Rensselaer County Historical Society facts for kids

The Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) is a non-profit group and museum. It helps people learn about the history of Rensselaer County, NY. RCHS started in 1927. At first, it was just one room in the Troy Public Library. They collected old papers and books about the county's past. Today, you can find RCHS in the Central Troy Historic District in Troy, NY. The Rensselaer County Historical Society runs a museum and offers fun programs for everyone. You can visit them at 57 Second Street, Troy, NY.

Why the Historical Society Was Started

The Rensselaer County Historical Society was created for several important reasons:

• To help and encourage people to study history.
• To share more knowledge about the early history of Rensselaer County.
• To collect and keep safe books, old papers, and historical items. These items tell the story of Rensselaer County and nearby areas.
• To mark places that are important in history. They also wanted to own or care for historic spots.

The Hart-Cluett Mansion: A New Home for History

Hart Cluett Mansion Entrance, Historic American Buildings Survey, 1934, RCHS

In 1952, something big happened. The beautiful Hart-Cluett Mansion, built in 1827, was given to the Society by Mrs. Cluett. This mansion became a special historic house museum. It also became the main place to keep all the historical items and old documents from the county.

In the mid-1950s, the people in charge of RCHS decided to get professional help. They wanted to create a proper museum. In 1957, H. Maxson Holloway became the Society's first director. He used to be a Curator at the New-York Historical Society. Holloway quickly made plans to carefully collect art, decorations, and furniture from that time period. He wanted to fill the fourteen rooms of the Hart-Cluett Mansion.

For the next ten years, RCHS worked hard to raise money and collect more items. Some of the most important things they collected were objects and furniture that belonged to the Hart and Cluett families themselves.

Expanding with the Joseph B. Carr House

By the mid-1970s, the Rensselaer County Historical Society had grown a lot. They needed more space than the Hart-Cluett Mansion and its Carriage House could offer. Their collections were getting bigger, and more people wanted to join their programs. The buildings just weren't big enough anymore.

In 1976, RCHS bought the Carr House, which was built in 1838. This building was right next to the museum. RCHS started a big fundraising effort to turn it into a center for education and offices. The first part of this project was finished in 1982. It added a meeting room, a gift shop, and a temporary art gallery on the first floor of the Carr House.

Making the Carr House Even Better

In 1995, the New York State Council of the Arts helped RCHS. They funded a project to improve how RCHS managed its collections. This included creating the first computer list of all their items. They also looked at how to store things better so the public could see them more easily. Plus, they developed new themes for collecting. This helped them decide what to collect in the future.

In October 2001, RCHS opened the newly improved Carr Building. To pay for this big renovation, they raised $2.7 million. This money came from people, companies, and state grants. The renovation created new galleries and storage space for collections. It also added new climate control systems, brought all the staff offices together, and completely updated the Carriage House.

What You Can Find: Collections and Museum

RCHS is the main place in Rensselaer County that collects historical items. Its museum has about 60,000 objects! These items range from fine art to everyday household things. They show the history of Troy, which is the biggest city in the county, and all of Rensselaer County. You can also learn about the city's families and buildings.

Troy and Rensselaer County were very important in the 1800s. They helped the United States grow and were a major center for the American Industrial Revolution. The area was famous for its iron, steel, and textile industries. Factories here made important products that helped the United States expand westward.

In the 1800s and 1900s, Troy's clothing factories made over 90% of America's detachable collars. They also made many of the best shirts.

The museum's collections are also connected to the RCHS research library. This library has personal letters, business records, photos, maps, and other important papers. It also has the largest collection of books and materials about the county's history.

Amazing Collections at RCHS

The RCHS has more than 60,000 historical items. These include artifacts, documents, and photographs. RCHS also keeps old records for many local groups, like the YMCA and Troy Chromatics. These collections are used in programs like "Historians in Training," which works with schools in Rensselaer County. Famous TV shows and filmmakers have also used the collection. For example, Charles Osgood used it for CBS Sunday Morning, and Ken Burns and The History Channel have used it too.

Cool Things in the Collection

• Uncle Sam Collection - This includes old items found during a dig at Samuel Wilson's home. There's also a mural by George Gray (from 1937) and many other things related to Uncle Sam.
• American Civil War Collection - You can find the Rice Cook Bull Diary, military uniforms and items from the county, photos, and personal stories. There's also a collection about the 1863 Draft Riot.
• Rensselaer County Surrogate Court Records - These are records of over 30,000 county residents from 1791 to 1915. They are used for finding out about family history (genealogy) and other historical research.
• Burden Iron Works Archives - These documents show how this 1800s manufacturing company impacted the world.
• Photographic Collection - This has 10,000 pictures of people, places, and events from the early 1840s to the early 2000s.
• Hart and Cluett Family Records - These records and items tell a lot about the Hart-Cluett Mansion. They include the Howard-Hart Coach and the Cluett Sleigh.
• View of Glass Lake by Joseph Henry Hidley (1830-1872). He was a folk artist and painter of landscapes.
• Historical Clothing and Textiles, furniture, decorative art, tools, stoves, and cast iron items. These date from the late 1700s to today.
• Maps, city and county directories, cemetery records, church records, community group archives, county home records, and many old newspapers and records.

How the Collection is Used

The RCHS collection is used a lot for teaching, by artists, and as original sources in many projects.

Some ways the collection has been used include:

• Education Programs: RCHS offers school programs and adult programs. These focus on topics like the Underground Railroad, Women's Suffrage, community studies, and labor history.
• Research: It's a key source for school research, family history projects, learning about architecture and historic preservation, and studies about the environment.
• Art Inspiration: Artists like Len Tantillo, Wren Panzella, Mark Priest, and Jim Flosdorf have used the collection for their art.
• Books and Plays: The collection has been used for children's books, school textbooks, historical novels, plays, and the New York State Encyclopedia. It was also used for information about the Blizzard of 1888.
• Film and TV Projects: Many movies and TV shows have used the collection. These include Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, Ken Burns' Civil War and Baseball shows, C-SPAN's Underground Railroad and Uncle Sam programs, and Bill Moyers' The Hudson River. CBS Sunday Morning also used it for their Uncle Sam program.

How RCHS Works

RCHS uses its amazing collections in many ways. They want to get more people interested in the history of Rensselaer County. Exhibitions based on their collections are a main focus of RCHS displays and public programs. RCHS uses items from its collection to show how they were made, how they were used, what they meant to people, and how they changed society and individual lives.