With only 3,600 residents and located an hour’s drive from either Syracuse or Albany, the Montgomery County town of Canajoharie doesn’t seem like the prime location for an art museum.
But there, nestled in the rolling hills of the Mohawk Valley and situated a mere 200 yards from the Erie Canal, is the Arkell Museum.
In line with the boom many upstate New York towns saw in the 19th century, the Arkell has elevated the village’s significance with its highly revered collection of American paintings from 1860 to 1940, including colorful representations of working life, people and scenes from the Canal era.
Among the Arkell’s holdings is S. Georges’s “Erie Canal,” an oil painting from 1856 that depicts a day on the Canal, from the mule-drawn boat carrying goods to a fisherman casting a line from the water’s edge.
Mary Alexander, curator of education and public engagement at the Arkell, said Georges’s painting shows both the labor and the leisure that was part of Canal living.
“Life was really happening on these canals, and some of that life was true,” Alexander said. “It’s bright and promotes this thing that is exciting and to make people happier in a time that was difficult.”
The museum’s history dates back to the final years of the Canal era in the early 20th century.
In the 1880s, having started a lending library in his own home, Beech-Nut Packing Company founder Bartlett Arkell organized and helped build the original Canajoharie Library in 1914. The public’s response to paintings on display from his personal art collection inspired Arkell to break ground in 1927 on what would become the Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery. The museum took on a more modern look with a remodel in 2007.
While the severe exterior may draw the eyes of New York Thruway drivers zooming by, there’s a warm, inviting atmosphere inside the nearly century-old museum where the works of renowned artists Robert Henri, Gilbert Stuart and Winslow Homer are on display.
As much as the museum is for art lovers, it also serves as a resource to document Mohawk Valley’s history and agricultural roots, according to Suzan Friedlander, the museum’s executive director.
Starting in the 1850s, Montgomery County and the surrounding area produced more than 90% of the state’s hops crop, typically used for brewing and farming. Access to the Canal to ship hops and other crops as far east as New York City and west to Buffalo and the Great Lakes led to an expansion in crop farming, dairies and apple orchards.
“Everybody around here was able to start growing things better suited for this weird terrain,” Friedlander said.
The Arkell’s holdings also include works depicting the Mohawk Valley landscape. The collection includes more than 3,000 images, diaries and letters that look at the historical functionality of the region, including photographs of the area’s farms, churches and libraries from the past century.
“Bartlett Arkell wanted to provide opportunities for everybody to see great art up close in person,” Friedlander said.
