Stephen and Harriet Myers House & Cherry Hill

Stephen and Harriet Myers House (front view)

It felt weird that today was our last day out. Going out all day every day so early in the morning seemed never-ending, but finally it has come to an end! It was exhausting waking up so early morning every day and then spending hours and hours just walking and standing. But, hey, this is a 15 credit course condensed into six weeks, so I was expecting a great amount of work we will be doing. So today our first museum visit was the Stephen and Harriet Myers House near Albany. They were important leaders of the underground railroad during the 1850's in Albany, New York. Funny, I never heard of these folks. Usually when someone speaks of the underground railroad the only people they ever mention as important is Harriet Tubman. Documents and the Vigilance Committee Flyer show that this house was the main headquarters for

Emily's garden at Cherry Hill

Underground railroad activity during the mid-1800's.
During our visit there, I noticed that the building was in deteriorating condition, but they were in the process of restoring it. Since the early 2000's, volunteers and workers have come helped conserve and restore the building back to its original state so that this historic site can be open to the public to learn more about the Underground Railroad. We learned that this restoration project may cost more than a million dollars in the long run, but plenty of funds and grants have been donated to the historic site to contribute to getting the restoration process started. It behooves me that people do not care enough about important things in our history that they are willing to neglect historic sites such as this one. I think this building would have never been in this deteriorating state if we had maintained it and took care of it in the earlier years. Good thing that this house was saved from demolition during urban renewal during the 1970's.

Catherine Putnam with her children

Stephen Myers freed himself from slavery when he was 18 years of age. Him and his wife afterwards assisted freedom seekers pursuing liberty for all African-Americans. He served as chairman for the Vigilance Committee in Albany. Him and his wife assisted other slaves in escaping for nearly 30 years. He spoke with Vigilance Committee Flyer and newspaper, Myers openly wrote about his life as a free man and he also wrote about fugitives from southern slavery. Him and his wife ultimately dedicated heir lives to abolishing slavery and bringing equality to the black community. I wish we would have learned more about Harriet Myers. I would have liked to know about her background and her story.
Frederick Douglas at popular anti-slavery rallies and events to promote his active efforts in abolishing slavery and improving the lives of African-Americans. In the
Since today was no box lunches (yay), we headed back to RSC for lunch before taking off to our next museum at Cherry Hill. Historic Cherry Hill is a story of America through the lives of five generations of a wealthy Albany family. This place was built in 1787 for Maria Van Rensselaer and her husband Philip. It had more than 70,000 original artifacts and decorative items and furnishings that related to the home between 1787 to 1963.  The tour focused more on Catherine Putnam Rankin and her family. They lived on Cherry Hill from 1884 through 1963. She redefined the home in a way that gloried her family and her beliefs and attitudes on American society. She was associated with among the most elite members of America's aristocrats. Aristocrats of Cherry Hill were anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigration. Catherine and her folks also believed that women should not have the right to vote! This tells me that this family was very accustomed and instilled with traditional family roles and life. They believed that the vulgar and poor should never have power and they celebrated the colonial era as a time of restrained elegance. This is the physical message that shaped Cherry Hill and Catherine's vision. These old stock

Garden by the Myers' house

Americans perceived new immigrants as a moral and political threat (which is probably why Catherine did not believe women should vote because that meant immigrant women would be able to vote as well). Because of these set of beliefs by the American elite, quotas were set on countries so only a limited amount of immigrants from these selected countries can enter America.
The Van Rensselaers, on the other hand, were part of a group of wealthy and power family that were known as the Hudson River manor lords. The Dutch granted vast expenses of land to members of these families to establish settlements in the colony. Kilian Van Rensselaer was a Dutch merchant who founded this dynasty in which generations of Cherry Hill occupants belonged to. When he passed, he left a will to his family which would be passed to future generations at Cherry Hill. Then our tour guide told us about the Cherry Hill murder. I never knew that a murder had occurred here. I don't think this story may be entirely true, as stories like these tend to switch around and have different endings as to what actually happened. But no one will really know what happened exactly on the day of John Whipple's death. A man named Jesse Strang, who was living as a servant with the Van Rensselaer family, became romantically involved with Elsie Lansing, who was the wife of successful businessman John Whipple. They supposedly plotted together to murder Whipple and one day, Strang shot Whipple and killed him. He was caught, tried, and sentenced to be hanged in the public. Prior to that, he wrote a 30 page confession confessing he murdered him and why he did it. This secret affair between Elise and Jesse drew national attention and many thought that Jesse was simply a victim of socioeconomic inequities at the time. Anyway, I personally did not like these families that resided at Cherry Hill. They all seemed snobby and I am getting the feeling that they did not want equality for all old & new immigrants, and rich & poor citizens in America. They were too attached to colonial times traditional beliefs.

