Adirondacks

Two New Exhibits at Adirondack Museum

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Two new exhibits have opened at the Adirondack Museum: &#8220The Adirondack World of A.F. Tait&#8221 and &#8220Night Vision: The Wildlife Photography of Hobart V. Roberts.&#8221

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait was the classic artist of Adirondack sport. &#8220The Adirondack World of A.F. Tait&#8221 features paintings and prints depicting life in the Adirondack woods &#8211 images of hunters, sportsmen, guides, and settlers that include a wealth of historical detail. An ardent sportsman and lover of the outdoors, Tait lived in the region for extended periods of time near Chateaugay, Raquette and Long lakes.

His images of animals and sporting adventures were among the best known in 19th-century America thanks to Currier & Ives, whose lithographs of Tait paintings helped popularize the Adirondacks as a sportsman’s paradise.

Chief Curator, Laura Rice called the exhibit, &#8220a rare opportunity to see some of Tait’s most important works, including a few from private collections which are rarely, if ever, on exhibit.&#8221

&#8220Night Vision: The Wildlife Photography of Hobart V. Roberts&#8221 focuses on the work of one of the nation’s most recognized amateur wildlife photographers in the first decades of the 20th century. Roberts’ Adirondack wildlife photographs represent an important breakthrough in science and the technology of photography. He developed a thorough knowledge of Adirondack
wildlife and their habits, and deer jacking inspired him to consider night photography. A feature article in the New York Times, August 26, 1928, described Roberts’ as &#8220hunting with a camera in the Adirondacks.&#8221

The &#8220Night Vision&#8221 exhibit features approximately 35 original large-format photographs of Adirondack wildlife. Roberts’ cameras, equipment, colored lithographic prints, hand-colored transparencies, published works, and his many awards will also be exhibited. His work has been published in Audubon Magazine, Country Life, Modern Photography, and The National Geographic
Magazine.

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 be closed on September 9. Visit www.adirondackmuseum.org for more information. All paid admissions are valid for a second visit within a one-week period.

Adirondack Museum Offers Locals Free Admission

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The Adirondack Museum is introducing two new programs just for year-round Adirondack Park residents. The Adirondack 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].

Two new exhibits will open at the Adirondack Museum on May 27: &#8220The Adirondack World of A.F. Tait&#8221 and &#8220Night Vision: The Wildlife Photography of Hobart V. Roberts.&#8221

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. Please visit www.adirondackmuseum.org for details.

Photo: The Museum’s &#8220Living with Wilderness&#8221 exhibit, photograph by Richard Walker.

Adirondack History Center Opens, New Exhibits

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The Adirondack History Center Museum in Elizabethtown, Essex County, is opening for a new season beginning on Saturday, May 28. The museum will be offering some new exhibitions including What do You Want to Do? that focuses on the Brewster Memorial Library’s collection of old recreational brochures related to Essex County’s past attractions.

The Human Face exhibit highlights paintings of local people from the past, emphasizing the human presence within one of the Adirondack Park’s most fascinating corners. Opening on Saturday, July 23, is the new permanent exhibition, Worked/Wild. Through artifacts, photographs and stories that examine a wide spectrum of community life, this new exhibition explores the dynamic environmental and social structure of our region.

The museum is located at 7590 Court Street, Elizabethtown. It is open every day from 10am -5pm. For more information contact the museum at 873-6466 or visit the website at www.adkhistorycenter.org.

Adirondack Museum Opens for the Season

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The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York will open for the 54th season on Friday, May 27, 2011. This season, the museum opens two new exhibits and also introduces a host of family activities and special events.

The Adirondack Museum’s two new exhibits &#8211 &#8220The Adirondack World of A.F. Tait&#8221 and &#8220Night Vision: The Wildlife Photography of Hobart V. Roberts&#8221 &#8211 showcase two very different, yet complimentary, visions of the region.

&#8220The Adirondack World of A.F. Tait&#8221 features paintings and prints depicting life in the Adirondack woods-images of hunters, sportsmen, guides, and settlers, that include a wealth of historical detail. Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait was the classic artist of Adirondack sport. From the objects Tait worked with to Currier and Ives prints and finished oil paintings, the exhibit showcases Tait’s artistic vision and skill and highlights the region’s beauty and character.

