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.

• 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
• The Anti-Rent Riots (mid-19th century)
• Anti-Irish Nativism in 19th -Century Poughkeepsie (Know-Nothing Party, “WideAwakes” Youth Group)
• Samuel F. B. Morse
• 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--.

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:

• The Suffrage Movement
• Abolitionism
• John Brown’s Raid
• The Civil War
• Women's suffrage
• The Great Depression
• The World Wars
• McCarthyism
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The Vietnam War
• Presidential Elections

Look at the websites for the major repositories of primary source material in the region.

Browse through some of the major print sources on local history, such as:

• The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook

Browse the repositories of digital materials that include local history, such as:

• Hudson River Valley Heritage
• New York Heritage
• The Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley