There are obviously a large variety of options when choosing a Hudson Valley topic. The lists below are meant to help you think about the range of possibilities. They should be used as a general guide to areas of research you might delve into further, not as a complete list of fully fleshed-out topics you should or must use. These lists were generated by James Merrell, Robert Brigham, Miriam Cohen, Rebecca Edwards, Nikki Taylor, Kappa Waugh, and Gretchen Lieb.
Hudson Valley Events and Issues
Beyond Dr. Hamilton: Travelers Visit the Valley
The Wappingers Indians Fight for their Lands, 1750s-1760s
Landlords and Tenants in Colonial New York
Loyalists and Rebels
The Valley as Battleground During the War for Independence
Ratifying the Constitution: The New York State Ratifying Convention Meets in Poughkeepsie
Steamboats on the Hudson: Technology and Transportation
Washington Irving’s Hudson Valley: Myth and Memory
The “Hudson River School” of Painting and the Meaning of America
Women's City and Country Club (political club that promoted civic engagement for women post suffrage - papers located at the Adriance Library)
Images of the Hudson Valley
Poughkeepsie Cemeteries
The Bardavon Theater
Mohonk Mountain House and Tourism
FDR’s Early Political Campaigns
Sports (rowing, sailing regattas; more?)
Building the Aqueduct from Ashokan to New York City
The Founding of IBM
Bobby Kennedy’s 1964 Senate Campaign
Women’s Lives in the Valley, c 17--, 18--, 19--.
Connecting the Hudson Valley to National Events
Another approach to framing a topic about Hudson Valley history is to think about how the local community experienced a particular event or time period. Examples include: