Links

Erie Canal

Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
This site introduces the Erie Canal. It provides an overview of the history and it outlines the geographic expanse of the “Canalway”.

Norway Heritage
A story of the Early Norwegian Immigrants on the Erie Canal.

Museums and Historic Sites along the Hudson
Albany Institute of History and Art
This museum has an index of the Hudson River School paintings in their collection as well as an essay on the Hudson River School.

Hudson River Museum
Exhibits and programs all devoted to educating people about the resources, science and environmental issues of the Hudson River.

Historic Hudson Valley
Information on 7 Historic homes open for viewing along the Hudson. These include: Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate; Washington Irving’s Sunnyside; Phillipsburg Manor, home of an Anglo-Dutch merchant family; Van Cortland Manor; Montgomery Place; Union Church, with windows designed by Matisse and Chagall; and Lyndhurst, which is adjacent to Sunnyside.

National Park Service- Teaching with Historic Places
This site offers guides on how to use properties listed in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in education. Useful for teachers of history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. Resources available to teachers. Sites include the Vanderbilt Mansion (and a lesson plan on the Gilded Age), several Revolutionary War battlefields, the home of Eleanor Roosevelt and birthplace of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other sites.

Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area
Links to information about special sites along the Hudson.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
This site includes information about historic sites in the Hudson River Valley such as Knox’s Headquarters, The New Windsor Cantonment, Fort Montgomery and the Stony Point Battlefield.

Artists’ Homes and Studios

Locust Grove – Home of Samuel F.B. Morse
Located in Poughkeepsie, NY, the artist and inventor’s home was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, with extensive landscaping that epitomizes the taste for the “picturesque” that Davis and Andrew Jackson Downing championed. Open to visitors, tours available.

Olana – Home of Frederic Church
Olana is the home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church. The house is a landmark of nineteenth-century eclecticism, combining Persian, Spanish and Victorian styles. The 250-acre estate has been preserved and represents a unique example of landscape design on the Hudson. The House is open for tours and visits.

Cedar Grove -Thomas Cole National Historic Site
This site is run by the organization that preserves the home of Hudson River School founder Thomas Cole, Cedar Grove, in Catskill, New York. The site has a feature that allows viewers to explore over 125 paintings by Cole, zoom in and pan across works, and read about specific paintings. It also includes information on how to “follow the trail”
of the Hudson River painters on foot, and find the locations depicted in some of Cole’s paintings. Photographs on this site compare actual sites to Cole’s representations of them, and might be useful in a classroom.

Jasper Cropsey’s Home and Studio and the Newington/Cropsey Foundation
Cropsey’s home and studio are well preserved by this foundation, run by a descendant of the artist. Cropsey’s studio includes many decorative details designed by the artist as well as many of his personal effects. It is an excellent example of the eclectic style that came to be expected of a cosmopolitan artist in the post-Civil War era. The House is a fine example of Hudson River “Carpenter Gothic” and the studio, house and adjacent art gallery contain many outstanding examples of Cropsey’s work.

Susan Wides’ Photography
Wides’ current exhibit at the Hudson River Museum is titled, Hudson Valley, Mannahatta to Kaaterskill. This is a 14 year survey of Wides’ investigation of New York and the surrounding area. The work shows Wides’ perceptions of various places along the “urban-rural spectrum along the Hudson River” and self-consciously addresses the Hudson River School traditions of the Nineteenth Century.

Educational and Academic Resources

Education Resources at the Department of Environmental Conservation, NY State
This website it includes information on resources for teachers, guides and lesson plans on the Hudson River and on topics such as “teaching kids about air pollution” and guides on how to make your classroom, school or community “greener.” This site also contains information on the many excellent workshops for teacher run by the DEC.

The Hudson River Valley Institute
This site is an encyclopedic resource on the Hudson. It includes lesson plans, information on field trips, a digital Library, many scanned historical documents, and essays by Marist College Faculty and students on a range of topics related to the history of the Hudson River Valley, from Native American history forward.

The Hudson River Estuary Program, Department of Environmental Conservation, NY State
This site provides a wealth of resources for teachers, including downloadable lesson plans, free maps, and opportunities to follow the work being done on the Hudson by school groups.

Teaching the Hudson Valley
This free resource includes an expansive collection of K-12 lesson units and individual plans ion all areas. Teaching the Hudson Valley also has a grant program to help fund site visits and teacher workshops, as well as summer institutes. Users must register for full access, but registration is free.

Archives, Libraries and Digital Resources

Digital Hudson
is a site developed by Fordham University and Roger Panetta that includes curated collections of primary documents and other materials related to the Hudson from smaller area collections.

New York Public Library’s Hudson River Portfolio
A central location of publications, sites, organizations and historic interests related to the Hudson River.

Westchester County Archives Special Collection Exhibit: The Hudson River, a Voyage Through Time
An online resource that organizes materials by themes such as commerce, recreation, an culture. and includes an interesting sampling of primary materials for each theme, including such items as menus, postcards, boat schedules or cargo inventories, as well as examples of fine art, diaries, and letters. An excellent source for use in the classroom.

Environmental Organizations

Scenic Hudson: Saving the Land that Matters Most
Links to sites, events and programs that are in line with their mission to save and restore land near the Hudson River.

Hudson River Environmental Society
With links to research and advocacy in the Hudson River Valley region. Archival Resources and Collections related to the Hudson River and its culture.

Watershed Education Resources
This website provides information for teachers on field trips, cultural programs, and classroom-based science programs.

The Cary Institute’s CHANGING HUDSON project
is a teacher’s resource complete with maps, diagrams and graphics that can be used to introduce students to the current scientific research and environmental issues on the hudson, from nitrogen loads to invasive plants. Full of excellent resources for teachers.

Historical

Statistical atlas

Population shift top 100 cities

Growth of industry in NYS

NYS 1821 convention