The New England Hurricane of 1938, also called the Great Hurricane, had just plowed across Long Island. It left dozens dead, houses washed away, and sliced part of Long Island in half, creating the Shinnecock Inlet that we know today. The hurricane, unexpected and ferocious, was aided by the highest tide of the year (it was the Autumnal Equinox), and at high tide for New England. The hurricane slammed so hard into Long Island that seismographs 3,000 miles away registered as an earthquake.

It was now heading for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. In 1938, communications were slow and spotty. The coastal towns of New England were completely unprepared. Weather reports had called for “cloudy conditions” and “gusty winds,” which was not unusual for New England coastlines.

The extreme storm surge of the 1938 hurricane was beyond anything coastal residents in New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut had ever experienced or written about. There was no historical comparison. Several survivors along the coast of Rhode Island, stated that at the height of the hurricane, they saw a 40-foot fog bank rolling toward the beach, when the bank got closer, they realized it wasn’t fog – it was water (Whipple – 1940).

The [combination] of a 16 to 20-foot tidal surge and wind gusts that may have reached 150-mph – leveled 1 out of every 3 buildings along the coast of eastern Long Island, southeast Connecticut and southern Rhode Island. Along the open-ocean facing coastal roads in Rhode Island and Long Island – the damage was horrific. Whole beach communities were swept away – some without a trace.

The greatest sufferers of the hurricane were undoubtedly the residents of Napatree Point in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. This was a beachfront area, filled with large homes built on the beaches only yards away from the Atlantic. This was one of several areas entirely wiped out by the hurricane.

Helen Joy Lee, daughter of the founder of the Packard Motor Car Company and living on the beach, had watched the weather as the winds strengthened and the water rose. She recollected:

It was all I could do to close the front door against it. Spray and sand came under the door. … I watched sand piles built up on the floor. Debris that had gone to sea with the wind from the northeast began to come back and crash on the house. A piece of the roof went and …[in] a few minutes I was ankle deep in the water.

I saw our 3-car garage lifted up and dropped into the bay. I had to hold on with both hands against the force of the wind. I got soaked with each wave as it went over the house. …

[A] piece of house (6′ x 8′) came by and I crawled onto that; it was like a surf board. This was pretty exposed and as I came up the side of a wave, a board like bookcase shelf hit me across the left eye. … (My head and face were cut and bruised so, that I could not stand to have my hair touched for four days in the hospital.)…

A mattress came along that seemed to be moving faster than I was, so I changed steeds, pushing through all manner of wreckage. The mattress was very comfortable for my bad arm. …I would have stayed on the mattress, but part of a boat came along faster, so I changed again. …It offered protection from debris, too, and I lay in that. …

Shortly after I got into the boat, I heard a different scratching, and looking, I saw I was going over some treetops. (They are twenty feet above the usual water level.). Soon my boat stopped, and debris began piling up against it.

Helen was out to sea for 12 hours, until a rescue boat picked her up.

Picture a person in dirty blue shorts, a gray sweater full of holes, pieces of grass and briars still hanging to it, the black eyes, hair wild, legs the same size from above the knees down, and a mass of scratches, mud, blood, bruises and deep gashes; feet so swollen the toes looked like brass tacks stuck into upholstery, and of course, one arm inside the sweater. …

Later [the doctor] told me (he’s known me 33 years) that he didn’t recognize me — I looked so terrible. Saturday, my left eye began to open. I said to the nurse, “What is the matter with my left eyebrows — they are hanging down in my eye?”

She said, “That’s not ‘eyebrow,’ that is an inch long stick of wood in the bridge of your nose. When they set your arm, they will take it out.”

Another amazing survival story was of one Rhode Island family who noticed the water seeping into their three-storey home. They realized the ocean water had surrounded the house but it was too late to escape, so their only way was up. The waters flooded the first floor, so the family moved to the second floor. The waters flooded the second floor, and to the third level they climbed. Finally in the third floor of the house with no where else to go, the house gave a tremendous shudder and was cast into the swirling waters. The family clung to the floorboards, and miraculously, the section of that house stayed intact. They floated all the way to Connecticut. I’m sure they appreciated their skillful carpenter from this!

