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Delivering Christmas with the Arctic League
By Rachel Dworkin, archivist This year, despite the pandemic, the Arctic League will deliver Christmas to the poor children of Chemung County, just as they have done every year since 1912, come hell...
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Your Favorite Things
by Susan Zehnder, Education DirectorWhitman Mission on the Oregon TrailWhat does the Oregon Trail, a member of the inaugural Girls Professional Baseball League, and souvenirs from a doomed arctic...
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Capturing the Local Faces of the Great Depression
by Erin Doane, CuratorIn September 1940, Jack Delano, a photographer with the Farm Security Administration (FSA), arrived on Rumsey Hill near Erin, New York. His job was to document the challenges of...
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A Shot in the Arm
By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist The first mass inoculation in North America occurred in Boston during an outbreak of smallpox in 1721. The inoculation campaign was spearheaded by Cotton Mather and...
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Lost and Found: The Labrador Duck
Sculpture in Brand Park by Susan Zehnder, Education DirectorThere’s a story in my family that once I was trying to tell them about a duck I’d seen and after denying their many suggestions, I blurted...
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The Maki Family on Rumsey Hill
by Erin Doane, Curator When photographer Jack Delano from the Farm Security Administration came to Rumsey Hill in northern Chemung County in 1940, he photographed nearly a dozen families living there....
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Bob Mack and the Rooster
By Rachel Dworkin, ArchivistIt was 1882 and Haverly’s Colored Minstrels were playing Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, England. Up on the stage was Bob Mack of Elmira dressed as a giant Shanghai...
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Elmira's First Black Firefighter
By Susan Zehnder, Education DirectorIn 2007, Thomas J. Reid, Jr. was interviewed about his status as Elmira’s first Black firefighter. His reply that “I suppose I was a trailblazer…” reflects only...
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The Neighborhood House and EOP
by Erin Doane, curator The Neighborhood House, 1925In 1878, the Ladies Temperance and Benevolent Union of Elmira started the Industrial School “to help the poor to help themselves.” There, women and...
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Elmira Pioneers: What’s in a Name?
By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist Since professional baseball first began in Elmira in 1888, the local team has gone through a lot of names. They were the Babies, the Gladiators, the Jags, the Colonels,...
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Women Drivers
by Susan Zehnder, Education DirectorWhile living in Vienna, Austria, German born Siegfried Marcus invented the first successful gasoline-powered car in the late 1880s. Not long after, the wife of...
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Elmira History Forge: Discovering Local Stories
by Andrea Renshaw, Elmira HistoryForge Project Coordinator, and Missy Rozengota, Elmira HistoryForge volunteer[HistoryForge is a digital mapping and transcription project that has partnered with the...
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The Fabulous Derby Sisters
by Erin Doane, Curator left to right: Cora, unidentified, Annie, and Eva Derby, 1895Sisters Cora, Eva, and Annie Derby were avid cyclists, entrepreneurs, and life-long residents of Elmira. They all had...
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Beauty Culture and the Rise of the Hair Salon
by Rachel Dworkin, archivist In 1895, Joannie De Liebertie launched her business as Elmira’s first French hair dresser. Known as “Dutch Annie,” she worked out of the Italian boarding house she ran with...
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W. Clyde Fitch, A Father of the American Stage
by Susan Zehnder, Education DirectorPlaywright William Clyde Fitch once said he “would rather be misunderstood than lose his independence” and embraced his individualism. As a gay man living at the...
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Beer Returns to Chemung County
by Erin Doane, CuratorIt was 88 years ago this week that people in Elmira and surrounding towns tasted beer again after years of Prohibition. Nationally, Prohibition began on January 17, 1920 but...
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A Private Woman: The Lucy Diven Diaries
By Rachel Dworkin, ArchivistAs an avid diarist, I would be horrified if someone read my diary without my permission. As a historian and archivist, I really love reading other people’s diaries....
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Education in Pandemic Times
by Susan Zehnder, Education DirectorLately I’ve been asked what’s going on in Education this year since current pandemic conditions have affected everything. I usually get busy in January when the...
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How Grocer Girl Caused a Dictionary Shortage
by Erin Doane, CuratorOn February 2, 1933, WESG aired the first in a series of weekly musical radio programs sponsored by Standard Food Stores. Just nine weeks later, on April 7, an article in the...
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Queen City Gliders
By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist On Memorial Day 1969, 13-year-old Bobby McDowell was so excited that he got up at 5:30 a.m. to practice. He’d recently joined the Queen City Gliders Drill Team and that...
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