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 buildings, usually for use as coin banks. Windfield began as a project of Henry "Hank" Musser, Art Professor & Department Chair at Adirondack Community College. With the help of Larry Attanasio, Musser set up Windfield Designs to make and sell these banks full time. Our collection housed in The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library, contains replicas of historic buildings in Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs, as well as a few "generic" buildings. While the company shut down in 1996, the phrase "Windfield Design" is now used to describe a certain folk art style of coin bank.
View Windfield Designs pieces, part of our Art & Artifacts collection, online on our New York Heritage page, or come in and view the collection in person. The Folklife Center is currently open Monday thru Thursday 9:00 AM to Noon & 1:00 to 7:00 PM, and Friday thru Saturday 9:00 AM to Noon & 1:00 to 5:00 PM, or check the website for up to date hours.
Tisha Dolton is Librarian/Historian at The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, NY. Her areas of interest are suffrage music, suffragists of Warren and Washington Counties, local women and minority populations, and embroidery.