Posts from the Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy

The Library has a number of items that highlight the development and presence of synagogues in New York City, including at least one photographic collection wherein Beth Hamedrash Hagodol features prominently. This post pays tribute to the building, with a short history, and a view back to better days.Read More ›

Architectural historian and New York Times columnist Christopher Gray died last week. He was 66. Milstein Division librarians took a moment to reflect on Gray's work, and his impact on the written history of New York City and research of its built environment. Read More ›

Try your hand at research at the Schwarzman Building at 42nd Street, and be amazed at what you can learn—about your own family. Just ask Jennifer Maston, who took a course on African-American genealogy and came away with more than she expected. Read More ›

History is often subject to an arrogant and belabored information literacy.Read More ›

An interview with John Keene: a writer-in-residence in the Library’s Wertheim Study in 2013, where he researched and wrote Counternarratives, for which he received an American Book Award and a Lannan Literary Award in Fiction in 2016.Read More ›

New York Public Library is digitizing its collection of New York City Directories, 1786 through 1922/3, serving them free through the NYPL Digital Collections portal. The first batch—1849/50 through 1923—have already been scanned, and the 1786–1848/9 directories are right now being scanned. The whole collection will be going online over the coming months.Read More ›

A death record is a legal statement of fact that provides information for purposes other than the apparent fact that the subject individual is dead. Read More ›

A prolific amateur photographer and local historian, Hubacher documented New York City and its environs with a seemingly objective eye, the typed or handwritten captions on the verso of each photograph often markedly specific in terms of date and location.Read More ›

In New York City, there are three ways to get started researching probate records.Read More ›

Ever wondered who lived in your home before you? Or having trouble finding great-grandparents in old census records? If you are so inclined, and want to search the census by address, to see who lived in your American house many moons ago, this post explains how you can do that. Even better, all the information is available online for free. You will need an address... Read More ›

In the years after the Revolutionary War, about five thousand immigrants arrived in the U.S. annually; in 2014, one million people obtained lawful permanent residency. Read More ›

As June turned into July in 1863, the residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi faced an increasingly dire summer. The city's newspaper, the Vicksburg Daily Citizen, was remarkable in that it both documented and physically represented the effects of the siege.Read More ›

A look at forgotten pastimes as well as classic activities that children can enjoy today with guidebooks for families, past and present.Read More ›

Happy Immigrant Heritage Month! The Library is proud to be hosting a wide array of events throughout the month of June to celebrate. Read More ›

Facing more incoming commuters than any other county, Manhattan’s population nearly doubles each day. Learn about the history and rise of commuter culture in New York City.Read More ›

The peak season of professional horse racing breaks from the gate this Saturday at 6:24PM, as 20 thoroughbreds contend nose-to-nose down to the wire for the 142nd Kentucky Derby, at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky. Read More ›

The OldNYC experience is now available on mobile phones—discover what was there at thousands of locations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. We talked to the developers to learn more about their work with our collections.Read More ›

Find your great-great-uncle or the former owner of your apartment building: We’ve built an interface for you to browse records after searching names, addresses, and other fields.Read More ›

Find My Past holds many useful records for furthering your family history research. Here are three reasons to explore this database and continue your genealogical journey:Read More ›