Description
Book SynopsisFor two weeks in the fall of 1909, New York City threw itself the biggest party it had ever seen - attracting millions of people to a sprawling festival, from Brooklyn up the Hudson River to Albany. This event, the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, was meant to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the river bearing his name.
Trade ReviewJohnson's book comes alive with 239 photos and illustrations displaying the two-week long Hudson-Fulton Celebration held in 1909 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River and the belated centennial of Robert Fulton's first successful run in 1807 of his steamship Clermont up the river to Albany. * —Times Union *
Johnson's attractive book, with its hundreds of photographs and color illustrations, brings the mammoth celebration and the times to life. * —The New York Researcher *
The centenary has also occasioned the publication of the first full-length study of the event, The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: New York's River Festival of 1909 and the Making of a Metropolis. * —The Magazine Antiques *
The book takes the reader on a tour of 1909 events and souvenirs, from illuminated sites throughout New York City to commemorative airplane flights by Wilbur Wright. * —The Journal News *
Johnson's overall mission is to recapture the spirit that prevailed in 1909, when for two weeks, New York hosted a sprawling festival 150 miles long, from Manhattan up to the Hudson River in Albany. * —Steve Goddard's History Wire *
Through the use of images and artifacts, this book displays how New York City capitalized on the Hudson-Fulton Celebration to establish itself as a cultural, artistic, and commercial center, while developing a political identity all its own and serving as a jumping off point for Hudson River Valley towns to the north. * —The Hudson River Valley Review *
Co-published with Historic Hudson Valley, an organization of six historic sites headquartered in Tarrytown, Westchester County, www.hudsonvalley.org, the book is accompanied by an online exhibition at www.hudsonfultoncelebration.net. * —Poughkeepsie Journal *
. . . [Events], accompanied by photos, fill the pages of new books that will keep readers invested in the state's Quadricentennial celebrations long after they end. * —The Daily Freeman *
As Kathleen Eagen Johnson recounts in The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: New York's River Festival of 1909 and the Making of a Metropolis, Wilbur Wright flew from Governors Island to Grant's Tomb and back, and there was a vast flotilla that included a replica of Hudson's ship the Half Moon. * —The New York Times *
