Historic Huguenot Street

07/08/2025

It’s National Cow Appreciation Day, and the Curatorial Department takes the opportunity to share some bovine history and take a tour of cow-related objects found in the collection.

Cows are an important resource as beasts of burden (plowing and carting), food (meat and milk), and material (hide and horn). They have also had a significant impact on human cultural evolution as seen in their depictions in myths and art across the world.

Archaeology and DNA points to early domestication beginning ca. 10,000 years ago in Anatolia from wild aurochs. Travelling along major migration routes like the Danube River, Mediterranean Sea, and to North America by Spanish colonizers in the 1400s, cows have come to dominate agricultural landscapes across the world. Interbreeding with regional bovine populations, additional isolated domestication events, and the human selection of desired traits has led to many of the distinct breeds we see today.

First, we look at an assortment of objects related to the processing of milk. The bucket, milk can, churn, and butter molds track the lifecycle of milk from collection to processing into butter for long-term keeping. Accompanying this, we present a recipe for lemon cake from a cookbook, ca. 1862. Like most recipes today that call for some combination of butter and milk, this lemon cake calls for one cup of both.
Next, a small collection of objects made entirely, or in part, of horn. The examples here include a Texas steer horn cup, decorative hair combs, and powder horns; the latter having become a symbol of American colonization.

Finally, cows in art. Starting with a painting by 17th century Dutch artist Paulus Potter, known for his animal landscapes that hold a fascination with our bovine friends. Then, a contemporary painting by Len Tantillo titled “Misty Morning,” and an unattributed 19th-century painting titled “View of Homestead,” both showing cattle integrated into everyday life.

The "Flavors of Change: Food Stories from the Mid-Hudson Valley, 1680-1800” exhibition, currently on display at HHS, explores additional intersections around community, eating, and agriculture.

07/07/2025

Join us for, "Those That Sustain Us: Native Plants As Both Food and Medicine," a grounds tour with Misty Cook & Justin Wexler, on Sunday, July 13, from 1 PM to 3 PM (EDT).

This tour will be an exploration of the grounds of HHS in order to learn all about native plant foods and medicines of importance to the Esopus Lenape in the past and to their descendants today. This walk is co-led by traditional medicine expert Misty Cook, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, and by local ethnoecologist Justin Wexler. As we encounter various native plant species found growing at HHS, Misty and Justin will weave together the history and cultural significance of each species as both food and medicine, while also exploring the intercultural sharing of plant knowledge between Hudson Valley indigenous peoples and their settler neighbors, past and present.

Misty Cook, M.S., studied medicines in-depth for over seven years in preparation for the completion of her book, Medicine Generations: Natural Native American Medicines Traditional to the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans Indian Tribe. This included identifying, gathering, drying, preserving for use throughout the year, preparing, and making them available to those in need. She is a cultural consultant with a Masters in Management, providing diversity trainings on many topics, including Native American students in education, Native American history, Native American games, and of course, medicines.

Justin Wexler is an ethnoecologist who has spent over twenty years reconstructing the lifeways of Hudson Valley native peoples and connecting with their descendants in Ontario, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. He can be found teaching all over the region through his organization, Wild Hudson Valley, which strives to reconnect people with the earth by opening up our eyes to historic land stewardship practices.

$25 General Admission

$20 Discounted Admission for HHS members, seniors, students, active military personnel and their families, and veterans

For more information and to register visit: https://www.huguenotstreet.org/calendar-of-events/2025/7/13/those-that-sustain-us

This program is sponsored by RBT CPAs, LLP and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

07/04/2025

The July 4th holiday celebrates the adoption in 1776 of the Declaration of Independence, in which the U.S. formally declared freedom from British rule. Today we recognize some of the brave men who served in the Ulster County militia to establish our democratic nation. These men are named in a fascinating document included in the New Paltz Historic Documents Project (www.NewPaltzHistory.org), the Muster Roll of Col. Johannes Jansen’s regiment, Ulster County.

