Inspiring Individuals: a Legacy of Leadership in the Hudson River Valley
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The Great Estates Consortium Inspiring Individuals: A Legacy of Leadership in the Hudson River Valley An all-day conference Saturday, March 19, 2011 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Inspiring Individuals: A Legacy of Leadership in the Hudson River Valley When Saturday, March 19, 2011 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Where Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site Route 9, Hyde Park, New York Registration fee $60 per person Includes coffee and tea in the morning, luncheon catered by Gigi Hudson Valley and afternoon Great Estates site tours. ($10 additional for Payne Estate tour.) Presented by The Great Estates Consortium Hosted by Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site Sponsored by The Great Estates Consortium With additional support provided by: The Hudson River Valley Institute with a major grant from The National Endowment for the Arts Dutchess County Tourism Marist College Cover: Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York, 1932. Photo by Oscar Jordan. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum archives. AGENDA Saturday, March 19 8:30 – 9:00 am Registration and continental breakfast 9:00 – 9:15 am Welcome Sarah Olson, Superintendent, Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS Lynn Bassanese, Acting Director, FDR Presidential Library 9:15 – 10:00 am "The Old Lady of Clermont": Searching for the Truth About Margaret Beekman Livingston Kjirsten Gustavson, Curator of Education Clermont State Historic Site 10:00 – 10:45 am "The Commanding Genius of that Day": Hudson River School Painter Frederic Edwin Church Valerie Balint, Associate Curator The Olana Partnership 10:45 – 11:00 am Coffee Break 11:00 am – Noon Leaders and Land Owners: The Roosevelts and the Hudson Valley Connection Jeffrey Urbin, Education Specialist Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Noon – 12:10 pm Luncheon Remarks Laura Pensiero, RD, Chef/Owner Gigi Hudson Valley 12:10 – 1:00 pm Luncheon Catered by Gigi Hudson Valley featuring local farm fresh ingredients Afternoon Tours of the Great Estates 1:30 pm • Historic Col. Oliver Hazard Payne Mansion ($10 fee) • Staatsburgh State Historic Site and Terrapin Catering in Staatsburg • Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Historical Association • FDR Presidential Library and Museum (self-guided) and Mrs. Nesbitt’s Café, Hyde Park, New York • Locust Grove Estate and Crumb Bakery, Beacon, New York 3:30 pm • Historic Col. Oliver Hazard Payne Mansion ($10 fee) • FDR Presidential Library and Museum (self-guided) and Mrs. Nesbitt’s Café, Hyde Park, New York Conference attendees will receive free admission to the FDR Presidential Library and the Home of FDR National Historic Site from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ABOUT THE CONFERENCE Inspiring Individuals: A Legacy of Leadership Launt Palmer and Lockwood de Forest. in the Hudson River Valley, the 7th annual While Church is most often discussed as conference organized by the Great Estates an artist and occasionally as a collector, Consortium, will be held on Saturday, few are aware that he was also a benefactor March 19, 2011 beginning at 8:30 a.m. who made significant gifts to the growing in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR cultural institutions in the United States. Presidential Library and Home. The lecture will introduce new aspects of this singularly recognized artist, whose Inspiring Individuals will explore the reach went well beyond his epic canvases! leadership roles of inspiring Hudson River Valley personalities including Margaret After a brief coffee break Jeffrey Urbin, Beekman Livingston, Frederic Church, Education Specialist, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The Library and Museum, will present Leaders conference has been planned to coincide and Land Owners: The Roosevelts and the with Hudson Valley Restaurant Week Hudson Valley Connection. Franklin and 2011. This fifth annual valley-wide event Eleanor Roosevelt’s influence has been will take place between March 14 - 27, and felt in every corner of the world. From will showcase this scenic New York State Pougkeepsie to Pakistan, from Hyde Park region as a premier culinary destination. to Hong Kong, from South Road to South Visit www.hudsonvalleyrestaurantweek.com. Africa their voices brought the hometown values of the Hudson Valley to the war Kjirsten Gustavson, Curator of Education, torn hovels of the World. In so doing, they Clermont State Historic Site, will discuss inspired not just their own generation, but Margaret Beekman Livingston as one of each generation that followed; and not just the most storied members of the Livingston their own countrymen, but people around family. The widowed matriarch was the the world. The Roosevelts had houses head of household at Clermont for almost in Washington, Albany, Warm Springs, 25 years, and her