Hudson River Valley Heritage

I knew how to use a computer when I was five years old as if it was an instinct. I remember jumping from tab to tab for about thirty minutes glued to the screen playing Nick Junior games. My ears remember the dial tone from my Nana’s first prehistoric Mac computer just as vividly as I remember my first time in Brooklyn’s Children’s museum. I can recall the exhibits I saw from overseeing plaster dinosaurs that possibly featured in Jurassic park to rose-gold paintings I thought belonged in Beyonce’s mansion. Technology and history have always been in my world but now it’s colliding to provide free access for everyone to experience not only history but history through digital means. My internship involves creating an online exhibit about the women of Locust Lawn thus enabling me to contribute to the ongoing conversation of public history and technology.

The central issue Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) alleviates is providing free access to search and browse historical materials from the collections of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies located in the following counties of New York State: Columbia, Greene, Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, and Westchester. The website holds free access to digital exhibits and archives relating to Hudson Valley. My internship site advisor expressed to me in addition to the website, they host public programs to promote conversation behind each exhibit so people could ask questions and learn more information..

HRVH is a service of Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. The person currently monitoring the website is Jennifer Palmentiero, Digital Services Librarian at SENYLRC. The website was established in 2005 in collaboration with different historical societies within Hudson Valley to display digitized information. People and societies contribute their findings to the exhibits or contribute original artifacts and documents to the website continously throughout the year.  

The exhibit I’m working on is in collaboration with the New Paltz Historian, Susan Stessin, who carries archives of not only information on the New Paltz Academy and Litchfield but the families that attended it, including the women of Locust Lawn. The goal of the exhibit is to showcase their daily lives including their schooling and social lives. I’ve specifically been designated to research the academies they attended such as Litchfield and The New Paltz Academy. I’ve been reading the girls letters which carry valuable information on what life was like at Litchfield as well as reading background information on Litchfield from the internet and from To Ornament their Minds. In addition to letters and the book about Litchfield,  I also got the opportunity to look at assignments from New Paltz Academy. Each document is dated as well as  transcribed. I’m developing as much information as possible now so I could write a few paragraphs to post on the exhibits website exploring the acadamies. Also, reading through the letters I get to choose which exemplify the academic and social life of each academy.

Their mission statement listed on their website says Hudson River Valley Heritage “(HRVH) is a digital library that provides visitors with free access to search and browse historical materials from the collections of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies located in the following counties of New York State: Columbia, Greene, Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, and Westchester.”

Listed on their website as well is they only have a “small percentage” of materials held by organizations. This provokes the question of how much information do people or societies have available outside of domains like HRVH? This website is only for Hudson River Heritage but imagine if counties all over provided websites like this? In addition to that, imagine if all the different websites collaborated to make a larger website including information  about each county within New York?

While working with my internship advisor, Susan Stessin, I have questions about the New Paltz Academy and their students from outside the Hudson Valley but she only has a limited amount of archives. The questions I have that she may not be able to answer, I have to ask other places or research instead of her having it readily available to her. The service the website provides is beyond just serving the public but also serving historians that are trying to build their collection of information so they could further their research.

We can have free digitized resources but can truly “everyone” access them? Technology has advanced as well been manufactured in a way that you can find cheap items but some people still don’t have that resource. Technology is a luxury just as much as traveling to a museum and donating $20 to ongoing research. Some people don’t have computers, phones or any technology readily available so how can we as historians or people that love to look at artifacts they can’t pronounce, provide completely free access to people that seek history? HRVH tries to solve at least part of the problem.