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Railroad Accidents and Safety
Horrific railroad accidents were common in the 1800s in Geneva and elsewhere, as technology and speed outstripped concerns for risk and safety. -
Geneva’s Lakefront: 1904 and Today
A 1904 map of Geneva's lakefront reveals the extent of change that has occurred in the built environment and residents' attitudes about it in 120 years. -
1873 Geneva Bird’s-Eye View
An 1873 Geneva bird's-eye view represents a popular art form in 19th-century America and details the city's built environment. -
Geneva’s Early Woman Journalist: Mildred Jennings
The life and career of journalist Mildred Jennings, one of 20th-century Geneva's first woman journalists. -
The Thompson Family of Washington Street Cemetery
The story of an ordinary family in Geneva's past, the Thompson Family in Washington Street Cemetery. -
Early Geneva Playgrounds
Early Geneva playgrounds provided safe summertime recreation for a growing population of children in the city in the first quarter of the 20th century. -
Collecting Geneva’s Food Traditions
Help us expand our collection of recipes, cookbooks and documented food traditions. Share your Geneva recipes with us and let us know why they matter to you. -
Geneva in December 1922
A glimpse at Geneva in December 1922 through the newspaper. -
The Prouty-Chew House: From Family Home to Museum and Work Space
There were many changes involved in transforming the Prouty-Chew house from a house to a museum. -
The Prouty Family Home
Discover how the Prouty-Chew House changed over the Prouty family's forty-year residence. -
The Battle of the Avenue B Railroad Crossing
When the Geneva village trustees went to war over a rail crossing. -
The Next Generation: The Prouty Family Legacy Part III
A chronicle of Phineas and Adelaide Prouty's children. -
Phin and Kit: The Prouty Family Legacy Part II
Take a peek into the early married life of Phineas Prouty Jr. and his wife Adelaide. -
Phineas Prouty Sr and His Family Legacy Part I
Phineas Prouty Sr. and his family spent 50 years living in the building we use as a museum. Discover how their story begins. -
Medical Women’s Success
Why did medical women find professional success in the 19th century, only to fall back in the 20th? -
Historians At Home: Anne Dealy
The second post in our "Historians at Home" series. -
My Geneva is…
For a commuter, Geneva is its built environment, especially the roadways. -
19th-Century Corsets
In Part II of our series on corsets, we look at changes in 19th-century corsets and an example from the Geneva Historical Society collection. -
Geneva’s Close Election of 1903
Look back at Geneva’s controversial mayoral election of 1903. -
The Early History of the Corset
The early history of corsets is tied to morality and the ideal figure in fashion. -
Memory and the Pandemic Experience
If you want to remember what is happening now, what you think about COVID-19, make a record now. -
Disasters on Land and Water
Danger on water and land plagued 19th-century Americans. -
Geneva School Expansion and Reform
A review of the period of school expansion and reform in Geneva during the late 1800s. -
Beer Brewing in Early Geneva
Find out more about beer brewing in early Geneva. -
2019 Annual Dinner and Meeting
Join us for the 2019 Annual Dinner and Meeting. -
Lessons for Life: Sports in Geneva
Join us to discuss the history and development of sports and athletics in Geneva in the 20th and 21st centuries. -
Panthers & Saints: High School Sports in Geneva
New exhibit explores 120 years of high school athletics in Geneva. -
What We Learned In School: 19th-Century Schoolwork
What was 19th-century schoolwork like? -
Exploring Cemetery Stories with School Children
What can you learn from a cemetery? Every autumn Geneva's second and fifth grade students get to find out. -
1968: A Year of Change
1968, the year the Geneva Historical Society opened Rose Hill Mansion as a museum, was a year of momentous change. -
Dove’s Geneva
In conjunction with the exhibit opening of "Dove's Geneva, the Geneva Historical Society and the Arthur Dove Tribute Group are hosting a special event celebrating the importance of Dove and his work to Geneva. -
Community Meetings on Facility Expansion
The Historical Society will host two meetings in January to solicit community input on a facilities expansion project. -
Segregated Schools in Geneva’s Past
Many Americans are familiar with the segregated schools of the Jim Crow South, however, officially segregated schools existed in most 19th-century communities in the North, including Geneva. It took the concerted efforts of Geneva's African-American community to advocate for improved education and eventual integrated schools for their children. -
Dickens and the Christmas Pudding
Where did the Christmas pudding come from and why don't Americans eat it? -
Curriculum Project Results in Student Mural
Geneva Middle School students create a mural recounting Geneva High School boycotts of the 1970s. -
Help Us Crowdsource An Exhibit!