The muster roll dated April 26, 1782 includes names, ages, occupations, and physical descriptions of soldiers serving under Jansen. Familiar Ulster County surnames like Terwilliger, Hoornbeck, Van Keuren, and Roosa are seen. Indeed, many of the listed men were born in Ulster County and Mid-Hudson Valley towns like Shawangunk, Rochester, Montgomery, Fishkill, and Peekskill. Others were born farther afield in New York City or on Long Island. A few men had been born in Ireland, like James Jackson, a 42-year-old blacksmith described as “Brown,” and John Weir (?), a 26-year-old weaver. Farmer John George Upright, 53, and laborer George Upright, 23, perhaps father and son, were both born in Germany.

Two Black men are listed in the muster roll: Isaac Schoonmaker and Antony (Anthony) Devoe. General George Washington initially banned the recruitment of Black (both free and enslaved) soldiers, but he soon relented after the need for recruits increased and the British began offering freedom to enslaved men if they joined their forces. Historians estimate that Black soldiers comprised 10-15% of the Continental Army. Isaac, a laborer, was born in Fishkill. He was 20 years old and 5’6” tall. Anthony, an 18-year-old laborer, was born in Newburgh. He was 5’9”. Anthony’s name appears again in another surviving document certifying he was mustered to serve until January 1, 1783 in Capt. David Ostrander’s company of Jansen’s regiment.

Images: Muster roll for Jansen’s regiment with details and muster to service for Anthony Devoe. Both from the HHS Archives, Cornelius T. Jansen Family Papers. https://bit.ly/4nsABxK

Dozens more documents related to the Revolutionary War may be browsed here https://bit.ly/4l7KCPD.

07/03/2025

We’re excited to announce that Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) was awarded the 2025 Twila Snead Commitment to Excellence Award for the New Paltz Historic Documents Project (www.NewPaltzHistory.org) at the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council’s annual meeting held June 6. The award recognizes individuals, organizations, or programs for achievements including “leadership in creating a new or enhanced service model,” the “creation of an innovative collection that enhances the lives of the organization’s constituents,” and more.

The New Paltz Historic Documents Project (NPHD) is a collaborative, multi-year project to conserve, digitize and provide online access to early documents from the archives at HHS and their partner organizations: the Town of New Paltz, the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at Elting Memorial Library, and the Reformed Church of New Paltz.

Scholars Firth Fabend and David W. Voorhees have written of the project:
“[The documents] provide a unique record of the lives of all members of the community, Native American, European, and African, male, female, and children, enslaved and free, rich, middling, and poor. It is particularly rich in detailing the early settlement and history of the mid-Hudson River Valley and its relation to the wider English colonial Atlantic, slavery and post-emancipation, the American Revolution and Civil War, the Antebellum period and the Reconstruction era. It is rare to find such a depth of historical information in one community relating not just to local history, but also to the national and international historical record.”

According to Southeastern’s Digital Services Manager Jennifer Palmentiero, “The NPHD collection is one of the most accessed Southeastern member collections in the New York Heritage website, [receiving] over 135,000 pageviews.”

Shown in the group photo left to right: Josephine Bloodgood, HHS Director of Curatorial & Preservation Affairs; Jennifer Palmentiero, Southeastern’s Digital Services Manager; Donna Dixon, HHS Digital Librarian/Project Manager; and Beth Patkus, HHS Archivist/Librarian.

07/03/2025

07/01/2025

Today’s curatorial spotlight is on a heart-shaped waffle iron that is featured in Historic Huguenot Street’s new exhibit: “Flavors of Change: Food Stories from the Mid-Hudson Valley, 1680–1800.”

Waffles were one of the popular daily breads that Dutch people brought with them when they began to settle in New Netherland. Similar to the waffles eaten today, soft waffles, or wafels, were made with flour, milk, butter, eggs, and yeast. Some recipes called for sweet milk, while others included sugar as an ingredient.

Another variation in the recipes was to make hard or soft waffles. Hard waffles, or wafer cakes, did not include eggs and yeast, producing a thin and crispy product. The irons used to make hard waffles are referred to as wafer irons (image 2). Often quite decorative, these irons were used to make treats for special occasions and celebrations. Today the legacy of the hard waffles can be found in stroopwafels.

