Over 200 Works by Frederic Church Digitized in Celebration of Frederic Church 200
Hudson, NY – The Olana Partnership and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) announce the largest launch to date of public online collections for Olana State Historic Site on August 17, 2026. Upon its launch, this resource will feature over 200 records of artwork by the artist Frederic Church, Olana’s creator, and is an important part of the year-long Frederic Church 200 initiative led by The Olana Partnership to mark the 200th anniversary of Church’s birth. The work undertaken to develop this digital collections resource for Olana is made possible by a major, multi-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Olana is the most intact artist’s environments in the United States, with a vast collection encompassing over 90,000 objects. The collection contains over 1,300 paintings, oil and graphite sketches, and architectural drawings by Frederic Church; a diverse array of global collections and decorative arts from the Main House at Olana; thousands of photographs collected by Church; and extensive archival material, including correspondence, diaries, and financial and business records. The Olana State Historic Site online collections portal gives public access to explore important objects from the collection not on view at Olana.
“The public launch of Olana’s online collections portal represents a long-awaited milestone in the study and appreciation of the work and career of Frederic Church, who was among the most renowned American artists of his time” said Maggie Dimock, Associate Curator at The Olana Partnership. “The rich collection of Church’s work held by Olana provides unparalleled insight into the artist’s early maturation and development, his working methods, his travels through the Americas, including fifteen trips to Mexico, and the painstaking care with which he designed every ornamental detail of the distinctive Main House at Olana.”
Through the support of a generous 2024 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation awarded to The Olana Partnership, the New York State OPRHP was able to start digitizing Church’s works – many of which had never been photographed at high-resolution before. The first phase of digitization focused on art works by Church in the Olana collection, including hundreds of previously unseen or rarely published paintings, sketches, oil studies, and sketchbooks. The grant also included funds to purchase state-of-the art photography equipment and hire a Digitization Specialist appointed to a two-year term to carry out the initiative. In celebration of Church on his 200th birthday, the first batch of newly digitized artworks will feature 200 artworks, with additional online records added regularly as digitization efforts continue.
The Olana State Historic Site Collection joins those of 45 other New York State historic sites and state parks now available to the public as part of New York State OPRHP’s online collections portal, which debuted in January 2026. This digital resource is a rapidly growing repository of OPRHP’s permanent museum collections, which include over 3.5 million collections objects, archives, and artifacts that bring New York State’s stories to audiences around the world.
“We have a new tool to help tell New York’s rich history,” says Greg Smith, Director of the Bureau of Historic Sites at OPRHP, “and it’s exciting to see our online resources growing through agency and partner investments like this one. We hope these online collections encourage new research, spark curiosity, and generate interest in the stories of the people of New York – including artistic visionaries like Frederic Church.”
To view the Olana Collection online and explore other online collections at New York State historic sites and state parks, visit OLANA.org/collections.
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About Olana and The Olana Partnership: Olana is the greatest masterwork of Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), the most famous American landscape artist of the mid-19th century and the most important artist’s home, studio, and designed landscape in the United States. Church designed Olana as a holistic environment integrating his advanced ideas about art, architecture, landscape design, and environmental conservation. Olana’s 250-acre artist-designed landscape with five miles of carriage roads and a Persian-inspired house at its summit embraces unrivaled panoramic views of the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains and welcomes more than 170,000 visitors annually. The landscape and house are open for guided touring, and reservations are highly recommended. The park is open daily 8:00 A.M. – sunset.
Olana State Historic Site, administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, is a designated National Historic Landmark and one of the most visited sites in the state. The Olana Partnership is the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit cooperative partner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation at Olana State Historic Site.
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches and more, and welcomes over 88 million visitors annually. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks.ny.gov, download the free NY State Parks Explorer app or call 518.474.0456. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, the OPRHP Blog or via the OPRHP Newsroom.
About the Henry Luce Foundation:
The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to deepen knowledge and understanding in pursuit of a more democratic and just world. Established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Incl, the Luce Foundation advances its mission by nurturing knowledge communities and institutions, fostering dialogue across divides, enriching public discourse, amplifying diverse voices, and investing in leadership development.
IMAGE CREDIT: Frederic Edwin Church, Mountain Lake, Twilight, 1850-1856, Oil on paperboard, 5 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (13.3 x 23.5 cm), New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Olana State Historic Site. Gift of Olana Preservation, Inc. and Museum Purchase, OL.1981.40.a