Blog entries tagged 'Sunnyside'

Winter's work: Why we clean with diapers

HVBlogger

Diapers? Yes, diapers. Not clean the diapers...clean WITH diapers. That's part of what our curatorial staff is doing during these winter months, when the public's little (and big) feets aren't traipsing through our halls.

In your own house you might use an old tee-shirt for a cleaning rag but here we have to be certain to use materials that wont harm the furniture, don't have lint, and are easy to launder - white cotton diapers are just the thing.

Check [...]

History through a student's eye

HVBlogger

A class from Belleville High School in Belleville, N.J. recently visited Washington Irving's Sunnyside to take advantage of one of the site's many educational programs. After the students returned to the classroom, their teacher asked the students to write letters to their family and friends describing what they had learned on their field trip, an exercise we recommend as part of this kind of field trip.

The result: each letter and sketch represents a fa [...]

Choose your celebration

HVBlogger

On this Fourth, you can celebrate our country's independence by actually becoming a part of it. Whether you're a history buff, a sports fan, nature lover, or family of nine you will find something to fit your tastes at either of this years July 4th events at Historic Hudson Valley.

First decide [...]

2008 Caldecott winner coming to Book Day at Sunnyside

HVBlogger

HVBlogger has just learned of some interesting new additions to the more than 60 children's book authors and illustrators who will be taking part in Celebrate Children's Book Day at Washington Irving's Sunnyside on Sunday, Sept. 28.

Joining an already impressive roster of expected attendees will b [...]

Blogging's great but so are books

HVBlogger

Yes, those of us in the digerati generation enjoy blogging and Facebooking and Twittering and yes, we spend way too much reading about random things online like frozen-food reviews and rants from angry journalists, but we nonetheless love books. I mean, really love books, and yes, I mean the dead-tree variety that you [...]

An environmental job corps grows at HHV, Part II

HVBlogger

So what was the motivation behind launching the Youth Conservation Corps? As fans of the organization know, Historic Hudson Valley has long been committed to environmental conservation.

Now, the YCC is a way to use its historic sites as contemporary learning laboratories with an environmental focus. Goals [...]

An environmental job corps grows at HHV, Part I

HVBlogger

The Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the best-known "alphabet soup" initiatives created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, was such a popular work relief program t [...]

Fourth of July wrap up

HVBlogger

The weather held and folks came out for a little sunshine and history at Friday's Independence Day celebrations at Van Cortlandt Manor and Sunnyside.

In the top photo are gentle [...]

Fabulous Fourth events featured in Journal News

HVBlogger

Yes, HVBlogger acknowledges the 50% chance of a shower, but c'mon, you can't just sit inside on the start of a long holiday weekend! HHV has two offbeat events today -- Independence Day 1808 (Van Cortlandt Manor) and Independence Day 1858 (Sunnyside). How often do you get to choose your own time period?

The Journal News saw fit to publish a cover story on today's events, featuring the most clever lede (the opening sentences, for you non-journo types) HVBlogger has s [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Sunny day...sweepin' the...clouds away...

HVBlogger

Sunday was a sunny day at Sunnyside, made all the more so by the dozen artists scattered throughout the grounds creating new works of art on site as part of Artists-on-the-Hudson.

Below, you can see artist Vern Ford of Blaze fame has a cult following wherever he goes. At left, Jan Aiello of Croton captures Washington Irving's homestead in all its rom [...]

Brian Jones...the blogger

HVBlogger

Brian Jay Jones is NOT the dead Rolling Stone, but he is the author of the most recent bio of Washington Irving, called "An American Original."

Besides being a total Irving fanatic and pop culture junkie, Brian is an all around cool guy who makes his daily bread as a policy wonk in Maryland.

He spoke at Irving's homestead of Sunnyside last f [...]

Westchester Mag: Kykuit, Sunnyside, Union Church, Blaze are must-dos!

HVBlogger

Frequent visitors to Historic Hudson Valley sites know the organization's museums of history are pretty cool, pretty historic, pretty educational, and just plain pretty, but there's a whole world out there who haven't visited yet. And while it's one thing for the folks at HHV to tout the value of a visit, it's quite another entirely to g [...]

Get artsy with mom on Sunday

HVBlogger

Mother's Day is nearly here. Want to spice up a day typically filled with chocolates, flowers, and (overpriced) special restaurant menus? The good folks at Washington Irving's Sunnyside are cooking up a treat that just might satisfy the need for a little diversity in your Mother's Day plans.

On Sunday, a dozen artists will be [...]