Below is a listing of Historical Records Repositories in Cayuga County. When available, hours of operation and a brief description of holdings are included.
Cayuga County Community College
Bourke Memorial Library
197 Franklin Street
Auburn, NY 13021
315.255.1743
Contact: Martha Lollis, Library Director
Email: lollismj@cayuga-cc.edu
Website:
Hours: Monday-Thursday: 8:00a-8:30p
Friday 8:00a-4:30p
Sunday 12:30-7:00p
Holdings: Primarily a local history collection dealing with Auburn and Cayuga counties. All county newspapers available from 1846-present. Collections include Harriet Tubman, William Henry Seward, Earl Conrad, and Auburn Prison. Some census records.
Cayuga County Historian’s Office
157 Genesee Street
Auburn, NY 13021
315.253.1300
Contact: Sheila S. Tucker, County Historian
Email: historian@co.cayuga.ny.us
Website: www.co.cayuga.ny.us/history
Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00a-5:00p
July-August, Monday-Friday 9:00a-4:00p
Holdings: Historical records relating to Cayuga County, including newspapers, family files, genealogies, local census data, historical county and town maps. Local and county history books. Repository of Cayuga County Underground Railroad research. Includes abolitionist newspaper articles that are connected to Cayuga County residents, files on abolitionists and black freedom seekers, Syracuse Jerry trial transcripts.
Cayuga Museum of History and Art
203 Genesee Street
Auburn, NY 13021
315.253.8051
Contact: Patricia Elkovitch, Curator
Email: cayugamuseum@adelphia.net
Website: www.cayuganet.org/cayugamuseum
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10:00a-5:00p
Saturday-Sunday 12:00a-5:00p
Library open by appointment
Holdings: Documents and objects relating to the history of Cayuga County and Auburn in particular. The Case Research Lab houses the original equipment of Theodore Cases's experiments and creation of the first commercially successful system of sound on film, as well as his other experiments and inventions. The archival collections contain all of his documents, correspondence, and patents.
Cayuga-Owasco Lakes Historical Society & Museum
PO Box 247
14 West Cayuga Street
Moravia, NY 13118
315.497.3906
Contact: Nancy Weaver, Secretary
Email: colhs@localnet.com
Hours: May-October Monday 9:00a-4:00p
Saturday 1:00-4:00p
Also by appointment
Holdings: This museum contains the Millard Fillmore Room and the Luther Research Center (genealogy). .Specific holdings include 700 family name files, census information, 10-volume cemetery indices, Cayuga County newspapers dating to 1815, maps, photographs, and local business records.
CIViC Heritage
PO Box 389
Cato, NY 13033
315.626.2378
Contact: Dorothy Southard, President
Hours: By appointment only.
Holdings: Collections cover a 4-town area (Cato, Ira, Victory, and Conquest). Cemeteries, churches, businesses, veterans, family histories, scrapbooks, obituaries, marriages, births. Local news columns. Law books from 1820s on. Maps and photos.
D.I.R.T Hall of Fame and Classic Car Museum
PO Box 240
One Speedway Drive
Weedsport, NY 13166
315.834.6606 or 315.834.6667
Contact: Jack Speno, Curator
Website: www.classicar.com/museums/dirtmuse
Hours: Seasonal, call for details.
East Genoa Historical Society
PO Box 78
Genoa, NY 13071
315.497.0478
Frontenac Historical Society
PO Box 338
178 Cayuga Street
Union Springs, NY 13160
315.889.7273
Contact: Patricia Kimbar, President
Email: frontenacmuseum@hotmail.com
Hours: May-October
Saturday Sunday 1:00-4:00p
Also by appointment.
Holdings: Five display rooms, each containing local history. Civil War era and other war artifacts; Local Native American room; Cayuga lake information; Hall of Artists, with artwork from all the local artists in our area; early newspapers; collection of 19th c. clothing; genealogy services and resource room available, please contact Norma Bilak 315.889.7765.
Genoa Historical Association and Rural Life Museum
PO Box 318
920 Route 34B
King Ferry, NY 13081
315.364.8202
Contact: Grayson Mitchell, Historian
Email: genoahistorical@clarityconnect.com
Website: www.genoahistorical.com
Hours: Monday Wednesday-Friday 9:30a-3:00p
Holdings: Genoa/Milton town records 1794-1835. Church records 1798-1853. Record books of Methodist Episcopal churches of Ledyard & Genoa. Record books of several other churches in Genoa. Record books of Maplewood Cemetery, Five Corners. Local photograph collection. Lists of cemetery inscriptions for area towns. Weekly newspaper The Genoa Tribune & its successor Southern Cayuga Tribune, 1898-1967. Original book & transcription of records of Evangelical United Congregations in Milton & Scipio, 1803-1846. Census microfilms that include Genoa/Milton, 1800-1920, 1855-1925. Family &
genealogical files.
