Category Archives: Manuscripts
The cure for nostalgia: nineteenth-century coroner’s reports
This post was written by N-YHS intern Audrey Belanger If you, like me, occasionally suffer from bouts of longing for life in the 19th century (Carriages! Balls! Needlepoint!), there is no better cure than perusing 19th century death records in the N-YHS manuscript collection. Not only were sicknesses such as consumption, dropsy, smallpox, and hives [...]
Old Ironsides Earns Her Nickname: The USS Constitution versus HMS Guerriere
Post written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian The logbook’s entry for the morning, 200 years ago, of August 19, 1812 records hazy weather, temperature 64° in the air and a similar 65° in water. By “3/4 past 11 am” the weather is cloudy with fresh breezes, so the mizzen topsail is set. And then it [...]
Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
It sounds like an easy question, right? Well, Thomas Jefferson certainly wrote it — in terms of authorship. But do you know whose hand it was that literally produced the famous handwritten copy? If you’re not sure, don’t worry, historians aren’t completely certain either. That said, there is consensus that it was “probably” Timothy Matlack, of [...]
Who put the “Williams” in Williamsburgh?
Today uttering Williamsburg is more likely to precede a snarky comment about hipsters than it is to spur thoughts of its namesake. After all, time has heaped layers of meaning onto New York’s place names, and while places like Fort Greene and Fort Tryon require little effort to discover that they were once military installations, other [...]
Johnny Reb in the Big Apple: The Confederate Veteran Camp of New York
This post was written by N-YHS intern Rachel Schimke, a graduate student in the Archives and Public History program at NYU, who processed the Alexander Robert Chisolm Papers. Though most war-weary Confederate soldiers returned home following Lee’s surrender, not all had the ability or interest to recover their lives in the South. Founded in 1890, [...]
“Aliens” in America: British Citizens during the War of 1812
Post written by Rachel Schimke, a spring intern at N-YHS who processed the Peter Curtenius Papers. This year marks the bicentennial of the War of 1812, a conflict that is often overshadowed by the more celebrated wars in our nation’s history. The newly processed Peter Curtenius Papers offer invaluable information for researchers interested in this [...]
