Over the last two decades, the state of New York has been a significant player in the rise of craft beer, dazzling consumers with some of largest and most well-respected craft breweries in the country. However, it turns out that beer has long held a special place in the Empire State, illuminated by a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society called “Beer Here.”
According to an article in The New York Times, the exhibit examines the history, culture, and popularity of beer in New York, tracing its roots in Colonial times and follows the path of the beverage into the twentieth century.
“Beer was very important to New Yorkers from the earliest point of colonization,” museum curator Debra Schmidt Bach told the Times. “The Dutch [who were some of the first colonists in the state] have a strong beer tradition, so it was a very common drink in their culture, and that’s true for the English, as well.”
Capitalizing on the growing interest and consumption of craft beer in the U.S., the exhibit is packed with beer-related artifacts from beer orders for George Washington’s troops to old packages of hops from the 1800’s to advertisements for Rheingold beer from the 1950s and 1960s which featured women from the brewery’s “Miss Rheingold” beauty contest. And, of course, the museum display couldn’t be complete with beer itself, so the curators were kind enough to add at bar at the end of the exhibit.
You can read the full article on the exhibit here.