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Brooklyn Historical Atlases, 1846-1932
The Brooklyn Historical Society possesses a collection of historical atlases of Brooklyn spanning the years 1846-1932. The atlases included in the collection were generated for various purposes, i.e., for insurance purposes, for use by real estate brokers and/or lawyers, for the mapping of farm lines, or for the use of government officials. The intended purpose of each atlas reflects which features of the surveyed area are emphasized.
As the atlases advance chronologically, so too do they advance in technical sophistication. Depending on the level of detail, atlases can include information such as the material content of every building, house and block numbers, content and condition of pavement, street status and usability, locations of sewers and water mains, locations of subway and rail lines, plate boundaries, section and ward division lines, and original farm lines, among further information.
This collection is an excellent historical resource for researchers looking to map the changes that have occurred to the neighborhoods of Brooklyn over time. Collectively, the atlases present a nearly exhaustive survey of the borough of Brooklyn as it existed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Most atlases are physically represented in the collection, but some are only available on microfiche. The collection is accompanied by a navigational index. For each atlas, the index lists the atlas number (and location within the collection); microfilm reel; date of publication; author/surveyor; title, including the townships and/or wards surveyed; and neighborhoods included.
Click here to view the atlas index.
There is no appointment required to view this collection.
Lawrence Family Papers (1759-1852). 3 boxes (1.6 cubic feet).
ArMs 1977.105
This collection contains log books, account books, journals, and day books belonging to the Lawrences of Bayside and Flushing, N.Y.
Joseph Lawrence (1741-?) was a merchant captain from Flushing. He was at one time employed by Samuel Townsend, who was the son of one of the first settlers of Oyster Bay, L.I. One of Townsend’s vessels, the brig Audrey, built some time before the Revolution, was commanded by Joseph’s brother, Effingham. Another brother, John L., (1731-?) may be the “John” who appears on the cover of an account book in this collection. Joseph’s son, Effingham, was a judge in Queens County in the early 19th century. He lived at the family homestead, “Stone-House,” in Bayside and was possibly the source of the later account books.
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Isaac & Silas Ludlam Papers (1744-CA. 1870’s). 1 box (0.75 linear feet).
ArMs 1973.226
The Ludlam Family has a long history of serving as Surveyors for the Village and City of Brooklyn. Stephen Ludlam was the first, being appointed in 1809. He was followed by his son Silas in 1834, his grandson Austin in 1880 and his greatgrandson Ralph in 1911. Silas Ludlam (1806-1892) began working as a surveyor in 1927. In the 1834 New York City directory he is listed as a City Surveyor alongside one Isaac Ludlam, and the two share the same address. Their family and business relationship is unknown. Silas Ludlam was an authority on old Brooklyn, and the present Ludlam Place in Brooklyn is named in his honor.
The Isaac & Silas Ludlam Papers document the surveying activities of the Ludlams in Brooklyn. Although the collection contains 73 items from 1744 to 1880, the bulk of it consists of 69 letters received by the Ludlams between 1826 and 1839, requesting that the Ludlams provide surveying services. The writers of these letters include many prominent citizens of nineteenth-century Brooklyn, both public officials and private citizens.
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Brooklyn Ephemera Collection (1814-1998). 19 manuscript boxes and 2 oversize boxes (9.8 cubic feet).
The Brooklyn Ephemera Collection contains materials of mixed provenance accumulated over decades by the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society). It is comprised of 12 series: Businesses, Churches, Civic Organizations and Celebrations, Clubs, Entertainment, Military, Schools, Sports, Transportation, Miscellaneous, Comic Books, and Calendars/Oversized Materials. The materials relate to a variety of Brooklyn-based institutions and events spanning a period of time from 1814 to 1998. Examples of the encompassed materials include correspondence, announcements, pamphlets, special events programs and notices, note papers, tickets, newspaper clippings, trade cards, ads, receipts, invoices, tour maps and information, postcards and certificates.
Access Points:
Personal and Corporate Names
Pierrepont, John Jay, 1849-1911
Grant, Ulysses S. [Ulysses Simpson], 1822-1885
Adelphi College
Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.). Commissioners of Prospect Park
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.). Park Commissioners
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Athenaeum
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn Club (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn Dodgers (Baseball team)
Brooklyn Dodgers (Football team)
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn Tabernacle (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn Union Gas Company
Erasmus Hall High School
First Presbyterian Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Historic Districts Council (New York, N.Y.)
National Railway Historical Society
New York City Transit Authority
New York Naval Ship Yard
New York Transit Museum
St. Francis College (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Visiting Nurse Service of New York
Subject Headings
African Americans
American Revolution Bicentennial, 1976
Baseball - New York (State) - New York
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - religious life and customs
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - social life and customs
Brooklyn Bridge (New York, N.Y.)
