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Five More Hudson Valley Claims to Fame

When it comes to superlatives, the Hudson Valley definitely holds its own. Here are five more sites that rank supreme...

How a Pioneering Woman Aeronaut Shattered Limits From the Hudson Valley

A race in the clouds on the Fourth of July, with one hot air balloon piloted by a woman! That’s...

Five of the Hudson Valley’s History-Making Firsts

In 2021, Time magazine named the Hudson Valley one of the world’s greatest places. But some places in the region lay claim...

Get Inspired by Three of the Valley’s Revolutionary War Women

As thousands of men went off to fight in the American Revolution, many women kept the home fires burning — which...
Madam C.J. Walker drives three friends in an early automobile, 1911.

How Madam C.J. Walker Made It (and Shared It)

She built one of the most striking homes on the Hudson River — and the nation’s first female self-made millionaire...

Appreciating Edna St. Vincent Millay at the Literary Legend’s Valley Home

Described by one writer as the “Bob Dylan and Madonna of her generation,” poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was...

Pioneering Female Astronomer’s Legacy Lives On

From the beginning, stargazing has been part of the curriculum at Poughkeepsie’s Vassar College. That’s because Maria Mitchell — America’s...

Seven Women Who Improved Life Here

They fought for working women’s rights, advocated for vulnerable children, even rescued drowning sailors. And of course, they called for...
Jane Colden

Remembering America’s First Woman Botanist

Driving along the distinctly suburban stretch of Route 17K in Coldenham, a hamlet in Orange County’s Town of Montgomery, it’s...

#BlackHistoryMonth: Valley Gardening Godfather James F. Brown

I went to church at Fishkill village and returned home through the rain and got very wet but heard a...

MLK’s Haunting Final Words to the Hudson Valley

A 1999 survey of scholars ranked Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech as the most important American...

Six Ways the LGBTQ+ Community Has Made History From the Hudson Valley

In the decades since New York City’s Stonewall Riots brought greater visibility to the U.S. movement for gay rights in...

From a Troy Orphanage to a Pioneering Medical Career: Pathbreaker Dorothy Lavinia Brown

“Dreams can be made to come true,” said Dorothy Lavinia Brown, who achieved her aspirations by becoming the first African...

America’s First Female Real Estate Tycoon: Catheryna Rombout Brett

The life of Catheryna Rombout Brett — namesake of Scenic Hudson’s Madam Brett Park in Beacon — reads like fiction:...

Get Inspired at These 10 Powerful Sites of the Valley’s Black History

Black Americans have been making important contributions to life in the Hudson Valley since the 17th century, but only in recent...

FDR’s Deft Civil Rights Advocate, Elizabeth McDuffie

Shortly after Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt moved into the White House in 1933, leaving behind the family’s beloved home on...
Sojourner Truth, 1870

Honoring Sojourner Truth Where She Walked to Freedom

Imagine being enslaved for 29 years — beginning at the moment of your birth.Imagine being subjected to cruelty that permanently...
Thurgood Marshall Painting by Betsy Graves Reyneau

Thurgood Marshall’s Valley Legacy

Travelers whizzing along Route 17 — perhaps on their way to or from hikes in Harriman or Sterling Forest State...
Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson & the Clearwater

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, is considered the bible of the modern environmental movement. Its compelling and science-based...
Pine Street African Burial Site (Photo by Kristopher Johnson)

Living Black History

Something to ponder during Black History Month: Prior to the abolition of slavery in New York in 1827, it was...
A little-known incident that took place in Troy illustrates the fearlessness of Harriet Tubman, the renowned abolitionist and rescuer of enslaved people.

Tubman in Troy

With the November 2019 release of the movie Harriet, we remember the courageous action she took in 1860 in Troy,...