Holand Land Office Museum

Trivia Night @ the Museum: National Parks
2025-08-14 19:00 - 20:00 UTC
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for our monthly Trivia Night on Thursday, August 14th at 7 pm. Get ready to travel across the United States, to see what you know about our country’s beautiful National Parks. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Guest Speaker Series: Nellie Ludemann, "Women in the Sky: Hall of Fame Aviators & Astronauts"
2025-08-21 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to announce the next presenter in our Guest Speaker Series on Thursday, August 21st at 7 pm. Nellie Ludemann of the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls. Nellie will be presenting on the inductees that were leaders in the field of flight, such as aviators, astronauts, and astrophysicists among others. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Java with Joe E.: Jason Smith, "The Raging Erie: Life & Labor Along the Erie Canal"
2025-08-28 09:00 - 10:30
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for the next edition of our Java with Joe E. series on Thursday, August 28th at 9 am. Jason Smith will be presenting on the book “The Raging Erie: Life & Labor Along the Erie Canal.” Admission is free with coffee and donuts. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.
“Raging Erie tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation. It chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock.”
Thank you to Tim Horton’s of Batavia for sponsoring Java with Joe E. for 2025.

Guest Speaker Series: Jules Hoepting, "Genesee Valley Canal"
2025-09-03 19:00 - 20:00
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for the next presenter in our Guest Speaker Series on Wednesday, September 3rd at 7 pm. Jules Hoepting, park educator at Letchworth State Park, will be presenting on the Genesee Valley Canal. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Guest Speaker Series: Kevin Pawlak, "John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry"
2025-09-10 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to announce the next presenter in our Guest Speaker Series on Wednesday, September 10th at 7 pm. Kevin Pawlak will be presenting on his book “John Brown’s Raid: Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859.” “John Brown’s Raid” tells the story of the first shots that led to disunion. Richly filled with maps and images, it includes a driving and walking tour of sites related to Brown’s Raid so visitors today can follow the path of America’s meteor.” Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you would like to attend.
Kevin Pawlak is a historic site manager for Prince William County’s Office of Historic Preservation and a Certified Battlefield Guide at Antietam National Battlefield. He previously worked as a park ranger at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Kevin is also the author of four books as part of the Emerging Civil War Series.

Trivia Night @ the Museum: World War II in the Pacific
2025-09-11 19:00 - 20:00
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for our monthly Trivia Night on Thursday, September 11th at 7 pm. In honor of the 80th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, test your knowledge about the fighting across the Pacific Theater during World War II. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Guest Speaker Series: Randy John, "The Seneca in the Revolutionary War"
2025-09-18 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office is proud to announce the next presenter in our Guest Speaker Series on Thursday, September 18th at 7 pm. Randy John, Ph.D., will be presenting on his newest book, “The Seneca in the American Revolution. This book surveys the literature on the American Revolution and provides the story of the Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca Nation) in the American Revolution. The ‘Seneca version’ of the American Revolution is included based on Governor Blacksnake’s account. In 1850, Lyman Draper interviewed Blacksnake on the Allegany Territory. Draper became a librarian and Secretary for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin from 1854 to 1886. Blacksnake’s first-hand stories recorded by Draper are preserved at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin. Copies of the book will be given to those in attendance. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Concert Series: Strummerz
2025-09-19 19:00 - 21:00
Come listen to the Batavia famous Strummerz band on Friday, September 19th from 7-9 pm, playing music from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s! Please get in contact with the museum if you are planning on attending! Either email us at hollandlandofficemuseum@gmail.com or call us at (585) 343 – 4727. Admission: $5 for non-members and $4 for members.

Java with Joe E.: Tyler Angora, "The Holland Land Company & the Erie Canal"
2025-09-25 09:00 - 10:30
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum on Thursday, September 25th at 9 am for the next presentation of our Java with Joe E. series. Tyler Angora, the Curator at the LeRoy Historical Society, and former Curator at the HLOM, will be presenting “The Holland Land Company & the Erie canal”. Admission is free with coffee and donuts. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.
Thank you to Tim Horton’s of Batavia for sponsoring Java with Joe E. for 2025.

West Side Batavia Ghost Stories
2025-10-02 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to announce its West Side Ghost Stories program on Thursday, October 2nd at 7 pm. Join us as Connie Boyd shares the spooky, sinister, and weird documented stories from the West Side of Batavia’s past. Come and listen to tales of murder, ghosts, body-snatching hangings, and abandoned cemeteries. This presentation is the same as our Ghost Walk, perfect for those who are not able to go on our guided Ghost Walks. Tickets are $5/$3 for museum members.

