New Oyster Bay exhibit relies on maps, artifacts of the past to show life in the 1800s

When walking down South Street in Oyster Bay in the late 1800s, life looked different. Horse-drawn carriages lined the road, and Snouder’s Corner Drug Store was just getting its start.

Now, Snouder's is turning into a French restaurant and new businesses have moved in — even as some of the buildings retain their character from centuries past. 

The Oyster Bay Historical Society is giving a glimpse into a bygone era — combining artifacts, historical documents and local research for a new exhibit: "19th Century Oyster Bay: Artifacts from the Oyster Bay Historical Society.”

The display, which runs through March at the Angela Koenig Center on Summit Street, showcases the everyday tools of fishermen, blacksmiths and writers to draw a picture of life in the hamlet nearly 200 years ago.

“It’s an ongoing reflection of who we are as a people,” Denice Evans-Sheppard, the Oyster Bay Historical Society's executive director, said of the exhibit.

Thomas Hoffman, an archivist and curator of the historical society, relied on the nonprofit’s extensive collection to design it. He said his research identified businesses that existed in the hamlet, who owned them and how long they operated.

A “phantom town,” as Hoffman calls it, now lines the walls of the Angela Koenig Center, made of black paper in the shape of silhouetted buildings. Each one includes a name of a business owner who worked in the hamlet in the 1800s, including physicians and blacksmiths.

A map of Oyster Bay in 1873 is nearby, showing a bird's-eye view of the area and giving a sense of where some businesses were located.

The map, made by cartographer Frederick Beers, shows a string of buildings along South Street and Main Street. It includes an undeveloped area that today encompasses Fireman's Field and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park. 

A glass case in the exhibit contains the original bottles of medication that were used during that period, said Evans-Sheppard. 

She said it’s important that children in the town learn about the hamlet’s history “so that they have an understanding of what it was and how far we’ve progressed over the years, and how we’re part of that history.”

On Tuesday morning, Hoffman stood by the now-antique equipment used to gather shellfish in the bay and the ornate typewriter that would have been used to relay information in the 19th century. He said the exhibit gives patrons a sense of place in the timeline of the hamlet.

“It behooves us to ponder at what items in our current use and possession will end up in a museum someday,” he said.

Alongside those documents and displays are real tools that would have been used by workers of that era — physical pieces that connect the records to what work at that time would have looked like. Tools such as hammers, medicinal bottles and molds to create boots are on display.

Matthew Moshen, a volunteer for the historical society, said he helped organize the effort by cross-referencing employment data from the late 1860s and early 1870s to better understand the types of trades that defined that era in the hamlet, including leather workers and physicians. 

“We then pulled artifacts from our holdings that matched those trades,” Moshen said in an email. “The goal is to connect an object with a real Oyster Bay person and their location in town.”

Moshen said some of the items were acquired through a loan with the Long Island Maritime Museum. Other items were donated, including the period typewriter, but were not necessarily used in Oyster Bay.

The exhibit is free to the public and is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