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They usually have a library/archives with historical records for safe keeping and researching - if they are big enough, they may even have a museum. Their money generally comes from donations/memberships and charging people fees for researching/copies of records.
There's a local historical society that's been after me to donate some of the silverware set I inherited because it's from an old amusement park in the area and nothing else like it from the park survived - they want at least one piece for their museum. Maybe some day.
There are many in Vermont. I contribute to one of the local ones, and may end up donating more stuff to the state one because of family history. My brother is a leader in another society or two. Typically, small societies depend upon private donations. The larger ones may get grants or other funding.
I routinely suggest that people with old family photo albums are better off donating them to an historical society than attempting to pass them down through family. The chances of the photos surviving are immensely greater if the albums are donated.
I scanned the old album photos I have, and posted those photos online with a private link to cousins so that they could download if they wanted. The originals go into the historical collections. Millennials are not very interested in family heirlooms in my experience.
I'm not native to Alabama, but I already know more about one of the railroads than 99.99% of the residents and historical societies. Some of us are just history geeks.
I routinely suggest that people with old family photo albums are better off donating them to an historical society than attempting to pass them down through family. The chances of the photos surviving are immensely greater if the albums are donated.
Yes, just be sure it's a well established society that's not likely to run out of money and be forced to get rid of everything. That's one of the reasons I hesitate to give over any silverware to the historical society that wants them - it's a township society, very small, and while they seem well established right now, who knows if they will always be able to stay afloat with how small of an area they serve. I'd be more likely to give them to the county or state society, but I don't know if they'd want them.
Do you have a local historical society? What do they do and where does their money come from?
Yes, my town of 20,000 has a historical society.
It promotes local history, but almost all of the history promoted is a famous 19th century bank robbery that went very wrong when the townsfolk fought back. There is an annual town festival commemorating the event, with reenactments and all sorts of ancillary means of separating people from their money: a beer garden, many food trucks, a carnival, a car show, a rodeo, a crafts show, a parade. This year it drew nearly 200,000 over a mere four days. That's a lot for the town of this size.
The amount of money flowing into the town's coffers in less than a week is considerable. I'm sure a little flows back to the historical society to help make sure next year is just as lucrative.
Note:
Our wonderful Carnegie library also has a very nice room dedicated to local history that mostly touches on things other than the robbery.
We have a city historical society. Funded by city grants and donations. Located in Balboa Park which is a major tourist attraction with people from around the world visiting. San Diego has a long history starting with the Native Americans who originally inhabited the area.
Our history also includes the Spanish Colonial period. The very first Spanish Catholic mission in California was built in San Diego. It's about a ten minute drive away from where I live. And one of the largest naval bases in the country is here.
If the society is affiliated with a museum or library, the institution likely receives some local tax money to provide building/collection maintenance. Otherwise they are funded by donations, annual memberships, & sale of research time & sale of publications. The publications are usually locally produced compilations of research of things like cemetery directories, marriages performed in the county, transcriptions of local censuses, school censuses, &or local history about most anything pamphlets, which are sold for nominal amounts of money to researchers. Some groups have an annual fundraiser of some sort or festival with historical characters etc.
I'm not sure, but I think we have two of them.
Missouri Historical Society
The State Historical Society of Missouri
Missouri always has to be confusing.
Confusing? You can count on that. I'm familiar with Missouri (65 years worth).
The State Historical Society is based in Columbia and affiliated with the University of Missouri. They just moved into a brand new building. The Missouri Historical Society is in St. Louis -- may or may not be tax supported (I don't recall). I was a volunteer researcher at the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City and they also function something like a statewide historical society.
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