Thomas Cole National Historic Site - Hudson River School Art Trail

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The Making of the Hudson River School Art Trail

On the first Sunday in June 2005, coinciding with National Trails Day, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site officially unveiled the first phase of the Hudson River School Art Trail project, which maps the painting sites of 19th-century artist Thomas Cole and his contemporaries including Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, Sanford Gifford, and Asher B. Durand. Forming the core of the art movement now known as the Hudson River School, these artists hiked, sketched and painted in the region surrounding Thomas Cole's home in Catskill and Frederic Church's home near Hudson. Many of these views are spectacularly preserved and accessible to the public. The Hudson River School Art Trail project maps the locations from which these painted views can be seen, and enables the public to find and compare the painted and actual views today.

The Hudson River School is America's first major art movement, having dominated American visual arts for over 50 years with over 100 artists between 1825 and 1875. During recent decades, it has become one of the most widely celebrated movements in our cultural history. Major exhibitions and publications on this subject have taken place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1987), the Tate Modern, London (2002), and many others. The scenes on the Hudson River School painters' canvases, now hanging in major museums all over the world, are the views that surround us here in the Hudson Valley. Many of the views remain remarkably unchanged since the 19th-century, and are instantly recognizable as the scenes depicted in the paintings. The Trail enables the public to find these sites using a special map-brochure, website, and outdoor educational panels.

The Trail project takes advantage of the region's unique cultural and natural resources, including the following outstanding highlights: 1) the home of the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole's Cedar Grove, 2) the home of one of the movement's most accomplished artists, Frederic Church's Olana, and 3) the magnificent landscapes that they painted including miles of well-maintained trails in the Catskill Forrest Preserve with waterfalls and spectacular views.

In addition, at both Olana and the Thomas Cole site, visitors can see the artists' actual workspaces. The process of creating a work of art, which began with sketching trips into the local landscape, was completed in the artists' studios which are now open to the public, furnished with the artists' original easels and art-making equipment. Furthermore, hanging on the walls of Olana is one of the most important collections of Frederic Church's artwork, and the Thomas Cole site each year presents a new special exhibition on the paintings of an influential member of the Hudson River School. Both Olana and the Thomas Cole site offer gift shops with a great variety of books, jewelry, posters and other items that relate to the story of the Hudson River School. Bringing another element into the Trail is Tatiana's Restaurant in Catskill, which has a large terrace and outdoor lounge that overlooks one of the Trail's famous views. The North-South Lake Campground, a New York State Park, contains several of the trail sites and offers amenities such as marked trails, restrooms, picnic benches, swimming, boating, and camping. These resources provide the visitor with a full spectrum of activities including visiting historic homes, seeing art exhibitions, taking hikes in the Catskill Forrest Preserve, visiting one of the highest waterfalls in New York State, shopping at the historic site gift shops, and eating at a restaurant overlooking a historic view.

The Trail is the product of many years of planning, and the concept was included in the original plan for the Thomas Cole National Historic Site written by the National Park Service in 1991. Much of the initial research was done by Barry Hopkins, an art teacher in the Catskill Middle School, and a highly knowledgeable naturalist and outdoorsman. His knowledge of both art history and the mountainous terrain frequented by the 19th-century artists made him an indispensable resource for conceptualizing the Trail. The first phase of the Trail's implementation was successfully completed with the publishing of the Hudson River School Art Trail brochure in June 2005. The second phase -- to launch the associated website and to install outdoor wayside exhibits -- is underway.

More About the Brochure

The full-color brochure is available free of charge from the visitor center of either the Thomas Cole National Historic Site or the Olana State Historic Site during their regular hours of operation. Please click on the historic sites' logos at left to visit their websites for more information about their hours. You can also request a brochure by mail by sending a stamped (63 cents postage), self-addressed envelope to Cedar Grove, The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, PO Box 426, Catskill, NY 12414.

Click here to see a pdf of the brochure. Because of the brochure's large size, it is difficult to print out this pdf. For a more printer-friendly version, visit the "Map & Directions" section of this website.

The brochure includes reproductions of eleven paintings of seven different views. In several cases, a single view is represented by several paintings by different artists, and comparisons can be made between them. For example, the scene at Trail Site #3, a view overlooking Catskill Creek, was painted by both Church and Cole, and both paintings are reproduced in the brochure.

The paintings in the brochure are in the collections of major museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Albany Institute of History and Art.

Also included in the brochure is a map showing the roads and foot-paths that lead to the painting sites, along with detailed driving and walking directions. Several of the sites are on or very close to a road accessible by car, while others require hikes of varying lengths. The sites are all within 15 miles of Cedar Grove, the Thomas Cole site.

