Found 227 collections.

The William Appleton collection consists of letters, handwritten manuscripts, "penny plains" and "two-pence coloured" materials, which were small portraits of actors created for the toy theater trade, a once-popular form of home entertainment. The collection encompasses the late 17th century up through the mid-20th century, although the bulk of the material falls between the mid-18th century and the mid-19th century. The oldest item is a letter from actress Elizabeth Barry to a Lady Lisbourn, dated October 25, 1697. The latest item is a letter from playwright George Bernard Shaw to a J. T. Grien, dated November 28, 1930. The collection contains many letters from prominent theatrical figures, primarily of the English stage, including Ira Aldridge, Dion Boucicault, Edward Gordon Craig, David Garrick, Sir Henry Irving, Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready, Bernard Shaw, Sarah Siddons, Dame Ellen Terry, and others. Also included are black and white portraits known as "penny plains," and color portraits known as "two-pence coloured," depicting actors and actresses of the day in their best known roles. These images were intended for home use in puppet theater-type settings, and most date from the early to mid-1800s, though some date as far back as 1799. 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

The collection consists chiefly of papers of members of the Gansevoort, Lansing and Melville families and reflects the social, business, and political interests of the families, their friends and associates. Also included are some papers of members of the Sanford, Van Schaick and other prominent families of the Hudson and Mohawk Valley areas of New York State. The papers include accounts, correspondence, maps, and land, court, and military records, as well as personal collections of photographs and artifacts documenting the families' history. Notable individuals represented int the collection are Revolutionary War officer Peter Gansevoort, Jr. (1749-1812), his son Peter Gansevoort (1788-1876), a New York State Assemblyman, Senator, and Judge Advocate General, Henry Sanford Gansevoort (1835-1871), Union officer in the Civil War, and author Herman Melville. less

The James Riker Papers document the literary activity and family background of the New York historian and genealogist. The collection consists of original documents from colonial-era New York in Dutch and English, extracts and transcripts from New York and New Jersey historical records, genealogical notes, correspondence, writings, notebooks, printed matter and photographs. Also included are Civil War correspondence and military records of James Riker's brother, Colonel John Lafayette Riker of the New York 62nd Regiment Volunteer Infantry. less

Alfred J. Liebmann (b. 1885) was a research chemist. Born in Switzerland, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1910 and became technical director of Schenley Industries and president of the Schenley Research Institute. His studies included the utilization of cereal crops and of distillery by-products. Collection consists of correspondence, broadsides, official forms, and other documents concerning the distribution and use of liquor in the U.S. Topics include trade in rum and molasses in colonial America, Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, military use of liquor, taverns, and importation and sale of liquor. Some of the items are signed by notable political and military figures. less

Gilbert Holland Montague (1880-1961) was an American lawyer and autograph collector. Collection consists of letters and documents with the autographs of American, British and other European figures including statesmen, politicians, artists, scientists, and legal, literary and royal figures. Also, some carte-de-visite photographs of prominent individuals. less

The South Sea Company was formed circa 1711 by the British government with a monopoly on trade in South America in exchange for liquidating the British national debt by selling shares in its trading enterprises and funding payment of the debt from a part of the company's capital stock. In 1721 the inflated value of the company's shares collapsed which brought on the fall of the British government and widespread financial and political ruin. The Mississippi Scheme was a rival project in France devised by the Scottish economist John Law. Collection consists of correspondence and papers concerning the South Sea Company and the Mississippi Scheme. Materials include letters and documents, 1669-1747, of notable English persons who were involved in the South Sea Company affair; letters and papers, 1712-1771, relating to the company, its directors and shareholders; and letters and papers, 1690-1774, of persons in Great Britain and France who participated in the Mississippi Scheme or who were friends or benefactors of John Law. less

Chiefly an autograph collection of manuscript letters, documents, musical scores, photographs, and other papers of European, British, and American composers, musicians, authors, novelists, poets, playwrights, historians, philosophers, painters, sculptors, scientists, physician, politicians, statesmen, royalty, and others spanning the period from the 17th to the 20th centuries. There is also Vollmer family correspondence (1892-1959), primarily correspondence of Ruth Vollmer (in German) with family and friends in Europe just prior to the outbreak of Work War II. less

William Smith Jr. (1728-1793), an American Loyalist of New York and Quebec, was a prominent jurist, statesman, journalist and historian. The William Smith Jr. papers comprise the papers of William Smith Jr., 1683-1793; those of his son William Smith III (1769-1847), a Canadian government official, historian and militia officer, 1797-1848; and Smith family land and estate papers, 1665-1912. The bulk of the collection consists of William Smith Jr.'s papers pertaining to his activities as a lawyer, journalist and historian, and as a Councillor and Chief Justice in the British provinces of New York and Quebec (later Lower Canada). Papers include his correspondence and documents, writings for publication, and the diaries he kept from 1753 to 1783, known as his Historical Memoirs. Volumes documenting his law practice in New York are also present. less