Downtown Batavia Ghost Walks
2025-10-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-17 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-17 19:30 - 21:30
Back this year is our Downtown Batavia Ghost Walk on Fridays in October. The walks led by Connie Boyd will occur on October 3 and 17 at 7:00 and 7:30 pm. The walks will begin and end at GO ART! located at 201 E. Main St. in Batavia. Walk through Downtown Batavia and hear tales of spiritualists, psychics, buried bones, and many colorful characters that reside in the city’s heart. You will even get to know more of Batavia’s Madame, Edna Gruber. Admission is $15.00 or $10.00 for museum members and reservations are required with purchase. Museum members will receive a promo code for discount tickets. Tours are limited to 25 people each. The tour begins and ends at GO ART! and is approximately 1 1/2 to two hours long. For tickets or more information, please follow the link below
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holland-land-office-museum-batavia-downtown-ghost-walks-tickets-1455035944679?aff=oddtdtcreator

Downtown Batavia Ghost Walks
2025-10-03 19:30 - 21:30
Back this year is our Downtown Batavia Ghost Walk on Fridays in October. The walks led by Connie Boyd will occur on October 3 and 17 at 7:00 and 7:30 pm. The walks will begin and end at GO ART! located at 201 E. Main St. in Batavia. Walk through Downtown Batavia and hear tales of spiritualists, psychics, buried bones, and many colorful characters that reside in the city’s heart. You will even get to know more of Batavia’s Madame, Edna Gruber. Admission is $15.00 or $10.00 for museum members and reservations are required with purchase. Museum members will receive a promo code for discount tickets. Tours are limited to 25 people each. The tour begins and ends at GO ART! and is approximately 1 1/2 to two hours long. For tickets or more information, please follow the link below
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holland-land-office-museum-batavia-downtown-ghost-walks-tickets-1455035944679?aff=

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater Featuring WNY Improv: "A Murder Most Illuminating"
2025-10-04 18:00 - 20:00
Join the Holland Land Office Museum for another Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre. The event will be Saturday, October 4 from 6-8 pm at the Batavia Country Club, located at 7909 Byron Rd. in Batavia. Come and enjoy a great meal from The Lodge at the Country Club and a wonderful show by WNY Improv. The mystery is “A Murder Most Illuminating.” Set during the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, suspects include Thomas Edison, Jr., Nikola Tesla, Louis Bethune, Eleanor Mayer and Teddy Roosevelt.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holland-land-office-museum-murder-mystery-dinner-theatre-tickets-1455044079009?aff=oddtdtcreator

West Side Batavia Ghost Walks
2025-10-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-10 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-10-24 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-24 19:30 - 21:30
Back and expanded by popular demand, please join the Holland Land Office Museum for a West Side Ghost Walk on Fridays in October. The walks led by Connie Boyd will take place on October 10 and 24 at 7 pm and 7:30 pm. Take a walk on the west side and hear tales of murders, hangings, grave robbing, ghosts, and other eerie happenings from Batavia’s past. Hear stories of Joseph Ellicott, E. N. Rowell, and other famous and infamous Batavians. Admission is $15.00 or $10.00 for museum members and reservations are required with purchase. Museum members will receive a promo code for discount tickets. Tours are limited to 25 people each. The tour begins and ends at the museum and is approximately 1 1/2 to two hours long. For tickets or more information, please follow the link below
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holland-land-office-museum-batavia-west-side-ghost-walks-tickets-1455026626809?aff=oddtdtcreator

Guest Speaker Series: Dr. Elizabeth Masarik, "Spiritualism's Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale"
2025-10-11 11:00 - 12:00
The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to welcome the next presenter in our Guest Speaker Series on Saturday, October 11th at 11 am. Dr. Elizabeth Masarik of SUNY Brockport will be presenting on a book she co-authored with the other producers of their award-winning podcast Dig: A History Podcast, “Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale.” Copies of the book will be available for sale.Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. If you plan to attend, please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.
“In Spiritualism’s Place, four friends and scholars who produce the acclaimed Dig: A History Podcast, share their curiosity and enthusiasm for uncovering stories from the past as they explore the history of Lily Dale. Located in western New York State, the world’s largest center for Spiritualism was founded in 1879. Lily Dale has been a home for Spiritualists attempting to make contact with the dead, as well as a gathering place for reformers, a refuge for seekers looking for alternatives to established paths of knowledge, and a target for skeptics.”
Dr. Masarik is an Assistant Professor of History at SUNY Brockport. Her award-winning book, The Sentimental State: How Women-Led Reform Built the American Welfare State focuses on women’s reform movements in the Gilded Age/Progressive Era. She is the author of “Por la Raza, Para la Raza: Jovita Idar and Progressive-era Mexicana Maternalism in the Texas-Mexican Border,” published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. The article won the A. Elizabeth Taylor Article Prize from the Southern Association of Women Historians. Elizabeth was the inaugural SUNY Dr. Virginia Radley Fellowship for women’s history. She earned an MA and PhD from the University at Buffalo and BA from the University of Texas at Austin.
The Guest Speaker Series is sponsored in part by Tompkins Community Bank and the Batavia Rotary Club.

