Healing Hands that Broke Barriers: New York’s Women in Medicine
(April 22 – October 31, 2025)
Dr. Jackson’s Office in the museum’s Country Village
From healers and midwives to herbalists and family caregivers, women have always practiced medicine. However, as the American medical field professionalized in the 18th and 19th centuries, women found themselves simultaneously barred from the formal training increasingly required to practice and marginalized within their historic domain of reproductive care.
In this climate, trailblazing New Yorkers stepped forward to reclaim women’s place in medicine. Differing in their motivations and backgrounds, each shouldered discrimination and pressure to excel in their quests to become doctors, improve health care for underserved groups, and remove barriers for the women who followed. Explore the story of these pioneering women that led the charge.
Sponsored in part by Nellie and Robert Gipson, and NYCM Insurance.
Mary Augusta Ostrander Bassett, 1876
Washington G. Smith
Glass plate negative
Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Gift of Arthur J. Telfer, N0226.1951(3-00793)
Mary E. Walker, ca. 1865
Mathew B. Brady
Albumen print on card mount
Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
The Buzz about Pollinators
(April 1 – October 31, 2025)
Main Barn Exhibition Space
This interactive exhibit is all about bees and the many other insects and organisms like them that help make farming possible. It explores the topic of pollinators in New York State and their important role in the production of some of the state’s leading crops, including apples, honey, and maple syrup. The exhibit also examines climate change and other threats that pollinators face and how everyone can help them continue to thrive.
Sponsored in part by Nellie and Robert Gipson, and NYCM Insurance.
Gavin and Angelika Underwood at Underwood Ranch, Unadilla, NY, 2017, Wesley Bernard. Fenimore Farm, Cooperstown, New York Plowline: Images of Rural New York. A project of Fenimore Farm supported by the Gipson Family. Gift of Wesley Bernard. F0003.2019(02)
Natalia Chiarelli, Beekeeper for Nectar Hill Farms and Origins Café. Natalia helps to take care of many beehives for small local farm operations, as well as her own beehives at home.