Took a picture of this antique chair because I thought it was beautiful.
It was located in the master bedroom of Catherine and her husband.

Community Service On A Ship

Picture of the ship our class helped cleaned

Today was not what I was expecting it to be. I thought we were going to be painting something but instead we were asked to clean someone's boat. I'm sorry, but I was not going to get on that boat and that's that. I really hate being out on the sea, even if the boat is docked. When they told us to come onto the boat my heart started to pound really fast. Yes, I've been on boats before, but not because I wanted to. I never want to go on a boat ever. Each time I have to get on one, it is a terrifying experience for me. While everyone else is enjoying their time, I'm way in the back scared out of my mind about the boat sinking or me getting really sick or some kind of sea creature might come out from beneath and attack us.
........Anyways, I did not help out much today because I did not want to get on the boat. So, I just sat down and occasionally asked Greta (Is that her name?) if she needed help with anything. But I will say, the ship was absolutely beautiful and we learned a lot about its history. It is originally a replica of the ships the Dutch used to build centuries ago. It was made from 400 year old oak-wood and every angle of the wood had to be burned in fire to able to conform with the shape of the ship at various angles. Oak is used because it is soft and flexible after being subjected to fire, and it is excellent at water resistance. It acts as a dam to keep water out when the ship is on sea; so the ship will not sink. Original Dutch styles of building ships was popular as early as the 1600's in Manhattan. The Dutch were able to build the best ships because of the quality of material and expertise they had. So they were able to conquer exclusive trade on oceans around countries.
The owner of the boat needed help to maintain and clean it since he wanted to take adults and children on the ship and teach them about the history of these ships and the Dutch. Some people helped varnish the floorboards and the wood on the ship while others helped organize the storage area below deck. It was really windy and chilly out today. After everyone was done, Greta offered us some pastry waffles she bought at a farmer's market as a way to thank us for helping her. The waffles were good.....didn't even taste like a waffle, more like a pastry. This blog is going to be a little short since we did not do much today. But I must say, it feels awesome being able to go back to RSC earlier than we used to. No more walking around for like 12 hours every single day.

Painting showing an example the style of ships the Dutch built for centuries

Schodack Island State Park

Turtle we found on the road 

We started off our morning reading blogs, as usually. It felt so weird being in Hart 206 again because we haven't been there all last week since we stayed in New York City. Then we went to Schodack Island State Park, which sits off the eastern shore of the Hudson River south of Albany. The park was originally designed as a state estuary and shelters a bird conservation area such as bald eagles and blue herons. Schodack Island has about eight miles of multi-use trails through a variety of ecological communities.
When we arrived, a woman notably pointed out a turtle that was crossing the road just around the bend where we came in. I got a little excited because I love turtles! They're the cutest creatures ever! When Toby, picked up the turtle, it tried to pee on us. I thought that this was some kind of defense mechanism turtles do when they are disturbed. (I know frogs create a piercing scream when you pick them up!) Turtles usually come on land to lay their eggs and create their nests, so I figured this turtle must have been a female and she was going to lay her eggs in one of the ditches we saw. When I held the turtle, I also noticed how heavy she was.

MUD FIGHT!

