New Online Exhibition of 18th-Century Dutch-Style Cupboards

NEW PALTZ, NY (November 13, 2018) – Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) is pleased to present the online exhibit Kasten from Mid-Hudson Valley Collections at hudsonvalleykasten.org featuring more than one dozen 18th-century Dutch-style cupboards made by American craftsmen. Based on a furniture form popular in the Netherlands, kasten (kast singular) were adapted in the Hudson Valley for over a century and were central to many Dutch-American homes, signifying both the heritage of their owners, as well as their wealth and social status. The online exhibition highlights the enduring influence of Dutch culture in the Hudson Valley. Funding for the project was provided by a grant from the Peggy N. and Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust and a private donation.

The online exhibit is based on the original exhibition Kasten from Mid-Hudson Valley Collections, held at Historic Huguenot Street in the Jean Hasbrouck House and the Abraham Hasbrouck House, October 1 through December 17, 2017. The exhibition gathered over a dozen of these important cupboards from prominent regional private and public collections, including examples from Historic Huguenot Street’s own holdings. A 17th-century Dutch-made kussenkast with connections to the Elting family and Huguenot Street is featured from the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Hudson Highlands. This remarkable piece features elaborate rosewood and ebony ornamentation and thick “cushion-like” doors. A cupboard from the Ulster County Historical Society shares an over-scaled cornice and other elements with Hudson Valley kasten, yet is identified as a schrank or German-style cupboard, owing to its distinctive interior design and other details. The website includes a bibliography for further reading and a contact page through which collectors can share examples of their cupboards. For more information about tours, programs, and exhibits at Historic Huguenot Street, visit huguenotstreet.org.

About Historic Huguenot Street
A National Historic Landmark District, Historic Huguenot Street is a 501(c)3 non-profit that encompasses 30 buildings across 10 acres comprising the heart of the original 1678 New Paltz settlement, including seven stone houses dating to the early eighteenth century.  Historic Huguenot Street was founded in 1894 as the Huguenot Patriotic, Historical, and Monumental Society to preserve the nationally acclaimed collection of stone houses.  Since then, Historic Huguenot Street has grown into an innovative museum, chartered as an educational corporation by the University of the State of New York Department of Education that is dedicated to protecting our historic buildings, preserving an important collection of artifacts and manuscripts, and promoting the stories of the Huguenot Street families from the seventeenth century to today.

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Frances Vigna
Marketing & Communications Coordinator

frances@huguenotstreet.org
(845) 255-1660 Ext. 102