Verne Morton was born on October 9, 1868, and lived in the village of Groton, Tompkins County, New York all his life; he died in 1945. A schoolteacher, he never ascended to national recognition as a photographer, though some of his work suggests he should have; he was content limiting his artistic domain to the region he was raised in. Morton’s photographs documented activities typical to the geographic and temporal setting within which they occurred, but—perhaps owing to his great familiarity with this division of American rural life—they do not feel voyeuristic or manipulative. Instead, they handle their subjects with tenderness and care.

I have selected ten of Morton’s photographs from Images of Rural Life, published in 2002 by The Dewitt Historical Society of Tompkins County (now The History Center in Tompkins County), which I feel are emblematic of these qualities, and which strike a chord on multiple fronts: for strength of composition, of historic virtue, of sentimentality, of pure grit (as in the book’s cover image, “Porter Morton (Verne Morton’s father) braiding seed corn, 1905”), and of a sort of visceral, rawness I think exclusive to the era in which they were taken.

"Porter Morton braiding seed corn, 1905." 1298

Morton was not a genre photographer; his work spans multiple facets of central New York life in the early twentieth century. Images of a Rural Life divides itself into eight common sections to account for them: Nature, Family and Friends, Childhood, House and Home, Farming, Town and Village, Leisure, and Travel. That list radiates sentimentality, but Morton did not lack a photographer’s ‘edge’; many of his images are linked by a sensitivity to minute, compositional and thematic details characteristic of photographic work that seeks to do more than document its subject as is.

"J.M. Webb with crates of potatoes, 1930." 3757

Nor does he appear to have had any distinct, political disposition with which he approached his subjects; his attitude feels at times critical and apprehensive (“J.M. Webb with crates of potatoes, 1930”), at others endearing and affirmative ("'Dumpville' station with Ronald Butts, seated, and two other children, 1932”). But it is clear from this series of 225 of Verne Morton’s works that he was in no way alienated from the reality threading through the Tompkins County communities he was raised in, a reality unique for its synthesis of country struggle and vibrant, bucolic charm.

"'Dumpville' station with Ronald Butts, seated, and two other children, 1932." 3823n

"Ackler group on rock with Ackler standing, Pleasant Lake, 1901."' 592

Some photos in Images of a Rural Life are downright beautiful. “Ackler group on rock with Ackler standing, Pleasant Lake, 1901” strikes me for its mixture of forms, the group’s members all solemnly posed on a rock on the waterfront save for a man on the side, clad in black-and-white-striped full-body underwear and grinning goofily, potbelly jutting forward just so, as he mimics a diver’s posture. There’s something amazingly charming about this image; it reminds me of the chaotic harmony of Weegee’s New York street photography.

"Teresa Lane and Neil Morton at Wyalusing Rocks, (Pennsylvania), 1934." A640n

But “Teresa Lane and Neil Morton at Wyalusing Rocks, (Pennsylvania), 1934” may be my favorite of the book. Viewed from afar, a man and a woman stand at the end of a jagged slab teetering off of a cliff face, the perspective giving way to the steep decline awaiting their misstep, and an empty, cloudless abyss envelops the scene. The man extends his right arm outward and points in the direction of this nothingness, past the face’s disordered foliage and the deadly drop below. The two stand on this brink, pointing, talking, and the rock slab points the same way, unyielding, too.

Written by Mason Detrani, Community Engagement Docent

Editor's Note: "Images of Rural Life: Photographs of Verne Morton" contains over one hundred black-and-white images chronicling every day and agricultural life in Tompkins County. This title is available for purchase here. 

Eight years ago, I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Eight Square Schoolhouse in my 4th grade class. The field trip began before we left the school-- our teacher asked us to dress the part of a colonial era student. (Ironically, the Eight Square Schoolhouse was built in 1827, two hundred years after the historical period we were studying at the time.) The night before the field trip, my mother and I spent an hour picking my most vintage dress and my dressiest shoes. When I came to school, I realized my friends had committed to the theme even more than I had. In our floor-length dresses, white aprons, and linen bonnets, we walked to the bus carrying old-fashioned bag lunches.

The schoolma'm greeted us when we left our bus and entered the schoolhouse. After all of us settled in, she began by giving us historical names to use throughout the day. She handed me a name tag reading my new name. She repeated this process for the twenty other kids in my class and then began the lessons. We practiced arithmetic on our slate and chalk, taking questions from a textbook older than anything my parents studied from.

