The Catskills once held passenger pigeons in such vast numbers that their flocks darkened the sky, along with wolves, cougars, martens, elk and other wildlife no longer found here. That vanished world was the focus of a March 21 lecture at the Olive Free Library, where ethnoecologist Justin Wexler explored how Indigenous communities lived alongside […]
History
Posted inHistory
Saugerties
Acclaimed Sculptor Augusta Savage’s Life in Saugerties: Art, Honors, and Chickens
One day in 1953, the acclaimed sculptor Augusta Savage gave a gift to the Finger family, her white neighbors near the same Saugerties road that now bears her name. It was a bust she’d made of their six-year-old son, Wesley. Wesley Finger, now 79, still has the bust. It’s a treasured reminder of a childhood […]
Posted inHistory
Overlook
Ken Burns’ ‘The American Revolution’ Illuminates the Hudson Valley’s Role in the War that Defined a Nation
Crispus Attucks. Lexington and Concord. John Adams. Sam Adams. How much do you actually remember about the American Revolution from grade school? And how much do you think the average American adult knows? Filmmaker Sarah Botstein, who with Ken Burns and David Schmidt serves as co-director on the new PBS Documentary, “The American Revolution,” has plenty to […]