Quadricentennial!
by Cynthia Owen Philip

The great Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 paid tribute to the tricentennial of Henry Hudson's discovery of the spellbinding river that has been named after him. It even more resoundingly marked the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton's faultless trip from New York City to Albany and back in a long, skinny vessel, first simply called The Steamboat because there was no other in the world. This extraordinary 16-day extravaganza came at a turning point in United States history. So does the currently ongoing Hudson Fulton Champlain Quadricentennial of 2009. The parallels between the two eras are astonishing. So are their differences.

The 1909 celebrations were set in motion by President Theodore Roosevelt, just after he had won his landslide victory in 1904. In many ways it would reflect his boundless energy and his foresight, historical pride and internationalism. He had put the country through an array of social and cultural reforms ranging from the Pure Food and Drug Act to establishing the national park system. The remarkable Palisades Interstate Park, an oasis of fresh air and peaceful recreation within sight of the throbbing, polluted city, was dedicated at that time. (A network of New Jersey women's garden clubs had been instrumental in rescuing it from the depredations of rock miners.)

American invention was at a peak. Wilbur and Orville Wright's achievement of "aerial locomotion," as it was then called, had left the world breathless. In our great cities, Thomas A. Edison's electricity had turned the night into a wash of bright white light. Henry Ford had begun manufacturing his long-lived affordable Model T motorcars. J.P. Morgan, whose speculations were a major cause of the Panic of 1907, had brought the run on banks under control—at least for the banks, if not for ordinary working folk—by bidding his fellow millionaires to contribute to a warchest that would stabilize the nation's banks. (No surprise that he was appointed treasurer of the Tricentennial celebrations!)

Even more dear to Roosevelt's heart were the splendid results of his efforts to modernize our antiquated navy. In 1909, his "bully" Great White Fleet had just returned from circumnavigating the globe. In the giant Tricentennial Naval Parade were 31 U.S. Navy men-of-war, eight torpedo boats, six submarines and Peary's artic exploration vessel, the S.S. Roosevelt. Contrasting sharply with the replica of Hudson's tiny Half Moon, its crew costumed in the picturesque garb of the early 1600s, and Robert Fulton's Clermont with a Fulton impersonator aboard, these warships were billed as their "escort." In fact, a primary mission of the celebration was to show off United States naval power. Together with a sprinkling of vessels from European countries, the fleet stretched from 42d Street to Spuyten Duyvil, a distance of ten miles. With revenue cutters, ferries, fireboats, tugboats, lighters and yachts, the number of vessels in the official flotilla reached almost 1600. Sparkling electric lights outlined their masts, rigging and decks at nightfall. The effect reflected in the water was eerie but beautiful.

Every major institution in the city contributed to the festivities, from the New-York Historical Society, of which Fulton had been an early member, to the Bronx Botanical Gardens and the German bands. Among the offerings on land were myriad lectures and a garden party at Columbia University with entertainment by the Indians encamped there. The Museum of Natural History told the tale of the Manhattan tribe by means of artifacts gleaned from the northern reaches of the island. They would be incorporated into its permanent collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's groundbreaking exhibition of early American "industrial" art from 1625 to 1825 and American paintings up to 1800 was by far the most popular art exhibit. It would grow to become the museum's world famous American Wing.

That the celebration was a great tourist attraction was not lost on the organizers, most of them important merchants or bankers. However, a concerted effort was exerted to render it educational rather than commercial. No ads were permitted in programs for official events or on official souvenirs. No admission was charged for any event funded by public monies. (The extravagant dinners for visiting dignitaries were privately funded. That ladies were not invited was typical of the rampant sexism of the time; suffragists were at last gaining ground and the "stronger sex" was nervous. A handful of ladies were invited to sit in the balcony boxes of the new Hotel Astor ballroom where 1500 gentlemen gathered for the Official Banquet, but they could only watch the diners dine and gently applaud their speeches.)

The declared aim of the entire celebration was to awaken the peoples' interest in the nation's and New York State's glorious history, thus welding newcomers—26 percent foreign born and 33 percent more born to immigrant parents—to those populations with deeper roots. All of them, it was emphasized, were true Americans. To that end, the Master of the New Orleans' Mardi Gras was hired to design and build 104 floats with tableaux depicting every facet of the nation's heritage as well as the cultures of each of its ethnic groups including Native Americans. Divided into separate parades—one of 54 edifying historical floats, the other of 50 artistic floats—they were greeted with acclaim as they rolled down Central Park West from 110th Street. They especially touched the hearts of those who did not yet speak English and often could not read even their own languages.

