Upcoming Events
Follow the River Lecture Series
Ticket Information: $10 (General Public); $5 for HRMM Members
Location: Lectures are hosted at the Wooden Boat School on the Hudson River Maritime Museum's campus unless stated otherwise.
For more information about upcoming lectures, please see the descriptions below or click on the event image to be taken to the event information and registration page.
If you are interested in participating in our lecture series as a guest speaker, please contact the Museum's Education Department or call 845-338-0071 ext. 16.
If you are interested in participating in our lecture series as a guest speaker, please contact the Museum's Education Department or call 845-338-0071 ext. 16.
2025 Lecture Lineup
JULY
Understanding New York’s Enslaving Past Through Intertwined Families
with Debra Bruno
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Wednesday, July 30th, 2025
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM When Debra Bruno was growing up in New York’s Hudson Valley, she had no idea that the state had once been a slave society. And when she discovered that her Dutch ancestors had been some of the fiercest advocates of holding onto slavery for as long as they could, she knew she had to learn more. Her connection and friendship with Eleanor Mire, who descends from people her family enslaved, further enriched the story, which she first described in a 2020 Washington Post Magazine article. Her book, A Hudson Valley Reckoning: Discovering the Forgotten History of Slaveholding in My Dutch American Family, is a combination of memoir, history, and many unanswered and unanswerable questions. The lecture will describe her discoveries, with special attention to the Black boatmen like Thomas Vanderzee. |
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Guest Speaker
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Debra Bruno is a longtime Washington journalist and teacher, with a career that has covered law, politics, the arts, music, dance, theater, books, culture, health, and international issues. She has worked at Moment Magazine, Legal Times, and Roll Call. A historian friend told her that if she had ancestors in New York’s Hudson Valley, especially if they were Dutch, they were likely enslavers. She was right. She hadn’t known about New York’s 200 years of enslavement and was stunned to realize that her small hometown of Athens held so many hidden stories. That story first appeared as a 2020 article in the Washington Post Magazine, and now a book. A Hudson Valley Reckoning: Discovering the Forgotten History of Slaveholding in my Dutch American Family, published by Cornell’s Three Hills imprint on Oct. 15.
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AUGUST
Familiar Faces, Forgotten
with Sara Russell
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Wednesday, August 13th, 2025
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Mary Powell was a beloved day steamboat who cruised the Hudson between 1861 and 1917. HRMM holds many historic photographs of Mary Powell and the dozens, if not hundreds, of crew members who made her journeys possible. These photographs live in HRMM’s archive and on the walls of the museum. Their faces have gazed back at us for years, but who are they? Many faces remain unidentified. This lecture focuses on one particular 1908 photograph of Mary Powell crew members that currently hangs in the Mary Powell hallway at HRMM. A search for their identities using genealogical research methodology was undertaken and successfully identified multiple individuals. Join to learn about their lives, before and after Mary Powell, and how their lives were tied - in more ways than one - to the Hudson River. Tips on how to identify unknown individuals in photographs you may have in your attic will also be discussed. |
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Guest Speaker
Sara Russell is a Museum Educator at HRMM. New to the Hudson Valley, Sara previously worked as a history-focused Museum Educator in NYC. She is also a Genealogist who has been researching her own family tree and the trees of many others for the last 10 years. It was her love for genealogical research that inspired a pivot from a career in community health to public history. She is currently participating in ProGen, a rigorous, yearlong study group for professional genealogists, and is also a Case Administrator with the volunteer research group Unclaimed Persons, identifying next-of-kin for unclaimed, deceased persons in the care of coroners offices across the country.
SEPTEMBER
Hudson River Ecology
with Dr. Stuart Findlay
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September 24th, 2025
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Both natural phenomena and human activities are putting stress on the Hudson River, which could impact its ability to stay resilient and meet our needs. Aquatic ecologist, Dr. Stuart Findlay reviews some of these pressures and how climate change, alongside the historical and ongoing human interactions, has negatively impacted the ecology of the river, creating a tangled web of competing interests and sometimes even contradictory solutions. Showcasing examples from his decades of research and monitoring, Findlay will discuss suitable solutions that balance ecological health with human needs to protect and restore the Hudson River. |
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Guest Speaker
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Dr. Stuart Findlay has worked on the Hudson River for over 30 years. His research on sensitive wetlands, shoreline restoration, and environmental monitoring is helping to guide the river’s recovery. Findlay works closely with the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System (HRECOS) and directed the installation of a monitoring station that continually records the river’s salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, and water elevation. He has been an advisor to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for more than 25 years and works with several other private, state, and federal organizations. |
Past Events
For more than a decade the Hudson River Maritime Museum's "Follow the River Lecture Series" has hosted historians, authors, and maritime experts covering a variety of subjects ranging from regional and maritime history to ecology and art inspired by the river.
Past lectures that were able to be recorded are available to view on the museum's YouTube channel. Due to restrictions, not all lectures may be available on video or in full. Watch via our Lecture Series playlist on YouTube or simply click on the graphics below to be taken to recordings of recent lectures.
Past lectures that were able to be recorded are available to view on the museum's YouTube channel. Due to restrictions, not all lectures may be available on video or in full. Watch via our Lecture Series playlist on YouTube or simply click on the graphics below to be taken to recordings of recent lectures.
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A Year in the Life of an Orchard
Kevin Clark, lead orchardist at Rose Hill Farm |
Vertical Divider
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Finding Joy in Color and Peace in Nature: Becoming a Coast Guard Artist with Fred Feiler
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Geology and History of the Rosendale Natural Cement Industry
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Ladies of the Valley |
Brick & Brick Ruins of Hudson Valley |
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Author Mary Mistler leads a talk on her novel 'Ladies of the Valley" Women of the Hudson Valley's Great Estates' highlighting several of these women and and offering insights and anecdotes from their lives, which largely reflect women’s changing roles over centuries.
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Thomas Rinaldi and Robert Yasinsac’s talk about brickyard ruins as well as notable ruins constructed from local bricks.
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The Land Doesn't Forget |
Manhattan Phoenix |
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All the land that makes up the United States was in its entirety Indigenous land. Learn about the policies used to remove Indigenous Nations from their homes and pushed them onto reservations. Heather Bruegl explains why the fight to regain this land is important.
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Based on his book, "Manhattan Phoenix: The Great Fire of 1835 and the Emergence of Modern New York", author Daniel S. Levy describes in detail the Great Fire of 1835 —which destroyed nearly 700 buildings in lower Manhattan—and the forces that transformed New York from a large unruly metropolis during the early years of the 19th century.
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Seasons of Life |
Marginalized Workers on the D&H Canal |
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Frank Beres, an aquatic ecologist and naturalist based out of Port Ewen, New York, examines the phenology of biodiversity as he travels through a year in our local area of the Hudson River watershed.
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The construction of the 108-mile-long Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Canal required about 5000 laborers working in hard and dangerous conditions. D&H Historian and Bill Merchant gives a presentation about the lives and experiences of the diverse group of people who worked on the Canal.
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