Get out of the house & into some history

I don't know about you, but February & March can get me down. Waiting for the leaves to burst open in that pretty spring green. Willing the crocuses, snowdrops & daffodils to push their way up through the gray snow & dead leaves. Then you get days like today, snow on top of mud.

Snowfall in Greenwich March 8, 2013

So, how about you get out of the house & go visit some local museums.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

 The Hyde Collection on Warren Street in Glens Falls. It is a world class art museum right in our own backyard.

The Old Fort House Museum on Broadway in Fort Edward. They are only open by appointment during the winter & spring so get a group together & give them a call to set up a time. Executive Director & Town of Fort Edward Historian R. Paul McCarty is also presenting a program on Solomon Northup at the Courthouse Community Center in Salem on Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 p.m.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. I think I might just take my daughter there this weekend. The student curated exhibit Crowded looks particularly interesting.

The Chapman Historical Museum in downtown Glens Falls. I love house museums. Need I say more?

The New York State Museum in Albany. They have a great Civil War exhibit on until September titled An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War. I am still fascinated by the Cohoes Mastodon & the cadence of the woman's voice telling stories in the Native American section. (Note: The museum will be closed this Saturday 3/9 for a test of their emergency system.)

The Museum of Innovation & Science in Schenectady. The Planetarium is never a disappointment, plus they have a new butterfly exhibit up only through April 6.

Historic Cherry Hill in Albany. Another amazing house museum worth a look. Their current tour focuses on their restoration project, so it is great for preservationists & DIYers. There is also a family tour.

Saratoga National Historical Park in Stillwater. Don't think that because it is winter & the tour road is closed that you can't visit the park. The Visitor Center is open year round, plus they have a great bookstore & an exhibit on 18th Century female artists! Also, Ranger Jennifer Morrow will be presenting a program called Foodways of 18th Century Women & Camp Followers on Sunday, March 10 from 1:30-3:00 p.m.

In honor of Women's History Month there is a new exhibit up in the War Room on the 2nd floor of the Capitol Building in Albany. Some of the women featured in the exhibit are: Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, only woman to earn a Congressional Medal of Honor, Belva Ann Lockwood, pioneering female attorney and political activist, Rose Schneiderman, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers’ advocate, Kate Mullaney, founder of the Collar Laundry Union in Troy, Luisa Moreno, immigrant workers’ rights advocate, Mary McLeod Bethune, African American community rights activist. But what I am most interested in seeing is one of the artifacts on display, a sewing machine from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.

Another event to check out this month is at the Cambridge Public Library on Thursday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. Historian Michael Russert will present For the Liberation of Ireland: Last Battle of the Civil War? regarding the  unsuccessful attempt of Irish-American veterans, both Union & Confederate, to attack Canada & gain independence for Ireland in 1866.

There are so many other museums & events going on that you are sure to find something of interest to you & your family.

March is National Women's History Month

Stemming from the first International Woman's Day of March 8, 1911, the idea for the recognition of women on a national level has been around for one hundred years. I actually own a "Happy Woman's Day" greeting card that I purchased on Etsy.com a few years ago. When I locate it I will post it here. Until then I found another image from 1914 that might interest you.

1914 International Woman's Day

Also, check out the blog for the National Women's History Museum (& consider becoming a member, I am!). http://www.nwhm.org/blog/its-womens-history-month/

Also, the League of Women Voters of Saratoga County is hosting an event next Saturday, March 10, 2012 at the Gideon Putnam Hotel. It is a breakfast buffet and performance entitled Mother Jones: A Dangerous Woman. http://www.lwvsaratoga.org/

Mary Harris was born in 1837 in Cork, Ireland and immigrated to Canada around 1851. She married union organizer George E. Jones 10 years later & set up a dressmaking business in Memphis, TN. After her husband & children died of yellow fever, she moved to Chicago & set up another dressmaking business, only to loose it in the Great Chicago Fire. By the 1880s she was linked to the labor movement, but was NOT a suffragist saying "You don't need the vote to raise hell!" Mother Jones died in 1930.*

Mother Jones 1902^

Happy National Women's History Month!


P.S. Don't forget to visit St. Joseph's Catholic Church on Hill St in the village of Greenwich this Saturday, March 3, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for a "Vendor Blender" craft fair. My mom will be there with quilts (& some of my embroidery) to sell!

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Harris_Jones
^ LC-USZ62-7678