Location: Lectures are hosted on the Hudson River Maritime Museum's campus in the Museum, Woodworking School or Homeport Barn. Check individual event details for location.
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.
Upcoming Events
January 2026
Once Ancient Oceans: How Geology Shaped New York Waterways
Wednesday, January 14, 2026 - Woodworking School Classroom
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7:00PM - 8:00 PM
$10 admission / $5 for HRMM members Before the first dinosaurs, before the first mammals, just as the very first forests were beginning to form on Earth, the land that makes up New York state today was covered by an ancient ocean. How did the geology formed by this ancient world, nearly 400 million years ago, shape life and commerce along the Hudson River throughout the 1800’s and into the present? Guest Speaker |
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February 2026
Taking the Air: Vacationing to the Catskills in the 19th Century
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 - Woodworking School Classroom
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7:00PM - 8:00 PM
$10 admission / $5 for HRMM members The late 19th century was an era of intense change. To escape the whirlwinds of newly booming cities, many would take vacations into the bucolic Catskill Mountains to stay at grand hotels. Learn how these vacationers would get to their destinations, what clothes they would pack, and what activities awaited them. We will also explore attitudes toward vacation at the time, and the context of the era. Come take this fascinating journey into the Catskills of the past with Museum Educator Emma Foster. Guest Speaker |
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February 2026
Crime on the Hudson: Gilded Age Pirates and River Thieves - Lecture and Performance
Thursday, February 12, 2026 - HRMM East Gallery
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6:30PM - 8:00 PM
$20 admission / $10 for HRMM members Do you ever wonder if there were actual pirates on the Hudson River? Come and learn about a wild chapter in Hudson River history when mercenary sloops prowled the waterway, raiding mansions and plundering merchant ships. Who were these river outlaws stirring up chaos…and how did local communities and the law fight back? The evening will begin with a brief lecture on the real and sometimes legendary criminal activity along the Hudson in the 1860s and 1870s, followed by an immersive performance starring the era’s most infamous characters in the flesh, including the mysterious young woman rumored to have led a notorious Lower Manhattan gang. Watch as she is put on trial for her alleged crimes. Is she guilty? How does her story end? Who decides her fate? This special event weaves scholarship and storytelling, created and presented by HRMM’s Education Department in collaboration with Siren Theatre Company. Guest Performers |
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Siren Theatre Company is a small group of performing artists local to the Hudson Valley founded by Caitlin Connelly, Tricia Anderson, and Maclain Maier. They specialize in writing original, immersive productions that bring history to life. The company’s mission is to produce fearless and inspiring work that can create dialogue, play with perspective, and inspire introspection.
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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 |
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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Please subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notifications of new recorded lectures and other films and videos.