Blog » Tag: 1900-1950

  • Geneva’s Early Woman Journalist: Mildred Jennings

    December 15th, 2023
    The life and career of journalist Mildred Jennings, one of 20th-century Geneva's first woman journalists.
  • December 1922

    December 8th, 2023
    Happening in and around Geneva in December 1922 based on local newspapers.
  • People from the St. Patrick’s Cemetery 2023 Tour

    November 10th, 2023
    Overview of the residents featured in the 2023 tour of t Patrick's Cemetery
  • Visiting the Syrian Community in Glenwood Cemetery, Part 2

    October 20th, 2023
    The second article about the history of the Syrian community in Geneva.
  • Local Authors

    September 29th, 2023
    Overview of various authors connected to Geneva.
  • Early Geneva Playgrounds

    July 10th, 2023
    Early Geneva playgrounds provided safe summertime recreation for a growing population of children in the city in the first quarter of the 20th century.
  • Hearing From You: The Breuer Hotel

    March 17th, 2023
    Brief history of the Breuer Hotel.
  • The Prouty-Chew House: From Family Home to Museum and Work Space

    October 14th, 2022
    There were many changes involved in transforming the Prouty-Chew house from a house to a museum.
  • Over the River and Through the Woods: Loomis Wood

    September 16th, 2022
    A history of the Loomis Woods.
  • Seneca Lake Park: From City Park to State Park

    June 10th, 2022
    A brief history of Seneca Lake State Park
  • Was Charles Bean a Conman, Part 2?

    March 4th, 2022
    More mysteries surrounding Charles Bean
  • The Mysterious McPaddens

    December 3rd, 2021
    Trying to chronicle the history of the McPadden Family.
  • More Stories from St. Patrick’s Cemetery

    November 11th, 2021
    Overview of some of the residents of St Patrick's Cemetery
  • Off to College, Then and Now

    August 20th, 2021
    A comparison of the admission process at Hobart College in 1839-1839 and 1911-1912
  • 2020 Collection Reflections

    December 23rd, 2020
    Artifact donation highlights in 2020
  • St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Part 1

    October 23rd, 2020
    Overview the history of St. Patrick's Cemetery and some of its residents
  • The Ballot Box in New York State

    October 16th, 2020
    Brief timeline of voting history in New York State
  • Geneva’s Close Election of 1903

    October 2nd, 2020
    Look back at Geneva’s controversial mayoral election of 1903.
  • PB Oakley

    September 4th, 2020
    Brief biography of photojournalist PB Oakley.
  • Salvation Army

    August 21st, 2020
    Chronicle of the Salvation Army’s presence in Geneva.
  • Puzzling During a Pandemic: America’s 3rd Puzzle Craze

    August 7th, 2020
    A brief history of the jigsaw puzzle crazes in the United States.
  • Meet Gerald and Viacita Fowler, Part 1

    March 20th, 2020
    Gerald Folwer and his work at the Schine theatres in Geneva.
  • A Brief History of the T-Shirt

    February 14th, 2020
    A history of the "plain white t-shirt."
  • The Ice War Continueth, Part 3: Kashong Ice Company

    December 18th, 2019
    The story of the Kashong Ice Company.
  • “A Friend of the Gutted Stick:” Francis “Babe” Kraus

    November 7th, 2019
    Brief biography of Francis "Babe" Kraus.
  • St. Patrick’s Cemetery: A Story of Immigration in Geneva

    October 23rd, 2019
    Brief history of Irish and Italian immigration to Geneva.
  • Geneva’s Stories: Geneva Rotary Club Celebrates 100 Years of Service

    October 18th, 2019
    From student loans to summer camps to a local grant program, the Geneva Rotary Club has spent the past century serving the community.
  • Why Does New York State Have Municipal Historians?

    October 4th, 2019
    The story of why municipal historians were established in New York State
  • When You’re Shut Out of a Club…Start Your Own

    September 6th, 2019
    A brief history of the College Club of Geneva.
  • William Smith College Athletics, 1908-1971

    July 26th, 2019
    Brief history of William Smith College athletics.
  • Beer Brewing in Early Geneva

    June 21st, 2019
    Find out more about beer brewing in early Geneva.
  • From Zoology to Metaphysics: College Courses in 19th and 20th Centuries

    April 26th, 2019
    Overview of courses offered schools and colleges in Geneva during the 1800s and 1900s.
  • Alice Seward and World War I, Part Three

    January 18th, 2019
    The final part in a series about the World War I diary of Alice Seward
  • Storymaps

    January 11th, 2019
    The Historical Society finds a new way to tell Geneva's stories.
  • Alice Seward and World War I, Part Two

    November 14th, 2018
    Part two in a series about the World War I diary of Alice Seward
  • Airports in Geneva

    October 12th, 2018
    Brief history of airports in Geneva, New York.
  • Alice Seward and World War I, Part One

