History Happenings June 2018
The History Center's Electronic Newsletter 
  
The Corner

Ithaca Festival Programs from the archival collection at The History Center.


The History Center loves the Ithaca Festival. Be sure to take a break from the crowds on Saturday, June 2 to come to THC and listen to Johnny Russo (piano) and  London McDaniel (guitar) play from 3:00-3:30 and then participate in a discussion led by folklorist Hannah Davis to share thoughts on how the Ithaca Festival carries on our unique folk life traditions. This is part of a project funded by the New York State Council on the Arts - we will also have a presence at Groton Old Home Days and the Trumansburg Fair this summer.
 
Also look for us in the Ithaca Festival parade and at a table on the Commons on Saturday. The Ithaca Kitty is back so stop by and purchase one for a friend or for yourself.
 
You will see in this newsletter that there are many opportunities to engage with us during the rest of June after the Ithaca Festival is over.



Executive Director, The History Center in Tompkins County
Support The History Center at this Critical Moment in the Organization's History!
 
We are entering an incredible period of transition unparalleled in our long history. We are thrilled to be part of the emerging Tompkins Center for History and Culture. We will miss our current location which has served the organization for the past 25 years. That said, we firmly believe that the move to the Commons will enhance our ability to be a vibrant organization serving both county residents and visitors.
 
Please support us at this key moment:   https://thehistorycenter.net/donate.
 
Over the next several months, we will continue to offer diverse and compelling programs while planning, packing and preparing new exhibits.
 
Thank you for letting us be your generation-to-generation education and research center.

-The Trustees of The History Center in Tompkins County
Support  The Tompkins Center for History and Culture!

When: Friday, June 1, 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM
What: Giving  is  Gorges  campaign day. The Tompkins Center for History and Culture will be part of it.
How:  Follow this link to respond to the campaign.


PEGASYS Presents


Watch John Spence, Director of the Community Arts Partnership, and Kirby Edmonds, Senior Fellow at Dorothy Cotton Institute, talk about their involvement in the new Tompkins Center for History and Culture. View the schedule on Channel 13:

Bookstore & Gift Shop Highlights  

Mention our newsletter and get 15% off from this selected title!    
 
One Day in Ithaca: May 17, 1988
By Carol Kammen
"In 1988 Carol Kammen commemorated the centennial of the incorporation of the City of Ithaca with a similar event. The request for submissions -called Write-in Ithaca - brought in over 6,000 written responses. Why did she do this in the first place? And why do it again? One-hundred eighty of the 6,000 responses received in 1988 were collected in a book called One Day in Ithaca. The title is a clue to the inspiration for the event." - Ithaca Times


Sol Goldberg's Kids and Other Important People
Edited by John Marcham
The publication presents Sol Goldberg's second collection (after Sol Goldberg's Ithaca) that puts more emphasis on children. For the decade 1956 - 1965 when Go ldberg was staff photographer for the Ithaca Journal, his award winning pictures brought humor, drama - even make-believe - to photojournalism. 



The Photographs of Frederick Marcham
By John Marcham
These ninety engaging photographs of American and English scenes and individuals are the work of a man well known in Upstate New York as a Cornell University professor and public official for more then six decades, but little known as a photographer. 
Upcoming Events



SAVE THE DATE! Ithaca Festival Parade 2018
Friday, June 1, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (Downtown Ithaca)
Please join us as The History Center walks in the 2018  Ithaca Festival Parade: Celebrating the Artist in Everyone!  Contact Youth Education Director Carole West for details as we get closer to the date:
[email protected] or 273-8284 X229.




HistoryForge Data Entry Bee Party
Saturday, June 2, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (at The History Center)
Come volunteer at our next transcription bee!  Light refreshments will be served with lots of fun and an educational opportunity that will make Ithaca history come alive. Be sure to bring your laptop. Sign up to volunteer here:  https://thehistorycenter.net/volunteer-historyforge


Celebrating the Ithaca Festival: 
A Community Conversation
June 2, 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM (at The History Center)
Join Ithaca Festival participants past and present to reflect on 41 years of a festival like none other. This conversation, moderated by folklorist Hannah Davis, will provide community members an opportunity to learn about the festival's history, share their own festival experiences, and contemplate the festival's broader significance. Immediately preceding, from 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Johnny Russo will perform songs from  Ithaca Our Home: A Forty Year Musical Odyssey in Tompkins County.


