Exploring Our City's Beginnings

As regular Gossips readers know, Hudson was founded in 1783 by New England seafarers engaged in whaling and maritime commerce. The History Room at the Hudson Area Library, in collaboration with the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the DAR and the Columbia County Historical Society, is currently in the process of researching and planning an exhibition about our city's beginnings, called History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce in Hudson, to happen in the spring, from March 6 through June 30, 2025.

Capturing a sperm whale. Whaleship Superior, 1835. Aquatint engraving by William Page from an original painting by Cornelius Hulsart. © Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT

The History Room and its collaborators have important documents from Hudson's early years, but there are other institutions, such as the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Nantucket Historical Society, the New York Public Library, and Mystic Seaport Museum, that hold Hudson-specific items--logbooks, letters of local whalers, drawings and paintings of Hudson's whaling history. The History Room is working to obtain digital facsimiles of these items, both for the exhibition and for the library's permanent archival collection, so that this period of Hudson's history can be preserved locally.

To raise the money needed for these acquisitions, a GoFundMe campaign has been created. Click here to make a contribution. All donors will have a unique opportunity to view the exhibition and learn details about the research into this important history at a special pre-opening event.