Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Visit to Wiawaka | A New York Minute in History

06/16/22 • 29 min

On this episode, Devin and Lauren discuss how the poor conditions of female textile workers in Capital Region cities led to the creation of a retreat where women could “escape” the cities. Wiawaka was founded by Mary Fuller, an advocate for women workers in Troy, and the wealthy philanthropists Katrina and Spenser Trask. Wiawaka originally included a planned artist’s retreat, called Wakonda, where Georgia O’Keeffe was invited to stay as a young artist and member of the Arts Students League. This introduction to Lake George had a monumental effect on O’Keeffe’s life and art, and she spent several years working in the area.

Marker of Focus: Georgia O'Keeffe, Lake George, Warren County

Guests: Doreen Kelly, executive director of Wiawaka, and Karen Quinn, art historian and curator at the New York State Museum

A New York Minute In History is a production of the New York State Museum, WAMC, and Archivist Media, with support from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. This episode was produced by Jesse King. Our theme is "Begrudge" by Darby.

Further Reading:

Messinger, Lisa Mintz. Georgia O'Keeffe. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

O'Keeffe, Georgia. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: Viking, 1976.

Wiawaka Holiday House: https://upstatehistorical.org/items/show/84?tour=7&index=10

Capital Region Textile Industry: https://www.albanyinstitute.org/textile-industry.html

The Collar City by Don Rittner: https://rensselaer.nygenweb.net/article11.htm

Collar Maid Cuffed Bosses by Pam Trudeau: https://rensselaer.nygenweb.net/article4.htm

More on Georgia O’Keeffe: https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe /

Follow Along

Devin: Welcome to A New York Minute in History. I'm Devin Lander, the New York state historian.

Lauren: And I'm Lauren Roberts, the historian for Saratoga County. On this episode, we're taking a deeper look at a marker located along Route 9L on the eastern shores of Lake George, which is located in Warren County. The title of the marker is “Georgia O'Keeffe,” and the text reads: “Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887 to 1986. American artist who stayed at Wakonda in June 1908 on a scholarship from the Art Students League. William G. Pomeroy Foundation, 2016.”

The artist Georgia O'Keeffe is pretty much a household name, but I'm guessing many of our listeners haven't heard of Wakonda, which is the lodge Georgia O'Keeffe stayed in, or the Art Students League. So let's take a step back and talk about what brought this young artist to the shores of Lake George in the summer of 1908.

In the 19th century, the city of Troy in Rensselaer County was known as the "Collar City," because Troy produced the majority of detachable shirt collars in the country. Detachable collars are now a thing of the past, but in the 19th Century, they were really popular. The collar was usually the dirtiest part of the shirt, and it needed to be laundered most frequently, and in the days before washing machines, this was really a pain. So someone in Troy — there's a couple of conflicting stories about who actually came up with the idea — but someone in Troy created the concept of a detachable shirt collar, and eventually detachable cuffs as well. So the idea was, you could just remove the collar and replace it when it was dirty, saving the laundresses from having to wash the entire shirt. This industry exploded in Troy, and by the early 1900s, 15,000 people were working in the collar industry in that city.

It also expanded into the larger textile industry, which made it a desirable location for new immigrants to settle, because jobs were readily available. The majority of workers in the textile industry in Troy were female, and many of them were immigrants, most of them with very low incomes, who worked extremely long hours. And this is where Mary Fuller enters the story. Mary Fuller was the daughter of a wealthy Troy industrialist who was an advocate for women's rights. Mary Fuller was sensitive to the fact that these women working in the industries in and around Troy, such as the shirt collar factories, mills, and laundries — they couldn't have afforded a vacation. ...

