I passed two blissful hours engaging over one hundred paintings, mostly major paintings, of the Hudson River School. What a signature achievement for the Albany Institute, which the museum chose to exhibit salon style with numbers keyed to a book. Although flipping through the book made a minor burden, I sat on a bench and read the book entirely before touring the paintings. I delighted when reading and the experience of standing before the work meshed, and I feel I understand this movement far better than ever.

A few paintings were on loan for major exhibitions, such as the Gifford exhibition. It helps only a little when one has just a print of the original to engage. What if a reproduction was painted?

We must applaud the choice to exhibit Abby's American Girl paintings on the same floor as the superb show of eighteenth century gowns recently curated. Abby's mother worked as a seamstress. In a final American Girl painting, Abby pictured standing reverently by Abraham Lincoln's casket worked well exhibited near a collection of Lincoln items, including an engraving.

In an ultimate moment of serendipity, a portrait of Thomas Cole, dressed as a dandy because his paintings were selling, introduced the collection of Cole and his Hudson River peers. The Cole portrait was included in a show of portraiture that one encountered on the way to the Hudson River show, a pleasant introduction.

A lovely building constructed of glass panels connects two mansions, a great architectural solution to making two buildings one. However, I got a little lost trying to reach the third floor shows and my conversations showed that I was not alone. We all wound up in the Rice Building area before we asked for help!