Historic Warwick Blog: Silhouette Portrait Reservations for Sittings on June 9 & 10, 9AM

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Silhouette Portrait Reservations for Sittings on June 9 & 10, 9AM - 5PM

The Historical Society of the Town of Warwick is taking reservations for sittings for handmade silhouette portraits by artist Jean Comerford. Sittings will take place 9AM -3PM, Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10, at the A.W. Buckbee Center (the former Albert Wisner Public Library), 2 Colonial Avenue, Warwick, NY.

Portraits in Silhouette, based in Hardwick, MA, is a mother-daughter business featuring portraits of famous New Englanders in Yankee magazine each month. Comerford is one of a handful of artists nationwide who continue the folk art tradition popular in the United States and Europe from the late 18th to the mid-19th century.

Dr. Robert Schmick, Executive Director, said “the silhouette portraits done by Ms. Comerford involve a set of very sharp and precise cutting scissors which she uses to snip out a profile of her subject from black paper which is then mounted on white card. What seems most amazing to watch is that through her skill she achieves a likeness in a matter of minutes.”

The cost is $30 per portrait, $10 for copies. For an additional fee, framing is available on site. To schedule silhouette sittings or to obtain information, call (845) 986-3236 or whs@warwick.net. Part of the proceeds from the portraits will benefit the Historical Society and its current Shingle House Restoration Project.

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At our Summer History Camp this year kids will dig up crystals that fluoresce under a special black light. The crystals were actually discovered in the area as early as the 1820s and collectors from all over the United States and Europe came to the specifically places like Amity in the Town of Warwick to find these rare specimens for their museums, universities and their private collections. One of the largest off site exhibitions of these crystals is found in the Ecoles des Mines in Paris; there are over 150 samples of minerals specifically from Amity, NY in that collection which were discovered in large in the 1830s. What is interesting to imagine is that geologist and mineralogists from the greatest institutions of higher learning were traveling by horseback and carriage to the wilds of Warwick in the 1820s and 1830s to find rocks for their cabinets of curiosities.

Wawayanda Furnace ( 19th century ) the furnace that many of us remember seeing on our trips to the New Jersey State Park actually was integral to iron ore production supplied by Warwick mines. On a recent sojourn into the woods we visited some local iron ore mines that would have supplied the mid-nineteenth century Wawayanda Furnace. Of course, these operations were supplanted by the end of the nineteenth century when places with better quality ore that were closer to cheaper forms of transportation, like water and rail shut them down.

Ken Hamilton, "Woodlands Interpreter", will present the early 18th century life of Algonquin-speaking people, like the Minsi people of the Lenape tribe, of what was later named by Benjamin Aske as "Warwick." Here we see a trade camp with historially accurate artifact reproductions produced by Mr. Hamilton by hand; he an accomplished leatherworker, blacksmith and silversmith. As an "historical artifact artist", Mr. Hamilton produces props used in many living history scenarios and museums throughout the country. He will share some of his knowledge with campers at the Summer History Camp 2012. See further details.