The Hudson-Fulton Commission made it a priority that a naval parade and maritime-themed keynote addresses be prominent features of the week-long celebration. Captain Miller, a member of the Commission, spoke of the importance of the celebration and how the committee went about organizing it. He said of 
its conception, “Beginning with the sole object of doing honor to the Hudson, our horizon was enlarged, and through successive municipal, state, and indirect governmental supervision, resulted in a celebration of International importance”[1]. The celebration, as indicate by Miller, grew in scope from an event about revelry to an important history lesson for citizens of New York City. The return of New York City to its roots at the riverside was a major theme of the celebration. The crowds began to gather at that waterfront early on the morning of September 25th, 1909 in the “natural amphitheatre” of Riverside Park between 72nd and 130th Street for a not only a lesson on history already made, but a glimpse of the progress to come.
Hudson—His Story and History
Hudson’s voyage down the Hudson represented for the commission the struggle and perseverance through hardships, and Fulton’s invention symbolized man’s eventual triumph over those hardships. The Commission’s plan for aquatic sports, however, were a way for the commission to use the river as a place of recreation, “an opportunity for the expression of the spirit of pleasure in friendly competitions”. [2] The use of the river as a place of recreation was another progressivestep in its evolution. While it was first an obstacle for those traveling upstream, the Hudson had now been tamed to the point that people could now use it for fun. The Hudson had been tamed. The surrounding area also underwent a huge transformation as the dedications of parks throughout the celebration and alterations to the scenery were numerous. The creation and dedication of these parks emphasized what the Commission called the “aesthetic side of the Celebration”.[3] The aesthetic side of the explanation hoped to emphasize the river as New York’s oldest source of beauty, a trait of the river that was often forgotten as it eventually became a site of commerce and transportation. One of the major parks dedicated during the celebration was Inwood Hill Park, directly next to Spuyten Deyvil, the body of water separating Manhattan and the Bronx. Considered a crowning achievement for New York City parks, it emphasized the Hudson’s beauty and majesty by offering green space adjacent to the body of water.
The Hudson-Fulton Commission heavily emphasized through its programming and literature the majesty and grandeur of a simple trip down the Hudson River. But, how did the people of 1909 view the Hudson River? Or, more interestingly and more importantly, how were people taught t
o view the river and its relationship to Henry Hudson around the time of the celebration? “Scientific American” ran an article on the history of the Hudson on the first day of the festivities about the discovery of the river, as well as the role of Hudson in the founding of Manhattan. Firstly, Hudson was not the first adventurer to brave the Hudson. In fact, the article names at least two other explorers- Verazzano and Vasquez d’Allyon-who previously braved the Hudson. Capt. John Smith most probably persuaded Hudson to go down the “Grande River,” one of the Hudson’s many names, as it was believed that this river was the gateway to Asia. People thought the distance from the Hudson to the Pacific Ocean did not include all the land in the United States. Little was known about Hudson’s life; therefore, the article concentrates on his voyages as a source of biographical information. His first two voyages, in 1607 and 1608, involved going northward rather than down the Hudson. It was on his third voyage in 1609 that he finally traversed the Hudson. A year later Hudson’s crew mutinied him and set him and his son down the river aboard a small dinghy boat. They were never seen again and probably died from starvation or exposure to the elements. This article of the Hudson succeeds in portraying a very important aspect of Henry Hudson. He was one of the first people to sacrifice his life to help build America. The multiple publications surrounding Hudson effectively branded him one of the first American heroes, and no doubt inspired many to live up to the precedent set by the first man to traverse the hardships of the Hudson River Valley.
