Thursday, October 1, 2026
Raynham Hall Museum has named material culture specialist Katie Cynkar its new Peggy N. and Roger G. Gerry Curatorial Fellow, a significant step forward in the museum’s effort to more deeply research and document its collection.
Cynkar began the yearlong fellowship on Sept. 2. She comes to Raynham Hall after earning a master’s degree from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and earlier work as a technician in the archaeology lab at Colonial Williamsburg.
“I was born in Northern Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., where I really fostered a love of history, just being around all the different museums, especially the Smithsonian,” Cynkar said. “I’ve always had a passion for history, as far back as I can remember.”
She earned an undergraduate degree in history from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. At Colonial Williamsburg, she identified artifacts from excavations, and realized that she preferred studying found objects to digging for them. That led her to graduate school, where she focused on American objects and paintings from the 17th through 20th centuries, with an emphasis on the 19th century.
Raynham Hall’s director, Harriet Clark, said that the fellowship was created with support from the Peggy N. and Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust.
“It was created as part of a sort of a wish list of things that Raynham Hall aspires to do,” Clark explained. “We tell the (Townsends’) story pretty clearly at this point,” she added, referring to the former 18th-century homestead’s original occupants. “I think we know a lot about the people who populated the museum and the circumstances of their lives, but we’ve never really had the means to do a whole lot of deep professional research into the objects that form the collection.”
According to Clark, experts have long believed that Raynham Hall possesses extraordinary objects that deserve more study. The Gerry Trust grant will allow the museum to pursue that work.
Cynkar said she learned about the fellowship from Lauren Brincat, curator at Preservation Long Island and a fellow Winterthur graduate. As she researched the opportunity, she became fascinated by the museum and the Townsend family’s role in American history.
“Seeing how important Raynham Hall and the Townsend family were to American history, especially the Revolution, as we’re coming up on the 250th anniversary,” Cynkar recounted, “I thought this could be a really interesting opportunity to explore the decorative arts of that time period, and really unpack the history of this town through the objects that are here.”
Cynkar’s primary responsibility will be to research the museum’s decorative arts collection and produce a catalog showcasing its highlights. She also hopes to curate an accompanying exhibition.
“There are so many pieces here that are just really good examples of not only Long Island furniture, but objects from this time period that haven’t really been showcased in a formal catalog,” she said. “What I’m going to be doing over the year is creating this catalog and researching these objects so that we can finally have something out there that is like a publication.”
Cynkar added that her work would not focus solely on the Revolutionary War period. Raynham Hall’s collection spans the 18th to early 20th centuries, and she hopes to highlight a range of stories, including those of women and enslaved people who lived and labored in Oyster Bay.
“Even though Raynham Hall is specifically known as a Revolutionary site, and has that context,” she said, “there are so many multifaceted stories that can be told through the objects here, not just of the Townsend family, but those in Oyster Bay.”
She has already begun studying ceramics in the museum’s collection, including Delftware, a Dutch style of tin-glazed earthenware. And one item that stands out to her is the Townsend family Bible, which includes the names of enslaved people.
“That is such a rare find for an 18th-century piece — to have the names of individuals who were enslaved is just incredible,” Cynkar said. “I would love to unpack that history a little bit more, do some research, see if there’s anything more I can find about these people.”
She said she was excited to engage the public with her findings, especially with a future digital catalog. “Being a museum, and having this kind of access, and having, especially, this more community-oriented space…,” Cynkar said, “is really an incredible opportunity to really emphasize and show how history can teach us lessons, and how they can inform us to be better citizens and be a more inclusive society today.”
