by Susan Zehnder, Education Director
Whitman Mission on the Oregon Trail |
What does the Oregon Trail, a member of the inaugural Girls Professional Baseball League, and souvenirs from a doomed arctic expedition have in common? Each was a Chemung County Historical Society Blog post in 2020.
Since February
2012, we’ve published a new blog almost every week. This year despite various
disruptions, we continued and were able to add 53 new blog posts. This brings our
blogs-to-date total to 468: that’s four hundred sixty eight different topics!
For the last
nine years, these blogs have been written by a staff member or invited guest, with all topics connecting to Chemung County’s history. They may be stories of
people, or events, information on artifacts and documents, or explore a story
behind another story. Despite posting weekly, we still can't predict which topics
will resonate with our readers.
Taking stock
of 2020 - and in case you missed any - here are this year’s five most popular blog
posts in descending order. See if you find any thread of commonality.
1. On May 11th
we published Chemung County's First Fatal Automobile Accident a blog
which tells the story of the Voorhees family from Elmira whose 1914 summer
afternoon drive resulted in tragic death and loss.
2. Back in
January 17th Lost in the Mail profiled a mishap that occurred
one snowy day in Wellsburg, March 195, and mail that was never delivered.
3. On March 23rd,
shortly after the 2020 pandemic ground things to a halt, the blog titled The
First Quarantine shared how the county shutdown for 19 days in response to
the 1918 pandemic.
4. Less than a
month later on April 17th, another blog titled Typhoid and Thatcher GlassManufacturing Company highlighted local contributions to public health.
(Note we have an upcoming exhibit highlighting the Thatcher Glass Manufacturing
Company going up in early 2021.)
5. On August
24th a blog shared the story of The Wellsburg Fire of 1912, a
devastating fire that wiped out much of the town of Wellsburg in one single afternoon.
Up to this
point, statistics show the blogs with the fewest visitors are some of our most
recent. We never take blogs down, so it’s likely they’ll pick up additional
viewers in 2021. In case you’re curious, the blogs with the fewest views to
date are:
1. December 7th’s
A Fall Tradition goes Virtual publicized our necessary switch from our
usual in-person fund raiser event to one that was virtual.
2. December 14th’s
blog Souvenirs from a Doomed Voyage shared objects in our collection from
Ross Marvin, a local arctic explorer and The Greely expedition, an expedition that
took place in 1881-1884.
3. Esther B. Steele: A Woman of Her Word, on November 30th profiled a well-known
philanthropist who still makes an impact on the county today.
4. Our
November 9th blog The Bachelor Governor highlighted the life
of the 29th governor of New York State and the political connections
he had.
5. Win with Wilkie, the blog published on November 2nd just before the presidential
election was a little bit of lost history about a 1940 presidential campaign
visit to Elmira.
Our
continually growing collection of CCHS blogs is a great resource we encourage
everyone to share, just be sure to give us credit if you do.
Researching facts
and information on objects, people and events from the county gives us an
opportunity to look at things in new ways. It also comes in handy. We used a series of blogs ourselves this past summer to
create a unique walking tour of Elmira’s Heritage District that wove together
over fifteen relevant blogs.
For fun, see our quiz
posted on our Facebook page to see what facts from this year that you remember, the reader with the most correct answers will win a complimentary year's membership.