- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"3.57 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"9 boxes; 1 microfilm reel", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"MssCol 1232", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"1232", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1790-1923", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1790/1923"}
{"value"=>"1832-1903", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1832/1903"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1790
- date_inclusive_end
-
1923
- keydate
-
1790
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"A.H. Green papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. <span class=\"subarea\">Manuscripts and Archives Division</span></span> <div class=\"address\"><span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Andrew Haswell Green (1820-1903) was a New York City lawyer, city planner, civic leader, and reformer widely referred to as both \"the father of Central Park\" and \"the father of greater New York.\" The A.H. Green papers are comprised predominantly of family correspondence. Also included are photographs; memorials, tributes and funeral ephemera; a travel diary; and a small quantity of professional papers consisting of drafts and memoranda of proposed amendments to the New York State Constitution; letters to Green on taxation, women's suffrage, charities, and other topics; and papers relating to Green's service as delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1894."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>A.H. Green papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Green, A. H. (Andrew Haswell), 1820-1903", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Andrew Haswell Green (1820-1903) was a New York City lawyer, city planner, civic leader and reformer widely referred to as both \"the father of Central Park\" and \"the father of greater New York.\" One of eleven children born to William Elijah Green in Worcester, Massachusetts, Andrew Haswell Green left home for New York City at the age of fifteen, where he worked as an errand boy first to a jeweler, and then to a cloth importer. Unsatisfied by the dearth of fulfilling employment opportunities, he briefly left the city to manage a sugar plantation in Trinidad. Upon his return, he undertook the study of law mentored by Samuel J. Tilden, with whom he developed a lasting personal and professional relationship. In 1854, Green was elected to the New York City Board of Education. By 1857, he had been named head of the Central Park Commission, and through his influence the \"greensward plan\" of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux was implemented. Green expanded the role of the Parks Commission, which later created such city landmarks as Riverside Park, Morningside Park, and Columbus Circle.</p> <p>Green was appointed city comptroller in 1870 as his friend and mentor Samuel Tilden exposed the graft and fraud of Tammany Hall under William M. \"Boss\" Tweed. He retained the position until 1876, restoring order to the city's finances, even using his own personal credit as collateral to obtain the funds necessary to cover the city payroll.</p> <p>Upon Tilden's death in 1886, Green served as an executor of the Tilden estate, much of which had been earmarked for the creation of a public reading room. Green consolidated the Tilden Trust with the Astor and Lenox libraries to create the New York Public Library.</p> <p>As early as 1868, Green had publicly promoted the idea of unifying Manhattan and the larger metropolitan area, but his plan had not been widely supported. After the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the Washington Bridge in 1889, and the annexation of land north of Manhattan in what is now the Bronx, public and political opinion began to sway in favor of unification. The New York State legislature created a commission to investigate the issue and placed Green at its head. In 1896, Green's measure was approved, and the five boroughs of New York City were officially consolidated on January 1, 1898.</p> <p>A. H. Green was murdered at his home in 1903, at the age of 83. Cornelius Williams mistook Green for a man named John R. Platt, whom he believed to be having an affair with his mistress, and shot Green five times at close range. Williams was found by the courts to be insane at the time of the crime.</p>"}
- custodhist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Purchased at auction from Green family estate.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The A.H. Green papers consist predominantly of family correspondence. The content is almost exclusively limited to quotidian matters, particularly those surrounding the management of the family's estate, Green Hill, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and contains little discussion of matters beyond the personal sphere.</p> <p>A significant quantity of letters from Green to his father, William, are present. A scant few responses from William to Andrew are contained here, as are a limited number of related letters from Andrew's brother John, often appended directly to Andrew's letters, during his brief tenure in New York City. Early letters from Green to his father describe his journey to and arrival in New York City, and his employment there. Many letters during the 1830s make reference to the family's debts and Andrew's hope of settling them. \"It may take some time to do this,\" he remarks in an 1838 letter, \"[but] it is the thing that lays next to my heart to see you once again above board, independent and happy.\"</p> <p>The majority of the letters are to Andrew from his siblings, most prominently his sisters Lucy Merriam Green and Julia Elizabeth Green; and his brothers Oliver Bourne Green and John Plimpton Green. While some letters from Andrew to various family members are present, the bulk of the letters are those received by Green. One folder of letters to Green from his cousins Lydia, Daniel, and Oliver Plimpton discusses family matters and notes on the happenings in and around their home in Southbridge, Massachusetts.</p> <p>The profound effect of Green's unexpected death on both private and prominent citizens is documented in five folders of condolence letters and telegrams, most of which were addressed to sisters Lucy and Mary.</p> <p>One folder of Green's general correspondence contains only three letters: a response to the death of his father, who died in 1865 at the age of 89; a copy of the 1868 report of the Commissioners of the Central Park Committee; and a 1900 letter from Lyman S. Andrews praising Green's civic service. Andrews, who served initially as Green's secretary and later as the executor of his estate, was later arrested for forging a check under the name of Green's nephew.</p> <p>Notebooks mainly detail Green's daily activities in short entries, including meetings taken, errands to be done, travel information, books read, some references to social affairs, and other miscellaneous notes and lists. 1887-1888 volume contains longer, though more sporadic, entries. 1900-1903 volume records transactions related to the Green Trust, as well as other personal, professional, and financial information. An 1868 diary documents a trip to Europe undertaken with brother-in-law Carl Knudsen, detailing their activities and the lengths of various legs of their journey, and providing a thorough account of all related expenses.</p> <p>Personal miscellany within the collection includes photographs, tributes and memorials, funeral ephemera, and miscellaneous documents. A booklet produced in 1860 by the Central Park Commission, <span class=\"title\">Ordinances for the Government and Regulation of the Central Park</span>, is heavily annotated by Green, including lists of pending tasks for himself, Vaux, Ignaz Pilat, William H. Grant and others, relating to the creation and maintenance of the park. Miscellaneous documents include an advertising pamphlet for the Misses Green School for Young Ladies run by his sisters Lucy and Mary; receipts; genealogical research; a list of \"rules for family\" likely created for the students at the Misses Green School; and several handwritten notes.</p> <p>Only a few photographs are present; an 1895 image of Green turning the first sod for the ill-fated North River Bridge project, and proofs of pictures of his sisters Lucy and Mary Green.</p> <p>The professional papers contained in this collection cannot be considered an exhaustive source of information relating to Green's career; they comprise the smallest portion of the collection as a whole. Included are drafts and memoranda of proposed amendments to the New York State Constitution; letters to Green on taxation, women's suffrage, charities, and other topics; and papers relating to Green's service as delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1894.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Purchased from R.W. Oliver's, 2010; additional material purchased from David Friedman, 2012.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"archref\">Andrew H. Green letters, 1870-1882. Kroch Library Rare & Manuscripts, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.</span> <span class=\"archref\">Andrew Haswell Green collection. New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY</span>"}
- altformavail
-
{"value"=>"<p>Box 8 (professional papers); available on microfilm; New York Public Library; *ZL-263</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Compiled by Kit Messick.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
3.57 linear feet (9 boxes; 1 microfilm reel)
- date_start
-
1790
- date_end
-
1923
- date_bulk_start
-
1832
- date_bulk_end
-
1903