Friends of the Goshen Public Library and Historical Society

06/22/2026

Plan to stop by and see us during Great American Weekend for our HUGE Book Sale July 2-3, from 10 am to 4 pm.

06/16/2026

The Friends of the Goshen Public Library are pleased to announce the winners of scholarships awarded to three college-bound seniors who live within the Goshen Central School District. Goshen High School students Jillian Kyrou and Melanie Sanchez, as well as Burke Catholic High School student Aiden Ortiz, were the deserving recipients.

Pictured below at the recent Goshen High School Awards ceremony are, L to R: Presenter Linda Padden, awardees Jillian Kyrou and Melanie Sanchez, presenters Chris Veit and Norma Nunez-Langlois. Aiden Ortiz was not available for the photo.

06/12/2026

Make sure you've marked your calendar for tomorrow's (June 13) Friends lecture, "Henry Wisner: Goshen's Greatest Revolutionary War Hero". We've specially arranged this in recognition of the 250th anniversary celebration of our country. Admission is free and we'll begin at 10:00 am at the library. Hope to see you there!

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05/22/2026

In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, the Friends will be having an additional lecture in our series on June 13 at 10:00 am. The subject of this presentation will be a hometown hero who was an active participant in the creation of the Declaration of Independence. That "local boy" was none other than Henry Wisner, a resident of Goshen who owned a gunpowder mill in Wallkill.

Wisner was a New York representative to the Continental Congress, where the Declaration was prepared. Before its finalization and signing, however, he received an urgent request from General George Washington who badly needed a re-supply of gunpowder for his troops, so he returned to Wallkill in response.

Leading our discussion on the 13th will be Town of Goshen Historian Michelle Figliomeni, who is also the President of the Orange County Historical Society. Michelle's talk is titled "Henry Wisner, Goshen's Revolutionary Hero". Please plan to join us in the Pomares Community Room at the library on June 13.

05/22/2026

The video of our May 9 lecture, "Knifetown USA: The Epic Story of the Pocketknife Industry in Walden, NY", has been added to the Friends of the Goshen Library YouTube channel and is available for viewing. Presenter was Mary Ellen Matise, Historian for the Village of Walden.

04/23/2026

It's a first! First Book Sale of the year, that is. Tomorrow, Friday April 24, and Saturday April 25, we will be open for your perusal in the Pomares Community Room at the library. Hours for each day are 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. We've had a big turnover since our last sale, so there are probably a number of titles that might interest you. Hope to see you there!

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04/15/2026

We have just added the video of Ulster County Historian Eddie Moran's lecture of April 11 to our YouTube channel. The video is titled "Enslavement in the Dutch Hudson Valley".

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04/15/2026

We seem to be on a roll this year, in our Lecture Series, presenting subjects that may have been unknown to many. Our next presentation falls under this same category: "Knifetown USA: The Epic Story of the Pocketknife Industry in Walden, NY". Mary Ellen Matise, Historian for the Village of Walden, will join us to talk about
a group of families who immigrated from Sheffield, England and settled in Walden, shortly after the formal incorporation of the Village of Walden in 1856.

They occupied the old cotton factory at the High Falls of the Wallkill River and began producing pocketknives. Among these was a family by the name of Bradley, one of whom was a 12 year old boy named Thomas Wilson Bradley who became instrumental in the founding of the New York Knife Company, one of the largest pocketknife manufacturers in the United States in the 19th century.

Mary Ellen actually serves as both the Village Historian for Walden and the Town of Montgomery Historian. She is also a Director of the Association of Public Historians (NY State) and a Trustee of the Historical Society of Walden and the Wallkill Valley.

Our lecture will be on Saturday May 9 at 10:00 am in the Pomares Community Room. We'd love to see you there!

04/07/2026

A reminder that the next presentation in the Friends Lecture Series will address a subject that may not be well known to Hudson Valley residents; this involved the use of slaves as far back as the 1600's in towns in our own area. Ulster County Historian Eddie Moran will guide us through this difficult subject in an examination of the lives and customs of these enslaved people. Please join us next Saturday April 11 at 10:00 am in the Pomares Community Room for this discussion.

03/27/2026

The next presentation in the Friends Lecture Series is scheduled for April 11 at 10:00 am. While our last presentation (Mastodons) took a REALLY deep dive into the history of our region, this next one will examine some more recent events. We welcome Eddie Moran, Ulster County Historian, who will talk about enslavement in the Dutch Hudson Valley.

Eddie graduated with a B.A. in history from SUNY New Paltz in the Spring of 2020, and began work as a tour guide at Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz while still a student in 2017. He managed guided tours and historical interpretation full-time at Historic Huguenot Street beginning in 2022, and was appointed Ulster County Historian in September 2024. He is a lifelong resident of the Wallkill River Valley.

His presentation will report that, in 1627—just eighteen years after Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river that now bears his name—enslaved Africans were first brought to the Dutch colony of New Netherland. As Dutch settlement expanded into the Hudson Valley during the seventeenth century, Africans of diverse languages and backgrounds were forcibly trafficked into the region. In this presentation, Eddie explores the daily lives of enslaved Africans in the Dutch Hudson Valley, their resistance to a dehumanizing system of enslavement, and the enduring ways they shaped the region.

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us in the Pomares Community Room on the 11th to hear this 400 year old story.

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