Fall 2011 Newsletter announcing ten gifts for ten years It has been ten years since the Thomas Cole National Historic Site opened its doors in July 2001. Now, as we celebrate this milestone, we are pleased to announce our initiative to acquire ten major gifts to set the organization on a path for success in the next decade. As of the printing of this newsletter, seven of the ten gifts have been either promised or given, moving us great leaps forward in the areas of collections, financial stability, educational programs, and our service to the public. We would like to express our deepest appreciation for the generous individuals and organizations that have contributed to making 2011 such a special year!

Thomas Cole, A Sketch: Catskill Landscape, ca. 1845-47, oil on wood pulp paperboard, 10 3/4 x 7 7/8 in. Transfer from the Seattle Art Museum; Gift of Julie and Lawrence Salander in memory of Ann Barwick

Major Acquired or Promised What will define our second decade? Gifts to Date The next ten years will see the • A $1 million endowment fund to maintain the recreation of Thomas Cole’s New buildings and grounds from the estate of Raymond Studio that stood a few hundred Beecher. yards from his home for 125 years. • An original Thomas Cole painting, pictured The reconstruction will complete the above, from The Seattle Art Museum. This gift was restoration of the Thomas Cole National Historic championed by the museum’s Ann M. Barwick Site, bring back one of the few known architectural Curator of American Art, Patricia Junker. creations of Thomas Cole and provide a year-round, handicap-accessible gallery for exhibitions and • Thomas Cole’s original Luigi Filano guitar, events. which Cole purchased on a sojourn to Italy in 1842 from Filano’s shop on Strada Speranzella in The c. 1815 Main House, where Cole Naples. Donated by Rick Sharp with a contribution lived with his large extended family, by Alex and Loie Acevedo. will receive a complete restoration of • A $45,000 grant from Hudson River Foundation its interior rooms, including original for major repairs to the historic buildings including furnishings and historically accurate an upgrade of all electrical work in two buildings finishes. Research by noted restoration specialists and painting all exterior facades of three buildings. is now under way in our effort to help visitors • A set of high-quality, actual-size, color- understand Cole’s private world. accurate reproductions of Thomas Cole paintings for use in educational programs, donated The Hudson River School Art Trail, an by EFI Inc. through David Barnes, Thomas Cole innovative and popular program with Trustee, and his brother Mark Barnes. maps and directions to the places that inspired Cole and other 19th-century • A fund to professionally record lectures at landscape painters, will be taken into the 21st the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and create century with mobile applications for iPads and other DVDs for both current public use and archival handheld devices. record-keeping, donated by David and Laura Grey. Continued on page 2 The 2011 Thomas Cole Fellows

In 2010, the Thomas Cole Historic Site launched the Thomas Cole Fellows program for recent college graduates and graduate students. Now in its second year, the program received more than twenty applications from six states. The accepted Fellows commit to a five-month stay at the Thomas Cole site, June 1 to November 1, and in exchange receive free housing at the historic site, the resume-building experience of working in a museum environment, as well as a full schedule of training, professional development, networking and field trips. The staff, board and volunteers of the Thomas Cole site offer our profound thanks to these wonderful individuals who will be sorely missed!

