Spring Exhibition Reception

It’s a Wrap: Two Hundred Years of Outerwear showcases an often-overlooked part of the Albany Institute’s extensive clothing collection—garments designed to be worn over other garments.

This exhibition highlights the fashionable garments that help keep us clean, dry, and warm. Exquisitely tailored jackets are juxtaposed with Gilded Age evening wraps encrusted with jet bead trim and dripping with fringe made by the famed Parisian House of Worth. Victorian capes, cloaks, and coats made from luxurious and colorful fabrics are displayed next to outfits worn in Albany during the 1880s tobogganing craze.

With this exhibition, we hope to build an appreciation for outerwear that can be fun and elegant, while offering a peek into the Museum's closet!

Journey across the United States, England, and Scotland with Hudson River School artists William Hart (1823–1894) and his sister Julie Hart Beers (1834–1913) in this exhibition of atmospheric watercolors, detailed drawings, oil paintings, and rare archival materials.

William Hart is recognized mainly for his oil paintings of calm, tranquil landscapes, but his plein air works on paper reveal his more immediate and perceptive recordings of nature. Julie Hart Beers joined her brother in the pursuit of landscape art in the 1860s and frequently accompanied him on sketching excursions, occasionally bringing several young female artists as students.

Hudson River School Journeys draws from a donation of more than 500 works on paper by William Hart together with generous loans from the Walton and Marianne Brush Family and works from private collectors.