Quadricentennial wrapup

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: October 6, 2009 | 0 Comments

With the opening of the Walkway Over the Hudson on Oct. 3, linking Highland with Poughkeepsie with a mid-air promenade over the Hudson River, my coverage of the Quadricentennial comes to a close.

As hundreds of walkers, joggers and bikers made their way back and forth over the wide walkway on Monday, making room around photographers, baby strollers, dogs and wheelchairs, it struck me how the Hudson Valley has united over this river during the past year of celebrations.  We’ve brought our readers coverage of spring tulips, historical boats, lectures and conferences, art, Native Americans, Dutch royals and maritime historians. 

It was just a few years ago that Congressman Maurice Hinchey and representatives from Walkway Over the Hudson and the National Park Service made their way around the rusted, hole-riddled bridge to its center to announce the vision for the bridge. I remember among the media throng was a radio reporter with vertigo who had to be carried to the ceremony, clutching her microphone to her chest, terrified eyes never straying from the river’s surface hundreds of feet down between the well spaced railroad ties. The dream that it would one day be as safe as a baby’s crib and wide enough that all could comfortably share the pathway seemed so far in the future and marked the Hudson River Quadricentennial that reached so deeply into the past.  The completed bridge is a legacy gift to all those who love the Hudson River, both acknowledging its past and assuming stewardship for its future.

Only a few Quadricentennial-themed events remain, and all are worth checking out.

The Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz will continue to show a magnificent collection of Hudson River landscape paintings and photo panoramas through November. The Art Society of Kingston, 97 Broadway, Kingston, will show contemporary Hudson River landscape paintings through Oct. 31. Dutch artist Hendrik Dijk’s encaustic works are on display through Nov. 14 at R&F Encaustics, 84 Ten Broeck Ave in Kingston.

The Saugerties Historical Society will offer “Celebration of Hudson Valley Families from Kiersteds to Robinsons” from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 18 at the society building, 110 Main St., Saugerties.

Lastly, Fran Dunwell will talk about her book “The Hudson: America’s River” on Nov. 14 at the Klyne Esopus Museum, 764 Route 9W, in Esopus. The start time will be announced on the museum’s website as the date draws closer, www.klyneesopusmuseum.org.

Thanks to all of the readers who’ve shared this blog-journey through the Quadricentennial celebration year with me.  We release it back to the tides on the river that runs both ways.

–Deborah Medenbach

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West Point only royal stop in Hudson Valley

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: August 12, 2009 | 0 Comments

Netherland’s Prince Willem Alexander of Orange will come to the Hudson Valley in September before any of the Quadricentennial weekend celebrations in New York City, the Netherlands Consulate announced this week.

The prince plans to speak to cadets in the late morning of Sept. 8 and stay for lunch at West Point before continuing on to meet with dignitaries in Albany.  There are no other Hudson Valley stops planned at this point, officials said.

The prince and his wife Princess Maxima will participate in numerous Quadricentennial events during Sept. 9-13 in New York City, marking 400 years of positive relations between the Netherlands and America.  Henry Hudson explored the waterways of northeastern America 400 years ago on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, searching for an Asian trade passage.

Quadricentennial Celebration weekend also marks the state’s Heritage Weekend, Quadricentennial Commission chairwoman Joan Davidson said. More than 100 parks, historic sites and museums will be open for free or reduced rates Sept. 12-13. The Preservation League of New York State’s “Seven to Save” Quadricentennial sites will be open, locally including the Fort Montgomery at Rouses Point and the Plumb Bronson House, currently under restoration. For a full schedule, go to www.heritageweekend.org.

–Deborah Medenbach

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Insight into a Lenape world

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: August 6, 2009 | 0 Comments

Ellis Island Immigration Museum curator Dr. David Oestreicher is nearly beside himself trying to get the Lenape exhibit ready to open by Sept. 1. An ethnographer and archeologist, Oestreicher is excited about the six galleries that will be devoted to the Lenape people from prehistory to today. His enthusiasm is contagious.

