New-York Historical Society

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The New-York Historical Society is an American organization located in New York City and dedicated to the preservation of the city's history. The society operates a museum and library at its current headquarters in Manhattan at the corner of 77th Street and Central Park West. The Society building is open to the general public Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sundays from 11:00am to 5:00pm.It also operates many public educational programs. Since 2004, the president of the society has been Louise Mirrer of the City University of New York.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Collections 3 History 4 Decline 5 Education and public programs 6 Recent Exhibitions 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Overview

The New-York Historical Society, an educational and research institution, presents exhibitions, public programs and conducts research on history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, its mission is to explore the history of New York City and State and the country, and serve as a national forum for the debate and examination of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history. The museum houses four centuries of history, artifacts, and art that tell the story of America through the eyes of New York. The building also houses an extensive research library containing 4 centuries worth of manuscripts, newspapers, and other documents. "The presence of such a great historical society library in a building ideal for mounting fine exhibits greatly enhances the cultural richness of New York City" said Joyce Appleby a professor of History at UCLA.

[edit] Collections

The Society holds a collection of historical artifacts, American art, and other materials documenting the history of the United States and New York, and is home to both an independent research library and New York City’s oldest museum. The Society’s “vast collection” includes more than 4.5 million American history-related documents, paintings, artifacts, and ephemera. Including: a collection of materials relating to slavery, the Civil War, and reconstruction; all 435 of John James Audubon's known extant watercolors preparatory for Birds of America; a collection of 18th century newspapers; Hudson River School paintings; holdings revealing the social dimensions of early trial history in the United States; the largest known collection of Tiffany lamps ; and far-ranging materials relating to the founding and early history of the nation. In addition, the Society also holds paintings and decorative arts relating to New York's earliest families, including the Beekmans, the Roosevelts, the Rapeljes and others. In its collection is "The Rapalje Children" painted by John Durand in 1768 and generally considered to be one of the finest examples of colonial painting in America.^[1] In praise of The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, University of Houston Professor Steven Mintz remarked that the center is “an incredible fount of visual resources… (and) invaluable in teaching the history of children and families and of private life."

[edit] History

The society was founded on November 20, 1804, largely through the efforts of John Pintard, who for some years was secretary of the American Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the founder of New York's first savings bank. He was also among the first to agitate for a free school system. The first meeting comprised eleven of the city's prominent citizens, including Mayor DeWitt Clinton. At the meeting, a committee was selected to draw up a constitution, and by December 10, the society was officially organized.

In 1813, nine years after its founding when the society's first catalogue was printed, the society owned 4,265 books, as well as 234 volumes of United States documents, 119 almanacs, 130 titles of newspapers, 134 maps, and 30 miscellaneous views. It had already collected the start of a manuscript collection, several oil portraits, and 38 engraved portraits.

The society suffered under heavy debt during its early decades. In 1809, the society organized a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the arrival of Henry Hudson in New York Harbor. Inspired by the event, the society petitioned and later obtained an endowment from the New York State Legislature, to be financed by a lottery in 1814. The failure of the lottery resulted in a debt, forcing the society to mortgage some of its books, which were redeemed only in 1823.

The society and its collections moved frequently during the 19th century. In 1809, the society and its collections moved to the Government House on Bowling Green,which had been constructed as a residence for the President of the United States, but which was unoccupied after the relocation of the capital to Philadelphia. In 1816, the society moved again to the New York Institution, formerly the city almshouse on City Hall Park. In 1857, it moved into the first building constructed specifically for its collections, at the then-fashionable intersection of Second Avenue and 11th Street, where it stayed for the next fifty years. The society later acquired a collection of Egyptian and Assyrian art which was later transferred to the Brooklyn Museum. The central portion of the present building on Central Park West was completed in 1908.

Two stained windows of exceptional note are found in the library on the 2nd floor. One represents The Arrival of Henry Hudson and was designed by Mr. Calvert of the Gorham Manufacturing. The second one, on the right-hand side of the information desk, is called the Huguenot memorial window, or more formally, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. It is one of Mary E. Tillinghast's most recognized achievements because it is a large and handsome window prominently displayed in an easily accessible spot and that it is inscribed in the lower left corner "Copyright July 1908. M.E. Tillinghast" and in the lower right signed in her script, "Mary Tillinghast Fecit 1908." The window was underwritten by Mrs. Russell Sage, who had also been instrumental in other windows done by Miss Tillinghast. She is probably the most outstanding American stained glass women designer, and had been a partner for seven years with John LaFarge until going out on her own. Before that, she had worked under the umbrella of the Tiffany studio in the embroidery department. She lived in a sumptuously French decorated apartment at #3 Washington Square N., the home of a number of famous artists, from William Glackens to Edward Hopper. It was Hopper who occupied her studio upstairs from her apartment, where she died in December of 1912. That studio still exists today behind the facade of the NYU School of Social Work.

[edit] Decline

The society's collection continued to grow throughout the 20th century, but renewed financial woes in the 1970s and 1980s forced the society to limit access to its collections to professional researchers. In the 1980s they used endowment invasion to pay their annual operating costs and cover their salaries to the point where by 1988 they had only enough money in their endowment to pay for another 18 months of operating expenses.^[2][3] Barbara Knowles Debs from Manhattanville College was named interim director of the society.^[4] In the same year hundreds of paintings, decorative art objects, and other artifacts that were stored in a Manhattan warehouse were found to be covered in mold and damaged. Many of the objects were on long term loan to the museum.^[5] In 1995, grants from the city and state restored public access under the direction of Betsy Gotbaum. Recently private grants have allowed the society to begin building an on-line catalog of its collections. In 2005, the society was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

[edit] Education and public programs

Each year, the museum hosts students and teachers to tailor learning programs and curricula to the specific needs of students and teachers not only while they are in the museum, but in their own schools as well. Each year the society hosts tens of thousands of students and teachers. The society features programs such as an object-based learning technique that encourages students to develop personal perspectives on history through their response through observation of primary sources and material culture. New projects include the American Musicals Project that provides teachers with a variety of lesson plans each using a different musical to teach kids about a period in American history. According to the society's president and CEO Louise Mirrer, "We are exceptionally fortunate to record history of this nation in ways that are sometimes not positive and not pleasant ... (but) they all speak to a history that we believe everyone should know and we see it (as) very much our job to help people to understand the history of this country in all its dimensions, so we can learn from the past and apply it to the present."

[edit] Recent Exhibitions

• Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America
• Slavery in New York
• Here is New York: Remembering 9/11
• Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery which included participants Faith Ringgold, Kara Walker and Fred Wilson.
• New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War
• French Founding Father: Lafayette’s Return to Washington’s America
• Grant and Lee in War and Peace

[edit] See also

• List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

• New-York Historical Society website

Coordinates: 40°46′45″N 73°58′27″W / 40.77917°N 73.97417°W / 40.77917; -73.97417