Historic Ithaca & The History Center Collaborate on Digitization Project

South Central Regional Library Council awarded a $7,651  Technology & Digitization Grant to Historic Ithaca in collaboration with The History Center in Tompkins County to digitize the 1954 Ithaca Tax Photograph Index Cards collection held by Historic Ithaca. This collection includes approximately 5,600 images, depicting all taxable buildings in the City of Ithaca including residences, businesses, and industries. The resulting images will be available online through Historic Ithaca’s collection on New York Heritage Digital Collections and on The History Center’s innovative open-source digital history platform HistoryForge (tompkins.historyforge.net).

A small, initial set of 112 of these images were previously uploaded to Historic Ithaca’s collection on New York Heritage Digital Collections (New York Heritage) as a trial. This project will benefit the region by completing the collection which provides a unique view of the built environment of a small Upstate New York city in the mid-20th century and by increasing its accessibility.

Through NEH Grant HistoryForge Confirms NEW Testing Partners

An exciting aspect of the recently awarded $145,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the HistoryForge project is the expansion of records for Tompkins County as well as the addition of new partner sites across the country. Over the course of the next year each new partner site will begin implementing HistoryForge in their own communities under the guidance and support of Tompkins HistoryForge. 

HistoryForge is an innovative digital history project combining maps, archival records, and census data that allows any community to explore its local history through the individuals who lived there and the buildings and neighborhoods they lived in. 

We are excited to welcome the following organizations to HistoryForge! 

• Pittsburgh HistoryForge (https://pittsburgh.historyforge.net), Coordinated by the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Focus on 1920 census and Pittsburg's Hill District. 

• Schenectady HistoryForge (https://schenectady.historyforge.net/) coordinated by the Schenectady County Historical Society in Schenectady, NY. Focus on 1910 census for first and second wards.

• Southeastern Louisiana HistoryForge (https://sela.historyforge.net) coordinated by The Ethel & Herman L. Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, University of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana. Focus on Iberville and the Tremé-Lafitte areas, and wage laborer lists.

• Walnut Hills HistoryForge (https://walnuthills.historyforge.net/) coordinated by the Walnut Hills Historical Society in Cincinnati, Ohio. 1940 census focus.

From before the Civil War, the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati became home to both middle and working class families from many different racial and ethic groups, including African Americans, Italians, Mountain People from Appalachia, and many others. By focusing on the 1940 census, we will use HistoryForge to identify, describe and celebrate the vibrant diversity of Walnut Hills, especially as it existed prior to the transportation and other social developments that transformed the neighborhood beginning in the 1950’s. This work supports the mission of the Walnut Hills Historical Society: To promote the unique history of Walnut Hills through research, engagement and advocacy. 

 From 2022-2024 the HistoryForge project is supported by a major grant from the 'National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom'.

New & Noteworthy Collections

There are several different kinds of archival collections at The History Center. Most consist of materials that document a particular history, such as letters of a local family, or business records of a local industry. Sometimes we receive something we call a research collection. These are compilations put together by a researcher who has studied a specific local topic and preserved the materials this work has generated. They often include copies of articles and notes, photographs and other reference materials that researchers rely on in their work.  These donations are very useful, because it helps us avoid the need to go over research ground that has already been well-trodden. And when the researcher is a noteworthy historian, then we are especially grateful.

We just received a collection of such material from recently retired Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen. She did extensive research over many years on women from Tompkins County and the surrounding area who served as nurses during the Civil War. Women such as Sophronia Bucklin from Ithaca, or Julia Cook from Dryden were pioneers in serving where women were often not wanted at a time when they were not allowed to work in the dangerous environment of a theater of war. Kammen's research materials include her notes on each of these women, highlighting the sources she used in her work. The collection also contains several books and articles that she relied upon as well.
 
Carol Kammen was appointed as Tompkins County Historian in June 2000 and fostered local history through numerous projects and initiatives. She wrote several books on various aspects of the history of the county, including suffrage and the history of local African Americans. She founded and chaired the Municipal Historians of Tompkins County, an active and productive group who collaborated on many local history initiatives. She also served as co-chair of the Civil War Commemoration Commission, of the Tompkins County Bicentennial Commission, and in 2018 chair of the Tompkins County Historical Commission. She retired in 2022.

