Historical Cortland Collection

Cortland Free Library

First Page of Oral History Of Cortland County: The Immigrant Experience - Image Source

Collection Facts

Extent:

Historical Context

The city of Cortland is within the county of Cortland in Central New York. It is named after Pierre Van Cortlandt, the first lieutenant governor of New York.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Cortland was home to the Wickwire wire drawing mill, the Brockway Motor Company, a Smith Corona typewriter factory, and a teaching college that evolved into the State University of New York at Cortland.

Scope of Collection

This collection includes a transcript of oral histories done with two elderly Cortland residents in the 1970s: Martha Yaman, Lebanese, and Joseph Verrico, Italian. The collection includes two obituaries: newspaper clipping from 2006 and a published, multipage transcript of a funeral service from the 1860s with a 1970s addendum. The other materials are works by Cortland natives.