Picturesque Hudson
Many books and volumes about the Hudson were released contemporaneous to the “Scientific American” article, and the celebration. This publication frenzy spanned several mediums, including: books, periodicals, postcards, and photography. Clifton Johnson wrote The Picturesque Hudson, as part of The Picturesque River Series, in 1909. Along with prose, the book supplied a wealth of pictures, inviting readers on a journey up the Hudson. The journey the viewer of the pictures made was meant to paralle
l that of Hudson himself, and hopefully inspire national pride through not only the beauty of the river, but the courage of Henry Hudson. While the nation was making huge strides in the field of transportation, Johnson reminded those that, before railroads and bridges, the Hudson River was the site of much of New York’s earliest traffic. Johnson noted that before railroads came along, most towns had a small fleet of five or six sailing vessels, and with “so numerous a white-winged fleet on its waters, the Hudson must have had a beauty which it does not attain at present”.[4] Johnson links the two major figures celebrated by the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. In referencing the steamboat, he speaks of the progress in transportation that has been made, but in referencing the sailing vessels, Johnson hopes to transport people to a time when the river was still a place of beauty and commerce, rather than a place of commerce alone. The visual image used by Johnson, meant to transport people back to another time in the Hudson River’s history, matches many of the Commission’s aims in broadening the scope of the celebration from mere celebration to internationally important event. Both attempt to show the evolution and the river, and that this evolution has always been central to the history of the city by which it runs.
Hudson and Fulton—Brothers in Progress
Johnson links the two celebrated figures—Hudson and Fulton—in his description of the Hudson past and present. He later goes even further in linking Hudson to Fulton by describing Fulton’s revolutionary effect on the Hudson River. Johnson points out that steam vessels had been attempted as early as the late 1600’s, but to no success. Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, American minister to France, while living in Paris and they immediately became fascinated with the idea of a steam propelled water vessel. After a failed attempt at putting a steam vessel on the Seine, they came to New York and succeeded in building the Clermont and setting sail on the Hudson. One writer in speaking of its departure said, “Nothing could exceed the surprise and admiration of all who witnessed the experiment. Before the Clermont had made the progress of a quarter of a mile, the greatest unbeliever must have been converted”[5]. Johnson also points out
that, as he had earlier alluded, all steam vessels were used primarily for commerce in their first years of operation. The Hudson was therefore transforming into a place for business, and not solely a place of pleasure, as originally intended by many. One has to wonder what the people of New York must have thought as they saw their ordinary river of commerce transformed into a circus of international proportions.
The Hudson River was utilized in several different ways during the 1909 celebration in order to educate the citizenry concerning the beauty and history of the river and its centrality to the foundation of the city. Looking at the river’s role in history helps to understand more about the relationship of peoples and cultures to the river before and during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Only the seventy-first-longest river in the United States, the Hudson runs through some of the loveliest land in the entire nation. It begins in the Lake Tear of the Clouds and stretches all the way to New York Bay. During the nineteenth century, rapid change came to the Hudson Valley. Its banks became a stage on which the experimental theatre of modernity played out—with factories and laboratories as its characters. The wealthy and the artistic began to flock to the river. New York City’s rising status in the nineteenth century as a metropolis, and much later as preeminent amongst world cities, becomes easier to understand when looking at the Hudson River as having a history parallel to that of the city. On its banks were the factory workers making strides in technology, the artists bringing a culture of painting to the city, and the “new” New York City elite with their new money.
The Hudson as World River
Benson John Lossing, a prolific American historian, wrote in 1866 of the Hudson River that it “presents no gray and crumbling monuments…no fine old castles…no splendid abbey or cathedrals…Nor can it boast of mansions and ancestral homes wherein a line of heroes have been born, or illustrious families have lived and died, generation after generation”[6]. Lossing attempts to compare the Hudson River to its European counterparts. Comparisons of America to Europe abounded during the Celebration, as Americans hoped to show that they had their own significant culture, technology, beauty, and grandeur. A distinctly American brand was being made. Lossing describes features that would make the Hudson more of a great European river-like the Rhine, the Thames, or the Seine. The comparison of the Hudson to other European rivers shows a hope for America to reach European greatness, but, the Hudson, and America had already demonstrated greatness. So important is the Hudson that, even in post-Civil War era, many referenced it as “the American Rhine,” due to its centrality and attractiveness. Both rivers lead explorers into the continent, and both boast of castles, landed estates, and vineyards that line their shores.