“This is unique. From its inception 14 years ago as a traveling exhibit, we’ve worked with Lenape and Delaware people to follow a narrative from 12,000 BCE to now. We have current elders talking about the objects in the collection and what they mean and how they were used. Of the early Lenape language, only two dialects survived, so we have information by people who could say what it felt  like to be the last person who spoke that language,” Oestreicher said.

Oestreicher started talking with tribal leaders when he was a teen and his interest has continued throughout his life. “I worked with the last of the traditionalists,” he said. He’s been consulting with Lenape elders from Oklahoma to bring depth to the exhibit and even feels six galleries of space is not nearly enough for the extensive collection that will be exhibited together for the first time.

The third gallery in the exhibit is dedicated to the Lenape people who would have greeted Henry Hudson and the crew of the Half Moon in 1609. First Mate Robert Juet’s journals from the time mention the Lenape brought gifts of tobacco and beans and smoked from yellow copper pipes. The pipes themselves speak of an extensive trade network throughout North America that was already hundreds of years old by the time Henry Hudson arrived.

“The native people here didn’t have the ability to manufacture copper on their own,” Oestreicher said. “Sometimes there were shipwrecks on the coast and they would forage things and rework it, but there was also a trade network and in mound cultures in Ohio, objects were found that were from as far as the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.”

Oestreicher said the exhibit will show the different groupings of local people. “They didn’t view themselves as one main group. The people in Manhattan were enemies of the Jersey City area tribes.”

Hudson’s arrival was met with perplexed confusion as early native songs depicted Hudson’s boat as possibly a sea monster or a visit from the creator himself. A few days later one sailor was shot through the neck with an arrow.

“It’s possible he violated a taboo or the local people were trying to get status over a powerful being,” Oestreicher speculated.

Hudson’s sailors viewed the natives with equal skepticism, sometimes welcoming them, sometimes taking prisoners. The farther up river the Half Moon went, the more cultural conflict they encountered. By the time Hudson got to New England, his crew destroyed a village.

“It ends badly,” Oestreicher summed up.

For more information, go to www.ellisisland.org.

–Deborah Medenbach

 

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French Ambassador visits in honor of trail designation along the Hudson River

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: July 29, 2009 | 0 Comments

The Henry Hudson Quadricentennial isn’t the only historic passage along the banks of the Hudson River being celebrated this summer.  The designation of the 600-mile Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route from Newport, RI to Yorktown, VA was recognized with a luncheon on July 25 at Boscobel in Garrison, attended by Ambassador Pierre Vimont of France, Rep. Maurice Hinchey and Rep. Nita Lowey.  Ambassador Vimont  toured the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and participated in several public events to celebrate the passage of federal legislation making the official trail designation that honored the 1781 journey by the armies of Gen. George Washington and Gen. Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau of France.  In honor of the occasion, Boscobel exhibited “French Marches Through the Hudson River Valley, 1781-1782,” a collection of paintings by David R. Wagner, in the Thompson Room where the luncheon was served. 

 

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A queen, an artist and the river

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: July 27, 2009 | 0 Comments

John Zaccheo was a teenager on his way to school when he saw Queen Beatrix’s car slowly making its way down Broadway in Kingston.  Netherlands’  young royal, who was 21 at the time of her visit in 1959, waved at well wishers through the car’s open windows, no security details in sight. Zaccheo extended his hand tentatively. The queen grasped and shook it, and the boy went off into his day with the memory of the moment embedded forever.

Today Zaccheo is a successful artist whose paintings are in museums and the private collections of world leaders and celebrities. He’s had decades as an art director and marketing leader and has been commissioned to commemorate key moments in history with his art. Neil Armstrong owns his painting of the moon landing. His commissioned painting of the signing of the Egypt/Israel peace treaty is in the collections of several heads of state.

Zaccheo now divides his time between homes in Vermont and Kingston, where his family has lived for generations.  When the Quadricentennial celebrations for Henry Hudson’s 1609 journey up the Hudson River were announced, he approached Mayor James Sottile about creating a limited edition print of a painting of Hudson’s boat, the Half Moon, off the shores of Kingston. The mayor not only agreed, but also purchased the original painting for the city’s collection, which hangs in City Hall on Broadway.

