Spring Into Some LILRC Programs! Register at LILRC.org
Researching Government Information w/ Shikha Joseph, Nassau Community College Library Wednesday, March 26, 10:00-11:00 AM Archival Security for Beginners Tuesday, April 29, 1:00-2:00 PM Archival Outreach for Beginners New Date! Wednesday, June 11, 12:00-1:00 PM
Featured image above: "Springtime in Freeport", courtesy of the Freeport Memorial Library. This image can be found in the Freeport Historical Photographs digital collection on New York Heritage Digital Collections website. Accessed 2-28-25 https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15281coll12/id/19657/rec/72
Historian Dave Weinstein (blue jacket) and other MHPS Trustees decide where to put the gate with help from the DPW.
Donation Dialogue: Bank Gates Arrive at Malverne Historical & Preservation Society By Nicole Menchise Last month I was on a site visit with several Trustees of the Malverne Historical & Preservation Society (369 Ocean Ave, Malverne, NY) when a delivery came to the door. This delivery was unlike most as it was nearly two hundreds pounds of brushed steel and nearly seven feet tall. This is the steel gate that opened to access the vault at the Bank of Malverne, which was located on the corner of Hempstead Avenue and Nottingham Road. The story of the donation was told to me by historian Dave Weinstein. When the village got word that the latest occupant, Bank of America, was closing the branch, Mayor Tim Sullivan stepped in to work with the building's owner to save this piece of Malverne history. As the building was being renovated for future commercial endeavors, the vault was disassembled and the gate was removed - still locked - and carefully moved to the Society where it will remain as a functional piece of art from the 1920s. Special thanks to the Department of Public Works for doing the heavy lifting!
Long island Archives
Transcending Barriers: Opening Archives, Opening Minds
March/April 2025 Volume 32 Issue 2
Save the Date for these professional development opportunities!
New England Archivists "Innovating the Archives" March 13-15 - Springfield, Massachusetts Museum Association of New York "Cultivating Community: Looking In, Reaching Out" April 5-8 - Ithaca, New York Mid-Atlantic Region Archives Conference "Crossroads & Bridges in Archival Practice" May 1-3 - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania American Alliance of Museums "Museums & Trust" May 6-9 - Los Angeles, California New York History Conference June 5-6 - Albany, New York New York Archives Conference June 13 - virtual only Special Library Association "Creative Transformation" June 7-10 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Society of American Archivists "Making it Count" August 24-27 - Anaheim, California American Association of State and Local History "The American Experience" September 10-13 - Cincinnati, Ohio Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums October - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania New England Museum Association November 5-7 - Manchester, New Hampshire
Selections from the "Women's History" topic on the New York Heritage website. Click on the image to go to the page.
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 - p. 2
Women and Gender in the Oneida Community, 1848-1959 Onieda Community "Magic Hour" Ad, 1924 This collection of advertisements, objects, periodical articles, photographs, and diary entries gives a window into the roles of women in the Oneida Community (1848-1880) and the companies that it founded, Oneida Community, Limited (1881-1934), and Oneida Limited (1935-2005). Chautauqua Women's Club Collection Eleanor Roosevelt and Anna Pennybacker on CWC Porch The Chautauqua Women’s Club’s history is closely linked not only to the Chautauqua Institution’s development but also to growing national movements of the time including Temperance, Women’s Suffrage, the League of Nations, the Women’s Relief Corps and the National Service School, the National Federation of Women’s Clubs and other financial, health and social programs.