For further questions or to make an appointment to visit the research library email archives@thehistorycenter.net

In April of 2022 The History Center was awarded $29,582 from the Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant program to significantly address the backlog in the archival processing of our oral history collections. Through significant work and time on the project from our transcription assistants paid through the grant, federal work study, volunteers, and The History Center staff we are thrilled to share the huge improvement in accessibility for this collection. 

Transcripts were completed for 132 interviews in our collections. Including language translation for Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ (Cayuga) language-keeper Stephen Henhawks 2018 interview, a 2006 interview with Nina Ebbs, a 2016 interview with Bob Nobles, completion of transcription for two large-scale projects recorded in collaboration with Cornell's Public History Initiative, in addition to dozens of others. 

We also completed listing notes and Finding Aids for 12 oral history projects, and 7 thematic collections including: Searching for LGBTQ Community, Warmest Years on Record, Oral History of Holocaust Survivors Who Settled in Tompkins County, Stories of Immigration and many others. These will be available for preview at thehistorycenter.net/oral-history and as a reference catalogue in the Research Library. Community members interested in these collections and recordings may make an appointment in our archives to listen to any interview in our collection of over 200 narratives of local life, experience, and memory. 

This was a huge undertaking and we are grateful and proud of Lauren Kessler, Julia Calagiavanni, Andrew Harding, Melanie Jalbert, Dan Motta, Blythe Van Ness, and Kethry Larsen for all their work on this project since last July!

History Center staff  Ben Sandberg, Cindy Kjellander-Cantu, and Zoë Van Nostrand attended the Museum Association of New York's  Annual Conference in Syracuse NY (Onǫdagehó:nǫˀ Territory (Onondaga)). This years theme was 'Finding Center: Access, Inclusion, Participation, and Engagement'. It included a range of panels and speakers that mirrored and inspired reflection on the work we've been doing at The History Center to prioritize highlighting and including previously under-represented histories and communities. We were excited to make connections with more than 500 museum professionals from across New York State, and discover many of them have visited in recent years and have been following the growth of the HistoryForge project!

Our staff also loved discovering Tompkins County history connections as they explored Syracuse. From the 'Jerry Rescue' monument in Clinton Square featuring Jermain Loguen, who was one of the first pastors at the Ithaca St. James AME Zion Church, to noticing that the Everson Museum of Art building shared a striking resemblance to our own Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, because they were both designed by architect I.M.Pei in the late 1960's!

Our thanks to MANY for curating such a powerful and inspiring conference!

Some of our favorite panels and experiences included: 
- Reimagining Public History with the Reframing History Toolkit @ Erie Canal Museum (Our staff HIGHLY recommend their new guided tours! Especially Pathway of Resistance)
- The Northern Slavery Collective; How Museums and Historic Sites are Joining Forces to Collaborate on Interpreting the History of Enslavement (Video of panel)
- Towards Inclusive Metadata (Publicly Accessible Toolkit)
- Breaking Museum Rules to Create and Experience Participatory Democracy @ The Matilda Joslyn Gage Center (MJG loaned us their 'Haudenosaunee Influence on Women's Rights' exhibit in 2021 for Breaking Barriers; well worth a drive to Fayetteville to visit their museum!)

CELEBRATE ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE!

Learn more local history at thehistorycenter.net/aapi-heritage-month

Tompkins County's first recorded residents of Asian descent date to the mid 1800's. Immigrants from the Pacific Islands came in more limited numbers in the twentieth century.

The first Asian business on record, a Chinese laundry opened by John and Mahong Lee as early as 1885, was located at 105 N. Aurora St in downtown Ithaca. Many early Asian residents came to the area to study at Cornell University, or to support family members and children studying at the college. Cornell’s first Japanese student, Kanaye Nagasawa (birth name Hikosuke Isonaga) was one of the first eight recorded Japanese individuals to come to the United States.

President George H. W. Bush designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month on May 7, 1990, following the passage of Pub. L. 101-283 by Congress. This law also recognized the significance of May 7th and May 10th in the history of Asian and Pacific Islanders.

