Opening Reception: Rye’s History Trees – An Exhibition of Rye’s Historic Trees

Join the opening reception of Rye’s Historic Trees, an exhibition of Rye’s Historic Trees at the Rye Free Reading Room’s Art Gallery – Meeting Room.

Among the programs for the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Rye included a “Bicentennial Tree” contest and encouraged residents to identify trees within Rye that were at least 200 years old. Nineteen trees qualified and an additional twenty-five were judged to be “almost qualified.”

About two years ago, Paul and Barbara Hicks, set out to revive Rye’s Bicentennial Tree program in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. The project, called the “RR250 Historic Tree Initiative,” added a new dimension when the “team” was joined by their friend, Jim Frank, a recently retired professor of photography.

In addition to recording the species and ages of historic Rye trees, Jim’s photographs preserve a record of them in various seasons, locations, foliage, and lighting. Many of them capture leaf, bark, and other distinctive features that help us learn the difference between red and white oaks or sugar and red maples, etc. We hope that many will be inspired by these and other historic trees to think of the revolutionary period in Rye when some of these trees first sprouted.