and Time.

When not painting watercolors Demarest can usually be found fly-fishing on his favorite streams, often in the Adirondacks. His love of watercolor painting and fly-fishing led him to study Winslow Homer and that started him on an odyssey that has consumed him for the past several years. He traveled to all the places that Homer visited throughout the western world, and painted and fished where Homer painted and fished. He has published a book based on his Homer research entitled Traveling with Winslow Homer.

The presentation will be held in the Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The lecture will be offered at no charge to museum members- the fee for non-members is $5.00. For additional information, please visit www.adirondackmuseum.org or call (518) 352-7311.

Jerry Jenkins to Receive Adirondack Museum Award

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The Board of Trustees of the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York has announced the selection of Jerry Jenkins as the recipient of the 2011 Harold K. Hochschild Award.

The Harold K. Hochschild Award is dedicated to the memory of the museum’s founder, whose passion for the Adirondacks, its people, and environment inspired the creation of the Adirondack Museum. Since 1990 the museum has presented the award to a wide range of intellectual and community leaders throughout the Adirondack Park, highlighting their contributions to the region’s culture and quality of life.

The Adirondack Museum will formally present Jerry Jenkins with the Harold K. Hochschild Award on August 4, 2011.

Jerry Jenkins is an ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program (WCS). An accomplished botanist, naturalist and geographer, he has almost forty years of field experience working in the Northern Forest. Over the course of his career, his work has included conducting biological inventories for The Adirondack Chapter of the Nature
Conservancy, surveying rare plant occurrences for the State of Vermont, chronicling the environmental history of acid rain with the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, and understanding and interpreting historical changes to boreal lowland areas in the Adirondacks with WCS. His enthusiasm for natural history has also led him to study plant diversity and distribution across various forest types &#8211 from the Champlain Hills to large working forest
easements, and from old growth forests to high elevation alpine communities.

His most recent and notable accomplishments with the Wildlife Conservation Society are his collection of Adirondack publications. Together with Andy Keal, Jerry Jenkins co-authored The The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park, considered one of the most significant Adirondack book in a generation. Some 300 pages in length, the Adirondack Atlas contains 750
maps and graphics, and represents the most comprehensive collection of regional data brought together in a single source. The park’s geology, flora and fauna are featured, as well as the history and the dynamic nature of the park’s human communities. Bill McKibben describes the atlas as a &#8220great gift&#8230-that marks a coming of age.&#8221

In his newest book Climate Change in the Adirondacks the Path to Sustainability, Jenkins demonstrates how climate change is already shifting the region’s culture, biology and economy, and provides a road map towards a more responsible and sustainable future. He provides the first comprehensive look at both the impacts of, and the potential solutions to, climate change across the Adirondack region. This compilation, along with his other regional contributions, prompted Bill McKibben to offer that &#8220Jerry Jenkins has emerged as the information source for our mountains&#8230-and we are all in his debt.&#8221

Photo Courtesy Leslie Karasin, Wildlife Conservation Society.

Collection Storage Tours at Adirondack Museum

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Visitors can see some of the more than 7,000 historic artifacts not currently on exhibit at the Adirondack Museum in a state-of-the-art collections storage facility in Blue Mountain Lake, New York.

The Collections Storage and Study Center holds an amazing array of objects from the Adirondack past. Collections consist of boats, including power boats, canoes, kayaks, guideboats, and unusual boats- traditional and rustic furniture- hand tools and machinery- large vehicles, including horse-drawn carriages and sleighs, snowmobiles, fire trucks, and a Jitterbug- maple
sugaring equipment- ice harvesting tools- and agricultural artifacts.

Adirondack Museum Conservator and Collections Manager Doreen Alessi will lead the tours. Alessi cares for more than 100,000 two and three-dimensional artifacts in the collection of the Adirondack Museum. She is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC).

Tours of the Collections Storage and Study Center will be held each Monday through August from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The tours are free for museum members and $10 for non-members. Visitors can sign up for a tour on Mondays at the Membership Desk in the Visitor Center. Each tour is limited to thirty people.

The Adirondack Museum, accredited by the American Association of Museums, tells stories of the people &#8211 past and present &#8212- who have lived, worked, and played in the unique place that is the Adirondack Park. The museum is supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. For information about the museum call (518) 352-7311 or visit www.adirondackmuseum.org.

Adirondack Museum Monday Lectures Begin

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The Adirondack Museum will host its annual Monday Evening Lecture Series in July and August. The first evening is with Museum Chief Curator, Laura Rice’s lecture &#8220Night Vision: The Wildlife Photography of Hobart Vosburg Roberts&#8221 on July 11. Hobart V. Roberts’ photographs, camera equipment, published articles, and awards are featured in a new exhibit at the Adirondack Museum. Rice will discuss Roberts’ work and the museum’s exhibit in an illustrated presentation.

Lectures continue on July 18 with Robert Arnold’s &#8220Let Loose the Dogs of War: New York in the American Civil War-&#8221 and on July 25 with Mark Bowie &#8220s &#8220Night Over the North Country.&#8221

August begins with Bill McKibben on August 1 and &#8220The Most Important Number in the World: Updates on the Fight for a Stable Climate-&#8221 August 8 with Robert Demarest and &#8220Traveling with Winslow Homer-&#8221 August 15 with David Wagner and &#8220John James Audubon, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait and American Wildlife Art.&#8221 The summer series concludes on August 22 with Elisabeth Hudnut Clarkson and &#8220The Lost World of Foxlair and the Valentino Summer.&#8221

The presentations will be offered at no charge to museum members- the fee for non-members is $5.00. For full descriptions of the lectures, please visit www.adirondackmuseum.org.