Currents

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of celebrating our fruitful partnership with Yonkers Public Schools Museum School 25 at an exhibition of student work at the school.

The Homelands exhibitions, which were presented throughout the 1930s and 40s, showcased the decorative arts and crafts of Ukrainian, Czechoslovakian, Assyrian, Armenian, Italian, Finnish, Polish, Scandinavian, and Chinese residents of Westchester County.

The Hudson River Museum is continuing a year of Centennial celebrations with the presentation of two special exhibitions, along with a roster of dynamic public programs, that celebrate diversity, community, and social justice issues. These exhibitions and programs demonstrate the Museum’s ongoing commitment to making our offerings more inclusive and representative of the communities we serve.

Ned Potter had early career ambitions to write and talk about space, an interest that drew him to the HRM 30 years ago when he worked in the Planetarium. On Saturday, May 4, at 1:30pm, Potter will return to the Museum to discuss his career, as well as the past, present, and future of entrepreneurial space ventures in Space Business, a special talk with Chad Anderson,

1929, the year the stock market crashed, was also the year the American Museum of Natural History gave the Hudson River Museum the gift of a taxidermied elephant.

“We’re all part of one big planet. No matter where you are in the world, you look up and see the moon,” said Laura Vookles, Chair of the Curatorial Department, in a recent feature on BBC World News, Why the Moon Makes Us All Romantics.

William Berkeley, who served as Director of the Museum from 1926–37, moved swiftly to make education one of the institution’s top priorities, and the Museum went on to actively cultivate relationships with local schools.

During his 11-year tenure, Dr. Berkeley spearheaded many important initiatives and changes to the Museum, which included creating collection galleries devoted to fine arts, natural history, earth sciences, and local and world history.

James B. Colgate, who had an estate in Yonkers just south of Glenview and commuted to Wall Street, owned William Hahn’s Union Square. His daughter, Mary, who lived on Ravine Avenue when the Museum moved to Glenview, donated this painting in November 1925.

Mabel Donnelly, a longtime school librarian and music teacher, was the Museum’s supervisor and first employee, whose wide-ranging roles included those of a curator, registrar, administrator, and educator all in one.