Goodsell Museum participating in state’s Museum Week, June 10-16

The Goodsell Museum, headquarters for the Town of Webb Historical Association in Old Forge, will be participating in New York State Museum Week the week of June 10 through 16.

The annual event promotes visitation to museums throughout the state.

The Goodsell Museum is located at 2993 State Route 28 across the street from the Old Forge Post Office.

It houses the history of the Town of Webb, the largest township in Herkimer County, and encompasses the hamlets of McKeever, Thendara, Old Forge, Eagle Bay, as well as lake communities such as Beaver River, Big Moose, Twitchell Lake, Stillwater, and Okara Lakes.  

The building housing the museum was once the home of George Goodsell, one of the area’s founding fathers. The home was built in 1900 and is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Exhibits and displays in the museum are changed often, using ephemera and artifacts from the Historical Association’s collection of local Adirondack history.

The current featured exhibit, “Mapping Our Adirondack Wilderness: Historic Pathway to the Settlement of the Town of Webb,” tells the story of our history through surveyors and cartographers.

Also featured is Artemus M. Church, local surveyor and taxidermist. Church was tapped by New York state to arrange their display at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.

In this exhibit, visitors will find several animals, as well as taxidermy tools and handbooks.

The second floor of the museum has three rooms of exhibits. One room dedicated to the Goodsell family and several displays including one titled “Accidental Museums” which highlights area businesses that became small-scale museums because of the artifacts they collected.

While visiting the Goodsell Museum during NYS Museum Week, mention this article and receive an entry for a drawing for a book of the winner’s choice from the gift shop.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or by appointment.  For more information call (315)369-3838 or visit www.webbhistory.org.

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