How do we document these unusual times?  We now read often of museums, historical societies, and libraries scrambling to collect materials that speak particularly of the striking events of this year.  It is, fortunately, not a new instinct, as Civil War soldiers shared in it when they collected these unique specimens drawn from a time…

Ordinarily, a postcard from a prehistoric site among the papers of the Osborn family would be curious but somewhat unremarkable. After all, the collection’s main protagonist, Henry Fairfield Osborn, was a well-known paleontologist who by its August 1923 postmark had been at the helm of the American Museum of Natural History for 15 years. Closer…

The census originated with the very birth of the nation, being incorporated into the United States Constitution for the purpose of determining representation in the House of Representatives, levying taxes, and assessing the nation’s prospective war-time mobilization. But while today we can expect that answers are confidential, this was not assumed for much of its…

Cover of the memorial volume for John David Wolfe, 1872. MS 3146, John David Wolfe Memorial Book and Case, New-York Historical Society Mixed up in the notorious Gilded Age dichotomy of incredible displays of wealth and extreme poverty, were extraordinary achievements in design and art, many of which reveal exceptional artisanship. This is especially evidenced…

Engraving showing pastoral Italian landscape entitled “Evening” by William Byrne after Claude Lorrain, 1769. PR 141, Luman Reed Print Collection, New-York Historical Society A fundamental role of the cemetery is to ensure a peaceful final resting place for loved ones. They are also extraordinary living records of our society, in spite of often being overshadowed…

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…

A great deal of what we know of New York’s archeological record, especially of Revolutionary New York, can be traced to the work of amateur archaeologist, William L. Calver, and his cohort in the New-York Historical Society’s Field Exploration Committee. Along with a series of Committee reports, Calver was a regular contributor of his findings to…

In 1995, retired Time Inc. Corporate Editor Gil Rogin sent a memorandum to Time Inc. Ventures President Bob Miller, the head of magazine development, regarding his “weird fascination with a zine called Bust.” A zine is a homemade publication, and in 1995 was usually printed using a photocopier, meaning Bust would have room to grow with investment from a…

In considering the 1797 map “A New & Accurate Plan of the City of New York in the State of New York in North America”–commonly known as the Taylor-Roberts Plan after its creators, Benjamin Taylor and John Roberts–Manhattan was then a little island of many identities. It was a city emerging from the devastating occupation…