American Memory Historical Collections
Examples of materials related to New York State are provided
for most of the collections listed below. Search on the term
New York to locate additional resources within these
American Memory collections.
The
Aaron Copland Collection, ca. 1900-1990
This multi-format collection includes approximately 400,000
items documenting the multifaceted life of the extraordinary
Aaron Copland--composer, performer, teacher, writer, conductor,
commentator, and administrator.
Abraham
Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of
Congress consist of approximately 20,000 documents which
include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures,
drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material.
The
African-American Experience in Ohio: Selections from the Ohio
Historical Society
This selection of manuscript and printed text and images
illuminates the history of black Ohio from 1850 to 1920,
a story of slavery and freedom, segregation and integration,
religion and politics, migrations and restrictions, harmony
and discord, and struggles and successes.
African
American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray
Collection, 1818-1907
This collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review
of African-American history and culture, spanning almost
100 years from the early 19th through the early 20th centuries,
with the bulk of the material published between 1875 and
1900.
African-American
Sheet Music, 1850-1920: Selected from the Collections of Brown
University
This collection consists of 1,307 pieces of African-American
sheet music dating from 1850-1920. It includes many songs
from the heyday of antebellum black face minstrelsy in the
1850s and from the abolitionist movement of the same period.
Browse the collection by subject
to locate four titles pertaining to New
York.
After
the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews
Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
This collection contains 12 hours of opinions recorded
following the bombing of Pearl Harbor from over 200 individuals
across the United States. Browse the collection by geographic
location to locate interviews from Buffalo
and New
York City.
Alexander
Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress
This collection consist of correspondence, scientific
notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs
documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement
in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest
in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other
scientific research.
America
at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915
Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States
from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of motion
pictures.
America
from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from
the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945
The images in the Farm Security Administration-Office of
War Information Collection are among the most famous documentary
photographs ever produced. Created by a group of U.S. government
photographers, the images show Americans in every part of
the nation. The collection contains more than 4,000
black-and-white and forty
color photographs of New York.
America
Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
This collection spans the period from the turn of the
nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of
the song sheets were published during the height of the
craze, from the 1850s to the 1870s.
America's
First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views,
1839-1864
The Library's daguerreotype collection consists of approximately
600 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Portrait daguerreotypes
produced by the Mathew Brady studio make up the major portion
of the collection.
An
American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca.
1490-1920
A collection of over 200 hundred social dance manuals
at the Library of Congress published from about 1490 to
1929. Many of the manuals also provide historical information
on theatrical dance.
American
Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936: Images from the University
of Chicago Library
This collection consists of 4,500 photographs documenting
natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in
the United States at the end of the 19th and the beginning
of the 20th centuries. Browse the collection by state
to locate ninety-seven images of New
York.
American
Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920: a Study Collection
from the Harvard Graduate School of Design
This collection offers views of cities, specific buildings,
parks, estates and gardens. In addition to photographs,
views of locations around the country include plans, maps,
and models. Browse the collection by place
using the subject heading United States--New York--(city)
to locate images of New York.
American
Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
This collection comprises 253 published narratives by
Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels
in the colonies and the United States and their observations
and opinions about American peoples, places, and society
from about 1750 to 1920.
An American
Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed
Ephemera
This collection comprises 28,000 primary source items
dating from the 17th century to the present and encompassing
key events and eras in American history. Browse the geographic
location of printing to locate more than 1,500 items
printed in New
York.
The
American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment,
1870-1920
This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms
of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived
from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language
playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion
pictures, 10 sound recordings, 143 photographs, and 29 memorabilia
items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini.
Architecture
and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs
by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955
This collection is comprised of over 29,000 photographs
primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors
and exteriors of homes, stores, offices, factories, historic
buildings, and other structures concentrated chiefly in
the northeastern United States. Browse the collection by
subject
to locate images of New
York.
Baseball
Cards, 1887-1914
This collection presents 2,100 early baseball cards dating
from 1887 to 1914. Browse the collection by city
to locate baseball players in Brooklyn,
Buffalo,
New
York, and Rochester.
