The Chenango County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization, and like many others, it was unable to hold regular fundraisers or events in 2020 but used online resources to reach the public and get support.
“You have to learn to be flexible and roll with the challenges. I had this philosophy early on about what we called the ‘great pause’ and how to embrace it and learn from it, and don’t waste this opportunity to make positive changes to your organization and the community,” said Chenango County Historical Society and Museum Executive Director Jessica Moquin.
The Historical Society has 14 members on the board of trustees. It currently operates within eight buildings.
The Chenango County Historian also works in one of those buildings, on the first floor of the James Flannigan Research Center, and they often work in collaboration.
Right around March 13, when the state ordered the lockdown, the CCHS closed its doors to the public. They briefly opened from the middle of September to the middle of November by appointment only for the fall exhibits, but then as the COVID cases rose they decided that it was more prudent to just continue focusing on virtual presentations.
Strategic planning avoided devastation
Much of the CCHS support comes primarily from private organizations, foundations, corporations and members.
In 2020, the historical society determined that it didn’t have adequate resources to hold any annual fundraisers, namely the Summer Barn Party, which is typically held in July. Their annual antique show in September was also cancelled.
Typically, those events raise about five percent of the group’s operating budget, so in lieu of those fundraising opportunities, the CCHS received a grant from the Pomeroy Fund for New York State History.
“They offered up a challenge to encourage giving and help overcome the loss of that revenue, and as a result, thanks to the tremendous support we received through this matching campaign, we were able to raise more than double what those two annual fundraisers traditionally generate for our organization,” Moquin said.
The special grants and support they received this year were a life-saver for the organization. If the CCHS had relied on traditional fundraising it would have been devastating.
“But because the community rallied and we were able to put that challenge together, we raised over $30,000 towards that. We’re really grateful that the community was amazingly generous, and that’s why we’re still here,” said Moquin.
The annual operating budget for the CCHS hovers around $150,000 per year.
The Historical Society was one of three finalists for Commerce Chenango’s Nonprofit of the Year Award, alongside Chenango Memorial Hospital and the United Way.
“It was pretty awesome to be considered a good company in the middle of the pandemic among those ranks with two organizations that have done so much for the community. It was really quite an honor to be one of the finalists in that category,” said Moquin.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York, a trade organization, the Historical Society was able to develop a new strategic plan in early 2020.
“We didn’t have a lot of outside distractions when we were creating our strategic plan, so we actually achieved our re-imagined comprehensive campus plan during this time, and we developed a collaboration with the Cornell University design tech program,” said Moquin.
“We’re shifting our focus from not simply just a curator of local history, but also as a community partner, an educational resource and a regional destination. Through that strategic planning process, we reaffirmed our mission to lead and support the advancement of research, education and enjoyment of Chenango history, and that mission will guide our organization for the next four years and into the future.”
Part of the strategic plan called for the creation of an operations manager and expanding online services. This past summer the CCHS hired Joseph Fryc for the position.
He is responsible for financial administration and overall operations, assisting with collections curation, exhibit preparation, facilities management, retail and office management.
“We were able to finish and adopt our strategic plan in April of last year and when we moved forward with the plan, we realized that if we wanted to achieve all of these great things we were going to need another person, a paid professional within the industry of the work and experience,” said Moquin.

