HISTORY & MYSTERIES
Here are excerpts from Benson John Lossing’s classic book, The Hudson, from the Wilderness to the Sea, recording in words and pictures a winter on the Hudson River very different from what we experience today.1 From his first night visiting “Peek’s Kill Bay”—where the river was “cold, silent, glittering . . . except a group … Continue reading Winter on the Hudson River
This manuscript map (meaning a hand-drawn map, rather than one which is printed) was made when the French army was camped in northern Westchester in 1782. It records in exquisite detail the roads, bridges, settlements and more between Croton in the southwest, Peekskill in the north and Yorktown in the northeast. The map is in … Continue reading Position des Armées Amériquaine et Françoise, 1782
Two pages from Souvenir of the Hudson River, published by Wittmann Brothers. The inscription in the back reads “Bought Sept. 1881 on Steamer Vibbard.” A New York State Library website has some background on the boat: In the first full season of the Day Line in 1864 the steamer Chauncey Vibbard was launched and paired … Continue reading Souvenir of the Hudson River, published by Wittmann Brothers
CROTON 