Collection | Text

American Manuscripts

The New-York Historical Society's manuscript collections contain over 20,000 linear feet of archival materials, including family papers and organizational and business records. This website presents a selection of collections that document the lives of important New Yorkers and Americans as well as average citizens.

NYHS Identifier
Library Collection
Contributor
New-York Historical Society

Item Details Content statement

Description

The New-York Historical Society's manuscript collections contain over 20,000 linear feet of archival materials, including family papers and organizational and business records. This website presents a selection of collections that document the lives of important New Yorkers and Americans as well as average citizens.

PID
islandora:99325
NYHS Identifier
Library Collection
Member of
New-York Historical Society Digital Collections
Genre
archives (groupings)
manuscripts (documents)
personal papers
records (documents)
Owning Institution
New-York Historical Society
Publisher
New-York Historical Society
Type
Text
Subject (Topical)
Americana
Archives
Manuscripts, American
records
Subject (Name)
New-York Historical Society--Archives
New-York Historical Society--Manuscripts
Subject (Geographic)
United States--History
Contributor
New-York Historical Society
Date Created
1630 to 1980

Subcollections

50 subcollections
Abigail Adams letters, 1787-1815, undated
Abraham Lincoln manuscripts, 1858-1865
Alexander Hamilton duel with Aaron Burr, July 11, 1804
Alexander Jackson Davis collection, 1837-1888
Bartram family letters, 1743-1796
Benjamin Segan letters, 1943-1945
British tax stamp collection, 1727-1820
Charles John Michael De Wolf correspondence with Gouverneur Morris, 1790-1809
Charles Sumner, The anti-slavery enterprise, 1855
Charles Willoughby Dayton diaries, 1863-1865
Christopher Bancker journals, 1718-1750.
Collins family letters, 1862-1863
Crean Brush account books, 1765-1766
Crooke family papers, 1737-1804 (bulk 1737-1750)
Duane family cookbooks, 1840-1874
Duane family papers, 1665-1916 (bulk 1756-1900)
Ebenezer Gray collection, 1777-1844 (bulk 1777-1786)
Ebenezer Stevens papers, 1739-1860
George Clinton (ca. 1686-1761) collection, 1744-1751
George Templeton Strong diary, 1835-1875
Hempstead (N.Y.) collection, 1666-1870 (bulk 1727-1782)
Henry Bergh letters, 1866-1884
Henry Hart papers, 1782-1793
Horace Greeley collection, 1840-1872
James F. Brown papers, 1827-1866
John Avery ledgers, 1763-1770, 1775-1780
John Clarkson manuscripts, August 6, 1791-August 4, 1792
John Coffin drafts of statements to the Court of Inquiry, 1783
John Lansing notebooks, 1787
John Pintard Journal of studies, 1797-1804
Joseph Reed and Esther De Berdt Reed papers, 1757-1874
Joshua B. Aldridge letters to Anthony Van Schaick, Esq., 1806
Letters to Thomas J. Durant, 1869-1879
Lysander Spooner papers, 1844-1886
Marion Mahony Griffin's The Magic of America
Martha Bradstreet papers, 1772-1868
Mary Alexander fabric samples, 1726-1760
New-York African Free School records, 1817-1832
New-York Manumission Society records, 1785-1849
Richard Varick papers, 1743-1871 (bulk 1775-1830)
Salvator Cillis correspondence, 1917-1919
Sarah R. Blunt correspondence, March 4, 1862-July 24, 1865
Sebastian Bauman correspondence, 1775-1795 (bulk 1779-1781)
Selected Papers of William Alexander, Lord Stirling, 1767-1782
Stephen Bayard letters, 1728-1743
Susan B. Anthony letters, 1859-1888, undated
Walt Whitman letters, July 27, 1863-September 9, 1863
William Burnet papers, 1720-1742 (bulk 1720-1729)
William Oland Bourne left-handed penmanship papers, 1862-1868 (bulk 1865-1868)
William Pitt Fessenden correspondence, 1839-1888 (bulk 1858-1869)

