Unadilla Historical Association

09/07/2024

“The Stately Elm” “The Palmer Pictures” No. 502 Size H (8”x10”)

Arthur Palmer photographed this ivy-festooned “stately” elm tree in a field along the Franklin Road at least twice, once on July 14, 1914, and again on September 20, 1921. The Unadilla Historical Association collections include Palmer’s glass plate negatives, several contact prints, and a copyrighted silver-toned print of this tree as a part of his “The Palmer Pictures” photograph series. Another of Unadilla’s photographers, A.E. Pixley, copyrighted his photo of this same tree in 1907, also with an aim to sell copies as post cards.
The Victorians thought the elm tree added beauty and dignity to its surroundings, while its graceful overhanging branches afforded pleasant shade and favorite nesting places for birds. Anne Bradstreet, one of America’s earliest poets, wrote:
“Under the cooling shadow of the stately elm, Close sate I, by a goodly river’s side.”
Sadly, this particular elm, and those once lining Unadilla’s Main Street, succumbed to Dutch Elm disease in the 1930s and disappeared from the landscape.

08/15/2024

This postcard view of a pair of working steers hitched to a single-seat, two-wheeled cart has a story to tell but we are not sure what it is. Thanks to Dorothy Kinch Georgia, (Hi Dorothy from Unadilla!) who provided us with the image, we can see the yoked steers (cattle that are trained for work are not called oxen until they are four years old) in front of the Unadilla House, and that it is a real photograph post card (RPPC) view as evidenced by the faint cancellation mark on the face of the card. The steers appear to be young black Angus bulls yoked together to a two-wheeled cart but there is no indication of why they are posed in front of the Unadilla House. Anyone who can tell us more about this curious card please, ah, "steer" us in the right direction!

02/29/2024

Celebrate Unadilla Historic.
A Special Public Program Featuring
Ron Sager, Photographer, with a special interest in the architecture and history of small upstate New York villages. Ron will present his latest photo essay Main Street Unadilla.
A second photo essay is also planned about the Unadilla Historical District featuring three buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Unfortunately, the Munn Cabinet Grand Piano Mini-Concert by Sarah Pressler has been postponed, due to an unforeseen conflict. Sarah will present an evening of turn-of-the-century music at a later date.
Saturday, March 2, 2024 2-4 pm at the Unadilla Community Center (Masonic Temple). Refreshments. Unadilla Historical Publications, Photographs Available for Purchase.

11/30/2023

History at the Museum, this Victorian Craft Pillow is a curious item from the museum's collections. This small pillow features four cyanotype "blueprint" Unadilla images--Susquehanna River-Blue Mountain, Upper (Wattles Ferry) Bridge, the Millrace Dam, and Riverside Park. The images are printed on silk fabric, held together with hand-stitched bias tape and twisted cord trim. Glass plate negatives of these scenes in our collections identify them as the work of George Arthur Palmer, a noted druggist and photographer in Unadilla at the turn of the 20th century. The maker of the pillow is unknown.

11/08/2023

The Munn & Co. Cabinet Grand Piano at the Unadilla Masonic Temple Has A Story to Tell
Among the buildings destroyed in the disastrous block-long fires of February 9, 1904 was the Masons' third floor meeting rooms in the White's Hall block. The Free and Accepted Masons Freedom Lodge No. 324 and the Freedom Chapter No. 178, Order of Eastern Star lost everything excepting the "three great-lights," seals and officers jewels, and the lodge's original 1809 charter signed by the then-Grand Lodge Master Dewitt Clinton, which were rescued by a "brave Past Master." A piano which appears in an early photograph of the interior of the Masons' meeting room, apparently did not survive Unadilla's Second Carnival of Fire.
Music has always been an integral part of Masonry ritual and social functions of the Lodge. Two major types of music commonly used are lodge songs, played to keyboard accompaniment before and after meetings, or during meals; and music written to accompany specific Masonic ceremonies and events. Thus, when the Unadilla brothers set out to build and furnish their new lodge hall across the street from the Bishop Hotel, a new piano was one of the first items to be acquired.
This historian had been told the piano that sat in the corner of the front platform was of local origins, but it wasn't until it needed to be moved during new carpeting installation that we had an opportunity to examine it more closely.
Here's what we learned:
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Manufacturer: Munn and Co., New York and Walton, NY, Cabinet Grand Upright Serial #882, 1904; Mechanical Action by Stauch Bros, New York, (winner of the Highest Award at the 1893 Columbian Exposition); penciled notes, tuning and repair dates 8/2/33-4/22/1968; Cabinet Key tied to back of frame since 1904; Cabinet Wood, Oak and Mahogany, Keys: Ebony and Ivory.
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A recent appraisal by Valley Piano Service of Bainbridge found our Munn Piano in "good condition for its age, no structural issues, action parts show minimal wear, ivories and case in great shape." Minimal work is required to put this historic piano in tip top working order, ready for the next concert of Masonic Music again.
Our Masons' Munn Piano hasn't had a tuneup since 1968. Anyone out there willing to "pitch" in (yes, a pun) a few bucks to help us get the venerable old girl back in tune for the holidays.

04/20/2023

03/19/2023

There's supposed to be a new time travel movie coming out next year.
It was pretty good....

03/18/2023

Tim Main recently published on his Ghosts of Unadilla site an 1880s-ish merchant's trade card touting a patent medicine called Green's August Flower and Boschee's German Syrup for sale by H. E. Bailey, Dealer in Medicines, Unadilla, N.Y. I knew H.E. Bailey was Horace E. Bailey, a Civil War veteran and longtime dry goods and clothing merchant in Unadilla (August 5, 1840--July 15, 1920) and partner with Marshall Robinson in the new brick Bailey and Robinson Business Block after 1879.
By the time of Horace's trade card, it appears he was divested of the partnership and operating solely as a "dealer of medicines."
But what was Green's August Flower and Boschee's German Syrup? A little Internet research turned up a cloth-bound 32 page book by a Doctor G.G. Green, a kind of "brag book" touting the benefits of his elixirs and his grandiose filigreed mansion and factories in Woodbury, New Jersey. Each page was illustrated with pictures of his three-story mansard-roofed home on his 11-acre estate, his private Pullman Railroad Car, his company laboratories, and even the company glasshouse that produced the bottles his stuff was bottled in.
George Gill Green (1842-1925) was one of the greatest patent medicine entrepreneurs. A Colonel in the Civil War, George bought the rights to "Green's August Flower" from his father and created a marketing campaign involving mass mailings of free samples, imprinted trade cards, and thousands of his own almanacs. His elixirs were mostly alcohol and laudanum, laced with aloe and capsicum extracts guaranteed to cure all manner of upper respiratory ailments.--colds, coughs, asthma, cattarrh, and bronchitis. His patent medicine business declined after the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 and by 1916 the product was discontinued, but not before George became a millionaire.

03/17/2023

Th persistent winter weather warnings today remind me of one of the "resurrected" photos from the 1907 Sheep2Sheep Photograph Album we are working on to bring back to "life." It's labeled Main St. Business Block with 4' piles of snow in front of the stores.