As part of the Enhanced Conservation Work Experience (ECWE), the New-York Historical Society Library Conservation Lab is hosting Katarzyna Bator as a third-year conservation fellow funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Ms. Bator is completing her conservation studies at the Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State College. Prior…

Born in Germany on September 27, 1840, Thomas Nast moved to New York with his family as a young boy. While Nast did not excel in his studies, he did show a great deal of aptitude for drawing at an early age.  By the time he was 12, Nast was enrolled as a student at…

This post was written by cataloger Miranda Schwartz. An unusual item in the American Historical Manuscript Collection is a hand-printed, or pen-printed, newspaper by Vermont farmer James Johns (1797-1874). Born in Huntington, Vermont, Johns received little formal education but from the age of 13 on he wrote—and wrote and wrote—not stopping until his death at…

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections It was to hit the newsstands fifty years ago this week:  a desperate effort to save the great New York City daily newspaper.  The new paper’s hybrid name, World Journal Tribune, sounded forlorn even then. The new title represented an attempt to merge…

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections “The stamps are now a Commodity no Body knows what to do with, and are more abominable, and dangerous to be meddled with, than if they were infected with the Pestilence,” wrote the New-York Mercury 250 years ago. “The stamps” was the shorthand…

This post is by Jonah Estess, Digital Project Intern in the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. In the New-York Historical Society library collection is number one, volume one of Prison Times, a newspaper devised and edited by prisoners at the Union Army prison at Fort Delaware, Delaware. The document itself is handwritten and well organized, ready for…

Written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian It still happens at this time of year, a holiday greeting is slipped under the door from a service provider offering good wishes and a subtle hint to be remembered with an end-of-the-year gratuity.  The practice is an old one, but was, in the 18th and 19th centuries, carried…

Written by Mariam Touba, N-YHS Reference Librarian Even as we are told that newspapers are a dying medium, each of us can remember their banner headlines announcing momentous events.  Such headlines, however, did not always come with newspapers.  How then did early newspapers alert their readers to important occurrences?  The answer is, “very subtly,” at…