Archives & Library Special Collections
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Call Number: ARC.279
Extent: 0.8 Linear feet, in two manuscript boxes.
The Terhune and Wyckoff families papers (1747-1932) include documents of two prominent families, affiliated through marriage, from Gravesend in Kings County, New York (part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn after 1898). John Terhune (1767-1842) played a significant role in the early development of Coney Island as a resort location, and the collection includes some documents on that subject and on a dispute over whether to incorporate the town of Gravesend. The bulk of the collection, dating from the first half of the nineteenth century and likely compiled principally in connection with the administration of the estates of various Terhunes and Wyckoffs, includes bills, receipts, promissory notes, inventories, deeds, indentures, court filings, and other financial and legal documents. The collection holds several individual items of interest, including two letters commenting on the use of personal slanders as a tactic in political campaigns, a document related to the founding of the Agricultural Society of Kings County, six cartes-de-visite, bills of sale and a will referring to enslaved African-Americans, indentured servitude agreements, and a promissory note (1796) from Aaron Burr to Albert Terhune. Other names of Gravesend residents appearing frequently in the collection include Bennet, Emmans, Lake, Lott, Ryder, and Stillwell.
Names:
- Terhune family
- Emmans family
- Lott family
- Stillwell family
- Terhune, Albert
- Terhune, John
- Wyckoff family
- Coney Island House (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Gravesend and Coney Island Bridge and Road Company
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)
- Gravesend (New York, N.Y.)
- Kings County (N.Y.)
- Kings County (N.Y.) — Genealogy
Subjects:
- African Americans — New York (State) — Kings County
- Auctions — New York (State) — Kings County
- Court records — New York (State) — Kings County
- Executors and administrators — New York — Kings County
- Genealogy
- Indentured servants — New York (State) — New York
- Inventories of decedents’ estates — New York (State) — New York
- Legal documents — New York (State) — Kings County
- Locomotive engineers
- Public officers — New York (State) — Kings County
- Railroads — New York (State) — Kings County
- Real property — New York (State) — Kings County
- Wills — New York (State) — Kings County
Types of material:
- Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)
- Correspondence
- Deeds
- Estate inventories.
- Genealogies
- Indentures
- Invoices
- Promissory notes
- Receipts (financial records)
- Slave bills of sale
- Tax records
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Call Number: ARC.188
Extent: 1.5 Linear feet, in four manuscript boxes.
The Daniel M. Tredwell papers contain manuscripts of histories, essays, lectures, and reminiscences by Daniel Melancthon Tredwell (1826-1921). Dating from circa 1870s through circa 1910s, these manuscript writings primarily concern Long Island, especially Kings, Nassau, and Suffolk counties, with the towns of Flatbush and Hempstead appearing most frequently. The collection includes three major manuscripts, one on Kings County history, another on Native Americans of Long Island, and the last dating from circa 1888 concerning Tredwell’s personal reminiscences of nineteenth century Long Island. There are also many shorter pieces on history, ethnography, philosophy, and other matters of intellectual inquiry. Topics of local historical interest include Melrose Hall in Flatbush, the organization of the Brooklyn Philosophical Society, and a history of the Apprentices Library Association. Other writings range from women’s rights to metaphysics to biographical notes.
Names:
- Tredwell, Daniel M., 1826-1921
- Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library Association
- Melrose Hall (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
Places:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — History
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) — Social life and customs — 19th century
- Flatbush (New York, N.Y.) — History
- Hempstead (N.Y.) — History
- Kings County (N.Y.) — History — 19th century
- Long Island (N.Y.) — History
- Suffolk County (N.Y.) — History
Subjects:
- Indians of North America — New York (State) — Kings County
- Indians of North America — New York (State) — Long Island
Types of material:
- Biographies
- Essays
- Histories
- Lecture notes
- Notes
- Reminiscences
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Theatre Collection, 1733-1939. 4 boxes (2 document boxes and 2 oversized flat boxes), 3.5 cubic feet.
ArMs1977.041
Brooklyn has had a lively history as an entertainment outlet, particularly through its active theatre scene during the gas-light days of the 18th and 19th century. Notable venues included the Manhattan Beach Amusement Park in Coney Island, which frequently staged musical comedies, to the infamous Conway’s Brooklyn Theater, which in December 5, 1876 went down in blazes, and event that later spurred local legislation to regulate theater design, incorporating them into city building codes in 1885.
The Theatre Collection is comprised of playscripts, playbills, programs, and other ephemera from various theatre venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In addition, the collection has some early rare examples of handwritten director’s promptbooks dating to 1733. Such well-known establishments as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Montauk Theatre, Orpheum Theatre, Payton’s Lee Avenue Theatre, and the Lyceum Hall in Brooklyn and the Astor Place Opera House, Barnum’s American Museum, Franklin Theatre, and Laura Keen’s Theatre are represented in this collection.
Access Points:
Topics
Drama–New York (State) –New York
Playbills
Theaters –New York (State) –Brooklyn
Theaters –New York (State) –New York
Theater programs
Geographic Locations
Brooklyn (New York, NY) –Social life and customs–19th century
Manhattan (New York, NY) –Social life and customs–19th century
Organizations
Brooklyn Academy of Music –New York (State) –Brooklyn
Conway’s Brooklyn Theatre –New York (State) –Brooklyn
Grand Opera House –New York (State) –Brooklyn
Manhattan Beach Amusement Park–New York (State) –Brooklyn
Montauk Theatre–New York (State) –Brooklyn
New Brighton Theatre–New York (State) –Brooklyn
Colonel Sinn’s New Park Theatre –New York (State) –Brooklyn
Orpheum Theatre–New York (State) -Brooklyn
Payton’s Theatre –New York (State) –Brooklyn
Teller’s Broadway Theatre– New York (State) –Brooklyn
Personal Names
Adams, Maude, 1872-1953
Irving, Henry, Sir, 1838-1905
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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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The Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding Collection, 1861-1988, 0.25 linear feet
ArMs 1988.016
The Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding Collection documents shipbuilding activities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from its closing by the Department of Defense in the mid-1960s through its rebirth and eventual demise under the management of the Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp. Though the dates of the collection span from 1861 to 1988, the bulk of the records span the period 1973-1978, when Frank J. Trezza was an employee of Seatrain Shipbuilding. Included in the collection are newspaper clippings, union publications, pamphlets and newspapers published by Seatrain, a Seatrain employee orientation kit, black & white photographs, color photographs, color slides, and black & white negatives.
Subjects
- International Union, United Industrial Workers of America
- New York Naval Shipyard
- Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp.
- United States. Navy
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
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