Culture Forum Tour Olana and Vanderbilt Mansions

Members of the Hudson Valley Culture Forum travelled to Hudson and Hyde Park, New York to tour the Olana and Vanderbilt Mansions. Olana Mansion, a New York State Historic Site, was the home of Frederic Church, the premier American landscape painter of his era. Cadets received a private tour that included viewing many of Church’s paintings, and his extensive collection of artwork and cultural items from his many travels abroad. The tour culminated with a viewing of “Capturing the Cosmos,” the 2016 exhibition in the Sharp Family Gallery, which explores the influence that the great German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt had on Church. After lunch, Cadets then traveled to Hyde Park for a US Park Ranger-led tour of the Vanderbilt Mansion at Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site. One of the region's oldest Hudson River estates, the mansion showcases the lifestyle of the American Elite during the “Gilded Age,” and provides insight into the period’s social stratification. At each location, Cadets saw the contrast between the main and servants’ areas of the mansion.