Spring '26 Issue of The Review

Spring 2026 Issue of The Hudson River Valley Review

Henry Hudson was welcomed ashore with open arms by the Indigenous peoples of the region. The path of a public works project as essential as the original Croton Aqueduct was inevitable, determined by engineers considering geology and geography as they calcultated the most effective and efficient route. Government and industry understand the importance of keeping the Hudson River free from pollution: After all, many communities rely on its water. The mysteries of the Cornish Estate, whose ruins sit on the flank of Breakneck Ridge, are as unsolvable as the building of Machu Pichu. Each of these statements should appear naive, to say the least. However, when such sentiments and assumption have been written and painted into the historical record, they can persist for generations before someone exposes them through the light of the critical inquiry.

Each article in this issue reminds us that history is ever-evolving: new resources, new inquiries, and new perspectives help us to reconsider the past. Patrick Landewe takes a closer look at an inconsistency in the journal of the Half Moon's voyage through our region that has been observed but ignored for four centuries. J. Keith Doherty delved into the archives to discover the political intrigues and bureaucratic machinations behind the first Croton Aqueduct, delivering water from Westchester County to Manhattan. Marcel Dijkers has translated the 1870 travelogue of a Dutch tourist, making it available in English for the first time. Elise Stiefel traces a long-running festival that played an essential role in educating and energizing people to protect the Hudson from pollution. Finally, Thom Johnson and Rob Yasinsac illustrate - in images as well words - how the result of inquiry (and a bit of luck) can build upon themselves to solve the unsolvable in the Hudson Highlands. 

The Hudson River Valley Review

Volume 42, Number 2, Spring 2026

(Click here for PDF preview) 

Dutch Mate: Misattribution to Henry Hudson in Johannes De Laet's Nieuwe wereldt, Patrick Landewe

Urban Encroachment and Rural Resistance Along the Old Croton Aqueduct, J. Keith Doherty

Notes & Documents

Along the Hudson, Adriaan E. Croockewit, Esq., translated and with an introduction by Marcel Dijkers

Regional History Forum

The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival, Elise Stiefel

The Northgate Estate Revisited, Thom Johnson and Rob Yasinsac

Book Review Essay

Clearing Iroquoia: New York's Land Grab in the 1779 Campaigns of the American Revolution by Travis M. Bowman & Matthew A. Zembo, reviewed by James D. Folts

Book Review

Nineteen Reservoirs: On their Creation and the Promise of Water for New York City, by Lucy Sante, reviewed by Andrew Higgins

New & Noteworthy Books

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