Emily Dickinson, American artist Joseph Cornell’s enduring muse, wrote that “nature is a haunted house, but art is a house that tries to be haunted.” As the current occupant of Cornell’s South Nyack birthplace, Sylvia Roth describes the creative output of subsequent generations of her family, and others who have lived here, one begins to suspect that this is a house haunted by art.

I got to visit Cornell’s birthplace for the first time this week, delivering my illustration that accompanied this column. It will now hang on the walls of this home that has provided inspiration for so many.

Here’s my 2014 interview with Roth and also my discovery of another connection between Cornell and the Nyacks.

This Sun., July 25 at 5p, the Historical Society of the Nyacks & Hudson Market on Main sponsors, A Taste of Local History. Meet Culinary Historian Lavada Nahon and enjoy a colonial era meal You must register for the meal portion of the program ($55 for 2) by today, July 20. Read more to register.

As President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks for the last 22 years, Win Perry works tirelessly to commemorate the heritage of all the families that call the Nyacks home. Here is the history of your Historical Society

Rockland County Civil Rights icon Dr. Travis Jackson passed away last week. He was 87. In his honor, Nyack Sketch Log is reposting this column outlining the historic role he played in the battle to integrate schools in our county. Dr. Jackson was found of quoting this African proverb: “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Through his work as an educator, and a participant in the documentation of the school desegregation case that brought Thurgood Marshall to Hillburn in the 1940s, Dr. Jackson became the historian for the lions. He did his pride proud.

Juneteenth commemorates the 19th of June, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger read General order number 3 in Galveston Texas, declaring that all slaves were free. Two men who were under General Granger’s command in Texas are buried in Mount Moor Cemetery in West Nyack, one became pastor of St. Philip’s in Nyack.

Explore this local connection, the debate over civil rights substance vs symbols, and a possible way to commemorate Juneteenth in Rockland County in 2022.

A Memorial Day service will be held in West Nyack on May 31, 2021 at 10:00am at Mount Moor Cemetery to honor Korean War hero Henry William Cook, Jr. and ten Civil War-era veterans who recently had their headstones replaced.

One vet, Solomon Miller, who witnessed the surrender of General Robert E. Lee, provides a direct connection to the origins of the solemn holiday.

Over the past 30 years, John Rossi has created over 700 woodcut replicas of private homes and public buildings in Rockland County. You may have seen his distinctive miniatures on the back counter of Koblin’s Pharmacy in Nyack or at the Brick Museum in Haverstraw.