John Kingsley graduated from Meredith Mueller graduated from Fordham University where he Vassar College where she majored majored in Art History with a minor in Art History with a specialization in History. Prior to his Thomas in American Art. Her love of the Cole Fellowship, he interned with Hudson River School in high the Department of Education school prompted her to attend and Public Programs at Morris- college in the Hudson Valley. Jumel Mansion, a historic house She has worked as a research museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood and cataloging intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Manhattan. At the Thomas Cole Historic Site of Art and the Getty Research Institute, and in the he has been working to organize, inventory and curatorial department at the Cleveland Museum of research items in our collection. Working with our Art. At the Thomas Cole Historic Site she created two Collections & Exhibitions digital presentations that will soon be available on Manager, he reorganized the our website: one of Dr. Barbara Novak’s 2009 lecture site’s collection storage and and one for an created an inventory of all exhibition to the items on display in the commemorate period rooms. His research on the site’s 10th specific items in the collection anniversary. has centered on Thomas She also Cole’s paintbrush, his “harp,” conducted his Luigi Filano guitar and research on the a print of his painting The artworks on Whirlwind by E. Gallaudet. display in the He is now the Director of Education of the Seward Main House House Museum in Auburn, NY. – including critical provenance research – in order to provide accurate information to our volunteers and visitors. Caitlin Mahony graduated from Skidmore College with a double Continued from cover major in History and Government. ten gifts... She studied The Arts and • A detailed new Guidebook for visitors to the Social Change at the School for Thomas Cole National Historic Site, featuring International Training in Prague, new research about Thomas Cole’s home and the Czech Republic. At Skidmore she people who lived here, funded by Furthermore served as a research assistant in Foundation. the Government Department and worked as a tutor in • To round out this list, we are seeking original Twentieth Century European and American History. Cole family furniture and artifacts that date to Caitlin grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, right Thomas Cole’s lifetime in order to repopulate his near the Durand-Hedden House and volunteered as home and studio here at Cedar Grove, and a major a tour guide there. At the Thomas Cole Historic Site gift or pledge to help fund reconstruction of she conducted and recorded interviews with people Thomas Cole’s New Studio. If you would like to knowledgeable about the recent history of the site in be a part of the “Ten Gifts” project, please contact order to create an archive of oral history for posterity. Elizabeth Jacks, the Executive Director. 2 Barbara Novak, Helen Goodhart Altschul Professor NATIONAL COUNCIL IS FORMED of Art History Emerita at Barnard College and Columbia University, New York, NY Over the last ten years, the Thomas Cole National Paul Schweizer, Director and Chief Curator, Historic Site has been the beneficiary of the advice, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts research and countless acts of generosity from Institute, Utica, NY preeminent scholars in the field of American art. On Nancy Siegel, Associate Professor of Art History, the occasion of our tenth anniversary, we are formally Towson University, Towson, MD recognizing their invaluable contributions by forming John Stilgoe, Robert & Lois Orchard Professor The National Council of the Thomas Cole National in the History of Landscape, Harvard University, Historic Site: Cambridge, MA Alan Wallach, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art Kevin Avery, Senior Research Scholar, The and Art History, The College of William and Mary, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Williamsburg, VA Gerald Carr, Independent Scholar, Newark, DE Linda S. Ferber, Vice President & Senior Art Historian, New-York Historical Society, New York, NY Programs Coming Up Ella M. Foshay, Independent Scholar, New York, NY Eleanor Jones Harvey, Chief Curator, Smithsonian January 15, 2012 American Art Museum, Washington, DC Sunday Salon: The Hunt for Thomas Cole’s Last Ashton Hawkins, former Executive Vice President & Lost Series, “The Cross and the World” General Counsel, The Metropolitan Museum of by Christine I. Oaklander Art, New York, NY February 12, 2012 Patricia Junker, Ann M. Barwick Curator of Sunday Salon: Thomas Cole in Love American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA by Kevin Sharp Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Curator, Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, The May, 2012 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY New Exhibition: Louis Rémy Mignot Katherine Manthorne, Professor of Modern Art of curated by Katherine E. Manthorne, Professor the Americas, City University of New York, of Modern Art of the Americas, City University New York, NY of New York. Welcome New Staff Kate Menconeri, Collection and Alice Tunison, Historic Site Exhibition Manager, Interpreter, is a resident of the joins our team with experience nearby town of Cairo and a long- as a curator, writer, and educator. time friend of the arts. She has She holds a BA in English and enjoyed an accomplished career as an MA in Curatorial Studies and a professional artist, actor, costume Contemporary Art from Bard designer, published author of College, 2009. From 1999 to 2007, short stories and articles, and she served as the Program Director at the Center for schoolteacher in both public and private schools. In Photography at Woodstock (CPW) where she co- addition, she served as Councilwoman on the Cairo edited PHOTOGRAPHY Quarterly (Pq) magazine, Town Board from 2006 to 2010, and she manages all organized over 100 exhibitions, and curated over two facets of a sculpture business. She holds a Masters dozen shows. Kate has been a juror for FotoFest’s Degree in Education and Art from Hunter College Discoveries of the Meeting Place, Photo Lucida’s and a Permanent Public School Teacher Certification Critical Mass, the Annual PDN/Nikon Self Promotion for Nursery, Kindergarten and Grades 1 through 6. Awards, and the Dutchess County Arts Council, As Historic Site Interpreter, Alice leads guided tours among others. At the Thomas Cole Historic Site, of Thomas Cole’s house and studio, conducts school Kate manages our collection objects, manages the programs, and ensures that all visitors enjoy the exhibitions gallery, and supervises the Cole Fellows highest quality experience. program. 3 In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are pleased to River School was Cole’s Hudson Valley journey, present a scholarly milestone: new research on the origin later in 1825. While several extant sketches by of “Hudson River School” as a designation, and on the Cole retrace his itinerary, precisely when and for discovery of Thomas Cole in 1825. how long he traveled remain unclear. The fourth component was Cole’s second Initiating and Naming “discovery” that year. By October 1825, Cole “The Hudson River School” completed and consigned three new paintings by Gerald L. Carr depicting Hudson Valley scenery to another Manhattan shop, at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street, owned by William A. Colman (d. 1850). Colman was an enterprising bookseller The “Hudson River School” of American landscape and multi-commodity merchant with international painters came into being a half-century before connections whose store comprised art display it was named. The advent was 1825 to 1826, space on the second floor. There, John Trumbull while the designation “Hudson River School” was (1756-1843), aging President of the American not applied until 1874. The gist of the advent, Academy of Fine Arts and a Colman customer, 1825-26, is well known today; but not known happened upon Cole’s three canvases and was are most details and the broader picture. Nor are smitten by Cole’s latest offering, The Falls of the the phrase-maker or his milieu, 1874-78, part of Kaatskill. Unfortunately, that particular painting current scholarship. I outlined both of these in is lost. However, we know it by what Cole termed a talks given during the past few years, but otherwise “copy” (Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford) that he my findings are new to historical discourse. painted the next year for Daniel Wadsworth.