&#8220&#8216-The Adirondack World of A.F. Tait’ looks at the life and work of this most quintessentially Adirondack artist,&#8221 said Chief Curator, Laura Rice. &#8220This exhibition represents a rare opportunity to see some of Tait’s most important works, including a few from private collections which are rarely, if ever, on exhibit.&#8221

&#8220Night Vision: The Wildlife Photography of Hobart V. Roberts&#8221 focuses on the work of one of the nation’s most recognized amateur wildlife photographers in the first decades of the 20th century. The &#8220Night Vision&#8221 exhibit features approximately 35 original large-format photographs of Adirondack wildlife. Roberts’ cameras, equipment, colored lithographic prints, hand-colored transparencies, published works, and his many awards will also be exhibited. Roberts’ Adirondack wildlife photographs represent an important breakthrough in science and the technology of photography. His work has been published in Audubon Magazine, Country Life, Modern Photography, and The National Geographic Magazine.

The Adirondack Museum has planned a full schedule of family activities, hands-on experiences, special events, lectures and field trips for all ages. Programming for families in 2011 has expanded to include an Artist in Residence program, and a collaborative canvas where visitors can help paint an Adirondack landscape.

This summer, the museum has a special new event to kick-off summer for families -&#8221Familypalooza&#8221 &#8211 on July 9. Familypalooza will include a bounce house, music show by Radio Disney, kayaking and paddling demonstrations on the museum’s pond, costumed animal characters, food, face painting and more. Children age 17 and under will be admitted free of charge for the day. Families will also enjoy &#8220The Adirondacks Are Cookin’ Out!&#8221 &#8211 a tribute to food prepared with smoke and fire &#8211 on July 28, and Dog Days of Summer on August 6.

Two special exhibits will also return in 2011. The Adirondack Museum celebrates food, drink, and the pleasures of eating in the Adirondack Park in, &#8220Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions.&#8221 The exhibit shares culinary stories and customs, and a bit about local celebrity Rachael Ray. &#8220Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters&#8221 includes historic quilts from the museum’s textile collection as well as contemporary comforters, quilts, and pieced wall hangings.

The Adirondack Museum has introduced some lower admissions prices for 2011. The admissions prices are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors (62 and over), $12 for teens (13-17), $6 for kids (6-12) and free for those 5 and under. Admission will be free for members and all active military every day. Reduced group rates are also available.

The museum is open May 27 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.

Environmental Historian Cumbler at Chapman Museum

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This Wednesday, May 25, at 7 pm, noted environmental historian John Cumbler will present a talk entitled Mills, Water Power Dams and the Transformation of the Environment at the Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls. The lecture is the first in a series of programs, funded in part by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, which expand on the themes of the Chapman’s current exhibit, Harnessing the Hudson: Waterwheels & Turbines, a history of waterpower on the upper Hudson River. The program is free and open to the public.

John T. Cumbler, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, has taught at the Univ. of Louisville since 1975, specializing in United States Environmental History and Economic History. Professor Cumbler is the author of numerous books including: Northeast and Midwest United States: An Environmental History (2005) and Reasonable Use: The People, The Environment, And The State, New England 1790-1930 (2001). In his talk he will explore the impact of industrialization on rivers and the history of how people have responded to that degradation.

The Chapman Historical Museum is located at 348 Glen Street, Glens Falls. The exhibit Harnessing the Hudson will be on view through September 25th. Public hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm, and Sunday, noon to 4 pm. For more information call (518) 793-2826 or visit www.chapmanmuseum.org.

Chapman Opens Harnessing the Hudson Exhibit

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The Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls has opened a new major exhibition, Harnessing the Hudson, which explores the history of how people in the region have harnessed the renewable energy of the Hudson River from early sawmills to hydroelectric generators.

In 1903, the Spier Falls hydroelectric dam, located on the Hudson eight miles upstream from Glens Falls, began to produce electricity. Touted at the time as the largest dam of its type in the United States, the dam supplied electricity not only to surrounding communities but also to the large General Electric plant in Schenectady 50 miles away. The dam quickly became part of a network of power plants and transmission lines that supplied power for factories, transportation and lighting in the Capital region.

