Historic Cherry Hill
Contents -- February 2010
- National Award Celebrated By Dignitaries, Cherry Hill Family
- Van Rensselaers and Schuylers to be Explored through the Lens of Class and its Subtleties
- 2009 Annual Fund Drive Provides Crucial Support
- Third NEH Benchmark Met through the Generosity of Foundations and New York State Assembly Members
- Seeing Paintings in a New Light
- Scary = Expensive!
- Icky Bugs, Mold Sure to Draw 4th Grade Interest
- Out and About
- 23,000 and Counting!
National Award Celebrated By Dignitaries, Cherry Hill Family
Lawrence L. Reger, President of Heritage
Preservation in Washington, DC, presents
the 2009 Award for Outstanding
Commitment to the Preservation and Care
of Collections to Historic Cherry Hill Board
President Michael R. Beiter. (Photograph
by Emad Andarawis)
State and local elected officials and Lawrence L. Reger, President of Heritage Preservation in Washington, DC, were on hand at a special reception to present Historic Cherry Hill with the 2009 Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections on Thursday, September 17. The reception was held at the museum's Edward Frisbee Center for Collections & Research. The museum was honored with remarks by several elected officials. J. Winthrop Aldrich, Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation attended on behalf of Commissioner Carol Ash and read a congratulatory letter from Governor David Paterson. State Senator Neil Breslin, Assembly Majority Leader Ronald Canestrari, Assembly Member John McEneny, and Mayor Gerald Jennings also attended to offer their congratulations. Historic Cherry Hill is grateful to all of these elected officials for their support through the years, which made the award possible.
This annual award is selected by a panel of distinguished conservation experts from across the nation and is presented jointly by Heritage Preservation and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
In being cited, the awarding organizations noted that Historic Cherry Hill and the other recipient, the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, have shown "a sustained and exemplary commitment to preserving America's heritage enriching their communities by caring for their unique and varied collections through dedicated planning and effort."
The award was established in 1999. Past recipients have included the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.
[contents]Van Rensselaers and Schuylers to be Explored through the Lens of Class and its Subtleties
The New York Council for the Humanities (NYCH) recently awarded a mini-grant to Historic Cherry Hill for the planning of a 2011 program on class and power in 18th century Albany, with an emphasis on the elite Van Rensselaer and Schuyler families. A meeting with Tamara Plakins Thornton, Professor of History at the State University of New York (SUNY)-Buffalo and the staffs of Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site and Cherry Hill will identify and develop issues to be explored, as well as program activities and approaches, culminating in the identification of research needs and an interpretive plan for a joint program next spring.
[contents]2009 Annual Fund Drive Provides Crucial Support
Historic Cherry Hill is grateful to the following individuals, corporations and foundations for their generous support given in response to the museum's annual appeal from October 1, 2009 to February 6, 2010. The site would be unable to sustain its awardwinning programs without these gifts.
In addition, a $1,000 Arts Grant from the City of Albany and $7,200 grant from the Community Development Block Grant program will support Historic Cherry Hill's education programs and events during the coming year.
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$5,000 and up
$1,000–$4,999
$500–$999
$250–$499 |
$100–$249 |
Up to $99 |
Third NEH Benchmark Met through the Generosity of Foundations and New York State Assembly Members
Year-end grants from the J.M.R. Barker Foundation, Equinox Foundation, and Assembly Members Ronald Canestrari and John McEneny put Historic Cherry Hill over the top in reaching its third challenge grant benchmark with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) before the January 31 deadline. The J.M.R. Barker Foundation contributed $5,000 (in addition to $5,000 for operations), while the Equinox Foundation made a $1,000 contribution in support of the preservation aspect of the campaign. And continuing to demonstrate their strong commitment to the museum, Assembly Members Ronald Canestrari and John McEneny joined forces to secure $125,000 in Community Capital Assistance Program Funds for the restoration effort. The museum appreciates the generous support from all, and looks forward to meeting the next--even more challenging benchmark by next January.
[contents]Seeing Paintings in a New Light
Cedars, oil on canvas, by Walter Launt
Palmer, 1931. Commissioned by the Rankin
family as a memorial to Herbert Rankin.
With support from the 2009 Conservation Treatment Grant program, a program administered by the Greater Hudson Heritage Network in association with the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, Historic Cherry Hill was able to complete the treatment of two winter landscapes (oil on canvas) by Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932), Albany, 1931. Cedars and Voorheesville Creek were among the last paintings done by Palmer, listed in his account book just a few months before his death.
