Archives & Library Special Collections
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Typescripts of Gabriel Furman’s notes on Brooklyn, N.Y., 1821-1823. 0.1 linear feet in 2 folders.
Call number: ARC.229
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.
Access Points
Personal Names
Furman, Gabriel, 1800-1854–Diaries
Geographic Names
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
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Benjamin H. Foster and Samuel Hunt family papers, 1774-1870. 0.2 linear feet in one manuscript box.
Call number: 1977.198
This collection contains two principal sets of documents, one centered on attorney Benjamin H. Foster (1808-circa 1880s) of Southampton, Long Island, N.Y., and the other on Foster’s brother-in-law, Samuel Hunt (1810-1878) of Massachusetts. Many of the documents, such as bills of sale, receipts and indentures, pertain to Benjamin Foster and his family’s involvement in the whaling and steam ship industry in the mid-1800s. Other documents relate to Foster’s legal work for various estates, and some concern the building of a branch of the Long Island Rail Road from Riverhead to Sag Harbor. The Hunt material consists primarily of correspondence from Reverend Richard Hunt to his son, Samuel. Subjects of the Hunt correspondence include family matters, family deaths, fatherly advice, and religion, especially concerning the father’s encouragement of his son toward a life and career rooted in spirituality. Correspondence from Samuel’s ill brother describes an experience of searching for a cure through “animal magnetism.” The material also includes notes most likely taken by Samuel at a speech given by Carl Schurz at the Harvard College Alumni Dinner in 1877 concerning the federal government’s policies toward the U.S. South.
Access Points
Personal Names
Foster, Abigail
Foster, Benjamin H.
Hunt, Richard
Hunt, Samuel, 1810-1878
Corporate Name
Long Island Railroad Company
Geographic Names
Sag Harbor (N.Y.)
Southampton (N.Y.)
Southampton (N.Y.) — Genealogy
Suffolk County (N.Y.)
Subjects
Animal magnetism
Clergy — Massachusetts
Decedents’ estates — New York (State) — Suffolk County
Family life
Religion
Whaling ships
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Secor, Flint and Cousins families collection, 1840-1971. 1.0 linear feet in 3 manuscript boxes and 3 boxes of special photographic formats.
Call number: ARC.192
This collection contains materials pertaining to the Flint, Secor, and Cousins families of New York from 1840-1971. Material types include correspondence, photographs, bound books, deeds, wills, indentures, marriage certificates, ephemera, and Civil War military passes and correspondence. Subjects of correspondence in this collection include travel, family health, and basic communicative efforts between family members over four generations. The photographs are primarily portraits of the Secor, Flint, and Cousins families during the turn of the twentieth century, though some images of the interiors and exteriors of homes are included.
Access Points:
Corporate Names
Geo. C. Flint & Co. (New York, N.Y.).
United States. Army. New York Heavy Artillery Regiment, 4th (1862-1865). — Correspondence
Family Names
Cousins family – Correspondence
Flint family – Correspondence
Secor family — Correspondence
Geographic Names
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
London (England) — description and travel
New York (State) — History — Civil War, 1861-1865
United States — History — Civil War, 1861-1865.
Personal Names
Cousins, Cora L. Flint, 1850-1899
Cousins, Mary Lawrence Secor, 1862-1931
Egan, Cornelia Cousins, b. 1888
Flint, Alden, 1837-1872
Flint, Catherine M., 1810-1895
Flint, Cyrus, 1804-1869
Flint, George C., 1840-1924
Merrill, Mary L. Flint, 1848-1921
Secor, Cornelia A. Flint, 1836-1915
Secor, John G., 1833-1872
Subjects
Communication in families
Families — Health and hygiene
Family life
Furniture industry and trade — Louisiana — New Orleans
Furniture industry and trade — New York (State) — New York
Genealogy
Inheritance and succession
Voyages and travels
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Martin Fishman photographs, 1989 – 2009, 113 photographs (.25 linear foot)
Paula Fishman donated 113 photographs by the late Martin Fishman to the photography collection in 2010. The photographs are 8″x10″ and 8.5″x11″ black and white prints of photographs taken of Coney Island over the previous two decades. Some of the photographs capture events such as the annual Mermaid Parade.
Martin Fishman grew up on the Lower East Side and in Brighton Beach, and spent childhood summers in Coney Island. While attending Baruch College and later working as a caseworker for the City of New York, he pursued his passion for freelance photography. Most of his photography captures street scenes and people in Manhattan and Brooklyn. He was also known for his photographs of Quentin Crisp, some of which can be seen at Crisperanto.org. Fishman’s work has been published in Time Out New York and the New York Times, among other publications.
