Emma

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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