This post is by Sara Belasco, Enhanced Conservation Work Experience Assistant (ECWE) With the meteoric rise of Hamilton: An American Musical, interest in the historical figures depicted in the show has skyrocketed. This pamphlet–Letter from Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq., President of the United States* (New York: Printed for John Lang by…

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections. The drama of bravery, defeat, and successful retreat in 1776 will be on display as “The Battle of Brooklyn” exhibition opens at The New-York Historical Society this week.  This first major battle of the American Revolution remained seared in George Washington’s memory.  An…

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections What to do if you are a leader of a political party and you fear that your party’s presumptive nominee for the presidency thoroughly lacks the temperament for the office? If he is erratic, animated by “disgusting egotism,” “distempered jealousy,” and “ungovernable indiscretion”?…

In conjunction with the success of the Broadway musical Hamilton, the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at the New-York Historical Society is exhibiting a selection of original manuscript documents and contemporary printed works in the library reading room evoking the remarkable life of America’s first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (1757?-1804). Like a great number…

This post was written by Sherry Cortes, Summer Intern in the Department of  Manuscripts Born in Walldorf, Germany in 1763, John Jacob Astor was the son of a butcher who traveled to America seeking to improve his condition in life.  It was not long before he made his way to New York City, a still…