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Women’s Exchange of Brooklyn Collection, 1863-1964. 3 manuscript boxes (1.5 cubic feet).
AccNo 1988.018
The Women’s Exchange of Brooklyn was founded in 1854 as the Brooklyn Female Employment Society and, like earlier predecessors in other U.S. and European cities, was a labor cooperative that furnished simple employment to women whose circumstances - physical or economic - impelled them to work from home. The Exchange instructed women and marketed their work. The Brooklyn Exchange, which acquired its present name in 1936, is now the oldest among the twenty-five members of the Federation of Woman’s Exchanges in the United States.
The dates of this collection range from 1863 to 1964, with the bulk of material dating from the 1920’s to the 1940’s, and is made up of four series. Series 1 contains the monthly meeting minutes of the Board of Managers, accompanied by a treasurer’s report on the previous month’s activities. Series 2 consists of financial documentation, annual reports and audits, and legal documents. Series 3 is primarily comprised of correspondence, most of which relates to various properties owned by the exchange. Series 4 is chiefly made up of materials related to public relations and development, including donation requests, advertising efforts, and newspaper articles.
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Bishop Family Papers (1828-1879)
ArMs 1977.316
The Reverend Alexander Hamilton Bishop was pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Astoria, Long Island. His wife, Susan Holmes (1817-1847), was the daughter of Obadiah Holmes (1790-1867) and Sarah Van Wyck (1793-1825), who descended from two well-known Long Island families.
The Bishop Family Papers are a collection of two play scripts written by Reverend Bishop, a family almanac with added pages noting weather conditions, family correspondence, and a journal kept by Susan Holmes during a trip to Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa before her marriage to Reverend Bishop.
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Patterson Family Collection, 1847-1956. 1.25 linear feet (3 document boxes, 1 oversize folder, 4 custom boxes).
AccNo. 1980.013
The Pattersons were a multi-generational family living in Brooklyn Heights, and its members worked in a variety of fields. William Patterson (c.1821-1890/1891) worked in construction, and his son, Stephen (1855-1905), worked as a lawyer, as did Stephen’s daughter, May (c.1879-1925). May Patterson holds the distinction of being the first female Assistant District Attorney to argue a case in a United States court. Stephen’s other daughter, Annie Louise (1883-1970), married Alexander Lassen Jones (c.1881-?), a theater manager and producer.
The Patterson Family Collection is comprised of the papers and photographs saved by the Patterson Family between 1847 and 1956. The collection includes financial documents, legal documents, correspondence, scrapbooks, diaries, photographs, post cards, and cartes de visite. The content of the collections varies based on date as different generations saved different types of material.
Access Points:
Personal Names
Elwell, Emily L. Jones (1921-?)
Jones, Annie L. Patterson (1883-1970)
Jones, Emily L. (1921-?)
Patterson, Annie L. Ames (1857-1931)
Patterson, Mary Anne (c.1826-1898)
Patterson, May (c.1879-1925)
Patterson, Stephen G. (1855-1905)
Patterson, William (c.1821-1890)
Subjects
District Attorney
Women’s Rights
Women-Suffrage
Women lawyers
Geographical Headings
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
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Marcy Avenue Baptist Church Records, 1872-1939. 2 Record Carton boxes and 3 scrapbooks in custom enclosures (3.5 cubic feet).
ArMs 1985.081, ArMs 1977.206
The Marcy Avenue Baptist Church, which began as an outgrowth of the Washington Avenue Baptist Church, was formed in 1872 and located in the Beford-Stuyvesant area. The church experienced rapid growth and underwent several expansions in the 1870’s and 1880’s. By 1900 Marcy Avenue Baptist Church was the largest Baptist church in Brooklyn. It was dis-banned in 1939.
This collection contains the Marcy Avenue Baptist Church’s administrative and organizational records, which include Membership Rolls, Registers, and Marriage Stubs as well as Deacons reports, Ladies Aid Society reports, Sunday School Superintendent Reports, Benevolent Society reports, Reports of the Board of Trustees, and general Church Statistics.
Access Points:
Personal Names
Jeffery, Reuben, Rev., D.D.
Rhoades, W.C.P., Rev., D.D.
Fox, William B. (Brownell)
Fox, Emily Parker, Mrs.
Banta, Theodore M. (Theodore Melvin), 1834-1910
Hudnut, James Monroe, 1844-
Elliott, Emma Payne, Mrs., “Mother Elliot”
Snow, Charles Thompson
Stout, George Corwin
Corporate Names
Marcy Avenue Baptist Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Long Island Baptist Association
Washington Avenue Baptist Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Marcy Avenue Baptist Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.) — History.
Marcy Avenue Baptist Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.) — Anniversaries, etc.
Topics
Baptists - New York (State) - New York
Geographic Terms
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Church history.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) Religious life and customs - 19th century
Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York, N.Y.)
Marcy Avenue (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
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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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Records of the Women’s Alliance of the First Unitarian Church, 1922-2004 (Bulk dates: 1980-1998). 4 boxes: 3 record cartons, 1 flat box (4.3 cubic feet).
ArMs 2005.031
The Women’s Alliance of the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn 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 Alliance remains active today, and members continue to represent a broad spectrum of views that reflect the liberal beliefs and practices of Unitarian Universalism.
The collection mainly encompasses the period of the resurgence of the Women’s Alliance during the latter half of the twentieth century. The inclusive dates span from 1922 to 2004, with bulk dates ranging from 1980 to 1998. Records consist primarily of organizational material, including meeting minutes, correspondence, and financial documents. Church programs, transcripts of sermons, and copies of the Women’s Alliance’s newsletter are also included, as are photographs from Women’s Alliance events. A number of records also reveal the group’s relationships with other female-oriented and religious organizations.
