Archives & Library Special Collections
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Call Number: 1978.137
Extent: 3.0 Linear feet, in five manuscript boxes and one flat box.
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Richetta Randolph Wallace (1884-circa 1971), an African-American woman having a longstanding engagement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem (New York City), African-American literary and arts culture, and matters of race relations, racial justice and civil rights. Documents include correspondence, pamphlets and other published print matter, event programs and other ephemera, photographs, receipts, manuscripts, and newspaper clippings. Commonly known by her maiden name, Randolph was office manager for the NAACP until the mid-1940s and personal secretary to Mary White Ovington and James Weldon Johnson. The collection includes correspondence with Ovington and Johnson as well as other NAACP principals. including Walter White, William Pickens, and others. The collection includes a full typescript draft of Johnson’s Black Manhattan, with notes, and a galley proof (1930) of the book. Much of the collection consists of print matter, which centers on matters of race in the United States, including discrimination, lynching, justice (or injustice), and civil rights. Other print matter includes programs, sermons, church newsletters, and other materials, principally concerning Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Correspondence documents Randolph’s activities on behalf of Mt. Olivet over the years. There are a small number of photographs in the collection including, among others, those of Randolph, of Johnson and his wife in Great Barrington (1929), of Ovington, and stock images of NAACP principals.
Names:
- Wallace, Richetta G. Randolph
- Johnson, James Weldon, 1871-1938
- Ovington, Mary White, 1865-1951
- Mount Olivet Baptist Church (New York, N.Y.)
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Subjects:
- African American churches — New York (State) — New York
- African American women
- African American women civil rights workers
- African Americans — Civil rights — History — 20th century
- Civil rights movements — New York (State) — New York
- Civil rights workers — New York (State) — New York
- Minorities — Civil rights — New York (State) — New York
- Women in church work — New York (State) — New York
- Women — New York (State) — New York
Types of material:
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- galley proofs
- Pamphlets
- Photographs
- Printed ephemera
- Programs (documents)
- Publications
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Rapelye Family Papers, 1812-1820.
ArMs 1974.006
Jacob and Isaac Rapelye were distant relatives and members of the prestigious and instrumental Rapelye family of New York. They were both descended from Joris Jansen de Rapalie, Long Island’s first settler. Jacob was born in Newtown in 1788 and worked as a bank clerk as a young man until joining the military at the onset of the War of 1812, serving as a lieutenant of artillery. He later served as deputy secretary of South Carolina before returning to New York in 1828, where he worked in real estate. Jacob died in 1867. Isaac was a physician who earned his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, now at Columbia University. He also served as president of the Medical Society of the County of Kings in 1835. He died from tuberculosis in 1847.
The Rapelye Family Papers includes four items celebrating the achievements of Isaac and Jacob Rapleye during the period 1812-1820. Items include Isaac’s medical diploma issued by the College of Physicans and Surgeons, as well as Jacob’s military appointments during the War of 1812, which included that of First Lieutenant in the Battalion of the Artillery of the State of New York (signed by Governor Daniel Tomkins) and First Lieutenant of Volunteers in the Service of the United States (signed by President James Madison). Finally, the collection also includes Jacob’s appointment as Deputy Secretary of the State of South Carolina in 1816.
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Brooklyn Voter Registries (1872-1897, 1930-1937)
The Brooklyn Historical Society’s collection of voter registries represents the voting population in Brooklyn both before and after its consolidation as part of the City of New York. Registries reflecting Brooklyn as an independent city prior to consolidation span the period 1872-1897, while post-consolidation registries only cover the years 1930-1937. Currently, all registries are available to researchers in their original physical format.
The organization of the voter registries is mainly a numerical scheme, with the broadest level of arrangement being contingent on ward number (or, in the case of the post-consolidation registries, assembly district number). Each ward or assembly district is further broken down numerically by election district, then alphabetically by street. Finally, within each street listing, individual voters are listed by their residence numbers. Some registries, particularly those dating from the earlier periods, are also accompanied by an alphabetical index to street numbers, as well as a description of election district boundaries.
Each registry also contains specific personal information regarding every registered voter that may be helpful to researchers. For example, all registries include such details as a voter’s age; how long each voter has lived in the state, county, and district; as well as any special remarks deemed useful by the Board of Elections, such as whether a voter is an African American, and whether a voter is illiterate or disabled. Some registries include further descriptive information, such as a voter’s height, weight, hair color, and distinguishing features.
