THE IMPORTANCE OF (LOCAL) HISTORY
The Name Game
For this special tenth anniversary issue, Main Street Magazine uncovered the interesting history behind some of our local towns and how they were granted their names – and this is just a tiny sampling!
As we go about our daily lives – going to work, shopping, attending cultural events, and gathering with friends – we often find ourselves in different towns […]
Collecting 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 […]
Collecting Forgotten History
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 […]
Curated by the Community
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 […]

