Photo of the week! Children at the Cortland County Health Camp play on a swing set, 1925, the same year the Cortland County Historical Society was founded! Join us October 25th for our Centennial Soirée, featuring a curated 1920s fashion display as a nod to the era of our founding. Make your reservations today!: https://www.facebook.com/share/17G92U8gqr/ (fb)

100 Objects for 100 Years 82/100 In preparation for our centennial celebrations, we put a lot of work into freshening up the Suggett House Museum! I personally took on the project of making a photographic display for the Suggett family in the front entry stairway of their home and included the photo that is seen in this post on the right. The print of the image that is in our collection was made from a glass plate negative, so no information was available to provide identifications; therefore, the man in this image was originally identified by a CCHS curator to be James Suggett. While I had my doubts given that he looked nothing like the man identified in other photos to be the Suggett patriarch, I had no idea who else it could be. But I hung the photo, liking particularly that it gave a view of what the back of the house used to look like, before the attached outhouse seen in the background was removed and the entry to the 1976 research center addition put in its place. But as fate would have it, there was someone who could reveal the identity of this mysterious man! In May of this year, we held an open house event inviting the public to view the updated displays and celebrate our hundredth birthday with us. One of the visitors to our museum came again later, bearing a scrapbook which she was eager to show us. In it was the very same image I had hung on the wall! She had been quite shocked to see her ancestor, Robert Lang, on display in our museum! As soon as she said the name I was able to connect it to the portrait also featured in this post, and indeed the appearances match. The portrait, painted by Professor Louis J. Higgins, was completed in 1895 and displayed in the window at Sager & Jennings’ store on the corner of Main Street and Clinton Avenue. The Cortland Standard reported that Mr. Lang was a native of Yorkshire, England, and “he spent most of his boyhood on the estate of Sir [Tatton Sykes], near Scarborough in the employment of a farmer named Simpson, serving as an under shepherd, his duty being to assist in the care of about 2,000 sheep. When Mr. Lang consented to sit as a model he donned his shepherd’s frock.” Lang came to America in 1841 and kept a farm in Virgil, later working the Randall farm. In late life he lived just down the street from the Suggett family at 34 Maple Avenue. Perhaps they knew each other back in England, or perhaps bonded in Cortland over their shared homeland. Nonetheless, Robert Lang was a friend of the Suggett’s, enough so to be photographed at the back of their home. Uncanny coincidences are not a rare occurrence here at CCHS, and I can’t help but think that Robert Lang wanted to be sure his identity was known! CCHS has turned one hundred years old! In honor of our landmark birthday, we are celebrating the unique collections you have entrusted to us over the years. ~Sophie, Collections & Research Assistant #100objectsfor100years #cortlandcountyhistory #cortlandny #centralnyhistory #experiencecortland #museum #cortlandcountyhistoricalsociety #history #100objectsfor100years (fb)