An American Treasure
Montgomery Place, a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus and overlooking the Hudson River, is a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Renowned architects, landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other smaller buildings. The Montgomery Place estate was owned by members of the Livingston family from 1802 until the 1980s. In 1986, Livingston heir John Dennis Delafield transferred the estate to Historic Hudson Valley in whose hands it remained until 2016, when Bard College acquired the property.
Fall Sculpture Exhibit: Inside Out
Professor Judy Pfaff’s fall sculpture class, Installation, moves outdoors with the exhibition Inside Out. Seven artists have created site-specific works installed throughout the grounds of Montgomery Place, responding to the landscape and activating the surrounding environs and their features. Virtual exhibit coming soon!
Digital Collections
Digital Exhibitions
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This digital presentation was produced by students in a Bard College course entitled The Window at Montgomery Place, taught by Professor Myra Young Armstead. As a combined History and Experimental Humanities course, the class provided students with the opportunity to think creatively and artistically of ways to use visual electronic media technologies to present historical narratives. Using Alexander Gilson's life as a reference, the images address the themes of slavery, gardening at Montgomery Place, business and property ownership, and family/community connections.
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Violetta White Delafield lived at Montgomery Place with her husband, John Ross Delafield, and their children from 1922 until her death in 1949. As a young woman, Violetta took an interest in botany and began to collect various fungi specimens in the rural Northeast, publishing scholarly works on the mushroom specimens she collected. As with most women in the sciences, her studies were viewed as "amateur." In spite of this, Violetta continued to collect and document specimens. This student-curated exhibition showcases some of Delafield's research.
Podcast: The Montgomery Place Story
Listen to Professor Myra Young Armstead, Montgomery Place Director Amy Husten, Arboretum Director Amy Parrella '99, and College Archivist Helene Tieger '85 talk about the history of Montgomery Place and how it's become part of the Bard story.
Audio Transcript PDFA Living Legend
Learn about how the faculty and students of Bard College are connecting the rich history of Montgomery Place to modern life in the Hudson Valley and the most pressing issues of today through research, exhibitions, and local partnerships.