Afterwards, we went down to the dock to learn more about the river and the island from Toby. Mercury poisoning of the animals in the river was a huge problem. And most of it was coming from the cement
industry. Maybe I should stop eating tuna...because I eat it almost every single day, ha-ha. Oh, and don't forget about the water chestnuts being in the water, those things are everywhere seriously. Me, Krysti, and Andra were going to go walk on the trail into the woods but I saw a sign that warned about ticks in the area so I did not want to go in anymore. I needed bug spray! Later we went fishing with Toby's net but we didn't have much luck catching anything other than one small fish. (I didn't get into the water, by the way).
This site has lots of historic and environmental significance. I wanted to learn more about Schodack island so I did further research. The development of this island is closely related to the Town of Schodack. The plan to make Schodack Island a state park of recreation and historic preservation was decided by New York in 1998. Native Americans first settled in the area in 1609 and cultivated Upper Schodack Island, because this land was fertile and ideal for agricultural growth and planting. Eventually, the Mohicans, the Native American tribe that resided on the island,  sold part of it to Dutch settlers.

Schodack Island State Park

Fast-forwarding tot he 19th century, New York State began constructing dikes along the shores of Schodack island to control erosion and cutting channels to divert water for the construction of deep water channels into the Hudson River. Dredging in the Hudson created the present-day peninsula called the Schodack Island State Park. This island was used productively by the Knickerbocker Ice Company in the later 1800's. Cutting and storing natural Hudson River ice was a new growing industry. But during the early 1900's, the industry declined due to the introduction of electric refrigerators in homes. From there, railroad bridges were built across the Hudson River and along the Upper Schodack Island. Dredging has raised the elevation of this island covering fertile farmland, which was a problem since corn cultivation was still popular on the island up until the late 1960's.

Painting of the Mohican Indians who first settled on the island

Philipsburg Manor & Sunnyside

Showing us the plants they used for medicine

Today we are headed to New York City to stay there for a week. Even though I am not from New York, I was not really excited about the trip because I been to NYC many times before so I knew what I would expect there. I thought we would just drive to the city but we stopped at museums along the way, which was not really exciting for me either. I just wanted to get to our destination so I can sleep all day.
The first museum we stopped at was Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Now, I have heard of the Sleepy Hollow story many times in my life because it is so popular, but I never read the story nor was I familiar with the author as much.

Philipses' Home

The Phhilipsburg Manor was a significant colonial-era miling and trading complex owned by Dutch merchants, the Philipse family. They owned over 52,000 acres of land and were among the wealthiest in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were also one of the largest slaver-owning families, something I did not like. We learned during the tour that they owned at least 23 slaves who worked on the farm. They were slave traders and slave owners and they were only concerned about making money. Although in the 1750 slavery
was legal in 13 of northern American colonies, slaveholder rarely owned 2 or three slaves. So for a family to own this many slaves  was rather strange to me, but I guess they needed that many to tend the 52,00 acres of land the Philipses owned. I never knew that there was legalized slavery in upstate New York, especially near the Hudson River. But I guess it would have been easy to transport slaves to new York along the Hudson River. During the tour, we explored the  home of the Philipse family. I really do not see the point as to why they owned this home and all this land here if they were always down in Manhattan and never  lived here. The slaves usually lived in the basement

Philip's bedroom

of the home, where they produced cheese products since Manhattan depended on Westchester for dairy. The diary was kept in the basement of the house to keep it cool. The lower kitchen was were slave women cooked meals and the slaves even lived there. The upper kitchen was rarely used, meals were always cooked in the lower kitchen then brought up to the upper kitchen to keep it warm. What took me aback was that 150 tenant farmers borrowed farmland from Philips, I wasn't expecting him to tend 52,000 acres of farmland. There was just something about this family that I really did not like and I can't quite put my finger on it. I get the feeling that these people were really greedy and only cared about making money, I mean they never left a will to anyone when they passed away and I found that really bizarre. And I am unsure as to how they treated their slaves. I remember when the tour guide said that a Hollywood actress wanted to buy the home in the 1950's and and turn the place into an apartment complex which I found to be really stupid. I don't know why people like to destroy things that have significant historical importance. We should help preserve our history, not destroy it. 

