Archives & Library Special Collections
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Call Number: 2005.031
Extent: 3.5 Linear feet, In 3 record cartons and 1 oversize flat box.
This collection holds the records of the Women’s Alliance, an organization operating under the agency of the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn. The Women’s Alliance began as the Female Samaritan Society in 1838, several years after the Church’s founding. Members of the group took responsibility for all the physical housekeeping of the church, ran the church’s annual fundraising fair, and helped with parish duties such as visiting the sick and cooking for the congregation. After periods of inactivity in the twentieth century, the group was resurrected in 1973 as the Women’s Alliance, a primarily issue-oriented group concerned with social action and women’s rights matters.
The collection encompasses the period of the resurgence of the Women’s Alliance during the latter half of the twentieth century as a socially conscious and active organization. The inclusive dates span from 1922 to 2004, with bulk dates ranging from 1980 to 1998. The Women’s Alliance records consist primarily of organizational material, including meeting minutes, correspondence, and financial documents. There is also printed matter created or collected by the Women’s Alliance and material related to the causes of concern and group work of the Women’s Alliance. A number of records also reveal the group’s relationships with other female-oriented and religious organizations.
Names:
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Women’s Alliance
- Campobasso, Miriam
- Hoogenboom, Olive
- Lazarus, Katherine
- Odessky, Marjory H.
- Sage, Doris
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Samaritan Alliance
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Church history
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Religious life and customs
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social life and customs
Subjects:
- Women’s work (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Feminism — New York (State) — New York
- Pro-choice movement — New York (State) — New York
- Social action — New York (State) — Kings County — History
- Unitarianism — New York (State) — Kings County — History
- Women and religion — New York (State) — New York
- Women’s rights and spiritualism — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Minutes
- Newsletters
- Photographs
- Sermons
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Call Number: 1978.137
Extent: 3.0 Linear feet, in five manuscript boxes and one flat box.
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Richetta Randolph Wallace (1884-circa 1971), an African-American woman having a longstanding engagement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem (New York City), African-American literary and arts culture, and matters of race relations, racial justice and civil rights. Documents include correspondence, pamphlets and other published print matter, event programs and other ephemera, photographs, receipts, manuscripts, and newspaper clippings. Commonly known by her maiden name, Randolph was office manager for the NAACP until the mid-1940s and personal secretary to Mary White Ovington and James Weldon Johnson. The collection includes correspondence with Ovington and Johnson as well as other NAACP principals. including Walter White, William Pickens, and others. The collection includes a full typescript draft of Johnson’s Black Manhattan, with notes, and a galley proof (1930) of the book. Much of the collection consists of print matter, which centers on matters of race in the United States, including discrimination, lynching, justice (or injustice), and civil rights. Other print matter includes programs, sermons, church newsletters, and other materials, principally concerning Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Correspondence documents Randolph’s activities on behalf of Mt. Olivet over the years. There are a small number of photographs in the collection including, among others, those of Randolph, of Johnson and his wife in Great Barrington (1929), of Ovington, and stock images of NAACP principals.
Names:
- Wallace, Richetta G. Randolph
- Johnson, James Weldon, 1871-1938
- Ovington, Mary White, 1865-1951
- Mount Olivet Baptist Church (New York, N.Y.)
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Subjects:
- African American churches — New York (State) — New York
- African American women
- African American women civil rights workers
- African Americans — Civil rights — History — 20th century
- Civil rights movements — New York (State) — New York
- Civil rights workers — New York (State) — New York
- Minorities — Civil rights — New York (State) — New York
- Women in church work — New York (State) — New York
- Women — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- galley proofs
- Pamphlets
- Photographs
- Printed ephemera
- Programs (documents)
- Publications
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Call Number: ARC.212
Extent: 28.0 Cubic feet, in 75 boxes: 32 manuscript boxes, 38 flat boxes, and 5 small boxes.
The Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims and Henry Ward Beecher collection traces the career of the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, the well known 19th century preacher, and the history of Plymouth Congregational Church, of which Beecher was the first pastor. Plymouth Church was a major institution in 19th century Brooklyn, first gaining recognition on national and international levels as Beecher’s pulpit. Beecher was well known for his oratorical ability and for his vocal opposition to slavery and support of the Northern cause during the Civil War. He also spoke out on subjects ranging from women’s suffrage and evolution to organized labor and temperance. Beecher was a popular figure despite controversy that surrounded his activities, including a charge of adultery that resulted in a widely reported trial in 1875.
The collection relates principally to Beecher’s pastorate at Plymouth Church from 1847 until his death in 1887. Other materials, ranging through 1980, concern the church’s other pastors and the history of Plymouth Church itself, which consolidated with the Church of the Pilgrims in 1934. The papers provide insight into the church congregation’s various activities, illustrate the history of Beecher’s influence on his congregation and on 19th century congregationalism, and shed light on both the public and private life of a major American personality of the 19th century.
Names:
- Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887
- Abbott, Lyman, 1835-1922
- Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1897
- Beecher, William Constantine, b. 1849
- Durkee, J. Stanley, 1866-1951
- Fifield, Lawrence Wendell, b. 1891
- Hibben, Paxton, 1880-1928
- Hillis, Newell Dwight, 1858-1929
- Hunt, Rose Ward
- Tilton, Elizabeth M. Richards, b. 1834
- Tilton, Theodore, 1835-1907
- Bethel of Plymouth Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Church of the Pilgrims (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Sunday School
- Church of the Pilgrims (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Henry Ward Beecher Literary and Debating Society (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Henry Ward Beecher Missionary Circle (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Plymouth Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Sunday School
- Plymouth Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Plymouth Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Ellinwood, T. J., 1830-1921
- King, Horatio C., 1837-1918
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Church history
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Religious life and customs
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- United States — Religion
Subjects:
- Plymouth chimes (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Abolitionists — New York (State)
- Adultery — New York (State) — Kings County
- Antislavery movements — United States
- Authors, American
- City clergy — New York (State) — New York
- clergy as authors
- Congregational churches — New York (State) — Kings County — Clergy
- Congregationalists — New York (State) — Kings County
- Lectures and lecturing — New York (State) — Kings County
- Pews and pew rights
- Reformers — United States
- Religious education of children — New York (State) — Kings County
- Religious institutions — New York (State) — Kings County
- Sunday schools — New York (State) — Kings County
- Trials (Adultery) — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)
- Church newsletters
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- cylinder phonographs (phonographs)
- Photographs
- Picture postcards
- Scrapbooks
- Sermons
- typescripts
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Call Number: ARC.002
Extent: 13.75 Linear feet, in 13 manuscript boxes, 5 record cartons, and 2 artifact boxes
The Arnie Goldwag Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) collection consists principally of the subject files concerning 1960s civil rights activism maintained by Arnie Goldwag, an officer of Brooklyn CORE during the first half of the 1960s. These files include correspondence, newsletters, event announcements (e.g., fliers), directions for demonstrators, photographs, press releases, clippings, and other documents related to many of the actions conducted by Brooklyn CORE, particularly for the period 1961-1965. Actions represented in the collection include those protesting discrimination in employment, housing, schools, and the like, including the controversial initiative to block traffic in connection with the opening of the 1964 World’s Fair. The collection also includes reminiscences by Goldwag and other CORE members looking back from the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to Brooklyn CORE-related material, the collection includes material related to other 1960s activist groups, including those involved with civil rights, Vietnam War opposition, and draft resistance, among others.
Names:
- Committee for Peace Organization
- Goldwag, Arnold
- Lynn, Conrad J.
- Mitchell, David Henry
- Owens, Major R.
- Alliance for Jobs or Income Now (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn Civil Rights Defense Committee (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Congress of Racial Equality. Brooklyn Chapter
- Congress of Racial Equality
- Freedom & Peace Party of New York State
- Harlem Parents Committee
- Metropolitan Council on Housing (New York, N.Y.)
