Thank You Waterford

On behalf of the Waterford Museum and the 10th Annual Concert Under the Stars and Irish Festival Committee, I would like to thank the community of Waterford for their support for our recent event on Saturday, August 13 at the Waterford Harbor.

Inspired by the Waterford Museum’s current exhibit “Making Waterford Our Home: Irish,” the concert and Irish Festival brought the community together to celebrate our shared heritage and appreciation of Irish culture.

Hair of the Dog put on a great show and helped to draw an enthusiastic crowd to the waterfront. But the record turnout would not have been possible with out the support of all of our sponsors, especially Momentive Performance Materials, New York State Marine Highway, the historic railroad barge "Pennsylvania Railroad 399," Brown’s Brewing Company and the Town and Village of Waterford. The extra support provided by the Town Police and Rescue Squad helped to make the event a safe and enjoyable environment for all.

The 10th Annual Concert Under the Stars and Irish Festival was a great success and helped to raise some much needed funds for the Museum. We are excited to begin planning for the 2012 event and with the continued support of the community we know it will be another success!



Sincerely,

Brad Utter, Director

Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center

Co-Chair 10th Annual Concert Under the Stars Committee

10th Annual Concert Under the Stars and Irish Festival

10th Annual Concert Under the Stars and Irish Festival
August 13, 2011, 3pm - 9pm at the Waterford waterfront
Featuring Hair of the Dog

This Irish Festival will be held at the Waterford waterfront and will include Irish-themed music, entertainment, food, and Irish themed vendors. Schedule Below

Some vendors who will be there:
* Black Watch Steakhouse. Their menu will consist of: Irish Stew with bread, Cod Caserole, and Apple Cider Donut Bread Pudding with Vanilla Ginger Cream Sauce!
Ben & Jerry's
and more

Schedule of Events
1:30pm Irish Themed Canal Tour– Walk the old towpath with local author Russ Vandervoort and hear some stories from the old canal days. Meet at Lock 2 park. Pre-registration is requested, but not required – RSVP – info@waterfordmuseum.com or 238-0809

3:00pm– Opening Ceremonies at Waterford Harbor Visitor Center-
Immediately following ceremonies there will be a concert by the Scotia Glenville Pipe Band

4:00pm- Irish Dancers-Tentative

4:30 – 6:30pm- “The Boys of Wexford” playing Irish folk music.

7pm-9pm- the Concert Under the Stars featuring the “Hair of the Dog” live on the Tug Grand Erie

All Day- restaurant venders, Irish themed
merchants, Irish themed heritage groups, family activities and more.

3pm- 9pm- Microbrewery Beer Tasting aboard the historic railroad barge “Pennsylvania Railroad 399” featuring the beers of Brown’s Brewing Co. of Troy. The tasting will cost $20, which will include a free glass. All proceeds go toward the Museum.


IF RAIN, the festival and concert will be held at the Waterford Halfmoon School, 125Middletown Road, Waterford

Special thank you to our major sponsors - New York State Marine Highway,
Momentive Performance Materials, the Town of Waterford and the Village of Waterford.

10th Annual Concert Under the Stars and Irish Festival

10th Annual Concert Under the Stars and Irish Festival
Featuring Hair of the Dog
"...America's number one Irish folk band."
August 13, 2011

Plans are underway for this big event which will replace Heritage Day this year. The festival will take place along the Waterford waterfront from the early afternoon until 9pm. We are putting together a day of all things Irish and welcome your ideas and your help!

To share your ideas and/or to express interest in helping out please e-mail the Museum at info@waterfordmuseum.com

Janney Contributes Toward CanalWays and DVC Positions

The Museum is proud to announce that Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC, a full-service financial services firm, has made a contribution of $1,250 toward our CanalWays fourth grade education program and our Docent Volunteer Coordinator (DVC). The donation will help pay the salaries of our CanalWays Project Coordinator and DVC.

These funds have enabled us to re-hire Aine Leader-Nagy to continue her work as the DVC. We have also been able to hire Aaron Robinson as our new CanalWays Project Coordinator. This will enable us to maintain our expanded hours on Saturdays and continue to run our successful CanalWays program.

Expanded Gift Shop

The Museum has expanded its inventory for the gift shop and will continue to do so over the next few months. We have purchased over 800 new children’s books priced between $1.50 and $7.00! The books represent a wide variety of topics and are sure to please the pickiest child.
We also have new books for adults, like local canal expert Russ VanDervoort’s new book “Canal Canaries: and Other Tough Old Birds” and we have the last run of the “Erie Canal Through Saratoga County” by Amelia O’Shea. This hard to find book will sell out quickly so stop by to get your copy today!

THANK YOU

Thank you to McGreivey’s for hosting the wonderful IrishFord night and for donating $5 per person to the Museum!

Thank you Maloney’s Flower Shop for donating a flower arrangement for our opening and a gift certificate that we will be raffling off at our next First Friday.

Thank you Keybank for the 21st Annual Neighbors Make the Difference Day. Although we got rained out, we appreciate the efforts of our local Keybank staff who were ready to help.

Thank you Tim Starr for donating 10 copies of his book “Invented in Saratoga County.” Now on sale in our gift shop!

A Case for Conservation

From our most recent Newsletter-
Featured Artifact: 1854 pencil-on-paper sketch of Isaac Newtown Eddy’s burial site. This article is a follow up to the one which appeared in our last Piece of History written by our guest columnist Paul Schneider, Independent Historian.
For a quick reminder I have inserted a section of his article-

Dating from late 1854 this sketch was drawn by a sailor named Walter A. Kizar, a former crew member of the schooner Eleanor, on which Thomas Jefferson Eddy’s oldest son, Isaac Newton Eddy, briefly served until his early death, at age 19, thousands of miles from home.
In pursuit of the truth of his son’s disappearance from Waterford in 1853, Thomas traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to talk with the Captain of the Eleanor. In a letter dated November 1854 he recounts the origin of the sketch:
“...he [Benjamin Swasey, Captain of the Eleanor] introduced me to a young man, Walter A Kizar ….He is very good at drawing and made me a sketch of Comoro, the tree where Newton and Allen [another sailor] were buried, how their graves are located as described by Captain Swasey.”
Kizar promised to send Thomas a more complete sketch; this is the one believed to now be in the museum’s collections. When Thomas returned to Waterford, he commissioned local artist Ralph A. Savage to memorialize his son’s final resting place through the creation of a painting based on the details provided in Kizar’s sketch. The painting survives today in the collections of the Albany Institute of History and Art, but the sketch from which that painting was done was never mentioned again and was presumed lost—until I opened that folded piece of paper in 2010!

Paul ended the article by saying that we had arranged for a conservator to view the sketch and provide us with an estimate to have it conserved and properly mounted for viewing and storage. We did just that and we have a treatment proposal for this wonderful treasure.
The treatment proposal includes: minor surface cleaning; humidification to flatten the piece; structural repairs; mounting and preservation framing. The new frame will be a UV filtering acrylic box that will allow viewing of the front and back while providing the safest environment possible to help ensure the longevity of the sketch for future generations.
The total cost for all of this work is only $500. We are looking for a sponsor or sponsors to help fund this project– to save a true piece of Waterford’s history.
If you would like to donate toward our Conservation Fund, please send a check or money order to the Waterford Museum, Conservation Fund, 2 Museum Lane, Waterford, N.Y.