An Online Picture Gallery of Photos Documenting the Rich History of the Area         

The Clyde-Savannah Public Library has been engaged in an incredible and fascinating mission: to digitally preserve the photographic history of the area communities, and share it with everyone.  What could once only be seen in store front windows during Clyde's Firemen's Festival, can now be seen anytime right on your computer.

To do this, the Library is actively scanning photos, postcards and more, and then uploading them to an online photo sharing site called Flickr.  If you aren't sure what online photo sharing is all about, use the link below to watch a brief video explain the concept.  A link to the Library's Flickr account (csplib) and their "photostreams" is also available below.

Clyde-Savannah Flickr Website

There are currently three different photo collections available, as described on their Flickr site:

1. The Bramer Photo Collection: Currently the largest collection with approximately 10,000 photos, and only half done as of April 15, 2010.  This collection includes pictures from the 1930s to the 1980s of people, places and events in the area around Clyde, New York.  These photos have mostly come from the personal collections of Bill, Harold and Joe Bramer and Bill Sheehan.
2. The VFW Collection: This collection contains photos of Clyde men and women who served in the military from World War II and later.  It is the result of Harold "Teenie" Salerno's time, energy and devotion.  The images found in this collection are scans of the original pictures found in the albums possessed by the Clyde VFW, although some photos have been added that didn't make it into the original albums.  
   The following dedication can be found in Volume 1 of the WWII album: These photo albums are dedicated to the men and women of the Town of Galen and Clyde who served their country in World War II.  Some did not come back, but those that did became the Greatest Generation.  Their service to their country will never be forgotten.
3. Galen Historical Society Collection: The most recent collection to be added and still a work in progress with thousands more photos to be scanned and uploaded.  This collection contains photos from the Historical Society and many taken by Bill Sheehan.  Rose Jeanne Strakal is currently doing the work on this collection.

Here are some brief instructions on how to navigate through the Flickr photo collections:

If you click on any collection, you will get a short description of what the collection contains.  Within the collections are different sets, which are just a way to break the photos into more manageable groups.  There are no "themes" to these sets however, with the exceptions of the military and postcard sets.  

To help you search through the entire collection, enter a search term, like "village" or even your last name, into the csplib photostream search box.  Make sure that the search box is for this photostream otherwise you'll be searching all of Flickr.

You can also click on the "Tags" link on the homepage and choose one of the existing links, like "sports", "basketball", "wedding", etc., to get photos that have been marked with that tag.

Please note that you can view and even download the photos in different sizes.  Click on a desired photo and look for the "ALL SIZES" button just above the photo.  Click on that button to see your size options.

Finally, you can contribute information about any particular picture by commenting on the photo you want to update.  In order to do this, you have to have a Flickr account so as to prevent universal commenting and reduce spamming.  There is no cost to get an account on Flickr.

Please visit this one-of-a-kind collection and re-visit history.