Browse Items (1399 total)

According to the East Rochester Local History Office, the planned town of Despatch originally was named as such due to its proximity to railroad lines and a transportation company. Its land rights were purchased by entrepreneur Walter Parce between…

Loosely translating as a "state of disuse," Fastovsky's title certainly applies to this rural scene. We see what appears to be a boarded-up chicken coop and other farm outbuildings inside a walled enclosure--although the abandonment seems recent…

One of many other "Eighty-Niners" or "Sooners" who were part of the land rush to formerly Native American territories, Peabody had to live on this location long enough to establish a claim. It was granted on 4 June 1895.

An apparent copy of an extremely detailed map for the purposes of fire insurance, this diagram contains several important kinds of information. It supplies us with the names of different buildings, and the date they were constructed. It tells us…

From Seth Green's 1870 manual "Trout Culture" comes this layout for a series of ponds designed to hatch trout

Alida K. Fitzhugh chronicles her time during the historic Genesee Valley Hunt from the fall of 1891-1893. She talks about multiple taverns, trails, and scenic locations in the valley and her positive experiences as she rode horses, jumped fences, and…

Jennie Mather was a resident of nearby Livonia in 1867. Her voice gives us the perspective of a woman whose life was filled with “visits” to Geneseo. Through her retellings, we see Geneseo as a place of adventure, festivals, and family centered…

Maude Wiard was a student of the Geneseo Normal School in 1908. Eccentric and silly, her diary of “Commencement Activities” from Geneseo takes us through the lifestyle of a junior student with her friends before Geneseo became a State University.

Sheffield Peabody was a farmer who chronicled his life in Springwater, NY between 1849 and 1914. In many ways his life was typical of his peers: he struggled to make a living at a time when American agriculture favored railroads, food processors, and…

One of the earliest proponents of adapting land-based camouflage to military naval craft was William A. Mackay, whose "disruptive coloration" or "low visibility dazzle" system is pictured here. Later it was used to re-paint the troop transport US…