COOPERSTOWN, NY - The Research Library of the New York State Historical Association was recently awarded a grant of $21,780 from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department.

The DHP gives grants to archives, libraries, and other institutions, to process manuscript collections that document economic change in the 20th and 21st centuries.  With this grant the Research Library processed the records of three businesses connected to the Cooperstown area: the McGown Hardware Store, the Smalley Theatres, and the 1st National Bank of Cooperstown.  

Many area residents will remember the McGown Hardware Store on the northeast corner of Main and Pioneer Streets.  It had its beginning in 1858 when Horace M. Hooker and Stephen G. Browning opened a retail hardware store in the village of Cooperstown, N.Y.  In 1876, a three story brick building was constructed at 74 Main Street for the business, and it operated there beginning in 1877 as H.M. Hooker & Co.  It specialized in stoves, tin and iron building supplies and had a tin shop on the second floor. 

The McGown Hardware Store Records were donated to NYSHA by Frederick McGown, Jr.  The collection consists of the business records accumulated by the store during its years of operation in Cooperstown, NY.  Blueprints of many Cooperstown buildings are also included and were used by the McGowns as they installed hardware for businesses and individuals.  The records give us source materials on the operation of a hardware store in a rural upstate New York village over a considerable period of time.

Smalley Theatres, Inc. was a movie theater chain in central New York State, headed by William C. Smalley, and with a home office in Cooperstown.  Smalley started his first theater in Mount Upton in 1913, and began operating in Cooperstown in 1916.

The Smalley Theatres Records, which came to NYHSA in 1966 and 1981, were accumulated at the home office of Smalley Theatres, Inc. from 1912 to 1955.  They provide excellent detail on attendance and box office receipts for films at each location.  Notable records include photographs (including publicity shots of film stars), documentation of legal cases, programs, lists of free passes provided to prominent local individuals, along with several diaries of William C. Smalley.  The records show the impact that motion pictures had on small rural communities.  For many residents, this would have been their first glimpse of the world outside their own communities.  Films and newsreels brought visual images of the World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, giving local residents views of the rest of the country and the world. 

The First National Bank of Cooperstown was organized in 1864, with an intent to "acquire the circulation privilege of federal bank notes and to become a depository of federal funds."  In 1866, when the Otsego County Bank in Cooperstown folded, its directors transferred all accounts to the First National Bank.  Otsego County Bank cashier Henry Scott switched from being cashier of one institution to the other.  In 1974 the First National Bank of Cooperstown merged with the Bankers Trust Company of Albany, N.Y.  

The First National Bank of Cooperstown Records were donated to NYSHA in 1976, 1977, and 1984.  They contain mostly correspondence, account books, receipts, and statements. The bulk of the material is from the 1862-1922 period.  The correspondence and receipts, in particular, show the central importance of its transactions with other banks and financial institutions to its day-to-day business.  They also document transactions with local individuals and businesses in and around Otsego County, New York.  Within these records is evidence of the growth and decline of businesses, of what people valued and spent their money on, and of the changing economic roles within families.

This project, made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department, enabled the NYSHA Special Collections Librarian, Evan Rallis, to organize and process the collections.  This included adding catalog records to the library's online catalog, Pathfinder, and finding aids to the library website, allowing researchers greater access to the collections.

The public may view these collections by making an appointment to visit the Research Library's Special Collections Department.  The Library is open weekdays 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., and on many Saturday afternoons throughout the year.  For more information, visit NYSHA.org or call (607) 547-1470.