Image Text 100 Items William Yarrington diary, 1759-1776. William Yarrington's diary, September 21, 1759-October 30, 1776, recording his military experiences in the Crown Point area during the French & Indian War (1759) and also in the Revolutionary war, 1775-1776. He served with the 3rd N.Y. near Ticonderoga in 1775 and with the 2nd N.Y. (detached) as home guard on Long Island in 1776. Also included are some accounts. View Item
Image 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
Image 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
Image Text 58 Items Joseph Goodwin diary, 1820-1827 Joseph Goodwin was a plantation manager in Cuba originally from Hudson, N.Y. This diary was presumably kept by Goodwin, although it may have been kept by his brother. After leaving home in Hudson, N.Y., Goodwin worked for Gen. George De Wolf, first in Bristol, Rhode Island for a few months and then on De Wolf's plantations near Matanzas, Cuba as a manager or overseer. The plantations grew mainly coffee, although other crops are mentioned. The crops were worked by enslaved labor. The diary entries are mainly routine and record weather, plantation activities, people met, and local news. View Item
Image Collection 2 Items John Clarkson manuscripts, August 6, 1791-August 4, 1792 John Clarkson (1764-1828) was an English abolitionist, agent for the Sierra Leone Company, and lieutenant in the British Royal Navy. The collection consists of Clarkson's manuscripts, written in journal form, of his involvement with the settlement of free African-American loyalists from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, Africa. The loyalists had been evacuated from New York when the British pulled out at the end of the Revolutionary War and initially settled in Nova Scotia. View Collection
Image Collection 3 Items John Pintard Journal of studies, 1797-1804 John Pintard (1759-1844), of New York, was a merchant, philanthropist and founder of the New-York Historical Society. Despite amassing a considerable fortune, he was briefly imprisoned in Newark, NJ for debts incurred during the financial panic of 1792. His extensive "Journal of Studies" (1797-1802) begins shortly before his imprisonment in 1797, and continues after his release thirteen months later, complementing a number of diaries and journals found in Pintard's personal papers. View Collection
Image Collection 2 Items Charles Willoughby Dayton diaries, 1863-1865 The diaries of Charles Willoughby Dayton (1846-1910) date from 1863 to 1865: and contain entries about the weather and war news. He writes negatively about African Americans, African American soldiers, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Abraham Lincoln. He also mentions the New York Draft Riots and his fear of being killed by the mobs. View Collection
Image Collection 4 Items George Templeton Strong diary, 1835-1875 The four-volume diary of George Templeton Strong (1820-1875) is a detailed chronicle of the activities, interests, and relationships that characterized its author's life. Beginning in 1835, and continued consistently into 1875, its thousands of individual entries contain descriptions of all facets of Strong's experience, typically beginning with the weather and going on to discuss matters such as his legal work, family life, health, social ties, politics, and the arts. View Collection
Image Collection 31 Items Black History Collections The New-York Historical Society holds important collections relating to Black history, slavery in the United States, and the Atlantic slave trade. Dating from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, they constitute a rich archive of primary source materials that will be of value to anyone researching the history of African Americans, slavery, the slave trade, emancipation, and the abolitionist movement. View Collection