Irons like these were forged in multiple phases. First the press would be cast, then the blacksmith would attach metal below the hinged area, pulling the material until the handles were long enough to safely use the device in an open hearth or fire. The delicate hexagram design repeated on the inside of the heart-shaped iron was added not just for decoration; it is also functional. The recesses assisted in releasing the iron from the mold during production.

A traditional waffle iron press would have been rectangular in shape. There has been speculation about the reason for the heart shape. Though a relatively common item, because waffle irons have been specifically documented as wedding presents, it is thought that the heart-shaped iron may have been given to celebrate a marriage. However, heart iconography was common in the 18th century, when this iron was made, so that theory may be romanticizing history. What do you think?

Waffle Iron, 18th c. HHS Permanent Collection, gift of Ronald and Mary-Elizabeth Atkins in memory of Alfred Hasbrouck.
Wafer Iron, 18th c. HHS Permanent Collection.
Still Life with Pewter Plates, Stone Jug, and Waffles, 17th c. Oil by circle of George Flegel (German, 1566-1638). Hampel Auctions.

06/26/2025

We are so looking forward to the return of Joseph McGill Jr. to HHS for this weekend's New Netherland Marketplace: Living History Event! McGill will be joined by members of Inalienable Rights, the living history arm of The Slave Dwelling Project. Be sure to visit our event webpage for more information and to register!

https://www.huguenotstreet.org/new-netherland-marketplace-a-living-history-event-2025

06/25/2025

This week, enrolled citizens from Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiit (Delaware Nation at Moraviantown), Delaware Tribe of Indians, Munsee-Delaware Nation, and Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians, along with members of Caesar's Ford Theatre, Inc., an American Indian led 501(c)(3) non-profit theater and education group, are constructing a traditional Lenape cooking shelter on the lawn of the replica Esopus wigwam.

The semi-permanent structure will be used during this weekend’s "New Netherland Marketplace: Living History Event" cooking demonstrations, in addition to enhancing the site’s year-round interpretation of Esopus history and culture here on their ancestral homelands.

Be sure to see the completed structure in use at this weekend’s event, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm on Saturday, June 28th and 10:00 am – 4:00 pm on Sunday, June 29th.

This project was generously funded by an anonymous donor and the Vernon D. and Florence E. Roosa Family Foundation Memorial Fund.

06/24/2025

The hearth in early Hudson Valley homes, a place for cooking and gathering, was often accompanied by a brick bake oven, also known as a beehive or Dutch oven. From the inside of the house, the beehive oven resembled what we see today in restaurants with brick ovens—so tempting to slide a bread or pizza peel into and savor the results! Why was it called a beehive oven?

The beehive oven was developed in Europe in the Middle Ages and was named for its resemblance to a skep, a domed beehive made of twisted straw. In home use, it was constructed of bricks and placed a few feet from the floor, next to the fireplace. It had an oval or circular dome to trap heat in the oven and was heated by burning wood. Once the fire subsided, the ashes were swept out or dumped, and baking could commence on the hot bricks, which held heat for hours. The dome was sometimes contained in the house but also could protrude from the main structure in a beehive shape, often sealed from the elements with a layer of mud or lime.

In the DuBois House on Huguenot Street, a beehive oven with an ash dump is located to the left of a large cooking fireplace, in a ca. 1830 addition to the original 1705 structure. The exterior of the dome is located in the carriage house addition behind it.

A beehive oven labeled “Dutch oven” with an exterior dome is shown on a floor plan and elevation of the Jonathan and Tryntje Hasbrouck House in Newburgh, built 1750–1782, which served as Gen. George Washington’s headquarters April 1782–August 1783.

Historic Huguenot Street’s new exhibit, “Flavors of Change: Food Stories from the Mid-Hudson Valley, 1680–1800,” explores the intersection of the culinary traditions of the Indigenous Esopus people, European immigrants, and enslaved Africans in the region. The exhibit is free and open to the public June 18–December 14, 2025, Wednesdays–Sundays 10 am to 4 pm, in the DuBois Fort Visitor Center, 81 Huguenot Street, New Paltz.

Skep, Royal 12 C XIX f. 45, British Library.

Beehive oven detail ca. 1300, Ms. Ludwig IX 3 (83.ML.99), fol. 13v, Getty.

