Elverhoj: The Arts & Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson Main Menu Introduction by William B. Rhoads Craft, from Colony to Cure:
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Preface by Ronald Patkus

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In the fall of 2022, William Rhoads contacted me to ask if the Archives & Special Collections Library at Vassar would be interested in acquiring his collection of materials relating to Elverhoj, the early twentieth century Arts and Crafts colony located just a few miles from campus, on the west side of the Hudson River. Bill with Leslie Melvin had just published a book on this topic—same title as this exhibition, and published by Black Dome Press in 2022—and he was looking for a place to house his collection. In contemplating this possibility, I asked whether there were any connections between the colony and the college. I soon learned that in fact there were many ties with Vassar administrators, faculty, and students, and that they were sometimes significant. We decided to accept the collection, largely because of the relationship with Vassar, but also because of the documentation it provided for a little-known aspect of local cultural history. The collection includes several boxes including correspondence, art originals, photographs, and printed ephemera; the bulk of the materials date from 1902–1935. The current Library exhibition Elverhoj: The Arts & Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson derives substantially from these holdings, though a few items, such as a group of class rings from the Vassar Realia collection, originate elsewhere. Together they provide a way of viewing the contributions of Elverhoj to the Hudson Valley community. We hope the presentation of these precious artifacts will bring some attention to the forgotten artistic colony, and its role in regional and national life. Ronald Patkus Head of Special Collections & College Historian Vassar College

Ronald Patkus
Head of Special Collections and College Historian
Adjunct Associate Professor of History on the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chair

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