Here is your chance to help us curate the exhibit Stuff: A Material History of Geneva, opening June 2017. -
Free Schools for Geneva
Free public schools appeared in Geneva in the mid-19th century. -
Founding of the Geneva School District
The Geneva City School District can trace its birth to 1839, the year that the village’s Districts No. 1 and No. 19 merged to form the state’s first union school district. By the 1830s, the community had a College, dozens of private schools, and two public schools for the basic instruction of children of all classes. Yet schooling in the antebellum period here and throughout More » -
Geneva and the Civil Rights Movement
As we at the Geneva Historical Society look back at the 1960s this year, we cannot ignore the protest movements that sprung out of that decade, particularly the Civil Rights Movement. -
1960s Food: From Jello to Mastering French Cooking
Like much of what happened in the decade, 1960s food spanned extremes from French haute cuisine to Spaghetti-Os and back again. -
Early Schools of Geneva
The recent debates over Geneva’s school budget and national arguments about the Common Core curriculum have had me thinking and reading a lot about the history of education this past spring. Education and schooling have been part of life in Geneva from its early settlement, though not in a form most modern Genevans would recognize. -
Lincoln’s Assassination as Seen in Geneva
One hundred fifty years ago this week actor John Wilkes Booth changed American history when he stepped into the Lincolns' booth at Ford's Theater and shot the president in the back of the head, the first man to assassinate a U.S. president. The assassination was an awful event that shook the nation just a week after Lee’s surrender overjoyed the North. -
The Geneva USO and WWII
The Geneva USO Club helped the community do its part during World War II. -
Geneva Teenagers and World War II
With World War II came the birth of the American teenager. While we tend to associate the flowering of teen culture with the baby boomers, it was actually their immediate predecessors, the so-called “Silent Generation” who were first referred to as teenagers. Then, as always, the older generation thought that the younger generation was at best misguided, at worst they were described as selfish, willful, More » -
Geneva’s “Busted Yankees”
As we saw in a previous post about the Herendeen family, World War I came about so suddenly and unexpectedly that few people were prepared for it. As mobilization for war began across Europe, there were over 100,000 Americans visiting or living abroad who were unable to leave easily. -
Currency, Finance and the Civil War
Banking in the early years of the American Republic was decentralized, inefficient and disorganized, leading to frequent panics and depressions. As in many other areas of national development, it was the Civil War which prompted radical change in the country’s financial system. -
Workers at Rose Hill Farm
As we saw last month, the Swans at Rose Hill relied on female workers to do much of the housework and childcare. Running the farm operations required male workers. -
Domestic Service at Rose Hill
At Rose Hill in the mid-19th century, the Swans hired laborers for agricultural and domestic work. This post examines the female domestic servants at the house -
Banking in Early Geneva
Overview of banking in early Geneva. -
History of Christmas
A brief history of the roots of American Christmas. -
The Arrival of the Consumer Economy
The rise of the modern consumer culture as seen in Geneva. -
Food Preservation: From Home to Factory
During the 19th century, Genevans went from preserving food at home in order to be able to eat to purchasing luxury preserved foods in stores. -
Diphtheria Epidemic
Chronicle of the 1878-1879 Geneva diphtheria epidemic. -
Early Food Preservation in the Finger Lakes
Food preservation techniques of the Iroquois and European settlers. -
Celebrating African-American Freedom
Geneva's African-American community hosted a number of emancipation celebrations in the 19th century to celebrate their freedoms while protesting slavery and racial inequality. -
Sustainable Agriculture, c. 1860
Robert Swan's farming practice was what the modern observer could call sustainable. -
Robert Swan Becomes a Farmer
Robert Swan's transition from city dweller to farmer at Rose Hill. -
150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
A little over one-hundred fifty years ago, on September 22, 1862, President Lincoln took a step he had planned for months and proclaimed that as of January 1, 1863 “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.…” -
Freezing Fingers, Toasted Toes: Heating in America
A comfortable house in winter was a rare thing in much of the United States prior to the late 19th century. According to one English visitor to Cayuga, NY in 1827, American houses were built “expressly for summer, without the slightest reference to the six months’ winter that they suffer.”
Historic Geneva is a history museum in the Finger Lakes region of New York State which focuses on the history of Geneva, NY, historic architecture, genealogy, and the area's industry and agriculture. The Society maintains four historic 19th century properties, an archive and library, a museum and runs programs and events related to the history of Geneva and the Finger Lakes area.