The Friends of Historic Saugerties will present “The Catskill Tanneries: An Environmental Disaster with a Happy Ending” on Saturday, May 5 at 2 p.m. in the community room of the Saugerties Public Library, 91 Washington Ave.
Pulitzer Prizewinner Edna St. Vincent Millay has stood the test of time both as poet, feminist and cultural icon. Without help, Steepletop, her 200-acre preserved home and grounds in the Columbia County town of Austerlitz, will close to the public.
Saturday, April 28: All the historic houses on the tour started as one- or two-room houses. Most of them were constructed of stone, while others had stone foundations and were built of clapboard. Over the centuries, the houses were expanded. The houses on this tour reflect a range of the decisions owners had to make: how much of the original house should be preserved, what features should be kept, what features could be added.
Saturday, April 21: The show spotlights more than 150 colorful World War II posters drawn from the Library’s enormous collection of more than 3,000 wartime posters. Among the talented graphic artists who created these posters for government agencies were Norman Rockwell, N. C. Wyeth, Ben Shahn and Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss).
Saturday, April 21: Lowell Thomas (1892-1981), who long made his home in Pawling, was a pioneer broadcaster, journalist, lecturer, author, globetrotter, raconteur and media technology innovator.
Saturday, April 21: Robert Livingston was among the first to bring prized Merino sheep to the United States.
Opens on Saturday, April 21: Visitors will have the opportunity to hear the voice of a woman who grew up driving a mule along the D & H Canal from the interior of a canalboat cabin. Children can operate small canalboats through a scale-model canal with mechanical locks and an aqueduct. A large 3-D topographical map showcases how the geography of the state influenced canal routes.
Thursday, 4/19 and several dates afterward: In his ongoing 100 Novels project, Youd specializes in retyping novels (with the same make and model typewriter used by the author) from beginning to end in locations that are charged with literary significance in the author’s biography. The retyping of Mary McCarthy’s The Group will constitute the 56th novel that Youd has typed, and is one of several titles that he will undertake in the Hudson Valley in 2018.
“I think we’re in a particular moment right now, with all of the young entrepreneurs coming to live here and revitalizing a lot of the Hudson Valley. They’re doing so many interesting things, all connecting to our past, in a way: They’re bringing back chicken farms, working with bees and there’s even somebody in Accord beginning to make barrels again – a trade that went on there for years. There is so much happening here now, and I would love to record some of their stories, and capture this moment in history as it’s happening.”
National Women’s History Month is an opportunity to recognize those previously overlooked. A fitting example is the story of the first female lighthouse keeper at the Saugerties station.