After math, we took a lunch and recess break. The schoolma'm showed us a working water pump, teaching us how to run the water and wash our hands before we ate. She brought century-appropriate games for us to play outside, such as skipping rope or four square. Her dedication to her character was contagious. Soon, my friends and I were devoted to our alter egos. We giggled at passing cars and planes on our picnic blankets as if we had never seen them before in our lives.

We headed back inside for English lessons. The lesson began with the schoolma'am explaining the new fountain pens that replaced the old quills, praising how they were sharper and more durable. We practiced calligraphy and reading with our new tools, as the schoolma'm read us more from the textbook.

Looking back, this field trip was one-of-a-kind for many reasons. First of all, it gave me an authentic look into a school day in 1892. The experience lived up to its name of “Living History.” By giving students a chance to experience history firsthand, kids like me were able to engage in learning through a mix of history and roleplay.

Interaction is key in learning, and this program centers itself on it. The Eight Square Schoolhouse program immerses its participants in the rich history of period education by having students do various activities before, during, and after the trip. The History Center additionally provides teachers with pre-trip materials to help students contextualize their experiences, video introductions, and post-trip reflection activities.

The Eight Square Schoolhouse is a must-attend field trip experience open to any fourth grade classes. Open in the fall and spring to homeschoolers, large groups, or classroom visits; the program has attracted over 600 students every year to experience a day at the schoolhouse. You can learn more at our upcoming open houses.

The Eight Square Schoolhouse will be open for visitors on October 6, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., and October 12, 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. REGISTER HERE

Written by Claire Kwak, Volunteer Docent

Born Edward Howard Rulloff, “The Genius Killer,” or the “Man of Two Lives” as he is often called, rose to notoriety during the mid 19th century as one of Ithaca’s most infamous serial murderers. Serving as a botanical physician, druggist, linguist, and schoolteacher in the city of Ithaca, Rulloff’s violent nature came as a surprise to many who knew him as his crimes greatly contrasted with his purported intellect and well-learned nature. Tried in 1870 for the disappearance and suspected murder of his young wife and child, alongside the 1858 killing of a Binghamton store clerk, Rulloff’s criminal career is believed to have extended far beyond these three known cases. In fact, many historians speculate that Rulloff had amassed at least two initial kills prior to his 1845-1871 criminal exploits throughout Tompkins County.

The first of these suspected instances is said to have occurred on June 2nd 1845, when Mr. W. H Schutt’s child fell ill, he called upon his dear friend Rulloff who often claimed to have extensive expertise in the medical field. What should have been a simple treatment for a common cold only caused the child’s condition to worsen. Within the span of 24 hours, the child had suffered convulsions and died a day later. Soon after, the child’s mother too fell ill seemingly out of nowhere and when Rulloff was again called upon to treat her, her condition progressively worsened causing her to die two days later in the very same manner as her child. Believed to have had no agency in the deaths, Rulloff attended the funerals of both mother and child, arousing little to no suspicion from the bereaved public. It was not until thirteen years later however, that tissue samples taken from the mother’s exhumed corpse revealed traces of copper poison found in her stomach tissue.

Though very little is known surrounding the disappearance of Rulloff’s own wife and child, an eyewitness account taken from Rulloff’s neighbor Ms. Robinson, who was staying with the Rullof’s on the night of June 23rd, 1845, reveals key details regarding the domestic life between husband and wife. Robinson reports Rulloff arriving home in unusually strange spirits accompanied by two visitors. She reports that things only got stranger as the visitors departed and Rulloff quickly began preparing medicine in his mortar, insisting that his child take the concoction. Seeing no apparent signs of illness, Mrs. Rulloff refused the medication even as her husband continued to persist claiming that he had “detected the seeds of disease in his offspring” (Crapsey, 1871, 12). At the terrified objections of his wife, Rulloff did not relent, declaring that the wife needed the medicine just as much as the child. At his urging she said that she would take the medicine and the child would not, and at last Rulloff desisted. It was on June 23rd, 1845 at 9pm that Miss Robinson left the Rulloff home and strangely enough, that was the last reported sighting of Mrs. Rulloff and her child.

With his list of crimes including, suspected parricide, burglary, theft, and 2nd degree murder, Rullofff was finally tried and hanged in 1871, with his hanging being one of the last public executions of New York State. Still, to this day, Rulloff is remembered throughout Ithaca with his brain currently on display in Cornell University’s psychology department, and a cast taken of his face directly following his execution currently on display at The History Center at Tompkins County.

Looking for more Haunted History? Visit the Exhibit Hall throughout October or register for a Haunted History Tour. Use code FIRSTWEEK for 25% off your tickets for the first week of tours. 

