Archives & Library Special Collections
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Call Number: ARC.044
Extent: 1.9 Linear feet, in three manuscript boxes and one phase box.
The Edna Huntington papers and photographs, dated 1905 to 1965, are organized into three series: Brooklyn Research, Personal Papers, and Photographs. While Brooklyn Research gives a focused view of Huntington’s work as a librarian, Personal Papers provides a broader perspective on her career and its impact, as well as her education, her hobbies, and travels during her career. Photographs complements travel journals in the Personal Papers series with black-and-white prints and negatives of Huntington’s vacations with her travel companion, Stella Kline.
Edna Huntington (1895-1965) attended P.S. 131 in Brooklyn and later completed Columbia University’s Home Study courses in Librarianship. She began working for the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society) in 1926 and served as Head Librarian from 1936 to 1960. In addition to her work as a librarian, Huntington was an avid traveler. During the 1920s and 1930s, she planned a number of hiking and camping trips throughout the northeast United States and documented her excursions with photographs and detailed travel journals.
Names:
- Huntington, Edna, 1895-1965
- Long Island Historical Society
- Kline, Stella O.
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History
- Long Island (N.Y.) — History
- New York (N.Y.) — Intellectual life — 20th century
Subjects:
- Librarians — New York (State) — New York
- Outdoor recreation
- Voyages and travels
Types of material:
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Research notes
- Scrapbooks
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View Collection photographs (v1974.16.0001 – v1974.16.0058)
Call Number: ARC.211
Extent: 0.21 Linear feet, in one folder and 18 loose volumes.
The Bartlett family collection consists of correspondence, printed ephemera, and diaries relating to the Bartlett family of Brooklyn and spanning the period 1862 to 1931. Correspondence and ephemera pertain to Judge William Bartlett and include letters from Bartlett to a Mr. Steiger during a trip to South America, a pamphlet containing an address delivered by Bartlett at the Georgetown University Law School, articles written by Bartlett, and obituaries for Bartlett printed in various newspapers. Diaries in the collection were written by Mary F.B., Maud W., and Agnes W. Bartlett and mostly pertain to daily activities of the Bartlett family, daily weather conditions, and a family trip to Europe.
Willard Bartlett (1846-1925) was born in Massachusetts and lived in Brooklyn for the latter 56 years of his life. He graduated from New York University in 1868, and in 1870 he wed Mary Fairbanks Buffum of Brooklyn, with whom he had two daughters, Maud W. and Agnes W. Bartlett. Bartlett practiced law with Elihu Root from 1869 to 1883, and in 1884 became a Justice of the Supreme Court of New York State. He went on to serve as an Appellate Division Justice in the Supreme Court, an Associate Justice of the New York State Court of Appeals, and finally Chief Justice of the New York State Court of Appeals. In 1917, he retured to practicing law with Elihu Root. Bartlett was President of the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn and the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society), a member of the American Bar Association and the Brooklyn Bar Association, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also served as a drama critic for the New York Sun and reviewed books for the New York Herald. Bartlett also taught medical jurisprudence as a professor at the Long Island College Hospital. At Willard Bartlett’s death, the Bartlett family resided at 21 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn.
Names:
- Bartlett family
- Bartlett, Agnes W.
- Bartlett, Mary Buffum
- Bartlett, Maud W.
- Bartlett, Willard
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social conditions
Subjects:
- Families — New York (State) — Kings County
- Judges — New York (State)
- Lawyers — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Printed ephemera
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Call Number: ARC.094
Extent: 5.42 Linear feet, in five manuscript boxes and two oversize boxes.
The Michael Shellens family collection contains personal and business correspondence, business and financial records, books, photographs, and ephemera related to Michael Shellens (1854-1944) and his family. The materials date from 1865 to 1984 and are principally about Shellens’s life and career as a mariner who advanced in rank to captain, afterward becoming a successful real estate businessman in Brooklyn.
Names:
- Shellens, Michael, 1854-1944
- Shellens family
- Shellens, Ella Mabel, d. 1944
- Shellens, Hazel, b. 1909
- Shellens, M. Henry
- Shellens, Marshall, b. 1903
- Shellens, Ruth M., 1905-1987
- Wilson, George
- Agenor (Ship)
- Freemasons. Grand Lodge of Scotland
- Marine Society of the City of New York, in the State of New York
- Royal Arch Masons
Places:
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Bay Ridge (New York, N.Y)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Portland (Me.)
- Sunset Park (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Families — New York (State) — Kings County
- Freemasonry — New York (State) — New York
- Ocean travel
- Real estate business — New York (State) — Kings County
- Real property — New York (State) — Kings County
- Sailing
- Seafaring life
- Surveying
- Surveyors, Marine
Types of material:
- Accounts
- Agreements
- Balance sheets
- Birth certificates
- Books
- Business records
- Cabinet photographs
- Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)
- Certificates
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Discharges
- Estate inventories.
