An Attempt at Research

Hi everyone, this is Madeline.

I have a thing for herbs (if my last post about the pressed plants hasn't made it obvious). As I headed off to school last semester, I couldn't help but think, "My school is a large, Land Grant, research institution with a large horticulture section in the library. I bet I can find a whole bunch of information on the herbs in our herb garden there..." And thus I set out on a mission to learn about the herbs in our herb garden.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned the herb garden yet, but I, my mom, and some other volunteers planted the herb garden a number of years ago outside of the summer kitchen. The idea was to cultivate a small garden similar to what Caroline and her family might have grown. It currently houses a number of popular plants: tansy, mint, lavender, chives, rhubarb, oregano, lemon balm, catmint, ginger (coming soon!), and supposedly some Cuban oregano from my family's own, thriving stock. We have plans to revamp the garden, too.

So anyway, off I went to the library during Finals week, armed with my list of herbs. I felt pretty sure of myself, marching past the frantic, last-minute studiers, straight to one of rows in the Horticulture section. I ended up mid-alphabet, and scanned the rows for either mint, lavender, or lemon balm. Behold! A whole section on lavender! I opened up one friendly-looking book, only to discover an unbelievably long list (like over a page of normal-sized font) of subspecies of the lavender family, each with its own, subtly unique properties. I had no idea that so many varieties of lavender existed! Needless to say, I have no idea which variety is currently growing in our garden, and the books I found on other herbs were not much less detailed. In a way, it was a loss: I walked away with no more information on our herbs. I do, however, have my next little project: figure out exactly what type of plants we have before returning for research.

On the plus side, though, I got a good laugh out of finding these potato yearbooks from the mid-1900's. Talk about a random find! Upon sharing this with Erika, she informed me that we have a similar, older one of Caroline's in the Homestead for apples. I will definitely be investigating this during the summer.

P.S. A Potato-Related Historical Nugget: Did you know that potatoes are not native to Ireland, but rather South America? They were domesticated by the Native Americans and later brought to Europe. We learned in my World Crops and Cropping Systems class that the Irish Potato Famine was so bad because Ireland was heavily relying on one variety of potato, and when I say "heavily relying," I mean that this one variety of potato constituted most of the population's diet. The potato crop failed when a blight appeared, and thus the country descended into famine. The population of Ireland has still not recovered from the massive death and emigration caused by this tragedy.

Moral of the story: diversification is key in all aspects of life.

Hidden Treasure

Hi, this is Gabriel. While working at the Somers museum on another project, I was told of other military related artifacts in storage that I might be interested in. I was amazed at the kinds of items I saw and how I have never knew even existed. These artifacts were antique firearms, swords, and even a cartridge box from the Civil War that had a label attached to it stating it was used in the Battle of Bull Run all the way to Appamatox Courthouse where General Robert E. Lee surrendered. Quite a few of these items including the swords were donated by Mrs. Voorhis though some of them had unknown donors. I would like to learn more about the Voorhis and how they got these items. Perhaps, it could be my next project. I also, would like to learn more about these objects in general and hope to consult with West Point again in the near future.

Colt Model 1860 revolver .44 caliber , donor unknown

Cartridge box from Civil War. Label reads "Cartridge box carried by a New York Volunteer from Bull Run to Appamatox"

On the left is a musket that might be from the late 18 century to the early 19th century. It was donated by Ms. Calahan. On the right is a rifle that might be from the late 19th century. 

Officer's sword with decorated with Knight's Templar symbols. It was made by the  Raymold & Whitlock company that was located in NYC.

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