History & Science of Craft Beverages: The History of New York State Cider 
Wednesday, June 6, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM (at The History Center)
Guided cider and food pairing reception with Sommelier Laura Winter Falk of Experience! The Finger Lakes.
Presentation by Elizabeth Ryan, of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider. She is a renowned fruit grower and cider maker and studied cider making in Somerset and Hereford, England, and has a degree in Pomology, Cornell University. She has been a Smithsonian Fellow and was the keynote speaker at the NY Governor's Alcohol Summit that created a new policy for better support for small-scale cider production in New York State.  
History, geology, and chemistry all converge to tell the story behind the flavors of craft beverages in the Finger Lakes. Sponsored by the Museum of the Earth, The History Center in Tompkins County, the Sciencenter, and Experience! The Finger Lakes, this four-part series will stimulate your palate and your mind.  See full schedule and let us know if you are coming by following this link.


Book Talk: "What a Swell Party It Was!" by Michael Turback
Friday, June 8th, 6:00 PM (at The History Center)
In conjunction with First Friday Gallery Night, Michael Turback will give a talk about his recently published book "What a Swell Party It Was: Rediscovering Food and Drink from the Golden Age of American Nightclub." What A Swell Party It Was! entertains and inspires with a delicious slice of nearly forgotten culinary history - an era that followed the Great Depression and prohibition's repeal, when America boomed and the nightclub scene flourished.
About the speaker: 
Michael Turback created and nurtured the eponymous Turback's, one of Upstate New York's first destination restaurants. His mission combined inventive, passionate cooking with local ingredients, and the daring concept of a wine list with exclusively New York regional wines--this achievement resulted in Wine Enthusiast naming Turback's "one of the wine-friendliest restaurants in America," and the restaurant was awarded "Best American Wine List" by Restaurant Business. Michael is also the author of "Cocktails at Dinner," "ReMixology," and "What a Swell Party It Was," all from Skyhorse Publishing. He resides in Ithaca, New York.


Book Talk & Signing: "
Pennsylvania Farming: 
A History in Landscapes" with Author Sally McMurry
Saturday, June 9th, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM (
at The History Center)
The author Sally McMurry will give a presentation related to her recently published " Pennsylvania Farming: A History in Landscapes," followed by Q&A and book signing. After the talk, Monika Roth, recently retired Agriculture Issues Leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, will speak briefly to discuss comparisons with New York State farming landscapes. 
In her book,  Sally McMurry considers the diverse forces that helped shape the farming landscape, from markets to physical factors to cultural repertoires to labor systems. Above all, the people who created and worked on Pennsylvania's farms are placed at the center of attention. Her illustrated talk will highlight major themes from the book and demonstrate how a careful attention to landscape can help us understand the history of farming. This event is co-sponsored by Historic Ithaca and The History Center in Tompkins County.
About the author:
Sally McMurry is professor emerita of history at Pennsylvania State University, and former president of the Agricultural History Society. She is the author of several books on landscape and architectural history.   


Lake View: The Hidden Cemetery
Sunday, June 10, 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM (at 
605 East Shore Drive, across from Ithaca High School football field)
This is a wonderful opportunity to explore and learn about this unique hidden cemetery. Stations will be set up across the cemetery so you can learn about the people and families buried in this landscape treasure.  Among the notables are Elizabeth Beebe, Sophronia Bucklin, Agda Swenson Osborn, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Carl Sagan, Leo Szillard, Morse Chain family members, Cornell family members, Wyckoff family members, Anna B. Comstock, Ben & Laverne Light, (and a gentlemen named Harry Potter) to name a few. The history of Lake View Cemetery starts on March 31, 1894, when the 640 acre Renwick tract was purchased by Horace Hand of Scranton, PA and Herman Bergholtz of Ithaca to carve out what would be known as Renwick Park and Lake View Cemetery. 
Parking will be available at the base of the cemetery.  
Donations will go to the Lake View Cemetery Association. Suggested donation
 $10; students/retirees $5; under 12 free. Register here.



Tompkins County Genealogy Society Organizational Meeting
Wednesday, June 13 at 6:00 PM (at The History Center)
Hosted by The History Center in Tompkins County and the Tompkins County Public Library. Interest has been expressed in forming a local genealogy society with the goals of building and supporting a network and making resources discoverable.
The program will consist of a speaker, brief highlights of local resources and a discussion of organizational issues.




Engaging Local History 
Thursday, June 14th, 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (at Tompkins County Public Library, Time Warner Cable Study Room)
Join Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen for these free monthly workshops on exploring and 'doing' local history. 





HistoryForge Data Entry Bee Party
Saturday, June 16, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (at The History Center)
Come volunteer at our next transcription bee!  Light refreshments will be served with lots of fun and an educational opportunity that will make Ithaca history come alive. Be sure to bring your laptop. Sign up to volunteer here:  https://thehistorycenter.net/volunteer-historyforge



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That Old House Tour with Historic Ithaca
Saturday, June 16, 2018, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Join Historic Ithaca for a tour of Ithaca's South Hill historic homes on the 9th annual That Old House Tour. Click here to register!



