Series I. Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley Before 1776

Series I consists of original film and glass negatives and copy photographs of Dutch houses taken during the 1920s to serve as illustrations for Helen Wilkinson Reynolds' landmark book Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley Before 1776 (1929). Negatives and copy prints are filed together, and are arranged according to the book's plate numbers (ie. R-7 corresponds to Reynolds plate number 7). Copy photographs exist for about three quarters of the negatives; every image has a negative, with a few exceptions which are noted in this finding aid. Alternative views that were not published in the book are included in this collection and are filed under the published image's plate number.

The first seventeen plates are views of locations throughout the Hudson Valley which provide examples of typical structures and landscapes. Thereafter, plates are arranged by New York State county in the following order: Albany, Ulster, Westchester, and Dutchess Counties. Thereunder, photographs are filed by the name of the original owner. Researchers should note that the Albany County category includes several counties which fell within its original boundaries; these include Columbia, Rensselaer, Greene and Schenectady Counties. Occasionally other county designations used in the book do not reflect modern geographic boundaries; titles are annotated in parentheses with the present county if it differs from the original.

The few photographs that were not published in the book in any form or variation are filed at the beginning of the appropriate county. Address and family names reflect those published in the book. Some of the buildings and addresses no longer exist.