The Manlius Historical Society has recently completed the Village of Manlius Collection, a digital collection freely accessible online. The collection includes nearly 600 images of the Historical Society’s most popular photographs, postcards and drawings of the village of Manlius, spanning two centuries of history.

Historical items held by the historical society in the Cheney House research room were scanned, described and uploaded to a digital repository called New York Heritage, a project of the Empire State Library Network. A grant from the Central New York Library Resources Council, available to the historical society through a partnership with Manlius Library, provided the funding to pay staff for this work.

Visitors to the Village of Manlius Collection on nyheritage.org will see rare views of 19th century Fayette and Seneca Streets, including pictures of businesses like the Cheney Foundry, Sno Top, Manlius Mart, Chilson’s Gas Station, Griffin’s Grill, the Manlius Cinema and many more. Landmarks and buildings like the opera house, Smith Hall, and churches can also be seen throughout the collection, as well as photographs of people from old Manlius schools and community events.

The historical society and library have previously collaborated to provide online access to two dozen FM yearbooks, also available on nyheritage.org. The two organizations are working together to host free and public lectures about the history of Manlius using the images in these digital collections.

Manlius Historical Society is located at 109 Pleasant St. in Manlius and serves the entire Town of Manlius.