During the month of October IPST museum director Teri Williams traveled to Saint Louis where she attended the annual meeting of the Friends of Dard Hunter, and then to New York where she participated in the gala event organized to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Gomez Mill House.  Williams accepted the organization’s Pioneer Award on behalf of the museum.

Both organizations maintain long standing and significant relationships with the museum and are connected to the museum’s founder, Dard Hunter. Since 1981, the Friends “has been connecting and educating papermakers in America and all over the world” and as part of their mission, they support the Dard Hunter collection of the Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum.

Built in 1714, the Gomez Mill House is located north of New York City and sits on Jew’s Creek, a tributary of the Hudson River. It stands as the oldest Jewish residence in North America. During the Revolutionary War, it served as prominent center of patriotic activity. From 1912 to 1919, it belonged to Dard Hunter who, just prior World War I, built a paper mill on Jew's Creek. Students from all over the world came to learn from him as he made paper by hand, cut and cast type, and hand-printed his own books. The Gomez Foundation for Mill House restored Hunter's Mill and the mill dam and bridge in 1997.  In 2010 the mill underwent a second major restoration. Dard Hunter figures prominently in the lore and history of this historic treasure.