THE IMPORTANCE OF (LOCAL) HISTORY
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 […]
Coloring Our Past
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 […]
Revisiting Slavery in Columbia County
It’s February, Black History Month, and we’ve revisited and updated our 2021 post about slavery in the Hudson Valley. New sources helped us to better understand not just how widespread and tenacious the institution of slavery was in the Hudson Valley, but also to appreciate the magnitude of the struggle for freedom fought by those held in chattel slavery. We […]
