New-York Historical Society

This post was written by Joseph Ditta, Manuscript Reference Archivist. Richard “Dick” Gosman (1875-1946) was born and raised on a farm in Blissville, Queens (the site is now occupied by Amtrak’s Sunnyside rail yard). Between the ages of ten and fourteen (1886-1889) he produced several handcrafted periodicals, of which his monthly People’s Paper ran the longest,…

This post was written by AHMC cataloger Miranda Schwartz. Harriet Martineau was a prolific English author and thinker. Born in 1802, Martineau was an avid, self-educated reader (as was common at the time, only the boys in the family were sent to university), and, after the failure of her father’s business textile mill in 1829,…

This post was written by project archivist Larry Weimer. Those familiar with The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert A. Caro’s indispensable study of the will to power and its ability to subvert democratic institutions, might recall Caro’s chapter on Moses’s effort to demolish Castle Clinton in Battery Park. Now…

This post was written by Saira Haqqi, Enhanced Conservation Work Experience (ECWE) Assistant. One of the highlights of working in the New-York Historical Society’s conservation lab is the range of materials that come to us for treatment. Sometimes, as with this broadside, the treatment can be quite in-depth; but some items just need a minor mend to…

This post was written by Damla Bek, Library Page. New York City abounds with tales of ghosts, and with each retelling, we breathe new life into these stories. Every story is descended from some grain of truth, but over time, we spin them into something far more spectacular and memorable, where New York City is…

This post was written by Ted O’Reilly, Head of the Manuscript Department. Within the Historical Society’s holdings is a series of remarkable scrapbooks kept by Charles H. Sherrill, a New York lawyer, later American ambassador to Argentina and Turkey, and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The scrapbooks begin not long after his graduation…

As these old posters remind us, you can’t vote if you’re not registered! New York State residents have until Friday, October 14th to register for the 2016 election. The good news is you don’t have to pile into the ol’ jalopy like the folks below to do so; you can go online to check your status or…

This post was written by Julita Braxton, AHMC Cataloger. The New-York Historical Society Library holds many items created by George Copway, the Ojibwe minister, missionary, translator, lecturer, author, healer, and self-appointed chief. George Copway (Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh) was born in 1818 on the mouth of the Trent River in Ontario, Upper Canada, the traditionally reared son of a…

The Story . . . While processing the records of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, New York Commandery, we came across a poignant relic of the Civil War: a note passed between the lines at the Battle of Antietam, one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the nation….