Update on April 14, 2020: Hart Island is back in the news for the most tragic of reasons: It’s currently being used as a burial ground for victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the time since this post was first published, control of Hart Island was transferred to New York City’s Department of Parks and burials are no…

This post was written by Sophia Natasha Sunseri, a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society who helped to process the James G. Harbord Papers. Although James G. Harbord (1866-1947) is primarily remembered by historians as a Lieutenant General of the U.S. Army, his papers at the New-York Historical Society shed light on his role as…

This post was written by Karen Hammer, a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society who helped to process the James G. Harbord Papers. As a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society, I’ve been helping to process the James G. Harbord Papers. Lieutenant General James Guthrie Harbord (1866-1947) retired in 1922 from a…

This post was written by Lauren Bailey, a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society who helped to process the James G. Harbord Papers. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) has an enduring legacy of feminist political and social activism via her prolific writing and public engagement. She not only published hundreds of texts over her life,…

This post was written by Eva Gratta, New-York Historical Society Graduate Archival Research Fellow Recognized as the greatest hero of the Revolutionary Navy, John Paul Jones is remembered for his colorful life and tenacity in battle. Jones achieved his most celebrated victory as the commander of the American warship Bon Homme Richard, which defeated the British…

Now that every inch of Manhattan is covered with buildings or fabricated parks, it’s hard to imagine the city was once just another patch of earth. To celebrate Earth Day, here are photographs that reveal some dirt on New York City’s past. The first one shows the land currently occupied by the New-York Historical Society….

Today marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. As is fitting for our most eloquent president, Lincoln’s death, and life, have inspired a torrent of writing. The memorializing began at the moment of Lincoln’s death, when his friend and Secretary of State, Edward Stanton, famously said, “Now he belongs to the ages” (or, as…

To celebrate Women’s History Month, here are some images by pioneering street photographer Rebecca Lepkoff.   A quintessential New Yorker, Lepkoff gained international acclaim for her iconic images of the Lower East Side. She was born on August 4, 1916, in a Hester Street tenement. Like the majority of families living in the neighborhood at…

To kick off Black History Month, here is a cabinet card that has fascinated me ever since I stumbled across it in our Portrait File. Titled “Little Ethiopians,” it’s a composite of 21 portraits of African-American babies. The cabinet card was issued by Smith’s Studio of Photography in Chicago, Illinois, and bears an 1881 copyright…