At the outset, I need to acknowledge Thomas After seeing the Cole paintings, Trumbull Cole as the father of nineteenth century American contacted three colleagues: William Dunlap (1766- landscape painting. Where and when Cole (1801- 1839), also an active author; Asher B. Durand 48) started, the Hudson River School can be said (1796-1886), then primarily a printmaker and to have started as well. Certainly, that is what portrait painter; and, probably, Benjamin Trott (ca. Americans from his generation, and the generation 1770-1843), to inspect his chosen Cole canvas after his, believed. and Cole’s other paintings then at Colman’s: Fort Putnam (Philadelphia Museum of Art), rediscovered The 1820s advent of the Hudson River School, in 2004; and Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill) with Cole at its center, comprised four active (Oberlin College Art Museum). The onlookers ingredients, three of them tied to period marveled; Trumbull, Dunlap, and Durand bought newspapers and periodicals. The first was the one Cole painting each. Cole’s career was launched 1824 opening of the Catskill Mountain House, a by their praises and purchases alone. sprawling resort hotel, and its enlargement over the next two years. The hotel greatly increased Today we know of the ménage à quatre at Catskill region tourism and became the subject Colman’s because tens of thousands of Cole’s of newspaper articles and advertisements up and contemporaries soon learned of it. On November down the East Coast. 15, 1825, Dunlap described encountering the Cole paintings at Colman’s in a lengthy letter to a local The second ingredient arose during the spring of daily newspaper, the New York American. Dunlap 1825. Shortly after moving to Manhattan from bylined his communication, “An Artist.” Nine years Philadelphia, Thomas Cole consigned several of later, in his 1834 book on American artists, Dunlap his pre-Hudson Valley pictures to George Dixey’s retold the story with some differing details. carving and gilding shop on Chatham Street. Dixie had inherited the firm from his father in 1820. During the mid-1820s New York buzzed with fine There a local merchant and art collector, George W. arts news, portions of which routinely re-circulated Bruen, encountered Cole’s work, purchased at least up and down the East Coast. From late 1825 on, one picture immediately and, within a short time, Cole shared in it. Co-edited by Charles King (1789- bought three more paintings by him, while Dixey 1867) and Johnston Verplanck (1789-1829), the himself bought a fifth painting (all unlocated). American was the most fine-arts-attuned American Thereafter, Bruen encouraged Cole to make a newspaper of the day. Along with other Manhattan sketching trip up the Hudson River and helped journals, the American had lately applauded a huge finance that excursion. new canvas (now lost) painted by Dunlap, based on Benjamin West’s earlier masterpiece, Death on The third ingredient in the birth of the Hudson a Pale Horse (1817; Pennsylvania Academy of the 4 Fine Arts, Philadelphia). A week after his American Foremost among them were a three-quarter- missive on Cole, on November 22, 1825, Dunlap column discourse of December 28, 1825 in the wrote a five-paragraph supplement about Cole. daily New-York National Advocate and a one- And three days before that, November 19th, the column piece across two pages of the January 12, American had reported a meeting at the American 1826 issue of the American Athenaeum, a weekly. Academy, chaired by Trumbull, including a toast by Published and edited by Modecai Manuel Noah an unclearly identified member to “Mr. T. Cole,” as (1785-1851), the New-York National Advocate “Evidence that real talent may be nourished in this mentioned Dunlap by name. Both articles heralded country.” One other Manhattan paper relayed the George Bruen for having first recognized Cole’s Academy proceedings; it did not mention the toast talents; and the Athenaeum cited George Dixey. to Cole. Bruen and Dixey wanted their insights known. The Advocate also extolled Mr. Colman and his Not to worry. Through abridged but credited shop, but, somewhat sadly, the Athenaeum noted republications, Dunlap’s initial communication on the economic duress under which Cole had lately Cole in the American spread from Maine to South labored. The Advocate write-up, shorn of its final Carolina to Ohio to Arkansas Territory at least. paragraph, was reprinted at least twice—once in As of this writing, I know of thirty-three reprints Manhattan and once in Providence, Rhode Island. of the letter into January of 1826, including one by the New York Evening Post on November 22, Were we to follow Cole’s ascent through the spring 1825, previously believed by modern scholars to and summer of 1826, we’d find a diverse cast be Dunlap’s original article on Cole. Nationally of surrounding characters and an entirely new the number of reprintings must have exceeded American artists group, the National Academy of fifty. At least six East Coast journals—three Design. We’d also find American fine arts centered from Manhattan, one from Boston, and two from in Manhattan. Cole, a founding member of the Baltimore—reprised Dunlap’s letter before the new Academy, split his presentation loyalties Evening Post did. A few reprints retained the in 1826, tilting toward the older Academy. At byline, “An Artist.” Several carried a headline, the American Academy meeting that season, most often, “Natural Talent Detected.” A few as reported in the American, Cole was again of those headlines invoked the word “Genius.” toasted, this time by an Academy Vice President, One Baltimore paper published the letter with a Dr. Jeremiah van Rensselaer: “I give you, Sir, preamble thrice using the word “discovery.” I have an answer to the Question of the Poet [James seen a reprint (from Charleston, SC) of the toast to Thomson]–‘Who can paint like nature?’ Mr. T. Cole, as well. Coales [sic].”

