The Woolworth Building: The Cathedral of Commerce
April 24th sees the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Woolworth Building, at 233 Broadway. In 1913 the Woolworth Building was the tallest inhabited building in the world, and would remain...
View ArticleNot For Sale: The Iconic Brooklyn Bridge Celebrates 130 Years
For 130 years, the Brooklyn Bridge has been an icon of the New York City landscape—longer if you account for the 13 years required to construct it. This beloved connection between boroughs is still in...
View ArticleWhy Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island (and One That Was)
Between 1892 and 1954, over twelve million people entered the United States through the immigration inspection station at Ellis Island, a small island located in the upper bay off the New Jersey coast....
View ArticleClassroom Connections: Lists for Lesson Planning (Gr. 6-12)
Aguilar Library, 1938 - Librarian w/ students. Want to know more about our current educational initiatives? See From the Collections to the Classroom by NYPL President Tony MarxWe have just shuttered...
View ArticleResearching Orphans in Genealogy
If you have an orphan in your family tree, you may have to go through additional steps to find relevant genealogical records for the orphaned or adopted ancestor. Orphans originating in New York City...
View ArticleClassroom Connections: Lists for Lesson Planning (Gr. 6-12) : Posts from the...
Aguilar Library, 1938 - Librarian w/ students. Want to know more about our current educational initiatives? See The ABC of Education: Why Libraries Matter by Maggie Jacobs, Director of Educational...
View ArticleClassroom Connections: 'Grace Aguilar's American Journey,' A...
By 1900, New York City and the United States were undergoing waves of dramatic, traumatic change. Industrialization, Reconstruction and a surge of immigrants from across the globe were remaking every...
View ArticleClassroom Connections: 'Two Wars,' African Americans, Emancipation,...
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of...
View ArticleThe Most Significant Drum Head in Popular Music, Part 2: Posts from the...
Part 2 of a guest post for Ladies and Gentlemen... The Beatles, by Russ Lease. Read Part 1.On September 14, 1994, my world changed again. I found myself in the unlikely position of being one of the...
View ArticleOur Favorite, Most Absorbing, Compelling, and Pleasurable [True!] Tales of...
The NYPL Milstein Division of United States History, Local History & Genealogy recommends our favorite, most readable, most memorable New York City nonfiction. These are the true stories of New...
View ArticleCan You Help Find the Descendants of Seneca Village?
A story from NPR's blog, The Lost Village in New York City, about Seneca Village, describes how historians have been unable to trace any of the descendants of the people who lived there....
View ArticlePeeling Off The Painted Layers of NYC Walls: Experiments With The Google...
As a web developer who works on a screen and an illustrator that works on paper, I have always admired those who could paint big—often on impossibly large and inconveniently placed walls—only to be...
View ArticleHow to Find Historical Photos of New York City
Sometimes, in order to track down a photo of a certain place in a certain era, you will need to know the name of a photographer that was known for his or her work in those circumstances. Berenice...
View ArticlePlay Strike! Exploring NYC Playgrounds Through Historical Newspapers
Ultimately, the strike only lasted several days, though it left a lasting impression with the local papers and the Parks & Playgrounds Association President, who seemed quite disappointed with the...
View ArticleA Digitized History of The New York Public Library
The full text of the History of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations is available to download through the NYPL Catalog, or to view in the NYPL Digital Collections platform...
View ArticleWhere in New York is Sesame Street?
More about the history of Sesame Street Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis.Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones."G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on...
View ArticleClass Act: Researching New York City Schools with Local History Collections
Bibliography Address of the Roman Catholics to their fellow citizens of the city and state of New York. New-York, 1840.Andrews, Charles C. The history of the New-York African free-schools, from their...
View ArticleConducting Genealogical Research Using Newspapers
Bronx County Historical SocietyBrooklyn Historical SocietyBrooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn CollectionHistoric Richmond TownNew York Historical SocietyNew York State LibraryThe Newark Public...
View ArticleMore of Our Favorite, Most Absorbing, Compelling, and Pleasurable [True!]...
A few months ago, the NYPL Milstein Division of United States History, Local History & Genealogy put our collective local history obsessive minds together to bring you a list of our favorite NYC...
View ArticleEvacuation Day: New York's Former November Holiday
Materials on other historic New York City holidays and celebrations can be found through the following subjects:Holidays -- New York (State) -- New York -- History.Parades -- New York (State) -- New...
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