- New York World’s Fair (1964-1965)
- Peace and Freedom Party (U.S.)
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
- Youth Against War & Fascism
- End the Draft Committee
Places:
- Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History — Archival resources.
- Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
- New York (N.Y.)
- New York (N.Y.) — History — Archival resources
Subjects:
- Children’s rights report
- Downdraft
- Ergo (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- African Americans — Civil rights — New York (State) — New York
- African Americans — Education — New York (State) — New York
- African Americans — Employment — New York (State) — New York
- African Americans — New York (State) — New York
- Civil disobedience — New York (State) — New York
- Civil rights demonstrations — New York (State) — New York
- Civil rights movements — New York (State) — New York
- Civil rights workers — New York (State) — New York
- De facto school segregation — New York (State) — New York
- Discrimination in employment — New York (State) — New York
- Discrimination in housing — New York (State) — New York
- Discrimination in public accommodations — Maryland — Cambridge
- Government, Resistance to — New York (State) — New York
- March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963
- Minorities — Civil rights — New York (State) — New York
- Police patrol — Surveillance operations
- Race discrimination — New York (State) — New York
- Rent strikes — New York (State) — New York
- Reunions
- Tenants’ associations — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- Books
- buttons (information artifacts)
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Fliers (printed matter)
- lapel pins
- Leaflets (printed works)
- Pamphlets
- Photocopies
- Photographs
- Press releases
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Crown Heights Oral History – Listen To This, 2010. Sound recordings: 22 CDs (80 minutes each)
2010.020
This collection of 43 oral history interviews with Crown Heights residents was donated to the Brooklyn Historical Society by project director Alex Kelly. The interviews were conducted in 2010 with the help of the Crow Hill Community Association and five students from Paul Robeson High School who came to the project through the Brooklyn College Community Partnership (BCCP).
Recordings of these interviews and an accompanying guide are available in the library.
Call Number: ARC.109
Extent: 50.5 Linear feet, In 99 manuscript boxes and 18 oversize flat boxes
The First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn records contains documents created and collected by the Church from the point of its founding in 1833 to the mid 1970s. The collection contains a broad range of documents covering the variety of the Congregation’s work and operations including its official minutes and trustee records, financial records, ministers files, sermons, photographs, calendars, celebration programs and registers, and building records that include deeds, leases, and building plans for the Church of the Saviour and other buildings owned by the First Church. The community and charity work of the Church is represented as well through ledgers, correspondence, notes and reports by the various clubs and committees and through similar documentation from the Church’s Willow Place Chapel where the Church’s settlement and welfare programs and Sunday school operated. The Church was also involved with local and international relief and aid groups, particularly during the tenure of Minister John H. Lathrop. Lathrop’s files include correspondence, minutes of committees, and other documents from his work with a variety of local and worldwide religious and humanitarian groups. Lathrop also collected a variety of reference materials, including pamphlets, flyers, and articles pertaining to peace, liberalism, theology, and family planning. Other major figures of the First Church and Brooklyn history represented by the collection include the Low family and Alfred T. White. The collection also holds scrapbooks with relevant collected clippings that were donated by parishioners and photographs of some church members and activities.
The Second and Third Unitarian Congregations are both represented within this collection as well. These two congregations split from the First Congregation at different points in the 19th century and both re-united with the First Congregation in the mid-1920s. The variety of records relative to these congregations is similar to that of the First Congregation including trustee records, building records, finances, minister files, clubs and social work, and Sunday school records. The documents related to these congregations also include the record books of their respective Women’s Branch Alliances.
Names:
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Barlow, David H., 1805-1864
- Camp, Stephen H.
- Chadwick, John White, 1840-1904
- Collier, H. Price
- Eliot, Samuel A., 1862-1950
- Farley, Frederick A., 1800-1892
- Forbes, John P.
