The Documentarian: MVLA's Local History & Genealogy Web Site
Zouave painting

Yearbook photo: Fifth and Sixth Grades of 1912

The General Electric Story

Schoharie Republican

Post Card Collection: The American Hotel
The Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS) is a public library system serving 14 member libraries in the four counties of Fulton, Montgomery, Schenectady and Schoharie, New York. "The Documentarian" is an exhibition of representative images, designed for the World Wide Web. Using text based and digitized electronic content, the site highlights historical and genealogical materials from the collections of our fourteen member libraries: Amsterdam Free Library, Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery, The Community Library, Fort Hunter Free Library, Fort Plain Free Library, Frothingham Free Library, Gloversville Free Library, Johnstown Public Library, Margaret Reaney Memorial Library, Middleburgh Library, Northville Public Library, Schenectady County Public Library, Schoharie Free Library, and Sharon Springs Free Library.

Holdings at these libraries include account books, business records & ledgers; atlases & maps; bibles; biography, surname & obituary files; census records; cemetery, marriage, military & pension records; church & county histories; city directories; DAR lineage books; diaries; ephemera; gazetteers; genealogical family charts; letters & personal papers; newspapers; notebooks; pamphlets; photographs; printed books; scrapbooks; watercolors & objets d'art.

The focus of these collections are the historical persons and places in the libraries' service area. Some of the featured personalities, organizations, groups, regions and events include: Susan B. Anthony, James & Bartlett Arkell, Harvey Chambers II, Currier & Ives, Kirk Douglas, Amelia Earhart, Rev. Washington Frothingham, Sir William Johnson, Don Cameron Shafer, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Beech-Nut Company, Central Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, the Christopher Best Medical Exhibit, Clinton Liberal Institute, General Electric, Howes Caves, Queen Anne's Chapel Parsonage, Schoharie Crossing & Aqueduct and Starin Place; Daughters of the American Revolution, Grand Army of the Republic, National Glove Leather Association; Palatine Germans, Mohawk & Oneida Iroquois; the Adirondacks, Erie Canal and Sacandaga Valley; Colonial New York & the Revolutionary War; local transportation history, the spas & hotels of Sharon and the decorative arts collection of Margaret Reaney.

The wealth of information available at these 14 public libraries can only be hinted at through an exhibition such as this one. Individuals interested in local history and genealogy are encouraged to contact the libraries and arrange an on-site visit.


Additional resources on the local history and genealogy of the Mohawk Valley region can also be found at a variety of other organizations in our area. Some of these are available on the World Wide Web and are linked here. Others are only available by more traditional means, and information about these can be can be found here.

Photography: Deborah Kantor.

Scanning: ScanDirect of Albany, New York.

Web Site Design: Michael Guzzo and Alan Poirier.

Selection criteria development, cataloging information and descriptive texts: Esther Dean and Barbara Miller (Amsterdam), James Crawford (Canajoharie), Christine Dickerson (Cobleskill), Patsy Vertucci (Fort Hunter), Alida Bowley (Fort Plain), Donna Franklin (Fonda), Deborah Bucholtz (Gloversville), Deborah Callery (Johnstown), Marian L. Bouch (Middleburgh), Michael S. Burnett (Northville), Dawn L. Capece (St. Johnsville), Robert Sullivan (Schenectady), Catherine Caiazzo (Schoharie), Armadine Handy, Fred Santillo and Mary Ellen Wolfe (Sharon Springs).

A special thank you to Carol Mull of National Graphic Supply for her assistance in securing photographic background papers, Shutter Speed Photo for expediting photographic processing and Gail M. Cramer, Town and Village Historian, Northville, New York, for permission to duplicate some of the Historical Society's materials. James Crawford, Curator, Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery provided information and benchmarking criteria, without which this site would not have been successfully developed.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to The Noteworthy Company for permission to display "Kateri Tekawitha" and "Iron Eyes Cody" by James Steele. Copyright © permission granted by Joan Orzolek to reprint the cover of Memories of My Barefoot Days Around Countryside Stone Ridge by Bernard S. Majewski. Copyright © permission granted by Ethel Donlon to reprint the photograph of Yund, Kennedy & Yund Knitting Mills, 1907.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Martha Wood for permission to include the Queen Anne Parsonage in "The Documentation: MVLS's Local History & Genealogy Web Site." Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Fort Hunter Engine and Hose Company for permission to include an "Antique Fire Truck".

Copyright © permission granted by Schoharie County Council Senior Citizens to reprint. p.123 of J.R. Simms History of Schoharie County and the Border Wars, 1974. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Edward A. Hagan for permission to include his photograph as the Best House Historian.

Funding for this project was provided by the Mohawk Valley Library System, by Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds, granted to MVLS by the New York State Library (1999) and by a Special Legislative Grant to MVLS by Senator Hugh T. Farley (2000).

Site created: 26 May 1999 and revised 10 January 2001.

This site received the 1999 Joseph F. Shubert Library Excellence Award, given each year by the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries and the New York State Library.

Text and images copyright © 1999 - 2001.
Mohawk Valley Library System
858 Duanesburg Road
Schenectady, NY 12306

Copyright © 1999 - 2002 Mohawk Valley Library System