The Long Ago Literary Corner Recently released and upcoming books about Long Island history
Q&A with Mark Torres, author of Long Island and the Legacy of Eugenics: Station of Intolerance and Long Island Migrant Labor Camps: Dust for Blood What sparked your desire to explore these lesser-known stories? I am a labor attorney and when I first learned of the brutal migratory farm labor system that carried on in Suffolk County (a mere 90 miles from NYC) for more than half a century, and then later finding out that it has never been chronicled before, it became my mission to tell it in "Dust for Blood". I first heard of eugenics from my wife who often conducts historical research for other projects. While the history of eugenics has been told before in other books, it was never told from the local perspective. Since Long Island was the global headquarters for the eugenics movement, a telling of this history from the local perspective in "Station of Intolerance" was critical and necessary. Topics of inequality and corruption on Long Island are often ignored or misrepresented. How did you find the sources you needed? It was a challenge while researching for "Dust for Blood". There were no primary sources, so I relied upon hundreds of old newspaper articles, some scholarly articles, rare documentaries and government documents. The information for "Station of Intolerance" was far more accessible and abundant, but I still had to focus on the information from the local historical lens. How was your experience working with archivists or "keepers of the historical record"? All whom I have worked with have been extremely professional, supportive and courteous. I have added each of them in the Acknowledgement section of my books. What were your unexpected finds? Mostly that these histories were never (or hardly ever) told. Whether it was purposefully suppressed or generally overlooked, I fully embraced the mission. In "Station of Intolerance" I uncover the dangerous connections between eugenicists on Long Island and those of the murderous Nazi regime. The fact that eugenics was a global movement that essentially was headquartered on Long Island is deeply disturbing. What were your frustrations? Mostly from the resources, data and photographs that were unavailable. In "Dust for Blood" I filed an information request with the Suffolk County Department of Health. They only had records after 1980 and the rest were discarded and lost forever. Continued on next page Is there anything in particular you would like potential readers to know? All authors are, or at least should be, creatures of research. This is particularly the case with those who write historical nonfiction. To write competently, we must make painstaking efforts to master (to all extents possible) the subject matter that we are writing about. Since the goal is to create durable and enriching work on important history, there are simply no shortcuts to research. Since my work focuses on the stories that are untold and often cry out for awareness, discourse and justice, it is imperative to have access to information. Libraries, historical societies, and other archivists are the true guardians of this information in multiple formats, and society (both past, present, and future) owe a great deal of gratitude to them. Both books are available now for purchase through Arcadia Publishing (The History Press), Amazon Books, or ask for it wherever you purchase your books on local history.
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 - p. 3
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 - p. 4
Ask An Archivist.... I am hoping you can point me to resources regarding preserving an album of silver gelatin prints, c. 1928 that are mounted (adhesive unknown) on acidic paper. The paper is yellowing and brittle. The album is currently bound within a leather hard cover that has extensive red rot. Ideally, I'll be removing the pages from the binding, cleaning the pages/prints of any red rot dust, and encapsulating/foldering the individual prints. I am considering paper enclosures or interleaving with paper as plastic might trap in the acidity of the paper. Any advice is helpful, thank you. Photo albums can be quite tricky. I have to agree with your instincts to remove the pages from the compromised binder - especially if the binder is not unique or has no special embossed lettering/symbols. As the pages are removed, number them with a soft graphite pencil in the bottom right corner. Set down a white cotton sheet as you work to gently remove any red-rot 'dust' from the pages using a hake brush. Be sure to shake free any residue from the sheet periodically or as needed - take it out of doors if possible. Purchase or make L-shaped sleeves from archival-quality, P.A.T. (Photographic Activity Test) approved materials as they are stable, inert and will not adhere to the photographs. However, the electrostatic that occurs between the poly sheets will hold the loose or loosened photographs in place. You can find great resources through the New England Document Conservation Center (NEDCC.org) and the Rochester Institute of Technology's Image Permanence Institute (imagepermanenceinstitute.org) Outside of hiring a conservator to add a deacidification solution to the album paper or attempting to remove all of the images from the page, there is no way to completely stop poor quality paper from deterioration without risking harm to the photographs themselves. Keep the photo album in an temperature/RH stable environment, and store the pages in order, flat, and in an archival box to protect it from light and dust. I like using boxes that have a "drop-front deep lid print box" so you can access the sheets from the side to pull the whole stack from the box. Lifting them out one at a time could damage the pages further. If you have questions, feel free to contact Nicole Menchise, Digitization and Archives Coordinator at nmenchise@lilrc.org or call 631-675-1570 x2004. You can also use the ESLN Ask The Archivist service. Go to www.esln.org/ask-the-archivist.