The most magical events of the entire celebration were the three feats of flight performed by the intrepid Wilbur Wright. Taking off from Governors' Island in a brand new plane, he first encircled the island, covering a distance of two miles in seven minutes at heights from 40 to 100 feet. Then he flew round the Statue of Liberty, a slightly longer distance and the first airplane flight made over American water. (The French aviator Blériot had crossed the English Channel just two months before.) A complex signal system was set up to tell the crowds in the city of his progress. As he was sighted, the din of steamboat, tug and factory whistles grew deafening. Passengers at the rails of the new Cunard liner Lusitania, departing on her return maiden voyage, fluttered their handkerchiefs and set up a roaring cheer of approval. Wright's final breathtaking feat was flying to Grant's tomb and back. With two American flags streaming from his front rudder, he flew the 20 miles flawlessly, although blasted by capricious winds from between the buildings of Lower Manhattan. Even the disciplined international war fleet went wild.

During the brief span of the festivities, from September 25 to October 11, New York City attained the promised "Jubilee of Happinesss." Crime plummeted. Fewer accidents required hospital care. The edifying parades of historical and artistic floats had united the varied populace as one. Together they experienced a great burst of patriotism as well as a surge of pride in their distinctive origins. For a while they even forgot the high unemployment rate.

Upper Hudson Celebrations
Tricentennial celebrations in the cities and towns along the upper Hudson began September 29, 1909, when the Half Moon and the Clermont slowly progressed upriver, stopping at waterfront communities along the way. Although more homespun, these upstate events mirrored those in the city. Glee club and band concerts, religious services and school programs predominated. The chance to participate in an international patriotic event was as exciting to the local inhabitants as it was to the New York metropolis.

On October 1, the Half Moon and the Clermont were joined in the bay at Newburgh by a Naval Parade consisting of three warships, eight torpedo boats and five submarines as well as working boats and pleasure craft. Then a thriving manufacturing and transportation center, the city's principal streets were lavishly festooned with flags and bunting, and at night the whole city was illuminated with a blaze of electric light. The Court House, City Hall, State Amory, and the bluff on which General Washington Revolutionary War Headquarters had been sited especially stood out.

Immense crowds were on hand when the parade reached the waterfront that brilliant Indian summer afternoon. The mayor extended the greetings of the city and New York's Governor Charles Evans Hughes followed with an observant speech that praised the celebration of Henry Hudson's and Robert Fulton's achievements as fostering "a mutual regard and friendship that binds us to the world." Crowds jammed the sidewalks as sailors from the Half Moon and the Dutch warship as well as those from the American warships joined the State Militia in a military parade 7000 men strong. In the evening, two formal dinners were held for the honored guests, one for gentlemen, the other for ladies. (Sexism was equally rampant upriver. Women's associations had worked hard for the celebration, but while there are 162 photographs of individual men in Newburgh's souvenir book, the only one of women is a group shot in a school room where they were being taught to become "typewriters.") A great carnival dinner was held under bright lights for the people of Newburgh. The events concluded with a mighty burst of pyrotechnics.

The next stop of the naval flotilla was Poughkeepsie, the "Queen City of the Hudson." Here, Market Street was handsomely decorated with refurbished decorations created for the inauguration of President William Howard Taft in Washington; the fleet was greeted by the entire Poughkeepsie committee aboard John Jacob Astor's magnificent steam yacht, Nourmahal (Astor would receive a gold Tricentennial medal for his generosity). Officers and sailors were treated to a fine entertainment at the Opera House. To stimulate turnout for its Old Home Week event, 10,000 pamphlets were sent to former residents telling them of the special railroad rates and sleeping accommodations that would made their return to Poughkeepsie easy. Submarines exhibited their diving capabilities and Vassar girls, "emblems of peace to the representatives of war," were invited to visit the warships. At a huge open air service on College Hill, Vassar president Reverend James Monroe Taylor praised early Dutch settlers for their religious tolerance. In his speech Governor Hughes declared the event's symbolic representation of the Spirit of 1909—a student, a working man and a Civil War veteran led by a little girl bearing the American flag—the "climax in beauty and completeness" of the entire Tricentennial celebration. The innocent child, he said, for whom "all our achievements are made" was "a loving, tender representative of all that is best in civilization."

