The Whitehall boat Collection is the result of research conducted by Mr. Kenneth Durant form 1958 through 1968, into the history and development of the Whitehall boat. Mr. Durant was then Research Associate for the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake in New York, and was previously a journalist with close associations at United Press International. In addition to information on Whitehall boats, Durant was able to discover the location of the AMERICAN STAR, a Whitehall racing boat that was presented to the Marquis de Lafayette in New York in 1835, making it the oldest Whitehall still in existence. (The GENERAL LAFAYETTE, built in Mystic Seaport Museum in 1976 is a replica of the AMERICAN STAR, and was the result of Durant's research.)