Richard G. Sheeran, Syracuse resident and Onondaga County employee, has a long standing interest in the early history and pioneers of Syracuse and Onondaga County. During the 1960’s Mr. Sheeran purchased a collection of letters and manuscripts from his neighbor Paul Livingston. These documents chronicle pieces of the early establishment and growth of the city of Syracuse and surrounding Onondaga County during the years 1797 – 1893. While Mr. Sheeran owned this collection, he put them on display in the Onondaga County Courthouse. This exhibit featured the early manuscripts, with exhibition write ups describing the context of the documents to the history of the area. These exhibition write ups are housed with the manuscripts. In 1985 Mr. Sheeran donated his collection of documents and letters of early Onondaga County and Syracuse history to the Onondaga County Public Library. At that time Mr. Sheeran was employed as the Purchasing Director for Onondaga County. Through his work at the county, Mr. Sheeran came to know the Onondaga County Public Library Director Robert Kinchen. Mr. Sheeran offered his manuscript collection to Mr. Kinchen to be housed and preserved by the Onondaga County Public Library. The library accepted this donation. Prior to the donation, Mr. Sheeran had the collection appraised and this appraisal is included in the archive. Two of the documents on the appraisal are no longer a part of the collection.