Mansion House, Peterboro Heritage Sites Participate
(Oneida, NY – May 2014) Visit the Oneida Community Mansion House for free during New York State’s Path Through History Weekends, June 7 to 8 and 14 to 15. More than 100 special events are planned for the weekends at venues throughout the state, with more events added daily. These weekends are designed to make it easy to experience the Empire State’s rich heritage and diverse attractions.
Once home to the utopian Oneida Community (1848-1880), this 93,000 square foot National Historic Landmark houses a museum with permanent and changing exhibitions, residential apartments, overnight lodging, the farm to fork restaurant Kenwood and Vine, and banquet and meeting space. The wheelchair accessible site is open year-round for self- and guided tours, excluding major holidays. More than 200 acres include century-old trees, historic gardens and grounds, and the nearby Oneida Community Golf Course.
Admission to the Mansion House includes tours of the Big Hall, described as “an embodiment of our life and faith” by founder John Humphrey Noyes, with its exquisite trompe l’oeil ceiling; the Upper Sitting Room that most defined their idea of home; the Community Library where life-long education was encouraged and more than 100 newspapers, magazines, and journals subscribed; and the Vestibule with its cabinet of curiosities.
Other exhibits include the Orientation Exhibit, The Braidings of Jessie Catherine Kinsley; South Seas to Botticelli: Frank Perry Flatware Designs for Oneida, 1950s-1970s, and the recently opened Children and Mothers of the Oneida Community.
For information call 363-0745 or visit www.oneidacommunity.org.
Peterboro Heritage Sites Participate
(Peterboro, NY – May 2014) Hundreds of heritage and cultural celebrations and programs that promote the unique history of New York State will be held during the 2014 Path through History Weekends on June 7 and 8 and 14 and 15. Two heritage organizations in Peterboro will be featuring specialized programs that highlight the rich history of this historic hamlet in Madison County.
During the first Path through History Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) will be showing the 2013 PBS three part film series The Abolitionists from 1 to 5 p.m. each day of the weekend. This American Experience television program explains how abolitionist allies turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation. The “holy warriors” of emancipation captured the private details of their tumultuous political and personal journeys toward freedom.
In accompaniment to the public television series, WGBH in Boston created an interactive map that explored the legacy of the anti-slavery movement through its impact on local communities, and announced an Abolitionist Map of America Pin Drive Contest which the Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro won by pinning the abolition activities of Central New York.
In addition to the abolition inductee banners in the Hall of Fame, and exhibits on the chronology of American Abolition from the Colonial Period to Reconstruction, female abolitionists, and a facsimile of Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation once owned by Gerrit Smith of Peterboro, NAHOF is
proud to add displays from the recent New York State Museum exhibit The Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War.
Admission to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is $3 and free for students.
For more information: nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org or nahofm1835@gmail.com.