New-York Historical Society

This post is by Clare Manias, Enhanced Conservation Work Experience (ECWE) Assistant. Earlier this year, the New-York Historical Society Conservation Lab treated a sketchbook with drawings by lithographer George John Kerth, a volunteer soldier with the 96th Civilian Corps stationed in Virginia near the end of the Civil War. His sketchbook (N-YHS museum accession number X.433) was filled…

This post is by Jill Reichenbach, Reference Librarian for the Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections. [*Blog post title taken from the song “Picture Book,” by The Kinks.] The Album File, as its name suggests, is a collection of over 450 photo albums and scrapbooks, with the earliest dating back to the 1860s. The…

This post is by Matthew Murphy, Head of Cataloging and Metadata. Virtually every document in the American Historical Manuscript Collection holds a surprise. Take for example the seemingly nondescript receipt below, given to George H. Yewell to document his payment of $65.00 for cabin passage aboard the ship James Foster Jr. in 1856: Not terribly exciting, but flip…

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections This week marks the 150th anniversary of New York’s passage of the Tenement House Law of 1867. Loophole-ridden and difficult to enforce, this state law “for the regulation of tenement and lodging-houses in the cities of New York and Brooklyn” nonetheless opened the way…

Joshua Brookes arrived in the United States in 1798 at just twenty-five years of age. It was to be a 5-year tour, which he would document in a journal that now resides in the New-York Historical Society’s collection. Though he sailed back to his native England in 1803, Brookes did not stay away long, coming…

This post is by Rebecca Grabie, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections. The art of bookbinding is the art of creating in the reader, by the composition of the covers of a book, the state of mind desired by the author of the book. It is an art of the book-lover, not of the printer, publisher, bookbinder,…

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…