HBO and “The Gilded Age”

Panelists from the Hudson River Museum, Lyndhurst Mansion, and the City of Troy will share what makes their properties special, along with the characteristics of their sites and landscapes at the turn of the 20th century. They will discuss how HBO’s “The Gilded Age” has impacted period houses and properties and driven an interest in their history. Our panelists will also share what filming for the series means for their sites, and how it has helped bring the past to life.

Panelists

Laura Vookles is Chair of the Curatorial Department at the Hudson River Museum, where she has worked in various capacities since 1985. Vookles has completed numerous successful furnishing, conservation, and interpretation projects for Glenview, the museum’s 1877 Hudson River home on the National Register of Historic Places. She was a critical team member of a $2.1 million restoration project completed in 1999, which furnished the Parlor and reopened it as a period room for the first time, as well as uncovering and restoring a magnificent painted glass laylight over the grand staircase. She has curated and written for numerous Hudson River Museum publications, including “The Color of the Moon: Lunar Paintings in American Art” (Fordham University Press/Hudson River Museum, 2019); “The Panoramic River: The Hudson and The Thames” (Hudson River Museum, 2013); and “Dutch New York: the Roots of Hudson Valley Culture” (Fordham University Press/Hudson River Museum, 2009). She holds a Master’s in Art History from Boston University and a BA in Art History from the University of Virginia.

Emma Gencarelli is the Film, Photography & Collections Coordinator at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, N.Y. She holds a BFA in Film and worked in post-production on television programs and films for several years. In her current position, she combines her film experience with her MA in Historic Preservation and Museum Studies from the University of Delaware, integrating curatorial, collections, and research work side by side with the management and logistics for Lyndhurst’s film and television productions.

Kathryn Sheehan is a native of Troy, N.Y., and has been historian for Rensselaer County and Troy since 2006. Sheehan has worked at the Hart Cluett Museum since 1986, arriving as an intern from the Public History Department at the University at Albany (SUNY). She has lectured on topics including Uncle Sam, the Underground Railroad, Woman Suffrage and most recently “The Gilded Age” in Troy, N.Y. She has appeared on numerous local and national television programs, including The History Channel, PBS, and C-Span. Sheehan is currently finishing her research for a book to be published in 2023, titled, “Architecture Worth Saving in Rensselaer County, 50 Years Later.”

Event thumbnail photo credit: Glenview Historic Home, used for filming HBO’s The Gilded Age. Photo Credit: Steve Paneccasio, Hudson River Museum.