Charles Currier Beale (1864-1909), a collector of shorthand manuscripts and printed materials, founded and operated the Beale Shorthand Bureau and School of Phonography in Boston between 1884 and 1908. Collection consists of materials concerning American and English shorthand systems and also manuscripts written in shorthand which were acquired by Beale. Types of manuscripts include Bibles from the 18th and 19th centuries, sermons and prayer books; works by various authors; accounts of court trials; and other works transcribed in shorthand. Also, some correspondence, 1899-1907, and bibliographies of books about shorthand and books written in shorthand. less

The Bayards, Campbells and Pearsalls were leading merchant and business families of New York who where related by marriage. Several members were Loyalists during the American Revolution. Family members had business interests in England, the Caribbean and South America. The firm of LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers sold medicine, silk goods, liquor, earthenware, and tobacco to Peru; and bought and sold timber, spices, food, apparel, and hardware in addition to buying and selling land, managing farms, and performing banking functions. Leading members of the families represented are William Bayard, Duncan P. Campbell, Thomas Pearsall, Samuel Cornell, Herman LeRoy, and Jerome Sillem. Collection contains business and family correspondence; accounts and business papers; and land papers consisting of deeds and maps primarily related to New York City, New York State, and other east coast states. less

Buccaneer's Atlas or Portolano, entitled: "Description des principaux endroites de la Mer du Sud depuis les 52 degrez 30 minutes sud, ou est le d'Etroit du Magellan jusqu'au 41 degrez Nord qui est l'isle de Californie faite sur les lieux par le sr. Jouhan de la Guilabuadiere. Dresse et dessigné les plans qui l'accompagnent sur ses memoires, par le sr. Hanicle ingenieur ordinaire du Roy en l'année 1696." Two hundred twenty pages of descriptive text, accompanied by thirty-five carefully executed colored maps and plans of the ports, harbors, anchorage, islands, etc. along the west coast of America, beginning with the Straits of Magellan, and extending as far as the Gulf of California The author of this volume was one of the celebrated band of buccaneers under the command of M. de Gennes. He was shipwrecked in the Straits of Magellan about 1688, and shortly afterward joined the buccaneering expedition of M. de Beauchesnegouin as second in command. This manuscript seems to have been compiled while on this expedition. In addition to the very exact survey of different harbors and ports, a detailed account is given of the inhabitants of the surrounding country, their manners and customs, etc. The volume also contains a long vocabulary of the buccaneer language Presented to the New York Public Library by Alexander Maitland. There is a description of this manuscript in G. Marcel's "Les Fuégiens à la fin du XVIIe siècle," Paris, 1892 less

The Ford Autograph Collection was compiled between 1840 and 1898 by Gordon Lester Ford and his sons, Worthington Chauncey Ford and Paul Leicester Ford. Gordon L. Ford (1823-1891) was the business manager of the New York Tribune newspaper and had substantial banking and railroad interests. His oldest son, Worthington (1858-1941) was chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the State and Treasury Departments in Washington, D.C., from 1885 to 1898, chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress from 1903 to 1909, and editor of the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1909 to 1929. The younger brother Paul (1865-1902) was a journalist, author and historical editor. Collection contains autograph letters of American presidents, heads of governmental agencies, congressmen, governors, generals, writers, and artists as well as those of European political, military and literary figures, dating from 1589 to 1898. Collection also includes some correspondence of the Ford family. less

Arturo Toscanini was born in Parma, Italy, on March 25, 1867, and died in Riverdale, New York, on January 16, 1957. Many regard him as one of the world's greatest conductors. In addition, Toscanini's anti-Fascist stance during World War II distinguished him as a symbol of freedom and humanity. His extraordinarily long career began in 1886, when Italian orchestral conductors were still relatively few in number, and extended into the 1950s, by which time his radio and television broadcasts had transformed him into a cultural icon. The Toscanini Legacy papers form a portion of the Toscanini Legacy housed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The other major portion, of sound recordings, is housed in NYPL's Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The papers in the Music Division consist of music scores and orchestral parts with and without markings by Arturo Toscanini and others (including composers in some instances), correspondence, photographs, programs, clippings, books, newspapers, brochures, periodicals, scrapbooks, and medical and financial records. Subjects include the various musical organizations in Europe and the United States with which Toscanini was associated, and his anti-Fascist activities. The hundreds of correspondents include family members, composers, performers, conductors, and music critics; as well as Italian exiles, and U.S. and Italian political figures. less

