Blog entries - June 2008

The joys of HHV Summerweek, Part III

HVBlogger

And in our final installment about the joys of Summerweek, Danielle Fontaine has some good news for Web-overloaded older kids, too.

As you know, all of the Summerweek camps are for kids aged 9-11 and run from 9:30 until 3:30.

Slightly older than 11-year-old: "But wait, I'm too old to go to Summerweek, and I want to go!"

[...]

New York Social Diary explores philanthropy and JDR

HVBlogger

We rather enjoyed this extended piece about Kykuit, John D. Rockefeller, wealth, and philanthropy by David Patrick Columbia, published last week on his always lively New York Social Diary web page. While exploring the lessons of philanthropy, Mr. Columbia provides us with an excellent mini-biopic of JDR (shown here with his son, Junior).

Here's a choice [...]

Brian Jay Jones...guest HVBlogger!

HVBlogger

debuted in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in the sixth installment of The Sketch Book in March 1820. Just as important, Irving and The Sketch Book proved to skeptical 19th century European readers and critics that American writers were for real. "Everywhere I find in it the marks of a mind of the utmost elegance and refinement," wrote an impressed William Godwin, "a thing as you know that I was not exactly prepared to look for in an American." Irving proved the criti [...]

The joys of HHV Summerweek, Part II

HVBlogger

Part two of our miniseries on the pleasures of Summerweek, courtesy of Danielle Fontaine, camp administrator. This time, she talks about the programs at Sunnyside and Van Cortlandt Manor. Take it away Danielle!

***You're on the lavish lawns of Sunnyside, the home of famous writer Washington Irving (the guy who wrote Th [...]

Joseph Cotter named HHV's Hudson Valley Hero

HVBlogger

Each year, Historic Hudson Valley honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the preservation and conservation of the Hudson Valley. Tonight, at a gala event at Washington Irving's Sunnyside, the organization is bestowing its Hudson Valley Hero award on Joseph Cotter, President of National RE/sources, which was established in 1996 as the f [...]

The joys of HHV Summerweek, Part I

HVBlogger

It's the sum, sum, summertime. And living is definitely easy in the 21st century...certainly if you go by 18th and 19th century standards. Now, nine- to eleven-year-old history buffs can spend some 21st century days unplugged and outdoors courtesy of Historic Hudson Valley's Summerweek Day Camp.

This is a terrific program [...]

New site director at Montgomery Place

HVBlogger

Nothing's happening at Montogomery Place since it's closed, right? Well, first off, it's not closed, it's open. The site's lush grounds, 434 acres of waterfront serenity in Annandale-on-Hudson, are blooming and welcoming visitors every Saturday and Sunday from 10-5 through October.

As HHV buffs know, the mansion at Mont [...]

Freakonomics and Washington Irving

HVBlogger

HVBlogger loved Freakonomics, as apparently do many others. The book that turns the dismal science on its head remains a best-seller some 18 months after its release.

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner blogs on NYTimes.com. Yesterday he wrote about the troubles the Mark Twain house in Hartford, Conn., is experiencing. (Sad and scary, [...]