During the suburban boom that followed World War II, Shirley Long Island Inc., developed the middle-class community of Shirley on the South Shore of Brookhaven Town in Suffolk County. The company built 4,000 homes, many of them from prefabricated sections.Mr. Shirley's served as New York City's Commerce Commissioner in the early 1950's under Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri. He died in 1963.

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in a farmhouse (now a part of the museum) built by his father in the town of Huntington, New York on Long Island.

William Seward (Will) Teator (1860-1930), known as Red Hook’s ‘Renaissance Man,’ was a self-taught naturalist, accomplished artist, scientifically-inclined farmer, and award-winning apple orchardist. Around 1900 he began taking images of his surroundings using dry plate photography. He was born on his father’s farm in the hamlet of Upper Red Hook and received his formal education at the Mountain View Academy of Upper Red Hook. After graduation he worked for a time as private secretary to General J. Watts de Peyster of Tivoli and then chose to apply his scientific skills to his apple orchard, developing new and improved varieties. He married Nevada (Nena) Myers and had two children, Roscoe and Marion, who appear in many of his photos.

Virginia “Ginger” Marshall Martus was born and raised in Port Washington, New York. She is the daughter of Raymond E. Marshall and Edith (Townsend) Marshall. Her father, Raymond E. Marshall (1898-1978), with his father, Albert Raymond Marshall (1868-1948), was the founder and owner of A & R Marshall, Inc., a marine service and supply business in Port Washington.

Born on April 22, 1912 in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Virgil C. Crisafulli spent his early years in Sicily and Wadsworth, Ohio. He graduated from Wadsworth High School in 1932. In 1938, he married Martha Eva Bair. Crisafulli earned his undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University. Before joining the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant during World War II, Crisafulli served as an economist with the Office of Price Administration and War Labor Board. During the war, he took part in several major combat operations while serving on the USS Ommaney Bay. Honorably discharged in 1946, Crisafulli joined the founding faculty at Utica College that same year. He worked at Utica College for 33 years as a professor of economics, retiring in 1978 as professor emeritus. During his tenure at Utica College, Crisafulli served on the Wage Stabilization Board during the Korean Conflict. From 1962 to 1964, he ran for Congress and served as Robert F. Kennedy’s Oneida County campaign coordinator. In 1967, Crisafulli served as a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention. Throughout his academic career and into retirement, Crisafulli actively continued teaching and researching. He authored several books, including A Directory of Business and Industry in the Upper Mohawk Valley, An Economic Analysis of the Rome-Utica Area, and a History of Utica College.

Violetta White Delafield (1875-1949) began to study botany in the 1890s and was for many years a member of the New York Botanical Garden. An accomplished amateur mycologist, Violetta published several technical papers on fungi, and created hundreds of annotated watercolors.

Vincent F. Seyfried (1918-2012) was a highly prolific historian of Long Island. His work between 1950 and 2010 includes eleven books on trolley systems in Queens and Long Island, twelve books on areas of Queens, a seven-volume set on the Long Island Rail Road, and a history of the founding of Garden City, where he was Village Historian from 1987 to 2006. He provided many entries on Queens history for The Encyclopedia of New York City (1995).

The Vincent Astor Collection tells the untold story of one of America's most prominent businessmen, philanthropists and a life-long friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt and Astor, both Dutchess County natives, were closely connected through family, social, and business ties but it was their work in defending America through two world wars that truly brought the old fishing buddies to new levels.

Ferncliff, the Astor estate in Rhinebeck is only a short drive from FDR's Hyde Park home of Springwood. At the Stanford White sporting pavilion of Astor Courts FDR would swim in Astor's indoor heated pool as part of his hydrotherapy treatments for polio. There is also evidence that Eleanor Roosevelt would make use of Astor Court's indoor shooting range and FDR would visit Vincent and his pet orangutan Freda for a relaxing break from his busy life.

While Astor and Roosevelt were lifelong friends, they were also both keenly interested in the defense of America. Throughout the 1930s Astor acted as an unofficial intelligence operative for Roosevelt and in the months preceding World War II, Astor would occupy the unique position of Area Controller of Intelligence for New York, a position created by FDR specifically for Vincent.

Prior to incorporation, the Voorheesville area was a rural farming community. In 1863, the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad ran an excursion train from Albany to the rural hamlet, later the Delaware and Hudson Railway and Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad came to the hamlet, beginning what was to make Voorheesville a railroad town. The railroads brought not only tourists from Albany and elsewhere, it made the village more accessible as a suburban residence and created the opportunity for several industries to build factories in the village. The factories provided jobs to the local population and made the village attractive to other would-be workers. After a few years of discussion among village residents, The Village of Voorheesville was incorporated in 1899.

Industries included: a barrel-making factory, foundries including the Phoenix and Albany Malleable Iron Works, a canning factory, grain and feed mills, and others. Local orchards grew the apples needed for two cider and vinegar companies; a creamery and grist mill were available for local farmers; and local women sewed collars and shirts in their homes. Other businesses and institutions of community life followed including hotels; an Odd Fellows Lodge; churches; a fire department established in 1902; a library in 1915; Voorheesville Grange; a women’s study group called the Bay View Club; and a public school that eventually became the core of the Voorheesville Central School System.

The post-war years brought increased development and suburbanization to the village as roads were improved and more families could afford automobiles. Most of the industries in the village disappeared during these years. While trains still pass through the village several times per day, there is no longer a railroad depot.

In May 1999, the village celebrated its centennial with a parade and many other events over an entire weekend.

McGraw is a village in Cortland County, New York, United States. The village, first settled around 1806, is named after Samuel McGraw and is in the eastern part of the town of Cortlandville, east of the city of Cortland. The village was home to New-York Central College, McGrawville, an institution of higher learning founded by Free Baptists in 1849. The college was notable because about half of its students were African American. The college also employed at least two black professors. A smallpox epidemic, along with social and political opposition, brought about the college's closure in 1860. McGraw was incorporated as a village in 1869.