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Did You Know…

 

•  Historic Geneva owns and operates three properties – the Geneva History Museum, Johnston House, and Rose Hill Mansion?  Located in the Prouty-Chew House, the Geneva History Museum has local history exhibits, a research room, and gift shop. The Johnston House features furnished period rooms and exhibits on technology, agriculture, and immigration. Once the center of a busy and productive farm, Rose Hill Mansion is open seasonally for guided tours. 
• Our collection consists of approximately 5,700 three-dimensional objects, 3,400 costumes and textiles, 1,000 cubic feet of archival materials and over 20,000 photographs.   We use our collections for exhibits at the Geneva History Museum, and to furnish Rose Hill Mansion and Johnston House. Archival materials are available to the public through the Research Room at the Geneva History Museum and online through New York Heritage. Most importantly, we preserve the items for future generations. 

• Our audiences can be divided into three groups – students, local adults, and tourists? Prior to 2020 by sixth grade students in the Geneva City School District visited all three of our sites at least once, participated in one classroom program, and experienced two off-site programs.  A variety of opportunities for K-12th students to explore Geneva’s stories are currently offered on our website including videos and online lesson plans. Over the past few years there has been an increase in students from Hobart and William Smith Colleges utilizing Historic Geneva.  Along with internships and community service projects, our long-term exhibit Geneva’s Changing Landscapes has been incorporated into two courses, several classes meet at the museum, and students use the research room for their coursework. Adult residents respond best to our lectures, history happy hours, and cemetery tours.  Tourists visit the Geneva History Museum and Rose Hill Mansion while genealogists and other researchers use our Research Room for resources that are unavailable elsewhere.  

  

• Along with information about our properties, our website includes a weekly blog, recordings of programs, past exhibits, online gift shop, and events calendar.  
• At least three new exhibits are hosted each year at the Geneva History Museum and Rose Hill Mansion?  Along with the long-term exhibit Geneva’s Changing Landscapes, our current exhibits are My Geneva Is…Then and Now, Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: Food and Beverage in Geneva, the “Community Curators” series, and One House, Many People: Workers at Rose Hill.    

• It takes a village to run and operate Historic Geneva and our three properties?   Currently, our full-time staff includes an Archivist, Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Director of Education and Public Information, Executive Director, and Visitor Services and Programs Manager at Rose Hill and Johnston House.  Our permanent part-time staff includes a Facilities Manager and Office Manager and a seasonal staff of seven lead tours of Rose Hill Mansion.   A dedicated band of volunteers serve on the board, attend committee meetings, run the Carriage House Gift Shop at Rose Hill, assist with projects in the Archives, tend the garden at the Geneva History Museum, and help with the Holiday Market and other projects.  Whether it was funders, collaborators, or supporters, we also rely on a variety of partners.  Our current partners include Antiques Club of the Finger Lakes, City of Geneva Historian Karen Osburn, Seneca Falls Historical Society, Geneva Public Library, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Lake Drum Brewing.  
• It takes $1,500 a day to operate Historic Geneva and maintain our three properties?   

Whether it’s through collections, exhibits, programs, or online content, we tell Geneva’s stories. To keep sharing Geneva’s stories – your stories – we rely on support from community members like you.   

Will you please support Historic Geneva by making a gift to our Fall Support Campaign? Under our restructured membership program, two support campaigns are held each year.  You can give to one campaign or to both. Any individual, business, or organization who contributes to a support campaign is considered a member of Historic Geneva. Along with multiple fixed levels of support, there are options to choose your own donation amount or to give monthly.  

 You can contribute to our Fall Support Campaign by filling out and submitting this form.  

We appreciate each and every contribution, because, when combined, they ensure that we can continue to share Geneva’s stories with audiences today and for years to come.