Adirondack Museum (ADKX) sold boats

[Rob Stevens]

Adirondack Museum's boat sale sparks debate over historic significance

Former Adirondack Experience curator speaks out against museum's decision to sell 16 rare boats in a recent auction

www.adirondackexplorer.org

 

[Todd F]

Interesting article and conversation.

 

[1905Gerrish]

It's tough. We all say it, "We can't keep them all". We just hope they go to a good home. Lucky for a fine Morris canoe out of the collection, it's getting cleaned up a bit in my shop and will have a great new home not terribly far from where it was made with some cousins.

 

[Benson Gray]

An interesting element of this story is an old kayak from their collection that they didn’t include in the auction. The information at https://adirondack.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/488A0EC7-2F24-4AE5-A983-114590989750 describes it in more detail. It is considered one of the best original Greenland kayaks in the world. There is no documentation or any pictures to confirm that it was ever used in the Adirondacks, but it is thought that it might have been paddled there at least once. They decided to keep it on that basis.

Benson

 

[10weight]

According to that article, the Museum sold those boats because they weren't sourced in the Adirondacks. I wish Blanchard had made a bigger deal our of that sale rather than effectively hiding all those listings among all the other auction items.

 

[MGC]

I tend to line up with Halle's views on this. Many of the canoes deserved to remain as museum pieces simply on the basis of their scarcity. Their loss greatly diminishes the museums content. I suppose Dan might know why several of these did not find their way to Clayton? Certainly the Stevens was worthy.....
It could be argued that Rushton is not an Adirondack builder if we follow the Sunday Rock rule of thumb.
Should the museum remove any Rushton that cannot be proven to have been used inside the Blue Line?
Then, placing expectations on Kip to somehow treat these canoes as anything more than his typical fall auction items? That is a big stretch. He has always featured a broad variety of canoes, boats and other items in this annual Adirondack Auction. In past years, many of them have been pretty interesting. Undoubtably that is how they ended up under his hammer. If you know Kip, you will appreciate that although he certainly appreciates the interest that canoes generate in his sales, but they are not his specialty, he is not a canoe (or boat) expert. To this particular auction, a canoe is a featured item in much the same way that tiffany lamps, hand carved birds, ducks and pack baskets have been.

 

[Ben Fuller]

Commenting on the Rockwell Kent qajaq, the reason for retention is that Kent had a considerable place in the Adirondacks from whence the qajaq came. As I recall it is on a lake. No hard evidence one way or another as to whether Kent used the qajaq at his place. This apparently was the main criteria for decessioning. There are still many boats in the collection that were built outside the Park but were used and owned inside the Park. Boats that like Rushtons built on the Park boundaries got higher "grades" than say boats of unknown origin or boats that were certainly built away. At this point I think the Rushton in the collection were all owned/ used in the Park. For examples of boats built away, there is a Perrine sneakbox in the collection that was brought it with a fleet at the Adirondack League Club. Alden O boat, a power dory built in Massacusetts, a power launch from the Essington Pa, a bunch of other power boats built outside the park etc. The unfortunate thing is that some of the boats deaccessioned should have gone to other museums as transfers or gifts: this is pretty normal. Rushton is an interesting case. Unfortunately the ABM was pretty late in starting to collect the St Lawrence Valley builders. Properly they should be the major Rushton collection.