Harriet Tubman Home
180 South Street
Auburn, NY 13021
315.252.2081
Contact: Rev. Paul G. Carter
Hazard Library Association
PO Box 3
2487 Route 34B
Poplar Ridge, NY 13139
315.364.7975
Contact: Sally Otis, Director
Email: hazardlib@clarityconnect.com
Website: www.flls.org.poplar
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 1:00-8:00p
Saturday 9:00a-4:00p
Holdings: Clippings, manuscripts and ephemera of historic and local interest to SW Cayuga County towns of Aurora, Genoa, Sherwood, Scipio, Ledyard and Venice. Society of Friends (Quakers) autobiographies, biographies, memoirs and articles, esp. of Howland family; Harriet Tubman & Underground railroad; local houses: photos & text (by town). Genealogies of Battle, Brokow-Corey, Simkin, Hoxie, Robinson-Hazard, Myers-Wyant families; other personal memoirs, including Courtney, Fessenden, Franklin, Hazard, Hoskins, King, Main, Otis, Talbert, Wiggans, Young.
Howland Stone Store Museum
2244 Lake Road
Sherwood, NY 13026
315.364.8307
Contact: Trudy Burenbaum, Curator
Hours: June-September
Thursday 1:00-4:00p
Sunday 1:00-4:00p
Holdings: Former home of noted educator and Quaker Abolitionist Emily Howland. The museum displays historic items from the family's world travels and memoribilia honoring Howland's accomplishment. Holdings include women's rights posters, 1800's country store items, underground railroad ticket, many documents relating to the abolitionist period and Ms. Howland's involvement in establishing over 30 schools in the south, mainly for slaves.
Lock 52 Historical Society of Port Byron
PO Box 289
73 Pine Street
Port Byron, NY 13140
Contact: Dorothy Walker, President
Hours: By appointment only.
Holdings: The historical society's museum contains maps, pictures, tools, household items, furniture, clothing, etc. pertaining to the history of the Village of Port Byron and the Town of Mentz.
Old Brutus Historical Society
PO Box 516
8943 North Seneca Street
Weedsport, NY 13166
315.834.9342
Contact: Jeanne Baker, Historian
Hours: Monday Tuesday 9:00a-12:00p
Also by appointment.
Holdings: The Society's archives hold extensive genealogy files, containing lineage data on many of the local families. These files are updated weekly. The volunteer staff uses donated newspapers, family scrapbooks, photographs and other keepsakes. A permanent display in the Old Brutus Historical Society's museum features an old time kitchen, a rural one-room schoolhouse, a cabin of a canal boat, craftsman tools, farm tools, and items that were once manufactured in the area.
Seward House
33 South Street
Auburn, NY 13021
315.252.1283
Contact: Peter Wisbey, Executive Director
Email: pwisbey@sewardhouse.org
Website: www.sewardhouse.org
Hours: October 15-December
February-June
Tuesday-Saturday 1:00-4:00p
July-October 14
Tuesday-Saturday 10:00a-4:00p
Holdings: 10,000-volume Seward family library; photograph collections; scrapbooks; household account books c. 1860-1900s; some letters and diaries from Seward family members.
Sterling Historical Society
14352 Woods Road
Sterling, NY 13156
315.947.6461
Email: donlu@redcreek.net
Website: www.lakeontario.net/sterlinghistory
Hours: By appointment only.
Holdings: Railroads of past era; boating; pictures of area and businesses of bygone era; people past and present; historical records. Account books and railroad time books, some dating to the 1850s; diaries; extensive collection of items relating to the Civilian Conservation Corp; 1904 Cayuga County atlas; 1868 Cayuga County directory; military history of Wayne County.
Ward W. O’Hara Agricultural Museum of Cayuga County
PO Box 309
Emerson Park
Route 38A
Auburn, NY 13021
315.253.5611
Contact: Norman B. Riley, CEO
Website: www.cayuganet.org/agmuseum
Hours: By appointment only.
Holdings: Ward O'Hara's 16 books on Central New York history, 76 books of New York Agricultural Society records, 27 volumes of the Dairymens League, monthly newspapers, and more.
Wells College
Louis Jefferson Long Library
170 Main Street
Aurora, NY 13026
315.364.3351
Contact: Helen Bergamo, Librarian
Email: hbergamo@wells.edu
Holdings: The archive contains the papers of Henry Wells, a unique collection of documents & correspondence concerning early express companies which helped open the West in the mid 19th Century, as well as documents concerning the history and development of Wells College.
Willard Memorial Chapel
17 Nelson Street
Auburn, NY 13021
315.252.0339
Contact: Mary Riley, Archivist
Email: wilc@adelphia.com
Website: www.ci.auburn.ny.us/willardchapel
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10:00a-4:00p
Also by appointment.
Holdings: The Willard Memorial Chapel/Welch Bldg. Complex was part of the Auburn Theological Seminary (ATS), a Presbyterian seminary. Built in 1892-94, chapel interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Collection includes listing of students 1821-1939, financial records, various books, photos from Civil War to 1940s and when the seminary merged with Union Seminary in NYC.
