This post is by Alex Japha, Digital Preservation Intern in the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. While 3D technology is now most associated with big-budget movies, 3D imagery is not a new concept. As part of the New-York Historical Society’s ongoing effort to make the Civil War Treasures Collection available digitally, more than 700 stereographs of the…

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…

This post was written by Heather Mulliner, spring semester intern in the Department of Manuscripts. A career in politics seemed all but inevitable for George Frederick Seward, the nephew of Lincoln’s famed Secretary of State (and one-time Presidential rival) William Henry Seward. But like his better-known uncle – whose vocal opposition to slavery cost him…

If you’ve been preoccupied with the “fiscal cliff” saga over the last several days, you may have missed a rather significant milestone. 150 years ago yesterday, on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in all rebellious states, enacting what has been described as, behind the Declaration of the United States, perhaps “the single…

This post was written by Maureen Maryanski, Reference Librarian for General Collections. Where we start is not necessarily where we end. This statement is quite true of my research into William Henry Seward, prominent political figure and Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. What started as an inquiry into his public life,…

Anson Stager is not exactly a household name, but perhaps that is only fitting for a man whose main claim to fame is that he created the most widely used — and most effective — secret code during the Civil War. Born in Ontario County, New York, in 1833, Anson Stager began his career as…