The Columbia County Historical Society’s 2018 Visitor Season officially opened over the weekend with two new exhibitions at the James Vanderpoel ‘House of History’ showcasing very special New York furniture and New York portraits from the Columbia County Historical Society’s Permanent Collection.

Caned Construction

A follow up to 2017’s ‘Study of Style Part I’, this new exhibition focuses on caning. Cane was a popular material in the early 19th century and was a less expensive alternative to solid wood or upholstered seating. The 19th-century saw rise to a new type of ‘modern’ manufacturers capitalizing on prison labor to profit city businesses. Prisons in New York, Connecticut, and Western Massachusetts employed inmates to weave caned seats, which were then sent to local cabinetmakers. Featured items in this exhibition are a rare, matched pair of 19th century caned mahogany recamiers from our permanent collection.

“Columbia County Historical Society is fortunate to have a set of recamiers (or chaise lounges). It’s highly usual for sets of furniture to stay together throughout the generations,” said CCHS Curator Anna Thompson. “The intricate cane craftsmanship that we so admire today, would have been covered with cushions during the period.”

This exhibition of New York furniture, from the CCHS Permanent Collection, is generously sponsored by Susan and Henry Livingston.

New York Portraits from the Permanent Collection
of the Columbia County Historical Society

This portrait exhibition features important Hudson Valley artists working in diverse styles, including portrait painters Ira Chaffee Goodell, Henry F. Prime, James E. Johnson, Ammi Phillips–who painted portraits of nearly a dozen of Ten Broeck and Livingston family members–as well as the Hudson River School painter Sanford Robinson Gifford. This impressive exhibition includes a number of CCHS collection portraits representing some of the prominent citizens and families who helped form Columbia County.

“Columbia County Historical Society is a repository for a vital and representative collection of works that exemplify American painters seeking a style and American subjects yearning for personal perpetuity. This makes a winning exemplification,” said Historian Ruth Piwonka. “Compared with other locations in New York State and across the nation, the county’s historic portraiture is impressive, rich, and varied.”

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Abigail Hartmann Associates of Claverack and New York City; with special thanks to Brian Ruhl.
from the Permanent Collection

DATES/TIMES: 2018 Season  Schedule:
Saturday, Sunday
Noon – 4pm

LOCATIONS/EXHIBITIONS:
Columbia County Historical Society Museum & Library 
5 Albany Avenue, Kinderhook
Supreme Sacrifice: Columbia County in World War I
Electric Park
Shaker Baskets from the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon COMING SOON
Research Library

James Vanderpoel ‘House of History’
16 Broad Street, Kinderhook
NEW: New York Portraits from the Permanent Collection of CCHS
NEW: Caned Construction: New York Furniture from the CCHS Permanent Collection
CCHS Bookstore & Museum Shop

Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse
2589 Route 9H, Kinderhook
Single Room Schoolhouse museum
Interpretation of the friendship between author Washington Irving and local schoolteacher, Jesse Merwin

Luykas Van Alen House
2589 Route 9H, Kinderhook
House Museum of 18th century New York Dutch colonial living
Fragments of the Past: Archeology at the Van Alen House

MORE:
www.cchsny.org
facebook.com/cchsny
twitter.com/cchs_ny

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