Museums - Yager Museum, Hartwick College

Willard E. Yager was born in Oneonta, New York, on December 19, 1855, to a prominent family. As a boy, he accidentally stumbled upon a Native American artifact in the woods near his home, an event that began a life-long fascination with local archaeology. Upon retiring from a respected professional career in 1890, he became a gentleman scholar, dedicating his time to the study of Upper Susquehanna archaeology. Between 1888 and 1927 he assembled an impressive collection of nearly 6,000 meticulously documented artifacts. He also published several books about prehistory and Native Americans. Yager’s interests in prehistory and the lives of Native Americans led him to seek out comparative materials from elsewhere in the United States, including a large collection of Southwestern ceramics and basketry, and important Plains Indian materials. Following his death in 1929, the collection was donated to Hartwick College, though it remained in the private Yager Long House Museum for some time thereafter. The collection moved to the Hartwick College campus in 1967 upon the completion of the five-story Yager Hall. His collection was then housed and displayed alongside the college’s other collections of art, archaeology, and ethnography. The Yager Museum cares for about 17,000 objects, divided into four main categories: archaeological, ethnographic, fine arts, and historical. The museum maintains both a permanent collection and a non-accessioned, educational collection.
In addition to Yager’s collection, the archaeological section also holds the Adequentaga collection of 1,547 artifacts from a site near Oneonta, New York, and the Timlin collection of 1,383 objects from a site near Cobleskill, New York. Both were donated by Bruce E. Raemsch. Also of note here are 2,222 stone artifacts from the Susquehanna Valley donated by Roland Spraker in 1963.
The ethnographic collection contains items from North, Central, and South America. Native North American culture areas represented in the collection are Northeast, Plains, Southwest, and California. Other ethnographic items are from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, and the Amazon. The collection includes, but is not limited to, baskets, pottery, clothing, rugs, jewelry, and masks. Major donors include Aaron Furman, Bess Cohen, Dora Stillman de Marin, Ralph Sandell, and Royal Gifford.