As a final bridge post we wanted to share a bit about the recently renamed 'Kirby Edmonds Bridge' over Route 13. Originally built in 2001 as a pedestrian bridge to connect the east side of the highway to Buttermilk Falls State Park as part of a planned 'Gateway Trail'. The bridge existed for more than a decade without a corresponding trail on either side. Without access, or a trail that led to it the turquoise metal truss structure came to be known by locals as the "bridge to nowhere".

In 2022 Ithaca Town Supervisor (and former director of The History Center in Tompkins County) Rod Howe approached city officials with the idea of naming the bridge after local educator and activist Kirby Edmonds who has passed away in 2020. This suggestion came as concrete plans to connect the bridge to the Black Diamond Trail were again being pursued with active interest. Edmonds was a leader, educator, and thoughtful contributor in community justice efforts for over 40 years. A co-founder and leader within Training for Change, the Dorothy Cotton Institute, Be the One, Ithaca's Comprehensive Plan Committee, and decades of work supporting local youth through programs at GIAC and the Ithaca Youth Bureau.

One of the key programs Kirby spearheaded the creation of was 'Building Bridges' collective network. Building Bridges, established in the 20-teens, was a self-described collective action network of over 65 organizations across Tompkins County that shared common goals of social and environmental justice work but rarely communicated or collaborated with each other.

Kirby's life-long work to create an interconnected network of social solutions in our community that lead to equity and justice for all, will now be preserved through the physical network of the Kirby Edmonds Bridge connecting our community through the paths we walk. Kirby's voice and thoughtful perspectives on equity and justice is preserved in our oral history archives, through a 2018 interview.

We hope this year's Traverse Tompkins has made you think a bit as you've crossed a bridge in your regular travels around our County, and that you'll think more about the connections bridges bring for everyone and the work done to remember the builders and the bridges themselves.

We're already 1/2 of the way to our fundraising goal! Keep spreading the word! Support Ben's ride on 9/23 or do your own!

You can start your own ride or support Ben and our other walkers, runners, and riders at our event manager below:

https://charity.pledgeit.org/buildingbridges

The basic premise is simple - get outside and explore local history through a theme! Whether you're walking 1 mile to a local bridge, or competing in a 24 hour marathon, you can support The History Center by exploring local history.  Join us for a kick-off breakfast on Saturday, September 23rd, and then set off and explore the many different bridges across our community. Compete against other travelers for the most miles traveled - or simply explore at your pace and style! Find out more on our campaign site:

Here's How It Works!

There are two ways to participate and join the effort to keep our history alive.

Option 1: Sign up for free and commit to asking your community for pledges to support your travels. Fueled by your obvious love for history and Tompkins County, reach out to your friends, family, and colleagues to pledge their support for your challenge. Their pledge - of any amount - gets calculated after you complete your mileage.

Option 2: Buy an entry ticket! Asking for pledges isn't for everyone, but Traverse Tompkins should be. Your ticket price goes directly towards supporting The History Center's mission, and you still get to explore the bridges of Tompkins County!

Discover more at: thehistorycenter.net/traverse-tompkins

Knot Sew Fast - Quilt Exhibit - *NEW ADDITION*

The 'Women of Influence: Each Block a Story' quilt has been returned to the Seneca Iroquois National Museum for their upcoming exhibit 'Here, Now, and Always Haudenosaunee Beadwork' opening in Salamanca NY on September 23rd. We hope you'll plan a visit!

For the remaining four months of the 'Knot Sew Fast: Patchwork of Tompkins County' quilt exhibit we will have the quilt 'Here Comes the Sun' on loan from the 40 Quilts for 40 Beds project, coordinated by the Community Quiltmaking Center. 

The Community Quiltmaking Center and a growing group of individuals and organizations across Tompkins County have come together with free fabric and resources to help make the Alcohol & Drug Council of Tompkins County's vision for handmade quilts on every bed at their new Open Access Detox Center a reality. Together, through this collaborative quilt project, they also hope to increase our community’s awareness and understanding of addiction, and lessen the stigma attached to this illness that impacts the lives of so many.

