Montage Histories: Tompkins County, New York, through Photographs 1864-2014

Montage Histories: 
Tompkins County, New York, through Photographs 1864- 2014, illustrates significant buildings, places, and landscapes of Tompkins County from 1864 to 2014. The exhibit will be on display in Tompins County Public Library through December 2014.

N. Aurora St. by Sierra Davenport

A collaboration between the Library, the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, Tompkins Cortland Community College Department of Photography and the History Center in Tompkins County, this exhibit brings together historical research and photographic montage to demonstrate “that architecture and life of Tompkins County is not a static thing, but something that grows, changes, evolves, just as any living thing.” (Laurie Snyder). 

N. Cayuga St. by Michelle Alex

The photographers have used the practice of re-photography, in which historic images are merged with new photographs of the same site, to create montages that capture life in Tompkins County since the Civil War.  

S. Cayuga and Green Sts. by Michelle Alex

An accompanying catalogue which features all the photographs in the exhibit and additional ones created during this project, with essays and explanatory text panels by PhD students Bret Leraul and Christine Yao, will be available for sale during the exhibit.

N. Tioga and E. Seneca Sts. by Cassidy Backus

Newfield Covered Bridge by Heather Dzikiewicz

Twenty three images are on display in the Library with another fourteen included in the full color catalog.

This exhibit and accompanying catalog were made possible with funding from the New York Council for the Humanities, The Society for Humanities, Cornell University, The Tompkins County Tourism Program, Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, Tompkins Corland Community College Photography Program and the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation.