About Archives & Special Collections
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Brooklyn and Long Island Scrapbooks, ca. 1860-1960
This collection is an accumulation of clippings from numerous Brooklyn and Long Island newspapers and magazines during the period ca. 1860-1960. The original clippings were assembled by staff members of the Brooklyn Historical Society. Due to the deterioration of the original clippings, they now exist only on microfilm. The collection numbers a total of 168 volumes, and its exhaustive scope makes it an excellent account of daily life in Long Island and Brooklyn from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
The collection is accompanied by a navigational card index, which is separated into two sections, one dedicated to Long Island, the other to Brooklyn. Within each major division, the catalog is organized alphabetically by subject, individual, or business/organization. Each card lists the volume and page numbers on which its described contents can be found.
Newspapers and magazines represented in the collection include The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Brooklyn Times, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s Weekly, Suffolk County News, The Long Island Forum, The Long Island Press, The World-Journal Tribune, and The New York Mirror, among many others.
There is no appointment necessary to view this collection.
Marriage and Death Records from The Long Island Star (1809-1863), 1809-1845
The Brooklyn Historical Society possesses the entire run of The Long Island Star, which lasted from 1809 to 1863. The collection is on microfilm only and is accompanied by a navigational card index documenting the occurrence of marriage and death records posted in the newspaper between the years 1809 and 1845.
Information included in marriage records relates to the place and date of the ceremony, immediate family members and places of origin of the newlyweds, and, occasionally, the reverend who performed the service.
Information included in death records relates to the deceased’s relation to the Long Island/Brooklyn area, place and date of death, immediate familial and spousal relations, and occupation and/or titles of distinction. Occasional mentions are also made regarding place of birth, site of funerary ceremony, place of burial, and the family line of the deceased.
This collection is an excellent resource for genealogy researchers. No appointment is necessary to view this collection.
The Amote Sias Papers, 1945-1993. 4 boxes (1 document box, 1 record carton, and 2 oversized flat boxes), 2.68 cubic feet.
ArMs 2008.017
Amote Sias was a resilient African American social activist who was an actively involved member in the Brooklyn community of Carroll Gardens during the 1970s-1980s. Sias is also a deeply committed educator and leader, having been a teacher at both the elementary and secondary level in the New York City Public School system as early as the 1970s. Sias went on to become a renowned principal at the Brooklyn Collegiate High School, a position she continues to hold as of 2008.
The Amote Sias Papers consist primarily of legal records, financial records, essays, social activist paraphernalia, ephemera, and clippings relating to all aspects of her career as a black activist. The main topic of these materials is her early involvement in local Brooklyn politics, with her campaign for the City Council in 1989, and other political activities. The collection also documents Sias’ involvement with grassroots social activist organizations.
Access Points:
Subject Topics
African Americans — Politics and government –20th Century
Black nationalism
Civil rights movements –(New York, N.Y.) –New York
Community activists
Voter registration-United States
Subject Places
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social life and customs — 20th Century.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) –Politics and government.
Subject Organizations
Congressional Black Caucus
Democratic National Committee (U.S.)
New York, N.Y.– City Council
Peace and Environmental Convention Coalition –San Francisco, California
MADRE (Organization)–New York, NY
United Nations
Other Names
Jackson, Jesse. 1941-
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8th Avenue - Sunset Park Oral History, 1993-1994. Sound recordings: 38 cassettes (90 minutes each)
1994.007
In 1993-1994, the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Chinatown History Museum (now Museum of the Chinese in America), collected interviews regarding Brooklyn’s Chinese community in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. 28 interviews were conducted in English, Mandarin, or Cantonese. Narrators include recent Chinese immigrants as well as people of Italian and Puerto Rican heritage who live in the neighborhood.
Transcripts of these interviews may be read in the library. Some but not all of the recordings of these interviews may be listened to in the library; we anticipate the full collection will be available for researchers to listen to in Fall 2010.
Thomas N. Schroth and Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Brooklyn Eagle Collection 1841-1976 (Bulk dates: 1952-1955). 4 boxes, 3.5 cubic feet.
ArMs 1989.007
This collection contains the records belonging to the last managing editor of the Brooklyn Eagle (formerly Brooklyn Daily Eagle), Thomas N. Schroth, the son of its last publisher and editor, Frank D. Schroth. While the inclusive dates span from 1841 to 1976, the bulk of Thomas Schroth’s records cover the final days of the Eagle (1952-1955), the period leading up to and culminating in a Newspaper Guild strike that led to the closing of the newspaper.
The materials in the collection include scrapbooks, bound first and centennial issues, photographs, and Eagle publications such as pamphlets and booklets. The labor struggle is documented through correspondence, internal memos, clippings, Newspaper Guild publications, Guild meeting bulletins and union contracts. A smaller portion of the collection is comprised of the papers of Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., first cousin to Thomas Schroth, and contains the notes for his doctoral dissertation in history on the Eagle, subsequently published as The Eagle and Brooklyn (1974). Raymond’s papers cover his correspondence with publishers, his notes, early drafts of the dissertation and portions of drafts of the book as well as reviews and correspondence with respondents to an author’s query he had published.
Access Points:
- Schroth, Thomas N.
- Schroth, Frank D.
- Schroth, Frank D., Jr.
- Schroth, Raymond A.
- Brooklyn Daily Eagle
- Brooklyn Eagle
- American Newspaper Guild
- American Society of Newspaper Editors
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-Newspapers.
- New York (N.Y.)-Newspapers.
- Newspaper employees-New York (State)-New York.
- Labor relations-History-New York.
- Newspapers-History-20th century.
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-Social life and customs-20th century.