Beehive oven, Historic Huguenot Street.

Hasbrouck House plan, Walter C. Anthony, “Washington’s Headquarters.” Newburgh, 1928.

06/17/2025

There's just over ONE WEEK left before our 4th annual New Netherland Marketplace: Living History Event! Throughout this event, visitors will discover Lenape Delaware, Black, and European demonstrators sharing their craftsmanship and culture, and portraying life in mid-17th century New Netherland. Join us on Saturday, June 28th, 2025 from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, and Sunday, June 29th, 2025 from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM for this amazing event!

Members of the federally recognized Lenape Delaware communities, which currently reside in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Ontario, will be returning to their sacred homelands to portray the life of their ancestors and their economic relationship with the European settlers. Their camp will have ongoing open fire cooking, cordage making, bow shooting, flintknapping, arrow making, and hide tanning demonstrations throughout the weekend. Each day, tribal members will offer a cultural stomp dance demonstration, in which visitor participation is encouraged. North American Dingos, also known as the Carolina dog, will be present and used to discuss Eastern Woodland hunting traditions and more.

Living historians portraying European merchants, performers, and craftspeople will offer demonstrations on wood working, hearth cooking, tailoring, wampum making, spinning wool, and more. This year’s marketplace will include displays of camp gear and furs, clothing, wooden bowls, children’s toys, and other items for sale. Musicians will regularly perform to crowds and, just like years past, children and adults alike will line up to enjoy a classic Dutch folktale via a raree show, an exhibition of pictures and objects viewed through a small hole in a box. Scheduled programming will include demonstrations on 17th century martial arts and cutlass fighting, a quack show, and a portrayal of Adriaen van der Donck.

Members of the group Inalienable Rights, the Living History arm of The Slave Dwelling Project, will present the lives and histories of some of the colony’s first enslaved people. Presenters will offer African storytelling, artisan demonstrations, brick making, and more as they convey the significant contributions that the enslaved brought to the early colony, amidst the brutal conditions and horrors they faced, daily.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is highly encouraged and appreciated.

More for more information and to register visit: https://www.huguenotstreet.org/new-netherland-marketplace-a-living-history-event-2025

06/17/2025

Did you know that the rich fertile lands along the Hudson River and its tributaries like the Wallkill and the Rondout once served as the breadbasket for New York? From the mid-1600s to the early 1800s, grains like wheat and rye were grown in New Paltz in great abundance thanks largely to the exploitation of enslaved Africans. Wheat was also used to pay taxes to the English Crown while New York was still a colony (https://bit.ly/4e8iYzm). Today we feature some of the processes and hand tools used in grain production prior to mechanization in the 19th century.

Wheat grows from seed in stages, turning a golden color as it dries. When the stalks are dry enough and the grain kernels are hard, it is ready to be cut using a hand sickle or scythe. The wheat is then collected into sheaves or bundles and allowed to dry for several more weeks.

Once the wheat is fully dried, it is time to separate the wheat kernels from the chaff (husks, seed casings, etc.) through a process called threshing. Threshing involves using a flail (two pieces of wood joined by a rope or leather band) to beat the grain bundles, which loosens the kernels. The chaff is then removed by winnowing or tossing the wheat into the air so that the lighter chaff blows away, while the heavier kernels fall into a pile. A riddle or sieve can then be used to further clean the grain kernels of debris before they are ground into flour.

The method for processing rye and flowering plants like buckwheat and flax is similar. In the case of flax, the seeds are saved for making flour and oil, while the fibrous stalks are processed to make linen thread (a topic to be detailed another day!).

The significance of grains to the Indigenous, European, and enslaved African residents of New Paltz is highlighted in the exhibit "Flavors of Change: Food Stories from the Mid-Hudson Valley, 1680-1800,” on view June 18 through Dec. 13, 2025 in the DuBois Fort Visitor Center.

Receipt for wheat for “his Majesty’s quit rent,” 1684. HHS Archives, Jean, Jacob, and Josiah Hasbrouck Family Papers.
Threshing Wheat with Hand Flails, 1859. Wood engraving. Grainger Academic.
Sickles, Flail, and Grain Riddles. HHS Permanent & Education Collections.