Sensibly, Colman tried to capitalize on his young Cole continued to sketch and paint the Hudson client’s escalating renown. Through timely, Valley for the rest of his life. His residency in selective local newspaper advertising, Colman Catskill between 1836 and 1848, and his family’s offered Cole paintings “at moderate prices” on home there after his death, helped assure that December 17, 1825, and evidently sold “2 more American artists, writers, and tourists retained fine Landscapes by Mr. Cole” (unlocated), both interest in the region. During the 1850s into the probably depicting Hudson Valley scenery at 1860s, at first proudly, then, for some onlookers, Cold Spring, NY. Six months later, in June 1826, disappointingly, landscape painting became the Colman and Cole renewed their partnership prevailing American art form. And during the through press publicity with a fresh, sizable canvas run-up to the American Centennial celebrations by Cole (1826; Mead Art Museum, Amherst in 1876, American exhibition organizers and College) of “Col. [Daniel] Boone, sitting at the commentators renewed their attentions to Cole and door of his cottage.” Meanwhile, starting on his influence. December 19, 1825, several Manhattan journals carried advertisements for a “continuation” In that regard, an unsigned article of July 24, 1876, exhibit at the American Academy. Cole’s Falls of in the New York World newspaper, discussing the Kaatskill owned by Trumbull was not the first American art shown at the Centennial Exposition work referenced in the ads—Dunlap’s Death on a in Philadelphia, was on target. The writer’s Pale Horse was—but Cole was the first artist cited purpose was largely analytical. Twice using the by name. There, Cole’s Kaatskill was categorized phrase “Hudson River School” as though it were among “the finest pictures in America.” his own coinage, he thought the display there offered an apt opportunity to chart “the growth of Celebrity, especially emergent celebrity, attracts. American landscape art since Cole painted.” Indeed, within weeks, five further Manhattan journals published articles involving Cole. The first appearance of the phrase “Hudson River 5 School” in an art-related context in print that I were not new for the date. But the summoning know of, occurs in an unsigned review, also in the of the phrase “Hudson River ‘school,’” of the word New York World, of the Academy of Design annual “impressionist,” and of a figural image by an actual exhibit of 1874. French Impressionist, those were new. So, for the most part, were the critic’s astuteness and I believe Montgomery Schuyler (1843-1914), the sensitivity. newspaper’s multi-tasking critic of the period, authored the review of 1874, the rumination of In conclusion, we can say, first, that Thomas 1876 just cited, and another of 1878 discussed Cole’s breakthroughs in 1825-26 were episodes below. Today Schuyler is known as the zestful, of American economic, cultural, and artistic bylined architectural writer he became in the prowess, publicity, and jingoism, and that various late 1870s. But he was chiefly a journalist with individuals besides Cole were seeking uplift, leanings toward the visual arts. An omnivorous notably, Trumbull, Dunlap, Durand, Colman, reader and prolific (unbylined) writer on politics, Dixey, Bruen, King, Verplanck, and Noah, as literature, music, architecture, and art, he was also well as two competing artists’ enclaves—the a diligent socialite. older American Academy of Fine Arts and the newer National Academy of Design. At the same On April 27, 1874, Schuyler (I’ll take the plunge), time, those breakthroughs involved genuine writing in the New York World, dropped the phrase enthusiasm and gratitude, as well as constructive “Hudson River School,” casually but insistently, personal recognition. Today, we might almost say, three times and part of a fourth, into an overview “America’s Got Talent,” and “suddenly Mr. Cole.” of landscapes then hanging at the National Academy of Design. The flavor of the phrase was By contrast, the phrase “Hudson River School” disinterested, leaning toward critical. The aimed- was an American journalist’s solo invention, at painters were John Casilear (1811-93) and with both diagnostic and judgmental meanings. William Hart (1823-94), respected Manhattan- It, too, appeared within an active American fine based landscape specialists. Both were assumed arts discourse