Presidential Library and Museum

to host a display of authentic

Hudson Valley Ice Yachts

December 21, 2023

through January 7, 2024

Henry A. Wallace Center

FDR Library and Home

Free admission during

regular visitor center hours

HYDE PARK, NY -- The FDR Presidential Library will host a display of authentic Hudson Valley ice yachts from December 21, 2023 through January 7, 2024. Ice yachts on display will include KRISS, built for FDR's uncle John Aspinwall Roosevelt, CYCLONE, built for Herman Livingston Rogers, son of the Roosevelt’s Hyde Park neighbor Archibald Rogers, and 999, built for the owners of the J. G. Bodenstein Ice Tool Company in Staatsburgh, New York in the 1870s. The display is presented by the Hudson River Ice Yacht Preservation Trust and Hudson River Ice Yacht Club. The boats can be seen -- with full rigging -- in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home, during regular operating hours (9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.), with free admission. The facilities are closed on Christmas and New Years Day. For more information visit @hudsonrivericeboats on Instagram and www.hriypt.org.

Additional items and artifacts relating to winter sports and Hudson Valley ice yachting culture -- belonging to both the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site and the Roosevelt Library -- will also be displayed in the visitor center and museum. These artifacts include an antique toboggan used by FDR in his youth from the National Park Service collection, displayed in the visitor center. Regular admission to the museum is required to view the Library’s artifacts. 

KRISS was built in 1898 by George Buckhout of Poughkeepsie, New York for FDR’s uncle, John Aspinwall Roosevelt -- one of the original members of the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club (1861), and, later, commodore of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (1885). Like most antique ice yachts, KRISS is a gaff-rigged sloop design. John A. Roosevelt had a small fleet of ice boats that sailed off of Roosevelt Point. His most famous ice yacht was ICICLE -- 4-time winner of the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. His daughter, Ellen Crosby Roosevelt, occasionally raced KRISS, as well. Former Hudson River Ice Yacht Club commodore Robert Wills maintains and sails this boat today.

CYCLONE was built by Charles Van Loan in Hyde Park, New York in 1900, for Herman Livingston Rogers, son of Archibald Rogers. Rogers was a neighbor and good friend of the Roosevelt family. The Rogers family had one of the largest collections of ice boats in the mid-Hudson area at the turn of the 20th century, including JACK FROST -- also a 4-time winner of the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. CYCLONE sailed the Hudson River off of the Rogers estate, Crumwold Hall in Hyde Park, and is maintained and sailed today by Brian and Lisa Reid of Red Hook, New York.

Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the display.