The brainchild of Glens Falls attorney, Eugene Ashley, Spier Falls was a project that captivated the interest of people far and wide. They were familiar with water power, but electricity was a very new phenomenon at the beginning of the 20th century, and many people were not convinced of its potential. Little did they suspect how much it would change their lives.

The exhibit features archival materials and artifacts principally from the Chapman’s Spier Falls collection but also from other regional archives. Of particular note are photographs provided by the Schenectady Museum and Science Center, which houses thousands of images that document the history of GE and the development of electricity. For those unfamiliar with the physics of water power, a hand-cranked generator and other interactive elements provide greater understanding of the science involved.

In conjunction with the exhibit, which will run through September, the museum plans to hold a series of public programs relating to the theme of Harnessing the Hudson. These will include talks about the history of hydropower on the upper Hudson, the development of the electric grid, a driving tour of mill sites, and kayak tours that explore the river ecology around Spier Falls.

This project is supported by: Brookfield, The Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, the Waldo T. Ross & Ruth S. Ross Charitable Trust Foundation, National Grid, the New York Council for the Humanities and general operating support from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

The exhibit will be on display at the Chapman Historical Museum through September 25, 2011. The museum is located at 348 Glen Street, Glens Falls, NY. Public Hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm, and Sunday, noon to 4 pm. For more information call (518) 793-2826

Photo: Construction workers installing a 12’ diameter penstock at Spier Falls Hydroelectric Dam, 1901.

Museum Seeks Adirondack Quilts

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Do you have an exceptional bed quilt or pieced wall hanging that was made in, inspired by, or depicts the Adirondack region?

The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York is seeking quilts for &#8220The Third Annual Great Adirondack Quilt Show&#8221 to be held from September 17 to October 9, 2011. The show open the day of the museum’s Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival and will complement the final season of the exhibit &#8220Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts and Comforters.&#8221

There will be two divisions in the show. Historic quilts (those made before 1970) can be of any theme or technique, but must have been made in the Adirondacks. Modern quilts (those made after 1970) should have a visible connection to the Adirondack region. A &#8220People’s Choice&#8221 award will be presented to one quilt in each division.

An eligible quilt might depict an Adirondack scene in applique or be composed of pieced blocks chosen because the pattern is reminiscent of the region &#8211 &#8220Pine Tree,&#8221 Wild Goose Chase,&#8221 or &#8220North Star,&#8221 for example.

Although the show will not be juried, applicants must complete a registration form prior to September 1, 2011. A statement by the maker is required to complete the application process. For additional information or to receive an application, please contact Hallie Bond via email at [email protected] , by telephone at (518) 352-7311, ext. 105, or through the postal service at P.O. Box 99, Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y., 12812.

Photo: &#8220Late Summer&#8221 by Joanna Monroe was one of the entries in the 2010 Great Adirondack Quilt Show.

@adkmuseum.org>

Climate Justice The Focus of John Brown Day

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Climate Justice will be the focus of this year’s annual John Brown Day on Saturday, May 7, 2011. A tradition dating back to the 1930s, John Brown Day is held each year at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, to honor one of the nation’s most influential abolitionists on the anniversary of his birth in 1800.

Dedicating his life to eradicating slavery, Brown eventually risked all attacking the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. Captured by troops led by Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart, Brown’s trial and execution are considered by many historians as a spark that help ignite the Civil War 150 years ago.

Climate Justice is a growing global movement that recognizes that poor and disenfranchised peoples around the world bear the least responsibility for climate change but face a disproportionate burden from its attendant effects, such as compromised health, economic hardship from rising energy costs, and displacement, destruction of property, and death due to extreme natural disasters. Here in the United States, the global campaign for Climate Justice is deeply linked to the Environmental Justice Movement, which is entering its third decade of militant opposition to environmental racism.

John Brown Day keynote speaker and Environmental Justice leader Cecil Corbin-Mark will describe the evolution of the Climate Justice Movement and give voice to the rights and concerns of the people who are usually the first and often the hardest hit by the impacts of global warming.

