The Homeville Museum
The Homeville Museum will tell the story of America’s history through the eyes of those who lived it. History will be presented from the perspective of Cortland County residents. While the stories presented through Homeville’s museum displays will be told from a local perspective, visitors from around the world will appreciate their relevance for an understanding of the broader scope of U.S. history.
The exhibits will integrate the latest in museum presentation technology, including multimedia kiosks, video monitors, and interactive exhibits. Historians, students, and other lovers of history will be able to conduct historical research at the museum, utilizing the vast number of documents and artifacts in the collection.
The heart of the collection will be the Ken Eaton Collection of American military, railroad, and Cortland County artifacts. The museum will also house other museum quality artifacts related to the history of the region.
The exhibits will integrate the latest in museum presentation technology, including multimedia kiosks, video monitors, and interactive exhibits. Historians, students, and other lovers of history will be able to conduct historical research at the museum, utilizing the vast number of documents and artifacts in the collection.
The heart of the collection will be the Ken Eaton Collection of American military, railroad, and Cortland County artifacts. The museum will also house other museum quality artifacts related to the history of the region.
Another component of the Homeville Museum is the Empire Time Collection, a fascinating display of products
made by clock makers who worked in Central New York in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For the
most part, these clock makers and their work have only recently been researched and remain largely unknown. A
formal display of clocks, with associated signage and photographs, feature the products of craftsman who lived
across Central New York, from Otsego and Delaware Counties on the east, to the Canadian and Pennsylvania borders
on the north and south, to Monroe, Ontario, and Stueben Counties on the west. Cortland County, the site of the museum,
is at the geographic center of this region.
(Excerpt from An Empire in Time: Clocks and Clock Makers of Upstate New York, National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, 2003, Columbia, PA.)
| “Clock making and merchandising activities in upstate New York have historically been considered primarily in the context of the Connecticut clock industry, i.e., an offshoot and derivative of the highly-developed commercial center that Connecticut came to be in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. While true enough in part, what is not well understood or documented is either the number or breadth of the activities of merchandisers and makers alike in upstate New York even as the clock industry developed in Connecticut. In fact there were numerous inventive geniuses and craftsmen who lived and worked at clock making in upstate New York who independently provided such advances as the first commercial perpetual calendar clocks, the first time recording clocks, unique tall case and tower clocks, and many early electric and battery clocks, to name a few….” |
(Excerpt from An Empire in Time: Clocks and Clock Makers of Upstate New York, National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, 2003, Columbia, PA.)
