“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” lamented Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, who might have fared better had he been adrift on one of New York State’s 7,600 bodies of fresh water. That the quenching of thirst is but one of water’s attributes is illuminated by “Water/Ways,” a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution that will open at the Clinton Academy Museum in East Hampton on Saturday and remain on view through April 11.
The exhibition was designed so that institutions planning to show it would augment it as well. The East Hampton Historical Society, which is hosting it in cooperation with the Museum Association of New York, has contributed three large photo murals encompassing some 40 historic photographs about three different aspects of water in East Hampton, according to Richard Barons, the society’s chief curator.
“We have some pretty amazing photographs of duck hunting from 1900 to the 1940s in Montauk,” said Mr. Barons. “Those things have not often been shown to the public.” He noted that once the Long Island Railroad was extended to Montauk in 1895, hunters had a “big push” to travel there by train on weekends.
A second photo mural, including postcards and photo blow-ups, documents summer beach life from Montauk to Wainscott over a 40-year period. The third, which focuses on ice “for fun and profit,” shows icehouses in Montauk, skating on the pond as captured by a local artist in the 1940s, and images of ice fishing.
The exhibition explores water’s effect on landscape, settlement, and migration, and its impact on culture and spirituality. It also examines how political and economic planning have long been affected by access to water and control of water resources.
In addition to the materials provided by the historical society, the exhibit includes photographs, text panels, objects, video, interactive touchscreen computer kiosks, and a touchable model of a watershed.The historical society will offer a series of public programs, including watercolor workshops for children and adults, and a staged reading on March 29 of the play “Salt Water People,” which focuses on the plight of Long Island’s baymen. A lecture series will include “What Is a Waterway Anyway” on March 12 and “History of Montaukett/Shinnecock Fishing” on March 20.
An opening reception will be held Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.