References

Crapsey, E. (1871). The Man of Two Lives!: Being an Authentic History of Edward Howard Rulloff,. American News Company. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=aeu.ark:/13960/t0dv2nx2t&seq=10

Written by Jennifer Anebere, Docent

Denice Peter Karamardian is one of the many researchers that has passed though the History Center in Tompkins County, looking for clues about  her family identity. Denice grew up in Ithaca, New York, thinking she was Syrian – part of the small Syrian community that co-mingled with Greek, Italian, and other 20th century immigrant communities that helped to build the little city from the turn of the 20th century. She was partly right. Both of her paternal grandparents came from Syria and spoke in Syrian. But at the age of 12, she learned that her grandfather was actually Armenian and certain mysteries and stories emerged upon his death. Denice spent a lifetime searching for answers and details, and more than a decade putting the journey to paper – her own and her ancestors.

The result is a trilogy, presented in a hybrid form as historical fiction and part memoire, based entirely upon the true story of the Karamardian family (known locally as the Peter family) across continents, wars, and generations. The series is called Odar, which means “other” in Armenian; sometimes it can mean “stranger” or “foreigner”. The author tracks a parallel narration of her own coming of age as it relates to the discoveries she makes in her search for identity.

Now, she's completed the Odar Trilogy with the last book in the series, Amirkans. In this book, the next generation of the Peter clan thrive on a South Danby farm and face a the Great Depression and a new war, while a family branch in Syria is making a national impact on that country. With ultimate emigration, journeys converge across two American coasts. Meanwhile, the author grapples with myths and misinformation in pursuit of questions, but is no less inspired with the wonder of resilience and triumph of mankind when nothing else will do. 

Denice's persistence in research and her skill in turning family mythos and historical documents into gripping narratives is awe-inspiring. Now, not only are her family histories saved for her own descendants, but they are also are available to the public as a unique example of local history storytelling. 

You can find more info here.

Join Denice at the History Center on Sept. 7, 2 p.m. - 3 p.m., for a reading of her books. 

As early as 1866, Tompkins County had seven or eight amateur baseball clubs, from the Groton Mechanics to the Peculiars of McLean.

Baseball took off in Tompkins County, and from the 1880s to the early 1900s, Black teams such as Forest City, the Keystones, and the Ithaca Colored Nine/Ithaca Giants played Black and white regional teams. Later, the Colored Vets team organized and a star player emerged, Robert Cooper.

On August 24, 1947, an afternoon baseball game between the Colored Vets and Hector came to a sudden stop with the news that Robert had a newborn son. Thus began Adrian Cooper’s lifelong connection with baseball. At age four, Adrian became a bat boy for his father;

“It was just being with dad at that time. I mean I didn’t know nothing about baseball at the time, but I’d carry his shoes, or his glove. We’d go to the ball game, and I’d be a bat boy and run out there and…go out and get the bat and come back and that’s how it all began…I’d chase the foul balls and whatnot and go get ‘em and give ‘em to the umpire.”

“Little Coop” and “Big Coop,” as they became known, were fixtures of the local baseball scene in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, nearly 70 years later, Adrian’s memories and love of the game give us a unique window into the history of Tompkins County baseball, as experienced by a young Black boy. Memorabilia from his career, and his fathers, are on display in our exhibit hall.

Adrian will be visiting Ithaca for a Vintage Baseball Game at Taughannock Falls on August 17th. The game, presented by the History Center, will be played with rules from 1864. Families are invited to bring picnics, cheer loudly, and enjoy baseball as a timeless experience that Adrian remembers fondly, "at noon, when there was nothing to do, they’d go and watch a ball game…There’d be families out there, they’d sit in the ballpark and drink cold beers and what not.”

For those too passionate about the game to watch from the lawn, there's still time to join us for a practice and represent Ithaca against the Bovina Dairymen at the big game! Practice will be held on August 11th at 2 p.m. at Cass Park, Field B1 and B2. See the graphics below for more info, or contact director@thehistorycenter.net

We can't wait to see you at Taughannock, bring your folding chairs and stop by the History Center Table for your complimentary rule card and to take a peek at baseball items from our collection.

Our staff collaborate and work closely with students every term. Through work-study placements, fellowships, volunteering, internships, course credits and so much more we welcome students from middle school and above to develop their museum and archival skills with us. Over the decades we've had many students take the lessons they learned at The History Center to new museum communities, this is just to highlight a few of our more recent student workers and interns who have continued to pursue museum and archival studies beyond their time at The History Center.

