Dyckman

Backporch Concert Series at Dyckman Farmhouse

2010-07-18T16:27:00Z

We are proud to host our annual Backporch Concert Series once again, featuring some incredibly talented local musicians. The concerts are held once per month from June through September. They are free, fun and family-friendly!

Each month, a different musical style is featured. In June, we tapped our toes to the upbeat fiddle music of the talented Rhys Jones. In July, we enjoyed the smooth surf guitar jazz of accomplished guitarists, Jon Sholle and Joe Berger. Our next concert, on Wednesday, August 11th, from 6:30-8pm, will feature the Latin and pop influenced music of singer-songwriter Kiara Duran. Our final concert in the series, on Saturday, September 25th, from 4-5:30pm, will feature the gypsy jazz and neotango styles of the instrumental quintet, Djangos and Tangos.

Not only are we featuring some wonderful local musicians, but also the setting is inspiring. Musicians perform on the backporch of the farmhouse, underneath century-old beech trees and overlooking the beautiful garden. We hope you will join us for our future concerts! Bring a picnic and a blanket (no chairs please) and recline on the lawn or relax on our park benches as you enjoy an evening of music at the last Dutch Colonial-style farmhouse in Manhattan!

You can access more information about the Backporch Concert Series and all of our events at http://www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org/programs.html.

Local Art and Music During the Month of June

2010-06-02T19:03:00Z

We have some exciting events coming up in the month of June in conjunction with the Uptown Arts Stroll.

First, we are very happy to annouce that the first concert of our annual Backporch Concert Series will be held on Wednesday, June 9th, from 6:30pm-8pm. Bring a picnic and a blanket (no chairs please) and recline on the lawn or relax on our park benches as you enjoy an evening of music! We will be featuring local fiddler, Rhys Jones. Jones has been playing traditional Appalachian, French-Canadian and Irish fiddle music for 30 years. You can preview his music on www.myspace.com/rhysjonesmusic.

Then, on Saturday, June 12th, you can join local artists Diane Drescher, Elissa Gore and Andrea Cukier for a beautiful day of art in the garden. They will be working in the plein-air (in the open air) tradition of landscape painting from 10am to 4pm. You can learn more about their work at www.dianedrescher.com, www.elissagore.com, and www.andreacukier.com . Families with small children can also join us for a Creative Play Date at 1:30pm, where children can create their own art work.

Come, join us as we celebrate the Arts during the month of June at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum!

Spring Benefit in May!

2010-05-08T16:53:00Z

HELP SUPPORT THE DYCKMAN FARMHOUSE MUSEUM!
Join us for our 2nd Annual Garden Party in support of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum. Funds raised this year will go towards supporting our wonderful educational programming. For more information on the fundraiser, including the date, time and ticket cost, please go to http://www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org/SpringBenefit.html

Which One of These Does Not Belong?

2010-03-31T16:49:00Z

From Wednesday March 31^st through Sunday April 4^th, the Dyckman Farmhouse will be participating in Fake History Week in honor of April Fool's Day. When you visit, see if you can spot which pieces do not belong in our period rooms. Also, don't forget to pick up the newest edition of Ye Olde Dyckman Gossip Rag, our April Fool’s newspaper which addresses many of the most enticing myths about the Dyckmans and the period in which they lived.

Welcome Back Dunsmore!

2010-03-15T20:24:00Z

We are thrilled that John Ward Dunsmore’s Hut Camp of the 17^th Regiment of Foot, Inwood Hill, N.Y.C. (1915) is back on display for the first time since at least 2003 after some minor conservation work. This mixed-media painting depicts a military camp discovered at Prescott (now Payson) Avenue, as it may have looked during the Revolutionary War. It is possible this piece may have been a study for the finished oil painting, of the same name, in the collection of The New-York Historical Society.

The Dunsmore painting was originally installed as part of the Reginald Pelham Bolton Collection (a.k.a. Relic Room) display on the first floor of the farmhouse when it opened as a museum in 1916 and is now back in the same room.

Dunsmore is well-known for his depictions of Revolutionary War-era scenes. Collections of his work can be found at The New-York Historical Society and Fraunces Tavern Museum.

Contemporary Dutch Art @ Dyckman Farmhouse Museum

2009-11-07T07:21:00Z

HOME | LAND - Tanja Smeets @ Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
UNBRIDLED FRACTALS
November 12 - December 13, 2009

Amorphous sculptures have found their way into the farmhouse. Experience Smeets' extraordinary creations, specially made for Dyckman Farmhouse. Exploring what history left behind,her sculptures of uncommon materials grow in secret places.