indomitable spirit sparked Georgia, and New York City; but only in family tales that lasted for generations. Hyde Park did they have a home. But what does history tell us about her life? Ms. Gustavson will investigate documents Lunch will be provided by Gigi Hudson from Clermont's collections and beyond to Valley, inspired by historic recipes from find the truth behind the legends of "the Alice Livingston from Clermont State Old Lady of Clermont." Historic Site and featuring local food. Laura Pensiero, RD chef/owner, Gigi Hudson Valerie Balint, Associate Curator at Valley, will introduce the lunch and share Olana State Historic Site, will explore with participants how she uses local farm the meteoric rise of Hudson River School products for her business and the current painter Frederic Edwin Church, who had state of farming in Dutchess County. garnered international acclaim by his thirtieth birthday. His reputation and Following lunch conference attendees will fame secure by the time he moved to the have the opportunity to visit participating Hudson Valley in 1860, he continued to Great Estates where they will be given an be acknowledged as the premiere painter opportunity to engage in special behind- of this first truly American school of art; a the-scenes tours and activities. Each site writer asserting in his 1900 obituary that will pair with a restaurant offering visitors a Church was “The commanding genius of Hudson Valley treat. There is an additional that day.” Ms. Balint will trace Frederic $10.00 bus fee for visitors to the Payne Church’s extraordinary artistic career, but Mansion, but no additional cost for visits will also discuss the impact he made on his to other historic sites. Participants must pre- students including notable artists Walter register to participate in the afternoon site visits. AFTERNOON SITE VISITS Historic Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Mansion – One of the most historically Site – Servants To Stewards tour. Guests and architecturally significant homes in the are assigned the character of a servant Hudson River Valley, the Payne Mansion and learn about their role in the running is a 42,000-square-foot Beaux Arts-style of the household. This tour requires palazzo designed by the famed Manhattan climbing 74 stairs and is not handicap firm of Carrère and Hastings, architects accessible. Comfortable shoes are strongly of the New York Public Library and the recommended. Following the tour the Frick Museum. It was built in 1905 by Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Historical Association Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne, a brigadier will provide attendees with a Hudson Valley general in the Civil War who founded an treat. oil refinery that was later bought by John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co. Colonel Locust Grove Estate – Be one of the first Payne went on to serve as Treasurer of to tour the third floor of Locust Grove's Standard Oil. He became one of the historic mansion! Closed to the public for wealthiest men of his generation. more than 30 years, the third floor includes bedrooms for house and scullery maids, a After Colonel Payne’s death in 1917, the guest suite boasting a balcony ovelooking mansion passed first to his nephew Harry the Hudson River, and store-rooms for Payne Bingham, then to the Episcopal linens and luggage. Now in the process of Diocese of New York, which converted it restoration prior to opening to the general into the Wiltwyck School for Boys. In 1942, public in the spring, the third floor will be part of the estate was sold to the Marist open for the first ten registrants who sign Brothers, who used it as a school and retreat up. You'll need to be comfortable climbing house. In 1986 the mansion, boathouse, three steep flights of stairs, but you'll have a and 60 acres of land were purchased from tasty cookie from Crumb Bakery in Beacon the Marist Brothers and restored to their as your reward when you finish! former glory by Mr. Raymond A. Rich, one of the most successful businessmen and Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential industrialists of the 20th century. Upon his Library and Museum (self-guided) – death in 2009, he bequeathed the property Explore the life and times of America's to Marist College to create the Raymond A. only four-term president in the FDR Rich Institute for Leadership Development. Library's Museum, only a short walk from the conference venue. The exhibits trace Access only by bus, limit of 30 people per tour. a story from FDR's birth at Hyde Park in 1882 through the dramatic years of his Staatsburgh State Historic Site – Visit presidency, and include the life and career the “downstairs” rooms of the mansion of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Before that until recently had served as offices attendees tour the museum, Mrs. Nesbitt's for the employees of the Taconic Region Café will provide attendees with a special of the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation treat.