This post is the second in a new quarterly series in which the New-York Historical Society highlights the collections for which detailed finding aids were published over the prior three months. All collections receive at least a summary description in our catalog, Bobcat. But many collections have such depth or are simply so large or…

It has been said that “politics is a blood sport.” Even so, American politicians are expected to have some sense of humor, to be able to take a joke at their expense—at least under well understood terms of engagement. In New York City, those terms have included the annual political roast written, produced and performed…

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 Lauren Bailey, a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society who helped to process the James G. Harbord Papers. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) has an enduring legacy of feminist political and social activism via her prolific writing and public engagement. She not only published hundreds of texts over her life,…

This post was written by Luis Rodriguez, Collections Management Specialist. In 1964 the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach created a provocative and effective ad for Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential campaign. It juxtaposed a young girl counting the petals on a daisy with the launch and detonation of a nuclear weapon, thus attacking the more hawkish…

This post was written by Luis Rodriguez, Collections Management Specialist  The Kennedy family had a long and generally positive relationship with Time and its founder Henry Luce. Joseph P. Kennedy had several meetings with Luce while the former served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and from the late 1930s on into the post-war…

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…

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…

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,…