Access Points:
- Anagnost, Loretta
- Brugnola, Orlanda
- Campobasso, Miriam
- Hoogenboom, Olive
- Lazarus, Katharine
- Odessky, Marjory
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Women’s Alliance
- Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Church history
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Religious life
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Social life and customs
- Feminism - Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Pro-choice movement - Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Religion and social problems - New York (State) - New York
- Social action - New York (State) - New York - History - 20th century
- Unitarianism - New York (State) - New York - History
- Women in religion - Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Women clergy
- Women’s rights and spiritualism - Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
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Brooklyn, N.Y, U.S. Civil War Relief Associations Collection including “Women’s Sanitary Fair,” 1846-1964 (bulk 1858-1871). 10 boxes(5 manuscript boxes, 2 artifact boxes, and 3 oversized boxes), 2.5 linear feet plus oversized and artifact boxes (appx. 4.5 feet total).
AccNo. 1973.191, 1974.123, 1977.099, 1977.329, 1981.005.
This collection contains materials from Brooklyn organizations that functioned during the United States Civil War (1861-1865) in providing resources and relief to Union Army soldiers and their families, thereby rendering assistance to the federal government in the successful prosecution of the war. Materials primarily consist of ledgers, financial vouchers, minute books, printed material, subscription books, reports, clippings, pamphlets, poetry, speeches, and some correspondence.
Organizations represented include the War Fund Committee (WFC) of Brooklyn and two of its specific committees, the “Home Trust of the Volunteers” and the “Lincoln Monument Fund,” as well as the Women’s Relief Association (WRA) of Brooklyn, a local auxiliary of the United States Sanitary Commission. The greater part of the collection consists of records from the Brooklyn & Long Island Sanitary Fair (a fund-raising event sponsored by the WFC and WRA), but items also pertain to other relief organizations and events, such as sanitary fairs held in other cities, the Brooklyn & Long Island Christian Commission and the American Freedmen’s Friend Society.
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Cranston Family Papers, 1846-1923. 4 boxes (3 legal manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box), 1.75 cubic feet.
ArMs 1994.013
The Cranston Family collection comprises 1.75 cubic feet of letters, clippings, books, certificates, and ephemera from three generations of the Cranston and Morehouse families of Brooklyn, N.Y. The majority of the collection relates to the lives of Alfred Cranston and his wife Elizabeth H. Petford Cranston. The collection also contains letters, books, and ephemera relating to the Cranstons’ daughter Ella Cranston, to the Morehouse family (from which a daughter, Emma Louise, married the Cranston’s son, Alfred Petford Cranston), and to their relatives, the Oliver and Bellows families.
Alfred Cranston was a volunteer firefighter and fought in the Civil War with the 14th Regiment on the New York State Militia, known popularly as “the Fighting Fourteenth”, and later superintendent of the Postal Telegraph Building in Manhattan, home of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company. Elizabeth H. Petford Cranston was active in the Society of the Wives and Daughters of the 14th Regiment War Veterans, serving as the Society’s president from 1893 to 1915. She also took part in numerous church and charity activities.
Access Points:
- Fire fighters - Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-History-Civil War, 1861-1865-Regimental histories
- St. Cloud (Fla.)-History
- United States-History-Civil War, 1861-1865-Veterans
- Grand Army of the Republic
- Postal Telegraph-Cable Company
- United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 84th (1861-1864)
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Horatio C. King Collection, Circa 1850-1925. 3 document boxes (0.7 cubic feet).
ArMs 1977.195 & 1991.035
Horatio Collins King (1837-1918) was a prominent lawyer and politician, running for Secretary of State for New York as a Democrat in 1895, Congress as a member of the Sound Money Party in 1896, and Comptroller for the Progressive Party in 1912. He served as a Civil War officer in the Armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah from 1862-1865. He lived in Brooklyn Heights with his wife, Esther Augusta Howard, and their nine children. He was also a published writer of poetry and songs as well as a lecturer.
This collection is a loose assortment of items pertaining to Horatio C. King, Esther King (his wife), and Mary E. Hewitt, an American writer and poet who was the mother of King’s first wife, Emma. Content also relates to the Fort Greene Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (of which Esther was a member), as well as King’s involvement with the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument Association of the United States and the Society of the Army of the Potomac.
Access Points:
- King, Horatio C. (Horatio Collins), 1837-1918
- Hewitt, Mary E.
- King, Esther
- Daughters of the American Revolution
- Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument Association of the United States
- Army of the Potomac
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Papers of Herbert Stavely Sammond, 1871-1964 (inclusive dates: 1889-1964; bulk dates: 1891-1958). 5 manuscript boxes (2 cubic feet).
ArMs 1977.245
Herbert Stavely Sammond (1871-1964) was an organist and choral leader who began his career with the Greenwood Heights Reformed Church (42nd Street and 7th Avenue, Brooklyn) while still an adolescent. Greenwood Heights was the first in a long succession of Brooklyn- and Manhattan-based churches that Sammond served as organist and choirmaster.
In 1919, Sammond founded the Morning Choral Society of Brooklyn as a women’s amateur vocal group. Over the years it gained an esteemed reputation among the churchgoing citizens of Brooklyn, and his retirement from the group in 1949 met with fanfare and local media attention. The Morning Choral Society eventually disbanded in 1962, two years before Sammond’s death.
The papers of Hebert Stavely Sammond constitute a personal record of musical activity by a man who spent seventy years as an organist, choral leader and music teacher in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Brooklyn. The collection contains letters, scrapbooks, clippings, writings, scores, sheet music and an abundance of souvenir programs.
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