“We’ve sold a great number of prints, maybe 300, and I hope that if the prince of the Netherlands comes here, I can present one to him. A small version has already been given to the captain of the Half Moon and I’m told it hangs on a wall below decks,” Zaccheo said.  The prints are sold through the city and profits benefit Quadricentennial celebration programs.

The artist has lived his entire adult life through the images that have flowed through his hands onto canvas. The full itinerary for Prince Willem Alexander’s fall visit has not yet been announced, but Zaccheo said he’d be willing to travel if there would be an opportunity to present the painting to son of the young queen who grasped the hand of a budding artist 50 years ago.

–Deborah Medenbach

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Lenape welcome

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: July 20, 2009 | 0 Comments

Groups on Ellis Island have welcomed newcomers to America long before the immigration center was established there.  Henry Hudson was welcomed 400 years ago by the Manhatta band of the Lenape Indians, who offered food and pipes and good company.  An exhibit opens the first week of September called “Ellis Island’s First Inhabitants: Lenape” at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and will remain on display through January 10.

Judy Giuricio, curator at the museum, said the exhibit tells the story of the Lenape Indians from prehistory through today and includes information about language, culture and religious traditions of this group of native people who continue to live throughout the Hudson River Valley.

“There are a number of people in the Lenape community who’ve been working to preserve their language and have been making recordings,” Giuricio said. “They didn’t live on Liberty or Ellis Islands, but there are shell middens here that indicate they would have worked and fished here.”  

 

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Royal snippets

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: July 13, 2009 | 0 Comments

The Royal Netherlands Embassy made the official announcement on June 25 of Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange and his wife Princess Maxima’s scheduled September 9-13 visit to New York to help celebrate the Quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s historic journey.

 I met with consular representatives back in early June to learn more about the rumored plans and how the international celebration might make it’s way up into the Hudson Valley.

Initial plans were for a weekend celebration in New York Harbor with five Dutch super-yachts, 15 to 20 traditional Dutch flat bottom boats, frigates, minesweepers, fighter jets and a flotilla of 70 to 90 Flying Dutchmen sailboats. A 70-member marine band from the Netherlands is scheduled to play for the celebration.  Since Sept. 13 is traditionally Harbor Day, the NATO fleet is also expected to participate.

The Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson’s original vessel of 1609, will proceed up the river accompanied by other historic vessels, the Dutch flatboats and perhaps some of the Flying Dutchmen. 

The royal couple will participate in numerous events in New York City, but also might make appearances in the mid-Hudson and Albany. More about that as the time draws nearer.

In my conversation with Marjan Inber, consulate spokesperson for NY400 Holland-on-the-Hudson events, the celebration in September harkens back to a visit 50 years ago by the Prince’s mother Queen Beatrix, who was just 21 at the time. Some of the images held by the New York Historical Society had never been seen by the crown prince before the celebration preparations for this fall uncovered them. 

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Access to a Celebrated River

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: July 8, 2009 | 0 Comments

When Congressman Maurice Hinchey announced last month that there would be $40,000 for the planning of EcoDocks along the Hudson River, I was curious. What on earth is an EcoDock? Visions of recycled plastic decking on preservative-free pilings clouded my thinking.

Architect Huntley Gill, of New York City’s Guardia Architects, straightened out the mystery. 

“The need for EcoDocks showed up when the John J. Harvey Fireboat began touring the Hudson River after 2001. There were many towns that couldn’t have us come in because they didn’t have access to the river. It was frustrating. When we were planning educational programs with historic vessels, there were all these great towns we couldn’t visit because they didn’t have docks anymore,” Gill explained.

This year’s Quadricentennial celebrations have several river tour events involving historic boats from the US and the Netherlands and celebration organizers got their heads together around docking solutions that would be easy, environmentally sound and could be installed quickly in any community.

“We decided on Spud Barges, because people on the Hudson are familiar with barges and what they’re about,” Gill said. The spud barges are a simple steel barge in two sizes that have anchoring rods that are driven into the river bottom. They are usually used as temporary working decks for waterfront projects, but there’s no reason they can’t serve as a permanent installation, Gill said. The can also be removed and towed to a central barge storage area for the winter season.

