 Last month we shared a Tuberculosis Thursday post about a photo album that was recently donated to the collection, and it inspired another wonderful donation! We were delighted to receive an album kept by Lillian Synoracki Wilczak (standing to the left of the sign) while taking the cure at Stony Wold Sanatorium from 1928-1930. Her granddaughter, Karen Jacobs, donated the album to us so that Lillian's experience can be saved and shared as part of our local history. We can't wait to share other photos from the album and learn more about Lillian's story, but in the meantime, check out these wonderful snapshots of life at Stony Wold. Thank you again for your thoughtful donation, Karen! Do you have a relative who took the cure in Saranac Lake? We'd love to hear their stories! Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 646. Courtesy of Karen Jacobs.  
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 For this week's Tuberculosis Thursday, we want to share about a wonderful visit we had last weekend. Kathy Sader came to Saranac Lake to learn more about where her great-grandfather, Paul Ludwig Ott, stayed while seeking treatment for tuberculosis. Unfortunately, Paul's cure was not successful and he died in February of 1910. He had one young son, Gordon Joseph Ott, Kathy's grandfather. Kathy brought an album of photographs from Paul's time in Saranac Lake for us to scan, and we can't wait to share more of them!
Kathy and her husband Mike had a great visit at the museum, and they also got to go see the site where 9 McComb Street (the cottage where Paul stayed) once stood. Thanks for sharing these photographs from 1909 and today, Kathy! Do you have a family member who came to Saranac Lake to seek the cure? We'd love to hear more! See some of the photographs from Paul Ott's time in Saranac Lake on our wiki.  Did you know that September is National Happy Cat Month? It's Tuberculosis Thursday, but we're not sure how happy the cat is in this photograph of Dr. Edward R. Baldwin, Mary Ives Baldwin, and an unidentified friend (and unidentified cat!). Dr. Baldwin came to Trudeau Sanatorium with TB in the mid-1900s, and eventually became a close personal friend and colleague of Dr. Trudeau. The Baldwins lived across the street from the Saranac Laboratory on Church Street, and Dr. Baldwin was eventually Director of the Laboratory.
We received an amazing gift of the Baldwin Family archives from Dr. Baldwin's great-granddaughter Barbara Baldwin Knapp in 2018, and we're enjoying learning more about their history and sharing it with you! Visit our wiki to learn more.  It's Tuberculosis Thursday, and this week we're highlighting a recent donation to the collection. This photo album was compiled by Eddy Whitby, who came to Saranac Lake to cure and ended up spending the rest of his life here! He went on to be a co-founder of Duryee Real Estate Co., was Village President (now known as mayor) in 1919, and served on the village board in 1927, among other civic accomplishments. His album shows photographs of his fellow patients "the Conklinites," his family, and life around Saranac Lake from 1901 until his death in 1927. We're looking forward to exploring the rest of the album to learn about Eddy's life in Saranac Lake! Learn more about Eddy on our wiki, including a lesson on following driving laws! Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR #636. Courtesy of Randall Baldwin.
Adelaide Crapsey was born on September 9, 1878, so we're returning to our Tuberculosis Thursday posts by sharing this video from Curiously Adirondack and Josh Clement Productions.
Adelaide came to Saranac Lake to take the cure in 1913, and unfortunately died from her illness a year later. Click above to listen to this reading of Adelaide's poem, "To the Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window." Visit our wiki to learn more about Adelaide's life and contributions to poetry.  It's Tuberculosis Thursday, so we thought we'd share more about cure porch design! This week's Letter from the Porch got us thinking about porches and how their design varies, especially locally. This photograph came from a series examining the differences in cure porch architecture, and we thought it was interesting to see a porch under construction. This photograph was taken at Trudeau Sanatorium, or as it would have been called then, Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, prior to 1904.
Want to learn more about the defining features of cure porches? Visit our wiki! Do you have a cure porch on your home? What features does it have? [Historic Saranac Lake Collection, courtesy of Ted Comstock.]  This Tuberculosis Thursday, we want to share more about one of the women whose voice is featured in "This Was Heaven, Really..." (check our videos here on FB to watch!). Elise's is the second female voice in the video, and she describes what the days were like as a patient.
Elise came to Saranac Lake for the cure in 1935, and after she recovered, she married Mott Chapin. The Chapins operated the Pot Shop on Main Street from 1950 to 1959, selling Mott's pottery with Elise's designs. Elise was active in the community throughout her life, including as a founding member of Historic Saranac Lake. This photograph shows Elise and Mott at work in the Pot Shop. To learn more about Elise Chapin, visit our wiki: https://localwiki.org/hsl/Elise_Kalb_Chapin [Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 446. Courtesy of David Chapin and Sarah Wardner.]
This Tuberculosis Thursday, we are excited to share for the first time ever online, "This was Heaven, Really..." This film was produced for Historic Saranac Lake in 1988, and visitors to the Saranac Laboratory Museum can view it as part of their tour. While we are closed we are excited to share it with you to watch from the comfort of your own homes! DVDs of the "This was Heaven, Really..." and "Unlocking the Wilderness" are available for purchase at www.historicsaranaclake.org/store to support Historic Saranac Lake.
Learn about the history of the tuberculosis industry in Saranac Lake as started by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, and the experience of "curing." Includes narration by former TB patients, Bea Sprague Edward and Elise Chapin. To learn more about the Fresh Air Cure and the TB industry in Saranac Lake, visit our wiki at www.localwiki.org/hsl. Commissioned by Historic Saranac Lake in 1988. Directed and photographed by James Forsyth Bleecker. Written by Rachel Bliven. Remastered by Jim Griebsch in 2018. For more information please visit www.historicsaranaclake.org. This Tuberculosis Thursday, we're doing something a little different! We put together this playlist representing some of the musicians who are included in our Art of the Cure exhibit. All of these artists had a link to Saranac Lake in the TB era, whether they were patients themselves, accompanied a loved one, or helped raise funds! Click the button below to head on over to Spotify to check out this eclectic mix!
 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! |
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Historic Saranac Lake at the Saranac Laboratory Museum
89 Church Street, Suite 2, Saranac Lake, New York 12983
(518) 891-4606 - mail@historicsaranaclake.org
89 Church Street, Suite 2, Saranac Lake, New York 12983
(518) 891-4606 - mail@historicsaranaclake.org
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© 2020 Historic Saranac Lake. All Rights Reserved. Historic photographs courtesy of the Adirondack Room, Saranac Lake Free Library, unless otherwise noted. Copy and reuse restrictions apply. Made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Also supported by an Essex County Arts Council Cultural Assistance Program Grant supported by the Essex County Board of Supervisors.
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