Tanja Smeets invades the historic Dyckman Farmhouse Museum and its grounds with her colorful organic, biomorphic sculptures to investigate the theme of roots and belonging. Dyckman Farmhouse was built by William Dyckman c. 1784 on land gathered by generations of Dyckmans, starting with the first family member to arrive in the 1660's. While Smeets considers these previous claims of ownership she treats the historic structure as a canvas to explore her ideas. Rather than 18th century goods, her sculptures use industrial materials, such as Lycra threads, plastic hoses, and concrete spacers. Developing hyperorganic shapes that can ooze through barriers, infiltrating and merging with the identity of the historic site. Her sculptural creatures challenge viewers to consider how and why they determine something or someone belongs. The farmhouse is an ideal setting for these explorations because it is itself an unexpected "creature" in its urban neighborhood. In her work at the Dyckman Farmhouse Tanja uses the concept of fractals, infinitely complex and irregular organic shapes that interweave with their environment.

visit www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org for more info!

Music at the Farmhouse

2009-06-05T13:34:00Z

Backporch Concert Series Returns to Dyckman Farmhouse

Summer kicks off at the farmhouse with the first Backporch Concert on Thursday, June 11th. The series highlights musicians from Washington Heights and Inwood. This month its the fabulous Djangos & Tangos - -www.myspace.com/djangosandtangosSo bring a picnic and a blanket for the lawn or relax on our benches and chairs while you enjoy some great local music!

Thursday, June 11
Backporch Concert: Djangos & Tangos
6:30-8pm - FREE
Join us for our first concert of the summer season! Uptown-based instrumental quintet
Djangos & Tangos plays gypsy jazz made popular by Django Reinhardt and neotango of
Astor Piazzolla, coupled with jazz and folk standards. Celebrate the Recession with
music of the Depression! www.myspace.com/djangosandtangos
Bring a picnic and a blanket (no chairs please) and recline on the lawn or relax on our
park benches as you enjoy an evening with local musicians.

Spring

2009-03-03T19:55:00Z

Really?

While not everyone here at the Farmhouse is convinced, spring really is coming. We already have daffodils that are starting to bud and if you look closely you will see signs of tulips and other bulbs beginning to emerge from the snowy ground. Make sure to visit the farmhouse later this month, in April, May and in June to get the full range of beautiful blooms.

To make it a bit easier to wander through the garden we will be streching our garden hours a bit this spring. You can, of course, always visit during our normal museum hours of Wed-Sat from 11am-4pm and Sun 12pm to 4pm.

From Saturday March 21st until Thursday, May 21 the garden will be open some additional morning and evening hours*
Thursdays 11am-6pm
Saturdays 10am-4:30pm
Sundays 10am-4:30pm
*museum hours will remain the same

Garden Entrance is FREE.

What We Have Been Looking For

2009-02-19T21:18:00Z

At Dyckman Farmhouse Museum our wish list is pretty long - we are constantly conducting researching and searching for new documentation on how the Dyckman's lived and worked and the story of the transformation of the farmhouse into a museum in 1916. We got one item off our wishlist recently. We've long been hunting for a photograph of the Reginal Pelham Bolton Collection - affectionately known as the Relic Room - as it existed before the 1970's. We recently received the wonderful photograph above which shows the space as it looked roughly in the 1920s-1930's. This is a huge help as we continue our project to document the collection and work to put items back on display.

Hawks at Dyckman

2009-01-08T17:46:00Z

LOOK UP!
Visitors to Dyckman Farmhouse might want to look up into the trees for some hawk spotting. We usually see hawks a couple of times a season, but for some reason the site has been particularly active over the last week. We have spotted several hawks making visits, including a magnificent Red-Tail.

Chimes

2008-10-17T17:58:00Z

Dyckman Farmhouse Case Clock Chimes Again!
This year, thanks to a generous grant from the Historic House Trust, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum was able to conserve a beautiful case clock in the collection. The clock returned to the museum today, Friday, October 17th. Not only were the clock case and face conserved but the clock workings were cleaned and the clock is now chiming for the first time in decades. If you can't visit in person, listen below.

18th Century Chair Returns!