Brownstone - New York (State) - New York
Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn Trust Company Building (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Songs and music.
Armed Forces - New York (State) - New York
Clubs - New York (State) - New York
Entertainment events - New York (State) - New York
Racing - New York (State) - New York
Railroads - New York (State) - New York
Sports - New York (State) - New York
Theater - New York (State) - New York
Williamsburg Bridge (New York, N.Y.)
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Lefferts Family Collection (1671-1980). 6 record cartons, 1 document box, 1 flat box (7 cubic feet).
ArMs 2006.004
Since the eighteenth century, the Lefferts family, decended from the Dutch settlers of New York, has fostered a notable Brooklyn legacy, anchored by such family members as Pieter Leffert, a farmer, army lieutenant, and judge, who in 1783 built a farmhouse in Flatbush that has remained a Brooklyn landmark, currently standing in Prospect Park and housing the Lefferts Historic House Museum; and Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt, Pieter’s granddaughter, who documented her family life and that of the Flatbush community in The Social History of Flatbush, published in 1881.
This collection was originally discovered in the Lefferts family’s summer home in Bellport, Long Island, built by James Leffert in 1917. The collection, spanning the mid-17th century through mid-20th century, includes personal family books and letters, archival documentation, slave bills of sale, indentures, manuscripts, business and legal papers, newspaper clippings, a sub-division map of John Lefferts’s Flatbush property, as well as visual arts materials: scrapbooks, glass slides, photographs, and other materials from the Flatbush- and extended Lefferts family branches. It also includes information on other multi-generational Brooklyn families.
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Parks Department, City and Borough of Brooklyn (1856-1945). 32.5 linear inches.
AccNo 1977.325
This collection contains materials relating to the administrative functions of the Parks Department of the City and Borough of Brooklyn. The nature of the items includes correspondence, finance reports, legal documents, minutes and proceedings, maps and drawings, and miscellaneous items such as clippings and brochures.
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Shellens Family Collection, including Papers of Captain Michael Shellens, 1873-1984 (Bulk dates: 1880-1927). 6 Boxes (4 legal-sized document boxes and 2 oversize boxes), 3.6 cubic ft.
ArMs 1988.001
This collection contains personal and business correspondence, business and financial records, books, photographs, and ephemera related to Captain Michael Shellens (1854-1944) and his family. The materials are dated 1873-1984 and are principally about Shellens’ life and career as a mariner who advanced in rank to captain, afterward becoming a successful real estate businessman in Brooklyn.
The bulk of the collection dates from 1880 to 1927 and consists of family papers, chiefly those of Captain Shellens, with some from others of the immediate family and also from Shellens’s family in Antwerp. The materials collected from voyages consist of discharge papers received at destination ports, business and financial records, and correspondence compiled during Shellens’ various sailing trips.
Shellens’s business records comprise an assortment of materials relating to Shellens’ sailing and real estate career, including inventory of properties of interest to Shellens, professional certifications, survey reports from Shellens’ career as a Surveyor, and log books. Financial records include bank accounts, ledger books, and real estate transactions. Correspondence contains both business and personal materials, including employment applications, letters received and written to colleagues, tenants, and family members.
Materials relating to the Shellens family include correspondence between Shellens and his brother, M. Henry Shellens, and his Antwerp cousins, 1890-1940. Also included are obituaries of family members and materials relating to Shellens’ and his wife’s deaths such as funeral memoirs, legal and financial documents including wills, bank balances, an inventory of Shellens’s real estate holdings, certificates and birth records for Shellens’ daughter Ruth.
The last portion of the collection consists of books on sailing and ships and on religion.
Access Points:
- Shellens, Michael
- Shellens, Ruth
- Shellens, Marshall
- Shellens, Hazel
- Real estate
- Sailing
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
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Independent Civic Association of Sheepshead Bay and Brooklyn (New York) Civic Council Records, 1922-1975 (bulk dates: 1922-1960). 9 manuscript boxes (4.25 linear feet).
ArMs 1978.125
The Independent Civic Association of Sheepshead Bay was founded in 1922, twenty-five years after Brooklyn’s consolidation into New York City. The association members were male, over the age of twenty-one, and residents or property owners in Sheepshead Bay, named in the colonial period for the abundance of the local fish. The association’s objectives focused on suggesting and securing community improvements and promoting community spirit. The Brooklyn Civic Council addressed civic issues for the whole of Brooklyn, and the Sheepshead Bay association was one of seventy civic groups in this period who participated in the larger council.
