Adirondack History Museum staff are pleased to host a Fires of the High Peaks Lecture by Sharp Swan on the evening of Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m. The start of the 20th Century saw massive forest fires throughout the Adirondack region. Between 1903 and 1913, about 862,000 acres of forest burned.
The year 2022 marks the centennial of three historic events that ignited public interest in exploring the Adirondack wilderness and climbing the “46” high peaks: formation of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), publication of Robert Marshall’s High Peaks of the Adirondacks, and Grace Hudowalski’s first 46er ascent of Mount Marcy.
The Adirondack History Museum invites the public to celebrate these three seminal events on August 6, 2022. The day-long celebration will include lectures and presentations, a special screening of the film “The Mountains Will Wait for You,” and a retrospective on the history and future of the Adirondack Mountain Club.
A new exhibit featuring this significant year in Adirondack history and its effect on recreation, development, and stewardship in the High Peaks will be on display. Programs will be followed by musical selections by Peggy Lynn and Dan Duggan, as well as a reception recognizing ADK’s 100th anniversary.
ELIZABETHTOWN: Artist Randi Renate will be speaking about her current sculpture, “blue is the atmospheric refraction I see you through,” which is now on view outside the Adirondack History Museum. The sculpture is a large participatory installation open to the public since August 2021.
“Blue is the atmospheric refraction I see you through” is a sculptural encounter in which two viewers have similar yet distinct experiences of climbing twin spiraling staircases recessed into a larger dome. Its twin staircases require mirrored movement, activating mirror neurons. Shared movements trigger these neurons, which enhance human empathy. The passage culminates in an exposed meeting point that maintains a distanced perspective—from one another as well as from the surrounding landscape.
The event will begin with an outdoor artist talk moderated by the museum’s director Aurora McCaffrey starting at 5 pm on Sunday, July 3.
Work progressing on sculpture “blue is the atmospheric refraction I see you through”
The internal stairway and frame of a new, temporary sculpture are taking shape outside the Adirondack History Museum. A scaffold of thick, fresh-sawn local cedar from Westport has slowly taken shape on a patch of lawn centered in front of the Colonial Garden.
Sculptor Randi Renate, of San Antonio, Texas, is a recent Masters in Fine Arts graduate from Yale School of Art where her thesis installation went unseen due to Covid-19 restrictions. Her transit to and through the Adirondack Mountains last year provided months of inspiration, and this work, she said, is a way to share her gratitude.
ELIZABETHTOWN — Doors to the Adirondack History Museum opened Memorial Day weekend with additions and new exhibits that promise to intrigue, inform and delight.
Lobby and ground floor rooms and halls welcome area residents and guests to explore the history of fishing in the Adirondacks with Gone Fishin’, a look at how lakes, ponds, and rivers sustained and challenged fishermen going back to the earliest inhabitants of these lands. Some of the Essex County Historical Society’s most rare fishing rods, lures and reels are on display.
The Adirondack History Museum has announced their upcoming online auction fundraiser, set to run November 29th through December 8th.
The Museum is seeking donated items from the public which they can put up for bid to help support the museum and at the same time, promote local brands and products to a target audience of nearly 2,000 active, local museum supporters. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown has announced a Historians Day Workshop, set for October 16th, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm.
Prof. Gerald Zahavi, historian and Director of the Documentary Studies Program at the University at Albany, will present a workshop on strategies for film, video and audio media preservation, restoration, and digital conversion and reformatting. » Continue Reading.
State University at Albany History Professor Gerald Zahavi is set to give a lecture on the dynamics of gender and the importance of women in the temperance movement, on Thursday, August 29th, at the Adirondack History Museum.
The lecture “Dry Women-Wet Men: Gender, Temperance, and the Fight for Prohibition” will look at the early years of the struggle for a “dry” America and the National Prohibition of alcohol following the the passage 18th Amendment on January 16, 1919. » Continue Reading.
During the 1930s and ‘40s, Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was one of America’s most famous personalities.
A longtime resident of the Adirondacks, he was a foremost illustrator of his day, creating definitive drawings for literary classics such as Moby Dick, Candide and The Canterbury Tales. Kent was also a prolific oil painter, author and traveler. » Continue Reading.
A historic exhibit marking the 100th Anniversary of the Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower is set to open on Thursday, August 8th, at the Adirondack History Museum.
Festivities begin at 5 pm with a reception featuring a local Hurricane brew from Ledge Hill Brewery, and tours of the new exhibit. » Continue Reading.
I’m sure each corner of the Adirondacks has its own stories of bootleggers, moonshine, and the 18th Amendment prohibiting the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
Adirondack Almanack founder John Warren has one in his family. Families in little Beaver River over in Herkimer County, and in Hague and Witherbee have stories, as does about every family that remains from that time.
Each year Chestertown remembers the Prohibition Era with its Rum Runners Weekend and the 3rd Annual Wilmington Historical Society Whiskey Run on June 15th features a speakeasy.
As the centennial of the start of Prohibition approaches, the Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown is also showcasing Adirondack stories from the era. » Continue Reading.
Car collectors and enthusiasts from far and wide will be on hand displaying beautifully restored and maintained muscle cars, vintage roadsters, hot rods and more at the Adirondack History Museum’s 8th Annual Antique and Classic Car Show, on Saturday, June 8th from 11 am to 2 pm.
Admission is free, vintage cars will be exhibited on the museum grounds on Hand Avenue in Elizabethtown. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack History Museum’s 2019 Season focuses on Wild Times in the Adirondacks. 2019 marks the centennial of the 18th Amendment’s ratification which not only began Prohibition but also ushered in a period of lawlessness across the country.
An exhibit at the museum in Elizabethtown, Bootleggers and the Law in the Adirondacks, explores how the region was part of major bootlegging routes between Canada and New York City. The popular Adirondack Suffragists exhibit has been expanded to examine the Temperance Movement, which opposed the consumption of alcoholic beverages. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack History Museum is starting a campaign to gather as many Adirondack 46er summit canisters as possible to incorporate in their Hiking the Adirondack High Peaks exhibit.
The Museum currently has four canisters, from Seward, Marshall, Santanoni, and Esther. Their goal is to be the repository for the entire collection, to be permanently displayed at the Adirondack History Museum. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack History Museum has announced their annual Historian’s Day event has been set for Friday, October 12th, from 10 am to 2 pm. This years theme is “Researching Diversity in the Adirondacks” and will feature three guest presenters. » Continue Reading.
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