Historic Saranac Lake to host Adirondack Artifact Night Sept. 14

Historic Saranac Lake is inviting area residents to dig out historical artifacts from their homes and businesses and share stories behind the objects for their first-ever “Adirondack Artifact Night” on Tuesday, Sept. 14.

Author Andy Flynn will moderate “Adirondack Artifact Night” starting at 7 p.m. in the John Black Room of the Saranac Laboratory, 89 Church St. in Saranac Lake. During the first half of the program, he will present a brief “Community History Writing Workshop” and show the audience how he performs research for his award-winning Adirondack Attic History Project with the Adirondack Museum. For the second half of the program, the show-and-tell portion, audience members will be showing off their artifacts and telling stories about the objects. The program is free and open to the public.

“This is community history at its best,” Flynn said, “but Adirondack Artifact Night only works if people bring in historical objects from home. The more the merrier. Piece by piece, we’ll get an interesting and very personal snapshot of Saranac Lake history.”

Flynn’s Adirondack Artifact Night program was inspired by the Warrensburgh Historical Society, which holds similar programs throughout the year. In 2010, Flynn has presented successful Adirondack Artifact Night programs in North Creek, Wilmington and Tupper Lake.

Flynn reminds residents that Adirondack Artifact Night is set up differently from the popular PBS program “Antiques Roadshow,” in which experts appoint monetary value to antiques that guests bring in from home.

“We will not be identifying or appraising objects,” Flynn said. “We expect that people will bring historical artifacts, photos, paintings, etc. to the library and share their stories with the rest of the audience. In this case, the guests are the experts.”

Andy Flynn, of Saranac Lake, currently operates Hungry Bear Publishing and publishes the “Adirondack Attic” book series and the Meet the Town community guides. In 2008, he was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from the Upstate History Alliance (now called Museumwise) for the Adirondack Attic History Project, which he founded in 2003 to actively preserve Adirondack history by collecting artifact-based, human-interest stories. His “Adirondack Attic” column ran weekly in several northern New York newspapers from 2003 to 2009. He has written and published six “Adirondack Attic” books. And his new “Adirondack Attic Radio Series” airs on North Country Public Radio the first Tuesday of every month during the Eight O’Clock Hour with Todd Moe. Flynn works with curators at the Adirondack Museum to write about the facility’s vast artifact collection for the Adirondack Attic History Project, which is sponsored by the Adirondack Museum and singer/songwriter Dan Berggren. He is a graduate of the SUNY College at Fredonia (1991) and the Tupper Lake High School (1987).

 

For more information, call Andy Flynn at (518) 891-5559 or Historic Saranac Lake at (518) 891-4606.