Browse Exhibits (37 total)
Mary Powell: Queen of the Hudson
Built in 1861, decommissioned in 1917, and scrapped between 1920 and 1926, the Mary Powell remained a Hudson Valley constant during a period of incredible social and technological change in the United States. She saw the duration of the Civil War, the industrial revolution, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and the start of the First World War. Called "Queen of the Hudson" before construction was even completed, the Mary Powell became an iconic symbol of "America's Rhine." Operated for most of her career by one enterprising family - the Andersons - Mary Powell also represented the best of Hudson River travel - the speed, elegance, safety, and attention to detail that made travel by water preferable for many throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
New Paltz Historic Documents Project
The New Paltz Historic Documents Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a collaboration between four institutions with collections of historical documents: Historic Huguenot Street, the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at Elting Memorial Library, the Reformed Church of New Paltz, and the Town of New Paltz. The project consists of conserving (as needed), digitizing, and making available online early documents from New Paltz and surrounding communities, ranging in date from the mid-1600s to 1830 with some mid and later 19th-century documents included.
New Paltz in the Civil War
This exhibit includes the entire 1863 New Paltz Enrollment Book and its transcription, a consideration of conscription laws, an examination of particular New Paltz regiments, a partial list of Civil War veterans buried at the New Paltz Rural Cemetery, and a look through the eyes of individuals who experienced the war.
Poverty in Early New Paltz
This exhibit is a study of the history of poverty and social welfare in the town of New Paltz, New York. The 1805 Overseer of the Poor Ledger is included with additional documents dating from 1767-1827.
Provincial Exile
While no Revolutionary War battles took place in New Paltz, New York, the conflict drastically impacted the lives of two men, brothers Roelof Josiah Eltinge and Solomon Eltinge, as well as their family. Roelof Josiah and Solomon were accused of being Loyalists to the British side after refusing to accept paper currency produced by the Continental Congress in their family store. As a result, both brothers were imprisoned and eventually exiled to live behind enemy lines in British-controlled New York for the duration of the war, leaving behind their elderly parents, siblings, and Roelof Josiah’s wife Maria and their eleven children.
Drawn primarily from original eighteenth-century documents in the Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) Archives and the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection, Elting Memorial Library, this exhibit updates and expands upon text written for an earlier HHS exhibit. It adds to the story of Solomon Eltinge and highlights the experiences of Roelof Josiah’s wife Maria Louw and their family.
Quilts of Historic Huguenot Street
This exhibit features quilts, created using a variety of quilting techniques, from the collection at Historic Huguenot Street.
Rescuing the River: 50 Years of Environmental Activism on the Hudson
This exhibit traces the role of the Hudson River in the American environmental movement and the influence of individuals and organizations like Scenic Hudson, Riverkeeper, Clearwater, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in cleaning up the Hudson River. Using primary sources like photographs and paintings, newspaper articles, ephemera, and oral histories, this exhibit provides a comprehensive and river-wide look at environmentalism from the 19th century forward, with special emphasis on the 1960s-90s.
Rising Time: Artifacts from the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History
In Rising Time, the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History presents artifacts collected from one building to tell twin stories of continuity and change in Kingston's Rondout community between the 1870s and 2004. The exhibit marks the culmination of a major project taken place during the summer of 2017, to research and catalog the Reher Center's collection of over 5,000 artifacts. This research was an integral step toward the Center's eventual goal of converting the historic site into an immersive site-specific museum.
Ruth Lynda Deyo
Ruth Lynda Deyo was a pianist, composer, intellectual, international traveler, lecturer, and artist drawn to mysticism and the occult. This exhibit highlights Historic Huguenot Street's Ruth Lynda Deyo collection, comprising nine items ranging from 1904 to 1937.
Storied Objects: a material history of New Paltz
This exhibition brings together a collection of artifacts, tools, knick-knacks, books, clothing, and other items that collectively tell the stories of New Paltz, New York.