Canajoharie Library and Arkell Museum

Bartlett Arkell amassed a mega-fortune guiding the Beech-Nut Company from a local meat-packing business into one of the first modern corporations. The industrialist began collecting art. In 1925 Mr. Arkell built The Canajoharie Library and Arkell Museum, as a gift to the village where he was raised. Still supported by the Arkell endowment, the museum is acknowledged as one of the finest art collections in small town America: some 350 pieces, including works by Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Thomas Hart Benton, Augustus St. Gaudens, Frederick Remington, Albert Bierstadt, Charles Burchfield, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Charles De Muth, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, George Inness, Reginald Marsh, Grandma Moses, Georgia O'Keefe, Maurice Prendergast, Albert Pynkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent, John Sloan, Gilbert Stuart, James Whister, Andrew Wyeth and many others. The museum has undergone a major renovation which allows it to display much more of the collection.

The following is taken from an article in The Leader Herald, July 1, 1925

"ARKELL'S GIVE PUBLIC LIBRARY TO CANAJOHARIE

Building is Memorial to Their Father, Sen. James Arkell

CANAJOHARIE -- Arrangements are being made for the dedication of the new village library, the gift of Bartlett Arkell, president of the Beechnut Company, and his sister, to Canajoharie, as a memoriam to his father and mother, the late Senator James Arkell and Mrs. Arkell.

The new library is located almost directly opposite the main building of the Beechnut Company. It is a single story building of rough stone with a very deep cellar. The stones used in this construction work were taken from a village landmark, the old paper box factory of Arkell and Smith, where Mr. Arkell began his business career.

The cost of the building has been estimated at $25,000 and the interior probably cost many thousands more. The building follows the lines of an ancient dwelling house. The interior is arranged in two parts, one side with small chairs and tables for children. As yet no books have been placed upon the shelves, which have been installed by the Library Bureau of Ilion.

There is no heating plants in the library. Pipes, however, run from the library cellar into the Beechnut boiler room.

While details of the dedication ceremony will not be announced before the arrival of Mr. Arkell, it is expected that there will be speaking from a platform to be erected on the grounds and that the Beechnut band and singers will have a part in the ceremony."