- Goodnough, Alfred Everett
- Holland, Frederick W.
- Lafever, Minard
- Lathrop, John Howland, 1880-1967
- Longfellow, Samuel, 1819-1892
- Low, Abiel Abbot, 1811-1893
- Low, Seth, 1782-1853
- Masaryk, Jan, 1886-1948
- Masaryková, Charlotta G., 1850-1923
- Putnam, A. P. , 1827-1906
- Staples, N. A., 1830-1864
- White, Alfred Tredway, 1846-1921
- American Association of the Red Cross. Brooklyn Chapter
- American Committee on Religious Rights and Minorities
- American Unitarian Association
- Brooklyn Urban League (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Church of the Saviour (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Samaritan Alliance
- Furman Street Mission (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Green-Wood Cemetery (New York, N.Y.)
- International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom
- National Peace Conference (U.S.)
- Second Unitarian Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Second Unitarian Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Women’s Branch Alliance
- Second Unitarian Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Third Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Women’s Branch Alliance
- Third Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Willow Place Chapel (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Church history
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Genealogy
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Religious life and customs
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.) — Intellectual life
- Czechoslovakia
Subjects:
- Architecture — New York (State) — Kings County — History — 19th century
- Charities — New York (State) — Kings County
- Church finance — Accounting
- Church records and registers
- Community centers — New York (State) — Kings County
- Gothic Revival (Architecture)
- Peace movements — United States — History
- Refugees — International relief
- Religion and social problems
- Social action — New York (State) — Kings County — History
- Social settlements — New York (State) — Kings County
- Sunday schools.
- Unitarian Churches — History
- Unitarian Churches — Romania — Transylvania
- Unitarianism
- Unitarianism — New York (State) — Kings County — History
Types of material:
- Architectural drawings
- Baptismal registers
- Blueprints (reprographic copies)
- Correspondence
- Ledgers (account books)
- Marriage registers
- Membership lists
- Minutes
- Negatives (photographic)
- Pamphlets
- Photographs
- Registers (lists)
- Reports
- Scrapbooks
- Sermons
- Sheet music
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Crown Heights Oral History – Bridging Eastern Parkway, 1993-1994. Sound recordings: 40 cassettes (90 minutes each)
ArMs 1994.006
In 1993-1994, the Brooklyn Historical Society collected interviews with residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. Thirty-three interviews were conducted by Craig Wilder, Jill Vexler, and Aviva Segall. The subtitle, Bridging Eastern Parkway, refers to racial tensions expressed during the 1991 Crown Heights riots. Narrators are of African American, Caribbean, Jewish, Polish, and Russian descent and include members of the Lubavitch community.
Transcripts of 24 interviews from this collection may be read in the library. Recordings are not currently available to researchers; we anticipate that recordings will be available for researchers to listen to in the library in the Spring of 2010.
Call Number: 2008.017
Extent: 3.0 Linear feet, in one manuscript box, one record carton and two oversize flat boxes.
The Amote Sias papers consist of personal essays, legal and financial records, ephemera and various clippings relating to Sias’s life and involvement in Brooklyn politics as well as her role as an African-American activist. The majority of the collection focuses on the political environment in Brooklyn from the mid 1970s and 1980s through newspapers, magazines and other publications. The collection is rich with programs, bulletins and manuals from Sias’s involvement in various political organizations focusing on social justice, women’s rights and Black Nationalism. The collection also documents Sias’s political campaign for a seat on the New York City Council in 1989 and her involvement in the Committee to Elect Jesse Jackson for President.
Names:
- Sias, Amote
- Jackson, Jesse, 1941-
- Congressional Black Caucus
- Democratic National Committee (U.S.)