To access the Martin Fishman photographs, please visit the library.
First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn records, 1790-1970s. 99 manuscript boxes and 18 oversize flat boxes (50.5 linear feet)
ARC.109
The First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn records contains documents created and collected by the Church from the point of its founding in 1833 to the mid 1970s. The collection contains a broad range of documents covering the variety of the Congregation’s work and operations including its official minutes and trustee records, financial records, ministers files, sermons, photographs, calendars, celebration programs and registers, and building records that include deeds, leases, and building plans for the Church of the Saviour and other buildings owned by the First Church. The community and charity work of the Church is represented as well through ledgers, correspondence, notes and reports by the various clubs and committees and through similar documentation from the Church’s Willow Place Chapel where the Church’s settlement and welfare programs and Sunday school operated. The Church was also involved with local and international relief and aid groups, particularly during the tenure of Minister John H. Lathrop. Lathrop’s files include correspondence, minutes of committees, and other documents from his work with a variety of local and worldwide religious and humanitarian groups. Lathrop also collected a variety of reference materials, including pamphlets, flyers, and articles pertaining to peace, liberalism, theology, and family planning. Other major figures of the First Church and Brooklyn history represented by the collection include the Low family and Alfred T. White. The collection also holds scrapbooks with relevant collected clippings that were donated by parishioners and photographs of some church members and activities.
The Second and Third Unitarian Congregations are both represented within this collection as well. These two congregations split from the First Congregation at different points in the 19th century and both re-united with the First Congregation in the mid-1920s. The variety of records relative to these congregations is similar to that of the First Congregation including trustee records, building records, finances, minister files, clubs and social work, and Sunday school records. The documents related to these congregations also include the record books of their respective Women’s Branch Alliances.
Access Points:
Personal Names
- Barlow, David H., (David Hatch), 1805-1864
- Camp, Stephen H.
- Chadwick, John White, 1840-1904
- Collier, H. Price
- Eliot, Samuel A., (Samuel Atkins), 1862-1950
- Farley, Frederick A., (Frederick Augustus), 1800-1892
- Forbes, John P.
- Goodnough, Alfred Everett
- Holland, Frederick W.
- Lafever, Minard
- Lathrop, John Howland, 1880-1967
- Longfellow, Samuel, 1819-1892
- Low, Abiel Abbot, 1811-1893
- Low, Seth, 1782-1853
- Masaryk, Jan, 1886-1948
- Masaryková, Charlotta G. (Charlotta Garrigue), 1850-1923
- Putnam, A. P. , (Alfred Porter), 1827-1906
- Staples, N. A., (Nahor Augustus), 1830-1864
- White, Alfred Tredway, 1846-1921
Corporate Names
- American Association of the Red Cross. Brooklyn Chapter.
- American Committee on Religious Rights and Minorities.
- American Unitarian Association.
- Brooklyn Urban League (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- Church of the Saviour (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Samaritan Alliance.
- First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- Furman Street Mission (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- Green-Wood Cemetery (New York, N.Y.).
- International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom.
- National Peace Conference (U.S.).
- Second Unitarian Church (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- Second Unitarian Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Women’s Branch Alliance.
- Second Unitarian Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- Third Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.). Women’s Branch Alliance.
- Third Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
- Willow Place Chapel (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
Geographic Names
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-Church History
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-Genealogy
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-Religious life and customs
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)-Intellectual Life-20th century
- Czechoslovakia
Subjects
- Architecture-New York (State)-Kings County-History-19th century
- Charities-New York (State)-Kings County
- Church finance-Accounting
- Community centers-New York (State)-Kings County
- Gothic Revival (Architecture)
- Peace movements-United States-History
- Refugees-International relief
- Religion and social problems
- Social action-New York (State)-Kings County-History
- Social settlements-New York (State)-Kings County
- Sunday schools
- Unitarian Churches-History
- Unitarian Churches-Romania-Transylvania
- Unitarian theology
- Unitarianism
- Unitarianism-New York (State)-Kings County-History
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Gabriel Furman papers, 1725-1913. 2.8 linear feet in 7 boxes (6 manuscript boxes and 1 oversize flat box)
Call number: ARC.190
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.
