Archives & Library Special Collections
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Call Number: 1979.021
Extent: 3.75 Linear feet, in 9 document boxes.
This collection comprises the subject files of the Downtown Brooklyn Development Association. The association was founded in 1929 as a civic group concerned with the problems of the business and shopping center in downtown Brooklyn. The papers are news clippings, correspondence, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, legislative documents, photographs, city plans and maps, and other items relating to organizations and causes with which the association was involved. The majority of the documents were produced by external bodies or individuals but were integral the association’s activities. The three subjects most comprehensively addressed are the development of the Brooklyn Civic Center (Cadman Plaza), the redevelopment of Fulton Street, and traffic and transportation.
Names:
- Downtown Brooklyn Development Association
- Blum, Robert E.
- Bourke-White, Margaret, 1904-1971
- Davenport, Henry J.
- Moses, Robert, 1888-1981
- Roscoe, Andrew S.
- Stamm, Godfrey A.
- Swift, Thomas A.
- Abraham & Straus
- American Red Cross
- Better Business Bureau of New York City
- Brooklyn Borough Hall (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn daily eagle
- Brooklyn Law School
- Brooklyn Public Library
- Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company
- Citizens Budget Commission (New York, N.Y.)
- Citizens Union Foundation (New York, N.Y.)
- Citizens’ Zoning Committee, Inc
- Independent Subway System (New York, N.Y.)
- Interborough Rapid Transit Company
- New York (N.Y.). City Planning Commission
- New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Commerce and Industrial Development
- New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Correction
- New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Parks
- New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Public Works
- New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Traffic
- New York (N.Y.). Landmarks Preservation Commission
- New York Naval Shipyard
- Pratt Institute
- Regional Plan Association (New York, N.Y.)
- Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (New York, N.Y.)
- George Washington Bridge (New York, N.Y.)
- Holland Tunnel (New York, N.Y.)
- Lincoln Tunnel (New York, N.Y.)
- Park Slope (New York, N.Y.)
- Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.)
- Throgs Neck Bridge (New York, N.Y.)
- Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Central business districts
- City planning
- Community centers — New York (State) — New York
- Courthouses — New York (State) — New York
- Ebbets Field (New York, N.Y.)
- Local transit — New York (State) — New York
- Parks — New York (State) — New York
- Post office buildings — New York (State) — New York
- Railroads, Elevated
- Transportation
- Urban renewal — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- Blueprints (reprographic copies)
- Brochures
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Legislative hearings
- Maps
- Negatives (photographic)
- Newsletters
- Pamphlets
- Photographs
- Press releases
- Resolutions (administrative records)
- Speeches
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Call Number: 1986.034
Extent: 0.06 Linear feet, in one folder
A booklet containing a Kings County lien law passed on June 8, 1853. The law permitted building contractors to place a lien on the owner’s building an/or materials or land on which the contractors worked.
Names:
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Real estate business — Law and legislation — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
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Call Number: 1978.178
Extent: 0.08 Linear feet, in one folder
The collection contains poll lists for District 2 on November 4, 1879, certified by James W. Smith, Clerk. The poll list includes voter names.
Names:
- Newtown (Queens County, N.Y.)
Places:
- Newtown (Queens County, N.Y.)
- Queens (New York, N.Y.)
- Queens County (N.Y.)
Types of material:
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Call Number: 1978.145
Extent: 0.08 Linear feet, in one folder
The Brooklyn Democratic Club records, dated 1895, include an announcement, programs, clippings, and letters regarding the club’s dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Silas Wright. The Brooklyn Democratic Club was located at 201 Montague Street. Officers of the Club were Harrington Putnam, President; Alexander Orr and others, Vice-President; Sidney V. Lowell, Chairman of the Governing Committee; Frances Gottsberger, Treasurer; and Charles A. Kelly, Corresponding Secretary. Silas Wright (May 24, 1795-August 26, 1847) graduated from Middlebury College in 1816. In 1824, he was elected as a United States Senator.
Names:
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Political clubs — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- Announcements
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Programs (documents)
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Call Number: 1978.079
Extent: 0.01 Linear feet, in one folder.
This collection contains two binders containing reports issued by the City of New York Department of Parks in 1950 and 1955 regarding renovation proposals and plans for various Brooklyn parks. The first report, titled Program of Post War Repairs, contains a list of needed improvements with associated costs for each park, while the second report, The Esplanade, Borough of Brooklyn: A Connecting Promenade Between Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach Park, contains details on planning and legal authorization, correspondence, and photographs.