Built
in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American
Engineering Record, 1933-Present
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the
Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections
document achievements in architecture, engineering, and
design in the United States through a comprehensive range
of building types and engineering technologies. Browse the
collection by place
to locate items for New York.
- Brooklyn
Bridge, Spanning East River between Park Row, Manhatten
and Sands Street, Brooklyn, New York, New York County,
NY
- Statue
of Liberty, Liberty Island, Manhattan, New York, New York
County, NY
By
Popular Demand: "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures,
1850-1920
A selection of thirty eight pictures including portraits
of many individuals, photographs of suffrage parades, picketing
suffragists, and an anti-suffrage display, as well as cartoons
commenting on the movement.
By
Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights,
1860s-1960s
This online presentation introduces a multi-faceted man
and a variety of complex issues, topics, and events that
risk oversimplification in any short retelling. Also included
is a sampler of thirty four images related to early baseball
(1860s-1920s) from various files and collections in the
Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
By
the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
This collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically
diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part
of the New Deal.
The
Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake
Bay Region, 1600-1925
This collection comprises 139 books on Washington, D.C.
and the Chesapeake Bay region including first-person narratives,
early histories, historical biographies, promotional brochures,
and books of photographs that capture in words and pictures
a distinctive region as it developed between the onset of
European settlement and the first quarter of the twentieth
century.
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional
Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
This collection consists of a linked set of published
congressional records of the United States of America from
the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875.
Chicago
Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887
This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original
manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts
relating to the Haymarket Affair. Browse the collection
by subject
to locate twenty items pertaining to New
York.
The
Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925
This compilation of printed texts traces how Southern
African Americans experienced and transformed Protestant
Christianity into the central institution of community life.
Civil
War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
The images in this collection are drawn from the New-York
Historical Society's rich archival collections that document
the Civil War. They include recruiting posters for New York
City regiments of volunteers; stereographic views documenting
the mustering of soldiers and of popular support for the
Union in New York City, photography showing the war's impact,
both in the North and South, and drawings and writings by
ordinary soldiers on both sides. Browse the subject
index to locate items pertaining to New
York.
Creative
Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
This collectioin consists of 1,395 photographs taken by
American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between
1932 and 1964. The bulk of the collection consists of portrait
photographs of celebrities, including many figures from
the Harlem Renaissance. Browse the subject
index under United States--New York (State)--New York
to locate twenty images of New
York.
Documents
from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention,
1774-1789
This collection include extracts of the journals of Congress,
resolutions, proclamations, committee reports, treaties,
and early printed versions of the United
States Constitution and the Declaration
of Independence. Browse the subject
index under United States--New York--New York to locate
more than eighty items related to New
York.
The
Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
This collection includes cookbooks, photographs of billboards,
print advertisements, trade cards, calendars, almanacs,
and leaflets for a multitude of products. Browse the subject
index to locate more than 100 items pertaining to advertisement
in New
York.
The
Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920
This collection documents the historical formation and
cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect
America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government
documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion
picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library
of Congress.
First
American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
This collection assembles rare books, pamphlets, newspapers,
maps, prints, and manuscripts collected by Reuben T. Durrett
and by the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky.
Durrett founded the society in 1884 and it named after John
Filson, author of The Discovery, Settlement and Present
State of Kentucke (1784), a promotional tract recognized
as the first history of the state. Browse the subject
index to locate five items pertaining to New
York.
First-Person
Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
This collection includes diaries, autobiographies, memoirs,
travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives of prominent individuals,
as well as of relatively inaccessible populations: women,
African Americans, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans.
The
Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American
abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his
own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer,
writer, and publisher.
From
Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection,
1824-1909
This collection consists of 397 pamphlets, published from
1824 through 1909, by African-American authors and others
who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation,
Reconstruction, and related topics. The materials range
from personal accounts and public orations to organizational
reports and legislative speeches.
George
Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
This collection consists of approximately 65,000 items
(176,000 pages). Correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace
books, diaries and journals, reports, notes, financial account
books, and military papers accumulated by George Washington
from 1741 through 1799 are organized into nine series.
The
Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress
The Arendt papers contain correspondence, articles, lectures,
speeches, book manuscripts, transcripts of Adolf Eichmann's
trial proceedings, notes, and printed matter pertaining
to Arendt's writings and academic career.
