Columbia County Historical Society

CCHS collections include important and rare genealogical materials, archives, paintings, photographs, textiles, furniture and decorative arts relating to Columbia County's heritage.

The Barbara P. Rielly Memorial Research Library (located within the headquarters building) is named for a former CCHS Board of Trustees President, and holds material on Columbia County and New York State history, genealogy, architecture, and decorative arts as well as manuscripts, books, maps, architectural drawings, diaries, personal correspondence, scrap books, broadsides, business records, pamphlets, programs, ephemera, photographic prints, glass and film negatives, cased images, and albums.

Nestled among the treeline of the contiguous rural properties on NY State Highway 9H - Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse and Luykas Van Alen House - is a permanent outdoor exhibition of Hudson Valley and Columbia County Cultural Heritage.

This permanent outdoor exhibit interprets the history of northern Columbia County, and consists of nine narrative panels placed throughout the CCHS fifty-acre Rural Properties site.

The CCHS holds an extensive collection of NYS historical artifacts, portraits and works of art—primarily of the Hudson Valley—and other materials documenting the history of Columbia County and New York State.