Historic Hudson Valley, New York

 

D. Thomas Fine Miniatures is headquartered in the Historic Hudson Valley of New York State, one of the most recognizable landscapes in the US, is named after the river explored by Henry Hudson in 1609 while looking for a water route between North America and Asia.  The famous 17th Century expedition by Hudson laid the foundation for the region’s settlement by the Dutch and their influence remains visible well into the 21st Century in art, architecture, literature and folklore. 

 

This quintessential, truly American region is rich in history from Washington’s Headquarters during the Revolutionary War, to the first successful US steamboat service, the influence on mid-19th Century American Art of the Hudson River School artists Frederick Church, Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey among others and the home of hallmarks of American education and forward thinking at Vassar, Sarah Lawrence and other institutions of higher learning. Over 1 million call the valley’s many small cities, picturesque towns and quaint villages as their home.

 

The Lower Hudson Valley begins just north of Manhattan and holds claim to some of the country’s most recognizable sights and significant landmarks.  Included in this long list are the many grand estates of Sleepy Hollow made famous by Washington Irving and his home at Sunnyside, Philipsburg Manor, the US Military Academy at West Point, Kykuit, Lyndhurst, and FDRs Home in Hyde Park, making the area a popular destination for visitors, students and scholars from all corners of the globe.

 

Important to the history of fine miniatures, many significant collections are found in the Historic Hudson Valley: Nyblewyck Hall, based on the Hudson River estate, Staatsburg, displayed at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, a scale replica of the tavern of Rhinebeck’s Beekman Arms, America’s oldest operating inn founded in 1766, to the oldest known American dollhouse at the Van Cortlandt House Museum among various private collections.