Garfield “Gar” Wood (1880 - 1971) was the son of a ferryboat operator. He learned about boats and boating from a very young age. He began a successful business after inventing a hydraulic lift for unloading coal. His business soon focused on boats--especially racing boats, which was his true passion. He broke the world record for boating speed several times in the 1920s and 30s. He won the prestigious Harmsworth Cup and Gold Cup races many times. After his successful racing career, Wood focused on his businesses. Gar Wood Industries produced racing motorboats as well as truck bodies and winches. Gar Wood built one of the world’s finest line of production recreational boats.
In 2010 the factory documents and materials collected by the Society from the Gar Wood Boat Division were donated to the Antique Boat Museum by Gar Wood author, historian, and Antique Boat Museum Trustee Anthony S. Mollica, Jr. The Antique Boat Museum continues to provide research on Gar Wood boats as well as issuing Gar Wood Certificates. If you are interested in obtaining a Gar Wood Production Verification Certificate, please visit the following page:

By the end of the 19th century, as theater, vaudeville, and the music circuit centralized, the stage was set for 20th-century show business to become a big commercial enterprise. Publishing songs was a part of that business. A lot of America’s popular-music publishing industry was centered in New York City, on Tin Pan Alley. One 1890s Tin Pan Alley song, "After the Ball," sold millions of copies. Others sold more modestly, but sheet music was widely available. Although performers used professional sheet music, scores sold to the public had lively and colorful covers. Sometimes they featured a performer’s photo, as well as an illustration. The covers can be used as historical evidence of what ideas and images were circulating in popular culture in the early 20th century

The Freeport Memorial Library was established in 1884 by Professor Loren M. Burdick, principal of the Freeport Schools, with funds raised by amateur entertainments. In 1895, the Board of Regents of New York State granted a provisional charter. A permanent charter, signed by Melvil Dewey, was granted on December 21, 1899. The Library was housed in a school until 1911 when it was moved to a rented room in the Miller Building on South Grove Street. On Memorial Day in 1924, the Beaux Arts building, designed by architect Charles M. Hart was dedicated as the first war memorial library in New York State. In 1925, the Freeport Library officially changed its name to the Freeport Memorial Library. On April 19, 1959, a new wing was dedicated. In 1982, on the 90th anniversary of the Village of Freeport the residents elected to expand their Library once again. Today the Freeport Memorial Library is one of the largest public library facilities in Nassau County.

Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community. It is now primarily a bedroom suburb but retains a modest commercial waterfront and some light industry.

Freeport High School yearbooks began publication in 1927. In 2016, the Freeport Memorial Library in cooperation with the Freeport Historical Society partnered to digitize a complete set of yearbooks.

Frederick Lawrence Pomeroy (1855-1906) was born in Cortland, NY and later lived in Brooklyn. Pomeroy was the nephew of Lemuel Strong Pomeroy, a noted abolitionist. At the time of his death, he was Assistant General Traffic Manager with the New York Central Railroad. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 made the railroads the first industry subject to federal regulation. In 1906, in the first case filed under this act, the New York Central Railroad was convicted of giving “rebates” to the American Sugar Company and fined. As part of the judgment, Pomeroy was also fined $6,000. The stress of the trial is said to have contributed to his untimely death. In his 1906 State of the Union address, President Theodore Roosevelt, while agreeing with the fine imposed in the railroad, decried the imposition of a fine on Pomeroy. Roosevelt expressed the opinion that Pomeroy acted “in accordance with[…] the wishes of his employer.”

In 1851, The North Star paper, founded by Frederick Douglass, merged with the Liberty Party Paper of Syracuse and was renamed the Frederick Douglass' Paper. The abolitionist paper not only rejected slavery, but also the oppression of women and other minority groups.