Alfred Anthony Williams (1860- ), theologian, author and educator, was an executive and administrator of the Committee of the Federal Council of Christ, founder of the Federation Committee of Good Will Between Jews and Christians, and treasurer of the General Conference of Free Baptists. Collection consists mainly of 18th-20th century autographs, with the bulk from the mid-19th to 20th centuries, representing both primary and secondary figures from diverse fields including literature, music, education, politics, and royalty. Names include Susan B. Anthony, John Bigelow, Edwin Booth, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, H.L. Mencken, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Margaret Sanger, Philip Schuyler, and Daniel Webster. Figures represented are mainly Americans. Many letters are to Anthony. Following the name file is a subject file consisting of miscellaneous autograph letters arranged by profession or institution. Also, two boxes of unsorted material, including photographs usually relating to individuals whose autographs are contained in the collection; an autograph fan; and a glass plate negative. less

The Gerry-Townsend family of Massachusetts included statesman Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814). The collection consists of correspondence of Elbridge Gerry, 1773-1814, and his son-in-law David S. Townsend, 1812-1846); legal papers and accounts of Eliza Gerry, administrator of Elbridge Gerry's estate; deeds, mortgages, and other land papers concerning lands owned by the Gerry and Townsend families in Boston; and diary, 1813, Elbridge Gerry, Jr. kept during a journey from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C. Includes letters relating to Gerry's mission to France, 1797-1798 (the XYZ Affair), and to national politics. Correspondents include John Adams, William Gordon, Gideon Granger, Thomas Jefferson, James Lovell, James Madison, W. Vans Murray, George Partridge, C.C. Pinckney, Samuel Osgood, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., James Warren, James Wendell, and John Wendell. less

The Hudson collection consists of mid-17th through early 19th-century correspondence, accounts, legal documents, land papers, business records, and shipping papers of families living in the Essex County, Massachusetts, towns of Newburyport, Salisbury and Amesbury; also in Boston, New York City and Rumford (now Concord), New Hampshire. Papers document family matters; seafaring; land transactions; and trade between New England and New York, and the West Indies, Great Britain, Russia (Archangel), and other New World and European ports. Bulk of papers documents the intermarried Hudson and Rogers families who lived in Newburyport, with branches in New York and Boston, mid-18th through early-19th centuries. Also included are papers of members of the related Balch family of Newburyport, 1766-1837; the True family of Salisbury, 1659-1835; and the Rolfe family of Rumford, New Hampshire. Some additional personal, town, church, school, business, and ship papers are in the collection. less

The collection consists of original family letters, bible records, legal documents, such as deeds and wills, and genealogical research notes and charts, relating principally to families of New York City and State. The materials range from 1654-2002, but date primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries less

Collection consists of documents pertaining to many aspects of New York City's history, including letters, certificates, reports, court records, land documents, maps, estates, deeds, official government records, autographs, news clippings, and other printed matter. Although most of the materials are in their original format, some of the collection consists of facsimiles and photostats. less

The Stead Collection gives a comprehensive depiction of the English theater. $bThe collection consists primarily of playbills, programs, clippings and prints, but also contains manuscript material consisting of letters, photographs, legal and financial documents, and ephemera. less

Walter Lynwood Fleming (1874-1932) was professor of history at various universities in the U.S. including West Virginia University, Louisiana State University and Vanderbilt University, in addition to serving as dean of arts and sciences at Louisiana State and director of graduate work at Vanderbilt. He wrote and edited numerous publications. Collection consists of correspondence, research materials, writings, photographs, and printed matter relating to Fleming's work. Topics include the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, Jefferson Davis, the Ku Klux Klan, African-Americans, and Louisiana history. Papers contain documents, letters, clippings, notes and photographs pertaining to Fleming's historical writings. less

John Smyth (1567-1640), from Nibley in Gloucestershire, England, was one of the original promoters of plantations and settlements in the second Virginia colony in North America. He was the author of "Lives of the Berkeleys". Collection consists of letters and documents relating to the settlement of Virginia from 1609 to 1622, collected by John Smyth. less

A collection of bills of sale, deeds, passes, certificates of registry, manumission papers, wills, and speeches. Also, letters relating to slavery-related court cases, including the Amistad slave ship revolt. Also includes letters by prominent abolitionists William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, and William Lloyd Garrison with their views and comments on the abolition movement. less

Members of the Van Cortlandt family were major Westchester County landowners and New York politicians from the 17th to the 19th century. The Van Wyck family was related to them by marriage. Collection consists of correspondence, accounts, legal documents, papers relating to land in New York owned by the Van Cortlandt family, estate papers, and wills. Correspondence, 1779-1912, concerns family, personal and real estate matters, the progress of the Revolutionary War, and political matters. There is a significant amount of correspondence between Pierre Van Cortlandt and his son Philip. Also, 1824 almanac with journal notes; manuscript of Philip Van Cortlandt's autobiography; sketch of seating arrangement in Congress Hall, Philadelphia, 1795; family documents; and documents, 1775-1813, concerning the Continental Army. less