Ian Donahue (Ithaca College, B.A. History 2024) joined The History Center as a student worker from Ithaca College this past spring. His main project was completing research for our Irish American Heritage Month web page and a public program highlighting Irish history and immigrant stories in Tompkins County. Ian was recently hired as the Visitor Services Coordinator for the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

Melanie Jalbert (Cornell University, B.Sc. Information Science, Systems, and Technology exp. 2026) joined The History Center as a student worker in October 2022. Her first term with us she completed Spanish translations for a number of our youth activity booklets. Melanie later worked on a number of our Oral Histories through the 2022 Preserving Community Oral Histories grant from the American Historical Association, completed the Finding Aid for our Deaf History in Tompkins County collection, and in the past term has worked extensively to improve the accessibility of our website through writing alt-text for all images at thehistorycenter.net. After her first year working with us, Melanie accepted a second student worker position as a Document Conversion Assistant for Cornell University Student Disability Services. This summer Melanie is interning at the Smithsonian Office of the Under Secretary for Education as a Claudine K. Brown Education intern. These internships are intended to increase the participation of students who are under-represented in the education and museum leadership field. Interns experience opportunities in the central education office and collaborate with offices, museums, and research centers throughout the Smithsonian Institution where they help to create, develop, and disseminate innovative educational programs and resources at the Smithsonian, online, in the classroom, and in communities.

Claire Deng (Cornell University, B.A. English Language & Literature 2022) began volunteering at The History Center in January 2021 as an undergraduate at Cornell University. Over the following terms Claire dove headfirst into projects discovering, documenting, preserving early Asian and Asian American history in Ithaca and Tompkins County. Her collaborations with us culminated in the Asai Family exhibit, and the Cultural Fabric of Tompkins County: Where did families come from? Included as part of the 2022 reCOUNT: Facing our Census exhibit. She additionally accessioned two collections into our archives: the Tompkins County Asian Diaspora Collection , and the Tang Family Collection. Her research earned her Cornell's 2022 Campus-Community Leadership Award. Since graduation Claire completed a one-year curatorial research fellowship at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum in Ocotillo California, and returned to Ithaca last November to work as a Collections Survey Assistant in the Kheel Center in the ILR School at Cornell.

Rebecca Doyle (Cornell University, B.A. History 2022) worked at The History Center for the 2021-2022 academic year. Contributing written content and exhibit displays for multiple exhibits including: The Art of Wampum, reCount: Facing our Census, and Unfolding: A Timeline of Sexual Assault Activism in Tompkins County. Since graduating in 2022 Rebecca has completed two museum internships, one with the Daughters of the American Revolution, and one as a Collections Intern with the National Mall in Washington D.C.. Rebecca is now working as a full-time museum technician for the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Washington D.C..

Raia Gutman (Ithaca High School 2022) began with The History Center as one of our Youth Ambassadors in 2018, conducting interviews for the oral history project "HERstory" when they were in middle school. When the pandemic hit, Raia shifted into a volunteer role with us. Coming in weekly for their final two years of high school, also joining us for two summers as a Youth Employment Services paid worker. Working to process our oral history collections, and later shifting into the archives to work on finding aids in our archives with Donna. Raia graduated from Ithaca High School in 2022, and has since been a student at Smith College. While at Smith, Raia has been working as an Accessioning Assistant in the Smith College Archives, recently completing processing and finding aids for the B'Not Esh records documenting a group of Jewish feminists active in the 1980s; and the Jane Mead von Salis papers.

It brings our staff a lot of pride to see our former interns and student workers taking lessons and inspiration from the work they completed with us at The History Center to other museum and archival spaces across the country.

Last Month at The History Center

Our director Ben Sandberg traveled to Albany the first weekend of April for the annual Museum Association of New York conference - this year's theme "Giving Voice to Value". It is validating for our staff to see and experience museum staff from across New York working through and tackling similar questions and solution-seeking to the work we do here at home. The work of finding funding, meeting audience expectations and interests, and the long work of how museums can be part of historical repair, reparations, and community building. Ben came home full of new ideas! Even more exciting next year MANY's conference is being hosted IN ITHACA NY! Mark your calendars for April 5-8th 2025. 
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Our thanks to the organizers of Firebrand Books Historic Marker Fundraiser - their campaign was hugely successful! The funds raised over the amount to fund the installation of a permanent marker documenting the historic importance of Firebrand Books, has been promised to The History Center to help with our archival processing and preservation of LGBTQ histories in Tompkins County. If you want to further support these efforts, you can make additional donations at thehistorycenter.net/donate - just specify "Firebrand" in the submission notes. 
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Ushering in the New York State Parks Centennial anniversary celebration, a new exhibit honoring the legacy Robert H. Treman was unveiled in the Tompkins Center for History & Culture atrium tower. An important figure in the creation of our park and historic site system, Treman was a banker and conservationist who donated hundreds of acres of land for preservation. Ultimately serving as the very first Finger Lakes Regional Commissioner, he oversaw the creation of several state parks including Fillmore Glen, Cayuga Lake, and Fair Haven Beach.