Access Points:
Subject Organizations
Long Island Bank
Subject Places
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Buildings, structures, etc.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Climate — 19th century
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
Subject Topics
Cholera — New York (State) — Kings County
Theaters — New York (State) — New York — History
Yellow fever — New York (State) — Kings County
For the Furman papers, in addition to the finding aid for the entire collection, there are detailed subject indexes for Furman’s thirteen journals (there are no volumes numbered 1, 11, 13, or 14):
View Full Finding Aid
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
Fish Family Papers, Lawrence Chaffee Fish, 1876-1950. 2 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box (1.3 cubic feet).
AccNo 1986.048
Lawrence Chaffee Fish was born in Brooklyn on June 21, 1872. He graduated from the New York Law School in 1893 as one of the newly founded school’s first graduates. Following graduation Fish embarked on a distinguished career as an attorney. As a young man he was highly involved in prohibition work, and later he served as a magistrate in Brooklyn’s traffic court and was a judge in the Municipal Court of the second district. He also represented such notable figures as Grover Cleveland, David B. Still and James G. Blaine. Fish was also active in the First Free Baptist Church. In 1896 he married Margaret Summers, who died fourteen months later. In 1901 he married Emma Ellis. Fish died in 1936.
The Fish Family Papers illustrate Fish’s professional achievements and social activities. The collection contains a Bible, documents, correspondence, financial records, news clippings, photos and four scrapbooks relating to the Fish Family. These papers span most of Fish’s life until his death in 1936. The collection also includes materials related to Fish’s family, including genealogical correspondence, news articles concerning Fish’s wives and relatives, and correspondence regarding Fish’s son, Lawrence Chaffee Fish, Jr.
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Brooklyn Firefighting Collection, 1825-1949 (Bulk Dates: 1850-1900). 33 cubic feet (10 document boxes, 14 records cartons, 44 unboxed ledgers).
ArMs 1989.006
The Brooklyn Firefighting Collection comprises records of firefighters, their organizations, and activities in the village, city, and borough of Brooklyn from 1825 through 1945. The bulk of the collection covers a span of over one century, during which time firefighting in Brooklyn evolved from a six man volunteer force to a paid department employing over ten-thousand men. Firefighting played an important social and political role in early Brooklyn, and the influence of firefighters and firefighting associations is tracked in this collection. The materials in the collection offer insight into the development of firefighting practices during the nineteenth century and illustrate how Brooklyn’s massive nineteenth century population growth and the city’s growing prominence as a seat of industry affected the city’s need for a reliable and modern fire department.
The files in this collection represent a portion of the material generated by several Brooklyn and King’s County volunteer fire companies and by related local, county, state, and national organizations, between 1825 and 1949. The bulk of the material spans the time period between 1850 and 1900. Included in the collection are: appointments, bids, bonds, broadsides, certificates, circulars, clippings, communications, contracts, correspondence, deeds, drawings, estimates, ledgers, letters, minutes, notices, orders, petitions, receipts, recommendations, regulations, reports, requests, resolutions, rolls, rosters, speeches, and telegrams.
Subject Headings:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Engine companies – New York (State) – New York
- Fire departments – New York – Brooklyn
- Fire departments – equipment and Supplies
- Fire departments – Law and legislation – New York
- Fire departments – New York (State) – New York
- Fire engines
- Fire extinction – New York – Brooklyn – History
- Fire extinction – Long Island – History
- Fire fighters
- Fire fighters – New York – Brooklyn
- Fire fighters – Pensions – New York – Brooklyn
- Fire stations – New York – Brooklyn
- Fires – New York – Brooklyn
- Ladder companies – New York (State) – New York
- Municipal services – New York (State) – New York
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Brooklyn Theatre Fire Relief Association Records, 1876-1879. 2.5 document boxes (1 linear foot)
 Stereograph depicting Johnson St. after the Brooklyn Theater Fire, December 5, 1876. Waller & Schrader, Photographers. V1972.1.923 ArMs 1977.049
The Brooklyn Theatre Fire Relief Association Records document the efforts of a voluntary charity organization to provide relief to the families of the victims of the tragic fire in 1876 that killed more than 300 people in the Brooklyn Theatre. The collection is mainly comprised of the investigations conducted into the claims made by surviving relatives of those killed in the fire and the financial documents of the association.
Subjects
- Brooklyn Theatre Fire Relief Association
- Brooklyn Theatre (New York, N.Y.) — Fire, 1876
- Charity organization
- Demographic surveys
- Memorial service
- Putnam, A. P. (Alfred Porter), 1827-1906
- Schroeder, Frederick A.
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