This quilt officially joins our exhibit on Septembers First Friday Gallery Night (9/1 - 5-8pm) along with the quiltmakers story that inspired the design. We are very excited to be able to include this quilt in Knot Sew Fast, and to continue to highlight the many ways quilts, quilters, and quiltmaking have been ongoing point of community connection, skilled work, and a cultural practice of caring and expression across generations in Tompkins County. 

The Community Quiltmaking Center is seeking more quilters to get involved with this project. Reach out to them here. 

Jane Koestler, our new part-time educator at The History Center, transitioned to this position after working two seasons as a schoolmarm at our Eight Square Schoolhouse.

Jane earned her B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University, M.S. from SUNY College at Cortland, and National Board Certification as a Middle Childhood Generalist in 2017. She is also a New York Master Teacher, Emeritus.

She taught 3^rd-6^th grade students during her 33-year tenure as a teacher, primarily working for the Ithaca City School District. She and her husband have two grown children, live in the country near Trumansburg, and recently helped her parents relocate to Ithaca. They have a large garden, and she is chief harvester and processor at “Fat Rabbit Farm”. Outside of work, she loves reading, singing, and walking, and participates in two monthly book groups. She is excited to join the staff at The History Center to create and facilitate educational opportunities for children and youth in our community.

Send her an email at eightsquare@thehistorycenter.net.

We had a wonderful crowd of over 200 people come through on July 12th to celebrate the exhibit opening of 'Celebrating our 20th Swim: Women Swimmin' for Hospicare'. The atrium exhibit pulls together 20 years of memorabilia, including swim caps, t-shirts, and many memories from the swimmers and paddlers!

The event was graced with a wonderful performance from the Yardvarks, the band who plays at sunrise each year to guide the swimmers to shore, as well as food from Word of Mouth Catering.

This exhibit will be on display in the atrium of the Tompkins Center for History & Culture through October 2023. Stop by M-Saturday 10am-5pm. 

Our thanks and congratulations to the display team: Lorraine Heasley, Linda Mikula, Judy Stewart, Bonni Boyland, and Sara Worden, as well as Image Press and The History Center for their support in the digital aspects of the exhibit design.

Tompkins County Historical Commission - Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ Signs Added to "Cayuga Street" in Ithaca, Trumansburg, & Groton

While out walking or driving in Tompkins County in recent weeks you may have  noticed new purple signs spelling out "Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ" (pronounced Guy-uh-KOH-no) beneath the Cayuga St. signs in Ithaca, Trumansburg, and Groton. Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ is the non-anglicized pronunciation of "Cayuga", what the Indigenous peoples of Tompkins County have called themselves for millennia. There has been a growing effort among historical groups across Tompkins County to shift away from the outdated term of Iroquois to Haudenosaunee, and in recent years from "Cayuga Indians" to Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ to respect the language, culture, and people that pre-date Euro-colonial settlement in the region we now call Tompkins County.

The street sign project was a multi-year collaboration of the Tompkins County Historical Commission, which is a coalition of various community groups, non-profits, individuals, and municipal entities which formed in 2017 to celebrate Tompkins County's bicentennial.

The History Center was one collaborator involved in the project, and we have been on our own internal path of improving awareness and representation of the Indigenous history of our region through our exhibits, events, programming, and consistent use and education around our use of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ vs. Cayuga. Learn more about the terms, spellings, and pronunciation currently in use by Indigenous language keepers here: The History Center in Tompkins County - Land Acknowledgement. 

• Cayuga Language Presentation at The History Center in Tompkins County - May 12th 2018 - Stephen Henhawk (Cayuga) - 1:16:08
• Destroyed, Forgotten, Never Noted: Ithaca's Hidden Indigenous History - September 19th 2015 - Professor Kurt Jordan, PhD Associate Professor of Anthropology & American Indian Studies at Cornell University

'Exhibit Opening @ The Cherry Gallery - 'Genderqueer Pioneers: The Lavender Hill Legacy' 


Opening reception Fri Aug 4 from 5-7pm.

In 1973, a brave group of big city homosexuals left the disparaging metropolis and bought a piece of land together out in Danby. They built shelters, they planted gardens, and they partied. A lot. They called themselves the Lavender Hill Collective.