Guest Speaker Series: Derrick Pratt, "The Conception of the Erie Canal"
2025-10-15 18:00 - 19:00
The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to announce the next presenter in our Guest Speaker Series on Wednesday, October 15th at 6 pm. Derrick Pratt of the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse will be presenting on “The Conception of the Erie Canal.” While the Erie Canal took only 8 years to dig, getting to the point where people could start digging was a nearly 100-year long process. This talk looks at the early efforts to harness New York’s interior waterways and the political wrangling that almost kept the “Eighth Wonder of the World” from happening. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.

Downtown Batavia Ghost Stories
2025-10-16 19:00 - 20:00
Back this year is the Downtown Ghost Stories program on Thursday, October 16th at 7 pm a the museum. Join Connie Boyd as she shares the tales of spiritualists, psychics, buried bones, and many colorful characters that reside in the heart of the city. You will even get to know more of Batavia’s Madame, Edna Gruber. Tickets are $5/$3 for museum members.

Trivia Night @ the Museum: The 1980s
2025-11-13 19:00 - 20:00
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for our monthly Trivia Night on Thursday, November 13th at 7 pm. Get ready because we are heading back to the 80s, so take a trip back in time to hair bands and leg warmers and see how well you know the 1980s. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

25th Annual Wonderland of Trees Opening Gala
2025-11-21 18:00 - 20:30
Come and experience the 25th annual Wonderland of Trees! The opening gala will occur on Friday, November 21st from 6:00 to 8:30 pm at the Holland Land Office Museum. This year’s theme is “Nutcrackers”. It is also the Silver Anniversary of Wonderland of Trees. Visit the museum to see all the wonderfully decorated trees and displays by local businesses and organizations. This year’s opening gala will feature many great gift baskets to win. Food and refreshments will be provided by The Alabama Hotel. The night will also feature holiday music by the DSP Jazz Trio.
Tickets are $20 or $15 for museum members, and $5 for children 12 and under. You can find the link to the ticket site below. Or contact the museum for further information.
The Wonderland of Trees will run through the end of December, so there is plenty of time to stop by during the holiday season. Admission to the Wonderland of Trees is included in regular museum admission: listed on the homepage of the website.

Concert Series: Holiday Concert with Genesee Symphony Orchestra Brass Quartet
2025-12-05 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum welcomes back as part of our Concert Series the Brass Quartet of the Genesee Symphony Orchestra. The quartet will be playing all of your holiday season favorites at the museum on Friday, December 5th at 7 pm. Seating will be limited. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. If you plan on attending, please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.

Trivia Night @ the Museum: The 1990s
2025-12-11 19:00 - 20:00
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for our monthly Trivia Night on Thursday, December 11th at 7 pm. Come and test your knowledge of the end of the last Millenium, and think back to a time before Y2K in the 1990s. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

Concert Series: Classical Guitar Holiday Music by Mike Whyman
2025-12-12 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum welcomes back our good friend and local classical guitarist, Mike Whyman to play some of your favorite holiday music. The concert will take place on Friday, December 12th at 7 pm. Seating will be limited, so please call ahead. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. If you plan to attend, please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.

Night @ the Museum: Wonderland of Trees Edition
2025-12-17 17:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum will have extended hours on Wednesday, December 17th from 5 to 8 pm. This will give you a perfect opportunity to come and see the Wonderland of Trees if you have not been able to already. All 30 wonderfully decorated trees will be fully lit and on display. You can also get tickets for our nearly 100 basket strong basket raffle. All of the exhibits will be open to see as well. Admission follows the regular museum admission.

Holiday Concert Series: String Duo, Refoundry Strings
2025-12-19 19:00 - 20:00
The Holland Land Office Museum welcomes as part of our Concert Series the String Duo of the group Refoundry Strings. The duo will be playing all of your classic holiday season favorites at the museum on Friday, December 19th at 7 pm. Refoundry Strings is a chamber music collective based in the southtowns of WNY. The group plays a variety of concerts and events locally and is excited to join the Holland Land Office Museum’s holiday concert series with two of its esteemed members: Jessica Tufte and Amy Kelly. Both are lifelong violin players, with Amy also playing viola. Today’s concert will feature a number of duets selected by both players that they will discuss with the audience. Refoundry Strings will be playing a series of concerts in 2026 in fulfillment of the Arts Services Grant that will be open to the public. You can follow the group on Instagram for more information. Seating will be limited. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. If you plan on attending, please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.

Trivia Night @ the Museum: 1776
2026-01-08 19:00 - 20:00
Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum located at 131 W. Main Street in Batavia for our first Trivia Night of 2026 on Thursday, January 8th at 7 pm. In celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday, come and test your knowledge of the amazing events that occurred in the year of the USA’s founding. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. If you plan on attending, please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com.
