by Shannon Butler This week’s blog post is basically a cheap advertisement for our upcoming virtual program, "Local History Discussion: Vail Photography Studios." For several months now, we've been working on transcribing the ledgers that once belonged to the Vail Brothers studios. In that time, we learned the identities of well over 7,000 people in our collection of Vail photographs. Every once in a while, we got the urge to look into some of these individuals in order to learn something about their lives. (Oh, the rabbit holes!) On Wednesday January 13, beginning at 7:00 PM, we will dive into some of the stories we have uncovered. Some of them you've read about in previous blog posts, and some are brand new! We will cover the history of the company, which began in 1868 and ran until 1900, right on Main Street in Poughkeepsie. They photographed everyone, from the wealthy to traveling hobos, from incoming college students to Vassar professors. We are going to share with you some of the faces of the past, some of which we still haven’t been able to identify, but these faces are still fascinating to look at and it’s fun to ponder what was going [...]

by Shannon Butler For this week’s entry, we thought it would be fun to take a look at a family photo album from the early 20th century. These images were taken by members of the Konsier and Russell families and if you look closely, you may recognize some of the places they photographed. Anna Gertrude Russell was born and raised in Staatsburg NY, the daughter of a William (a painter based on the census records) and Gertrude Russell. Anna married a printer from Poughkeepsie named Louis Konsier in 1905 and in 1906 they had a daughter named Florence. Off to the right you can see Anna when she was a young new bride sitting on the porch. Louis can be seen holding his young daughter Florence as they take a nature walk through Vassar. Anna and her daughter sit for a portrait together in the next photograph. On the porch of the Konsier family home in Poughkeepsie we can see Louis holding his clarinet with a friend playing the banjo (we wonder if this band was any good?). William Russell, the brother of Anna, stands on the porch of his home in Staatsburg. Someone in the family also enjoyed photographing their [...]

by Shannon Butler We have some wonderful things stored away in boxes and folders here in the Local History Room. Every once in a while we come across something that we forgot we had and when we come across it again, we remember just how cool it really is. Recently we were asked if we had some photographs by a female photographer named Margaret DeMott Brown. As it turns out, we have quite a few of them. As it turns out, Margaret had a studio right here in Poughkeepsie and much of her work was based on subjects in and around Dutchess County. We thought we would join in with the Dutchess County Historical Society’s endeavor to celebrate Women’s Voices and Talents by showcasing some of Margaret’s work. Margaret DeMott Brown was born in Jacksonville Illinois on March 1st, 1880, into a family that believed in the education of women. Her grandfather William Holden De Motte had been instrumental in the foundation of schools for women as well as the deaf. Margaret appears to have been interested in photography for quite some time, as evidence shows her beginning to advertise the sale of her photographs in 1905. Also around this time, [...]