History, Landscape, and Public Memory in the Adirondacks

The History of the Adirondacks offers Upper School students a dynamic opportunity to explore the environmental and political history of one of New York’s most iconic landscapes. Led by History Teacher and Department Chair Stefan Stawnychy, the course uses case studies centered on Indigenous land, abolitionism, conservation, and equity in outdoor recreation to deepen students’ understanding of the region and its broader significance.

Last spring, 16 members of the class of 2026 culminated their study with a five-day immersive expedition into the Adirondacks, the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States. During their journey, students camped in primitive conditions, canoed across expansive lakes, endured unpredictable spring weather, and visited key historical sites. More than a change of scenery, the trip reflected the School’s commitment to experiential learning by engaging the senses, testing resilience, and connecting intellectual inquiry with lived experience.

The history of Timbuctoo—a community of Black settlers who received land grants from abolitionist Gerrit Smith beginning in 1846—became a central focus of the course. The grants were part of a political strategy intended to help Black men meet New York State’s property requirement for voting. Although Timbuctoo occupies an important place in the history of abolitionism, land ownership, and Black citizenship, much of its history has been obscured by an incomplete archival record and by the physical landscape itself.

Working in groups, students were asked to design a fully realized physical memorial to Timbuctoo. As the assignment emphasized, this was not simply a monument-building exercise: a memorial makes an argument about what matters, who should be remembered, and how a landscape can preserve or suppress history. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, maps, spatial reasoning, and their study of Amy Godine’s Black Woods, students considered how public design could respond to historical erasure.

Each group selected a location for its memorial: the original North Elba grant land, an outdoor area at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site, or a site within the village of Lake Placid. Students weighed the benefits and limitations of each setting and considered what their proposals could contribute beyond the existing Route 86 historical marker and the Dreaming of Timbuctoo exhibit at John Brown Farm.

Their final designs included maps, visual renderings, materials, inscriptions, scale, and descriptions of how a visitor would approach, move through, and leave the memorial. Students were also required to name documented settlers, including Lyman Eppes and James Henderson, while making the fragmentary nature of the historical record visible rather than presenting an artificially complete account. The project asked them to think critically about whose names enter public memory, how historical uncertainty should be represented, and what responsibilities accompany the commemoration of a community.

After Stefan shared the completed projects with Martha Swan of John Brown Lives!, she arranged for the students to present their designs at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. Their audience included representatives from John Brown Lives! and the historic site, members of the local community, visitors, scholars, and activists. Historian and author Amy Godine joined via Zoom and engaged directly with students about their research, interpretations, and design choices.

Godine’s The Black Woods was central to the project. Stefan describes the book as “an indispensable resource offering both sweeping context and personal stories that bring this history into sharper focus.” Through close engagement with the text, students examined the processes through which Timbuctoo had been rendered nearly invisible and considered how the recovery of names, records, and individual lives can challenge historical erasure.

Stefan’s own love for the Adirondacks began in his teenage years and continued through roles as a camp counselor and director. With support from a Third Century Grant, he mapped out the ambitious trip, combining academic rigor with outdoor exploration. “Part of what I love about Friends is having the academic freedom to explore and share my passions,” he said. “It’s exciting to open a window to a part of New York that is new to many students. Outdoor education has been a part of the Friends experience for many years, and this course is a meaningful extension of that tradition.”

Whether navigating the wilderness or considering how history should be represented in a public landscape, students returned from the Adirondacks with a deeper understanding of how place, memory, citizenship, and identity intersect.

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