So much has changed since 1973. What used to be unspoken – and even censured! – about gender identity is now part of everyday vocabulary and culture. Reverence for the earth and home-grown food is as mainstream as “supermarkets” and more idealized than “convenience.” Communities of makers, maker spaces, and other artist groups sustain and unite us as politics urges us to split apart.

With this exhibition, we celebrate the Lavender Hill collective as pioneering genderqueer artists. Along with art made by members of the collective, we are also showing some contemporary pieces that channel the Lavender Hill legacy. After the commune itself ended, their openness to love and adventure, land and community endures.

This exhibition is co-presented by The Cherry Arts, History Center in Tompkins County and curated by Judy Swann and Laurence Clarkberg. It is part of the Seeing Ithaca, for which 10 local galleries are exhibiting works showcasing interpretations of Ithaca.

The Cherry Gallery, 130 Cherry St, Ithaca NY

On display weekends 1-5pm August 4th-September 17th.

New and Noteworthy Collections

The United States Geological Survey has been creating topographical maps of the US since the 1880s. They are invaluable resources for showing the history of the land and its use.

Our map collection contains several dating back to 1893. We recently received one from 1918 that had been used by Cornell Professor Clinton Beaumont Raymond. Professor Raymond, a 1913 graduate of Cornell's College of Agriculture, taught there in the Vegetable Crops Department from 1930 until his retirement in 1954. His career varied from vegetable production to extension work with home gardeners. During World War II he worked closely with urban groups helping to foster the Victory Garden program.

His map is especially interesting for our researchers, since it contains more than the usual USGS map content; it includes carefully hand-drawn boundaries (done, no doubt, by Professor Raymond himself in his work) of state and federal lands in the area.

To examine our collection of USGS maps, or for more information email archives@thehistorycenter.net.

Women Swimmin' for Hospicare 20th Exhibit OPENING on July 12th @ Tompkins Center

Twenty Years Later: Visit Our Exhibit To Celebrate How Far We’ve Swum 

Stop by! An entertaining and informative display commemorating the 20^th annual Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare will open on July 12th from 5-8pm in the atrium of the Tompkins Center for History & Culture on the Ithaca Commons featuring posters from each year and a timeline starting with the fundraising idea proposed twenty years ago by Joan Brumberg and Ann Costello. The exhibit includes photos, video and memorabilia celebrating the swims, swimmers, paddlers and boaters, fundraisers and volunteers — and Hospicare’s impact on the people of Cortland and Tompkins counties.
 
The display will be available through September 2023. The Tompkins Center atrium is open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm. Located in Bank Alley on the Ithaca Commons, visitors can enter through the front door adjacent to the Bernie Milton Pavilion. The street address is 110 North Tioga Street, Ithaca.
 
Thanks for making the exhibit goes to display team leader Linda Mikula and team members Lorraine Heasley, Judy Stewart, Bonni Voiland, and Sara Worden; the staff of The History Center; and sponsors The Image Press, Word of Mouth Catering and Jon Reis Photography.

Last Month at The History Center...

On June 16th we screened 'Lavender Hill: A Love Story' to a full room in  the CAP ArtSpace. The screening of the 23 minute documentary was followed by a panel of former Lavender Hill members; Ned Asta, David Hirsch, and Yvonne Fischer moderated by Dr. Jeffry Iovannone. 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the purchase of the Lavender Hill property.  Lavender Hill formed in Newfield NY (address of West Danby) in 1973, and became a commune of young gay and lesbian activists. The community survived for 11 years, making it one of the longest running queer-based communities in the country. In 2013 a short documentary was made including interviews with surviving community members and original 8mm film shot in 1974.  During a time when over a dozen "straight" communes also existed in Tompkins County, Lavender Hill which grew to include several homes across the property was unique in its expression of collaboration, intentionality, and social political connection for young gay and lesbians during this period. Learn more about LGBTQ+ history in Tompkins County at thehistorycenter.net/lgbtq-history and by scheduling an appointment in our Research Library to review our archival collections.