Washington Irving's cottage

Then we took a lunch break after visiting Philipsburg Manor, and we headed to Sunnyside to tour Washington Irving's home. I really liked the house, it was simple and not over-flamboyant even though Irving was a fairly wealthy man. I liked how he used the home (if that makes sense ha-ha). He purchased this cottage in 1835 and hired George Harvey to remodel the place by adding Dutch gables and other romantic architectural features. Irving believed that nature compromises a home, so he wanted to add, which was a form of romanticizing of the land. He was part of the Romantic movement in the mid 19th century America which appreciated the natural landscape and careful placement of architecture to reflect nature. I really liked this. You can almost feel this vibe of romanticism with the land when you step foot in his cottage. I thought the house was really beautiful and I think this one has been my favorite out of all the homes we visited. But at this point, I just really wanted to get to NYC so I can relax. And I was going to eat some of my leftover food I bought but Andor threw it away...I was upset.

Irving's Bedroom

Chinatown and Brooklyn & Harlem Tours

View of buildings in Chinatown

We went to Chinatown which was really exciting for me I always wanted to visit this place. Taking the Subway to Chinatown took forever, we were on the subway for at least an hour just to get there and I did not really enjoy that. We then toured the Chinatown

Chair I sat in for my deposition

Museum. I really liked this museum. It was my favourite. I liked how the exhibits were organized and easy to understand. The ideas flowed with one another and it was easy to follow along and connect them. I learned about the Asian Pride Project "Breaking the LGBTQ Ceiling." I found this particular exhibit interesting because it invited photographers to photograph leaders in creative industries to demonstrate how one's sexual identity does not have to prohibit professional fulfillment. This was a really cool concept they were covering. Then there were portraits of LGBTQ families of Asian descent plastered around the room showcasing their stories. The photography is used as a medium for social engagement, attention, and advocacy. The idea is to raise awareness to speak out against vocal and silent discrimination, embrace beauty in differences, and expand boundaries of love to all sexual and gender identities.

I walked around the museum and saw lots of interesting things. I saw a poster that read: "Chinese? No, no,

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant, which I loved!

no!" The poster was advertising a meeting that will be held at some place and discussion will be about excluding the Chinese and the 'Chinese question.' Racism was so prominent back then that advertising it would be a popular thing to do, which baffles me. But people didn't view it as racism, they think they were doing people a favour by removing the Chinese because they seriously believed they threatened the American republic. Thus, the 'Chinese Question' turned to a violent movement where lynchings of Chinese individuals was common and encouraged. Then the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress to set a quota for the amount of Chinese individuals allowed to enter the United States. It was the first time Congress barred a "race" from entering America. The Chinese were separated from other Asians, and only Chinese merchants and students could make it to

Dennison's Makeup Guide for Blackface and Yellowface

America. San Francisco's Angel Island was created to enforce this exclusion act since Chinese immigrants were no longer allowed to pass through Ellis Island. I was having a hard time taking all of this in because I was never aware of the treatment of the Chinese prior to that. 

Another thing I saw in this museum that caught my attention was this chair that you sit on to experience a deposition and a series of questions that would have been asked to Chinese immigrants or other immigrants entering America. I couldn't even answer half the questions, such as, "What color is the house of your employer?" Heck, do I know? 

I also came across this advertisement of chop suey during the 1940's. It was an interesting concept that Chinese food has somewhat become "Americanized" and changed to appeal to the American public. Its no longer part of Chinese culture, chop suey is somehow a form of cultural appropriation to advertise popular American products. They would come in cans and you can cook it at home and it was often advertised as "America's Favourite" on newspapers and television ads. I also saw this small booklet titled "Dennison's