Hello out there in Newsletter Land, As I stated at the end of my last newsletter, I was working with Stephanie DiChiara, Head of Adult Services and Local History Librarian of the Sayville Library on the latest project for the Accessing Archives Program. We just wrapped up that project and it produced some wonderful additions to New York Heritage along with an episode of Sayville Library’s podcast that explains in detail all of the work accomplished. The podcast can be found here or go to the Sayville Library website (https://www.sayvillelibrary.org/podcast). As January began, so did this project. Over the course of six weeks, I inventoried a film and video collection, digitized several scrapbooks and photo albums, two vinyl records, and a VHS tape. This video tape contained eleven of the thirty-five films found in the film collection. Those films were transferred to the VHS tape in 1989. Until the films get sent out to be digitized by a professional film digitization vendor, the video tape provides a sample of the films and acts as a placeholder on New York Heritage. During the upload process for the films, using iMovie, I decided to edit and upload the films individually instead of uploading a single video file that runs for an hour and a half. I did this for two reasons. First, these films were not intended to be seen back to back, and all of them represent individual events so they deserved to be featured individually. I created the metadata for each film which will prove useful when these standard definition versions are replaced with the high definition versions. Second, in this day and age when our attention spans seem shorter than ever, I assume that no one will sit through an hour and a half silent film, even from the comfort of their own home in 2025. This collection consists of 16mm films that were originally shot by George Elliott Morrison (1897-1938), the owner of the Cedarshore Hotel in Sayville, New York. These home movies and amateur films date from 1927 to 1932 and capture the Morrison family, friends, the Cedershore Hotel, and its guests. You can see those films on the New York Heritage website. Most notably and entertaining is the Cedarshore "All-Star Revue" featuring management and guests in costume on August 16, 1930, where the men dress as women and the woman dress as men and compete in this all-star revue. After working on the film collection, the project moved to the Scan Center at LILRC. Like most photo albums and scrapbooks from the early 20th century, they are fragile. The more they are handled, the more they deteriorate. For the remainder of the project I digitized ten albums and scrapbooks. All pages were numbered, interleaved with tissue paper, and rehoused in appropriately sized archival boxes. These document the Rakow family of Sayville, New York. All of them can be found here along with plenty of photos of their cats and dogs. During the course of the project, Stephanie mentioned that she had some digitized yearbooks that she wanted to add to New York Heritage, and I added those yearbooks as well. The yearbooks and the vinyl records from the Sayville High School Music Department can be found here.on the Sayville Library landing page at https://nyheritage.org/organizations/sayville-library. In the next newsletter, I'll recap my current project with the Three Village Historical Society. Stay tuned.
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 - p. 5
LATEST FROM THE ACCESSING ARCHIVES PROGRAM By Robert Anen
Designed by Freepik
Welcome the LILRC's GOVERNMENT RESOURCES AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE page. Sharing online portals and forums for government agency and publication information.
From the CENSUS.gov website: "It’s the U.S. Census Bureau’s mission to measure America – our people, places, and economy. The essential information we collect makes it possible for decision makers to understand how our country is changing. It helps the public analyze whether the nation is dedicating the right resources to the right places. And, in a critical way, it gives researchers the tools to determine what works and what needs improvement in our democracy." How Our Data Are Used: To determine the distribution of Congressional seats to states To make planning decisions about community services such as where to provide services for the elderly and build new roads and schools Census data informs how states and communities allocate funding for: Neighborhood improvements Public health Education Transportation There is so much data packed into this website and there are online tutorials and videos (called DATA GEMS) to help you create charts, graphs, maps and other visual representations for your patrons, students, researchers or the naturally curious. You have to see what this data can do! "Census data covers dozen of topics across 130+ surveys and programs. The Census Bureau reuses data from other agencies to cut the cost of data collection and to reduce the burden on people who respond to our censuses and surveys. Get in the weeds with more than 2.5 million tables of raw data, maps, profiles, and more at data.census.gov — the Census Bureau’s premiere data dissemination platform."
