New-York Historical Society

“Susceptibility: To Evil” seems stark and reductive enough in an official document evaluating a sixteen-year old boy.  We catch glimpses of this in a large ledger in the Library Manuscripts Department labeled Board of Parole of the New York Reformatory of Misdemeanants (N.Y.) records 1910-1911. We have in recent years seen passage of a Raise the Age Law…

This post is one in a quarterly series in which the New-York Historical Society highlights the collections for which detailed finding aids were published over the prior three months. All collections receive at least a summary description in our catalog, Bobcat. But many collections have such depth or are simply so large or complex that…

In 1898, Henry Chauncey Cryder journeyed with two friends into the wilds of Canada’s Klondike region. There, like tens of thousands of others between 1896 and 1899, they hoped to discover gold. Cryder chronicled this trip in a diary that he gave to the New-York Historical Society in 1946 along with several photos and a…

When John Anderson, Jr. (1773-1798) entered the City Tavern on Broadway the afternoon of February 22, 1798, it was to view the Lansdowne portrait of the former president George Washington, painted by the lauded artist Gilbert Stuart. “The painting […] is masterly done”. His diary marks the occasion along with his other activities for the…

This post is one in a quarterly series in which the New-York Historical Society highlights the collections for which detailed finding aids were published over the prior three months. All collections receive at least a summary description in our catalog, Bobcat. But many collections have such depth or are simply so large or complex that…

With the 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 approaching the coming months will bring many remembrances of the tragic loss of life and destruction of the World Trade Center buildings. Given these somber events, and that these buildings once symbolized New York City in a way few others have, my discovery last…

In 1735, Fort Hunter, today just a half hour ride from Schenectady, was an outpost of colonial settlement. There Queen Anne had ordered the erection of the fort in 1711 at the behest of neighboring Mohawks. Included was a chapel that became a hub for various missionaries to the local Indigenous and European inhabitants. Among…

For an institution that’s been growing since 1804, the odd outlier is hardly a surprise. A rather remarkable one is a set of original manuscripts and fair copies of the work of eighteenth century British historian, Catharine Macaulay. Not only did Macaulay never did live here but the work that minted her status as England’s…

This post is one in a quarterly series in which the New-York Historical Society highlights the collections for which detailed finding aids were published over the prior three months. All collections receive at least a summary description in our catalog, Bobcat. But many collections have such depth or are simply so large or complex that…