Last month, the Bryant Library hosted an exhibit by George Gach, the Hungarian-born sculpture who, for many years, was a resident of Roslyn. This month, the library will house an exhibit by Peggy Gerry, one of the village's more prominent citizens from the past five decades.

Ms. Gerry's artwork will be shown under the title of "A Delicate Strength Revisited." The exhibit will open on Feb. 13 and last until March 11. There will be a reception at the library on Saturday, Feb. 23, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Ms. Gerry, who passed away in the winter of 2000, did artwork in a variety of genres, including forms of architecture, decorative arts, and the landscaped as well as the "wild environments."

A native of California, Ms. Gerry showed an interest in the arts at an early age. When she was only 4 years old, Ms. Gerry was admitted to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Later on, she earned a B.A. in creative arts from Mills College in Oakland, CA. She did post-graduate work at both the California School of Fine Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

After marrying Dr. Roger Gerry, Ms. Gerry did more traveling. Dr. Gerry himself was an officer in the United States Navy. During the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, the couple lived in Guam, Sweden, Denmark, and Japan. Ms. Gerry's time in Japan especially influenced her art. According to library officials, "It was in Japan that her art became permanently altered and began to reflect her absorption in Japanese culture and art."

From the late 1940s to the 1960s, Ms. Gerry's artwork was featured in several exhibits in both the U.S. and Japan. Her first exhibition was in 1948 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. That was followed by two exhibits in Japan in 1958 and three at various New York galleries from 1958 to 1964. Major art publications reviewed her work, with one of them, Apollo, declaring that Ms. Gerry's artwork was "grounded in earnest and thorough observation."

Of course, the Gerrys are best known in Roslyn for their extensive renovation efforts. The couple helped to form The Roslyn Landmark Society, the Historic District, and The Roslyn Preservation Corporation, all as a way to blunt potentially destructive urban renewal projects and to preserve the village's large number of historic residential structures.

While renovation projects took up much of Ms. Gerry's time in the 1960s and beyond, she still remained active in the local arts scene, serving on the board of trustees of both the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities and the Nassau County Museum of Fine Art Association, along with being a life fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art. Her honors include an award from The Victorian Society of America (1985), a Certificate of Appreciation from the American Institute of Architects, Long Island Chapter (1985), and the Howard Sherwood Award of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (1991). Finally, in the year 2000, the Gerrys received a posthumous honor from the Town of North Hempstead, whose council members renamed Roslyn Pond Park, Roger and Peggy Newbauer Gerry Park.