This is a tale of a tiny museum with ambition, holding onto memories of its hometown, Rhinebeck, New York over the years from 1870 to 1929, a time of tremendous change, although some of it took place at a slower pace in this rural area.
Rhinebeck is a small and picturesque hamlet about a hundred miles north up the Hudson River from New York City. These days it’s best-known as an artsy-craftsy center, and home to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, which in turn is home once a year to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. Which is how I found myself at the large barn-like building labeled Antique Museum Village.
This isn’t a professionally-staffed curated and encyclopedic museum of the countryside; it’s a project kept running by the volunteers of the Century Museum Village and Collectors Association, which also puts on exhibits of its members’s collections and other topics during the year.
On sheep-and-wool weekend it was full of people who seemed to have just wandered in, like me, and found a fascinating variety of old machines, old furniture, old trades, and volunteers ready to demonstrate or discuss what they were doing and how it fit into the rhythms of country life ‘back when.’
For example, the sleigh in the title photo came with the information that in the early years of the century, cars were often put up on blocks for the winter; on old roads, covered with snow for weeks at a time, sleighs got the nod.
Other vehicles and equipment of the time is displayed on an upper level, while the lower floor models stores and workshops of the period, including a print shop, a family kitchen, blacksmith shop, needlework and more.
The museum also gives some of the volunteers an opportunity to practice and demonstrate crafts that were their own working life. This woman worked most of her life as an upholsterer, and now restores wicker chairs and other items at the museum.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO VISIT
The museum has irregular hours, usually coinciding with weekend events at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Aside from Sheep and Wool Weekend, that includes the County Fair in late August. The Association has held exhibits including demonstrations of historical farm equipment, including an annual tractor pull contest. For next year’s schedule, stay in touch with their website.
