We've discovered two drawings of Scarsdale by American master James McNeil Whistler. They depict a private home and St. James the Less Church, both dated 1852 or 1853. Both works reinforce the Whistler family’s ties to early Scarsdale and St. James.
Nineteenth-century Scarsdale resident Valeria Dean Burgess with child, a photo that has been donated to the Scarsdale Public Library archives. Historic photos from all eras are welcome at the scanning event.
The Scarsdale Historical Society is pleased to announce “Scarsdale’s History for the Future,” an upcoming community scanning event on Saturday, October 1st from 1:00-3:00 PM at the Scarsdale Public Library. The community is asked to bring in their Scarsdale-related historic photos and documents that can be digitized, at no charge, and any media will become part of the Village’s archives.
The project is part of the Scarsdale Historical Society’s mission to preserve and share Scarsdale’s unique and continuing history. The organization is seeking old photographs, fliers, diaries or documents – anything that tells the story of Scarsdale and its residents. Paper documents and photographs no larger than 11 inches by 17 inches will be digitized during the scanning event. If items brought cannot be scanned at that time for any reason, other arrangements can be made.
During the scanning event, visitors will also enjoy a small exhibition featuring items from Scarsdale’s history, and also a selection of rare artifacts that have national importance. TheScarsdale Public Library will be showing a book of town minutes starting in the 18th century; Scarsdale High School yearbooks from the 1930s; and maps of the village from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Seth Kaller, a leading American history dealer and collection-builder and a Scarsdale Historical Society trustee, will display valuable original documents and artifacts, including: the only copy in private hands of New York’s first printing of the Declaration of Independence (July 11, 1776; not Scarsdale, but close – the state’s assembly met in White Plains to vote in favor of independence, and the document was printed in New York City near Wall Street); one of Alexander Hamilton’s most revealing love letters to Eliza, written from Dobbs Ferry in 1780; Jesse Owens Congressional Gold medal; Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s law books; and a NY Votes for Women suffrage broadside.
“We encourage everyone to dust off Scarsdale-related photos and documents from their attics and basements so they can be properly preserved and enjoyed for years to come,” stated Randy Guggenheimer, President of the Scarsdale Historical Society. “We are grateful to the staff at the Scarsdale Public Library for making this effort possible.”
Registration for the scanning is encouraged at https://www.scarsdalelibrary.org/event/history-future.
Questions can be emailed to info@scarsdalehistoricalsociety.org.
We are pleased to continue working with the Scarsdale Public Library to digitize issues of the Scarsdale Inquirer. Our latest grant will allow digitization of the issues from 1954 to 1977. Issues starting in 1901 are already online at news.hrvh.org. Here is the press release about the project:
SCARSDALE, NY (May 5th, 2018) In 2010 the Scarsdale Historical Society and the Scarsdale Public Library began a joint project to digitize back issues of The Scarsdale Inquirer, Scarsdale’s source for local news since 1901. Grants of over $50,000 given by the Historical Society funded the first two phases of the digitization project, covering the years 1901-1950. Now the Society has committed an additional $37,000 to continue the project through the year 1977. Anybody can access the digitized material at news.hrvh.org, an online resource housing historical newspapers as part of the Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) service. You can also find links to the papers on the websites of the Scarsdale Historical Society and the Scarsdale Public Library. We anticipate full digitization through 1977 within a year.
Re-filming from the original papers and the generation of digital images for the project is being done by Hudson Archival, located in Port Ewen, N.Y. We are happy to continue working with this great local business for this part of the project. Generation of the metadata (METS/ALTO) necessary to put the images onto HRVH is being done by Digital Divide Data (DDD). DDD’s innovative social model enables talent from underserved populations to access professional opportunities and earn lasting higher income, including youth from low-income families in developing countries, as well as military spouses and veterans.
The digitization of The Scarsdale Inquirer opens our history to students, researchers, and residents. In the past, access to back issues was available at the library in print and microfilm, with limited finding aids created by Scarsdale librarians. The creation of these indexes was very time intensive and did not allow for full text searching. Furthermore there is no index for the years 1958-1979. Once issues are put onto HRVH they are fully searchable and the content can even be found through Google searches.
“We are so grateful to the Scarsdale Historical Society for their continued support for this digitization project. The Scarsdale Inquirer is an important resource for our community and having online access will increase its availability exponentially.”
—Elizabeth Bermel, Scarsdale Library Director
The Scarsdale Public Library has a growing collection of historic photos posted on Flickr.
The Scarsdale Inquirer has covered our project to digitize the first 30 years of the newspaper.
"The Scarsdale Historical Society and the Scarsdale Public Library have joined forces to begin the digitization of back issues of The Scarsdale Inquirer. A much needed funding grant of $25,000 by the Historical Society fills a financial gap in the library’s budget and provides the impetus to begin the digitization process of the Inquirer’s back issues."
Read the rest here.
Dedicated to discovering, preserving and disseminating the rich history of Scarsdale and our neighboring communities.
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