Woodstock History and Hearsay

Veterans Day Memorial Show

2009-11-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War Anita Smith—at the behest of James T. Shotwell—sent every member of the armed forces, men and women, in Woodstock, NY, a questionnaire to fill out. Many former members responded with service photos, letters and filled-out forms. These were collected into a database that was presented to the town. In addition, some of the responses formed part of a chapter of Anita Smith's Woodstock History and Hearsay. This chapter was titled "The Soldiers' Stories: Woodstockers Share Their War Experiences." Pictured at left is an artistic sketch of Woodstock's Observation Post, Adam 51.

On November 7th, in honor of Veteran's Day, the Historical Society of Woodstock will present The Faces of World War II—Woodstockers Go to War. The exhibit will feature more than 70 photographs of service personnel from Smith's database. The show will run from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, November 7/8 and November 14/15, at the Society museum, 45 Comeau Drive.

In addition, Anita Smith's book includes a reference section that lists the 288 responses to the questionnaire. Exhibit-goers can look up all 70 service persons in the show and obtain a brief abstract of their armed forces record from her book.

Happy Birthday, Anita!

2009-10-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Anita M. Smith celebrated her birthday 116 years ago on Oct. 20th 1893. Her parents were of Quaker stock and she was born outside Philadelphia in Torresdale at the family estate of Wyndlawn. Smith's paternal ancestors sailed from England with William Penn aboard the Welcome in 1682.

Smith went on to become a world traveler, a noted regionalist painter, herbalist and writer. Her paintings were shown around the country at such places as the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

In 1934 she built a bluestone house near Woodstock, NY’s Rock City corners and became a herbalist and embarked on her second career path. By 1940 Smith had customers in all forty-eight contiguous United States, and in a New York Herald Tribune article published that year she was referred to as “the Herb Lady of the Catskills.” During this time she began contributing papers to the Historical Society of Woodstock.

In the 1950s she wrote the town’s first official history and entitled it Woodstock History and Hearsay. Alf Evers wrote in his introduction to her book in 1959 that “one afternoon when I was visiting Anita Smith in her low-ceilinged living room, filled with old Woodstock furniture and momentos and rich with the fragrance of herbs from her garden hanging on the beams to dry, I saw an interesting photograph. It showed Anita Smith’s brother as a baby, sitting on the knee of his grandfather—who in his youth had known George Washington. I think this can serve as symbol of Anita Smith’s approach to the history of our town. For she recognizes the flow of history through generation after generation, sometimes slow, sometimes tumultuous, but forever moving in a continuous and unending stream.”

Woodstock Way

2008-10-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

Spirituality and Creativity

Their applications:

Can be uplifting
Practiced daily
Worked on anywhere
Can be inspired

The ultimate work of art is oneself.

When applied in concert and/or with others, the outward ripples can be awesome.

Herstory

2008-10-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Anita Smith felt that an artist’s work is only as important as her understanding of life. From her early days as a budding artist she sought to dig below the surface of conventional thinking. For example, she felt that she could not paint the Catskills without knowing something of their history. Smith wanted to know why the fields were where they were and why certain fence posts were located where they were. This quest led her to speak with local farmers, to travel the land by horseback and foot and to thoroughly research local books and historical papers.

She noted that in editing Woodstock History and Hearsay she eliminated uninteresting and irrelevant details. Smith used her taste and interests to guide her editorial eye. Nothing was included through carelessness—for all elements were employed to build a picture. In addition, she noted that she purposely and emphatically tried to write from a community standpoint. By boring into the minutia of facts she gathered small details and through the aggregate of fragments built the story of Woodstock, NY.

Artful Living

2008-10-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

During the early 1900s the Woodstock, NY artists roughed it for their art. Farmers found they made more money renting their converted chicken coops and barns to artists. Some of the farmers provided chimneys, but saved on costs by only installing half-chimneys. These were hung on a bracket a few feet below the roof. Wood was cheap and the artists purchased woodstoves from mail-order catalogs.

John Carlson swore that when the belly of his stove was red hot he could pick icicles off its bottom. If artists complained about lack of insulation, the farmer’s wife invariably came over with some of their clothing to stuff the gap. In-door plumbing was years away and so privies were the rule and streams provided natural dishwashers.

Nonetheless the artists persevered through summers and winters. Artists worked in their studios all day and then foregathered in the evening at one studio or another to discuss their artistic techniques and inspirations. This early era was known as the golden age of Woodstock colony. Some of the early artists included Andrew Dasburg, Henry L. McFee, Frank S. Chase, Marion Bullard, Eugene Speicher, among many others.

Hands-On Experience

2008-09-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Hudson Valley is often referred to as America’s Rhine. Mid-way between Albany and New York City and under the shadow of Overlook Mountain is Woodstock, NY. The beauty of the area and the human landscape is deftly evoked via Anita Smith’s Woodstock History and Hearsay.

As an early painter in 1912 she felt she needed to know the history of the land before she could depict it on her canvases. She met many Catskill Mountain farmers who shared their family stories at quilting bees and canning parties. In time she became herbalist and worked the soil herself.

After the Second World War she started writing her book. Undoubtedly her connection with the earth/soil guided Smith’s herstory. For example, her book opens with the Native American story of how the area came to be formed. “When the great sea subsided and the Catskill Mountains emerged, the Indian god Manitou sent down from the sky the first woman in the form of a tortoise—and she became the ancestor of the Mohicans…”

Rock City Group

2008-09-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

The cover of Woodstock History and Hearsay, second edition, is entitled Rock City Waterfall. This painting is by the author, Anita Miller Smith, and was executed in 1920. In the background is Rosie Magee’s boardinghouse. It is in the impressionist style and displays Smith’s colorful palette.

Mrs. Magee, sometimes known as Mother Magee, served good food and attracted a host of local artists to her dinner table. Artists like John F. Carlson, Henry Lee McFee and Andrew Dasburg had nearby studios, but trouped over to Rosie’s for their meals.
In about 1911 the Eugene Speichers boarded here.

Anita Smith lived for a time in the turner’s mill that was located to the right of the Rock City waterfall (not pictured). Rosie Magee passed away in 1927. In the 1930s Anita Smith built her bluestone house in one Mrs. Magee’s former fields. She liked to say that she took care of Rosie’s apple trees—and hoped that her old friend would be pleased with her ministrations.

The painters who worked in the area were known as the Rock City Group.

Woodstock History and Hearsay/Early Days

2008-09-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

James T. Shotwell, the great worker for peace and a Bryce Professor Emeritus of the History of International Relations, Columbia University asked Anita Smith to compile a database of all the men and women who served during the Second World War. This project, together with research gathered since the founding of the Historical Society of Woodstock in 1931, served as a foundation for Woodstock History and Hearsay.

The book is a balance of painstaking scholarship and folkloric tales gathered first-hand at quilting and canning parties from hardy Catskill mountain farmers and hunters. In addition, Smith who was a painter wrote countless vignettes about the denizens of the early golden age of the Woodstock art colony—including such notables as George Bellows, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Philip Guston, Henry Morton Robinson, Hervey White, Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, Doris Lee, Helen Hayes, Charles Rosen and many, many more.

This title was the town’s first official history. Smith also wrote an herbal, As True As The Barnacle Tree; an art book, The Landscape of History; and a family memoir, The Quest of Abel Knight: The Quakers and The Shakers.