Currents

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.

When mankind landed on the moon 50 years ago, we reached the pinnacle of more than a decade-long journey in the race to space. While we at the HRM, may not have made it to the moon, the Museum has reached new heights! BBC World News interviewed Manager of Planetarium and Science Programs Marc Taylor and featured the exhibition “A Century of Lunar Photography and Beyond” in a segment that aired on March 11.

By the time the Museum moved to Glenview in April 1924, it owned some 2,500 minerals, fossils, and relics, as well as works of fine art—acquired through the leadership and, in many cases, the personal generosity of Edwin C. Mott. The Museum continued to acquire key pieces even before its doors opened in December of that year.

From 1906 until his death in 1938, Isidore Konti lived in Yonkers, where he became a key member of the cultural scene. He co-founded the Yonkers Art Association and served as an early commissioner of the Yonkers Museum of Science and Arts.