Southside's 2018 Juneteenth Festival
Saturday, June 16th, 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM (at 305 South Plain Street, Ithaca)
Southside Community Center, Inc. will hold its annual Juneteenth Festival on Saturday, June 16th 2018 from 12:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. at 305 S. Plain Street followed by an event at our local Forest City Lodge located at 536 W. Green Street. On Sunday we will host a Father's Day Brunch in collaboration with Calvary Baptist Church and A.M.E. Zion Church at 305 S. Plain Street.
For more information, visit the event page. 



The History Center's Annual Meeting 
Wednesday, June 20, 6:00 PM (at The History Center in Tompkins County)
Join us for a brief look at the past year, an overview of the year ahead, and meet new trustees. We are pleased to have Sachem Sam George from the Cayuga Nation who will share his vision for the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ people.


Cayuga Waterfront Trail and Friends of Stewart Park Bike Tour
Friday, June 22, 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM (Meet at Jean McPheeters Trailhead (Chamber/Visitor Center)
This Ithaca Heritage offering will be a guided tour of the Cayuga Waterfront Trail. We will begin at the Jean McPheeters Trailhead and visit all of the 5 trailheads along the trail, stopping to discuss the information presented on each of the 5 trailhead interpretive panels (also including Stewart Park Trailhead, Farmers Market, Inlet Island and Cass Park). In addition we will stop at the Rowing Panel and the Gateway to the Erie Canal Panel on Inlet Island and follow the Walk Through History brochure prepared for the Cass Park Trail. This will be a 10 mile and very flat ride at a relaxed pace. Bring your bike or grab a Lime Bike and see you on the trail. Register here. 



The History Center at Reggae Fest
Saturday, June 23, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM (at Stewart Park)
Did you know that Ithaca played a meaningful role in Reggae history?Stop by our table on June 23 at Stewart Park to find out more! 
Contact  [email protected] with questions. 




Stewart Park Walking Tour
Sunday, June 24, 11:00 AM (Meet at the Large Pavilion)
From its earliest use by the Cayuga Nation, the lakeside site that is now Stewart Park has a storied history. The Cayuga Nation formed a village known as Neodakheat in the area. A stately boathouse drew crews when rowing was at the height of its popularity. Much later, it became a private amusement park whose visitors came by electric trolley to its gates. Big band tunes could be heard from the bandstand, and a booming movie studio filmed scores of silent films in its buildings. Now a public park, its acres of greenspace, stately willows, and lake vistas welcome visitors for leisure, birding, and recreation. Explore the buildings and sites that capture the history of the park-and plans for its continued revitalization-on a guided walking tour led by Friends of Stewart Park's Executive Director Rick Manning and Board member Diana Riesman (Executive Director, Wharton Studio Museum). Register here.


Cornell University Press (CUP) Talk
Saturday, June 30, 2:00 PM (at The History Center) 
The History Center in Tompkins County and Cornell University Press have teamed up to offer an occasional CUP Talk. The series will often feature a talk by an author that has been published by Cornell University Press but not always. "Going Public with My Archives" is for folks who have something in their personal archives or recently found something in their attic that they think might be of broader interest but they are not sure what to do with it. What are the opportunities and the responsibilities? Is it material for a book, a blog or a website? Is it a donation to a local history organization? The panel will discuss options that, while respecting history and family legacies, are realistic in that not everything can be accessioned nor published.

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SAVE THE DATE: 
Historic Ithaca's 2018 Walk & Talks 
Saturdays, July 7, 14, 21 and 28, 11:00 AM (Various locations).  Visit Historic Ithaca's website for more information.
We are Moving!
Packing Highlights 



Ithaca Pottery Crock from the Collection of The History Center.
First built around 1840 by Ezra Cornell for his father Elijah, the Ithaca pottery was the source of many beautiful stoneware pieces for more than 40 years. This crock, probably used for butter, shows a charming design of cobalt blue on the front. It is one of the many artifacts from our collection that are being packed as we prepare for our big move later this year to the new Tompkins Center for History and Culture.

These and the rest of our object collection are being packed for our move to the new Tompkins Center for History and Culture.








CONTACT US
 
Rod Howe | Executive Director | [email protected] | Phone: x 222
 
Donna Eschenbrenner | Archivist | [email protected] | Phone: x 224

Carole West | Educator, Eight Square Schoolhouse | [email protected] | Phone: x 229

Ksenia Ionova |  Community Outreach & Visitor Services | [email protected] | Phone: x 227

Nancy Menning | Bookkeeper & Office Manager  | [email protected] | Phone: x 225

Cindy Kjellander-Cantu | Design & Support Specialist | [email protected] | Phone: x 223

STAY CONNECTED @TompkinsHistory