Want to join? Go to LILRC.org/government-information-committee
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 - p. 6
Stony Brook University - Melville Library Digitizing Dan's Papers "This specific part of the project focuses on digitizing 500 issues/16,670 pages published from the years 2000 to 2010. The initiative aims to preserve and make accessible a crucial segment of the paper’s history, an era that has yet to be digitized or made available online. By digitizing these issues, researchers, historians, and the general public will gain free online access to a decade’s worth of local news, features, and cultural documentation that provides an unparalleled look at the East End of Long Island during a period of significant change." Northport-East Northport Public Library Digitizing The Observer 1935, 1936 & 1938 "These Observer newspapers, many of which are fragile and deteriorating, offer invaluable insights and historic understanding of our community and the surrounding areas. The current delicate condition of these newspapers demonstrates that time is of the essence with regard to the preservation of these volumes." Ocean Beach Historical Society OBHS Digitization Project :For purposes of this grant application, we plan to digitize (1) approximately 30 over-sized signed posters by OB artists and historical OB maps; (2) one box of delicate correspondence of founding families of OB; and (3) photographs of 48 beach artifacts (i.e., old fashioned bathing suits and umbrellas) and 20 t-shirts (including those relating to "Variety Shows" produced on OB by a famous director)." Preservation Long Island Furniture Digitization Project "PLI will conduct fieldwork and digitize Long Island furniture in public and private collections across the region for the creation of a separate collaborative Long Island furniture interactive database maintained by PLI (we will obtain written permission to include objects not owned by PLI). This website, which will also include the items digitized during this project, will feature photography, 3D scans, a digital exhibition, and interactive map, and will launch in 2027." Emma S. Clark Memorial Library Three Village Newspapers Digitization Project "The Emma S. Clark Library maintains the archives for both the Three Village Herald and Village Times newspapers in microform format. Funds are allocated annually to convert the printed papers into a microform format. The library would continued on next page like to add a digital, indexed version of the papers to maximize it accessibility to the public. Phase one of this project would involve digitizing the microfilm of the first twenty-nine years of the Three Village Herald from April 1, 1954 through December 29, 1982." Old Westbury Gardens The Phipps Family and OWG Inc. Audio Visual Digitization Project "This funding request would support the digitization of nine reels of home movies capturing the Phipps family during the 1930s and 1940s as well as 18 reels containing aerial footage of the grounds in the mid to late 1960s." Straus Historical Society Under Four Administrations: The Oscar S. Straus Collection "The Society plans to digitize the Oscar S. Straus Collection. Of the 5,993 items in this collection, priority will be given to the 286 original items, and especially the 4 fragile and deteriorating books which need special consideration. Items found in the collection include correspondence, articles, photographs, illustrations, albums, manuscripts, books, vital records, genealogical information, and other ephemera." Planting Fields Foundation Digitization of Coe Family World Tour Books "These hard bound volumes contain rare images believed to be photographed directly by the three Coe sons: William, Robert, and Henry. In addition to the world tour books there are three photo albums belonging to Robert Coe of travels during his later years circa the 1970s, these images include his home in Cannes, France, and images of Planting Fields. Lastly, the Coe stereopticon slides contain many valuable images of Planting Fields and their travels worldwide. A selection of key images from this collection will be digitized." Brightwaters Historical Society The Preservation of Maps of Village of Brightwaters and Origin History "There have been significant weather events (hurricanes, blizzards, etc..) that have seriously affected the coastlines and topography of Brightwaters Village and greater Long Island. They show land use patterns over time and the evolution of our suburban landscape. Including how construction and development was affected by these natural events. These artifacts provide snapshots over time of the infrastructure of our community, including street names, lighting plans, property boundaries, building footprints, and utilities plans. This information can aid our efforts to preserve and recognize historic sites and structures in the area, as well as help us to relate the history of our area to its wider Long Island context."
LILRC's 2025 Digitization Grant Awards This year LILRC received more applications than ever before with several new LILRC members applying. The decisions were made with the help of the Committee for the Preservation of Local History. Funded projects will be represented in either the New York State Historic Newspapers website or curated for the New York Heritage Digital Collections website. Below are excerpts from the grant applications submitted. Congratulations to the following cultural institutions:
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 - p. 7
REGIONAL SCAN CENTER Digitization Project? Get an extra hand at LILRC. Whether using our Digitization Services or reserving the equipment for yourself, we're here to help at the Regional Scan Center.
Long Island Archives - March/April 2025 Editor: Nicole Menchise, Digitization and Archives Coordinator LILRC - 627 N. Sunrise Service Rd., Bellport, NY 11713, www.lilrc.org.