About Us

Our Mission

The Adirondack Museum expands public understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future.

Our History

In late 1947 a conversation took place between William Wessels, who operated a summer hotel, the Blue Mountain House, and Harold K. Hochschild, who, like others in his family, had been coming to Blue Mountain Lake since 1904. Both were interested in history. One subject discussed, according to a letter written by Mr. Hochschild to a third party, was the need to protect the locomotive and two cars that stood abandoned on the Marion River Carry between Utowana and Raquette Lakes. Another was the "establishment of an historical museum in the Blue Mountain Lake district."

A year later the Adirondack Historical Association was formed with Wessels as its president. But it was not until 1953, when the Blue Mountain House was purchased as the site for a museum, that the idea for a museum ceased being a dream.

On August 3, 1957, after thirty-six months in which old frame buildings were torn down, new buildings for exhibits erected and forays made into the Adirondacks to collect wagons, boats, and other remnants of the region's heritage, the Adirondack Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time. — Craig Gilborn and Alice Gilborn, Museum of the Adirondacks, 1984

Fifty years later the Adirondack Museum is renowned for the breadth of its collections that include historic artifacts, photographs, archival materials, and fine art documenting the Adirondack region's past. Twenty-two exhibit spaces and galleries tell the stories of the men and women who have lived, worked and played in the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River.

The museum includes a research library, publications program, and an active education department that offers special events, classes, symposia, workshops, demonstrations, field trips, and engaging hands-on experiences for thousands of visitors each year.