Items in this collection

220136-Service File.jpg
Text
77 Items

Thomas Prichard Rossiter's The legend of Breakneck, undated, not after 1868

Original manuscript of the poem "The Legend of Breakneck," written and illustrated by artist Thomas Prichard Rossiter. Manuscript contains 67 full and half page black and white illustrations executed in ink wash. Pasted onto the second front fly leaf is a letter written to Rossiter by George William Curtis, dated Jan. 1, 1868, thanking him for the opportunity to examine the illustrations to the Breakneck legend. Bound in brown leather with a hand tooled decorative title frame executed in brown and green on the cover.
View Item
220224-Service File.jpg
Text
26 Items

Moses Sproule diary, 1779

Journal, May 17, 1779-October 17, 1779, kept while Sproule was quartermaster sergeant in the Third New Jersey Regiment on Sullivan's Indian Campaign. The journal records events of the campaign against the Iroquois in Pennsylvania and New York, including the battle of Newtown, and the Iroquois's capture and killing of Thomas Boyd. It also includes a diagram of the army's order of march. Published in R.W.G. Vail, 'The Western Campaign of 1779,' New-York Historical Society Quarterly, 41 (1957), p. 35-69.
View Item
220337-Service File.jpg
Text
210 Items

Alexander Watson notebook, 1772-1774

Notebook, 1772-1774, of Alexander Watson, a landowner and resident of New York City who was nephew and heir of John Watson (1685-1768). Contains receipts, lists of deeds and properties, and a note of a lease assigned to him in New York to build a church; notes on taxes; excerpts from "A new system of agriculture, by a Country Gentleman," with references to other writers on agriculture; prayers; versified psalms; music for the "Old Hundredth" and "God Save the King"; secular poems and songs; moral, religious and economic reflections; and genealogical notes.
View Item
220627-Service File.jpg
Text
78 Items

John Watson notebook, 1701, 1726, 1775-1778

Notebook of John Watson, the painter, containing miscellaneous notes and personal account information written by Watson in 1726 and by Watson's nephew, Alexander Watson in 1775-1778. There are accounts of things bought, real estate transactions, poetry, music, etc. Includes account "for painting in York, 1726." The volume also includes some pages covered with John Watson's boyhood arithmetic from 1701.
View Item
220692-Service File.jpg
Notated music
72 Items

William Morris tune-book, 1776-1777

Tunebook of musician William Morris of Captain Tucker's Company, New Jersey's First Regiment, Hunterdon County, dated 1776-1777. Volume contains approximately fifty patriotic and martial tunes including "Liberty Song," "American Artillery," "Quick Step Bunker Hill," "The Basket of Oysters," and "The Wild Irish Man." Some tunes are entered twice. Four staves printed on each page; music and titles in manuscript. Inscription on the inside of front cover reads: "William Morris, First Regiment, Hunterdon [Co., N.J.], 1776, 1777."
View Item
220869-Service File.jpg
Text
248 Items

Abraham Varick record book, 1791-1806

A record book, dated 1791-1798 and 1800-1806, kept by Abraham Varick of New York City. The book contains copies of letters to merchants in England and Germany and lists of merchandise ordered from them. The letters discuss business matters, including the difficulties of transatlantic trade in wartime and the risk of seizures of ships. Commodities ordered are mainly textiles and metal goods (scissors, cutlery, hand tools, etc.).
View Item
220956-Service File.jpg
Text
5 Items

Petition of 547 loyalists from New York City, November 28, 1776

Also known as the "Loyalist declaration of dependence", this was the second petition addressed to the Royal Commissioners Richard and William Howe from loyalists seeking special protection under British occupation. Their first petition, for the suspension of martial law, went unanswered; in this second, insisting that they had risked their lives and fortunes opposing "the most unnatural, unprovoked rebellion, that ever disgraced the annals of time", the loyalists sought only "some level of distinction" from the "inhabitants in general".
View Item
220994-Service File.jpg
Text
168 Items