This newsletter was researched and compiled by the staff of the Hangar Theatre and first shared to their email lists on March 19th 2024. It is shared here with their permission. The Hangar will be highlighting their storied history throughout 2024 and their "golden season". Follow along and tag them in your own Hangar memories on social media! 

This is PART II of the 'Countdown to 50' series!

On Monday April 8, North Americans will be treated to one of Nature's most dramatic spectacles, a total solar eclipse. Beginning over the South Pacific Ocean, the first place in continental North America that will experience totality is on Mexico's Pacific coast at around 11:00 AM PDT. It will be seen in the US first in Texas, and will work its way north east and will become visible here in upstate New York around 2:07 PM. Weather permitting, this exquisite cosmic phenomenon can take the breath away. As the disc of the moon gradually covers the disc of the sun, the day will darken into night, and some of the brightest stars may become visible to the naked eye. Sometimes during total solar eclipses nocturnal animals can be confused into waking up, and some flowers, like poppies that are typically open only during the daytime, will begin to close.

This sensational phenomenon has attracted nature photographers since the birth of photography in the 19th century. The earliest solar eclipse images in our collection date to the 1920s. On January 25th 1925 the East Coast including Ithaca experienced a total solar eclipse. Groton photographer Verne Morton and Ithaca photographer John Troy took exquisite shots of total solar eclipses. Morton's was taken near his home in Groton, and shows the sun emerging after totality with an eerie glow over the treeline; while Troy's was taken on the Cornell campus, showing silhouettes of people, possibly eager students, standing on top of the buildings.

[One hopes that they had safety glasses because looking directly at a solar eclipse is very dangerous and can permanently damage one's eyesight. A number of local establishments may have ISO Certified glasses for safely viewing the eclipse, including Visit Ithaca at the Tompkins Center for History and Culture on the Commons.]

ODAR: An Immigrant Story embedded in Ithaca History

Contact: Denice Peter Karamardian  607-227-3830

March 6, 2024…….Denice Peter Karamardian grew up in Ithaca, New York, thinking she was Syrian – part of the small Syrian community that co-mingled with Greek, Italian, and other 20^th century immigrant communities that helped to build the little city from the turn of the 20^th century. She was partly right. Both of her paternal grandparents came from Syria and spoke in Syrian. But at the age of 12, she learned that her grandfather was actually Armenian and certain mysteries and stories emerged upon his death. Denice spent a lifetime searching for answers and details.

The result is a trilogy, presented in a hybrid form as historical fiction and part memoire, based entirely upon the true story of the Karamardian family (known locally as the Peter family) across continents, wars, and generations. The series is called Odar, which means “other” in Armenian; sometimes it can mean “stranger” or “foreigner”. The author tracks a parallel narration of her own coming of age as it relates to the discoveries she makes in her search for identity.

Book One release: April 9^th, 2024

The first book is titled Jido (pronounced Jih’ doh), meaning grandfather in the Syrian/Lebanese dialect of the family, tells of Joe Peter, born Hovsep Bedros Karamardian. His journey from Kessab, Syria to the salt block in Myers, NY, by way of the Caribbean, rests longingly in the Ithaca community before following the immigrant wave to Detroit and the good paying wages of the auto industry. But back home, trouble is brewing for the Armenians of Kessab.

Book Two release: June 11, 2024

Book Two: Silence, a Journey to Resilience and Redemption sines a spotlight on two contrasting worlds while war gathers across the globe. Women of the family in Syria endure unspeakable events narrated in their own words as Joe and Helen Peter build their family in new communities. As the war recedes and a second sister is rescued, resettle among the Ithaca hills the young couple has so missed. In another century, the author meets and discovers family previously unknown to her Ithaca family.

Book Three release: August 20, 2024

Book Three: Amirkans. The next generation of the Peter clan thrive on a South Danby farm and face a new war, while a family branch in Syria is making a national impact on that country. With ultimate emigration, journeys converge across two American coasts. Meanwhile, the author grapples with myths and misinformation in pursuit of questions, but no less inspired with the wonder of resilience and triumph of mankind when nothing else will do.

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Press release shared here with permission of Denice Karamardian. Learn more at www.denicekaramardian.com