CURRENT EXHIBITION:


        TRAVELING THROUGH POSTCARDS:  A display featuring 32 historic postcards from 25 different nations from Japan to Iceland to Panama to Hungary.  This new exhibit features postcards donated by a variety of individuals which were acquired on various trips abroad.  The postcards date between 1910 and 1935.

In the late 19th century during the Victorian Era, improvements in transportation, especially with regard to steamships and railroads, meant that more and more individuals took vacations abroad, although it was still largely a pastime of wealthier people.

Beginning with the Paris Exposition of 1889, when the first picture postcards ever produced featured the Eiffel Tower and proved to be extremely popular, postcards became the preferred means by which most travelers would remember their journeys.  In Potsdam, wealthy families like the Snells, Sissons and Clarksons, among others, traveled frequently to foreign lands.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT:

POTSDAM PEOPLE:

Thomas S. Clarkson, Julia Ettie (Etta) Crane, Melinda Knowles and Benjamin Raymond, Helen Hosmer, Liberty Knowles, Linda Richards, and George Wing Sisson. These individuals and their families greatly influenced the history of Potsdam.

This exhibit is was funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Fenner Family, the Friends of the Potsdam Museum and the Village of Potsdam.

 THE MERRITT MEMORIAL STAINED-GLASS WINDOW

Permanent Exhibit

Civil War General Edwin Atkins Merritt and his wife Eliza Rich Merritt were two prominent Potsdam residents and congregational members of the Universalist Church on Park Street in the village; now the site Potsdam Public Museum.  In 1928 a stained-glass window was commissioned and then donated to the Church in the Merritt's name. When the church was disbanded in 1934, the window was removed, but its whereabouts unknown for 43 years...

ONLINE EXHIBIT:

POTSDAM FIRE DEPARTMENT

                                                       (Click on the image to enter the Exhibit)
 

PAST EXHIBITIONS 

VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS 

December 2012 through February 2013

Includes: Victorian Parlor Display, Nightgowns, Top Hats, Canes, Shoes, Dolls, Teddy Bears, Mercury Glass, Silver, Silouettes, Hair Wreaths, a spectacular 10-foot Christmas Tree, and a life-size Father Christmas.

NOSTALGIA - THE 1960's

The Potsdam Museum celebrated the 1960s with an exhibit of artifacts, art and music from the 1960s on display from August 1, through Oct 1, 2012. This coincided with the Mega Reunion of the Potsdam High School which encompasses all classes EVER to graduate from PHS.

THE COVER UP: COVERLETS, LOOMS AND SPINNING WHEELS

June 2011 through spring 2012

An exhibition of spinning and weaving tools and equipment from the Potsdam museum's collection, to include: spinning wheels, niddy noddies, yarn winders, scutching boards, hatchels, carders, weasels, and flax breakers. Weaving accoutrements include; looms, warping boards, shuttles, heddles, harnesses and beaters. A blanket loom c. 1800 will be reconstructed on site.

ICE COLD POTSDAM: ICE HARVESTING, ICE HOCKEY, ICE CARNIVALS, AND ICE STORM   

Dec 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011

Ice wagon with horse, Sam Goldberg, Bill Cornell, Willow St.

PAINTINGS BY WILLIAM BEEBE

December 2010 - May 2011

Bill with paintings on east wall of the museum





MEDICAL MIRACLES, MYSTERIES AND MALADIES

May 2 - October 15, 2010

A History of Local Contributions to the Medical Community

Dr. Max Thaler of Parishville making his rounds on foot, c. 1950, he has stops to speak with his neighbor Era Converse on Catherine Street.

LOCOMOTION

Dec 6, 2009 to March 20, 2010

A History of Trains and Railroads in Northern New York

"Old Betsy No. 2" was a famous steam engine that was used on the Hannawa Falls Power Company Railroad. According to Robert Leete, Black River. 

PAST AND PRESENT IMAGES

Spring 2009

Photography teacher, Mrs. Sutter, and museum curator, Mimi Van Deusen, worked together to create a project with students at Potsdam High School's  Advance Photography class to utilize the museum archives and the students digital photography skills for a little history and alot of fun for all to explore the changes in Potsdam landscapes.


ST. NICHOLAS: THE LEGEND
 
DEC 1, 2008 through MARCH 15, 2009

The History of St. Nicholas.

INTO THE MODERN AGE: 100 YEARS OF THE AUTOMOBILE IN POTSDAM

MAY 15  through SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Photographs from the museum archives show the automobile in the streets of Potsdam.

Chief Nelson King "ties one on," a parking ticket that is, with a string. Taken on the east side of Market Street across from what is now the Isle of You. Behind the Chief you can what are now, Josie's Pizzaria, The Bagelry, and Maxfield's.

 MORBID CURIOSITY: Fright Night

OCTOBER 2008

A casket basket used by the Foote Funeral Home in Potsdam to pick up the body of the deceased at the place of death to transport to the funeral home. 

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF ANCIENT TIMES: The Charles Lanphere Collection

 Winter 2007

This collection of musical instruments represents a passion of one man's life, Charles Lanphere. Born in Lewis Country, NY with a keen interest in music, he built his first violin at age 10.

OLD GLORY: Flags from the Museum Collection

MAY through October 2007

An exhibition of flags, banners and pennants form the collection of the Potsdam Public Museum.