New York Common Council, Tribute from the City of New York to the illustrious friend of freedom, 1824-1825

On the occasion of General Lafayette's visit to New York City in 1824 the New York Common Council prepared this commemorative volume (1824-1825) containing transcripts of resolutions and addresses of various organizations as a duplicate of the volume presented to Lafayette. The volume includes numerous specimens of decorative and figural penmanship by Isaac F.
View Item
115786-Service File.jpg
Text
88 Items

Charlotte Browne diary, 1754-1757, 1763-1766

Charlotte Browne was matron of the general hospital in North America. Her diary, 1754-1757, describes a voyage from London to Virginia on board the ship London laden with hospital supplies as part of an expedition of thirteen transports, three ordnance ships, and two convoys carrying the 44th and 48th regiments to America. The diary includes accounts of Braddock's campaign in Virginia, Maryland, Philadelphia, and New York. At the end are some financial notes dated 1763 to 1766.
View Item
221110-Service File.jpg
Text
8 Items

John Jay's In relation to foreign nations, circa 1788

Draft in John Jay's hand of Federalist Number 64, originally published on March 5, 1788 in the Independent Journal. It bore the number 63 in the newspaper version, but was renumbered 64 in the first collected edition, published 22 March 1788. Comparison with the published version shows little change in the substance of the argument for the constitutional provisions for senatorial approval of treaties. Changes in organization and wording are substantial.
View Item
221221-Service File.jpg
Text
390 Items

Mary Guion Brown diary, 1800-1852 (bulk 1800-1808)

Diary kept by Mary Guion, of North Castle, New York, who married Samuel Brown in 1807. Beginning when she was 17, she records, in considerable detail, the personal and social life of a young girl in Westchester County, N.Y., including daily activities, her efforts to encourage or discourage some of her many suitors, often quoting their conversation in her entries, courting, visits to friends and relatives, local news, social events such as balls and spinning bees, and reflections on life and love.
View Item
Date Created
1800 to 1852
Genre
diaries
221507-Service File.jpg
Text
26 Items

James Buchanan draft of inaugural address, March 4, 1857

A manuscript copy, signed and with corrections in James Buchanan's hand, of his inaugural address at his swearing-in as the fifteenth president of the United States. Notorious as the president whose term immediately preceded the outbreak of the Civil War, Buchanan begins his presidency by attempting to address the sectional conflicts then brewing over slavery. Celebrating the role of popular sovereignty in easing tensions, Buchanan takes an optimistic approach that ensuing events would later prove incorrect.
View Item
221584-Service File.jpg
Notated music
96 Items

John Greenwood music book, circa 1780

Manuscript book of music given to Greenwood by a British fife-major, probably after 1780. According to 'Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 15891839: An Index' (http://www.colonialdancing.org/Easmes/Biblio/B018536.htm, viewed August 6, 2012), the music is probably for German flute or violin, and it is a leisure collection for a gentleman and not music for use in the military as some sources suggest. The volume contains 87 numbered leaves. Leaves 18 and 24 are blank, and leaves 76-77 and 82-86 are lacking.
View Item
115725-Service File.jpg
Text
72 Items

Register of baptisms, marriages, communicants & funerals begun by Henry Barclay at Fort Hunter, January 26th 1734/5

Register of baptisms, marriages, communicants and funerals among the Mohawk Indians, including entries from January 26, 1734/5 through February 16, 1745/6. Rev. Henry Barclay was born in Albany. He graduated from Yale in 1734, and was appointed catechist to the Mohawks at Fort Hunter, N.Y. in 1736. He went to England in 1737, where he was ordained January 30, 1737/8 and sent back by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as missionary in Albany and Fort Hunter.
View Item
219116-Service File.jpg
Text
52 Items