Hudson Rivers Influence on American Literature
The Hudson garnered much of its importance and notoriety as an escape for the well-to-do from the noise of the city. Washington Irving used the Hudson, and the cities along its banks, as the background for some of American folklore’s most important tales. The inclusion of not only a distinctly American literary voice, but a distinctly New York literary voice was paramount to the Celebration’s aspirations. Washington Irving not only represented the flourishing of culture in the Hudson Valley, but the quality of the prose produced by American literati. Writing as Geoffrey Crayon, in his Sketch
Book¸ Irving created characters such as Rip van Winkle, the Headless Horsemen, and Ichabod Crane who have stayed in the American literary canon ever since their invention around 150 years ago. Many of these characters enjoyed the spotlight on floats in may of the celebration’s parades. Using these figures in a parade was nothing short of offering patriotism on a platter to the citizens of New York. Lankevich, in his book River of Dreams claims that many travelers on the Hudson knew that “not a mountain reared its head unconnected with some marvelous story” [7]and that his description of these mountains charmed a nation. Irving himself is quoted as saying, “I fancy I can trace much of what is good and pleasant in my own heterogeneous compound to my early companionship with this glorious river. The Hudson is…my first and last love…”.[8]
The Hudson had come to be used in many different ways since it was traveled by Henry Hudson in 1906. It had been used as a commercial center and as a center for the gathering of literati and artists. Why is the Hudson River just as important and vital to New York as the Seine is to Paris, the Rhine to Germany, the Thames to London, the Nile to Egypt, or the Tigris and Euphrates to Mesopotamia? Is there a difference in that the Hudson does not run through, but rather alongside, New York City? Rivers were places apt for the growth of civilizations, as water is subsistence for irrigation, daily living, transportation, commerce, communication, and many other important resources. Some rivers, like the Seine, cut a town in half and give it some much needed breathing room. The Hudson instead becomes more of an escapist setting for those who need to take a break from the congestion of the city. The Hudson River had undergone several radical changes as to how it was viewed by the public it serves. First serving as a gateway to the discovery of New York, it was now the stage on which a history of New York City would be played for its citizens. Hudson-Fulton, at its heart, was an attempt by the Commission to not only understand the River as the bed of New York City’s history, but to emphasize its continuing importance in the present day as an escape from a growing, globalized city.
The earliest parts of the city grew up around the water, either riverside on the west side, or down on the harbor, and these are the very sections of the city emphasized by the celebration. The river eventually acquired a dual purpose. While more and more commerce made its way to the river, the Hudson was also a place where the rich built their houses. 
However, in 1909, the role that the Hudson plays best is that of the stage. No matter what era in history is being highlighted, the Hudson has been a stage for the playing out of social and political issues. On its banks and in the water has been an evolution of ideas and technologies. Once a place of beauty and beautiful vessels, it was transformed into a place of commerce by Fulton’s steamboat. It had fallen in and out of favor time and again with the New York City elite. Everything from wealthy aristocratic mansions, to poor farming towns, to industrial businesses has enjoyed use of the Hudson. When New York was growing in industry, industry and steam propulsion came to the river. But, when it was time in 1909 for the city to learn its history in the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, it was vital for the commission to bring the celebration to the river, and not simply hold parades in the streets to highlight the Hudson. This return to the river, and the rebuilding of the Half-Moon and the Clermont was an ultimate visual reminder of the importance of the river. Just as Johnson in his book juxtaposed Hudson and Fulton to show the changing role of the river, so did the Hudson Fulton commission juxtapose the Half-Moon and Clermont to show the people of New York the changing role of their river throughout history. By educating the masses as to the changing role of the Hudson River, the Hudson Fulton Commission succeeded in two goals: bringing the people of the city back to their origins at the river, and teaching New Yorkers the history of a river which was central to the evolution of the city in which they lived.
