Found 10 collections related to New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century

Diary of a New York City merchant kept while in the 6th Company, 27th Regt., New York Militia, primarily concerned with social life and activities in New York City; company drills and parades; visits in various Eastern states; funeral of President William Henry Harrison; a visit to President Tyler; and other miscellaneous information less

Two letters from John Ford, block maker and builder, dated 22 August, 1816, at New York; and 8 September, 1823, at York, Upper Canada (Ontario). Letters are addressed to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Ford of Leith, Scotland, and discuss his voyage to New York, his employment, his journey to Canada in 1819, and his employment there less

Thomas Chamberlain (1814-1891) was an immigrant from England who worked as a printer in the United States. He married Deborah Ann Bugbee in 1845 and became a U.S. citizen in 1859. Chamberlain's diary describes his departure from Portsmouth, England to New York, Franklin (Delaware County), Utica, Niagara, Montreal, Quebec, New York, Philadelphia, London and return to New York. He discusses the food and comforts of second class passengers on shipboard, localities, waterfalls, plays and actors in New York and London, current events, rural life at Franklin, spelling school, apple bees, employment as a journeyman printer at Oxford, Unadilla, Saratoga, and New York, costs of travel, courtship, marriage and family life in New York City. less

Alfred Goldsborough Jones was a lawyer in New York City. His journals cover the period of 6 June 1840 to 27 November, 1867, and give some account of his education at Columbia and Harvard, circa 1840-1843; his legal training and practice of law; his service as an officer and director of the Sixth Avenue Railway Company, circa 1857-1864; his association with lawyer Theodorus Bailey Meyers; and the social, political, and cultural life of New York City and New Brunswick, New Jersey. Jones' voyages and travels in North and South America and the Pacific are extensively documented. Journals are accompanied by a chemistry notebook containing "Notes with Professor Renwick" of Columbia College. less

Adam W. Spies (1800-1891), the son of Mary Bergh and John Spies, was a hardware and military goods merchant in New York City. He was employed by the firm of C. & J. D. Wolfe, and was their agent in England in the 1820s. In 1834 he established A. W. Spies & Company, later Spies, Kissam & Company, retiring in 1866. He acquired extensive landholdings in New York City, upstate New York, and numerous other states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, among others. In 1832 he married Sarah Ann Morrison (d. 1883), daughter of John C. Morrison of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Spies was a founding member of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.The Adam W. Spies real estate and genealogy scrapbook is primarily a record of his real estate transactions, containing numerous manuscript plat maps, many in watercolor with extensive annotations; a few printed maps; listings of properties, taxes and assessments; and legal notes. Holdings in Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn are especially well documented. Genealogical materials include charts and notes concerning the Spies, Morrison, and Bergh families, and autobiographical accounts, with advice to grandchildren, recalling his career, his service as a volunteer fireman, and life in Manhattan prior to the building of the Erie Canal and Croton Aqueduct. The volume also contains pasted clippings, certificates and receipts, cut silhouettes of Spies, and a few sketches, notably a watercolor street view by Spies of his father’s place of business in Manhattan as depicted in 1808. There are some miscellaneous letters and notes relating to family and real estate matters, some loose, including a genealogical inquiry to his son-in-law John W. Cochrane dated 1907. A few of Spies’s genealogical entries are updated to 1930. The scrapbook has multiple and duplicate paginations, with gaps: Index, p. 1-48, 50-58, [3 p.]; property maps with index, p. 0-100; and additional genealogical and autobiographical material, p. 133-143; 137-138, 139 (2 leaves), 142-155. Text and maps are separately indexed. less

Edith Brevoort (1832-1891) was the youngest of the eight children of Henry Brevoort Jr. (1782-1848), a wealthy New York City landowner and friend of Washington Irving, and Laura Carson of South Carolina (died 1845). In 1853 she married Pierre Corné Kane (1828-1870). The Edith Brevoort diary, 1848 May 8-1849 May 20 (1 volume in slipcase) recounts the daily activities, thoughts and feelings of an intelligent young New Yorker from a prominent family. Diary entries, dated 1848 May 8-1849 January 31, start from the reverse end of the volume, the volume beginning with a text on The Object of Life, and her record of sermons given at Grace Church, 1848 July 16-1849 May 20, interspersed with quoted poetry and text. The collection includes a typescript commentary on the diary (11 p.) by George S. Hellman, and manuscript diary excerpts (34 p.) by Rose Kane Greer, with notes. less

Henry Meigs (1782-1861) was a New York lawyer, assemblyman, and congressman. He was the recording secretary of the American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention. The Informal Proceedings of the American Institute consist of four volumes dating from 1845 to 1860. The proceedings sometimes function as Meigs' personal diary as well as a record of meetings. The volumes contain Meigs' comments on topics such as agriculture, new technology, developments in industrial production, current events in New York City, and American politics; they also contain personal recollections. Among the subjects of Meigs' entries are the exchange of agricultural specimens, outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever, the Crystal Palace at the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, the dangers of steam power, and the likelihood of civil war. Each entry contains notes on the weather, at minimum. The volumes have minor annotations. less

The Gilbert family papers consist of correspondence, mainly letters to George B. Gilbert of New York City, and to Mrs. Maria R. M. Gilbert from her brothers, sister, and other relatives. Some letters relate to George B. Gilbert's work with the Alms House Department of the City of New York. Also present are papers relating to the survey of a property in South Trenton, New Jersey; a pencil sketch; and a broadside featuring an ode to the Croton Aqueduct less