This collection is an especially excellent resource for researchers interested in Brooklyn’s housing history and/or genealogy. While there is no appointment necessary to view the collection, please be advised that the majority of the registries are in extremely fragile condition and should be handled with the utmost care.
William Richardson Papers (1853-1896). 5 linear inches.
ArMs 1977.169
William Richardson (1822-1893) was a prominent post-Civil War resident of Brooklyn. He owned the Atlantic Avenue Railroad Company, was active in the Republican Party, was an Alderman for the Twenty-Second Ward, and was involved in many civic causes.
The William Richardson Papers document the personal and business affairs of this Brooklyn businessman. The collection includes correspondence, railroad documents, family items, political and governmental documents, ephemera, and miscellaneous items concerning civic issues.
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Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Oral History, 2007-2008. Sound recordings: 60 wav files.
2008.030
The Brooklyn Historical Society and Restoration partnered on the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Oral History project in 2007-2008 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Restoration’s founding as the first community development corporation (CDC) in the United States. 56 interviews were conducted with founding Board members, supporters, activists, artists, tenants, and other community members.
Audio clips from these oral history interviews were included in the exhibit Reflections on Community Development: Stories from Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BHS 2008, Restoration 2009).
Recordings of these interviews may be listened to in the library.
Brooklyn Roads, 1825-1883. 3 boxes, 0.5 linear ft.
ArMs 1977.337
This is a collection of petitions from citizens, reports, contracts, surveys, and assessment notices for public improvements in the City of Brooklyn. Nearly all of the items were addressed to the Brooklyn Common Council and then referred to the Assessment, Law, or Street committees.
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Collection of Brooklyn, N.Y, Civil War relief associations records, ephemera and other material, circa 1798-1964 (bulk 1861-1866). 4 linear feet in 14 boxes (5 manuscript boxes and 9 boxes of various sizes).
Call number: ARC.245
The collection was compiled over time by the Brooklyn Historical Society (formerly the Long Island Historical Society). It principally contains the records of two major Brooklyn-based Civil War relief associations, the War Fund Committee and the Women’s Relief Association, including records of their various projects. A large portion of the collection documents one significant project undertaken by these organizations, the Brooklyn and Long Island Fair of 1864, also known as the Sanitary Fair. Documentation of the Fair covers both its financial aspects and the events and exhibits taking place there, and includes posters, broadsheets, printed matter, the Fair’s newspaper, subscription books, admission tickets, stereographs of the New England Kitchen exhibit, and more. Some artifacts exhibited at the Fair are included in the collection, notably an album of autographed writings with contributions by Hawthorne, Longfellow, and James Fenimore Cooper, among many others. Documents concerning other relief organizations are found in the collection, including the Brooklyn Bureau of the American Freedmen’s Friend Society and the Brooklyn and Long Island Christian Commission. Records of fundraising in Brooklyn for a Lincoln Monument Fund and in response to an 1866 fire in Portland, Maine, are also included. In addition, the collection holds other materials, primarily concerning the Civil War, relief efforts in cities other than Brooklyn, politics, commercial advertising, and other matters.
Access Points
Corporate Names
Brooklyn and Long Island Fair in Aid of the United States Sanitary Commission. (1864).
War Fund Committee (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.).
Women’s Relief Association of the City of Brooklyn.
Uniform Titles
Boatswain’s whistle
Drum beat
Our daily fare
Sanitary fair bulletin
Spirit of the fair (New York, N.Y.)
Geographic Names
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History — Civil War, 1861-1865
Kings County (N.Y.) — Newspapers
Subjects
Charities — New York (State) — Kings County
Fairs — New York (State) — Kings County
Mexican War, 1846-1848 — Correspondence
Presidents — United States — Election — 1864
United States — History — Civil War, 1861-1865 — Civilian relief
War — Relief of sick and wounded
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Washington Roebling-Brooklyn Bridge Collection 1873-1879. 1 manuscript box (0.5 cubic feet).
ArMs 1977.259
This collection consists of notes, letters, engineering computations, reports, specifications, inventories and technical newspaper clippings, dated 1873-1879, all relating to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and includes notes to “Col. Roebling” and some items in his hand.
