THE IMPORTANCE OF (LOCAL) HISTORY

When you really consider the everyday things around you, they start to seem like tiny miracles. – Amy Shearn

Next June 12 marks the 40th anniversary of the dedication of the “old Copake Falls Church” as home to the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society (RJHS) and Museum. The building itself, rescued from neglect and adaptively repurposed, turned 130 years old in 2022. Throughout […]

Alexandra Peters gave me a private tour of her sampler collection on display at the Sharon Historical Society through October just after this enthralling exhibition opened in June. It was a very personal introduction to the art and meaning of needlework samplers which reveal the lives of American girls and their families from 1700 to 1850. The professionally hung show […]

As of 2021, according to statistics from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, little more than 240,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War ll are alive today. Last year marked the 80th anniversary of what President Franklin D. Roosevelt would famously call “a date which will live in infamy.” The Japanese attack on the American naval […]

Last school year, our Searching for Slavery class was encouraged to explore ways to authentically share our work with the community. The idea of a public event appealed to us.

Fast forward to this year, nine community schools – public and independent, middle, and high school – gathered on April 28 and 29 at Troutbeck in Amenia, NY, to share the […]