Paterson Museum Series

Paterson, New Jersey, is a site that was selected by Alexander Hamilton as America’s entry into the Industrial Revolution because of the potential energy source of its powerful waterfall. The subsequent industrial complex was host to a range of manufacturing industries powered by a "raceway" canal, engineered to divert water from the falls to flow behind the buildings supporting an extensive network of paper and textile mills and silk weaving, and later supporting other industries such as the Rogers Locomotive manufacturing complex, Colt firearms, Holland Submarines and Curtis-Wright Aeronautical Engines among many other industries. Because of the large working population, Paterson established social industries including auto-racing and well-organized police and fire-fighting departments. Síocháin Hughes’ Paterson Museum Series presents details of objects from the Paterson Museum, as a means of relating the site of Paterson and the Great Falls to the rich history, and forms the conceptual backdrop to her recent creative endeavor entitled Great Falls Continuum, a project that attempts to conflate awareness of time and space on a site with significant known history.

— Síocháin Hughes