1,000 year old Syrian vessels

Hello all! This is Lucy. I haven't posted in a while, but I actually got to see something amazing today, so I though I would write about it. I met with a man whose grandfather was a British missionary in Syria and brought back some interesting pieces. The pieces are of museum quality, and were in fact showcased in a Princeton museum for several years. The pieces are over 1,000 years old.

Here are the pictures:

NC Trip



Biltmore Mansion



Biltmore Garden



Hey, this is Gabriel. I recently had the opportunity to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina while on vacation. The estate and the surrounding property belonged to George Vanderbilt. He was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the famous railroad magnate. The Biltmore property was constructed in 1895 and encompasses over 8,000 acres of land. The mansion consisted of 250 rooms. The house had a bathroom with a toilet being one of first homes to have one. Some of the other rooms were a library, guest room, and a dining hall. In addition, there was a swimming pool inside the house and a bowling alley, which were added later in the 1920's. There was also a large garden that is part of the estate. The garden and surrounding property was so massive, I was not able to see all of it. Though, from what I could tell it was very elegant and well organized. Interestingly enough, the grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted, who helped with the design of Central Park.

Pressed Plants

Hey everyone, this is Madeline. Today I was at the homestead taking pictures for another blog I was planning to write when we stumbled across a "Herbarium and Plant Descriptions" book in one of the book cases. That was rather serendipitous seeing as I wanted to do a little research on the herbs in our herb garden out by the summer kitchen. I was totally expecting to find a plant encyclopedia between the covers, but instead I found brief directions on how to collect, dry, press, and identify plants followed by a thick stack of completed forms for recording plant observations. I couldn't read the writing on most of the forms - they were filled out in a light, scribbled cursive - but I found something completely unexpected while looking for something I could read... a perfectly preserved pressed plant! The colors on the flowers were even still visible, and the roots were still there, too. As I kept flipping through, I found more plants, all equally as well preserved. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I must say, decades-old, well-preserved biological material was certainly an exciting surprise! The geneticist in me sincerely wishes I could take a little bit of a leaf or something and look at the genes. Look for what, I don't know, but the thought that something so fragile as living tissue (and thus DNA!) has been well preserved between common sheets of paper for probably almost a century now is incredibly thrilling.

The cover of the book we found today.

Directions on how to press and identify plants.

Surprise! The flowers are beautifully preserved! I can't figure out how to get the picture rotated online (it's properly oriented on my computer) but at least you can get the idea.

Second House Museum

Erika here! I recently was on vacation in Montauk New York and took a trip to their local historic site the Second House Museum (more info here http://www.montauklighthouse.com/second_house.htm)
What I thought was interesting was the similarities between Second House and the Wright Reis Homestead. Both are relatively small structures, and both house artifacts from a large span of time in history. While Second House organized it's rooms by time period, choosing to display artifacts from similar time periods together, the Wright-Reis Homestead is organized more as if we stopped by to visit Caroline, this is what her house would probably look like. A mix of different times and objects from many different people and places. I just thought it was really cool that both houses have the same goal to show the properties history, but do it in equally successful and incredibly different ways.
Some cool Second House pictures:

An ice-cream maker

 Their stove, looks a lot like our summer kitchen! Many of the same artifacts and some cool new ones, old-fashioned toaster!

 Some gorgeous china, specially ordered by one of the houses owners for entertaining.

GHHN Behind the Scenes Networking Event



Burial Site of the Fishkill Supply Depot

 

 

Monument created by the Daughters of the American Revolution in late 19th century marking the Fishkill Supply Depot grave site. It was later moved to the Van Wyck Homestead. 

 The Greater Hudson Heritage Networking event at the Van Wyck Homestead was informative and I learned a great deal about the Fishkill Supply Depot. The depot was a key location during the Revolutionary War where key supplies for the war effort were dropped off and stored for the Continental Army. The Homestead itself served as the officers headquarters for the Continental Army with General Israel Putnam being the first general to use it. In addition, many notable figures of the war visited this location at least once including George Washingtion and Marquis de Layfayette. I also learned about how the supply depot served as a hospital where the sick and wounded were treated. In addition, it was burial ground for soldiers that died from their injuries or disease. Interestingly enough, grave site was considered just a local legend until in 2007, an archaeological dig was conducted in the surrounding area of the supply depot and about 300 unmarked graves of Continental soldiers were discovered. However, the land that the grave site was on was at risk of being developed to build houses. In response, the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot group was founded with the mission to preserve the burial site. At the event, I learned more about the work the group was trying to accomplish including the goal of getting the U.S Congress to amend the Battlefield Protection Act to include the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

I had the opportunity to meet some of the members of the Fishkill Historical Society and the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot. I also had the chance to see the area where the graveyard is located. In addition, I got to see the various rooms in the homestead as well as the artifacts that were found around the homestead that were put on display. 

Gabriel

project update

For the Sound and Story project that I am working on I have listened to a few interesting audio files of a Mr. McElroy sharing some intriguing experiences that he's had. He witnessed the assassination of President Mckinely in 1901 and describes the strong impact it had on him. He also talked about going to the Danbury Fair with William Bailey in 1908 and how they encountered a snake on the road on their way back. Mr. McElroy then mentions how Mr. Bailey ended up killing the snake with a whip and later put it on his hat for good luck.

I also reviewed some of the ideas for the stories that are going to be submitted for the project. Some of the stories include a few of Mr. McElroy's experiences as well as the story called "No N's Allowed", which is about Mr. Johnson one of the first African-Americans to own a Harley Davidson dealership in Somers. In addition, I started looking for some photos to go along with them. I also had the opportunity to look at the list of items including photos and other objects that are part of the Somers Historical Society collection and found some interesting items like the Elephant hotel guestbook from the early 20th century and posters from World War II.

Gabriel

July 2013:  I was recently at the local library and decided to do a little more research on Carry's clothing; however there was only one book available on historic clothing styles and it detailed 18th Century clothing. While I really needed a 19th century clothing book, I looked through the 18th century clothing book and found a reference to dressmakers.  It stated that "Dressmakers in Europe often sent dolls in the latest clothing styles to the colonies. These dolls were called moppets".  It showed the dolls being stored in similar boxes found at the Homestead, like the one in the upstairs parlor with the clothes pin dolls.  From looking at the photos in the 18th century book,  it seemed like the small porcelain dolls that are packed away at the Homestead might be the same kind of dolls that are in this book. While it's a different time period, it seemed like there were dolls, clothing, and storage packages similar to those used in the 19th century as well.  It was an interesting  find!  (Book Reference:  Historic Communities:  18th Century Clothing by Bobbie Kalman - I'm looking to see if this author and/or others have books available for 19th century clothing too).
Athena