Names:
- New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Parks
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Parks — New York (State) — Kings County
- Parks — New York (State) — Kings County — Design and construction
- Parks — New York (State) — Kings County — Maintenance and repair
Types of material:
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Call Number: 1978.041
Extent: 0.08 Linear feet, in one folder
An agreement of local property owners to pay for the cost of paving Fulton Street between Middagh and Pierrepont Streets in Brooklyn, N.Y., dated December 15, 1841.
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Fulton Street (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Streets — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
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Call Number: ARC.278
Extent: 2.6 Linear feet, in two flat boxes and one manuscript box.
The Hulbert collection (1698-1846) consists principally of late eighteenth century documents related to colonial British America. The collection also includes documents from the American Revolution and early national period. The collection holds papers related to the British military presence in North America, including statistical reports (i.e., returns) for troops for several months in 1760 and documents compiled by Frederick de Deimar in connection with the Corps of Hussars (1779-1781) he raised for the British during the American Revolution. Non-military matters include correspondence, chiefly from Goldsbrow Banyar, Register of Prerogative Court and deputy to George Clark, Secretary of the Colony of New York, concerning a dispute among colonial New York officials over their respective rights to collect and receive patent and other fees (1766-1770). There are papers concerning the Bahamas (1795-1796), including correspondence, principally to and from colonial agent George Chalmers, and minutes of the Legislative Council. Among the other documents in the collection are land grants and indentures, a will, court filings, and other documents from New York State, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Florida. Several of these documents still have a large wax seal tied to them.
Names:
- Hulbert, Milan
- Banyar, Goldsbrow
- Chalmers, George
- Diemar, Frederick
- Great Britain. Army. Corps of Hussars (1779-1781)
Places:
- Bahamas — History
- New York (Colony)
- New York (State) — History — Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
- United States — History — French and Indian War, 1755-1763
- United States — History — Revolution, 1775-1783
- West Florida — History
Subjects:
- Land titles — New York (State)
- Land titles — South Carolina
- Land titles — West Florida
- Legal documents — Rhode Island
- Legal documents — Virginia
- Real property — New York (State)
- Real property — South Carolina
- Real property — West Florida
Types of material:
- certification
- Correspondence
- Deeds
- Land grants
- Returns (military reports)
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Call Number: ARC.263
Extent: 94.55 Linear feet, in 7 manuscript boxes and 85 flat boxes
The Pierrepont family papers (1761-1918) document the intersection of commercial, civic and personal interests across three generations of one of the most prominent and influential families of nineteenth century Brooklyn, New York. The bulk of the collection concerns the business dealings of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont from 1838 to his death in 1888. This especially includes an extensive set of accounting and transactional records concerning the Pierrepont Stores, the family’s warehouse on Brooklyn’s East River waterfront; these include records of ships arriving at the Stores and their cargoes delivered. Additionally, there are substantive correspondence, legal documents and other materials concerning the Union Ferry Company, of which Henry was an officer. In addition to commerce and shipping, a major theme of the collection is that of land acquisition in Brooklyn Heights and at the adjacent waterfront in the early nineteenth century, and the development of that property over the course of the century. Included in the collection are correspondence, deeds, indentures, leases, accounting records, diaries, maps, invoices, receipts, business proposals, legal filings, clippings, and historical and genealogical manuscripts.
Names:
- Pierrepont family
- Pierpont, Hez. B., 1768-1838
- Pierrepont, Henry Evelyn, 1808-1888
- Pierrepont, Henry Evelyn, 1845-1911
- Pierrepont, John Jay, 1849-1923
- Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company
- Covered Tube Cable Railway Co. (Brooklyn, New York, NY)
- Long Island Historical Society
- Nassau Cable Railway Company of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, NY)
- Pierrepont Stores (Brooklyn, New York, NY)
- Union Ferry Company (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Maps
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- East River (N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Bonded warehouses and goods — New York (State) — New York
- Business enterprises — New York (State) — New York
- Ferries — New York (State) — New York
- Imports — New York (State) — New York
- Landowners — New York (State) — New York
- Real estate development — New York (State) — New York
- Real property — Ownership — New York (State) — New York
- Shipping — New York (State) — New York
- Waterfronts — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- Account books
- Cadastral maps
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Daybooks
- Deeds
- Diaries
- Indentures
- Invoices
- Journals (accounts)
- Ledgers (account books)
- Manuscript maps
- Manuscripts (document genre)
- Scrapbooks
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Call Number: 2005.001
Extent: 0.04 Linear feet, in one folder
The account book includes the record of financial transactions conducted by the Overseers of the Poor of Flatlands, Kings County, N.Y., from December 1807 until the Overseer position was abolished in April 1831. The journal includes both receipts and expenditures, which typically include reference to the recipient’s name and the amount of cash or goods provided by the Overseers.
