Hands-On Experience

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…”