by Shannon Butler Living in this Covid era, we are all concerned with sickness and health, perhaps more than usual. So let us take a moment to look at a hospital that has been somewhat forgotten, though it has been repurposed for educational pursuits: the Bowne Memorial Hospital. At the turn of the 20th century, there was another health concern that had no cure, and was transmitted through droplets. This disease was known as Tuberculosis (or if you want the romantic Victorian term, Consumption). Patients with TB who went untreated had a 50% chance of dying within several years of contraction. People tended to avoid those with TB, and there was certainly a need for places to house these patients while continuing to work on therapy and finding a cure. Samuel W. Bowne was a merchant and chemist from New York City, and by the late 19th century, he had managed to make a good deal of money selling Scott’s Emulsion, which was said to help the immune system, amongst other things. When Bowne died in 1910, his wife Nettie wanted to find a cause to contribute some of her husband’s wealth to. Nettie found inspiration from her cousin, prominent member [...]

by Shannon Butler Can you imagine a time in Poughkeepsie when you were more likely to see a horse and carriage go by than a car? That was the case at the turn of the 20th century. Buying an automobile was mostly reserved for the super wealthy, and even many of those individuals were reluctant to move onto the horseless carriage. However, by the early 1900s, a small group of Americans were interested in bringing the automobile to our town. Not just any car, but “The Master Car,” an Italian car, which would somehow be made into something distinctly American, The Fiat. In June of 1909, officials from the Fiat company were looking at property in Poughkeepsie to build their factory. The president of this American venture, Ben J. Eichberg, had been a diamond merchant and he had every intention of catering to the same sort of people who spent money on diamonds (the cheapest American Fiat ever listed was the 1914 Light Thirty at $3,600, that's about $92,000 today). The rest of the team was made up of men who knew a thing or two about cars, but they were certainly all American. “A royalty was paid to Fiat in [...]

by Shannon Butler Recently in the Local History Room we have been transcribing the ledgers of the Vail Photography Studios. These ledgers allow us to put names to faces in our collection of thousands of Vail photos that, until recently, have been unidentified. The ledgers are quite helpful with names and sometimes even addresses attached, but every once in a while, you come across something that makes you ponder. As seen in the image to the right, the ledger shows us mostly common names with the exception of one entry, #9577, simply marked “Boots.” At first, I thought perhaps this was the name of a pet, as Vail studios was known to photograph dogs and cats from time to time. So, being the animal lover that I am, I thought we would check the number and see who “Boots” was. As you can see from the photo, #9577 is no pet, but an oddly dressed man! For those of you researchers out there, you will know that putting a common word like ‘Boots’ into any search engine will give you a ton of results and wear down your patience but nevertheless, I persisted. A search in Newspapers.com (narrowing my window to [...]

by Shannon Butler This week marks 75 years since the death and funeral services of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our neighbor and fellow history nerd. We thought we would take a look at the events surrounding this sad yet important anniversary. On the evening of March 24th, 1945, FDR ventured home to his beloved Hyde Park. His appointment book was blank for the next few days which meant he could simply enjoy the quiet comfort of his family’s home and perhaps work on his stamp collection or do some bird watching (two of his favorite hobbies). We know that he had a meeting with the director of his presidential library, Mr. Shipman before returning to Washington D.C. on the morning of the 29th. He had a few quick meetings during the course of the day before getting on a train to head south to what he considered to be his second home, Warm Springs, Georgia. By this point in the President’s life he was incredibly ill and frail. His heart was failing him and his blood pressure could not be controlled (at least once, it had reached 260/150). The stress of the war and the conditions of serving as President for [...]

by Shannon Butler When the Schatz family brought their business of making ball bearings to Poughkeepsie in the early 20th century, they probably didn’t know what sort of impact they would leave on this community. The business started out in a small, one story factory with 75 employees and grew to a large complex with over 1,000 employees at its height. In fact, it was hard to find someone who didn’t know someone who worked for Schatz. By the mid-20th century the company had contracts with some of the biggest names in business including Ford Motor Company. During World War II; Schatz, like many other companies in the area, was pumping out products for the war effort. Here in the Local History department we have an entire collection of Schatz related material including images taken of the inside of the factory during its height in the 1940’s and several ledgers filled with scraps of newspaper articles concerning the company’s employees. A lot of the scraps that were saved are of Schatz’s sports teams that played baseball and basketball in local tournaments against other corporations like IBM and Western Publishing. What’s neat about these scrap books (that date from the early 1900s) [...]