Browse Items (1402 total)

Clearing forested lands to create open agricultural land was an arduous process, which is why this device may have been of interest to farmers: "This machine is not only used for pulling stumps, but it is applicable to moving buildings, rocks, &c. It…

Removal of trees so as to create farmland, and especially the stumps left behind, was an arduous process for European settlers. Although there were complex (and expensive) "patent machines" available, small farmers trying to remove fairly…

This idealized diptych appeared in The Genesee Farmer, an agricultural newspaper, showing its readers the clearing of forests so as to create farmland. By the date of publication, settlement and the "Pioneer" figure already was imbued with mythic…

Undated photo shows two women and two young children in a field, equipped with woven baskets. The crop being harvested probably is potatoes. Given the photo's apparent age and the tools used, it's possible that this dates to the mid-1940s, when…

At the popular "Brontosaurus Hall" at the American Museum of Natural History, a young girl sits in preserved footprints of a dinosaur. Note: this image has been croppedS

Built on the site of a former Shaker community, the Craig Colony for Epileptics was envisioned as a self-supporting institution when it opened in 1896. Inmates worked in the Shakers' existing farms and blacksmith shops; these new buildings were…

A popular location for receptions and community events, Wally's was located between Avon and Lima--therefore a convenient gathering place. As this notice of sale elaborates, the building was equipped with a dining room, bar, and outdoor barbecue pit.…

Following an apprenticeship in milling, Charles Sewell Gilbert immigrated from England in his young twenties--initially to Rochester and Penfield. He relocated to Avon in 1855 and purchased an existing mill. His sons later followed him into the…

Groups of depositors in front of the closed American Union Bank, New York City on April 26, 1931. Opened in 1917, the bank was a relatively small one, with assests of $2 million. Between 1930 and 1933 about 9,000 that ceased operations.

A caption to this photo reads: "John Moxom, WPA Federal Art Project artist, is shown at work on the charcoal sketch for his mural, 'Spanish Life,' which will be placed in the Hillsborough Distriet School." According to Moxom, it was sixty feet wide,…