Aside from Palmer's renown as a landscape painter, particularly of winter scenes, and their aesthetic qualities, these paintings have great historical significance and strongly relate to both the museum's mission and interpretation. The museum's core tour, "The Rankins of Cherry Hill: Struggling with the Loss of Their World", tells the story of the Rankin family between 1884 and 1963, and how they responded to tremendous social, political and economic changes. The poignant conclusion to the tour, presented in the family parlor, notes the loss of fifth generation son Herbert Rankin during World War I. Visitors are told of the impact of Herbert's death and the tremendous loss felt by the family. The Palmer paintings--on display in the parlor--were commissioned as a memorial to Herbert, years after his death. The paintings were treated at Williamstown Art Conservation Center.
[contents]Scary = Expensive!
The crew from Dimensions North carefully
removes wallpaper, plaster, lath and brick
lining to get a peek at the front sill.
After initial probes raised suspicions about the state of deterioration of Cherry Hill's front sill, historical restoration contractors Dimensions North visited the site to open several areas along the front façade for further investigation. The findings were conclusive, determining that the front sill has indeed deteriorated significantly, as have the front corner posts. Architect Stephen Tilly and his staff and structural engineers from Structures North are currently developing specifications for a proposed remedy. Repairs to the sill and posts will be made before window restoration gets underway. In a recent phone consultation describing the proposed fix, Senior Architect Bob Gabalski noted, "Scary equals expensive."
[contents]Icky Bugs, Mold Sure to Draw 4th Grade Interest
This spring Historic Cherry Hill will collaborate with two local schools on a Partnership Project, The Cherry Hill Case, which will engage students in discovering how historical evidence is investigated and preserved. Partially funded by a grant from Teaching the Hudson Valley, the project will involve fourth grade classes at Bell Top Elementary School in the East Greenbush School District and at Albany School of the Humanities in the Albany Public Schools.
The project has several components. Investigating Evidence will bring volunteer museum teachers to the classroom to introduce students to evidence (reproduction objects, documents and photographs) which once belonged to six people who lived at Cherry Hill in the mid 1800s. Working in cooperative groups the students will become detectives of history and examine the evidence, record facts, and draw conclusions about the lives of each Cherry Hill person and the personal connections in the household. A Reader's Theater activity will reveal further details of 19th century life at Cherry Hill and the relationship between family members and servants. Preserving Evidence will bring the students to Cherry Hill where they will investigate the house as an historic artifact, learning what architecture reveals about the lifestyles of their six Cherry Hill people. Their investigation will also focus on some challenges the museum staff faces in preserving this architectural evidence by having them identify effects of water, gravity and humidity on the historic structure. At the collections center, handson activities will help students recognize insect and light damage to collections. A final activity will give them practice in proper museum procedures for preserving textiles and other fragile items. Student projects on various aspects of The Cherry Hill Case will be completed after their visits and presented at a reception for parents at the schools where museum staff will be on hand to answer questions about the site and its restoration efforts. The project will involve six classes and 126 students, and will be taught by Historic Cherry Hill volunteer museum teachers, Education Director Rebecca Watrous and Curator Deborah Emmons-Andarawis.
[contents]Out and About
Historic Cherry Hill staff and volunteers have been asked to make a variety of presentations at several community events and programs. Education Director Rebecca Watrous, Program Assistant Linda Dunkerly and several volunteers participated in Hudson River History Day at the New York State Museum on January 16. Guided by Philip Van Rensselaer (volunteer Don Wheeler), families participated in the Hudson River Trading Game, sailing their sloops from Albany to New York and back, striving to get the most profit and avoid delays on the treacherous river! Director Liselle LaFrance spoke to the Latham Rotary Club on November 17, and will speak to the "2nd Milers" Club on March 10 about the museum, house restoration and capital campaign. And Manuscript Specialist Mary Doehla will make a presentation on 19th century missionary and Cherry Hill family member Catherine Bonney to "ZIPS" (Zealous Interdenominational People's Society) on March 1.
[contents]23,000 and Counting!
Manuscript Specialist Mary Doehla recently entered the 23,000th document into the museum's database, and she estimates having another 10,000 to go! Mary has been working on data entry for about four years (in addition to several other research projects), a tedious but enormously important task that will make the unique manuscript collection fully accessible to internal and outside researchers. The document was a letter written by Rankin family friend Isabel Gibbens to Emily W. Rankin. It is in series 8.3, Rankin Family Correspondence. Go Mary, Go Mary!
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