What's New at WCHS

Due to construction our Reading Room will be closed until further notice.Click here for more information.

Now Online:
The Mead Family Papers Inventory is now available online.

Virtual Archives Update:
The Town of New Castle is now the 15th community to exhibit its historical treasures online.

Read the latest article in our Best of The Westchester Historian series:
Our current article The Isadora Duncan Influence in Westchester, written by Jane Northshield explores the life of dancer Isadora Duncan and her sister Elizabeth, their school, and their performances. This article was published in the Summer 1996 (Volume 72, No. 3) issue of The Westchester Historian.

Recognition:
By an act of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, the Westchester County Historical Society was named the official County Historian on December 11, 2006.

Now Online:
WCHS is pleased to announce the launch of our new webpage on digitizing history. This site includes information from our November 6, 2006 seminar titled, "Saving History: Using Digital Resources for Access and Preservation." Thank you again to all of our presenters and participants and we hope to continue the discussion on 'saving history' in the near future. To access the site, please click here.

Library Update:
The Biography Index has been updated! Hundreds of new names are now available.

McDonald Papers Index. The McDonald Papers are comprised of over 1000 pages of reminiscences about the American Revolution. Compiled between 1844 and 1851, they record the interviews of 241 elderly men and women who had been living in Westchester County during the war.

Alvah French Scrapbooks Index. Alvah French was a newspaperman and historian who lived in Mount Vernon, N.Y. As part of his work, he maintained a clipping service, and he compiled 42 volumes of scrapbooks filled with clippings from Mount Vernon and other Westchester newspapers. The clippings, which cover the period from about 1880 until about 1920, include obituaries, marriage notices, biographical sketches and other articles about people from all of Westchester.

Historic Treasures:
The Westchester County Archives and the Westchester County Historical Society have partnered together to create the new Historic Treasures section of the Virtual Archives, an online archive dedicated to preserving the past of Westchester County. Through the help of local communities around the county, each town, city and village will be represented. Some of the communities currently online include White Plains, Eastchester, Somers, and Scarsdale. Additional communities will be added in the coming months. Visit this exciting new site and experience the ever expanding resources it has to offer!

WCHS is pleased to announce the launch of our new online bookstore! Now you can purchase books and memberships online using your VISA or MasterCard!

Check out our secondhand books list to see the huge new selection of Westchester related titles.

Visit our featured photo exhibit; the images selected for this gallery are post cards from our picture collections. View these samples in the Gallery.

WCHS is always looking to add to its collections so that we can better document Westchester County history. We are specifically interested in yearbooks from both colleges and high schools, city directories, and telephone directories. Please contact us if you have items that you are interested in donating to our collections.