- Financial records
- Inventories
- Ledgers (account books)
- Logs (records)
- Obituaries
- Photographs
- Reports
- Tintypes (prints)
- Wills
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Call Number: ARC.046
Extent: 4.7 Linear feet, in two folders, two records cartons, two phases boxes, and two stereo slide boxes.
The Harry Kalmus papers and photographs consist of materials spanning 1938 to 1987 (bulk 1947-1955) and measure 4.7 linear feet. The majority of the material is photographic in nature, containing images taken by Harry Kalmus during his career as a photographer in Brooklyn. Document types include correspondence, autograph books, printed material, photographic prints, slides, stereoscopic slides, and black-and-white negatives. The collection is organized in two series: Papers and Photographs.
Harry Kalmus was born in 1924 and grew up on Vermont Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. He attended Yeshiva Toras Chaim and Thomas Jefferson High School. After serving in World War II, Kalmus returned to Brooklyn and began his career as a professional photographer. He worked for advertising agencies and corporate offices in Manhattan as well as photographing events such as weddings and bar mitzvahs in Brooklyn. In 1957, he and his family moved to the Queens neighborhood of Kew Gardens, and eventually settled in Freeport, N.Y. Kalmus died in 1987.
Names:
- Kalmus, Harry, 1924-1987
- Hotel St. George (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- P.S. 63 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Yeshivah Toras Chaim (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Places:
- Bensonhurst (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Religious life and customs
- Brownsville (New York, N.Y.)
- Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)
- Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Cypress Hills (New York, N.Y.)
- East New York (New York, N.Y.)
- Flatbush (New York, N.Y.)
- Grand Army Plaza (New York, N.Y.)
- Jones Beach State Park (N.Y.)
- New Lots (New York, N.Y.)
- Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.)
- Times Square (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Bar mitzvah
- Commercial photography
- Ebbets Field (New York, N.Y.)
- Empire State Building (New York, N.Y.)
- Jews — New York (State) — New York
- Weddings
Types of material:
- Autograph albums
- Color slides
- Correspondence
- Negatives (photographic)
- Photographs
- Stereoscopic photographs
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Call Number: ARC.282
Extent: 0.5 Linear feet, in one manuscript box and one flat box
The Luquer and Payne families papers (1822-1980) center on the Reverend Lea Luquer (1833-1919) and his wife, Eloise Elizabeth (nee Payne) (1834-1894), with material related to earlier and later generations of their family and related families, including Low, Lynch and Pierrepont. The collection includes Eloise’s journal of her 1874 travels in Western Europe with Lea. There are several editions of “The S.S.S.S. Gazette” (1876-1879), handwritten collections of poems and stories authored principally by the children of Lea and Eloise Luquer. There are nineteenth century indentures and other agreements concerning property in Brooklyn Heights, New York City, and Westchester County (N.Y.). Many of these relate to the estates of Nicholas Luquer (1810-1864) and Thatcher Taylor Payne (died 1863). The collection includes Payne and Luquer family genealogical documents compiled in the twentieth century, and records of burial plots at Green-Wood Cemetery for members of the Low, Luquer, Lynch, and Pierrepont families, among others. There is correspondence from Henry Evelyn Pierrepont to his wife (1865-1866) and documents concerning Seth Low Pierrepont’s disposition of property from the family home at One Pierrepont Place in Brooklyn, circa 1941. The collection holds a few Civil War era documents related to the Confederate States of America, including bonds and military correspondence.
Names:
- Luquer family
- Luquer, Eloise Elizabeth
- Luquer, Lea
- Luquer, Nicholas
- Luquer, Thatcher T. P.
- Lynch family
- Overmyer, Grace
- Payne family
- Payne, John Howard, 1791-1852
- Pierrepont family
- Pierrepont, Henry Evelyn, 1808-1888
- Pierrepont, Seth Low
- Green-Wood Cemetery (New York, N.Y.)
- White Star Line
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Europe — Description and travel
- New York (N.Y.)
- Southern States — History — Civil War, 1861-1865
- Westchester County (N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Cemeteries — New York (State) — Kings County
- Decedents’ estates — New York (State)
- Genealogy
- Ocean travel
- Real property — New York (State)
Types of material:
- Bonds (legal records)
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Family papers
- Indentures
- Invoices
- Journals (accounts)
- Manuscripts (document genre)
- Receipts (financial records)
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Call Number: 1979.006
Extent: 0.1 Linear feet, in one folder
The Reverend Edward Harris memoir, dated 1872, is a handwritten autobiographical work by Harris, a Presbyterian minister. Covering the period 1797-1872, Harris chronicles his various destinations as a minister, his motivations, family and other influences on his life choices, the manner in which he was called or assigned to various pulpits or presbyteries, his difficulties and challenges with various congregations, financial difficulties, health concerns, and his side occupations. Harris’s travels took him from Maine to North Carolina, from eastern Long Island (N.Y.) to Ohio, often repeatedly. Overall, Harris’s memoir provides insight into an itinerant ministry as a career choice, principally in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, in the nineteenth century.
Names:
Subjects:
- Clergy — Salaries, etc.