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#TompkinsHistory #AAPI #asianhistory #asianheritagemonth #pacificislander #asian #asianamerican #aapimonth

CELEBRATE JEWISH HERITAGE & CULTURE!

Learn more local history at thehistorycenter.net/jewish-heritage-month

The earliest record of Jewish settlement in Tompkins County is the grave of Morris Lubliner, who was buried in April 1856 in the city cemetery on University Avenue.

By 1900 the Jewish population began to grow and become more established. Services were held in private homes and hired halls, with visiting rabbis. Congregation Chevra Kadisha began in 1906 in the home of Isidor Rocker, as a liberal group. Agudath Achim, an orthodox congregation, was organized in 1921, and the two groups combined in 1924 to form Congregation Beth-El. Both Jewish and Christian members of the community participated in fundraising for a temple. The B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation, which had decided to organize a chapter at Cornell, joined the effort and agreed to sponsor a rabbi for both the community and students. Temple Beth-El opened in 1929 at 402 N. Tioga St., with Rabbi Isidor Hoffman as its first rabbi.

Jewish American Heritage Month began in 1980 with the passage of Pub. L. 96-237, which requested that the president designate a week in April or May as 'Jewish Heritage Week.' In 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month to celebrate the history of Jewish Americans and provide opportunities to educate the public about Jewish culture.
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#TompkinsHistory #JewishAmericanHeritageMonth #JewishHeritageMonth #jewishhistory #jewishculture #ithacany #tompkinscounty

New & Noteworthy Collections

Barbara Palmer Quick - Photograph Collection
In 1980 a student in a Visual Anthropology class at Cornell was given an assignment to create an extended  portrait of a businesswoman in Ithaca. The result was an interesting and insightful album of photographs and text documenting the life and work of Barbara Palmer Quick, a hairdresser in Collegetown.

Barbara went to Bethel Grove School, a one-room schoolhouse on Slaterville Road, and Ithaca High School, and later trained at the Bradford Academy, a Beauty School in New York City. After her schooling she began working for her mother-in-law at her beauty shop on College Avenue, and took over the business when she died.  Like many women in any era, Barbara learned how to juggle the competing needs of family (she raised her three sons) and work, and did it, to all appearances, with skill and aplomb. She was not only expert with her scissors, she was also adept at the logistical and financial management of her business. Family struggles and tragedies barely slowed her down, and she seemed to embrace the best of life, enjoying travel and the friendship and support of long-time customers and friends. 

This sympathetic and thoughtful window into Barbara Quick's life and work is a vivid reminder of the often unseen and unsung service workers who buttress modern society.

For further questions or to make an appointment to visit the research library email archives@thehistorycenter.net

History Center will be closed on Saturday May 6th - In honor of:

The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ and Deyodi:ho:nǫˀ People and Tutelo Park
May 6, 2023, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. @ Tutelo Park
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Hosted by Town of Ithaca with input from Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ representatives as well as those from other Haudenosaunee nations. This program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Tompkins County Tourism program. The Town’s Conservation Board is also a supporter.

In 2008, there was a “Native American Homecoming Festival” at the park. This May 2023 event will offer new ways of thinking about Tutelo Park and will highlight layers of meaning that the land holds. Further, the event will serve as a prelude to adding features to Tutelo Park over the next few years."

Found ourself in stitches of fun in March, learning the basics of sewing machines with Librarian Cady Fontana at the Tompkins County Public  Library MakerSpace, and supporting over 100 fae folk during Spring Fairy Fest in making their own fairy quilts with us! We have more textile workshops, and quilting history programs on the horizon, we hope to have you join us!

Upcoming Quilt Programs

Thur - April 6th Introduction to Quilting: Mini Quilt Tops w/ Cady Fontana at the TCPL MakerSpace (Registration required)

Thurs - April 13th - Quilted w/ Care 1996 Retrospective @ Tompkins Center - 4-5:30pm. Panelists include: Two Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance founders, Anne McLaughlin & Andi Gladstone; and Quilted with Care organizers Kristin Thompson & Brigid Hubberman.

Weds - April 26th - CHAT - Is the Ithaca Kitty the first Calico Cat? @Tompkins Center 5:15-6:15pm