Temporary Exhibits

Capturing the Conflict: How Artists Revealed the American Civil War, OHA Museum Exhibition

This exhibition utilizes paintings, prints, photographs and sketches made during the war by an array of individuals. There is an emphasis on images with local connections, either by the artist or photographer being from Central New York or through the subject involving activities of soldiers from this area.

Featured are several photographic prints by George Barnard, one of the War's most famous photographers, who spent much of his life in the Syracuse area and is buried along Cedarvale Road in the Town of Onondaga . Barnard is most noted for his documentation of General Sherman's “March to the Sea.” Original sketches made in the field by Syracuse sergeant George Sager are also included as are several works by Voltaire Combe, an illustrator who was born in Jordan , lived in Syracuse and served as a bugler in the Third New York Cavalry. Combe was also a talented artist and illustrator. Several of his detailed watercolors of army camps and the occupied city of New Bern , North Carolina were reproduced as lithographs.

A number of prints by noted Civil War artist Edwin Forbes show the details of a soldier's life during the war. Also on display is a reproduction of Forbes famous painting of the battle for Culp's Hill at Gettysburg , a bloody struggle that involved the 149 th regiment, a unit composed almost exclusively of Central New Yorkers. And the exhibit is supplemented by a number of original Civil War artifacts ranging from uniforms to weapons.

Rediscovering That Old High School Spirit: Syracuse's High Schools of Days Gone By

A nostalgic look back at several of Syracuse 's former high schools such as North, Central, Blodgett Vocational, Old Nottingham, Eastwood and Valley. These are the places that graduated many of our community's citizens in the decades prior to the 1970s. They were critical institutions for Syracuse 's growth, and the buildings and memories associated with them remain key elements of the city's distinct character. The exhibit features photographs, uniforms, trophies, yearbooks and stories that made the legacies of these schools live today.

June 11 through October 17, 2010

History Rediscovered

Currently on Exhibit in Our West Gallery, 2nd Floor
This temporary exhibit recounts the fascinating story of a 230-year old document from the OHA collection, the role in played in New York joining the American Revolution and how it mysteriously survived a devastating fire in 1911.

The historic landmark build ing at 311 Montgomery Street housed the archival holdings of the Onondaga Historical Association for 99 years, from 1906 until 2005. The collection, now catalogued and relocated to the nearby OHA Museum building, is considered among the most significant historic record assemblages in New York State. It comprises more than one million documents, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, photographs, and maps.

This exhibit presents the story of one particularly remarkable document in the collection, rediscovered during this project. It bears the signatures of delegates to New York State's First Provincial Congress in May of 1775. Known as The General Association, it is an official protest against British rule and a pledge that New York will answer to the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. Its adoption was provoked by the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, a battle that had occurred a few weeks earlier. The General Association for the Rights and Liberties of America is both a statement of revolution as well as an act by the citizens of New York to establish a new representative government, separate from British authority. NYS officials thought the document had been destroyed in a fire at the State Capitol in 1911 but it was secretly removed sometime prior to that tragedy. The exhibit explains the historical significance of this manuscript and how it came to be preserved at the OHA.

This exhibit is made possible through the generous support of DestiNY USA and the Gaylord Bros. Company.

Do you remember playing with Clue, Twister, Creepy Crawlers, Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, GI Joe, Battleship, Hotwheels, Easy Bake Oven, Barbie & Ken – all toys and games from the 1960s? Would you like to see them again all in one convenient location? If your answer is yes , then come to the Onondaga Historical Association Museum, 321 Montgomery St. in downtown Syracuse!

M useum staff and several toy and game lenders have created another wonderful and popular vintage toy exhibit that will bring back fond memories in 2009-2010! Come see Batman & Robin, Man From U.N.C.L.E., James Bond 007, Mary Poppins, The Flying Nun, Johnny & Jane West, the Beatles, and many other 1960s toys and games. Over 100 toys and games, as well as vintage photographs of Christmas and downtown Syracuse are included in this exhibit. We even have a Batmobile kiddie ride! It is sure to please all who wish to reminisce about their childhood in the ‘60s! The exhibit is scheduled to run from November 1, 2009 – May 2, 2010. The museum is open Wednesday – Friday, 10-4 and Saturday & Sunday, 11-4.

Women from Syracuse and Onondaga County have a long and illustrious record of supporting other women. For well over one hundred years these women have cared for, nurtured, educated, and supported other women (and many times their children) whose very lives were challenged. Whether through employment services, education, health care, politics, the law, religious conviction, or social, cultural and business/professional advancements, women in Syracuse and Onondaga County have made great strides in ameliorating the conditions of thousands of other women and their families. Philanthropists founded hospitals, educators founded schools, entrepreneurs founded businesses, doctors and nurses founded clinics, and those of various faiths founded day care and life skill centers to remedy myriad social ills. Women who saw a need to support and encourage others took society's challenges upon themselves to help their neighbors cope and thrive, and make their communities better places to live.

