Join us in the Steinberg Room as William B. Rhoads and Lesl
ie Melvin discuss their new book Elverhoj: The Arts and Crafts Colony
at Milton-on-Hudson. Light refreshments will be served. The book will
be available for purchase at the event and all proceeds will go to Elting
Memorial Library.
\"Elverhoj (Danish for &ldquo\;hill of
the fairies\,&rdquo\; pronounced &ldquo\;El-ver-hoy&rdquo\;) was an Arts
and Crafts colony established on the picturesque west shore of the Hudson
River in 1912 by Danish American artists and craftsmen led by Anders Ander
son. Little known today\, the colony achieved a national reputation before
World War I and earned a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition
in San Francisco. That same year a write-up in Gustav Stickley&rsquo\;s C
raftsman magazine with photos of the rustic studios added to the colony&rs
quo\;s growing fame.
Elverhoj was especially regarded for its jewelry
and metalwork\, but the works of painter-craftsman James Scott and etcher
Ralph Pearson added to its renown\, as did a fruitful connection with nea
rby Vassar College strengthened by the efforts of colony members Bessie an
d Henrietta Scott\, sisters talented in textile arts.
As part of the
William Morris&ndash\;inspired Arts and Crafts movement\, Elverhoj experie
nced a decline in the 1920s\, partially offset by the opening of a theatre
with links to Broadway and the addition of a Moorish-style dining terrace
. Still\, the Depression dealt a fatal blow\, despite Andersen&rsquo\;s en
listing the help of Eleanor Roosevelt\, and the property was acquired by f
ollowers of the charismatic Black leader Father Divine\, becoming one of h
is most popular &ldquo\;heavens.&rdquo\; Andersen\, always the colony&rsqu
o\;s central figure but one who did not seek personal recognition\, died i
n obscurity in 1944. Many of the book&rsquo\;s more than 160 illustrations
stem from an archive kept by Andersen that has only recently come to ligh
t.
AUTHORS:
William B. Rhoads is a professo
r emeritus of Art History at SUNY New Paltz where he taught between 1970 a
nd 2005. Rhoads studied architectural history at Princeton University unde
r Donald Drew Egbert and David R. Coffin\, receiving his A.B. degree (magn
a cum laude) in 1966 and Ph.D. in 1975. His doctoral dissertation\, The Co
lonial Revival\, was published by Garland in 1977\, and he has lectured an
d published widely on the Colonial Revival\, Franklin Roosevelt's art and
architectural interests\, and the architecture of the Hudson Valley.
Rhoads has served as book review editor for American topics for the Journa
l of the Society of Architectural Historians. He is the author of Kingston
\, New York: The Architectural History &\; Guide (2003)\, Ulster County
\, New York: The Architectural History &\; Guide (2011)\, and Charles S
. Keefe (1876-1946) Colonial Revival Architect in Kingston and New York as
well as a contributing author for Kingston: The IBM Years (2014) and Jerv
is McEntee: Kingston's Artist of the Hudson River School (2015)\, all publ
ished by Black Dome Press. He also contributed to Re-creating the American
Past: Essays on the Colonial Revival (University of Virginia Press\, 2006
).
Leslie Melvin is an academic technologist at Bard College. After r
eceiving her MA in art history and museum studies\, Leslie worked for over
a decade in academic image libraries. Local history and historic preserva
tion are avocations: she continues to specialize in image\, object\, genea
logical and historic house research. Leslie joined the Elverhoj research g
roup while serving on the board of the Ulster County Historical Society.\"