Research Guide for Selected New York City
History-Related Resources
City Directories
Maps & Atlases
Census Records
Architecture
Encyclopedias, Guides, and other Helpful Reference Sources
Ephemera
Images
Archival Collections
Serials
Additional Research Guides and Sources
Included in Leo Hershkowitz's 2007 donation of New York City-related materials to the Tamiment Library were nearly 100 city directory volumes with various titles including Doggett's New York City Directory, Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, for the years..., Valentine's Manual, Manual of the Common Council of New-York, Trow's, Wilson's Business Directory of New York City and The New York Directory.
The city directories in the collection span the years 1806 to 1928, with gaps. The volumes have been placed on reserve in the Tamiment Library and may be requested with a call slip at the reference desk. Please note that the volumes are fragile and must be read in book cradles. To see records for the city directories in BobCat, NYU's library catalog, log in to the catalog and limit searching to the Tamiment Library's holdings. Then, do a search on the phrase "New York (N.Y.) -- Directories" in the Subject index.
Digitized Directories: Among the resources in the Archive of Americana, a subscription database, are a number of digitized New York City directories. The Archive of Americana is a vast electronic resource that includes: (1) American Broadsides and Ephemera; (2) Early American Imprints I (1631-1800), consisting of books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the bibliography by Charles Evans; (3) Early American Imprints II (1801-1819), consisting of books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker; (4) America's Historical Newspapers; (5) House and Senate Journals (1789-1817); and (6) Senate Executive Journals (1789-1866).
To locate digitized city directories in the Archive of Americana, choose the database titled "Early American Imprints, Series II: 1801-1819 (Shaw-Shoemaker Digital Collection)" from the "Articles via Databases" list accessible on the NYU Libraries home page. Choose the Advanced Search Option and search for the phrase "New York (N.Y.) -- directories" in the subject index to find them.
Digitized city directories are also included in the City Directories & Member Lists collection of the Ancestry Library subscription database. To search the directories online, choose the database titled "Ancestry Library" from the "Articles via Databases" list accessible on the NYU Libraries home page. Then, follow the link to "All Databases" under "More Collections" and select "City Directories & Member Lists" from the list and then browse through the list of individual titles in this category to select specific directories.
New York City Directories on Microfilm: Books, pamphlets, and serials in the Early American Imprints II (1801-1819) collection are also available on microfilm and are available in the Bobst Library microforms center. A subject search in BobCat on the phrase "New York (N.Y.) -- directories" will identify microfilmed city directories.
Research tips for using city directories and details on the kinds of information usually available in them are available from links in the Ancestry Library database search screens. Example: Information about the 1890 New York City Directory.
Ancestry Library - U.S. Map Collection, 1513-1990
Subscription database available to NYU-affiliated researchers containing images of digitized maps.
Charting North America: Maps from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection and Others
Digital Collection from the New York Public Library containing over 1,000 maps of North America from the earliest printed portrayals to the close of the 19th century; multiple versions and editions allow for historical comparisons.
Cities and Towns
Maps from American Memory Collections of the Library of Congress. The collection contains 215 digital maps of cities and towns in New York State, including all the boroughs of NYC.
Digital Sanborn Maps - New York, 1867-1970
Subscription database available to NYU-affiliated researchers. Digital Sanborn Maps is a collection of large-scale landbook maps which includes information such as the outline of each building, the size and shape and construction materials, heights, and function of structures, location of windows and doors. The maps also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers. Textual information includes construction details, ownership and building use. Includes most of the fire insurance maps of New York State produced by the Sanborn Map Company from the mid-1880s to around 1950.
Early Real Estate Atlases of New York
A New York Public Library Digital Collection of over 2,000 maps of New York City, including Manhattan and Brooklyn "fire insurance maps" from the 1850s-1860, showing streets, blocks, tax lots, natural and manmade features, buildings, neighborhoods, and more.
Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of Nearly 400 Years of New York City's History / Eric Homberger. Revised ed. New York: Henry Holt, c2005. Available in the reference collection on the first floor of Bobst Library. Call #: Ref1 F128.3 H65 2005
Map Collection of the New-York Historical Society
Consult a searchable and browsable database to find records for the 10,000 printed and manuscript maps in the collections of The New-York Historical Society library dating from the seventeenth century through to the present.