but, best I can tell, the phrase- by the writer to represent a cluster, a “school,” coiner himself used it intermittently, and several which encompassed Frederic Edwin Church and years elapsed before colleagues adopted it. That Sanford R. Gifford, among others. Church’s is not surprising. Euro-American art writers of contribution to the Academy that year was his big, the period had their own interests to advance. glowing canvas, El Khasné Petra (1874), nowadays Hence, when one of them originated a phrase normally on display at Church’s Hudson River or point of view, it likely stayed his or hers at Valley home, Olana. Schuyler was displeased least for a while. Even after the phrase “Hudson with Church’s painting, which Schuyler thought River School,” with a pejorative slant, generally beneath the artist’s recent efforts and “numbers entered American fine arts literature starting in of [his] earlier works [which] distinguished him in 1879, its creator did not step forward. Ultimately the group of workers who were following in the his identity and his circumstances receded. His pathway Cole opened without possessing any of phrase was not a eureka moment, any more Cole’s epic power.” than was the contemporaneous creation of the word “impressionism” in France, also initially I next find the words “Hudson River ‘school’” and used with a negative connotation. However, the “Hudson River work” in a paragraph of February “Impressionists” and their acolytes turned things 25, 1878, again in the World. Unbylined as usual, around fairly quickly. After decades adrift, the the author was probably again Schuyler. This third phrase “Hudson River School,” too, now deservedly time, the tilt was disparaging. The eleventh annual signifies affirmation. show of the American Water Color Society included a ballet scene (1876-77; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Gerald L. Carr is an art and architectural historian and Art, Kansas City, MO), a tinted monotype by Edgar head of the Frederic E. Church Catalogue Raisonné Degas (1834-1917), which is believed to be the Project. He earned his BA at Michigan State University first American display of a French Impressionist in 1964 and his PhD at the University of Michigan in work. The World’s reviewer thought the Degas 1976. He has held teaching positions at the University of Michigan, the University of Cincinnati and Southern a fine thing, had heard of “impressionism,” and Methodist University. Dr. Carr is the author of several used both the picture and the French word as a books including Frederic Edwin Church: The Icebergs; The premise. The essence of his comments—that Early Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church, 1845-1854 American art was then under siege by European (with Franklin Kelly); Olana Landscapes; and Frederic art and that an American critic perceived insipid Edwin Church: Catalogue Raisonné of Works of Art at uniformity and growing obsolescence for what we Olana State Historic Site. continue to call Hudson River School painting— 6 Thank you to our 2011 Summer Party Sponsors! Robin & Martin Smith Sandra & Grenville Gooder Hudson Talbott Jack Guterman Jean Hamilton & Richard McCarthy Gold Leonard Herman & Guido Loyola Ramzi Abufaraj & Keith Nuss Richard & Ann Artschwager Warren Battle & Timm Whitney Sarah & Peter Finn Johnnie Moore & Ashton Hawkins Underwriter Lisa Fox Martin & Dick May Silver David & Mimi Forer Aiglon LLC Barry & Gloria Garfinkel Asli Karahan & Evren Ay Anne Miller & Stuart Breslow Ava Barbour & David Christofferson Nina Matis & Alan Gosule Richard & Charles D. Hewett & Charles G. Olbright Al & Betsy Scott Jean Bassin Hillcrest Press Ken & Ethel Williams Dr. Theodore & Rebecca Hoffman & John Dunn Howard Zar & Ray Kurdziel Pamela Belfor Veronica & Martin Kosich Frank Cuthbert & John & Alison Lankenau Platinum Danette Koke Merritt & Candy Lutz David Barnes & Bruce & John & Margaret Moree Jill Taylor Gracia Dayton Michael Moy & Joseph Sniado Carrie Feder & Windle Davis & Peter O’Hara & John Garofalo Randall Evans Dini Lamot Loring & Anne Pratt Michel Goldberg Gary DiMauro Jasper & Marie Spano Purcell & Stephen & Jacqueline Dunn Colin & Katrina Stair Jim Palmer Barton & Susan Ferris Sybil & Dick Tannenbaum Stephen Shadley Mary Ellen & John Gallagher Patrick Terenchin & David Ludwig Richard Sharp Linda & Tom Gentalen Wheelock Whitney & Sandro Cagnin Warner Shook & Frank Swim