Later at the official banquet, Hughes pointed out that Dutchess County waterfront communities had long prospered because of their relation to the river. And he berated those who took a pessimistic view of conditions in the country or who called the people a mob as "men who have not yet discovered America." The only disappointment about the Poughkeepsie festivities was that, although branches had been cut from street trees to allow the much-anticipated historic floats to pass through, they never arrived.

Kingston had similar, though smaller, religious services, concerts, parades, school exercises, street illuminations and fireworks. The naval fleet was enlarged by the old icebreaker Norwich and fourteen locally owned tugs. Money prizes were awarded to the school children who wrote the winning essays on the lives of Hudson and Fulton. In his speech Governor Hughes reiterated his hopes for world peace. Here, unlike at Poughkeepsie, the historical floats arrived on schedule—over 12 of them—and residents delighted in playing characters in their tableaux. Meanwhile the Clermont tied up at a dock and was open to inspection by hundreds of thrilled residents.

On the way to the City of Hudson, Barrytown's "Blithewood Guards" saluted the fleet. Ships stopped only ten minutes at Clermont to take on the Livingstons and their guests. The flotilla then worked its way to Hudson, named after the great explorer. The floats were off-loaded at dusk and under the lights formed a spectacular column as they were pulled up the long straight main street. The highlight of the celebration was the presentation of a handsome Hudson-Fulton Memorial Fountain given to the city by the local chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution. To thank them, and perhaps also in honor the city's Quaker heritage, the ladies were allowed to host the luncheon for the dignitaries. (The husband of the president, however, gave the welcoming speech. Aside from the New Jersey women's garden clubs' work in rescuing the Palisades and the use of the female sex as a symbol of peace, it was the only significant mention of women in the entire two-volume, 1421-page official record of the celebrations.)

From Hudson the flotilla went on to Albany and Troy, ending in Cohoes at the confluence of the Mohawk River and the all important Erie Canal, gateway to Canada and to the Middle and Far West.

The 100-Year Entr'acte
As promised, the Tricentennial celebration was a spectacular memorial to a brilliant past. At the same time it was filled with deceptive hopes for a future of international peace and harmony. Within five years those hopes were shattered by the "Great War." (The sinking of the splendid Lusitania, whose passengers had so gaily applauded Wilbur Wright's prowess, provided a catalyst for the United States' entrance into it.) After the too brief Armistice and the too lengthy Great Depression, the country was at war again. A brief period of euphoric stability followed, then the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts erupted. New weapons of mass destruction relentlessly proliferated, as the United States moved steadily towards world economic and military dominance. The quagmires of today, however, seem to have no boundaries of time or space.

But our inventiveness has never slackened. At first the national railroad system kept pace, but, with the development of an interstate highway network, door-to-door trucking and ever larger and faster airplanes became our preferred modes of transporting goods. As the years progressed, the personal automobile spelled doom for both rail and bus routes. All this progress made possible urbanization, suburbanization and dense settlement in areas that were once farmland. It also furthered the drive toward globalization—an ideal that has roots in the 18th century. One of the curses its reality has brought is a global recession that may not have a quick end.

However, the drive for equal rights for women during the last century has fared quite well. The 19th Amendment giving women full voting rights was ratified in 1922. In our most recent election Hillary Clinton nearly became the Democrats' candidate for president. The progress of African-Americans towards full civil rights was at first far slower, yet today our president is an extraordinarily popular African-American.

The Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial
This year's Quadricentennial recognizes the whirlwind changes in American society and accepts the fact that as in 1909, the country is now at a profound turning point. But it sees this state of flux through the lens of the Hudson River's history. The initial events that have already taken place during this year-long anniversary have clearly linked it to the 1909 celebrations. The sendoff was a line-up of 19th century iceboats mounted by the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library's lawn. A sport relying solely on wind power, it drew enthusiastic crowds from December 27 to January 3, and plans are underway to repeat it next year.

Wilderstein Preservation has just opened 1909, its fascinating exhibition of artifacts directly related to the Suckley family's role in the Tricentennial celebration. The objects, including life-like manikins in Wilderstein family dress, are scattered delightfully throughout the house as part of the rooms' décor. 1909 can be seen until late autumn, when the site closes.

