Opening Day for the Rip Van Winkle Bridge on June 2, 1935. Photo courtesy New York State Bridge Authority ArchivesAn aerial view, looking southeast, of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge passing over Rogers Island. Photo: courtesy NYS Bridge AuthorityThe view of Rogers Island and the Rip Van Winkle Bridge from Frederic Church’s studio at Olana, February 2025The Rip Van Winkle Bridge, by John Gould, with Olana and the Thomas Cole Site. Photo courtesy New York Bridge Authority and the family of artist John Gould. Click here to see John Gould’s beautiful painting of Olana, in full color with bald eagles flying by.Marchers carrying Frederic Church’s 1872 “Clouds Over Olana” in the Parade of Paintings” that opened the Skywalk, June 1, 2019A Thomas Cole lookalike walks across the Skywalk during the “Parade of Paintings,” June 1, 2019Kayaker’s view of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, looking northeast, July 2021A Black Lives Matter march proceeds across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, June 20, 2020. Photo by Mark Prezorski
Thomas Cole’s view of the Catskills, from the front porch of the Cole House, October 2025Thomas Cole House, October 2025Thomas Cole’s original studioThomas Cole, “Diagram of Contrasts,” 1834, at the Thomas Cole Historic Site, Courtesy of Collection Richard Sharp
Emily Cole, Tea Pot, Cups and Saucers, Cream Pitcher and Sugar Bowl. Photo Pete Mauney, Courtesy Thomas Cole Historic SiteThe Art of Emily Cole, a book that belongs in every art-lover’s library. A spread from The Art of Emily Cole, showing her devotion to detail and faithfulness to the life of a plantEmily Cole, “Untitled (Lady’s-Slipper Orchids) from the beautiful book The Art of Emily ColeIn a webinar, Cole Site curator Amanda Malmstrom displays Emily Cole’s painting of irises alongside a photo of the plants growing in the garden outside the Cole houseA visitor admires Emily Cole’s tea set in the 2025 exhibition The Art of Emily Cole, in the New Studio at the Cole SiteCurator Amanda Malmstrom, in a 2025 webinar, explains the influence on Emily Cole of her father Thomas’ famous painting “The Voyage of Life”Autumn flowers that inspired Emily Cole’s work in the garden at the Cole Site, October 2025
Taken from an airplane, Jeff Anzevino’s beautiful shot of the Hudson River looking south from Rogers Island also captures the belltower at Olana peeking up through the trees at left. Image: Jeff Anzevino | Courtesy Scenic HudsonA pair of bald eagles sit on a tree branch on the north edge of Rogers Island, perched above the Hudson River, December 2025Spencer Finch’s moving and beautiful exhibition “The River That Flows Both Ways,” which pays tribute to the Native American name for the river we know as the Hudson: Muhheakantuck. Photographed on the High Line February 2, 2003. Learn moreThe carousel at Pier 62 in Hudson River Park features 33 hand-carved creatures that are native to the Hudson River Valley and Hudson River ecosystem, including this Atlantic SturgeonAn osprey sits above its nest on buoy 126, with the Olana castle just above, at left, August 2021. See a closeup of this handsome bird.A salt marsh installed on the northern edge of Gansevoort Peninsula has layers of habitat that serve oysters, crustaceans, fish, birds and insects. Once the most natural condition of the Hudson River estuary, NYC has lost 85 percent of its salt marsh area since Europeans arrived in the 17th century. Photo taken July 2024
Rogers Island, taken from Frederic Church’s studio at Olana. The Washington Ice Co. building was on the left (southern) edge of the islandThe marsh on Rogers Island, taken from above on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, February 20141873 map of Greenport [Township], showing the location of Rogers Island with the Knickerbocker Ice Co. factory at the Southern tip courtesy Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, NY Public Library.