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Shellens Family Collection, including Papers of Captain Michael Shellens, 1873-1984 (Bulk dates: 1880-1927). 6 Boxes (4 legal-sized document boxes and 2 oversize boxes), 3.6 cubic ft.
ArMs 1988.001
This collection contains personal and business correspondence, business and financial records, books, photographs, and ephemera related to Captain Michael Shellens (1854-1944) and his family. The materials are dated 1873-1984 and are principally about Shellens’ life and career as a mariner who advanced in rank to captain, afterward becoming a successful real estate businessman in Brooklyn.
The bulk of the collection dates from 1880 to 1927 and consists of family papers, chiefly those of Captain Shellens, with some from others of the immediate family and also from Shellens’s family in Antwerp. The materials collected from voyages consist of discharge papers received at destination ports, business and financial records, and correspondence compiled during Shellens’ various sailing trips.
Shellens’s business records comprise an assortment of materials relating to Shellens’ sailing and real estate career, including inventory of properties of interest to Shellens, professional certifications, survey reports from Shellens’ career as a Surveyor, and log books. Financial records include bank accounts, ledger books, and real estate transactions. Correspondence contains both business and personal materials, including employment applications, letters received and written to colleagues, tenants, and family members.
Materials relating to the Shellens family include correspondence between Shellens and his brother, M. Henry Shellens, and his Antwerp cousins, 1890-1940. Also included are obituaries of family members and materials relating to Shellens’ and his wife’s deaths such as funeral memoirs, legal and financial documents including wills, bank balances, an inventory of Shellens’s real estate holdings, certificates and birth records for Shellens’ daughter Ruth.
The last portion of the collection consists of books on sailing and ships and on religion.
Access Points:
- Shellens, Michael
- Shellens, Ruth
- Shellens, Marshall
- Shellens, Hazel
- Real estate
- Sailing
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
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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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Village of Brooklyn Deeds, 1770-1856. 1 box (0.25 linear feet).
ArMs 1974.038
This collection consists of deeds, quit claims, bonds, mortgages, leases and other legal documents for property held by the Middagh, Sands, and March families. Most of the documents relate to property originally belonging to the estate of Aert Middagh (d. 1777) on several acres of land in what would become part of the Village of Brooklyn in 1816. Much of this property passed into the Sands and March families by descent and marriage. Some records refer to properties in Jefferson County, NY.
The bulk of the collection pertains to transactions involving Samuel B. M. Sands (1799-1835) and/or his nephew, Joshua S. March (1809-1842), both of whom married Magdalen Middagh (1808-1844), the daughter of Aert Middagh (ca. 1776-ca. 1815) and Martha Middagh (née Van Nostrand). The collection most likely passed through the hands of John Middagh Sands (1827-1873), the son of Magdalen and Samuel B. M. Sands.
Records also derive from Nicholas Luquer and his wife Sarah Lea Luquer (née Lynch), from George Hicks, and others. Includes 1838 report of commissioners appointed by the Kings County Board of Supervisors, inquiring into a loan of $79,000 received from U.S. revenue.
Beyond its value as a record of property transactions, this collection may be of interest for the personal information on a number individuals, contained in certain documents.
Access Points:
- Deeds New York (State) New York
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, NY) History
- Deeds Brooklyn (New York, NY)
- Brooklyn (New York, NY) Neighborhoods Brooklyn Heights
- Bartow family
- Coles family
- Colwell family (spelled also, Caldwell)
- Cowenhoven family (spelled also, Covenhaven, Van Couvenhoven, Van Couwenhoven,Kowenhoven, Kouwenhoven, Van Kouvenhoven, Van Kouwenhoven)
- Dean family
- Henshaw Family
- Hicks family
- Luquer family (spelled also, Lequier, Luquere, Luqueer)
- Luquer, Nicholas (1810-1864)
- Luquer, Sarah Lea (1809-1887) (née Sarah Lea Lynch)
- March family
- March, Joshua Sands March (b. 1809)
- Middagh family (spelled also, Middaugh)
- Middagh, Magdalen (1808-1844) (aka, Magdalen Sands, Magdalen March)
- Mitchell family (spelled also, Mitchel)
- Sackett family
- Sands family
- Sands, Samuel B. M. (Samuel Bayard Malcolm Sands) (1799-1835)
- Van Nostrand family (spelled also, Van Noorstrant)
- Van Nostrand, Martha (aka, Martha Middagh) [m. Aert Middagh (ca. 1776-ca. 1815)]
- Woolsey family
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Seidl Society Records, 1889-1898. 2 linear feet (4 boxes).
ArMs 1977.175
Anton Seidl (1850-1898), an influential Hungarian conductor, came to New York City in 1885 and became affiliated with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic Society. The Seidl Society of Brooklyn, created by Laura Langford Holloway and other affluent female patrons of music in Brooklyn, sponsored programs featuring Seidl at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at Brighton Beach. This collection contains the papers of the Seidl society including roughly 300 correspondences from Seidl to Society President Laura Langford Holloway, roughly 300 Society programs and program notes, five scrapbooks from 1889-1898, four speeches and news clippings, and undated materials.
Subjects:
- Seidl, Anton, 1850-1898
- Holloway, Laura C. (Laura Cater) b. 1848
- Kraus, Auguste Seidl, 1853-1939
- Seidl Society Brooklyn, (New York, N.Y.) 1888-1898
- Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)1889-1898
- Brighton Beach (New York, N.Y.)1889-1898
- Philanthropy- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Nineteenth Century
- Scrapbooks- Nineteenth Century
- Orchestras- New York (N.Y.) - Nineteenth Century
- Women- societies and clubs- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Nineteenth Century
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