Welcome to Talking Points!
We are so excited to introduce this new weekly series about how to do oral history interviews. We know that right now everyone's spending a lot of time talking to family members, either in person or on the phone. With that in mind, every Sunday our Oral History Coordinator Kayt Gochenaur will share her top trips and tricks for interviews from home. Don’t have a lot of time? Don’t worry! Each video is under a minute long. Today's video covers some things to remember before you start recording!
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This Tuberculosis Thursday, we're sending a Museum Bouquet to our friends at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum! This shot, from Richard Ray's book, "Saranac, 1937-1940: a Memoir," is captioned "Old Friends and Fresh Flowers are Good Medicine" and we couldn't agree more! Richard "Dick" Ray came to Trudeau Sanatorium in 1937; his employer arranged to pay for his treatment but when it took longer than six months for him to recover his health, they cut his salary. He moved to the sanatorium in Ray Brook where care was covered by New York State.
Dick self-published 1000 copies of "Saranac" in 1993, and Historic Saranac Lake published a revised edition after his death in 2005. To learn more about Dick's time in Saranac Lake, visit our wiki. Did you know that you can also purchase a copy of "Saranac: 1937-1940" from our gift shop? We're still shipping items, so check out our online store today! And be sure to check out Museum Bouquets all across social media for beautiful flowers from all of your favorite museums! It's Wednesday Mini Tour time! Our Museum Administrator Chessie took a walk to a site with a link to our Art of the Cure Exhibit. Watch to learn more about the significance of this building!
Want to know even more? Visit our wiki. If you have a Mini Tour request, let us know! ![]() Dear friends, During the years Saranac Lake was a health resort, many TB patients filled their time by making arts and crafts. These activities furnished a crucial sense of purpose for people struggling with isolation and boredom. Before antibiotics, there was no real cure for TB, so doctors and nurses helped patients fight the disease by supporting their immune systems in every possible way. They provided good nursing care, healthy food, rest, moderate exercise, and attention to mental health through occupational therapy. At the Trudeau Sanatorium Workshop, and later at the Study and Craft Guild in town, patients and community members learned jewelry making, basket weaving, painting, and much more. This past spring, we opened an exhibit titled “The Art of the Cure,” presenting some of the beautiful arts and crafts that grew out of our local history. Thinking about the parallels with our present times, I ducked into the museum this week to pick out a story from the exhibit to share in this letter. I thought I would spend five minutes, but I couldn’t pull myself away. I couldn’t choose just one story. Dr. Trembley’s carved ducks, Temming jewelry, Mott’s pottery, paintings by Amy Jones, Kollecker’s photos — these creations all resonate in a deeper way in this strange new time. These objects, which have all outlasted the artists who made them, have stories to tell about the creativity and optimism of the human spirit in the face of a dreaded disease. After carefully looking over everything on display, for some reason I kept thinking about one artifact that didn’t even make it into the exhibit, a pipe holder that has been in storage in our collection. A patient made the pipe holder in the occupational therapy workshop and gave it to Dr. Gordon Meade. Dr. Meade kept it his whole life, and a few years ago Dr. Meade’s son Jim donated it to our museum. We do not know who created this humble object, but we can trust that the person found a sense of purpose in making it. And today this pipe holder is a lasting expression of gratitude, a statement about the friendship between a patient and his doctor. In order to make “The Art of the Cure” available during these homebound days, we have uploaded the entire exhibit online here. I hope you will take a tour, and let us know what stories resonate for you. What pastimes give you a sense of purpose during this unusual time? What gifts do you treasure as reminders of someone who cares about you? Be well, Amy Catania Executive Director Historic Saranac Lake Images: Betty and Martin Koop working on jewelry, Historic Saranac Lake collection, courtesy of Theresa Brown. Pipe holder, Historic Saranac Lake collection, courtesy of Jim Meade. Students in the Clarkson University Occupational Therapy program on a tour to the Trudeau Sanatorium Workshop, January 2020.
It's Museum Monday, and we are excited to announce that you can now "visit" our Art of the Cure Exhibit from home! This exhibit highlights the origins of Saranac Lake’s rich history in the arts. The Trudeau Sanatorium and the Study and Craft Guild offered groundbreaking occupational therapy programs to tuberculosis patients, many of whom went on to become accomplished artists, writers, and craftspeople.
We hope you can come visit the exhibit in person soon, but for now, this virtual version of the exhibit contains many of the sights and sounds (but unfortunately, not smells!) of the Art of the Cure. All week long we'll be sharing posts related to Occupational Therapy and its use with tuberculosis patients, and its legacy in Saranac Lake today! To visit the exhibit, simply click the button belowand scroll down or use the buttons to navigate the different "exhibit cases" and learn from home! We look forward to sharing more about this fascinating history all week long! Since we can't show you the museum and our local historic sites in person, we want to try out a new feature! Introducing... Wednesday Mini Tours! We'll share a mini tour every week - these can be about people, places, and objects from Saranac Lake history.