Future Development of the Trail
Phase one of the development of the Trail is now completed. Phase one included choosing the first seven Trail sites and creating a brochure and web site with maps, driving directions and printed representations of the painted views to use as a comparison with today's actual views. The next phase will include the design and construction of trail markers and outdoor wayside interpretive signs. The outdoor signage will include reproductions of paintings depicting each site as well as background information on the painting, the artist, and relevant historical facts and anecdotes about the site. These wayside interpretive signs will serve as “captions on the landscape,” enhancing the visitor’s understanding about the Hudson River Valley landscape and the art that it inspired. In future years, Cedar Grove expects to add additional sites to the Trail.

About Thomas Cole
Long regarded as the founder of America's first art movement, known as the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is a central figure in the development of American culture. When Cole made his first trip up the Hudson River in 1825, thought-leaders in America were searching for something distinctly American to establish the nation's own culture as separate from that of Europe. Thomas Cole found it in the Catskill Mountain wilderness, which came to symbolize the unspoiled character of the new nation. Lionized during his lifetime and celebrated by a generation of artists who followed in his footsteps, Cole is now widely regarded as the father of American landscape painting.
Click here for a brief biography of Thomas Cole.

About the Hudson River School
The Hudson River School is the first coherent American art style, and was the prevalent genre of the19th-century. With roots in European Romanticism, the Hudson River painters defined a distinct vision for American art through sweeping depictions of its landscape. The movement is credited with having a major influence on America's understanding of its natural environment, its national destiny, the idea that nature reflected the divine, and the desire for touring the country's natural wonders. It is thought to have included over 100 artists over a span of 50 years, between 1825 and 1875, when the movement fell out of favor. In recent years the Hudson River School has experienced a resurgence of interest and scholarship, and today enjoys widespread popularity once again.
Click here for a list of major figures associated with the Hudson River School.

About Cedar Grove
Cedar Grove is the site where the artist Thomas Cole lived, worked and was married, and where he died at the age of 47. Today the site consists of the Federal style brick home (c. 1815), as well as Thomas Cole's original studio building (1839), on 5 landscaped acres with a magnificent view of the Catskill Mountains. In recent years the house has undergone a major restoration, and now contains both furnished rooms and gallery rooms with special exhibitions. The newly restored studio contains Cole's original easel and art-making tools, and offers a greater understanding of the artist and his working environment.
Click here for a history of Cedar Grove.

Project Partners
The Hudson River School Art Trail is a project of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, presented in partnership with Olana, the home and workplace of Frederic Church, and with the National Park Service Rivers & Trails program, with assistance from the Greene County Tourism Promotion Department. The Trail project is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Arts & Business Council of New York and the New York State Council on the Arts, with special thanks to Congressman John Sweeney for his support.

Hudson River School Art Trail Committee
Elizabeth Jacks, Director of Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Ms. Jacks began as director in December 2003, and has grown the historic site's attendance nearly three-fold. Formerly, Ms. Jacks was Director of Marketing at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. She received her MBA in marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business, and her BA cum laude in art history from Duke University.

Daniela Marino, Director of Greene County Tourism, and board member of Hudson Valley Tourism. Ms. Marino is the primary tourism partner for the project.

Linda McLean, Superintendent, The Olana State Historic Site. Ms. McLean is head of the nearby historic site which is the home and studio of Hudson River School artist Frederic Church. One of the most important outcomes of the Trail project is the virtual joining of two important historic sites, Olana and the Thomas Cole site, into a compelling destination. Olana serves as the anchor of the Trail on the east side of the Hudson River.

Sara Griffen, President of The Olana Partnership. Ms. Griffen is head of the non-profit partner to the Olana State Historic Site. See above.

Deborah Allen, Owner of Black Dome Publishing, Hensonville, NY, and board member of Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Ms. Allen is a local business owner and enthusiastic partner in the Trail project.

David Archer, Independent Publicist and Public Relations director for Hudson Valley Tourism. Mr. Archer has agreed to work at a greatly reduced fee for publicity of the Trail. Mr. Archer will be responsible for publicizing the Trail to the press.

Karl Beard, Rivers & Trails Program of the National Park Service. The Thomas Cole site applied for and was awarded the assistance of Mr. Beard through the "Rivers & Trails" program for fiscal year 2006. His primary responsibilities are to facilitate communication with other state and federal agencies such as the NY State DOT and DEC, and to coordinate and collaborate with the National Park Service.