This is a fragmentary collection consisting of items rescued from a rubbish heap at a city-owned building being demolished in April, 1966.
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Bennet and Ryder families collection, 1670-2006. 4 boxes (3 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize flat boxes), 2.5 linear feet
Call number: ARC.001
This collection of papers was donated by the Flatbush Historical Society to the Brooklyn Historical Society from 2002-2003 on the dissolution of the FHS. It contains historical documents created by the descendants of early English and Dutch settlers in Colonial New Amsterdam. The Bennets, Lakes, Stillwells and Van Sicklens were English families who lived in the Netherlands and then emigrated to New Amsterdam in the mid-17th century. William Adrianse Bennet settled Gowanus for the Dutch in 1636, while Jan Lake, Nicholas Stillwell and Dutchman Fernandus Van Sicklen were part of the group that settled the English town of Gravesend with Lady Deborah Moody in 1643. The collection is divided into three series. The first series contains the papers of descendants of the Bennets and Ryders; the second series contains the papers of the descendants of the Lake, Stillwell and Van Sicklen families; and the third series contains photographs and postcards of the Bennett, Ryder, Vorhis, and Valentine families. Photographs of family members from the Van Cleef and Sillwell families are also included in series three. The documents, the majority of which are wills, deeds and indentures, were created from 1670-1915; the photographs range from the 1870s to 1979.
Access Points:
Personal Names
Bennet, Cornelius W., ca. 1776-ca. 1852
Bennet, Gitty, b. ca. 1774
Bennet, Willem Willemse, ca. 1639-ca. 1694
Bennet, Willem
Bennet, Winant, 1740-1816
Bennett, Edward, b. ca. 1863
Bennett, Ellen, 1818-1894
Bennett, Elley May Ryder
Bennett, Gertrude Ryder
Brown, Abraham, b. ca. 1802
Lake, Coert, 1760-1846
Lake, Court D., 1788-1874
Lake, Daniel, 1696-1776
Lake, Daniel, 1783-1827
Lake, Derrick, 1765-1832
Ryder, Charles M., 1844-1917
Ryder, Gertrude M., 1844-1916
Stillwell, Jaques, fl. 1805
Stillwell, Nicholas, 1709-1781
Vanderbilt, Aaron
Williams, Gertrude Ryder Bennett
Subject Organizations
Protestant Dutch Reformed Church of Flatlands (New York, N.Y.)
Subject Places
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) |x History
Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)
Gowanus (New York, N.Y.)
Gravesend (New York, N.Y.)
Kings County (N.Y.)
New Utrecht (New York, N.Y.)
Subject Topics
Genealogy
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The Recreation Rooms and Settlement Collection, 1905-1991, 2.5 linear feet
ArMs 1994.014
The Recreation Rooms and Settlement Collection documents the work of the settlement, originally established to provide educational and recreational opportunities for Jewish immigrant women, from its early years on the Lower East Side of Manhattan through its current activity in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. While material in the collection spans from 1905 to 1991, the bulk of the records are from the period 1953-1991. Included in the collection are: board of directors minutes and appended administrative reports, by-laws, annual reports, program files, executive director correspondence, flyers, news clippings, photoprints, fundraising records, budgets, histories and brochures.
Subjects
- Brooklyn Council for Social Planning
- Christadora House
- Citizen’s Housing Council of New York
- Clara de Hirsch Literary Club
- Council of Jewish Women (U.S.)
- East Side Tenants League
- Educational Alliance (New York, N.Y.)
- Emergency Committee to Save Public Housing
- Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York
- Lower East Side Neighborhood Association
- Mobilization for Youth
- National Jewish Welfare Board
- National Multiple Sclerosis Society (U.S.)
- New York (N.Y.). City Planning Commission
- New York City Housing Authority
- Recreation Rooms and Settlement
- Recreation Rooms and Settlement
- Rivington Neighborhood Association (New York, N.Y.)
- United States. Works Progress Administration
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)–Charities
- Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.)
- Adler, Felix, 1851-1933
- Berger, Graenum
- Davis, Gloria
- Koch, Ed, 1924-
- Community centers–New York (State)–New York
- Jews–Charities
- Social settlements–United States
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