In Her Words: A Women's History Tour

In honor of Women’s History Month and the centennial of the ratification of women’s suffrage in New York, Historic Huguenot Street has developed “In Her Words,” a monthly women’s history tour.

Developed by HHS’ Public Programming department with the assistance of SUNY New Paltz intern Allison Surgeary, the tour will follow the lives and stories of several women who played a role in local history. Visitors will be guided through four historic buildings and have the opportunity to discover figures from the past through a combination of factual, historical information and cleverly composed monologues written and recorded by HHS staff and volunteers.

All tours begin at the DuBois Fort Visitor Center (81 Huguenot Street).

Visitors will hear the stories of the Esopus women who signed the 1677 Indian Deed; Catherine Blanchan (1629 - 1713), one of the original New Paltz Huguenot settlers; enslaved Africans Rachel and Dinah; Wyntje Hasbrouck (1708 – 1787), a colonial woman who managed her own estate; Cornelia Markle VanWagenen (1775 – 1819), a widow who ran her own business in the early 1800s; Julia “Aunt Judy” Jackson (ca. 1800 – 1898), a freed slave; Eliza Varick Silvernail Ackert (1830 – 1916), the first female editor of the original New Paltz Times; Progressive-era artist Julia McEntee Dillon (1834 – 1919); and Mary Jane Snyder Freer (1862 – 1931), the first New Paltz woman to vote in 1918.

Julia "Judy" Jackson, known as "Aunt Judy"

Circa 1892, from the personal collection of Katia and John Jacobs, as published in the New Paltz Times

Eliza Varick Silvernail Ackert

From the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at the Elting Memorial Library

Mary Jane Snyder Freer (right)

1908, with husband Cyrus and children Lauretta and Hugo, From the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at the Elting Memorial Library