Dyckman

Welcome Back Dunsmore!

Dyckman — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:24:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:21:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:34:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:55:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:18:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:46:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:58:00 GMT

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!

Dyckman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:21:00 GMT

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!

Dyckman — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:23:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:10:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:27:00 GMT

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!

Dyckman — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:20:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:40:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:44:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:58:00 GMT

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

Dyckman — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:09:00 GMT

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

RELICS

Dyckman — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:57:00 GMT

REDISCOVERING THE RELICS
One of our exciting projects this summer has been an extensive survey of the Reginald Pelham Bolton Archaeological Collection, commonly known as the Relic Room Collection. When the museum first opened in 1916 one of the spaces was dedicated to an exhibit of archaeological objects that had been discovered by Reginald Pelham Bolton and others in the late 19th and early 20th century. At that time, streets were being cut through, the subway was being planned and major development was looming. Amateur archaeologists and historians such as Bolton did frequent digs in Northern Manhattan and discovered Native American, Colonial and Revolutionary War era artifacts.

There has never been a thorough survey of the Bolton era objects at Dyckman Farmhouse Museum. We were fortunate to get a group of talented students from New York University to work on the project this summer. So far we are at over 3,000 objects and there are still more to go. Many are shards of pipes and pottery, but there are many complete objects such as bullet molds, grapeshot, ice creepers, buttons and tools. Some objects, such as the mug pictured above, were pieced back together in 1916.

The project has yielded some wonderful information, but also many questions as well and we are hoping to piece together the complex story of the digs and the objects we have in our collection. If you grew up in the neighborhood and any of your relatives were involved in the original digs we would love to hear from you!

August at the Farmhouse

Dyckman — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:57:00 GMT

Farmhouse Closures in August

August, usually a quiet (and very, very hot) month at the farmhouse will actually be busy as we work to complete a number of projects. Because of the heat and the number of projects we will be working on, the farmhouse will only be open for weekends in August. Please check in with us if you plan to visit to confirm those hours.

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but hope that the projects that we will accomplish will more than compensate:

In the garden we will be adding a safety rail along our steep embankment, new benches in our seating area, and new brick edging and pebble paths in the formal garden. Thanks to the work of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Historic House Trust of New York City we hope to have all of this work completed by early Fall.

On the interior we have been working on a full survey of the archaeological collection that was originally installed in our Relic Room. More about this project in the next posting - including pictures of some very interesting findings.

Chimney Completed

Dyckman — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:53:00 GMT

Work on the restoration of the north chimney has been completed and the scaffolding has been removed. Our local squirrels and birds are a bit disappointed as they enjoyed some extra perching space, but visitors will be happy that our seating area is once more fully accessible.

Scaffolding

Dyckman — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:00:00 GMT

You may have noticed that scaffolding appeared on the north facade of the farmhouse this weekend. A long planned restoration of the north chimney has just begun today. The other two chimneys on site were restored over the last several years, so with the completion of this project all of our chimneys will be in good shape.

During the restoration project a small portion of the site surrounding the chimney will be closed off to visitors, but we hope this will just be a short inconvenience. Work is expected to be completed by next week.