This collection includes records, clippings, reports, brochures and letters about the history of Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park, Brooklyn. The collection is made up of four series: Series I, “Independent Civic Association of Sheepshead Bay - Minutes and Records”; Series 2, “Independent Civic Association of Sheepshead Bay - Correspondence and Newspaper Clippings”; Series 3, “Scrapbooks”; and Series 4, “Brooklyn Civic Council Records.”
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Charles Henry Wenman Papers, 1832-1951. 6 boxes (6 cubic feet).
ArMs 1977.335
Charles Henry Wenman, Jr. was born in 1869. At nineteen, he secured a clerkship upon finishing school. Within a few years, Wenman became the General Book-Keeper of the Illinois Central Railroad after being introduced to acting President Stuyvesant Fish. By the time Wenman left the corporation in 1906, he had held various positions at the railroad, and after Fish’s forced retirement from the railroad, Wenman became his Secretary until Fish’s death in 1923.
Apart from Wenman’s work with Fish, he also ventured into the world of business on his own. In 1923, he formed the Stenciltype Company, which produced mimeograph stencil machines for advertising and duplication. The company dissolved in 1925. In addition, Wenman helped his cousin run the Crea-Mont Country Club in Culver Lake, NJ from 1925-1927. Besides investing in the Stencil type Company, Wenman also invested in a fraudulent motion picture company, Century Motion Picture Company, as well as several other fly-by-night business opportunities. Wenman died in 1957.
The Charles H. Wenman Papers have been arranged into six series: Personal Correspondence, Fish Family Records, Wenman Business Records, Wenman Legal and Real Estate Papers, Wenman Business and Personal Ledgers, and Wenman Personal Writings.
The Personal Correspondence series contains over 2,000 letters written mostly to Charles Wenman from his extended family members.
The Fish Family Records contain correspondence sent by Wenman on behalf of Fish, as well as personal business and genealogical correspondence. There are also balance sheets of income taxes paid by Fish, inquiries into business ventures, and copies of mortgages and deeds, as well as legal documents concerning the alliance made between Fish Family members after the death of the elder Fish. Finally, there are also records dealing with the Telautograph Corporation, a venture concerning the use of the telegraph system in a way as to reproduce handwritten messages, and records dealing with land that was rented or sold by the Fish family through the Petersfield Realty Firm.
The Wenman Business Records include correspondence, balance sheets and legal documents concerning several investments made by Wenman.
The Wenman Legal and Real Estate Papers consist of family estate papers of the Hamilton Family, Wenman’s aunt, Nellie Hilfers, papers from the estate of Peter Stuyvesant, and two lawsuits brought against Wenman because of his connections with the Fish business. Also included are chronicles of the construction and maintenance of Wenman’s brownstone located at 990 Park Place in Brooklyn, correspondence and building specifications of property owned by Wenman at Academy and Webster Streets in Long Island City, and records concerning Wenman’s business venture with his cousin’s wife, Mary Wenman, in the maintenance of a country club built by her on Culver Lake in New Jersey.
The Wenman Business and Personal Ledgers contain Wenman’s daily journals for the years 1925 and 1933-1935, and the Gulick Guards Book of Members, By-Laws, Constitution and Minutes. The Gulick Guards were an organization associated with Fire Engine Company #40 of Brooklyn.
The Wenman Personal Writings series contains writings by Wenman including some autobiographical notes, letters to various editors of New York newspapers, some historical research done by Wenman, and, of particular interest, Wenmans’ writings of protest concerning the United States’ system of taxation. Wenman vehemently protested what he termed as the ‘dogs of government’ feeding on the income of the people.
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New York World’s Fair Collection, 1939-1940, 1964-1965. 14 boxes (1 oversize box, 2 artifact boxes), 5.5+ linear feet.
AccNo. 1977.302 and 1977.276
The New York World’s Fair Collection includes materials from the 1939 and the 1964-65 World’s Fairs. Both took place in Queens at Flushing Meadows Park, a site that was extensively redesigned and landscaped in preparation for the 1939 Fair.
Two manuscript boxes contain material about the 1964 World’s Fair while the other nine relate to the 1939 Fair. The 1964 material includes preliminary reports and planning documents detailing the work to be done on the Fair site in Flushing Meadows Park; the maps and photographs in these reports provide valuable documentation of the extent of the planning and improvements made to the park.
Much of the 1939 material consists of travel brochures to individual American states and to countries around the world. Other material includes brochures from many of the Fair’s exhibitions. Memorabilia and artifacts in this collection are varied and range from restaurant menus to invitations to opening-day ceremonies to packets of souvenir Fair tickets.
Visual material exists for the 1964 World’s Fair, consisting of 92 color slides, ten color postcards, and two copies of a 35 mm. film reel entitled “Come to the Fair.” These materials are stored with the Image Collection.
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