New-York Historical Society

This post is by Christine Calvo, Cataloger, American Historical Manuscript Collection. This month’s selection from the American Historical Manuscript Collection focuses on two early nineteenth century “watch notes.” Watchmen assignments originally developed in England, and  were later imported to the American colonies in the 1600s. The inception goes back as early as ancient Rome with vigiles.  It was…

This post was written by Samantha Brown, Time Inc. Assistant Archivist. While processing the Time Inc. Subject Files, I came across a mysterious object buried among the papers. Sitting in an envelope next to the other papers in a file was a quarter. The envelope said that Mr. Roy Larsen, the editor of LIFE, had received…

A letter from the Isaac Hicks Papers highlights the insights that business correspondence provides onto contemporary political and social events. Writing on July 2, 1798, Dublin merchant Edward Forbes reveals his perspective on the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. The recipient, Hicks, was a fellow Quaker merchant in New York whose successful mercantile business allowed him to retire…

This post was written by Reference Archivists Marybeth Kavanagh and Joseph Ditta. March 30th is National Pencil Day! On this date in 1858 Hymen L. Lipman (1817-1893) of Philadelphia received the first patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. (You can read his application online at this link.) Dixon Ticonderoga might have a monopoly on…

This post was written by Jill Reichenbach, Reference Librarian, Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections  One of the highlights of the World War II Photograph Collection, which includes press photos and promotional material created by the U.S. War Department, are the shots of women working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, ca. 1942-44. The war-time shortage…

This post was written by AHMC cataloger Miranda Schwartz. The correspondence of three women in the American Historical Manuscript Collection (AHMC) provides an enlightening look at political and public engagement by nineteenth-century American women activists. On July 3, 1841, abolitionist, pacifist, and women’s rights advocate Abby Kelley Foster wrote a lengthy and impassioned letter to…

This post was written by Nina Nazionale, Director of Library Operations. The Social Security Act, a program through which employers and employees contribute money to an account to be drawn upon in retirement, went into effect in November 1936. During the next seven months, 30 million Americans applied and were issued cards, each printed with…

This post was written by Marybeth Kavanagh, Reference Archivist As a previous blog post has explained, Yellowstone National Park was established by Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world….

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections. Building, changing, “developing” has always been New York City’s heritage, especially in the years before landmarking became law.  But nineteenth-century New Yorkers did value one relic from its past, a living relic, no less, and one that met its doom 150 years ago…