An almanac is an annual publication that lists current information about one or more subjects. This collection includes almanacs.

The collection contains materials related to Urban Renewal projects that Arthur Koweek helped to lead from 1971 to 1975 in the City of Hudson, New York. The materials document the City’s redevelopment efforts including reports, administrative records, photographs, publications, and maps

The collection consists of VHS and tape cassettes of oral histories of local black residents and the research notes and other supporting documentation about topics of research. These files are associated with the Black Legacy Association of Columbia County (BLACC) Oral History Project and may have been maintained for the preparation of the interviews conducted from 1987 to 1989. The files include legal agreements, letters, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, book chapters, organization publications, and photographs. They also represent, in some cases, photographs and other memorabilia donated to the project by the interviewees.

These black and white photographs – created within the date range of 1900s-1950s [bulk 1920s-1955] – mainly document family life and familiar and vanished streetscapes that tell a story of South Front Street life in Hudson, NY in the early-mid 20th century. The South Front Street neighborhood of Hudson was mostly demolished by Urban Renewal in the 1970s, and many of these photographs provide a view of a neighborhood that no longer exists. Most of the photos were taken by various relatives and friends of the Cipkowski family. A large portion of the photos document the childhood and teenage years of Patricia Cipkowski, who attended St Mary’s Academy in Hudson, N.Y. in the 1950s. There are also a few studio portraits made in Hudson, N.Y. and in New Jersey.

This collection, which dates from 1740-2004, includes dozens of hand drawn maps, and maps with engravings, most of them originals, as well as bound atlases, representing the City of Hudson and its immediate surrounding area, including Columbia County and portions of adjacent counties as well as New York State. These items contain important information about the history of Hudson and the surrounding region – from insurance and railroad maps, topographical and geological maps, to bird’s eye view drawings and developmental proposals. The collection also includes maps that provide information about The Hudson River as a site of commerce, industry, travel, and tourism, as well as wildlife and residential life, since the settling of the city of Hudson. The collection features maps and bound atlases from a multitude of important historic publishers, including Beers, Ellis & Co.; H.H. Rowley & Co; F.W. Beers; Hudson River Sloop Clearwater; The Sanborn Map Company; and Frank E. Richards, among others.

This collection assembles hundreds of photographs and some slides that have come into the possession of the Hudson Area Library over the years, either by donation or purchase. Photographs date from the early 1800s to the mid-2000s and depict people, places, and activities in Hudson, N.Y. as well as wider Columbia County.

The HAL Oral History Project collection consists of CDs and digital files of oral histories conducted with residents of the City of Hudson, N.Y from 2013 to present, images of the interviewees, and supporting documentation of the project.

The Rowles’ Studio Collection mostly contains reproduction images created by Rowles’ Studio in Hudson, NY, which first opened in 1851 as the Francis Forshew Photography Studio and was Hudson’s first photography studio. By 1948, Rowles’ Studio had a photographic library dating back more than 90 years, which traced the progress of the city. A large portion of the prints and negatives in this collection are reproduction prints from that library, (known as the Rowles’ Studio Collection), copies of which were donated to the History Room by the last owner of the business, Carmine Ciancetta, in the final years that the shop was in operation. The bulk of the images are digital proof prints of photos taken by Rowles’ Studio in the late-19th century to late-20th century. The proof prints were created for the History Room from original and copy negatives donated by Ciancetta. However, the origin of some of these proof prints is unknown. Rowles’ Studio Collection images are mostly commercial, documenting buildings, industry, transportation, people, and events, in the City of Hudson, NY, as well as the surrounding area, including several Columbia County courthouses, circa 1890-1910, Claverack College, Kaaterskill Mountain House, and more. Additional materials in this collection include glass plate negative portraits related to the Rowles family, spanning 1890s-1940s (mostly unidentified, creator unknown), and original negatives (1940s-1950s) related to the Rowles family (creator unknown); as well as cabinet cards and carte de visite portraits created by Forshew and Whitbeck (mid-19th to mid-20th century). The collection is divided into four series. Digital surrogates of many of the images in this collection are available on the History Room computer.