NHM COLLECTIONS

          The Museum has worked continuously archiving our diverse collections. We are grateful to our increasing number of donors and their visionary concerns for sharing these artifacts for the publics’ future enjoyment and enrichment of Newcomb’s history.

2017.01 SANTANONI (Susan Pruyn King)
Our first donor was Susan Pruyn King. She donated most of her grandparents, Robert and Anna Pruyn’s, Santanoni artifacts. This collection includes photo albums, Santanoni visitor log books, furniture, and implements from the Santanoni Preserve Farm. Her heart was always with Newcomb and we are honored by her trust in us to care for and forever preserve them.

2017.02  SANTANONI (Tummins/Vroman)
This collection is made up of artifacts, documents, and photographs from within the Santanoni caretaker’s home of Art and Carol Tummins, donated by their grandsons, the heirs of their mother’s estate. Art was an early employee and eventually caretaker for 50+ years.

2018.01 NATIONAL LEAD/TAHAWUS
By far our largest collection. 30+ years of National Lead and the mining town of Tahawus photographs, negatives, artifacts, mining records, and history. This collection continues to grow as the NL employees and former Tahawus residents pass on personal collections to the museum’s archives for permanent preservation.

2019.01 GENERAL
Most of this collection was inherited by the museum from the historical society. Often the donors and origin facts were missing or unknown and research is always ongoing. Occasional donations have subsequently been added whenever they fit this description of being a general purpose artifact of interest from the history of Newcomb.

2019.02 MARVIN BISSELL
This collection initiated the need to start the New York sanctioned museum. Marvin left a trust to ensure we would attend to its long gone residents buried without grave markers. And also his other passion to continue preserving the ancestry of Newcomb’s families as well as his own. His private collection included historic Newcomb photographs and a popular Crazy Quilt of his grandmother’s handiwork.

2019.03 FENNESSY
This collection developed as Fennessy family members donated handed down treasured items and early photographs. 

2020.01  TEDDY ROOSEVELT
This collection comprises of artifacts, books, and TR Weekend memorabilia mostly inherited from the former historical society left stored in the NHM building.

2020.02 TECHNICAL DRAWINGS
A lovely collection of drawings rescued from the National Lead engineering office in Tahawus. A concerned gent determined these to be valuable and delivered them in hopes that we also deemed them important. A significant amount of time was spent cleaning and categorizing them. Too large to scan, they have been photographed and properly stored away.

2020.05 NHM BOOKS
Some of this collection was inherited by the museum from the historical society. Many Adirondack books have subsequently been donated and catalogued. They are publicly available in the Bissell Research Room. A few are historically rare and very fragile, and have been stored away in archival tissue and boxes. These are waiting to be professionally restored as funds become available.

2020.08 RELIGION/CHURCHES
This unique collection has many early Newcomb family Bibles handed down through the generations and donated. They often contain helpful birth, baptism, marriage, and death information. It also includes some early church records, treasurer, and Sunday school attendance log books.

2021.01 NHM MAPS
Old early maps, many hand drawn by early resident surveyors, old topographic maps, and vintage geography special purpose maps. The topographic maps have been painstakingly repaired, flattened, archived, and stored in the museum’s flat files.

2021.02  CCC CAMPS
This collection mostly comprises of physical artifacts, such as equipment, lockers, etc. from the former CCC Camp that was located just west of Newcomb across from Rich Lake. 

2021.03 LEONARD GEREAU
A collection donated by Leonard A. Gereau. He graciously gave reprint and ownership rights to the “Tahawus Memories 1941-1963 The Story Of A Unique Adirondack Hometown.” book he authored. A big promoter of furthering education with scholarships for former Tahawus kids and Newcomb High School graduates, this collection compiles his research documents, papers, contacts, life stories, accomplishments, etc. for academic and historical research.

2022.01 PENDLETON
This collection contains the actual Pendleton Patent, seal, and research for the 2022 Pendleton Pomeroy historical marker. Nathaniel Pendleton purchased the Ord Patent in Oct 1808, formerly owned by a British soldier before and during the Revolutionary War. The early settlement was called Pendleton and renamed Newcomb when a post office with the same name pre-existed them in western NY.

2022.02 POST CARDS
The content for this collection is vintage post cards, some have messages, many are blank, and most are hand colored. They are interesting glimpses of early Newcomb sites and surrounding areas.

2023.01 LESLIE RIST
A large collection of Leslie’s research, correspondence, documents, and published / unpublished articles. He was an avid history buff and writer who joined many regional historical societies always looking for facts, maps, pictures, people and their life stories. These documents are a valuable source for researchers today.

 

2023.02 LOGGING
Logging camp photographs, history, and some tools / implements. This industry that fueled the early mining operation in the Upper Works, cleared the surrounding area for farming, and is still a viable local industry today.

2023.03 PAINTINGS & FINE ART
A growing collection as artwork from local artists is donated. Iva Rist, Ethel Bissell, and Ned Pruyn of Santanoni, drawings, copper plate etchings, watercolors, oils, and other fine works from local artists continue to be donated for preservation by the museum.

2023.04 MILITARY
Newcomb was home to many volunteers throughout all the years, from the Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, through to todays veterans of the Middle East conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan. We have photographs, letters, cards, and war stories from the experiences of many.

Arnold, DaVerne, Iva, Leslie, and Harold Rist

2023.05 NEWCOMB SCHOOLS
A considerable amount of history collected from photographs, state / federal censuses, and newspaper archives, compiled for the 2023 exhibit. A child’s victorian era school desk from a local one-room schoolhouse, old donated school work notebooks, and documents from early school board members.

PHOTO ARCHIVE
This extensive collection contains photographs, negatives, glass plates, tintypes, and photographic digital images. There is something representing each collection mentioned and stored in archival envelopes and boxes.

2023.06 Periodicals & Magazines
Many magazines with historic and timely articles of high interest re: national and local history. Newspapers such as Washington Chase’s newspaper printed locally. Douglas Legg lost in Santanoni newspaper articles, a set of Ticonderoga Sentinel newspaper yearbooks, and Theodore Roosevelt newspaper articles highlighting his Mt. Marcy climb when he had to quickly depart Newcomb to become the 26th President.

2023.07 CHASE FAMILY
A family heritage of great thinkers, educators, craftsmen, politicians, and early settlers of Pendleton and Newcomb. This family contributed to the betterment of Newcomb for generations as donors of property for schools, school buildings, teachers, guides, surveyors, boat builders, stores, pharmacy, newspapers, and ethical leadership. Much is to be said about this family and we have the history to back it up.

2023.08 TAHAWUS CLUB / LOWER WORKS
A private club stemming from the very first residents and resort visitors to Adirondac in the Upper Works, their original location. The club still exists today and have contributed history and artifacts from the Lower Works after National Lead purchased the Upper Works location. The club of today are museum proponents and we have mutually gleaned history from each other.