Bakelite exhibition returns material to its Yonkers' roots

A new exhibition at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY showcases a variety of products made from the seminal resin pioneered by Leo Baekeland. Working from a barn in Yonkers, the Belgian inventor perfected the formaldehyde compound in 1907, ushering in the age of plastics. The exhibit borrows nearly 300 artifacts from Reindert Groot, a Dutch photographer and Bakelite aficionado who has amassed 4000 Bakelite articles.