Solomon Nash diary, January 1776-January 1777

Diary kept by Solomon Nash from January 1776-January 1777, while serving in Captain Jotham Drury's artillery company in Massachusetts and New York. Nash writes of his daily routine in the army and his experiences in the Boston and New York areas. He mentions such events as engagements with the British, the evacuation of Long Island, the plot against General Washington, destruction of the statue of King George, and activities of the artillery on Governor's Island, as well as actions of British ships, desertions, and fatalities.
View Item
Date Created
1776-01 to 1777-01
Genre
diaries
Displaying 25 - 35 of 35
231283-Service File.jpg
Still Image
61 Items

John Jacob Omenhausser's Rebel prison scenes, Point Lookout, Maryland, 1864

The forty-two color ink drawings presented here were made in 1864 by a Confederate prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland, the Union's largest Civil War prison camp. The drawings highlight the concerns and experiences of prisoners of war; most scenes show prisoners playing cards, buying food, or engaging in barter with food vendors. All of the prison guards depicted are African American, and encounters are recorded between these guards and the Confederate prisoners.
View Item
335710-Service File.jpg
Text
2 Items

Benjamin Franklin letter to John Jay, 1784 January 6

Autograph letter signed, from Benjamin Franklin to John Jay, dated Passy, January 6, 1784, and noted on the outside of the letter as received on January 15, 1784. At the time of this letter, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was living in Passy, France, representing the United States as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the Court of Versailles, as the position was then formally known. He and John Jay (1745-1825) had been among the American delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Paris with England, which formally ended the United States' War for Independence.
View Item
104283-Service File.jpg
Text
4 Items

Jupiter Hammon poem on Anne Hutchinson, 1770

Untitled poem attributed to Jupiter Hammon (1711-circa 1806), a Black man enslaved by the Lloyd family, proprietors of the Manor of Queens Village in what is now the Village of Lloyd Harbor, N.Y. It was composed as a tribute to Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for challenging the authority of Puritan ministers. The poem is part of the Townsend family papers, and was written down by Phebe Townsend, youngest of Robert Townsend's three sisters. The Townsends interacted with the Lloyd family.
View Item
307972-Service File.jpg
Text
92 Items

Henrietta Hobart poems, 1779

A notebook of poems written, 1776-1779, and collected in 1779 by Lady Henrietta Hobart, possibly the daughter and coheir of John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, and future wife of the Earl of Ancram. Included are poems and songs on various subjects, including pieces addressed to Lady Hobart as well as poems written on the subject of the American Revolution and a poem and letter on the subject of accused forger Margaret Caroline Rudd. Collection includes poems and lyrics by Francis Lord Rawdon, Rev. Richard Marley, Gen.
View Item
309233-Service File.jpg
Text
155 Items

Autobiography of Luis de Carvajal the Younger, not after 1596

Luis de Carvajal the Younger (1567?-December 8, 1596) was the nephew of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, the governor of León, Mexico. The Carvajals are the best known conversos ('New Christians') in colonial Mexico, largely owing to Luis the Younger's testimony at his trial before the Inquisition in 1595. He denounced more than 120 individuals as crypto-Jews—people who secretely practiced their old faith while publicly purporting to follow another faith—including members of his own family. He and many of his family were burned at the stake in 1596.
View Item
137976-Service File.jpg
Text
184 Items

Philip John Schuyler account book, 1763-1770

Account book kept by Philip John Schuyler in Saratoga, New York. Schuyler was an American soldier and statesman of Albany, New York. He was a participant in the French and Indian war and the American Revolution and was the owner a substantial estate in Saratoga, New York. Entries record small daily sales of a general store trading in such merchandise as rum, tea, salt, boards, wheat, flour, hides, sugar, molasses, drygoods, herring, fabrics, powder, glass, etc.
View Item
292557-Service File.jpg
Still Image
60 Items

Afbeelding van 49 vaandels der West-Indische Compagnie, approximately 1650

Watercolor representations of 49 flags of the Dutch West India Company, probably prepared in the seventeenth century. Vellum binding with spine title: Afbeelding van 49 vaandels der West-Indische Compagnie. Paste-down endpaper has bookplate with monogram "J M" [identified in pencil as Jean de Meyer? Gand] and motto "Grypt Alst Rypt". Presented to the New-York Historical Society by J. Carson Brevoort, March 12, 1885.
View Item
231283-Service File.jpg
Still Image
61 Items