Historic
American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
This collection includes 3,042 pieces of sheet music published
in America between 1850 and 1920. It presents a wide variety
of types of vocal music: bel canto, minstrel songs, protest
songs, sentimental songs, patriotic and political songs,
plantation songs, Civil War songs, spirituals, dance music,
songs from vaudeville and musicals, Tin Pan Alley and World
War I.
History
of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection
of the Denver Public Library
Over 30,000 photographs illuminate many aspects of the
history of the American West. They illustrate Colorado towns
and landscape, document the place of mining in the history
of Colorado and the West, and show the lives of more than
forty Native American tribes living west of the Mississippi
River.
Inventing
Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings
of the Edison Companies
This site features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound
recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs
and original magazine articles. Browse the subject
index to locate motions pictures pertaining to New York.
The
James Madison Papers, 1723-1836
The James Madison Papers from the Manuscript Division at
the Library of Congress document the life of the man who
came to be known as the "Father of the Constitution"
through correspondence, personal notes, drafts of letters
and legislation, an autobiography, legal and financial documents,
and miscellaneous manuscripts.
The
Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American
Exposition, 1901
The twenty-eight films of this collection include footage
of President William McKinley at his second inauguration,
of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, of
President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition, and of
President McKinley's funeral.
The
Leonard Bernstein Collection, ca. 1920-1989
This collection contains more than 400,000 items, including
music and literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs,
audio and video recordings, fan mail, and other types of
materials that extensively document Bernstein's extraordinary
life and career.
The
Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
This collection contains forty-five
films of New York City dating from 1898 to 1906 from
the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress.
Map
Collections
The Geography & Map Division of the Library of Congress
holds more than 4.5 million items, of which Map Collections
represents only a small fraction, those that have been converted
to digital form. The collection is organized according to
seven major categories: Cities
and Towns, Conservation
and Environment, Cultural
Landscapes, Discovery
and Exploration, General
Maps, Military
Battles and Campaigns, and Transportation
and Communication. Browse the geographic
location index to locate more than 400 maps of New
York.
Miller
NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911
These scrapbooks document the activities of the Geneva
Political Equality Club, which the Millers founded in 1897,
as well as efforts at the state, national, and international
levels to win the vote for women. Browse the subject
index to locate items pertaining to New York.
Music
for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820-1860 & 1870-1885
This collection consists of over 62,000 pieces of sheet
music registered for copyright during the nineteenth century.
Newspaper
Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914-1919
This collection displays the variety and diversity of
Sunday pictorial sections published in two prominent U.S.
newspapers: the New York Times and New York
Tribune. It also includes a book, The
War of the Nations: Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings,
with illustrations selected from the New York Times
"Mid-Week Pictorials." Browse the collection by
date
and title to locate pictorial sections fron the
New York Times and the New York Tribune.
The
Nineteenth Century in Print: Books
This collection is particularly strong in poetry and in
the subject areas of education, psychology, American history,
sociology, religion, and science and technology.
The
Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
This collection comprises periodicals published in the
United States during the nineteenth century, primarily during
the second half of the century. The materials selected illuminate
the subject areas of education, psychology, American history,
sociology, religion, and science and technology.
Photographs
from the Chicago Daily News
This collection comprises approximately 54,000 images
of urban life captured on glass plate negatives between
1902 and 1933 by photographers employed by the Chicago
Daily News, one of Chicago's leading newspapers.
Pioneering
the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin,
ca. 1820-1910
This collection portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota,
and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth
centuries through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional
literature, local histories, ethnographic, antiquarian,
and colonial archival documents, and other texts drawn from
the Library of Congress' General Collections and the Rare
Books & Special Collections Division.
Prosperity
and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
This collection assembles a wide array of Library of Congress
source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread
prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition
to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in
this transition.
Quilts
and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996
This collection represents a wide range of quiltmaking
techniques, from highly traditional to innovative. The quilts
pictured exhibit excellent design and technical skill in
a variety of styles and materials.