- Clergy — New England
- Clergy — New York (State) — Long Island
- Presbyterian Church — Clergy
- Presbyterians — New England
- Presbyterians — New York (State) — Long Island
Types of material:
- Autobiographies
- Manuscripts (document genre)
- Memoirs
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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: ARC.229
Extent: 0.1 Linear feet, in one manuscript box
Gabriel Furman (1800-1854) was a lawyer and historian of early Brooklyn. He kept an extensive set of journals and commonplace books during his life. This collection includes typescripts, prepared in the early twentieth century, of one of those journals, perhaps no longer extant, with entries from 1821-1823. Furman’s journal entries primarily concern the weather, yellow fever, ferry crossings, agricultural produce at market, fires or the threat of fire, and the built and natural environment. Observations on religion, local politics, and holiday celebrations also appear in some entries. The entries principally concern the downtown Brooklyn area, especially Brooklyn Heights. Substantive entries also concern lower Manhattan and Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
The location of the original Notes made by Furman, owned by Alfred T. White at the time the typescript was prepared, is unknown as of June 2011 and perhaps is no longer extant.
Names:
- Furman, Gabriel, 1800-1854
- Huntington, Edna, 1895-1965
- White, Alfred Tredway, 1846-1921
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Buildings, structures, etc.
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Climate
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Description and travel
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History
- New York (N.Y.) — Description and travel
- Paulus Hook (N.J.) — Description and travel
Subjects:
- Ferries — New York (State) — Kings County
- Yellow fever — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
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Joseph Arthur Burr, Jr. composition book, 1860-1866. 0.8 linear feet in one folder.
Call number: 1973.108
Joseph Arthur Burr, Jr. (1850-1915) was a lawyer who served as Corporation Counsel for the City of Brooklyn from 1896 to 1898 and, from 1905 until his death, as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. This collection consists of a composition book kept by Burr as a youth attending the Williamsburgh Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. (1860-1864) and the Wilton Academy in Connecticut (1864-1866). Burr’s book includes short descriptions of places and events in and around Brooklyn and New York. Among the subjects of these brief descriptions are the Japanese government’s 1860 delegation in New York, Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island), the 1864 Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair, local menageries, the brickyard at Verplanck’s Point on the Hudson River, the launch of the frigate Re D’Italia from the Webb Shipyard, the Morgan Iron Works, and anniversary celebrations of the Williamsburg Sunday School Union. Several entries are influenced by the progression of the Civil War and include reflections on some aspect of it, particularly the closing events of the war and Lincoln’s assassination.
Access Points
Personal Names
Burr, J. Arthur, (Joseph Arthur)
Corporate Names
Williamsburgh Institute (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Wilton Academy (Wilton, Conn.)
Geographic Names
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Description and travel
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History — Civil War, 1861-1865
New York (N.Y.) — Description and travel
Williamsburg (New York, N.Y.)
Wilton (Conn.)
Subjects
Lawyers — New York (State) — Kings County
Students — New York (State) — Kings County
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Call Number: ARC.190
Extent: 2.8 Linear feet, in seven manuscript boxes
Gabriel Furman (1800-1854) was a lawyer, Whig politician, New York State senator, and historian of early Brooklyn, New York, known for his Notes Geographical and Historical, Relating to the Town of Brooklyn, on Long-Island (1824). The Furman papers principally include thirteen journals dating from circa 1816 to circa 1854 in which Furman both documented his personal observations about Brooklyn and New York and recorded historical items relevant to his writing and lectures. Among the wide diversity of topics found in the journals are epidemics of cholera and yellow fever, financial crises, daily weather conditions, theatre and the arts, politics, and religious belief. The collection also holds Furman manuscript histories, notably one on theatre in New York. Finally, the collection includes several pages from a Furman letter book, principally from 1824, and a page of his legal drafts from 1823. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters written by Furman to his father, William, who was a New York State assemblyman away at Albany. The principal subjects of these letters concerned local perspectives on matters that would be taken up by the legislature, including Brooklyn’s effort to gain a charter for a proposed Long Island Bank, the proposed act of incorporation for Brooklyn, and Furman’s opposition to a proposed expansion of capital punishment in New York. Local electoral politics is also a subject of the correspondence.
Names:
- Furman, Gabriel, 1800-1854
- Long Island Bank
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Buildings, structures, etc.
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Climate
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Commerce
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Description and travel
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Economic conditions
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History — Archival resources.
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Politics and government
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Religious life and customs
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social conditions
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social life and customs
- New York (N.Y.) — History
- New York (State) — History
Subjects:
- Cholera — New York (State) — Kings County
- Theaters — New York (State) — New York — History
- Yellow fever — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- commonplace books
- Diaries
- Histories
- Letter books
- natural history
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View Subject Index for Volumes 2 and 3
View Subject Index for Volumes 4 and 5
View Subject Index for Volumes 6 and 7
View Subject Index for Volumes 8, 9, and 10
View Subject Index for Volumes 12, 15, and 16
View Subject Index for Volume Miscellanies
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