Introduction

An exhibition in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation (RBSCP) for 2025 focuses on materials from the Huntington-Hooker and Hooker Family Papers. With co-curators Cormac O'Malley and Jessica Latcher-Feldman, this exhibit explores one family for over a century, and the importance of family historians for preserving and collecting those materials. This year's Zagorin fellowship aims to gain a deeper understanding of family history and genealogy through archival research, historic artifacts, and conversations to explore the branches of the Huntington and Hooker families. The exhibit has two main focuses, first of which is an exploration of the personal materials of various members of the Huntington-Hooker families who lived in Rochester and Western New York from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century. There are incredibly detailed genealogy records from these family members, as well as hundreds of documents that give a glimpse into the daily life, struggles, and aspirations of people from over a century ago. This aspect of the exhibit demonstrates how interactions with primary-source materials makes history feel relatable and accessible. The second part of the exhibit focuses on one Huntington-Hooker family member, Helen (Huntington-Hooker) O'Malley. Helen was the daughter of Elon Huntington-Hooker, and was a prolific artist. Her artistic endevors were varried across medium and geographic area, but the presence of her family in her artwork was a throughline in her career. 

This exhibit will be physically located in the William Henry Seward Room in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, which represents one of the richest and most complex collections of family papers held at the University of Rochester. The Huntington-Hooker exhibit emphasizes the role of the family historian in preserving historical materials and keeping the stories of past generations alive.

Cormac O’Malley, the son of Helen Hooker O’Malley, has helped to shape the narrative by providing a wealth of resources through his own research, a loan of a portion of Helen’s artistic works for the exhibition. It has been critical to work directly with Mr. O’Malley and to learn from him as this exhibit developes. Mr. O’Malley has donated his mother’s materials to different institutions around the United States and Ireland, and has worked hard to teach about her life and document her story. There will be an exhibition opening in April of 2025 at the University of Limerick, which features a significant number of her busts, which are part of their permanent collections.

My Role:

As a student and co-curator for this project, I have explored the papers and other materials related to the Huntington-Hooker and O’Malley families extensively. Through collaboration with my fellow co-curators, I have found that there is an important balance between listening to a living descendant and honoring their vision, while also allowing the materials within the archive to guide the narrative. Creating a cohesive exhibition relies on acute attention to detail within the collections themselves, and the opportunity to work with an active family member on the project will allow oral tradition, memory, and archival documents to speak in unison through the exhibition.

—Sarah Tierney
Summer 2024