Events & Hours
Hours
The museum opened for the 2024 season on Saturday, April 6. Please visit us at 39 South Street in Trumansburg. Admission is always free.
Our open hours for the season (April to December) are
- 2-4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays
- 9-11 a.m. on Mondays - members of the Ulysses Historical Society meet every Monday morning from 9-11 a.m. and everyone is welcome to stop by then to tour the museum, bring in items you wish to give to the Historical Society, or do research or receive help with genealogy.
Events
Backbone Ridge
Tuesday, September 17 at 7pm
The Backbone Ridge is the name given to the hilltop that runs between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. Its history represents a microcosm of the larger economic, social, and political transformations that have taken place in American society. The Backbone Ridge History Group is a grass roots organization, established in 2010. Its purpose is to collect the history of the land and the people in the Backbone Ridge area. Once heavily populated with people, farms, and towns, the ridge was dramatically changed by the purchases of the Resettlement Administration a “New Deal” federal agency created in 1935.
The New Military Tract is a group of 28 towns in central New York State that were laid out and then surveyed into one-hundred 600-acre lots from 1789-91. The military lots were used to compensate New York soldiers for their service during the Revolutionary War. The lots were awarded by random ballots, one lot for each private and multiple lots for officers. There were various set-asides and reservations. The towns of Ovid, Hector and Ulysses are a part of the military tract.
The surveyors’ journals for these lots have been transcribed and their notes have been entered
on a digital map by a group of volunteers. The BRHG received generous support of the Nelson
B. Delavan Foundation for this project.
https://backbone-ridge.github.io/military-lots
This interactive map will allow you to follow the original survey lot lines of the towns encompassing the Backbone Ridge, located between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. Eventually you will have access to views of the original manuscript, the transcription of each page and other information. The current edition of the map shows the original ballotee—the soldier who was awarded the lot – and identifies the person who settled the lot. It also provides the surveyors’ descriptions of the forest landscape along the survey lines and photos of the area described. The presentation will include information about the military tract by Judy Butterfield, a look at what it was like to be a surveyor on the Backbone in 1790 by June Szabo, and an explanation of the online map and its creation by Keith Jenkins.
Keith works at Cornell University, where he is the GIS and Geospatial Applications Librarian at Mann Library. He helps students, faculty, and staff at Cornell find geospatial data and to use software such as QGIS and ArcGIS to analyze their data and make maps. This project was conceived and started by Allan Buddle and Bob Kibbee, executed by volunteers for the BRHG.
Tales of Old Trumansburg
The Ulysses Historical
Society is pleased to offer for sale the newest and last book by beloved local author
and UHS member, the late Joe Baldwin.
Tales of Old Trumansburg is a compilation of his popular newsletters, completed before his death in October 2017. It was his final labor of love for the village where he spent his whole life and to which he contributed so much. His stories bring to life the people and events that were instrumental in creating our beloved village. It includes over 120 historic photographs.
Tales of Old Trumansburg is on sale at the Ulysses Historical Society. The cost is $21 payable by cash or check only. Checks should be written to The Ulysses Historical Society. We will also mail books to you or others for a small extra fee of four dollars per book bringing the cost of books being mailed to $25. If you would like to buy or order a book you can stop by the Ulysses Historical Society during open hours.
- leave a message on our phone at 607-387-6666
- email us at UHS@ottcmail.com
- Write us sending a check and mailing instructions to:
Ulysses Historical Society
39 South St. Box 455
Trumansburg, NY 14886