by Shannon Butler The very first yearbook for the Poughkeepsie High School, known as “PHOIS” was produced in 1909. The students who created it were sure to inform the readers that this was the first of its kind in the preface, “In preparing this book, it has been necessary to work without the guide of precedent, for the school has not in the past years published an annual.” This class was still going to school in the original Poughkeepsie High School building which was once located at the northwest corner of Washington and Lafayette Streets (the building seen in the photo on the right, built in 1872). Flipping through this small book, it becomes very clear that the Senior class of 1909 (who put the yearbook together) had quite the sense of humor about themselves and not much interest in the lower classmen. Another thing one will notice is the vision of the book’s artist, Katharine Kelly. “Kittie” as her friends called her, was born in Poughkeepsie in 1892 and she lived with her parents at 40 Conklin Street. While attending PHS, her drawings became very popular among her classmates and she quickly earned a spot on the staff of the [...]

by Shannon Butler We here in the Local History department can certainly say that we miss visiting our local historic sites, museums, and galleries. One of the great things about Poughkeepsie is that we have so many fabulous places to visit that are close at hand. We happen to have a world famous art gallery right here in our city, the Vassar College Art Gallery, also known as the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. This is the first college in our country’s history to have an art gallery as part of its original plan. As a result of the forward thinking of Matthew Vassar, the college began collecting some of the world’s greatest pieces of art long before institutions like the Metropolitan Museum or the Fine Arts museum in Boston were even established. What a pleasure to walk onto the fabulous campus with its breathtaking architecture and then take a right into the art gallery that holds a massive collection right here in our backyard. You can see some of the Hudson River School artists like Thomas Cole, Frederic Church and Asher B. Durand. Then there is the gallery filled with Egyptian and Roman sculptures from thousands of years ago. What [...]