Preservation Long Island Announces Fall Programs for Wood and Water Exhibition

Cold Spring Harbor, NY— Preservation Long Island’s exhibition, Wood and Water: Furniture on Long Island, 1660–1860 explores two centuries of Long Island history through furniture and related decorative arts. On view through November 22, 2026, the exhibition opened this summer at Preservation Long Island’s Gallery in Cold Spring Harbor. Special exhibition-related tours and experiences will be offered throughout the remainder of the exhibition’s run, both at the gallery and at offsite locations.

Incorporating objects ranging from high-style chests to everyday seating furniture, Wood and Water interprets a cross-section of Long Island society during these formative centuries in American history, allowing for a furniture-led reflection on our nation’s past. Visitors to the exhibition will discover the work of the region’s unsung craftspeople, including Quaker joiners, Black makers, women upholsterers, Dutch turners, and Indigenous weavers, alongside the furniture they crafted and used. From the workshop to the home, these objects reveal global networks of exchange, identity, and innovation during a period of profound change.

“Wood and Water reflects our commitment to promoting Long Island’s role in American history and the decorative arts. We have been thrilled to welcome more than one thousand visitors from across the region to the exhibition since its opening day. Interest in early Long Island furniture also extends beyond the region, as demonstrated by the many people from outside the area who participated in the exhibition’s virtual program,” said Jackie Powers, Executive Director of Preservation Long Island. “By highlighting furniture made on Long Island and the many skilled craftspeople who contributed to this tradition, we hope visitors and program participants will gain a deeper appreciation for the region’s furniture-making history and a better understanding of how, over two centuries, Long Islanders made and used furniture to engage with the wider world.”

“More than half of the forty objects on display have never been exhibited and span two centuries, from the English conquest of New Netherland to the eve of the American Civil War,” said Lauren Brincat, Preservation Long Island’s Chief Curator and Director of Collections. “Wood and Water draws from Preservation Long Island’s extensive holdings, incorporating recent research that has identified previously unknown makers and owners, as well as objects on loan from regional public and private collections.”

“Some of Long Island’s earliest European colonists made furniture for a living,” noted Steven Baltsas, Preservation Long Island’s Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Fellow. “Long Island furniture design reflects the economies, customs, and fashions of places near and far, while drawing upon materials sourced from the Island’s natural landscape.”

Exhibition Location and Hours

Location:

Preservation Long Island Exhibition Gallery

161 Main Street

Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724

Dates: Now through November 22, 2026

Hours: Thursday-Sunday from 12:00 pm–5:00 pm

Visit the Exhibition page for additional opening hours that may be scheduled during the exhibition. https://preservationlongisland.org/wood-and-water/

Exhibition Public Programs

Related programs and events will take place throughout the run of the exhibition and include:

Tour of the Dominy Workshops in East Hampton: This special tour will take visitors through the 18th-century house and workshops of some of Long Island’s most celebrated craftspeople and highlight authentic Dominy pieces in the East Hampton Historical Society’s collection. After touring the Dominy Shops, the tour will bring visitors to the nearby Hook Windmill, which was built by Nathaniel Dominy V in 1806. – September 26, 2026

Exhibition Curator Tour: Wood and Water exhibition curators Lauren Brincat and Steven Baltsas will lead a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the exhibition and trace 200 years of Long Island furniture history, craftsmanship, and culture. – October 24, 2026

Curator Tour of The Metropolitan Museum of Art American Wing (For Preservation Long Island Members only): Participants will have special access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art while it is closed to the public and the museum’s Curator of Decorative Arts Alyce Perry Englund will lead Preservation Long Island members on a guided tour of The American Wing. – November 4, 2026

Historic Furniture Making Experience: Lead by Rick Liegl, known as the “Colonial Craftsman of Connecticut,” participants will watch a live woodworking demonstration using the same methods practiced by Long Island craftspeople in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and have the opportunity to try out traditional tools and techniques. – November 21, 2026

Advance registration is required for these programs.

Exhibition Catalog

Wood and Water is presented in celebration of two significant milestones: the 50th anniversary of Preservation Long Island’s landmark publication, Long Island is My Nation: The Decorative Arts and Craftsmen, 1640–1830, and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A special expanded exhibition catalog has been published to accompany Wood and Water. This richly illustrated publication includes extended entries for objects featured in the exhibition as well as essays by contributing historians.

Support

Support for the exhibition and catalog are provided in part by Richard Hampton Jenrette

Foundation, The Decorative Arts Trust, and The Gerry Charitable Trust.

Lenders to the Exhibition

Objects on loan from the following collections:

• Huntington Historical Society
• Old Bethpage Village Restoration
• Oysterponds Historical Society
• Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum
• Southampton Historical Museum
• Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society
• The Long Island Museum
• Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society
• St. John’s Episcopal Church, Huntington
• Six Private Collectors

About Preservation Long Island

Preservation Long Island is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to celebrate and preserve

Long Island’s diverse cultural and architectural heritage through advocacy, education, and

stewardship of historic sites and collections.

http://preservationlongisland.org

Preservation Long Island maintains and interprets four historic sites, including the collections housed within each, that embody various aspects of Long Island’s history: