The Greenburgh Public Library Local History Collection contains manuscripts, books, maps, an atlas of the Town of Greenburgh from 1915, newspapers, recorded interviews with war veterans, diaries, photographs, negatives, and transparency slides about the Greenburgh Public Library, the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, and New York State. The collection documents Greenburgh’s rich history dating back to pre-revolution times and contains information about the origins of our area and the broader New York region, and continues to document the history that is made every day in Greenburgh.
Included in the Local History collection were primary source documents dating from the 1700s to the present day that were in fragile condition and 370 historical newspapers that were yellowing, brittle, no longer in print, and not easily accessible online.
Through the leadership of the Director of the Greenburgh Public Library, Christina Ryan-Linder, and Greenburgh Local History Librarian, Amelia Buccarelli-Rende, last year the Greenburgh Public Library was awarded a Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) Digitization Grant to digitize these at-risk primary source documents. The digital materials made possible through the grant were made available to the public last week.
Of interest to Edgemont residents, included in the digitization project were copies of the Edgemont ECHO, a hyper-local newspaper published between 1943 and 1956. The digital Edgemont ECHO collection can be found here – https://dcmny.org/do/f569e2dd-c825-498f-b2a5-1938c3f80b10.
Additionally, through a partnership with the Edgemont Historical Society, issues of the Edgemont Leaves community newsletter, first published by the Edgemont Association between 1938 and 1950, were digitized as part of this grant. The digital Edgemont Leaves collection can be found here – https://dcmny.org/do/37014041-61f5-4192-b1e5-7e89dfb7f2df
To learn more about the Greenburgh Local History Collection, please visit https://greenburghlibrary.org/local_history or contact Local History Librarian Amelia Buccarelli-Rende at localhistory@greenburghlibrary.org.
To learn more about the Edgemont Historical Society and how to get involved, please contact EdgemontHistorian@gmail.com.