By Niko Balkaran
An exhibition at Crawford House is highlighting Thomas Pope, a 19th-century artist whose life and work were deeply intertwined with Newburgh.
The Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands developed the exhibition after organizers began looking more closely at Pope, whose name and paintings were familiar locally but whose life had not been extensively documented.
What initially began as curiosity led organizers through archival records and historic newspapers, where they uncovered a life that reached beyond Pope’s work as a painter and revealed new connections to the Newburgh in which he lived.
“The research has just continued to blow us away with what a compelling and prismatic figure Pope is,” said Kate Klein, the collections manager for the exhibit. “Really, just surprising and fun and involved in so many aspects of the Newburgh community at the time.”
Pope taught painting and maintained studios around the Water and Third Street area while trying to support his family, organizers explained. Painting alone, however, was not enough to make a living and his other pursuits provided organizers with a broader picture of his place in the city.
Among them was his writing.
Pope contributed for local newspapers and eventually became an editor but organizers said they found some of the most revealing material in a column he wrote under the persona “Old Boy.”
The sarcastic columns chronicled people and events around Pope and initially appeared to be an unlikely historical source. When organizers began reading them together, however, they found a running account of Newburgh during a period when its population, businesses and physical landscape were changing.
“If you put them side by side and read them week after week, you get an unbelievable view of this city in change,” said Jeff Doolittle, the executive director of the Historical Society.
The exhibition places Pope within that transformation, including maps showing how Newburgh expanded from a village clustered near the Hudson River into a growing urban area over the 19th century. His columns also offered glimpses into places that have since disappeared, including the Long Dock along the waterfront, where Pope recalled spending time writing and watching people come and go.
One of the exhibition’s more unexpected findings was that Pope performed as a magician. He practiced what was then called legerdemain, known today as sleight of hand and appeared before audiences, with his performances receiving coverage in local newspapers.
Pope’s involvement in Newburgh extended into the city’s civic life, with him serving with a local militia, joining the fire department and later helping with Newburgh’s 1883 centennial celebration, where he oversaw decorations, displays and grandstands.
His paintings, meanwhile, documented many of the landscapes around him. Pope painted familiar views of Newburgh, the Hudson River and the Highlands, while his writings showed an attachment to Newburgh that remained evident throughout his life.
“He travels late in life after he gets a little bit of money to Paris and he’s talking about the Champs-Élysées,” Doolittle said. “And he’s saying [it’s] kind of like a big Grand Street, referring everything back to Newburgh.”
The project has also connected the Historical Society with living members of Pope’s family and the Beacon Historical Society, which provided materials for th exhibition. Organizers say they are developing a walking tour of Newburgh locations associated with Pope and working on a catalog to accompany the exhibition.
Crawford House was built in 1830 as the home of Capt. David Crawford, a War of 1812 veteran and shipper who operated a dock near the Hudson River. The house remained in the hands of several Newburgh families before the Historical Society purchased it in the 1950s when the property faced the possibility of being sold and demolished for a parking lot, according to Doolittle.
The Historical Society, which was founded in 1883, has since used Crawford House as a historic house museum, archive and programming space. Among the materials preserved is an original military discharge signed by George Washington and a 1713 map showing early property allotments in the area that became Newburgh.
The Thomas Pope exhibition will remain at Crawford House through the end of the year. The museum is open Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., or by appointment and during special events.