New-York Historical Society

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…

The March of Time radio newsreel, created by radio executive Fred Smith along with Time magazine circulation director Roy Larsen, debuted on March 6, 1931 on CBS Radio with Time Inc. as the main sponsor. The series dramatized the news and reenacted events from its inception through 1942 when it became a regular news program…

Mahlon Day was a Quaker, publisher of children’s books, printer, and bookseller who resided in New York City. He was born in Morristown, New Jersey on August 27, 1790. By the age of 26, he owned a printing shop at 35 Beaver Street. Mahlon Day was one of two printers who dominated the New York…

How various and how strange are the events of life. What unexpected changes occur in the course of a few short years, or even months. How little I dreamed one year since, that I should ever make a voyage to China. To China, that far distant land, which so few of my country women, or…

Before Google maps, smart watches, and telephone books were created to help people navigate the city, there were city directories. The New York City directories listed the names and addresses of residents, churches, businesses, police stations, organizations, etc. and ran from approximately 1786 to 1934. There were multiple printers of city directories, but for this…

Jessie Tarbox Beals was a woman of many firsts. A pioneer of photography, she was the first published female photojournalist in the United States, the first woman press photographer, and the first female night photographer. The Jessie Tarbox Beals photograph collection, ca. 1905-1940, PR-4, at the New-York Historical Society is available through our Shelby White…

John Anderson, Sr. (1733-1798) had barely published a year’s worth of his paper, The Constitutional Gazette, before he earned the title of “the rebel printer” —effectively opposing James Rivington’s loyalist paper, The Royal Gazette. His reputation was most likely supplemented by printing New York’s first edition of Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Anderson was a…