In this exhibit, Sisters In Spirit: Women Supporting Women , visitors will catch a glimpse of some of these women who accepted these challenges and the organizations they founded and/or championed. The OHA Museum recognizes and congratulates the many women who, through their tenacity and action, have made Syracuse and Onondaga County a thriving area.

In conjunction with recognizing several women and/or organizations in Syracuse and Onondaga County for their tireless efforts to assist other women, the OHA Museum has also borrowed a traveling exhibit from the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. The eight panel exhibit focuses on how the Iroquois matriarchal system influenced the women's suffrage movement of the 19th century.

The exhibit is open for viewing during regular museum gallery hours: Wednesday – Friday, 10-4 and Saturday & Sunday, 11-4 located at 321 Montgomery St., Syracuse, NY . Anyone visiting the museum may park in the garage located at the corner of E. Fayette and Montgomery Sts. for free the first hour and $1.00 for the second hour. March 8, 2009 – June 7, 2009

The exhibit which runs through the month of February will offer highlights from the area's rich and intriguing African-American story, beginning with an actual bill of sale for a slave brought to Skaneateles during the first decade of the 19th century, when bondage was still legal in New York State. The earliest known photograph of Frederick Douglass, which was made from the original daguerreotype in the OHA collection, will be on display.

An original 1851 Syracuse directory will show names, occupations, and addresses for many of the city's earliest Black residents, who generally were living on the Near East Side, north of Genesee Street. Images of the legendary African-American neighborhood of the mid-20th century, the Fifteenth Ward, will be included along with artifacts associated with notable Black Syracusans. A World War II uniform, worn by Dr. Henry A. Washington who had established his private medical practice in Syracuse in 1939, a painting of Yates Castle by African-American artist Falsaff Harris, and the guitar and Grammy Award of local folk singer Libba Cotten.

Kid Stuff: Toys From Your Childhood!
A Holiday Exhibit Featuring the Nifty Fifties

Davey Crockett , hula hoop , slinky, roller skates , Tom Swift, Cherry Ames, Howdy Doody , the erector set! What do these toys and characters have in common? Why they're toys from the Nifty Fifties , of course! And they'll soon be on exhibit at the Onondaga Historical Association Museum ! See all these toys and more during OHA's latest toy exhibit opening Thursday, November 20, 2008 from 5-8pm !

Kid Stuff: Toys From Your Childhood! is sure to bring back fond memories for all baby boomers who experienced childhood during the 1950s! Even if you weren't alive during the Nifty Fifties , the whole family will certainly enjoy this exhibit!

Come see the toys that thrilled children in the ‘50s on Christmas morning, some still in their original boxes! See vintage photos of downtown Christmas shoppers looking for bargains. See Santa checking out the special toys he'll deliver to all the good boys and girls. See families gathered around the Christmas tree unwrapping gifts and enjoying the holiday - fifties style! See a 1950s Christmas tree! This exhibit is sure to thrill everyone, even Ebenezer Scrooge !

So what are you waiting for? Kid Stuff: Toys From Your Childhood! opens on Thursday, November 20, 2008 and closes on Sunday, January 18, 2009 . The exhibit is open during regular museum gallery hours, Wednesday-Friday, 10-4; Saturday and Sunday, 11-4. The exhibit also will be open special hours each third Thursday, November-January, 5-8pm .

Photo Credits:
Upper right: A Small Sample of 1950s Toys Appearing in the Exhibit, photo by Thomas Hunter
Left: The Rocket Ride at the E.W. Edwards Dept. Store in the 1950s, photo from the OHA Collections, available from the OHA Photo Store as photo #325. Find similar photos #172, 324 and 326 also available at the OHA Photo Store.
Lower right: Santa Claus Riding in Style to Sears, photo from the OHA Collections, available from OHA Photo Store as photo #1202

Childhood Throughout the Years
Fourth Exhibit in the Series: Enhancing History Through Art

Onondaga Historical Association Museum & Research Center opens its fourth artwork exhibit in a series, Enhancing History With Art . The latest art exhibit in the series, Childhood Through The Years , features paintings from the permanent collection. Nineteenth century portraits of children that focus on children of prominent local families convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals.

Twentieth century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

The exhibit is open during regular museum hours: Wednesday through Friday, 10AM to 4PM , and Saturday and Sunday, 11AM to 4PM . The exhibit is also available for viewing during special extended hours ( 5-8PM ) the third Thursday of each to coincide with Th3, a visual arts opening.

Occupations & Places of Work
Third Exhibit in the Series: Exploring History with Art

The third artwork exhibition in the series features occupations and places of work. Appropriately titled, Occupations & Places of Work , the exhibition showcases paintings illustrating different occupations and places of work in Onondaga County through the years.

Inside the exhibit gallery you'll see Onondaga Pottery, Comfort Tyler's Tavern, Good Shepherd Hospital, salt towers, and several others depicting the diverse places to work in Onondaga County from the early 19th through the late 20th centuries.

