#glensfallsny

Warren County Christmas Trees in NYC and DC

Tisha Dolton

Dec 20, 2022
2 min

Warren County Christmas Trees in NYC and DC

Like many locals, I was excited this past November when it was announced the the 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree would, once again, be coming from Warren County. I eagerly watched as folks posted photos and videos to Facebook. My daughter, Jude, a sophomore at The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, looked up the route the tree would take into the city to see if she had to change her usual commute to classes. She didn't. A few weeks later, on December 8th I took the tr

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A Glimpse at Hallowe'en in & around Glens Falls, NY: 1883-1914

Tisha Dolton

Oct 30, 2021
3 min

A Glimpse at Hallowe'en in & around Glens Falls, NY: 1883-1914

As the Glens Falls tradition, Boo-2-You gets underway today (10/30/2021) from 2-4 PM, it got me thinking of ways we celebrate Halloween in the area. Using our Newspapers.com subscription, I came across these... The Glens Falls Morning Star reported on October 31, 1883 "Halloween to-night. The lads and lasses will indulge in old-time amusements, such as ducking for apples in a basin of water, throwing apple peelings over the shoulder hoping to see them form the initial of the

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Tisha Dolton

Oct 9, 2021
4 min

More Windfield Designs & Cornbread...

After my post about Windfield Designs, Inc we heard from a number of you sharing stories about your own collections. Some folks have one or two, others, like Ginny Combs, have whole villages. Ginny shared on Facebook, "I have a village on top of my china closet with the Finch Pruyn Office (a Christmas gift from the company when my husband worked there) the Delong and Sisson houses and some generic Winfield houses. Also have the high school on Glen St on a table in the livingr

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The World's Seventh Greatest Magician: The John C. Mannix Magicians Library

Tisha Dolton

Aug 28, 2021
3 min

The World's Seventh Greatest Magician: The John C. Mannix Magicians Library

In amongst the institutional & organizational archives, maps, genealogy, and local history books one expects to find in a library research center, The Folklife Center holds some surprising collections. One such collection is the John C. Mannix Magicians Library. This extensive collection currently contains 357 books and 117 videos & DVDs about magicians, card tricks, illusions, and one-liners dating from 1934-2006. It takes up nearly eight entire shelves in the climate contro

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When Pageants Were THE Thing: A Brief Look at Historical Pageantry & Tableaux in Upstate NY

Tisha Dolton

Aug 13, 2021
3 min

When Pageants Were THE Thing: A Brief Look at Historical Pageantry & Tableaux in Upstate NY

Do you remember the scene in the Broadway musical & film "The Music Man" when the mayor's wife, Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn, and the ladies dance committee perform "One Grecian urn"? That small, humorous scene was actually part of a much larger late 19th and early 20th century trend that included elocution & recitation, tableaux, pageantry, the Chautauqua, and exercise for girls and women. Pageants and tableaux viviants (French for living pictures) were very popular forms of ent

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Tisha Dolton

Jul 24, 2021
2 min

Windfield Designs of Glens Falls, NY

Today we had a gentleman from Colorado visiting the area. He is originally from the Glens Falls/Hudson Falls area and came in with his father and sister to look at our collection of banks and flats by Windfield Designs. We pulled the four boxes of artifacts he was most interested in, so that he could have a look as these artifacts are not currently on display. Windfield Designs, Inc. of Glens Falls, NY, made wooden, silk-screened reproductions of 18th and 19th century buildin

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Eva Austin Judkins and the School Board Election of 1914

Tisha Dolton

Jul 2, 2021
4 min

Eva Austin Judkins and the School Board Election of 1914

Four years before Eva Viola Austin Judkins began her illustrious, thirty year career on the Glens Falls Board of Education, she attempted gain a seat through a caucus on April 28, 1914. Nominated by Katharine Bowden, President of the Glens Falls Political Equality Club, of which Mrs. Judkins was a member, she came up five votes short. Interestingly, her husband, Rev. Dr. Charles O. Judkins, pastor of the Methodist Church, nominated J. Ward Russell, who was seeking reelection.

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Book Sales: The First 25 Years of the Friends of Crandall Public Library

Tisha Dolton

Jun 18, 2021
2 min

Book Sales: The First 25 Years of the Friends of Crandall Public Library

The Friends of Crandall Public Library have been hosting book sales for about as long as they have been in existence. Started in Spring 1951, this year marks their 70th anniversary. So, let's take a look at the newspaper & a glance through the collections in the Folklife Center. One of the first book sales was held on May 27, 1952 on the lawn in City Park. Novels, history, religion & philosophy were just some of the types of books available for a dime. The Post-Star reported

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Infant & Child Welfare Exhibit in Glens Falls, May 1914

Tisha Dolton

May 21, 2021
6 min

Infant & Child Welfare Exhibit in Glens Falls, May 1914

On May 20, 1914 the Infant Welfare Exhibit opened at City Hall in Glens Falls. The multi-day event was created to help mothers better care for their babies and young children. According to the May 5, 1914 article in the Post-Star the "exhibit consists of placards, cartoons and photographs occupying about seventy linear feet and will be installed on the top floor of City hall." Another Post-Star article on May 19, 1914, states a "well trained baby welfare nurse*, employed by t

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Tisha Dolton

Apr 2, 2021
2 min

Folklife After Hours Presents Suffrage Singer!

