The core of any historical society or museum is the collection of materials known as the archives. Over the years, the Lock 52 Historical Society has collected a large number of items that help to tell the story of the town and village, the people who once lived, worked, and died here. In 2020, the society adopted a management policy to help guide what we collect and how we manage it.

Our collection now includes thousands of family and business files, postcards, cemetery records and maps, tax records dating back to 1850, some school and church records, scrap books, military items, and many larger artifacts.

Our goal is to collect items before they are disposed of, either by being thrown away or sold. Here are a couple guidelines. First, once an item has been donated to the society, it becomes a part of the collection and cannot be sold or disposed of without a lengthily review by the board. Lock 52 HS is a 501c3 and is chartered by the New York State Education Department, and we are governed by By-Laws that were developed during our chartering and Not-for-Profit processes.

Donating or Sharing– If you have a personal, family, or business items that you are thinking about donating, please reach out to us so we can determine if it is something we can use. We will always accept family photos and documents, family histories, business records, and items that were made in the village or town. While we can give you a receipt for your donation, we can not give you an estimate of it’s worth as we are not an appraisal service. If you have something that you wish to share with us, say you have a photo of grandma that you think we might like to have, but you don’t want to give it away, we can scan it. We ask that you allow us to borrow the item so we can scan, and then return it to you. The best scans are made on a flatbed scanner with very high resolutions. If you wish to do the scanning, please scan at the highest setting possible and save as a tiff file.

If you are a reseller and have acquired items by way of an estate sale, we ask that you give us first refusal. We are a small organization with limited means, but we will make every effort to work with you.

All items that are donated are available to all researchers, and may be used on the Lock 52 website or social media pages.