“Fashionable Twaddle” – William H.H. Murray, the Adirondacks, and America’s First Camping Controversy

Tuesday, August 8 at 5 p.m. | Kelly Adirondack Center  In April 1869, William H.H. Murray published his most famous book: Adventures in the Wilderness; Or, Camp-life in the Adirondacks. The beginning of recreational camping in America, it was the first book to tell Americans that camping was a form of leisure where one could […]

Winter to Spring: Adirondack Paintings by Sandra Hildreth

On display from January 25 to April 28, 2017 Gallery Talk at 5:00 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2017 Winter to Spring, bitter cold to mud….  Most people, especially in the Adirondacks, think of winter and spring as less than enjoyable seasons. They’re often cold, dreary, damp, and unpleasant – months to endure before summer […]

Private Property or Public Access?

March 16, 2017 | 5:30 pm | Old Chapel  With John Caffry In the mid-nineteenth century, the rivers of the state were declared public highways to allow their use for transportation of logs to market, regardless of whether they ran over public or private land.  This principle was “forgotten” beginning late in the century.  In […]

Modern Threats to Age-Old Waterways

April 13, 2017 | 5:30 pm | Old Chapel |  Dan Kelting, Executive Director of the Adirondack Watershed Institute Although the Adirondack Park has been likened to an island and thus somehow separate and insulated, today it is under threats from outside that seem inexorable.  In the late twentieth century it was acidic precipitation falling from the skies, […]

The Adirondacks: Refuge in a Warming World?

April 17, 2017 | 5:30 pm | Nott Memorial Bill McKibben, author, educator, and environmentalist In the era of climate change, chief threats to Adirondack communities – human and wild – are caused by forces outside the region. McKibben will address the Adirondacks and the region’s potential as a place of symbiosis. Bill McKibben is an author and […]

Lessons from Sweetgrass: Indigenous Stewardship of Adirondack Plants

Monday, January 16, 2017 • 5:30 TO 6:30 PM  Nott Memorial • Free and open to the public  A lecture by Robin Wall Kimmerer This talk introduces the wealth of culturally significant plants of the Adirondack region, from forest to wetlands. Kimmerer will explore the philosophy and practices of indigenous stewardship, which creates and maintains biodiversity. […]

Rivers as Commercial Highways: The Age of River Drives

Thursday, October 13, 2016 • 5:30 TO 6:30 PM Old Chapel • Free and open to the public  An illustrated lecture with Richard Nason Nason has always been interested in history. In the 1970s, he came upon a collection of 16 mm films of Finch, Pruyn’s milling operations and has given illustrated lectures since. He […]

Sustainably Managing Adirondack Woodlands

Thursday, September 29, 2016 • 5:30 TO 6:30 PM Reamer Auditorium • Free and open to the public The Adirondack region is touted as a great “wilderness,” but it is also home to over 130,000 people.  Even much of the uninhabited, state-owned land has been shaped by human activity through logging, mining, tourism, reconstruction, and reforestation. […]