    October 5th, 2018
    Part one is a series about the World War I diary of Alice Seward
  • Dove’s Geneva Watercolors

    July 20th, 2018
    A look at Arthur Dove’s watercolors created in Geneva from 1933 to 1938.
  • Andrew Hubbs, American Red Ambulance Corps

    June 15th, 2018
    World War I experience of Andrew Hubbs
  • Geneva 100 Years Ago

    June 8th, 2018
    Geneva in 1918 through the local newspaper
  • Geneva’s Gallant Sons

    May 11th, 2018
    The Curator's latest find "Register of Geneva's Gallant Sons War of 1917-1919."
  • The Sounds of Music

    August 12th, 2016
    Through National Jukebox, sample sound recordings can be found of various musicians who performed in Geneva in the early 1900s.
  • Fiery Cross Burns

    April 29th, 2016
    While looking for information on Rose Hill (called the Boody Farm when Edgar Boody owned it) I found this account. I had heard a little about Klan activity in the 1920s, but had never pursued the subject. Now I wondered about the history of the Klan in Geneva and I started poking around in the local newspapers.
  • Suffrage Connection

    October 2nd, 2015
    If you did not go to the pre-screening of the movie The Suffragette at the Smith, you missed an incredible experience. Though the movie was about the British suffrage movement, there is a Geneva connection.
  • Piazza Party at Lochland

    May 29th, 2015
    For over forty years women’s rights and dress reform advocate Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822-1911) called Geneva home. In 1897 Miller got the New York State Suffrage Association to host their annual convention in Geneva. After the convention Miller and her daughter, Anne, formed the Geneva Political Equality Club. The purpose of the club was to secure full suffrage for women.
  • The Geneva USO and WWII

    March 2nd, 2015
    The Geneva USO Club helped the community do its part during World War II.
  • Women’s Fashions in the 1940s

    February 24th, 2015
    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!!

    February 13th, 2015
    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

    February 6th, 2015
    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

    January 30th, 2015
    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

    January 16th, 2015
    Family stories can still bring World War II to life and make history a personal thing.
  • The Zoot Suit

    January 9th, 2015
    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

    December 29th, 2014
    In November 1943, the Geneva Daily Times reported Cole, Circus Owner, Inducted Into Army
  • Geography of Food in the 1940s

    December 18th, 2014
    “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

    December 5th, 2014
    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

    December 1st, 2014
    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

    November 20th, 2014
    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

    November 13th, 2014
    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

    November 7th, 2014
    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 »
  • Girl Bands and Geneva

    October 17th, 2014
    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”

    October 13th, 2014
    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.
  • Geneva’s “Busted Yankees”

    October 3rd, 2014
    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.
  • The Herendeens and the Summer of 1914, Part II

    August 22nd, 2014
    By John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits   Last month’s blog ended with Frank Herendeen’s entry from July 25, 1914, when Austria declared war. Hotel guests immediately began fleeing by auto and carriage. The Herendeens stayed put for almost a week.  On July 31 “came a dispatch that the entire Austrian army was to mobilize, and immediately great excitement prevailed in the hotel.” The More »
  • The Herendeens and the Summer of 1914, Part 1

    July 18th, 2014
    By John Marks, Curator of Collections and Exhibits   A common quip in my profession is, “I’m a historian. I read dead people’s mail.” Even more revealing are the diaries and journals that have been given to the historical society. A particularly interesting collection is the diaries of Francis (Frank) Herendeen from 1914 to 1929.   In 1868 the Herendeen family began making farm implements More »
  • One Final Word (Or Two) About The 1920s

    January 31st, 2014
    Overview of the 1920s.
  • Dance in Geneva

    January 23rd, 2014
    During the 1910s and 20s the dance world was in ferment. In 1909 the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev brought a new kind of ballet to Europe and the United States with the Paris debut of the Ballets Russes
  • Radio in the 1920s

    January 14th, 2014
    Brief history of radio during the 1920s.
  • Geneva in the 1920s

    January 10th, 2014
    Overview of businesses in Geneva during the 1920s.
  • What was a flapper, anyway?

    December 31st, 2013
    Evolution of the term flapper as documented in the local newspaper
  • Prohibition: The Real Story (Or Close to It)

    December 17th, 2013
    How people and businesses got around the 18th Amendment and Volstead Act during the 1920s
  • Clubs, Associations, Organizations: Networking in the 1920s

    December 13th, 2013
    Brief overview of community organizations in Geneva during the 1920s.
  • The Arrival of the Consumer Economy

    November 26th, 2013
    The rise of the modern consumer culture as seen in Geneva.
  • The Helpful Horse

    February 11th, 2013
    The rise of the automobile and the decline of using horses for transportation in Geneva, New York.
For more posts, please choose from the categories on the left.