Found 25 collections related to New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century

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

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

Letters of Louisa A. Ripley (nee Schlossberger), wife of American clergyman and journalist George Ripley. Letters are predominantly addressed to Emily Fowler Ford and Gordon Lester Ford, and concern social matters, and discussions of the arts, literature, and current events. less

Diary kept Jan. 1, 1861 to April 20, 1862 by O. R. Gross (believed to be Oren Gross), a piano teacher from Truro, Massachusetts, living in New York City. Discusses boarding house life and social activities; mentions giving music lessons in part payment for board; tuning pianos singing in churches; comments on excitement in New York over news of bombardment of Fort Sumter and the Battle of Bull Run; the New York Herald's attitude toward Civil War, and a trip home to Truro, Massachusetts less

Bertha Mohr was the daughter of Robert Moritz Mohr, a pipe organ maker whose family lived in Greenwich Village, New York City. The Bertha Mohr diary records her domestic and social activities of 1892, including household chores, entertainments and educational events, and visits made and received. Among the events Mohr recorded was New York City's commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in America. The diary entries are short, most consisting of no more than four or five brief sentences. The diary also holds a few small clippings. 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

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

Two pocket diaries kept by John J. Howson, actor and musician, of New York. Diaries document his work in New York, and while on tour in San Francisco, Sacramento, Virginia City, Reno, and elsewhere. Diaries contain notes on rehearsals, plays, performances, salary, professional expenditures, and family matters less

Julia Anna Hartness (1819-1879) of Albany, N.Y. married George C. Lay (1815-1881) of Lyme, Conn., a businessman, in 1841; five of their children survived to adulthood. The Lay family resided in New York City. Diaries kept by Julia Anna Hartness Lay, 1851 Aug. 9-1878 Jan. 20, record her thoughts and daily activities concerning family and household matters; her children's health and upbringing; attendance at lectures, concerts and church services; evangelical and charitable work as a member of the Presbyterian Church; social and recreational activities; and weather conditions. Local and national events mentioned in passing include the Atlantic Cable celebration in 1858, and incidents of the Civil War, including the Draft Riots. The diaries contain pasted newsclippings and memorabilia, and a small amount of sketches, memorabilia and family correspondence in pockets. less

Diary kept by Sophie C. Hall (Mrs. George W. Hall) during a visit to New York in 1879. Describes stores, museums and their collections; churches and preachers; companions at her boarding house; Greenwood Cemetery; the general appearance of the city, etc 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

Charles F. Oesterle (1861-1889), the son of German immigrants Gottfried and Christina Oesterle, was a New York City newspaper reporter and editor at the New York Evening Telegram. He married Susan Maria Walsh in 1882. The Charles F. Oesterle diaries, 1879-1889, reflect personal and family matters; participation in civic, social and religious affairs, particularly his active membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church; and reporting activities and news events. Genealogical notes on the Oesterle and Walsh families are also present. Newspaper clippings, playbills and ephemera are inserted in the volumes. less

Diary of Frank E. Johnson, of Brooklyn, New York, a clerk in his family store, kept from October 1878-June 1880. Diary documents his varied interests: hunting, fishing, boating, and collecting specimens of birds for his museum; hunting trips to Sing Sing, New York; his social and church activities; visits to plays, including Twelfth Night with [Adelaide] Neilson, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Also includes some discussion of family business trips 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

John D. (John Daniel) Crimmins (1844-1917) was the leading partner of a major New York City construction contracting firm, from which he retired in 1897. He was a prominent philanthropist and supporter of Irish-American and Roman Catholic institutions. In 1868 he married Lily Louise Lalor (d. 1888); ten children survived them.The John D. Crimmins diary documents his business and social affairs in New York City, and family life at Firwood, his estate on Long Neck Point near Noroton and Darien, Connecticut. Diary entries, in a printed journal for the year 1894, span 1897 April 19-August 27 and October 1-2. They are written in four distinct hands, including a poem copied by Crimmins's daughter Mercedes for his birthday on May 18, and tasks for construction jobs noted on pages printed for 1894 September 13 and 14. Entries concern important dinners and events attended, with prominent guests such as former President Grover Cleveland, Mayor Patrick Gleason of Long Island City, Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan, and Judge Charles P. Daly; his presidency of the Second Avenue Railroad Company; his philanthropic activities; and a few construction matters. There is more extensive coverage of family events, the renovation of Firwood and its decoration, and the payment of servants and employees. Summer activities include numerous sailings with family and friends on his rented steam yacht Calypso, mainly to points on Long Island Sound. less

Charles E. Rogers kept this diary while he was a young man living in New York City. He made entries between January 1, 1864 and February 5, 1865, describing his employment with A.T. Stewart & Co. in the dry goods department, his subsequent employment with George Bliss & Co. and another position as a copyist with the army. Entries describe his attempts to secure an appointment at West Point; social activities, including attendance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, opera and theater; seeing Edwin Forrest as Coriolanus and Richelieu; attending classes at Cooper Union and the church of Henry Ward Beecher. Rogers also mentions Abraham Lincoln's campaign and reelection in 1864 less

Typescript copies of family letters, 1824-1896, between members of the Van Santvoord family of New York City, chiefly letters to and from Alfred Van Santvoord (1819-1901), a wealthy Hudson River steamboat entrepreneur. The bulk are between Van Santvoord and his wife Anna M. Townsend Van Santvoord (d. 1890) beginning in 1852, the year of their marriage. Letters concern their married and family life, including the upbringing of their four surviving children to adulthood; family stays at Cady Hill, the Townsend home in Saratoga Springs; the activities of friends and relatives; and frequent travel to Europe. Also present are letters written by their children, letters exchanged by Anna and her mother Elizabeth Lansing Townsend, and letters from Alfred Van Santvoord to his family during a trip to Europe, 1846-1847. Other family members are also represented. The collection includes some manuscript annotations and typescript genealogical notes, apparently written by a family member. The location of the original letters is not known. less

John T. (John Thomas) Smith (1868-1938), was the son of confectioner Edward Smith (born Edward Colgan) and Anne Grady Smith. He lived his entire life at 154 Greenwich Street in Manhattan, also the site of the family's main candy store. The family's increasing wealth derived from the candy business and real estate holdings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C. The John T. Smith diaries, 1884-1894 (in 10 volumes), document the daily activities and thoughts of an energetic and alert young New Yorker, presenting a panorama of New York City life at a time of great urban expansion and social change. 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

Mary Jones was the daughter of George Jones, first publisher of the New York Times. The scrapbook for her 1872 marriage to Henry Lyman Dyer contains wedding invitations, clippings, a list of invited guests, a list of gifts, a letter from William Evelyn, and notes of regret from Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Congressman Henry L. Dawes, and Cabinet Secretaries George S. Boutwell and Columbus Delano. Also enclosed in the scrapbook is a certificate for Mary Jones' confirmation at the Church of Holy Communion in 1865, a ticket to a dinner given by the Commission Merchants of New York in 1870, and miscellaneous clippings from the 1880s. less