- Jesse Jackson for President ’88 Committee
- Madre (Organization)
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Politics and government — 20th century
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social life and customs — 20th century
Subjects:
- African Americans — Politics and government — 20th century
- Black nationalism — United States — History — 20th century
- Community activists
- Local elections — New York (State) — Kings County
- Political participation — New York (State) — Kings County
- Political parties — United States
- Politicians — New York (State)
- Social movements — United States
- Voter registration
Types of material:
- Administrative records
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Financial records
- Magazines (periodicals)
- Manuals (instructional materials)
- Memorandums
- Newspapers
- Petitions
- Playbills
- political posters
- Programs (documents)
- Voters’ lists
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Junior League of Brooklyn Records, 1910-2002 (Bulk dates: 1930-1999). 41 cubic feet, 30 records boxes, 11 oversize boxes.
ArMs 2005.064, 2007.037
The first Junior League took shape in New York City in 1901, when women were finally able to take on greater responsibilities toward their communities. Young women were encouraged to actively volunteer and to find useful outlets for their skills and interests. The success of the New York League led to the creation of the thirty Leagues established in six U.S. regions by 1921. The Brooklyn Junior League formed in 1910 as a response to social and health problems facing certain Brooklyn communities, and presently remains an organization of women dedicated to voluntarism, social advocacy, and improving communities through the leadership and charitable action of trained members.
The collection consists of a variety of organizational records including meeting minutes, membership files, annual reports, board manuals, documents pertaining to the Junior League of Brooklyn’s relationship with the Court Appointed Special Advocates Program (CASA) of New York as well as the Association of Junior Leagues International, and printed material. In addition, a large volume of scrapbooks, photographs, committee and volunteer activity records illustrate the League’s involvement in recognizing and dealing with social issues of inequity and economic hardship.
Access Points:
Personal Names
Rumsey, Mary Harriman – 1881-1934
Laughlin, Dona
Montague, Neita Loy Blondeau
Nevins, Christine
Schlesinger, Karen
Smallwood, Debra
Corporate Names
Association of Junior Leagues International
Court Appointed Special Advocate Program (New York, N.Y.)
Junior League of Brooklyn
Subject Headings
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) – Social life and customs
Social action – New York (State) – New York – History – 20th century
Women – New York (State) – New York – Societies and clubs – History
Women in charitable work – New York (State) – New York – History
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Call Number: ARC.050
Extent: 8.0 Linear feet, in 16 manuscript boxes
The Rev. John Howard Melish (1874-1969) was pastor at the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, New York (1904-1949), while his son, the Rev. William Howard Melish (1910-1986), was associate rector at the same church from 1938 to 1957. The bulk of this collection covers 1947-1958, a period of time during which the two clergymen, with the support of parish congregants, struggled to remain attached to the Church of the Holy Trinity despite efforts by the church vestry and the Episcopal Bishop of Long Island to remove them. In the midst of the Cold War era, the Melishes’ removal was sought because of, at least in part, the son’s role as Chairman of the National Council for Soviet-American Friendship. The bulk of the collection consists of clippings maintained by William Howard Melish, but also includes correspondence, notes, and other documents from Melish and his supporters, including Anna May Mason.
Names:
- Mason , Anna May
- Du Bois, W. E. B., 1868-1963
- Fletcher, Joseph F.
- Melish, John Howard, b. 1875
- Melish, William Howard, 1910-
- Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005
- Wager, Ralph Edmond, 1881-1979
- White, Bouck, 1874-1951
- Church of the Holy Trinity (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Melish Defense Committee
- National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (U.S.)
- Touchet, Francis H.
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Church history
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History — Archival resources.
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.) — Intellectual life
Subjects:
- Anti-communist movements — United States — History — 20th century
- Church controversies — New York (State) — New York
- City churches — New York (State) — New York
- City clergy — New York (State) — New York
- Cold War — Religious aspects
- Cold War — Social aspects — New York (State) — New York.
- Cold War — Social aspects — United States
- Episcopalians United States
- Episcopalians — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- audiotapes
- Church bulletins
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Journals (periodicals)
- Legal documents
- Photographs
- Sermons
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Recently Added Collections
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