2008-09-27T13:21:00Z

Jacobus Can Relax in Comfort
The lovely 18th century Easy or Wing Chair in the Dyckman Farmhouse Collection returned at the end of September after a major conservation effort. The chair was originally owned by Jemima Dyckman, daughter of William Dyckman, the builder of the farmhouse, and sister of Jacobus Dyckman, who took over the farmhouse and farm after their fathers death. The chair is now on display in the first floor bedroom and features a slipcover appropriate to our early 19th century interpretive period.

The conservation work and the creation of the loose fitting dimity slipcover were completed by Elizabeth Lahikainen & Associates -- many thanks for all their hard work in restoring this lovely piece!

Dyckman on NY1!

2008-07-13T23:23:00Z

Dyckman Farmhouse will be featured on NY1 as one of Manhattan's Hidden Treasures. The program will air Sunday, July 13th - visit http://www.ny1.com/ny1/index.jsp for other air times and a preview of the show.

First Rose of the Season

2008-05-09T17:10:00Z

SUMMER IS INDEED COMING
We always know that summer isn't too far away when our first rose of the season blooms. Just this week the first pink bud opened and now quite a few roses are blooming along our embankment and on site. In another few weeks there should be an explosion of roses.

Personal Note

2008-03-29T17:27:00Z

TO THE EX-NEIGHBORHOOD KID:
Thank you, our history is so important. The arrival was timely and the wrong has been righted with great appreciation.

Bike Rack Arrives!

2008-03-17T13:20:00Z

Thanks to the New York City Department of Transportation CityRacks program, visitors to the farmhouse who arrive by bicycle now have a spot to park their bike. A bike rack was recently installed on 204th Street near Broadway. We hope our biking visitors will take advantage of the rack!

Spring

2008-02-18T00:40:00Z

FIRST CROCUS EMERGES . . . . . and then is eaten by a squirrel.

For one, brief moment spring emerged at Dyckman Farmhouse with the blooming of our first crocus. Although the yellow blossom was quite promptly claimed by a squirrel as a tasty snack it does mean that more and more green shoots will start appearing around the garden. In the fall we planted over 1,000 new bulbs so once again it should be a lovely spring. Make sure to visit the garden soon - particularly in April and May when our daffodils are usually at their finest.

Winter at the Farmhouse

2008-01-08T04:44:00Z

Scene Setting
If you visit the farmhouse this winter, you will see a few more "scenes" have been set in our continuing effort towards interpretation. The items include both reproduction items such as a shawl in the parlor and a cloak in the winter kitchen to the return of some original collection pieces such as a tea set and porcelein decorative items. Staff was also busy creating some special items such as pea soup in the kitchen (definitely not edible) and candles for the rooms.

We continue to research to learn more about how the family would have lived in the farmhouse in the early 19th century. We discovered through newspaper accounts that the winter of 1819-1820 was a particular harsh one, with several snow storms hitting the area between Christmas and mid-January. Perhaps a bit hard to imagine in our current warm weather spell!

New Addition

2007-11-07T00:58:00Z

New Addition
In our continuing efforts at interpretation at Dyckman Farmhouse, we have a new addition to the upstairs bedroom. The interpretation in this bedroom focuses on 1916, when the farmhouse museum was created. We have been working to replicate many of the textiles that would have originally been in that space.

This week we installed a reproduction slipcover on the wing chair in the room. Come to the farmhouse this week to see the results.

If you come by toward the end of the week you can also see the reproduction quilt which was recently finished (see the previous post).

REQUEST FOR PHOTOGRAPHS

2007-09-20T02:09:00Z

Did you visit the Dyckman Farmhouse BEFORE 1988 and take a picture of the Relic Room?
The Relic Room, or the Reginald Pelham Bolton Collection, was an exhibit that was first installed in the farmhouse in 1916 and contained numerous archaeological objects discovered in the neighborhood. Many visitors miss that exhibit and remember in detail the artifacts that were displayed. We are hoping that if you were one of those visitors who loved the Relic Room that you or your friends or family captured it on film and would be willing to share the photos with us.

We are currently surveying the collection (see a previous post) and will be raising funds to install a new exhibit. As part of our documentation we are looking for photos of the space taken BEFORE 1988.

Photos may be submitted to us via regular mail or email -- please make sure you include your contact information, when the picture was taken and any memories you have about the Relic Room.

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
4881 Broadway at 204th Street New York, NY 10034
212.304.9422
info@dyckmanfarmhouse.org