The Collections
In order to preserve to our local history and to make our collections accessible to a wider audience, we are diligently working to make our collections available online. We’ve digitized a portion of our holdings, and you can find highlights by scrolling through this page.
To view other items not yet digitized, we invite you to visit us at the StoryStudio on Cherry Street. You can learn more about visiting the archives here.
William S. Teator Collection
William S. Teator Collection - Includes personal and business letters, farm records and almost 300 images from glass negatives of scenes, people, family groups, and buildings in and about Upper Red Hook taken by William Seward (Will) Teator (1860-1930), between 1890 and 1910. Teator was a self-taught conchologist, accomplished artist, farmer and blue ribbon apple grower.
Harriet Martin Dey Collection
Evocative glass-plate images from 1899-90 by Harriet Martin, a member of one of Red Hook’s oldest families. This one shows an art class in a Red Hook School, circa 1899.
Red Hook Map Collection
Originals and reproductions of some of Red Hook’s oldest maps, including this 1815 view of Red Hook as a town after separation from Rhinebeck.
Red Hook Postcard Collection
The streetscapes, storefronts, public buildings, churches and homes of Red Hook’s yesteryear.
Red Hook Newspaper Collection
More than a century of local news. The following papers are now available to browse and are fully text-searchable online. (For tips on navigating online newspapers, click here).
Red Hook Weekly Journal (1859-1863)
The Red Hook Society for the Apprehension and Detention of Horse Thieves -
Two societies formed to protect farmers from losing their most valuable possessions, their horses, to thieves, met regularly in the Town of Red Hook during the 19th century. The oldest, dating from 1796, meets once a year to this day. Original minute books for both societies can be online.
Ward Manor Collection
Ward Manor was a 900-acre estate in Red Hook on the Hudson River, named after William Boyd Ward, grandson of the founder of the Ward Baking Company, who purchased it in 1926. He immediately donated it to a charitable organization, the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, "for the establishment and maintenance of a home for the aged, a home for convalescents, and summer outing camps." Summer camps for girls and boys were operated through the 1950s. Bard College purchased the property in 1963.
Red Hook Schools Collection
When the Town of Red Hook split from Rhinebeck in 1812, it established eight public school districts, each with its own small schoolhouse serving first through eighth-grade ‘scholars,’ as students were then called. For those wishing to go beyond eighth-grade, there were only a few small private schools, such as the reputable Mountain View Academy in Upper Red Hook. In 1905, the Union Free School in Red Hook Village (District #4) was renamed the Red Hook High School and expanded to accommodate all the students from every district who wanted to go beyond the eighth grade. Students came from near and far, by train and wagon, and some even boarded with Village families for the winter term.
Red Hook Town Board Minutes
The Town of Red Hook’s earliest Board Minutes record business matters such as the elections of officials, monies to be raised for the poor, and votes on roads, bridges and school districts. Beginning in 1813, the year after Red Hook separated from the Rhinebeck Precinct and became its own Township, meetings were held annually, the first Tuesday in April, at private homes or inns. The minutes begin April 6, 1813, with the first item of business noted as the establishment of regulations to control stray livestock. That same year, eight school districts were established, with families in each school district named. Entries run through Sept 1866, after the end of the Civil War.
Fraleigh Family Collection
Photographs, farm business records and land records (deeds, leases) relating to the Fraleigh family's Rose Hill Farm. Also includes personal and business records of neighboring farmer, William S. Teator, personal diaries and letters of the Curtis family, and genealogical research files on Fraleigh, Curtis, Beaumont and Waldorf families.
Frank L. Teal Papers
Surveys, field notes, maps and deeds by Red Hook's Frank Teal (1867-1949), surveyor, historian, mathematician - and (unsolved to this day!) murder victim.