Not all stories had happy endings. Arthur Small, lighthouse keeper of New Bedford, CT, was duty-bound to keep the cape lighthouse lit; but he was concerned for his wife’s safety. He sent her away from the danger of the lighthouse, only for her to perish while fleeing for safety. You can read their story here.

The hurricane was now starting to touch the cold waters of Maine and Canada, and was losing it’s power. However the high tide and storm surge fueled by the winds hit the coastal bays, which acted as funnels to the cities inland. Providence, Rhode Island, was completely inundated with up to 16 feet of water surging through the streets. Many people were drowned in their automobiles.

After the shock of the hurricane, which waned at around 7pm that evening, looters pillaged the cities and violence erupted in areas. Even after all the tragic events of the hurricane, storm surge, flooding, looting, and aftershocks of seeing the destruction the next day, The New England Hurricane got hardly any mention in the newspapers. They were, instead, filled with pre-war provocations in Europe. New England has been on its own before the hurricane, and they were on their own after. Americans hardly knew what had happened.

How times have changed!

You can read more about the New England Hurricane here:

The Long Island Express
PBS: The American Experience, The Hurricane of ’38
Wikipedia’s The New England Hurricane of 1938

The mummy was obtained by library patrician Robert J Hubbard, who traveled to Egypt in 1894. He came back with a variety of strange and ancient artifacts specifically for this museum. The mummy is called the Cazenovia Mummy and is believed to be 2110 years old (the person who is now mummified is determined to have lived about 104 B.C.).

The information was a little confusing. There was plenty of documentation and books about the mummy, but there was no place to sit down and read it all. From what I could gather, there were TWO mummies brought to Cazenovia, but one of them deteriorated. The mummy we saw was well-preserved, and was estimated to be a 30-50 year-old female. You can click on the pictures and then click “ALL SIZES” for a large enough view to read the pages of the book.

Lots of tests were done on the mummy. The DNA of the person is too deteriorated, but experts were able to come up with a loose idea of what the person must have looked like.

A CAT Scan and X-ray were done of the mummy too. There was a huge chart of all the results.

And guess what? The mummy came to New York with her pet cat!

It was a great visit and the Museum of Oddities certainly lived up to its name!

Albany is New York State’s capital city. The Hudson River connects Albany with New York City. Historically, this wateroute has been the only way people could move from New York City to Upstate New York. Therefore Albany has been an extremely ethically-diverse city from the beginning.

We arrived to Albany early Sunday morning, barely making it in time for the church service (Albany is a 2 hours+ drive for us). The church service was sweet and simple. The parson preached from Matthew 18:15 (“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”). There were not many people attending the church that day (I guess on Labor Day, many clear out of the city and head for the vacation areas), but the people we did meet were extremely friendly. One lady (I think her name was Mary) offered to take us for a light tour of the church. What a treat! She took us to the front of the sanctuary, and showed us the famous pulpit.

(My pictures came out poorly due to insufficient light. You may want to view a better photo here).

There was a lovely banner to one side of the chancel. Mary told us it was called The Lily Among the Thorns, dating back to the 16th century. It was a Dutch rallying symbol when Catholic Spain had attempted to wipe out the Dutch Protestants. The banner translates, “Like a lily among the thorns, so is my beloved among the maidens.”

We also saw a lovely window made by Louis Tiffany, which seemed to be the pride and joy of the congregation.

Something even more intriguing, in my opinion, was the framed Charter of Incorporation, established in the 1720 and signed by King George I. It was a stunning preservation. A huge wax medallion with the King’s seal hung from the charter. I was not allowed to take a photo because the flash could diminish its ancient writing. We also saw the historical 1656 Dutch weathercock, which had been the city’s central landmark until after the Revolutionary War.

Today, the church has few Dutch members, but boasts a huge multicultural congregation. They have a large ministry dedicated to helping the poor of the city, too. I was intrigued by hearing about their “drive in” services they offer.

There is a beautiful cobblestone-paved park next to the church with benches, trees, and flowers. We walked through it and it was lovely. It had a European, cottage-garden atmosphere. It is named “Clee Park,” in honor of one of the church’s previous pastors. I didn’t get a good photo of the park, but you can see a portion of it in the picture below.

If we are ever in Albany on a Sunday, we hope to visit again!