The exhibition recently opened at the Hudson River Maritime Museum expresses that institution's wider scope. It offers a thorough history of the commercial, industrial and recreational activities on the river, including a good section on Robert Fulton. It also presents programs designed to clean up and prevent contamination. An extraordinary new puppet show called "Mutual Strangers: Henry Hudson and the River that Discovered Him" by Arm-of-the-Sea Puppet and Mask Theater, opened there too. It depicts the interplay of man and nature on the river from the earth's beginnings through its occupancy by Indian tribes, and onto the coming of Europeans in the form of Henry Hudson and his crew, taking the audience right up to the present day. With over a 100 beautifully painted handcrafted puppets manipulated by just three people and 20 or more instruments played by two musicians, it is a powerful tour de force. It has already booked 20 performances in river oriented communities from June to through November and undoubted will add more.

Other displays that can be visited all summer are the historic archives exhibit at the Ulster County Office Building. "Before Hudson: 8,000 years of Native Esopus Culture," at the DuBois Fort Center in New Paltz.

Other entries in this category may seem maverick, but they will be around throughout the summer and autumn and longer still. First are the remarkable 60-second documentaries created by Josh Aronson, a new weekender in Rhinecliff, that cover twenty varied aspects of river life and will be shown by PBS in rotation between programs. Among the subjects are a shad fisherman, a tugboat captain, a lighthouse keeper and a program in the Bronx called "Rocking the Boat" in which young people learn marketable skills by building a boat. Second are the remarkable publications of the Columbia and Dutchess County Historical Societies. The Columbia County's spring issue devoted to the Quadricentennial is overflowing with an abundance of informative and well-illustrated articles that will make it an issue to hang onto. Dutchess County's Yearbook will be a set of essays covering such topics as Hudson River regattas, whaling, paintings, shad fishing, railroad ferries, and waterfront settlements. It too will become a treasured souvenir.

A Flotilla of Pleasure Boats
Although reminiscent of the 1909 Naval Parade, the event that will usher in the upcoming "River Days" will have an entirely different orientation. Instead of warships it will feature a flotilla of pleasure boats, led by replicas of the Half Moon and the Onrust (Dutch for Restless), the first ship built by Europeans in America, and the sloop Clearwater accompanied by its companions, the Woody Guthrie and the Mystic. The event will begin with festive ceremonies in New York City on the evening of June 5. In the afternoon the flotilla will progress upriver, stopping frequently at waterfront communities along the way, until it reaches Albany on June 13. Set in motion by the Hudson River Boat & Yacht Club Association, it is anticipated relays of boaters will join the flotilla for whatever length of time they can devote to it.

The first stop will be Newburgh/Beacon Bay on June 7, where Scenic Hudson will welcome the Flotilla to its festival at Beacon Point Park. The Clearwater will hold an "open sail" there. The Half Moon will moor at Newburgh, where the West Point band will play. At Poughkeepsie, June 10 will be "Vintage New York," a day devoted to such varied events as a walking tour exploring the super antediluvian rock formations in the waterfront park, a public art tour and the opening of an exhibit of children's work called "Rivertown." Events such as the period reenactment of a Dutch wedding will continue throughout the summer and early fall, when the culmination of the entire celebration will take place: the opening of the restored Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge as a magnificent walkway park over the river,

The flotilla's stop at Kingston will be brief but it will be viewed, as Kingston festivities so often are, by merry picnickers from the high bluffs of Rhinecliff across from the Rondout. When the flotilla arrives in Hudson on June 11, the Clearwater will offer programs for school children before it departs the next day. The main event in the namesake city's year-long celebration will be its Waterfront Festival the weekend of July 24, when the Half Moon will visit for three days and give tours. The festival will be a carnival of music and fireworks, demonstrations in period costumes and circus workshops, as well as ferry rides to Athens and visits to the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse. A quadathlon, in which athletes will run across the Rip Van Winkle to Catskill, swim a course in the Catskill creek, bicycle to Athens and kayak across the river to Hudson Lighthouse will be held on August 2, along with a children's mini-quadathlon on Oakdale Lake.

