Browse Collections

The 304 Civil War Posters in this collection consist predominantly of recruiting posters, as well as advertisements for public meetings, auctions and social functions pertaining to the Civil War. This collection includes posters from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine. Within the collection are posters for artillery, cavalry and infantry divisions of the United States Army, as well as state National Guard regiments and local regiments such as the Camden Zouaves, West Jersey Rifles and the Mozart Regiment.

Ebenezer Stevens (1751-1823) served as a soldier and officer in the Continental Army and the New York State Artillery Corps during the Revolutionary War. Post-war, he was an agent for the United States War Department as well as a successful merchant in New York City. This collection documents his activities as a merchant and as a commanding officer, focusing particularly on daily functions and the fortification of New York Harbor in the years 1802-1814. The papers do not contain much information about Stevens' Revolutionary War efforts, aside from two military orders.

Richard Varick, born in New Jersey, 1753, served as Captain, deputy muster-master-general, and George Washington's secretary during the Revolutionary war. He was appointed one of the first mayors of New York and served from 1789-1801. He died in 1831. His papers pertain to a variety of subjects, including Varick's command of a company in Alexander McDougall's battalion at Ticonderoga and in Canada during 1775; his service on courts-martial in 1775; problems of the bateau service in northern New York State in 1776; his position as secretary to Gen.

Known as the "Republican Earl", William Alexander, "Lord Stirling", was born in 1726 in New York City. He served on the Provincial Councils of New York and New Jersey, and in 1775, joined the Whigs in rebellion against the Crown. In March 1776 Alexander was appointed brigadier general and took chief command of the defense of New York City. In 1777, he was promoted to major-general. He died in January 1783 of fever and gout.

This collection contains digital images of historical documents from the New-York Historical Society's Library that preserve the words of hundreds of eyewitnesses to the American Revolution in and around New York City. The digital archive includes the collection of maps by George Washington's cartographers, Robert Erskine and Simeon DeWitt, the William Alexander Papers, and all broadsides published from 1765 to 1783 in the Library's collections.