September
11, 2001, Documentary Project
The September 11, 2001, Documentary Project captures the
heartfelt reactions, eyewitness accounts, and diverse opinions
of Americans and others in the months that followed the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon,
and United Airlines Flight 93. Browse the subject
index to locate more than forty items related to New
York.
Slaves
and the Courts, 1740-1860
This collection contains just over 100 pamphlets and books
published between 1772 and 1889 concerning the difficult
and troubling experiences of African and African-American
slaves in the American colonies and the United States.
Small-Town
America: Stereoscopic Views from the Robert Dennis Collection,
1850-1920
This collection consists of 12,000 photographs of New
York, New Jersey, and Connecticut from the 1850s to the
1910s, from the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic
Views at the New York Public Library.
The
South Texas Border, 1900-1920: Photographs from the Robert
Runyon Collection
This collection includes glass negatives, lantern slides,
nitrate negatives, prints, and postcards, representing the
life's work of commercial photographer Robert Runyon (1881-1968),
a longtime resident of South Texas.
The
Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures
This collection contains motion pictures of the Spanish-American
War and the subsequent Philippine Revolution produced between
1898 and 1901.
Taking
the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
This collection contains approximately 4,000 images featuring
American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. Browse
the collection by place
to locate more than 300 images of New
York.
Theodore
Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film
This presentation features 104 films which record events
in Roosevelt's life from the Spanish-American War in 1898
until his death in 1919. Browse the subject
index to locate twenty films pertaining to New
York.
The
Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress
The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of
Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents ranging
in date from 1606 to 1827. Correspondence, memoranda, notes,
and drafts of documents make up two-thirds of the Papers.
Touring
Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit
Publishing Company, 1880-1920
This collection of photographs from the Detroit Publishing
Company Collection includes over 25,000 glass negatives
and transparencies as well as about 300 color photolithograph
prints, mostly of the eastern United States. Browse the
collection by place
to locate more than 4,000 images of New
York.
Traveling
Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century
This digital collection presents 7,949 publicity brochures,
promotional advertisements and talent circulars for some
4,546 performers who were part of the Chautauqua circuit.
Votes
for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage
Association Collection, 1848-1921
This collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets, and
other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign.
Washington
as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959
This collection documents the architecture and social
life of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in the 1920s,
1930s, and 1940s, including exteriors and interiors of commercial,
residential, and government buildings, as well as street
scenes and views of neighborhoods. Browse the subject
index to locate images of New
York.
Westward
by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890
This selection of items from Mystic Seaport Museum's archival
collections includes logbooks, diaries, letters, business
papers, and published narratives of voyages and travels.
The
Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress
This collection documents the lives of Wilbur and Orville
Wright and highlights their pioneering work which led to
the world's first powered, controlled and sustained flight.
Included in the collection are correspondence, diaries and
notebooks, scrapbooks, drawings, printed matter, and other
documents, as well as the Wrights' collection of glass-plate
photographic negatives.
William
P. Gottlieb: Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz
This collection contains more than 1,600 photographs of
celebrated jazz artists and documents the jazz scene from
1938 to 1948 in New York City and Washington, D.C. The collection
contains more than a 1,000 images pertaining to New York.
Women
of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's
Party
The photographs in this collection document the National
Woman's Party's push for ratification of the 19th Amendment
as well as its later campaign for passage of the Equal Rights
Amendment. Browse the subject
index to locate more than sixty images for New
York.
Woody
Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk Song: Correspondence,
1940-1950
This collection highlights letters between Woody Guthrie
and staff of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the
Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center) at the
Library of Congress. The letters were written primarily
in the early 1940s, shortly after Guthrie had moved to New
York City and met the Archive's assistant in charge, Alan
Lomax. Browse the subject
index to locate four letters sent from New
York.
Words
and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating
the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
Included are the papers of presidents, cabinet
ministers, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices,
military officers, diplomats, reformers and political activists,
artists and writers, scientists and inventors, and other
prominent Americans whose lives reflect our country's evolution.
Working
in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
The collection presents 470 interview excerpts
and 3,882 photographs from the Working in Paterson Folklife
Project of the American
Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Search
the bibliographic records to locate more than thirty items
that contain information pertaining to New York.
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