Quad 2009 will continue will all flags flying into the autumn. An impressive grand phalanx consisting of the Hudson River Valley Institute, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, the National Park Service and the New York State Quadricentennial Office will sponsor a mega conference called America's First River: The Hudson with experts who will speak on every aspect of the river's long history and that of its settlements. On September 27, Rhinebeck will hold a celebratory run across the 1.5 mile Rhinecliff-Kingston Bridge and ending at the Post Road in Rhinebeck, aptly called Four Miles for 400 Years. For the first time ever, the bridge will be closed for a scheduled event—the reason why the get-ready-get-set-go time is 8:15 on a Sunday morning. In conjunction with its week long exhibition, Light on New Netherland, a traveling exhibition created by the New Netherland Institute, the Morton Library in Rhinecliff has scheduled my slide show on Robert Fulton on October 7.

The climax of this season of celebration will be opening of the Poughkeepsie Railroad bridge, 1.2 miles long and rising to an astonishing 140 feet at midpoint, that is now transformed into a bicycle and pedestrian state park called the Walkway Over the Hudson. The spectacular event will begin on the evening of Friday October 2, when the bridge will be "brought out of the shadows" by ingenious illuminations. For Saturday morning's official opening of the park, 1000 volunteers will pull thick manila ropes from either end of the bridge and tie them together as a symbol of the unifying force of the river. The Walking on Air Parade with representatives of the 50 participating towns in the mid-Hudson area will immediately follow, Governor Paterson and guests from the Netherlands topping the list of dignitaries. But the rest of the weekend will be given over to the people who on foot, bicycles and boats will be treated to a feast of music, dance, puppetry and a fly-over by Rhinebeck Aerodrome's antique planes.

And What About Fulton and Champlain
It was perhaps inevitable that Robert Fulton's achievement would be brushed to the side in this year's Quadricentennial celebrations, given the major exhibitions at the Albany Institute of History and Art and at Clermont State Historic Site in 2007, the 200th anniversary of his steamboat's first round trip between New York City and Albany. But the principal reason is probably the radical change in the use of the river over the past century. In 1909 the Hudson was still one of the world's great transportation arteries. Today, except for infrequent fuel barges, commercial traffic is dead. So is the industry on its banks and further inland that once fed it, its buildings either rotting, torn down or converted into apartments, and the river is the playground of recreational boaters. Except during the summer season, long stretches of that great thoroughfare are as barren of boats as they were when Henry Hudson explored it.

Tourism, popular even in Fulton's time, is the new industry. The Walkway over the Hudson is expected to attract visitors from around the globe. Bonding with the ecological movement that has for so long pushed to lean up the detritus left by industry, planners look back to a calmer time unimpaired by steam, just as romantic painters did.

Fine and good. But in a celebration that bears his name and with it his prestige, it is historically misleading that Fulton's achievement, as well as the entire industrial era should be given such short shrift. Lamentably, much of the Quadricentennial promotional material, when it does not pass over Fulton entirely, reverts to 19th century stories that sentimentalize his life—from his major financial investment in the steamboat project to his betrothal to Harriet Livingston at an undocumented party at Clermont. Forgotten is the major role his genius played in "increasing the productive power of mankind and multiplying the world's commerce." Occasionally, errors creep in. For instance, the time the trip to Albany took was not 32, but 22 hours, as Fulton announced in his own clear hand. Fulton, not the Chancellor was the major funder of the project. Such errors were also made in 1909 when public access to Fulton related archives was not well known and many important primary documents were still in private hands. That the misperceptions should be perpetuated today is a disservice, especially to schoolchildren.

Still, it must be remembered that great celebrations always partake of fantasy. The Tricentennial certainly did. And in 2009 the shade of Fulton has the pleasure of Samuel de Champlain, an equally accomplished man whose multiple explorations and settlements in the northern reaches are suffering a similar fate. Communities in the Erie Canal and Lake Champlain neighborhoods , nevertheless are doing a good job of presenting their history-filled area. (The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, for example, has mounted an exhibition called Discover 1609: Who was Samuel de Champlain? that brings to life the man behind the myth, and volunteers have built the Onrust, a great contribution to the group of vintage ships leading the Flotilla.)

That said, the hundreds of Quadricentennial programs offered this year will be both fun and informative. And the legacy they leave behind—the Walkway, the improved recreational facilities, and other events that will be repeated annually—will be enriching to individual communities as well as to tourists and the important goal that the river become more accessible, cleaner and even more beautiful, if such a delirious miracle is indeed possible, will be an everyday reality. Thus the Hudson will be not only "the river that flows both ways," as Native Americans once called it, but also the river that binds the people of its East West banks together as they move through a proud fifth century.