Map Division of the New York Public Library
Established in 1898, the Map Division today holds some 431,000 maps, 16,000 atlases and books about cartography. The collection is international in scope, and dates from the 16th century to the present, with a focus on cities, especially New York City.
National Archives - Census Records
Introduction and guide to using census records. Includes tips for deciphering the census records of 1790-1840 and 1850-1930. Does not link to the census records themselves. Use Ancestry Library or US Census Bureau to find records.
U.S. Census Bureau: Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts
PDFs of printed census census data and other information. Includes links to historical abstract of the United States, from Colonial Times to Present.
Fact Finder for the Nation, May 2000
Information sheet on the first U.S. Census in 1790.
Ancestry Library
A subscription database available through NYU Libraries that includes immigration and emigration records.
Historical Census Browser - University of Virginia
Customizable data results.
Building Permits Database, 1900-1986
The Office of Metropolitan History's searchable database of digitized building permits for
all the new building applications filed in Manhattan for each year, from 1900 to 1986. Searchable by address, architect, owner and type of building.
"Classic 6": New York City Apartment Building Living, 1880s-1910s
A New York Public Library digital collection containing more than 1,300 digital images depict elevation views and floor plans for middle and upper class apartment buildings from New York City's pre-World War I residential building boom.
Digital Sanborn Maps - New York, 1867-1970
Subscription database available to NYU-affiliated researchers. Digital Sanborn Maps is a collection of large-scale landbook maps which includes information such as the outline of each building, the size and shape and construction materials, heights, and function of structures, location of windows and doors. The maps also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers. Textual information includes construction details, ownership and building use. Includes most of the fire insurance maps of New York State produced by the Sanborn Map Company from the mid-1880s to around 1950.
Early Real Estate Atlases of New York
A New York Public Library digital collection of over 2,000 maps of New York City, including Manhattan and Brooklyn "fire insurance maps" from the 1850s-1860, showing streets, blocks, tax lots, natural and manmade features, buildings, neighborhoods, and more.
A Guide to Researching the History of a Building: Where to Go, Whom to Ask and What To Do if it's in Manhattan. By Christopher Gray. New York Times (1857-Current file), 2 July 1995; http://www.proquest.com/. Access to the article in the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database from this page is available to NYU researchers.
New York City Buildings: Research Guide
Guide compiled by Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University Libraries.
New-York Historical Society Library's Architecture Research Guide
AIA Guide to New York City, 4th Ed. / Norval White & Elliot Willensky. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000. Bobst Library Call #: Ref1 NA735.N5 A78 2000b.
Encyclopedia of New York City / edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Conn : Yale University Press; New York: New-York Historical Society, c1995. Bobst Library Call #: Ref1 F128.3 .E75 1995.
The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909: Compiled from Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions of Important Maps, Plans, Views and Documents in Public and Private Collections / by I. N. Phelps Stokes. New York: Arno Press, 1967, c1915.
Contents:
v. 1. The period of discovery (1524-1609); the Dutch period (1609-1664); The English period (1664-1763) The revolutionary period (1763-1783). Period of adjustment and reconstruction; New York as the state and federal capital (1783-1811);
v. 2. Cartography: An essay on the development of knowledge regarding the geography of the east coast of North America; Manhattan island and its environs on early maps and charts, by C. F. Wieder and I. N. Phelps Stokes. The Manutus maps, the first survey of Manhattan island (1639); The Castello plan, showing the city of New Amsterdam in ... 1660. The Dutchgrants. Early New York newspapers (1725-1811); Plan of Manhattan island in 1908;
v. 3. The war of 1812 (1812-1815); period of invention, prosperity, and progress (1815-1841); Period of industrial and educational development (1842-1860); The civil war (1861-1865); period of political and social development (1865-1876); The modern city and island (1876-1909);
v. 4. Chronology, 565-1776;
v. 5. Chronology, 1776-1909;
v. 6. Chronology: addenda. Original grants and farms.
Bibliography [by Victor H. Paltsits] Index.
Bobst Library Call #: Ref1 F128.3 .S776.
George Templeton Strong's Diary; edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas. 4 v. New York: Macmillan, 1952. Bobst Library Call #: Ref1 E415.9.S86 A3,
American Broadsides and Ephemera from Readex
A subscription database available through NYU Libraries containing broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900.