The ”Eco” part of EcoDocks is that  the designers consulted with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to address concerns and potential permitting issues. Installation of the docks doesn’t involve any disturbance of the riverbanks. “Basically you bring the barge in, put down the rods and have a gang plank to the shore. There’s no disturbance,” Gill said, citing the nearly $2 million expense of rebuilding a bulkhead in Kingston’s waterfront area near the Cornell Building. EcoDocks would be inexpensive solutions compared to traditional bulkhead construction and can accommodate large ships.

“You have to make it a flexible part of the waterfront without all the complexities of ecological assessments and with an absolute minimum of interference with the waterfront,” Gill said.

It’s rumored that in a few weeks additional money will be available for towns along the Hudson to apply for the installation of these EcoDocks in one of two sizes. The docks are already designed and could be built at any boat yard along the river. Kingston’s Feeney’s yard has already constructed a sample that’s used at Norrie Point.  

“This could be a wonderful legacy project that will allow towns to re-attach themselves to their past as riverfront towns. It could be a whole necklace of visitable waterfronts all up and down the Hudson,” Gill said.

 

 

 

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River of money

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: June 24, 2009 | 0 Comments

Congressman Maurice Hinchey and the National Parks Service announced on June 23 that $750,000 had been allocated for several Quadricentennial celebration projects. The money was tagged on to an additional $492,000 the congressman secured last year.

Today’s Times Herald-Record article by Jeremiah Horrigan highlighted the top three items, but the rest of the grants provide fascinating insight into how the Hudson Valley will respond to this historic moment in time. 

The next few blogs will give you information about some of the unique projects that received funding. Here are a few you can look for:

– The installation of Quadricentennial EcoDocks. What’s an EcoDock and why is it important? Find out here next week.

–The completion of a documentary about the early Dutch settlements, set for release in September.

–National Geographic’s web-based exploration of the Hudson.  Let’s talk to the project organizers at NG and see how this will  look.

–The story of the Lenape Indians from prehistory through current times and the museum that will house this wealth of cultural research

There are education, tourism, cultural and conference-related grants that also received funding. I’ll bring you the most interesting ones.  $250,000 was slated for the Lake Champlain celebrations, which are out of our coverage area. I wish them well in their projects, but you won’t be reading about those here.

Check back here next week for more,

–Deborah Medenbach

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Ahoy! Where Lies Sustainability?

By Deborah Medenbach | Published: June 8, 2009 | 0 Comments

The carpenters paused during construction of Solange Fabiao’s “Path to Hudson” sculpture in the woods to talk in amazement about the trouble she’d taken to choose materials certified to be from forests that were managed in environmentally responsible ways.  It was more expensive, but was a principle the Brazilian architect would not compromise on in bringing her vision to the woods around Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock.

Fabaio’s installation is one of a dozen sculptures designed by 16 architects as tributes to Henry Hudson, had his bones ever been found. While explorers 400 years ago were all about cataloguing resources they could exploit, Fabaio bridges the centuries with the idea of stewardship of resources and practical sustainability.

Curator Linda Weintraub said the difference in having installations built by architects instead of sculptors is that architects expect and plan for visitors to be climbing, circling and interacting with the pieces rather than just observing them. Fabiao’s piece is a “hallway” in the woods with a ladder and ramp on top that can also be climbed and walked. Weintraub advised visitors not to expect a 20-minute drive-through cultural experience. Most of the installations are in the woods, so wear hiking boots and plan to spend time with each piece, since they usually use the surrounding landscape for impact.  Picnickers welcome.

The exhibit opening for “Ahoy! Where Lies Henry Hudson” is on June 13 on the grounds of Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock.  Participating architects are Tobias Armborst; Byron Bell; Matthew Bialecki; Matt Bua; John Cetra; Nancy Ruddy; Solange Fabiao; Randolph Gerner; Nicholas Goldsmith; Michael McDonough; Andrew Neal; Barry Price; Todd Rader; Amy Crews; Evan Stoller; Gisela Stromeyer and Les Walker. The show remains in place until October. For installation descriptions, go to www.woodstockguild.org.

–Deborah Medenbach

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