John Jacob Omenhausser's Rebel prison scenes, Point Lookout, Maryland, 1864

The forty-two color ink drawings presented here were made in 1864 by a Confederate prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland, the Union's largest Civil War prison camp. The drawings highlight the concerns and experiences of prisoners of war; most scenes show prisoners playing cards, buying food, or engaging in barter with food vendors. All of the prison guards depicted are African American, and encounters are recorded between these guards and the Confederate prisoners.
View Item
335710-Service File.jpg
Text
2 Items

Benjamin Franklin letter to John Jay, 1784 January 6

Autograph letter signed, from Benjamin Franklin to John Jay, dated Passy, January 6, 1784, and noted on the outside of the letter as received on January 15, 1784. At the time of this letter, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was living in Passy, France, representing the United States as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the Court of Versailles, as the position was then formally known. He and John Jay (1745-1825) had been among the American delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Paris with England, which formally ended the United States' War for Independence.
View Item
104283-Service File.jpg
Text
4 Items

Jupiter Hammon poem on Anne Hutchinson, 1770

Untitled poem attributed to Jupiter Hammon (1711-circa 1806), a Black man enslaved by the Lloyd family, proprietors of the Manor of Queens Village in what is now the Village of Lloyd Harbor, N.Y. It was composed as a tribute to Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for challenging the authority of Puritan ministers. The poem is part of the Townsend family papers, and was written down by Phebe Townsend, youngest of Robert Townsend's three sisters. The Townsends interacted with the Lloyd family.
View Item
307972-Service File.jpg
Text
92 Items

Henrietta Hobart poems, 1779

A notebook of poems written, 1776-1779, and collected in 1779 by Lady Henrietta Hobart, possibly the daughter and coheir of John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, and future wife of the Earl of Ancram. Included are poems and songs on various subjects, including pieces addressed to Lady Hobart as well as poems written on the subject of the American Revolution and a poem and letter on the subject of accused forger Margaret Caroline Rudd. Collection includes poems and lyrics by Francis Lord Rawdon, Rev. Richard Marley, Gen.
View Item
Date Created
1779
Genre
poems
309233-Service File.jpg
Text
155 Items

Autobiography of Luis de Carvajal the Younger, not after 1596

Luis de Carvajal the Younger (1567?-December 8, 1596) was the nephew of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, the governor of León, Mexico. The Carvajals are the best known conversos ('New Christians') in colonial Mexico, largely owing to Luis the Younger's testimony at his trial before the Inquisition in 1595. He denounced more than 120 individuals as crypto-Jews—people who secretely practiced their old faith while publicly purporting to follow another faith—including members of his own family. He and many of his family were burned at the stake in 1596.
View Item
137976-Service File.jpg
Text
184 Items

Philip John Schuyler account book, 1763-1770

Account book kept by Philip John Schuyler in Saratoga, New York. Schuyler was an American soldier and statesman of Albany, New York. He was a participant in the French and Indian war and the American Revolution and was the owner a substantial estate in Saratoga, New York. Entries record small daily sales of a general store trading in such merchandise as rum, tea, salt, boards, wheat, flour, hides, sugar, molasses, drygoods, herring, fabrics, powder, glass, etc.
View Item
292557-Service File.jpg
Still Image
60 Items

Afbeelding van 49 vaandels der West-Indische Compagnie, approximately 1650

Watercolor representations of 49 flags of the Dutch West India Company, probably prepared in the seventeenth century. Vellum binding with spine title: Afbeelding van 49 vaandels der West-Indische Compagnie. Paste-down endpaper has bookplate with monogram "J M" [identified in pencil as Jean de Meyer? Gand] and motto "Grypt Alst Rypt". Presented to the New-York Historical Society by J. Carson Brevoort, March 12, 1885.
View Item
Close Menu