Current Exhibit

Elverhoj: The Arts & Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson

On View Fall 2024 | Main Library

In the fall of 2022, William Rhoads contacted me to ask if the Archives & Special Collections Library at Vassar would be interested in acquiring his collection of materials relating to Elverhoj, the early twentieth century Arts and Crafts colony located just a few miles from campus, on the west side of the Hudson River. Bill with Leslie Melvin had just published a book on this topic—same title as this exhibition, and published by Black Dome Press in 2022—and he was looking for a place to house his collection. In contemplating this possibility, I asked whether there were any connections between the colony and the college. I soon learned that in fact there were many ties with Vassar administrators, faculty, and students, and that they were sometimes significant. We decided to accept the collection, largely because of the relationship with Vassar, but also because of the documentation it provided for a little-known aspect of local cultural history. The collection includes several boxes including correspondence, art originals, photographs, and printed ephemera; the bulk of the materials date from 1902–1935. The current Library exhibition Elverhoj: The Arts & Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson derives substantially from these holdings, though a few items, such as a group of class rings from the Vassar Realia collection, originate elsewhere. Together they provide a way of viewing the contributions of Elverhoj to the Hudson Valley community. We hope the presentation of these precious artifacts will bring some attention to the forgotten artistic colony, and its role in regional and national life. Ronald Patkus Head of Special Collections & College Historian Vassar College

Image: Brochure, “Elverhoj Colony of Artists and Craftsmen, Milton on Hudson, N.Y.,” c. 1919.

To learn more visit the online exhibition here: https://vclibrary.vassarspaces.net/elverhoj

Past Exhibits Available Online

• Books in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Spring 2024)
• Elizabeth Bishop's Postcards: An Exhibition (Fall 2023)
• Beauty Out of the Ashes: Printed Works of the Harlem Renaissance, 1923-1936 (Spring 2023)
• Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s Natural and General History of the Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea: An Exhibition
  (Fall 2022)
• Ilse Schreiber-Noll: Nature, and Nature Defiled
  (Spring 2022)
• Some Rare Editions of Dante in Special Collections
  (Fall 2021)
• Work Prints: Eric Lindbloom’s Panoramas of the Hudson Valley
  (Spring 2021)
• Votes for Women: Vassar and the Politics of Women's Suffrage
  (Fall 2020)

Past Exhibit Highlights

• The Bannon McHenry James Merrill Collection
  (January 29 to June 8, 2020)
• Africana Studies, 1969-2019: A History of Imagining Otherwise
  (September 19 to December 22, 2019)
• Ivan Turgenev and His Library
  (January 21 to June 10, 2019)
• Homer's Odyssey: A Sampling of Editions in English 1616-2017
  (January–June, 2018)
• The Children’s Books of Nancy Willard
  (Aug 30–Dec 11, 2017)
• Vincent and Vassar
  (May–October 2017)
• Edna St.Vincent Millay: Treasures from Steepletop
  (January–June 2017)
• Shakespeare at Vassar
  (September–December 7, 2016)
• Seeing the Sun: Maria Mitchell’s Observations, 1868-1888
  (January–June, 2016)
• James Joyce’s Ulysses: Text and Art
  (February–May, 2015)
• The Age of Alice: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Nonsense in Victorian England
  (February–May, 2015)
• Never Before Has Your Like Been Printed: The Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493
  (August–December, 2014)
• The Architect’s Library: Notable Books on Architectural Themes in the Vassar College Library
  (January–May, 2014)
• W.K. Rose and the Rose Fellowship
  (August–December, 2013)
• The Artist's Book in Wales: Shirley Jones and the Red Hen Press
  (January–May, 2013)
• Reexamining Books: Book Objects and Artist's Books by Werner Pfeiffer
  (September–December, 2012)
• Mary McCarthy and Vassar
  (March–June, 2012)
• Hand, Voice & Vision: Thirty Years of Artists' Books from the Women's Studio Workshop
  (January–March, 2012)
• From the Archive: Discovering Elizabeth Bishop
  (September–December, 2011)
• The Most Perfect Education of Body, Mind, and Heart
  (January–June 2011)
• Ars Omnia Tuetur: 25 Years of Fine Printing at the Thornwillow Press
• Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn
  (January–May, 2010)
• Poetry of the Hudson
  (September–December, 2009)
• Charles Dickens in the Marketplace
  (Feburary–May, 2009)
• Robert Owen: The Delicious Dream of the Future
  (September–December, 2008)
• My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
  (April 7–April 30, 2008)
• Walt Whitman and John Burroughs: Literary Comrades
  (January–June, 2008)
• A Life in Art and Letters: Priscilla Morgan
  (September–December, 2007)
• Mapping America: 500 Years of Cartographic Depictions
  (Feburary–May, 2007)
• Bernard Shaw: Portraits and Portrayals
  (September–December, 2006)
• The Fergusson Years: Vassar, 1986-2006
  (January–May, 2006)
• Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: Sources and Editions
  (September–December, 2005)
• Albert Einstein: Life and Letters, 1905-1955
  (February 1–May 4, 2005)
• Elizabeth Bishop: A Growing Legacy
  (September–December, 2004)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin in Print: The Collection of Mary C. Schlosser
  (January 27–May 15, 2004)
• Teresa Carreño: Walküre of the Piano
  (September–December, 2003)
• Incunabula at Vassar: Examples of Western Printing in its Infancy
  (April–June, 2003)
• Mary McCarthy: Adding to the Legacy
  (October, 2001)
• Treasures of Americana, 1760-1830
  (May–June, 2001)