Adirondack History Museum

Strategic Value

The Adirondack History Museum is the heart of the operations at The Essex County Historical Society. The Museum displays artifacts from over two centuries of life in Essex County and the central Adirondacks.

In late 2015, Adirondack History Museum sought funding from Cloudsplitter Foundation to help create a new permanent exhibit at the museum.  The year prior, the museum received an extensive collection of items relating to Grace Hudowalski, an historian and founding member of the Forty-Sixers. Members of the 46’ers were expected to hike up at least one Adirondack High Peak each year and were urged to record their experiences in the mountains as an historical record.  Because her collection as a temporary exhibit was so well received by visitors to the museum, they plan to create a new permanent display that will expand Grace’s collection and explore the history of hiking in the Adirondacks.

Cloudsplitter provided an initial $6,000 to Adirondack History Museum and agreed to another $6,000 once they reached a fundraising goal of $25,000.

Grant Analysis

The museum met their fundraising goal in November 2016 and Cloudsplitter provided an additional $6,000 to fund the new exhibit. In January 2017 the museum received a preliminary design, which demonstrates that the new exhibit will be very interactive with numerous “touchpoints” for visitors.  After reaching their original goal of raising $32,000, they have increased that goal to $46,000.  They plan to send out a 3D rendering in a campaign to raise these extra funds, and hope to have the new exhibit in place for the 2017 summer season.

  • Grant Name:  Adirondack History Museum
  • Project Size: $31,500
  • Grant Amount: 12,000