Collections in Manuscripts and Archives Division

The portion of the Emmet Collection housed in the Manuscripts and Archives Division consists of approximately 10,800 historical manuscripts relating chiefly to the period prior to, during, and following the American Revolution. The collection contains letters and documents by the signers of the Declaration of Independence as well as nearly every prominent historical figure of the period. less

Edward Stephen Harkness (1874-1940) was a trustee of the New York Public Library. His wife and co-collector, Mary Stillman Harkness, died in 1950. Collection consists of holograph manuscripts, autograph letters, documents, and signatures representing artists and literary and historical figures. Includes 15th-century illuminated Book of Hours and letters and documents of all American presidents from Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt, except for Herbert Hoover. Items are accompanied by typed transcripts, portrait photographs and illustrations, and related letters, clippings and other materials. Persons represented include Shirley Brooks, Frances H. Burnett, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Crane, George Cruikshank, General Henry Dearborn, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Louise, Empress of France, Mary, Queen of Scots, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, John Ruskin, William M. Thackery, Henry D. Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, George Washington, John G. Whittier, and Captain Isaac Woods. less

Collection consists of letters, documents and transcripts relating to the discovery, conquest and colonization of Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, the Moluccas, and the Philippines; and to the Casa de Contratación and the Council of the Indies. Correspondents include the kings of Spain and their emissaries in the New World. Transcripts are from the 1780s and mostly in the hand of Antonio de Ugina. They appear largely to duplicate other transcripts in the Muñoz Collection at the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid. In some cases, however, they are believed to be the only surviving copies of documents. less

Collection consists of seventeen English and American manuscripts dating from the early 15th century to the late 19th century. In addition to cooking recipes, most of the manuscripts also contain medicinal recipes and remedies, as well as mixtures for cleaning solutions and other household items. less