Names:
- Baxter, Garret S.
- Flatlands (New York, N.Y.). Overseers of the Poor
- Lott family
- Wyckoff family
Places:
- Flatlands (New York, N.Y.)
- Kings County (N.Y.) — History — 19th century
Subjects:
- Poor — Services for — New York (State) — Kings County
- Public welfare — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- Account books
- Journals (accounts)
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Call Number: ARC.045
Extent: 10.0 Linear feet, in 8 manuscript boxes and 4 flat boxes
Henry Onderdonk (1804-1886) of Queens County, Long Island, New York, was an educator at Union Hall Academy, and an historian and author of many works based on his research among local records. The Onderdonk papers include manuscript versions of Onderdonk’s historical works; notes and transcriptions taken by Onderdonk from private journals, church and local government records, and newspapers; correspondence from historians, genealogists and others often conveying information requested by Onderdonk; and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings covering the 1820s to 1868, with some earlier and later dated material. The bulk of the material concerns the geographic area encompassing present day Queens and Nassau counties, though the other two counties on Long Island, Kings and Suffolk, are also represented. The historical manuscripts, notes and extensive correspondence in the collection tend to center around Onderdonk’s research into the American Revolution, Quakers, churches, agriculture/animal husbandry, and genealogies, all with a focus on Long Island. Perhaps the most prominent correspondent is James Fenimore Cooper, whose three letters concern Loyalist Oliver de Lancey. Among the many other correspondents are historians George Bancroft, E. F. Ellet, E. B. O’Callaghan, Jeptha Root Simms, and Jared Sparks. The several scrapbooks in the collection, also with a Long Island focus, concern a number of subjects, principally electoral and partisan politics, agriculture, temperance, announcements and public notices for a wide variety of events, such as school openings, church dedications, auctions, cultural talks, etc., crimes and accidents, court proceedings, Civil War recruitments and drafts, and railroad developments, among other matters.
Names:
- Onderdonk, Henry, 1804-1886
- Bancroft, George, 1800-1891
- Bergen, Teunis G., 1806-1881
- Bowne, J. T., 1847-1925
- Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851
- Corwin, Edward Tanjore, 1834-1914
- De Lancey, Oliver, 1718-1785
- Ellet, E. F., 1818-1877
- Frost, Gideon
- Hicks, Benjamin Doughty
- Hicks, John D.
- Hoadly, Charles J., 1828-1900
- Johnson, Jeremiah, 1768-1852
- Jones, William Alfred, 1817-1900
- King, John A., 1788-1867
- Latting, John Jordan, b. 1819
- Lossing, Benson John, 1813-1891
- O’Callaghan, E. B., 1797-1880
- Sabine, Lorenzo, 1803-1877
- Simms, Jeptha Root, 1807-1883
- Sparks, Jared, 1789-1866
- Strong, Thomas M.
- Stuart, I. W., 1809-1861
- Thompson, Benjamin F., 1784-1849
- Queens County Agricultural Society (N.Y.)
- Union Hall Academy (Jamaica, New York, N.Y.)
Places:
- Flushing (New York, N.Y.)
- Hempstead (N.Y.)
- Jamaica (New York, N.Y.)
- Kings County (N.Y.)
- Long Island (N.Y.)
- Long Island (N.Y.) — History — Civil War, 1861-1865
- Long Island (N.Y.) — History — Revolution, 1775-1783
- Nassau County (N.Y.)
- North Hempstead (N.Y. : Town)
- Oyster Bay (N.Y.)
- Queens County (N.Y.)
- Suffolk County (N.Y.)
Subjects:
- African Americans — New York (State) — Queens County
- Agriculture — New York (State) — Long Island
- Agriculture — New York (State) — Queens County
- Church announcements
- County courts
- Crime — New York (State) — Long Island
- Crime — New York (State) — Queens County
- Fourth of July — New York (State) — Long Island
- Fourth of July — New York (State) — Queens County
- Genealogy
- Local elections — New York (State) — Long Island
- Local elections — New York (State) — Queens County
- Long Island, Battle of, New York, N.Y., 1776
- Press and politics
- Quakers — New York (State) — Long Island
- Quakers — New York (State) — Queens County
- Railroad companies — New York (State) — Long Island
- Temperance — Societies, etc.
Types of material:
- Birth records
- Burial records
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Fliers (printed matter)
- Genealogies
- Marriage records
- Scrapbooks
- Transcripts
- Vital statistics records
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