The Hannibal Historical Society was formed in 1979 for the purpose of preserving the history of the area. The organization is located in the historic Hannibal Community Center on Oswego Street in the Village of Hannibal. Originally, the building was a Baptist Church constructed in 1827, but now serves as the home of the Hannibal Free Library, the Hannibal Senior Citizens and a nursery school in addition to the Hannibal Historical Society.

The Society maintains a permanent museum collection in an upstairs room and features various other temporary exhibits within the community. An ever expanding genealogy file has also been generated cataloging Hannibal surnames. The Society maintains a sizable slide file of historic pictures from the Hannibal area. Most recently, the Society has been digitizing historic Hannibal pictures. Currently, the digitized photograph collection is approaching 1000 pictures. At some point, it is the goal of the Society to digitize its existing slide collection for future Power Point presentations. Currently, one Power Point presentation has been developed for use with the local fourth grade local history curriculum.

One of the most prominent activities of the Society in recent years has been the extensive research associated with the publication of the local history book, "Hannibal History in Pictures and Prose". The book was partially funded by a decentralization grant from the New York State Council on the Arts administered by Arts and Culture for Oswego County.