Marker of Focus: Georgia O'Keeffe, Lake George, Warren County

Guests: Doreen Kelly, executive director of Wiawaka, and Karen Quinn, art historian and curator at the New York State Museum

Previous Episode

Early Auto Racing in New York | A New York Minute in History

On this episode, Devin and Lauren discuss a William G. Pomeroy marker recognizing a 1900 auto race in Suffolk County, New York, and the importance of racing in automobile history. Was that race to Babylon really the first of its kind in the U.S.? And how did Watkins Glen International get its start?

Next Episode

The Fulton County Courthouse: 250 Years of Legal History | A New York Minute in History

On this episode, Devin and Lauren visit New York’s oldest continuously operating courthouse, located in the City of Johnstown in Fulton County. Built in 1772 by Sir William Johnson, the Fulton County Courthouse has seen the transition from British colonial rule to the establishment of the United States, and 250 years of legal history. Among the important judges to hold court at the courthouse include Daniel Cady, the father of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was heavily influenced by legal cases which demonstrated how few rights women had in the 19th Century.

On September 8, 2022, the courthouse will officially celebrate its 250th birthday, with the New York State Court of Appeals conducting its business there for the first time.

Marker of Focus: Suffrage Pioneer, Johnstown, Fulton County

Guests: Hon. J. Gerard McAuliffe, Jr., Fulton County Family Court judge; Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt, retired New York State Court of Appeals judge; Samantha Hall-Saladino, Fulton County historian; Noel Levee, City of Johnstown historian

Further Reading:

Historic Courthouses of the State of New York, Julia Carlson Rosenblatt and Albert M. Rosenblatt (2006).

Fulton County Courthouse, The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York.

The Letters of Daniel Cady

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life, Lori D. Ginzberg (2010).

Building a Revolutionary State: The Legal Transformation of New York, 1776-1783, Howard Pashman, Esq. (2018).

Follow Along

Devin: Welcome to A New York Minute in History. I'm Devin Lander, the New York state historian.

Lauren: And I'm Lauren Roberts, the historian for Saratoga County. On this episode, we're going to focus on a William G. Pomeroy marker located in the city of Johnstown, in Fulton County. The marker sits on the lawn of the Fulton County Courthouse, located on the corner of West Main Street and North William Street, and it reads: “Suffrage Pioneer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815-1902. Her father practiced law here in early 19th Century, inspiring her fight for women's rights. William G. Pomeroy Foundation, 2017.”

I'm guessing most of our listeners have heard of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and know about the incredibly important role she played in the women's suffrage movement. But they may not be familiar with her life prior to the famous Seneca Falls Convention which took place in 1848, and produced the Declaration of Sentiments, a document which listed freedoms and rights that women should be entitled to, including the right to vote. In Elizabeth's early life, she grew up in Johnstown, New York, where her father Daniel Cady practiced law. It was her exposure to his law practice, and the firsthand experiences Elizabeth had in his law office and in the courthouse, that showed her how poorly women were treated in the eyes of the law in the early 19th Century.

Now, that's a huge claim to fame for any courthouse. But for this particular courthouse, its association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her father Daniel is only one piece of the puzzle in the big picture story it has to tell.

Devin: That's right, and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation marker is only one of the markers that exists in front of the Fulton County Courthouse. There is another one that was erected by the State Education Department. And it reads: “Erected 1772, Only colonial courthouse in state of New York, first court General Sessions, Tryon County, September 8, 1772.” In effect, it is saying that the Fulton County Courthouse is the oldest continuously operating courthouse in the state of New York, and has been in operation since there was no state of New York, and the state was in fact a colony of Great Britain.

Lauren: And if I'm doing my math correctly, it means that the Fulton County Courthouse should be celebrating a very important anniversary this year. To learn more about the early days of the courthouse and the Johnstown area, we had the privilege to visit the Fulton County Courthouse on a beautiful spring day, where we got to see this historic building firsthand. We spoke with Fulton County Historian Samantha Hall-Saladino.

Samantha: So we are on the ancestral homelands of the Mohawk people, part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. When the European colonists settled here, this became known as Tryon County...