This is the third in a series of thematic exhibits begun in 2006 . The first exhibit in this series explored OHA's extensive portrait collection, the second, transportation. The multi-year series is designed to use OHA's sizable art collection combined with interpretive exhibit labels to not only educate visitors about the theme but to encourage viewers to use visual information to extract historical content from artworks. Local teachers and students will find subjects meeting their document-based questions social studies standards within the exhibit. Possible future thematic exhibits in this series are Children, Landscape and Women Artists.

Onondaga County on the Move - 200 Years of Transportation
Second Exhibit in the Series: Exploring History with Art

From September 20th , 2007 – April 1, 2008, Onondaga Historical Association Museum & Research Center featured an exhibit drawn from its collections that highlighted 200 years of changes in modes of transportation. From travel by foot, horse, canal, plank and toll road, railroad, trolley, automobile and airplane, the exhibition illuminated the vast changes that have occurred in the ways citizens of Onondaga County get from here to there. Related objects and documents from OHA's collections augmented the paintings in the exhibition.

In addition to showing the changing experience of the traveler, the exhibit showed how modes of transportation succeeded each other and often made earlier forms of transportation obsolete. Also included was information on how the evolution of transportation directly and indirectly shaped every person's life such as occupation, commerce, recreation and lifestyles.

This was the second in series of thematic exhibits begun in 2006 called Exploring History with Art. The first exhibit in the series explored OHA's extensive portrait collection. The multi-year series is designed to use OHA's sizable art collection combined with interpretive exhibit labels to not only educate visitors about the theme but to encourage viewers to use visual information to extract historical content from artworks. Local teachers and students will find subjects meeting their document-based questions social studies standards within the exhibit. Possible future thematic exhibits in this series are Children, Landscape and Women Artists.

This exhibit was sponsored in part by CENTRO – Central New York Regional Transportation Authority and Syracuse Research Corporation.

Crouse Hospital: 120 Years of Innovation and Commitment to CNY
March 28 - August 20, 2007

In 2007, Syracuse's Crouse Hospital is celebrating its 120th anniversary. Today's Crouse Hospital is the result of a 1968 merger between Memorial Hospital, founded in 1887, and Crouse-Irving Hospital, opened in 1912. Therefore, the exhibit explores the story of each. Dennis Connors was able to mine the rich holdings of both Crouse Hospital's exemplary archives and the collections of OHA. The result was a fascinating tour, not only through the evolution of the two institutions, but also of the growth of Syracuse as a city.

Nearly 60 historic images were reproduced in the exhibition, ranging from the early 20th century laboratory at Memorial's West Genesee site, when it was first known as the Hospital for Women and Children, to a nurse's fire drill at Crouse-Irving. There was a panel devoted to the challenges of the 1918 influenza epidemic, which gave the hospitals their most serious crisis and took the lives of several area nurses.

Another section discusses some of the generous supporters of the hospital in the past, which often reads as a "who's who" of local industry. And there is the story of how Memorial was founded and run, for several years, exclusively by dedicated and visionary area women.

Artifacts included an oil portrait of Ely Van de Warker, a surgeon at Memorial in the late 19th century, custom dinnerware made for Crouse Irving in 1913 by Onondaga Pottery (now Syracuse China) and the original 1890's scrapbooks of Lizzie Crouse that document the "Charity Balls" held in Syracuse to benefit the Hospital for Women and Children.

One of the most dramatic artifacts is the original World War I recruiting poster for nurses that was used in Syracuse by the Red Cross. Both hospitals had nursing schools at the time, and their story forms another section of the exhibit.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Crouse has also published an accompanying book of the same title that is for sale at both the hospital's Gift Shop and at the OHA's Museum Store.

Medical Complex on the Hill, c. 1950
1. State Psychiatric Hospital: Opened in 1930 but replaced by Hutchings Psychiatric Center. Site now used by the Upstate Medical Center Hospital
2. Memorial Hospital: opened in 1929 and still a major part of the Crouse Hospital physical plant.
3. Crouse-Irving Hospital: original center section opened in 1912. Demolished in 1991 and replaced with a physicians office building.
4. Hospital of the Good Shepherd: this building served as the hospital for Syracuse University's medical school. It was eventually replaced in the 1960's when the medical school, transferred to New York State in 1950, built Upstate Medical Center. It is now used by the University as Huntington Hall, site for its School of Education.
5. Weiskotten Hall: built in 1936 by the University to house its medical school, it became state property after the school was transferred to New York State.
6. City Hospital for Communicable Diseases: built in 1928, it initially served as the major facility in Syracuse for infectious diseases, but as those were increasingly controlled, it evolved into a general hospital. It was closed in 1977. Now used by Upstate Medical University.
7. Yates Castle: Built in 1852 as the fantastic home for the Longstreet family, it eventually came into the possession of Syracuse University, then New York State, which tore it down in 1953 for an addition to Weiskotten.