Corbin-Mark is Deputy Director of the Harlem-based organization, WE-ACT for Environmental Justice. In addition to his work in New York, Corbin-Mark has been active in United Nations and alternative global climate conversations from Copenhagen to Cochabamba to Cancun.
“Like slavery in antebellum America, climate change is one of the most important moral issues of our time,” said Martha Swan, director of the freedom education project John Brown Lives! which organizes the yearly event.

“Brown surely would have recognized that it is the world’s poor who disproportionately bear the brunt of climate change, so it is fitting that Climate Justice will be the focus of John Brown Day 2011. In this Sesquicentennial Year marking the start of the Civil War, we are honored that Cecil will be with us at this critical time.”

Other speakers at the annual event include David Goodman, brother of civil rights activist Andrew Goodman, murdered by the Ku Klux Klan during Mississippi Freedom Summer in
1964, Alice Kesey Mecoy, great-great-great granddaughter of John and Mary Brown, and Brother Yusef Burges. A trustee of the Children & Nature Network and an outdoor educator, Burgess will speak about the power of nature to transform youth. A frequent paddler on Adirondack waterways and former outreach and diversity coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Burgess works to connect Albany-area youth with the natural beauty and environmental issues of the Adirondacks.

John Brown Day 2011 is possible with the cooperation of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. The event is free and open to the public, and will be held outdoors under a tent.
For more information, contact Martha Swan, Director of John Brown Lives!, at 518-962-4758 or [email protected].

Old Forge Call For Quilts

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The 25th Annual Northeast Quilts Unlimited seeks entries. The Exhibition will be held at the Arts Center/Old Forge’s new building October 8 to November 30, 2011. Cash prizes will be awarded in several divisions including bed, wall, Art/Innovative, traditional quilt, Adirondack theme, and popular vote. The Northeast Quilts Unlimited is an open show- all quilts entered will be displayed, and judged for awards.

This year’s National Quilting Association Certified Judge is Molly Waddell. The deadline to enter the exhibition is August 27. The fee to enter is $10/$8 members per quilt, with a maximum of 2 entries per quilter.

For more information and entry forms visit www.ArtsCenterOldForge.org, or call the Arts Center at 315-369-6411.

The History of the 90-Miler in Rochester

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A special program, &#8220The History of the 90-Miler&#8221 will be held on May 5, 2011 in Rochester. Adirondack Museum Curator Hallie Bond will share the history of the &#822090-Miler&#8221 at the Midtown Athletic Club from 6:30 p.m. &#8211 8:00 p.m. The fee for the program is $10 per person, and includes a cocktail reception.

The &#822090-Miler&#8221 or Adirondack Canoe Classic is a canoe and guideboat race that celebrates the era of human-powered boats in the Adirondacks. The race begins in Old Forge, N.Y. and proceeds up the Fulton Chain of Lakes into Raquette Lake and on to the Saranac Lakes, finishing in the Village of Saranac Lake. In its 28th year, the event is so popular that registration is capped at 250 boats.

Special guest Nancie Battaglia will share photographs of the race, including her award winning aerial photo of the 90-miler chosen as one of Sports Illustrated&#8216-s 2009 Pictures of the Year. A renowned Lake Placid, N.Y. based photographer, Nancie Battaglia is a regular contributor to the New York Times and Adirondack Life magazine and shot the 2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver.

The ninety-mile water route from Old Forge to Saranac Lake forms what was known a century and a half ago as the &#8220Great Central Valley&#8221 of the Adirondacks. It was the best route through the wilderness at the time &#8211 easier travel than roads, which were distinguished by quagmires, corduroy, steep inclines, and rocks. The key to traveling via waterway was the Adirondack guideboat. The Great Central Valley is no longer the most efficient way to get through the Adirondacks, but still has tremendous appeal to people who follow it to experience the woods and waters as the original travelers did.

The Adirondack Museum invites all those who have taken part in the 90-Miler, to come and share your own stories of adventure.

Reservations must be made directly with the Midtown Athletic Club by calling (585) 461-2300.

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 &#8216-A Paradise for Boys and Girls’: Children’s Camps in the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press, 2005.

Photo: Paddlers in the 90-Miler by Nancie Battaglia.