Our first mini tour is about Dr. Lawrason Brown. Watch the video to hear from our Executive Director, Amy, about Dr. Brown. Want to know even more? Visit our wiki. If you have a mini tour subject you'd like to request, let us know! ![]() Dear friends, It has been a difficult week. Our hearts go out to friends and family coping with the coronavirus and to the brave medical professionals on the front lines of this crisis. In an effort to fill up the silence of social distance, many of us are turning to the comfort of music. Some older Saranac Lakers can trace their love of music back to a kind lady who lived in a little brick house up on French Hill. Pilar Gordon Benero was born in Cuba in the year 1900. Her father was a well respected physician from a prominent family in Havana. The last thing she must have imagined was that she would end up living out her life way up in the Adirondacks. At the age of 25, Pilar came to Saranac Lake with her sister Isabel, who was suffering from tuberculosis. Here, she fell in love with Manolo Benero, a TB patient from Puerto Rico. Pilar and Manolo married, and unlike thousands of other Spanish speaking patients who came north for the cure, they settled in Saranac Lake. Manolo worked as the office manager at Troy Laundry and delivered for Meals on Wheels. They raised two boys, Manny and Joe, talented hockey players who graduated from Saranac Lake High School. An accomplished, professionally-trained musician, Pilar taught piano lessons in her home on Virginia Avenue. She became close friends with Ditta Pasztory, pianist and wife of Béla Bartók, the Hungarian composer who came to Saranac Lake for his health in the 1940s. Ditta and Pilar often played piano duets together on the two pianos at the Benero house. ![]() Although I never met Pilar Benero, her story has helped to connect me with people who have become good friends. Some of the best talks I’ve had with Tom Delahant have been about Mrs. Benero. Tom fondly remembers his piano lessons as a kid, and he talks about how caring and intelligent Mrs. Benero was. He describes a memorable trip he took out west, when he stopped to visit Pilar in Colorado, where she moved after Manolo died. We can thank Pilar for inspiring Tom to serve as the talented piano accompanist at our school concerts, always with the kindest, most radiant smile. Just as Tom loved Pilar and was inspired by her music, our students adore Tom, and they thrive in the wonderful music program in the Saranac Lake schools. I called Pilar’s son, Joe, just last week to see how he is doing. He sounded well, and is coming up on his 90th birthday. He said to say hello to Saranac Lake, particularly his pal Natalie Leduc, down the road at Will Rogers. Diane Keating Seidenstein emailed this past week from Florida, saying, “I’ve been playing the piano every day during [this crisis], and of course, Mrs Benero is by my side. When you speak to Joe next please give him my regards. What a gift — gifts I should say — I received from his mom.” Did you take piano lessons with Pilar Benero? How is music helping you through this crisis? What teachers made a difference in your life? I’d love to hear from you! Be well, Amy Catania Executive Director Historic Saranac Lake Images: Manolo and Pilar Benero, c.1930. Courtesy of Joe Benero. Sheet music, a gift from Béla Bartók to the Benero family. Historic Saranac Lake collection, courtesy of Joe Benero. ![]() It's Museum Monday, so we want to introduce a new member of our staff! Some eagle-eyed HSL fans might have noticed our new Membership and Grants Manager, Adam Guillette, in our "working from home" post, but we want to give Adam a chance to introduce himself officially! Welcome to the team, Adam! --------------------------------------- Hi everyone! My name is Adam Guillette and I am excited to be the new Membership and Grants Manager and the newest member of the Historic Saranac Lake team! I graduated from Saranac High School and attended SUNY Plattsburgh where I studied Sociology, graduated with a bachelor’s degree, and became passionate about wanting to help strengthen our community! Following my graduation from Plattsburgh State I have worked on many projects, campaigns, and endeavors within the community including having served two terms of service as an AmeriCorps member at our local Red Cross. Through these pursuits I have had the chance to work closely with schools, senior centers, local businesses, and many other great community organizations to provide a variety of programs, presentations, and community outreach opportunities. One of my favorites was teaching our Scrubby Bear hand-washing program to young kids in local schools who always made me laugh and keep me on my toes! Having now joined the Historic Saranac Lake team it is my great hope that with the skills I have gathered from previous positions and my passion for helping the community that I can be an asset to the team and help build on all the great work that is already being done here! It's Tuberculosis Thursday and National Physicians Week, so we want to appreciate the work that physicians are doing today, and the work that physicians did here in Saranac Lake during the TB era! In this photograph, Dr. Leroy Upson Gardner (with pipe) examines x-rays of the lungs of tuberculosis patients. Dr. Gardner was the director of the Saranac Laboratory from 1927-1946, and conducted pioneering research on silicosis and pneumoniconiosis. He also served as director of the National Tuberculosis Association, among many other accomplishments.
Dr. Gardner is one of many, many physicians who conducted research, treated patients, and tested treatments in Saranac Lake. To learn more about Dr. Gardner and the other physicians (and nurses!) who worked in Saranac Lake, visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Doctors And of course, thank you to the physicians who are working today in these uncertain times! [Photograph courtesy of the Neely Family.] Staying connected is especially important during this time of social distancing! A simple phone call can go a long way to supporting our most vulnerable community members.
Consider joining our oral history project and connecting with isolated community members through telephone interviews. This is a great project you can do from home! Free smartphone apps like Google Voice allow you to easily call and record your interview. If there are children in your life, encourage them to learn more about their elders by asking grandparents or aunts or uncles simple questions about their lives. Oral history interviews are a wonderful community building tool. Contact us or visit our Oral History Project website to get involved! |
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