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St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Part 2
A selection of veterans buried at St. Patrick's Cemetery -
Blanchard Bartlett Walker: A World Traveler
The travels of Blanchard Bartlett Walker through her diaries and scrapbooks. -
The Geneva USO and WWII
The Geneva USO Club helped the community do its part during World War II. -
Women’s Fashions in the 1940s
Fashion changes all the time, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. In the 1940s, women’s clothing did both at the same time. In some ways the evolution of women’s fashion stalled for a while because of World War II. -
Ah, The Movies!!
Movies in the 1940s seemed glamorous and provided their viewers with the opportunity to escape from the stress of war, rationing, worry, fear and anger. Ah, the movies. What a wonderful thing they are! -
Corcoran Family Scrapbook
The Corcoran family scrapbook documents one Geneva family's World War II experience from draft through marriage and life after the war. -
Picking Up The Farming Slack in Geneva During World War II
By the end of the war, there were almost 1,000 men who were enlisted in the army from Geneva. The loss of these men caused a drop in people who were able to work. The loss of the men from Geneva to the war was very problematic for the farming in the area. -
Family Memories of War
Family stories can still bring World War II to life and make history a personal thing. -
The Zoot Suit
In keeping with our current emphasis on the 1940s, I looked in the local newspapers for zoot suits. Although zoot suits were known in some form from the early 1930s, the first Geneva reference I found was in 1942. -
The James M. Cole Circus, Part Two
In November 1943, the Geneva Daily Times reported Cole, Circus Owner, Inducted Into Army -
Geography of Food in the 1940s
“Food deserts” are a current topic in government and academic research. The US Department of Agriculture defines the term as “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. More » -
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 » -
Christmas Dreaming
Some of my favorite memories are associated with Christmas–the Festival of Lights at Sonnenberg, seeing The Nutcracker at the Smith Opera House and A Christmas Carol at Geva, picking out a new ornament each year for the tree, having Christmas breakfast with my grandparents, and playing “Sleigh Ride” throughout high school for the holiday band concert. -
World War II in the Geneva Daily Times
When we did our World War II project in the early 1990s, Kathryn Grover was hired to research, write, and lay out the exhibit and book, Close to the Heart of the War. As part of her contract, we received all her research notes for our archives. I recently pulled out one of the large boxes to look at her source material. Any project, i.e. More » -
Dreams Come True: The James M. Cole Circus
While looking for interesting topics from the 1940s, I ran across the James M. Cole Circus of Penn Yan. This is a little of its story from the 40s, as reported (mostly) in the Geneva Daily Times. -
Rationing and Recipes
When I was in high school girls took “home economics” classes and boys took “shop” classes. I remember coming home from the first cooking class in home economics and showing my mom what foods they were going to teach us to prepare. My mother was not impressed, for that matter I wasn’t either. I only remember 3 or 4 of the recipes, but one was More » -
World War II Revisted
In 1995 we opened a major exhibit, Close to the Heart of the War: Geneva and World War II, and published a companion book. We conducted “history harvests” to identify people with stories, artifacts and photos. A researcher recorded many hours of oral history interviews and scoured local newspapers and records. So, why do World War II again? Is there anything left to say? -
Girl Bands and Geneva
Recently, I got the book Swing Shift by Sherrie Tucker. The book was published in 2000 and Professor Tucker was a professor at Hobart and William Smith when she wrote it. Swing Shift is about the all-women bands of the 1930s and 1940s. I wondered if any of the bands in the book were seen or heard in Geneva. It turns out some of them More » -
World War II in the Eyes of a “Boomer”
Since I was born in the early 1950s World War II was very fresh in the memories of my parents and their friends so by process of osmosis I became more familiar with that war than some of the more recent ones during my own life.
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.