Vertical Files in the Tamiment Library's Collections
Collection consists of some 1 million pamphlets, leaflets, flyers, manifestoes, reports, serials and other internal documents from a wide variety of labor and left organizations, many based in New York City. The vast majority of the materials in the collection date from the 20th Century, though collecting continues and there are 21st Century materials as well. For tips on finding vertical files, see the Locating Materials in the Tamiment Library research guide.
Non-Print Collections in the Tamiment Library
Photographs, film, videotapes, posters and memorabilia provide a rich visual record of the history of labor and radical politics. Much of this visual material doesn't just supplement information in manuscript collections and papers--it can also provide evidence that is not available in written sources.
For tips on finding nonprint materials, see the Locating Materials in the Tamiment Library research guide.
The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
From the American Memory Collections of the Library of Congress, this collection contains forty-five films of New York dating from 1898 to 1906 from the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress. Of these, twenty-five were made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, while the remaining twenty are Edison Company productions.
Photographic Views of New York City, 1870s-1970s
A New York Public Library Digital Collection containing more than 54,000 New York City archival photographs (and their captioned versos) from the 1870s-1970s arranged by borough and street; the majority are exterior building views and neighborhood scenes from the 1910s-1940s.
Municipal Archives of the City of New York: Tax Photographs Collection
During the 1930's, local governments began to use photography as a tool for appraising real property for taxation purposes. New York City was the largest municipality to adopt this technology. The result was 720,000 35mm black and white images of every property in the five Boroughs. These photographs were converted to microfilm and are accessible at the Municipal Archives
Archival Collections
Archival Collections in the Tamiment Library
Tamiment preserves the history of working-class New York: its neighborhood associations, fraternal and ethnic societies, political organizations, and the unions that shaped the social and economic structure of New York and thus are a rich source for researchers interested in the history of the city. Search BobCat or Finding Aids to identify collections.
Leo Hershkowitz Archival Collections, c.1700 – c.1940s. (bulk 1860-1920)
Among Tamiment's collections, the Leo Hershkowitz Archival Collections, acquired in 2007, are particularly notable for the study of NYC history. The collections consist of material purchased and compiled by Hershkowitz, an attorney and noted collector of printed and archival material relating to the history of New York City and New York State. Hershkowitz is the author of a number of books and scholarly articles on various aspects of New York City and State history, and some of the documents were collected as research material for these works.
This is an unprocessed archival collection consisting of a wide range of document types and graphic materials, including maps and plans, broadsides, posters, wills and other legal documents, advertisements and other commercial ephemera, theatrical programs, election materials and other political publications, government reports, ledgers, several hundred pages from illustrated newspapers such as Harper’s Weekly, cartoons, prints depicting topographical and other subjects, and other printed and autograph items. . The Hershkowitz Archival Collections are open by permission; contact Gail Malmgreen for information.
New-York Historical Society Library Manuscript Collections
The New-York Historical Society Library collections contain approximately 2 million manuscripts (approximately 7,000 linear feet) relating to the political, military, legal, cultural, mercantile, infrastructural, domestic, and social history of the United States in general, and New York City and New York State in particular. The bulk of the manuscript collections is from the 18th and 19th centuries, but includes important materials from the 17th century as well as a small number of 20th and 21st century collections. The N-YHS Library collections are cataloged in BobCat and may also be found with a Finding Aids Search.
Municipal Archives of the City of New York
With records dating back to the earliest days of European colonial settlement in the seventeenth century, up to the present mayoral administration, the Municipal Archives houses 150,000 cubic feet of historical government records, including manuscripts, official correspondence, vital records, ledgers, several thousand feet of moving images, over one million photographs, sound recordings, maps, and architectural plans.
Consult the Tamiment Library's Serials Research Guide for tips on identifying, using and searching newspapers, journals, periodical guides, and indexes in the Tamiment Library's collections. The guide also includes information on notable sources of digitized serials and electronic indexes.
Gotham Center for New York City History
Locating Materials in the Tamiment Library
New York City History Web Resources from The New York Public Library
New-York Historical Society Library's Architecture Research Guide
Radical Press in New York City - Tamiment Library Guide
Selected Periodical Indexes in the Tamiment Library
Updated 05/02/08
