The Summer 2013 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review.

Previewing the May/June issue.

A new Liz Carlyle novel from Stella Rimington.

Everyday theology.

Glimpses of a lost world.

Sometimes when catalogers examine a book, we find that parts of its structure use recycled materials from other books. These materials are often invisible, hidden away under outer coverings of paper or leather, and revealed only when an item is damaged or taken apart for conservation. But sometimes, the entire outer cover itself is made from...

The post Rare Books Revealed: Parchment Repurposed appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

A series of remarkable photographs from the library’s Geographic File (PR20) documents the construction of the Central Park Reservoir,  located between 86th and 96th streets.  Built between 1858 and 1862, the 106-acre reservoir is 40 feet deep and holds over a billion gallons of water. Once a critical part of the city’s fresh water system, it received water from the Croton...

The post Treasure Trove: Constructing the Central Park Reservoir appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

The holdings of the New-York Historical Society Library are vast and fascinating. It is always fun to open a box of photos or unroll a set of drawings to discover something new. Recently, a researcher was working with the Printmaker File (PR 58), a collection of aquatints, engravings, etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts, representing work by over...

The post Treasure Trove: The Etchings of Albert Flanagan appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Today, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School is a prestigious K-12 school serving more than 1,600 students on campuses in Manhattan and Riverdale. But like many long-running New York institutions—including the New-York Historical Society—the school has seen multiple iterations and locations before settling into its current form. The school’s story begins with the Free Kindergarten, which...

The post All Work and No Play: Celebration at the Workingman’s School appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

In time for its 95th anniversary, the Coney Island Boardwalk has become a New York City landmark! On May 15, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the wooden walkway a scenic landmark (read the designation report here). It joins others around the city like Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn and Morningside Park in Manhattan. The Boardwalk–officially called the Riegelmann Boardwalk...

The post Brooklyn’s Boardwalk Empire appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

It is the unofficial start of summer; beaches open, some of us think of auto racing, and we hope for suitable weather for a barbecue. Memorial Day is upon us, and its national observance is 150 years old this year, the holiday Americans once called Decoration Day. The veterans’ group known as the Grand Army...

The post Observing Memorial Day as “Decoration Day” appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

As preservationists push to landmark 99 Ryerson Street, the only surviving Brooklyn residence of poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892), the question arises what, if anything, the New-York Historical Society Library holds on the building or the man, whose birthday is May 31st. Sadly, we haven’t got a whole lot on the building. There are insurance maps, which show the...

The post Walt Whitman’s Rule of Poetry appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

When Alice Foote MacDougall (1867-1945) began her coffee roasting and retail business in 1907, she did so under the more ambiguous name A. F. MacDougall. She knew that some of her customers and even some of her suppliers didn’t like the idea of a woman in business, so she let people make their own assumptions...

The post Alice Foote MacDougall, Queen of the Coffee Shop appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Since its early days, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School has made use of its buildings for summer programs, both for enrolled students and the public. In 1919, the Summer Play School was founded in partnership with the New York Federation for Child Study, providing summer activities and meals for underprivileged children at the Ethical Culture...

The post S’more fun: The Ethical Culture Camp appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Tiny Canal Park, a .66-acre triangular green space that sits on Canal Street between Washington and West Streets, hides a substantial history. The city’s ownership of this land dates back to the Dongan Charter in 1686 and the Montgomery Charter in 1730. By the time this land was approved as a site for the Clinton...

The post The Return of Canal Park appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

While working on the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library’s hidden collections cataloging project, I’ve found some examples of the different methods authors and printers used to fix small errors in a text after an item was printed. Shown below are a few examples of the corrections that were made directly to the page. In the first...

The post Rare Books Revealed: Text Corrections in Printed Books appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Among the odder holdings of our Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections are two albums of pictures taken at a Halloween party given by one Alan Lloyd Wolfe (Album File, PR-0020-359.1 and 359.2). Why odd? For one thing we don’t know much about Mr. Wolfe other than that he lived from 1889 to 1970....

The post Mr. Wolfe’s Halloween Howl appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

You’ve probably heard of a “gaggle of geese.” Maybe even a “murder of crows.” But did you know that a group of November gobblers is called a “rafter of turkeys”? Here are some early 20th-century images (from the New-York Historical Society Postcard Collection) of the runner-up for America’s national bird. Not quite enough feathers to reach the rafters,...

The post Turkeys galore (and a couple of sides) appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Have you mailed your holiday cards yet? The United States Postal Service lists December 20th as the last day to post letters for arrival by Christmas! In the early 20th century, artsy students at the Ethical Culture School in Manhattan printed Christmas festival programs on the school’s own press. Most of the illustrations feature motifs you might...

The post Ethical Christmas Wishes appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Time Executive Editor J. Dana Tasker handled the retention or disposition of magazine cover art from around 1945 to 1953. While Time only acquired the first publication rights from the artists when commissioning a cover, Time frequently purchased and sent as a gift, or presented, the cover art to either the subject or a related...

The post What To Do With These TIME Cover Originals? appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

The story of one of New York’s brightest and most dedicated physicians is often eclipsed by his reputation as America’s first wood engraver. Both stories, however, are tied together in a biography of tragedy, strife, hope, and renewal. Alexander Anderson (1775-1870) was not only a doctor and an artist, but a man of great sentiment,...

The post “Of Some Consequence.” Alexander Anderson: Distinguished Doctor, Accomplished Artist appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

John B. Cooper prepared to set sail in pursuit of sperm whales aboard the ship Franklin in August 1833. The voyage to the Pacific Ocean originated in Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Long Island. Like many sailors, Cooper kept a log of weather conditions, navigational calculations, and daily activities aboard ship. There are also several poems, essays,...

The post From the Lab: Conserving John B. Cooper’s Whaling Journal appeared first on New-York Historical Society.

Sometimes people leave behind a little piece of history that is worth so much to modern day scholars. We do not know who William Worcester Dudley was, but between December 1785 and October 1786, he kept a food diary that tracked every meal he ate for breakfast, dinner, and supper. While it was not uncommon for people to...

The post Victuals, Mincemeat, Pudding, and Veal: William Worcester Dudley’s Food Diary appeared first on New-York Historical Society.