Cultural History

Karen Quinn

Senior Historian/Curator, Art and Culture

As an art historian my primary research has focused on American paintings, concentrating on nineteenth-century landscape artists and early twentieth-century modernists. I am especially interested in painters’ working methods as well as the attraction of specific places to the artist, including...Read more

News Articles

Declaration of Independence…1776…1876, ca. 1876

A Centennial Celebration of the Fourth of July

Published July 1, 2024 | Cultural History

A majestic American eagle clutches two 32-star flags and carries a pennant in its beak declaring "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Overhead, sun rays and a laurel sprig shine down, while beneath, another laurel sprig sits over a shield celebrating the "Anniversary of the Nation's...

Spiller Newspaper Paperweight Collection

Published December 7, 2023 | Cultural History

Mortimer Spiller was born in 1922 to Russian immigrants who settled in LeRoy, New York. Spiller’s college training in business and advertising was interrupted by service in World War II. After the war, he was eager to complete his education and put his degree into practice. In 1947, while...

Daniel Huntington (1816–1906) The Atlantic Cable Projectors, 1895

The Atlantic Cable Projectors (1895) returns to the New York State Museum

Published December 5, 2023 | Cultural History

Daniel Huntington (1816–1906)
The Atlantic Cable Projectors, 1895...

New Acquisition: Play Furniture

Published July 25, 2022 | Cultural History

This set of child-sized furniture was a birthday gift to the donor, Mary Alice Cole, from her parents, in the 1960s. She recalled many families in Watervliet, NY, having play houses in the back yard, where “playing house” was a popular activity for girls.

Through much of the 20th century...

New Acquisition: Stoneware Water Cooler

Published May 18, 2022 | Cultural History

This impressive stoneware water cooler is incised and impressed with decorations that depict the celebration of the Great National Jubilee of the Order of the Sons of Temperance, an organization founded in New York City in 1842.

Temperance iconography is portrayed throughout the design....

New Acquisition: Souvenir Handkerchief Designed by Marion Weeber

Published March 14, 2022 | Cultural History

This screen-printed linen handkerchief was designed by Marion Weeber (1905-2000) in honor of King George VI’s coronation in England on March 8, 1937. It was manufactured by Burmel and sold at finer department stores. The handkerchief was framed and given as a gift to one of Weeber’s friends who...

Clufffalo: Art Omi, 2017 by Charles Cough

Now on View: Charles Clough's "Clufffalo: Art Omi"

Published January 10, 2022 | Cultural History

A gift to the NYSM last year, Charles Clough's monumental painting—an awe-inspiring 9 x 16 feet—has just been installed in New York Hall. To create it, Clough invited visitors to Art Omi, a contemporary art gallery and sculpture park in Ghent,...

New Acquisition: Decorative Stoneware

Published July 1, 2021 | Cultural History

Since 1996, Adam Weitsman has donated over 500 pieces of decorated stoneware to the New York State Museum. While only a portion of these are on view in the galleries, this collection receives lots of attention from researchers and other museums requesting loans. Here are two new pieces...

Nevin’s Street, 1974 Oil on linen 23 ¾ x 19 ¼ in. H-2020.22.3

New Acquisitions: Artwork by Ken Rush

Published April 8, 2021 | Cultural History

The NYSM History Collection recently acquired a collection of paintings by Ken Rush (b.1948). Rush divides his time between Vermont and Brooklyn producing rural and urban subjects that move between the realistic and the abstract. In this group of quiet, almost haunting subway paintings, he...

Human Frogs in the History Collections!

Published December 9, 2013 | Cultural History

The New York State Museum’s history collections contain two frog costumes for humans and one frog costume for a dog. These costumes belonged to Harry and Friede DeMarlo, a vaudeville couple that once played circuses and vaudeville houses all over the world, ultimately retiring to a farm in...

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