Poster calling for the exclusion of the Chinese

Make-up Guide to Amateurs and Professionals." It was a small booklet giving tutorials to actors on how to do blackface and yellowface make-up. I probably spent about 30 minutes looking through this book because it was so racist and I can't believe this was actually a popular thing for people to do back then. I learned lots of things I was never aware of. I really liked this museum because everything was interesting. I also like how they had a separate exhibit for art done by Chinese artists. Most of their paintings were influenced by tearing the paper on a canvas to create fissures and philosophical ideologies such as social realism and objectivism.
We also toured Brooklyn and Harlem the next day. I was really interested in the Harlem (even though it was like the longest tour we've been on) Harlem has so much rich, interesting history and I kept paying attention the whole time during the tour. The Harlem Renaissance was of the few things I always learned in high school and poems by Langston Hughes. Harlem is very deep-rooted in its African culture and representation in pan-Africanism is present throughout its history. 

Architecture Rally & The Met

Painting of Egyptian woman in American Wing

Saturday was not our typical relaxing day! I wanted to just sleep and get some work today but it seemed like we had to go on a scavenger hunt around the city looking for so many buildings we were assigned to do. I did not know that's what our assignment was going to be, so I had sandals on and I had to walk all day in those which really hurt my feet. I hated it. I hated everything about the assignment. It was too hot out, my feet were killing me, I did not know how to get around, and we kept having trouble finding the buildings and the people who give us directions when we asked always led us the wrong way. It was really annoying. By noon I was already done for the day and just wanted to get home.

Marble statue of Aphrodite

Following that Monday, we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I absolutely loved this museum! I had fun going around and seeing the thousands of artifacts and learning new things. There was so much to see that I decided to be by myself so I can go to every exhibit (which I did). I ended seeing every exhibit on every floor, WOOT! I would do it again! There were so many exhibits that were interesting from clothing to statues to paintings, there were exhibits like the ,  Lost Kingdom: Hindu-Buddhist Sculptures from the 6th centuries, Greek & Roman Art, Contemporary Photography, Italian Art and Sculptures, and my favourites were the Islamic Art and Middle Eastern exhibits.
Charles James: Beyond Fashion
One of my favorite artifacts in the Greek & Roman Art wing was the marble statue of Aphrodite. It was sculpted in the 1st or 2nd century A.D. and it is a copy of a Greek statue of the 2nd century B.C. Originally, her arms reached forward to shield her breasts and pubis that accentuated her sexuality, as the Goddess of love. Nude statues of Aphrodite were very common during the Hellenistic period. They were all inspired to some degree by Aphrodite of Knidos. As i was making my way to the American Wing, I came across a building, which was a facade of the Branch Bank of the United States. The architecture was done by Thompson who was a leader in the Greek revival-style architecture.

Kaaterskill Waterfalls painting by late Hudson River school

The two-story, seven-bay facade of the Branch Bank building is followed by eighteenth-century English Palladian traditional architecture. Only the Ionic pillars and cornice moldings were Greek inspired. This building was located on the north side of Wall Street and in 18850 it was converted into the United States Assay Office. It was then demolished in 1915, but this particular facade of the building was saved and reconstructed as the front of the American Wing exhibit in 1924. (I initially thought that the they actually put a mansion inside the museum...and I spent the longest time wondering how they did that).
On the 3rd floor, I came across a George Washington painting that looked similar to the one I saw in the museum near Washington's Headquarters. But this canvas was one of the first four identical revised versions done by artist Gilbert Stuart. In this painting, he turned Washington's body slightly to his right, rearranged his feet, and altered the position of his sword to give him a firm stance and a dramatic image. The elongated figure may have been truer to Washington's actual physique. I also saw paintings done by artists part of the Late Hudson River School in the 1860's. The idea was to awake emotions with compositions of the Hudson's beauty and colours, which was a trend popular in European art. Here, artists are preoccupied with the use of light to articulate naturalistic effects into their paintings as they expressed the country's nostalgia for wilderness. The last exhibit I saw was the Islamic Art, which was my favorite out of all the others. It ranged from traditional

Old Quran in Islamic Art exhibit

Islamic patterns to carpets, and the holy Quran. My favourite piece was this large part of a Quran that was from Morocco or Spain during the Marinid period. It is written with ink on gold and opaque watercolours on parchment paper. The codex contains no colophons and contains intricate geometric strap work which holds designs closely related of Andalusian and North African tiles. I thought this piece was absolutely beautiful and I could just stare at it all day and not get bored. I just loved it, I loved all the artifacts I saw in the Islamic Art exhibit.