New Publication Making Your Gift a Lasting

I Remain Yours Very Truly, Legacy Thomas Cole Stemming from new Thomas Cole’s creative life and art proves how research, the Thomas Cole one person’s efforts can have lasting impact. Historic Site published a You can create your own legacy with a planned collection of excerpts from lifetime or estate gift to the Thomas Cole the journals, essays and Historic Site. Your commitment will continue letters to and from Thomas the preservation of Cole’s home, studio and Cole. It includes love letters landscape, and help us expand awareness of between Cole and his wife his pivotal role in defining American art and Maria, intimate descriptions culture. Whether a donor uses cash or other of their children, new assets, such as appreciated stocks, real estate, details about his art- or annuities, the benefits of funding a planned making, and his inspiring gift can make this type of charitable giving very thoughts about nature. The quotes are interspersed useful to both the donor and the charity. Please with beautiful reproductions of pencil drawings of consult your own financial or legal advisor before Cole’s wife and children, as well as several nature proceeding with any planned gift arrangement. studies. The editing and design were donated by For more information about how to make a gift Marie Spano and Debra Klein as a pro-bono project. to the Thomas Cole Historic Site, please contact The book can be purchased from our online shop at Elizabeth Jacks, Executive Director, 518-943- www.thomascole.org/shop. 7465 extension 3. 7 Board of Trustees Lisa Fox Martin, Chairman NON-PROFIT ORG Hudson Talbott, Vice Chairman HISTORIC U.S. POSTAGE PAID Kenneth Williams, Treasurer HOUSE C R S T . N E T Linda Gentalen, Secretary 1 2 5 5 0 David Barnes 218 Spring Street, p.o. Box 426 Warren Battle Catskill, New York 12414 Carrie Feder Michel Goldberg Elizabeth Jacks Anne J. Miller Stephen Shadley Warner Shook Robin Smith Sybil Tannenbaum Staff Elizabeth Jacks, Executive Director Sheri DeJan, Executive Assistant Melissa Gavilanes, Education & Programs Coordinator Kate Menconeri, Collection & Exhibition Manager Peter & Tone Noci, Caretakers Marie Spano, Visitor Center Manager Alice Tunison, Historic Site Interpreter

Newsletter Staff Elizabeth Jacks Nathan French www.thomascole.org (518) 943-7465

Celebrating Ten Years

Thomas Cole’s beloved home at Cedar Grove is alive with activity, and we have a great many milestones to celebrate. In the last ten years, over 60,000 people have visited the historic site and experienced the serenity and inspiration that Cole Milestones: The First Ten Years found here. Attendance is now ten times what it 2001: Restoration of the Main House was in the inaugural year, and the organization’s 2004: Restoration of Cole’s “Old Studio” operating budget has increased nearly six-fold. Once 2005: Opening of the Hudson River School Art Trail near ruin, the house and grounds now provide an 2009: Launch of the award-winning “Learning evocative environment where visitors can learn about Portal” online the founder of the Hudson River School of art. This Premiere of the Thomas Cole film year as we take a look back, we will also be deeply 2010: Becoming an independent non-profit engaged in work for the future. Our thanks go to you, organization our community of members, volunteers, supporters Annual attendance hitting 10,000 and scholars, for being with us along the way. 2011: Restoration of the historic grounds