For everyone

A talk by DCHS Trustee David Turner How the Automobile Changed the Hudson Valley: a View Through Postcards New in Collections: From the recently acquired Mangold Collection, photographs of commercial trucks in Poughkeepsie ca. 1918.

Within these pages, DCHS, with the broader Dutchess County history community, is looking to develop an understanding of these kinds of questions that will evolve into a permanent online exhibition and educational resource. When have members of your community advocated for liberty and equality? How have people with power responded? How has the process of […]

 Black Voices in Freedom’s Pursuit: America’s Revolutionary War   “What to the slave is the 4th of July?” At the heart of Frederick Douglass’s pointed question was the unmistakable irony that the country based on the 1776 premise that all are created equal, by the time of its 1788 Constitution had created the so-called three-fifths […]

Recognizing American Indian Heritage Month By Bill Jeffway A version of this article appeared in the November 15, 2023 Northern/Southern Dutchess News / Beacon Free Press. While not in a position to explain the full history of local Indigenous Peoples (see recommendations at the end of this article for that), as a way to recognize […]

Below: The story of Andrew Frazier, the ancestor. The only Black family with a large plot. Adjacent to and facing, but not technically within, “Colored Section E.” Below: Images and profiles.

This is the story of ongoing work to confirm details of an oral tradition in Fishkill’s Brinckerhoff family of nearly 200 years. The tradition holds that Lafayette gave this desk as a gift during his 1824 tour. Recently discovered evidence tends to confirm that oral tradition. In 2013, with the 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s 1824 […]

Why have so many admired Lafayette for so long? The Dutchess County Historical Society was honored to speak at this important Fishkill commemoration of Lafayette. We can learn so much about why he remains important by looking through the lens of local history. Lafayette earned the admiration of George Washington, and was honored by established, […]

Starting Places People Places Things Words from the past Newer Perspectives Other Starting Points The Walter M. Patrice Collection focuses largely on the history of the Smith AME Zion Church in Poughkeepsie, which through Mr. Patrice’s efforts was listed on the national historic register. Although unable to part with the photo album, Mr. Patrice allowed […]

Why we believe local history is so powerful: “The things that we can see and touch awaken the imagination. Local history touches off these things that have happened on the spot; and the facts of local history become parts of a person’s own life to an extent which is rare with scenes and incidents one […]