Zadock Pratt Museum
Lecture Series
The Murder of Sally Hamilton
On Sunday, October 27th, 1-3 pm, Greene County Historian Jonathan Palmer presented the second in the Pratt Museum’s Second Annual Harvest Lecture & Greene Ghosts Series, “The Murder of Sally Hamilton”.
Sally Hamilton, a vivacious and attractive 20-year-old resident of Athens, NY, daughter of Samuel and Wealthy Beebe Hamilton, was returning home one summer night in 1813 when, within 300 feet of her home, she was accosted, beaten, and killed. Following a town-wide search, Hamilton’s body was found three days later in Murderer’s Creek.
Looking for Railroad Jack: A Historian’s Search for a Long-Lost Canine Celebrity
At the Zadock Pratt Museum, 9/21/2024. In the 1880s and 1890s, there were few dogs as famous as Albany, NY’s Railroad Jack. Along with his contemporary, the Postal Service’s Owney, Jack captivated the public with his train-riding antics. When he died in 1893, his body was taxidermied and, subsequently, lost from the historical record.
Historian Kelli Huggins explains what Jack and fellow animal celebrities tell us about the history of the Gilded Age and explores attempts to figure out what happened to him.
Lafayette’s Visit to Greene County
Lafayette’s Visit to Greene County, NY by Greene County Historian Jonathan Palmer. In 1825, General George Lafayette was welcomed in Catskill, NY with a festive parade. On July 12, 1822, he became a Colonel for New York’s 116th Infantry. In 1825, he commanded the escort of Lafayette into Catskill on his beloved horse, Prince. Presented Sunday, July 21, 2024
The Mountaintop Merwins
The Mountaintop Merwins’ famous literary connection by local author, journalist, and newspaper reporter Jesse “James” Angelino. Merwin is a name that many folks across the river in Kinderhook and up on the mountain in Jewett and Prattsville, NY know quite well. But did you know that it was a Merwin who inspired Washington Irving’s iconic character, Ichabod Crane, of “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” fame?
William Salisbury and the Hangman's Noose
Greene County historian Jonathan Palmer presents: William Salisbury and the Hangman's Noose. At the Zadock Pratt Museum, October 29, 2023.
The Mighty Hemlock: by Dr. Michael Kudish
"The Mighty Hemlock" by Catskills Forest Historian, Dr. Michael Kudish, at the Zadock Pratt Museum, Sunday, 9/24/2023.
Ancient Cosmology in the Catskills, by Glenn Kreisberg
"Scattered throughout the wooded uplands of the Catskill Mountains are a large number of standing lithic structures that have mostly been ignored by conventional archaeologists. Often dismissed as colonial era stone walls and field clearing piles, these formations are increasingly emerging as part of a Native American tradition of ritual building practices that reflected a sophisticated world view and sociocultural belief system."
Ed Renehan on Pratt and Gould
May 27, 2023
Zadock Pratt, Ralph Ingersoll, and the Ghost Troops of WWII
A lecture by former Pratt Museum Curator Suzanne Walsh. Listen to the recently declassified story about how Zadock Pratt’s great grandson, Ralph Ingersoll, was front and center in the smoke and mirrors escapades that saved the lives of thousands of US troops and helped win the war in the operation of the “Ghost Army of World War II”.
Pratt Rock: Past, Present, and Future
Steve Whitesell and Carolyn Bennett speak on the creation of the Pratt Rocks carvings on a cliff above Prattsville and current efforts to conserve them for future generations, directed by internationally known landscape architect, Michael van Valkenburg, who grew up in Lexington.