Branch bank of United States

Historic Hyde Park: F.D.R.'s Home, Vanderbilt Mansion, & Val-Kill Cottage

Front outside view of F.D.R's home

We visited three historic sites today. I didn't mind because they were interesting places. The historic homes of F.D.R, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Vanderbilt's all belonged to Hyde Park. Historic Hyde Park is a

Vanderbilt mansion - looking up from first floor

Room in Vanderbilt mansion

government and private non-profit organization and park dedicated to extending and preserving the history of the Roosevelt's and the Vanderbilt's.  The Roosevelt's had ties with the Hudson Valley dating back tot he 17th century, so they were an example of "old money" while the Vanderbilt's fortune grew from Grand Central Terminal and the railroad industry, they were known to have "new money." It was not until 1818 did Roosevelt's family moved to the Hyde Park area. I think it's funny, during the tour, the tour guide said that Franklin and Eleanor slept in different beds after he contracted polio, but we all know they slept in different beds because he cheated on her but she decided to remain in the marriage. When he lived here, he conducted businesses in his presidency in his office and I saw in the main hall all his boyhood collection of stuffed birds and a bronze sculpture of him when he was 29 serving his first term in the New York State Senate. Entertainment took place in the Dresden room, while the family sometimes gathered in the living room to be with each other. Here, Roosevelt was able to pursue his hobbies such as his stamp collection or building ship models. His 'birth room' was the room where he was born and raised and his Boyhood bedroom was later used by his sons. I really liked the view over the south lawn and the Hudson River he had in his bedroom. I was expecting to also find an elevator somewhere in the home since he had polio. And the story about the British cartoons he kept up on his wall when he invited the King to his home made me laugh.

Front outside view of Vanderbilt mansion

I would not have taken them down either.

After this tour, we went to the Vanderbilt's mansion, which was my favourite. I liked it because it was a such a really beautiful home, but at the same time, why did they need such a big home just for the two of them? I mean, out of the 23 fireplaces they built in that mansion, they only used 3 of them and they only resided in the mansion for 6 months. "They had a new home for every season," I found that ridiculous. And if I inherited this home, I would never sell or give it to the museum, I'll live here all my life. By myself. And I'll even make sure I use every single fireplace. It's amazing that the Vanderbilts became very wealthy from owning the railroad that stretched behind the home and the money they inherited when one of their parents passed away. They were worth so much money at the time. The Vanderbilts would also invite people over for small celebrations and call themselves "royalty," ha, that made me laugh. They are so snobby and full of themselves. But I'm not going to lie, if I had this much money, I'd probably build myself a home just as big as this one just for the heck of it. I really liked the architectural styles of the rooms. I couldn't get any good pictures of the mansion because the lighting in there was giving my camera a bad focus.

Val-Kill Cottage - view of Elanor's desk

Afterwards, we headed to Eleanor's getaway home the Val-Kill Cottage. The idea for this cottage came in 1924. Eleanor invited her friends to join her for a family picnic by the stream, Fall Kill, on the Roosevelt estate. Franklin suggested that the three friends build a cottage in the area so they can enjoy and stay in there year-round. It was a perfect time for them to discuss and act on political issues such as women's and civil right's and bring solutions to this problems; which came to be the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Eleanor would always have people visit her in the cottage, where her secretary would help arrange the time and dates of the visits. I think it's cool that John F. Kennedy also was in this house when he visited Elanor. What kind of ticked me off was when the tour guide told us about her stuff being sold to the public and the property was sold to two doctors who knocked everything down to build their condos. I think people should have more respect for our history. Eleanor Roosevelt was such an important influential woman in American history and it baffles me as to why anyone would want to destroy that legacy.

'Boyhood Bedroom' in F.D.R's home