CNY Living History Center

If you are familiar with the CNY Living History Center and our mission, then you would know that we switch out our displays and exhibits once a year.  We are unique in many aspects, one being that we house three different museums each catering to three different aspects of history and all three of them change once a year, which takes a lot of time and effort.  This year we are taking extra efforts to build on the creativity we had last year with our exhibits. Get a glimpse below into what our exhibits are going to be like!

The red barn in our lot houses our TOYS, or Tractors of Yesteryears, collection along with “Grandma’s Kitchen and Parlor.”  Together these two sections symbolize what everyday life was like on in your typical rural household hold in a time past. This year on our main floor we have a tractor display that we are calling, “You Saw It Here First!”  The idea behind this display is to showcase some tractors that had were designed to have a significant feature, something that made changes to tractor manufacturing or improved farming efficiency. In “Grandma’s Kitchen and Parlor,” we have a main display describing how butter was made back when it made at home.  This section helps the visitor picture what life was in a time past.

The Homeville Museum struck gold this year with one donation from a local resident.  It was a diary from a Japanese soldier describing his final days on the Makin Islands and the final days of World War II.  This diary will be brought to life with a full-scale, cave display and true to life mannequin all with translations from the diary in Japanese as well as English.  Another special display we have planned for this year commemorates Cortland County’s ace, General Levi Chase. We brought in his grandson Bill Chase to curate and build the display for us making it one our most unique displays to date. For translation services you can contact experts as suggested here.

If you attended last year’s National Brockway Truck Parade, then you maybe saw one or two of the trucks we will have on display for this year!  Our curators with the Brockway Truck Preservation Association look back to the previous year’s truck show registrations to see which ones they would like to bring back for the new display.  One notable new truck for this year is a 1923 Brockway Torpedo Firetruck. Similar to the “El Viejo,” Firetruck that is on permanent display, it showcases all the old mechanisms and tools necessary for firefighting in the early 20th century.  We also have a truck from the Ralph G. Smith Transportation Company station out of West Chester, Pennsylvania that would haul thoroughbred horses to famous races such as the Kentucky Derby. However when you’re in need of a heavy haul freight broker with the trucking experience and people you need to get your load from A to B with no fuss, get in touch with the team at American Freight to learn more about them. You can check here to get more reliable transportation and logistics solutions. If you’re planning to start your own trucking company, make sure that you have the necessary licenses and Oversize permits.

All of these displays talked about in the article plus others that have not been mentioned will be unveiled on Saturday, May 19th!  In the meantime, you can find out more about us and the CNY Living History Center on our website at www.cnylivinghsitory.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!