Becoming a virtual museum

The historical society is run by the two full-time positions, including Jessica’s, and is also support by the efforts of about 96 volunteers. As the pandemic began to shut things down the CCHS needed new ways to reach the public.
“We’ve developed some new creative ways to accomplish our mission. We ramped up all of our online programming, all of our virtual work, and that includes all of our educational programming and exhibits. We had to focus on engaging with our community virtually, so that included the launch of our redesigned website and we’re sharing far more robust social media content,” said Moquin.
However, the lack of internet access in our area hurts organizations like the CCHS.
“I think our biggest challenge right now is the limits we have with technology, specifically slow broadband in the outlying areas, as well as information illiteracy – people who don’t know how to use the technology. So that hinders our work virtually and online,” she said.
As part of their online push the Historical Society also looked to join larger industry trends such as #MuseumBouquet, #MuseumFromHome and #MuseumSunshine, and they also created their own original content such as their #TastyTuesday. Their popular “Cooking Historically” series features recipes from the Chenango County cookbook, “Made Nine Pies.”
On Wednesdays the group promoted #WomenWednesdays to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Another partnership with Live NY that took place in the City of Norwich allowed the CCHS buildings to be lit up with the colors of the Suffragettes to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women receiving the right to vote.
“Having to engage with our community virtually, that forced us to think outside of the traditional museum-in-a-box. We’re not in a box anymore,” said Moquin.
“We’ve never been quite so focused before on taking advantage of virtual platforms to share our stories, and it was very successful. We yielded an increase in our Facebook audience of over 40 percent, so we were very pleased about that.”
They also celebrated the Smithsonian’s Museum Day, which is typically held in April, and while the Smithsonian cancelled their museum day, the Historical Society still had a prepared program presented virtually in collaboration with the local 4H clubs. Also, from June to October the CCHS presented weekend video events “Path Through History,” as well as a virtual Parade of Trees in December.
“We’re still sort of pausing, so I think that’s really important. It’s more about having a positive attitude – and as long as you have a positive attitude you can overcome those challenges, be strategic and do things better,” she said.
“That has been an advantage for us to be able to take a step back and allow us to refocus and hone in on what makes our organization unique, how we can best serve the community and celebrate the cultural heritage of the county. It’s our goal to encourage pride in our region and all that we’ve accomplished. I serve as a community collaborator to help our community achieve their full potential and realize what a great place Chenango County has been and continues to be.”
There were some things the Historical Society was able to do this year that might not have happened in a regular year.
They had a partnership with musician, historic preservation planner and Cornell grad student Andrew Roblee. His project was called Historic Structures of Sound. His group came to perform and record music inside one of the CCHS’s old buildings. It was one of a dozen or so historic structures in the state that he selected. The project analyzed the nature of how the sound reverberates within a historic structure, specifically those that were never designed to be music venues.

Lighting up history in 2021

Moquin explained the organization looks forward to opening its doors again in 2021, and it will continue to expand development for virtual and hybrid programming. A major challenge facing 2021 is the health and safety of the community, and that is the primary lens for all considerations.
“We want to make sure that history will always be here, and it’s our job to preserve it and make it safe for the community, so that’s why health and safety is such a priority for us.”
“We imagine this will be more of a marathon than a sprint kind of situation. So we’ll be slowly reintroducing in-person activities based on size and scope, and of course there will be challenges as we make adjustments because managing changes is always unpredictable. A big takeaway from the pandemic is that we need to have a contingency plan in place in case something goes awry and you’re not able to have in-person programming as originally intended.”
The CCHS is currently prioritizing work on development of additional outdoor facilities, exhibit spaces and interpretive structures in order to be ready for a reopening.
The CCHS hosted a collection of over 40,000 objects, and most of the artifacts are only available now for online digital viewing.
The group just recently finished a virtual exhibit in collaboration with the Earlville Opera House called “Unfolding Stories.”
A priority in 2021 will be to hopefully hold two in-person exhibits, one of which is “Women of Chenango County”. There are 21 towns in Chenango County, so 21 noteworthy women from local history were selected to have their stories told.
“Yes, they may have made an impact on local history, but the exhibit is about how their stories made a difference in the world. A perfect example is a woman from Chenango County who was a soldier in the Civil War. Her name was Sarah Rosetta Wakeman and she actually disguised herself as a man, and she passed away as Private Lyons Wakeman,” said Moquin.
There are other great stories, like Alida Avery’s. From Sherburne, she was a Suffragette and the first female physician in Colorado.
What is the goal of the Chenango County Historical Society?
“This is the analogy that I use – we are the lighthouse for Chenango County history, and part of our role is to shine our light on other historical societies within the county. There are other historical societies across the county that preserve and celebrate their own specific townships, like the Afton Historical Society, the Bainbridge Historical Society, there’s a Coventry town museum, and more. We like to collaborate as much as possible, that’s why I like to use that analogy. With 21 towns in the county, there’s such a great breadth of stories to be told, so there’s a lot of light to be shown,” said Moquin.
The CCHS is always seeking people to get involved. To join the Society as a member or volunteer visit www.chenangohistorical.org, and fill out the short application. You can also email info@chenangohistorical.org or call at 607-334-9227 ext. 2, to get more information.