"Set Your Daughters Free" (1912) Lyrics: Eugenie M. Raye-Smith, Tune: "Wait for the Wagon" traditional VERSE 1 Oh, New York with your pride of wealth and luxury untold, What, prize you not a woman's worth as greater more than gold? A mighty call now echoes for you from sea to sea, Oh, leader of the Union, come set your daughters free! CHORUS We're waiting for New York, Waiting for New York, Waiting for the Empire State to set her daughters free! VERSE 2 We do not wish to sham

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The Monday Reading Club of Glens Falls, NY

Tisha Dolton

Mar 19, 2021
4 min

The Monday Reading Club of Glens Falls, NY

Study Clubs were all the rage amongst middle & upper class women in the late 19th & early 20th centuries. Glens Falls boasted at least nine different study clubs, with other women's organizations hosting similar activities. The Monday Reading Club formed in 1905, and was like many such clubs around the country. They met bi-weekly at the home of a hostess, and another member served as the presenter of the designated topic. They rotated both positions throughout the club year w

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Bicycles on Sidewalks: Rufus M. Cole and the laws of Glens Falls, NY.

Tisha Dolton

Mar 5, 2021
6 min

Bicycles on Sidewalks: Rufus M. Cole and the laws of Glens Falls, NY.

We have a wide variety of collections, here at The Folklife Center. They vary by content, as well as size. Some of our collections contain 5,000 items, while others fill only a small archival box or two. We also have individual items that don't truly belong in a collection. Two such pieces of ephemera prompted today's post. The bicycle craze of the late 1800's hit the villages of the North Country hard. Local business owners eager to capitalize on the trend began manufacturin

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Jeannette Roosa Davis, her husband Loyal, & the Anti-Suffragists of Glens Falls

Tisha Dolton

Feb 10, 2021
10 min

Jeannette Roosa Davis, her husband Loyal, & the Anti-Suffragists of Glens Falls

In researching the suffrage movement using local newspapers to uncover the names of women involved in the cause, I came across a small group of women on the other side. Yes, Glens Falls had a contingent of "Antis", or anti-suffragists who I am just beginning to identify. The letter to the editor transcribed below was probably written, at least in part, by Jeannette Roosa Davis (Mrs. Loyal L.), who was president of the Glens Falls branch of the New York State Association Oppos

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Cooking for Funds: Cookbooks & Food Sales

Tisha Dolton

Oct 29, 2020
4 min

Cooking for Funds: Cookbooks & Food Sales

We have a lot of cookbooks in the Folklife Center. I mean A LOT! When I started compiling artifacts, books, documents, and records together for my exhibit "Beyond Suffrage: Women’s Clubs in Greater Glens Falls, NY" I knew I would include a section of cookbooks. The twenty cookbooks I chose ranged from church groups to sororities, from garden clubs to ladies auxiliaries, and covered over one hundred years from 1882 until the 1990s. Occasionally the cover art featured famous a

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Tisha Dolton

Sep 3, 2020
2 min

Revolt! 1916 & 2016

Maury Thompson came to me one day back in 2016, because he knew I was interested in the Woman Suffrage Movement, & told me about an article he ran across while researching Charles Evans Hughes for his book The Animated Feather Duster: Slow News Day Tales of the Legendary Facial Hair of Charles Evans Hughes. We had not yet obtained our library subscription to Newspapers.com, so Maury was weeding through unindexed microfilm by the Reference Desk when he found a reference to a s

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It's No Cinch! Local Girls Pose for National Magazine

Tisha Dolton

Aug 27, 2020
4 min

It's No Cinch! Local Girls Pose for National Magazine

It was the dream of many a person in 1943, to be photographed by Harold Rhodenbaugh (1901-1951), and Betty Truxell. The LOOK Magazine photographers were in town to showcase our city of 19,000 people as Hometown, USA. Harriette Anne Whipple & Catherine Ann Carswell were two of the lucky young ladies to be chosen to pose for the popular magazine. Harriette even got to write about her experience in the local newspaper. The Post-Star (Glens Falls, NY) October 8, 1943 DUTY TO CIT

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Taking a LOOK at the Hometown USA Color Slide Collection

Tisha Dolton

Aug 21, 2020
4 min

Taking a LOOK at the Hometown USA Color Slide Collection

Back in the beginning of 2020, I was approached to revisit our slide show presentation of Hometown, USA as a complimentary program to the Chapman Museum's exhibition: LET’S ALL FIGHT, The Linc Cathers Collection of WWII Home Front Posters. Well, COVID-19 forced many changes upon us. The Chapman did mount their exhibit, but few could visit, so it is currently showing online where you can view it now over your morning coffee while still in your pajamas. My slide show was resche

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Tisha Dolton

Aug 13, 2020
15 min

Suffragists in Warren County, NY

If you are in the Glens Falls, NY area before Labor Day, please stop by the Warren County Historical Society & take a look at their exhibitions. The museum is free & open Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM this August. The flagship exhibit, Warren County 360° is on permanent display & my co-curated exhibit, in conjunction with the Old Fort House Museum & featuring dioramas by educator Cindy Whitman, Woman Suffrage in Warren and Washington Counties: 1883-1917 is on d

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Pandemic! Florence D. Wilmarth and the Glens Falls Club of College Women

Tisha Dolton

Aug 3, 2020
5 min

Pandemic! Florence D. Wilmarth and the Glens Falls Club of College Women

Before the pandemic hit, I was in the throws of curating two sister exhibitions. I did manage to get both of them up right before NY shutdown for four months, but because both exhibitions are on display in Phase 4 organizations (one in a museum, one here in the Folklife Center) very few people have seen them. Therefore with my first few blog posts, I will be discussing & sharing my exhibitions with you. "Beyond Suffrage: Women’s Clubs in Greater Glens Falls, NY" uses collecti

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