In September 2021, the Municipal Archives received the very welcome notice of grant funding from the National Park Service Save America’s Treasures (SAT) program to preserve the Brooklyn Bridge Drawings Collection. Established in 1998, the SAT celebrates the country’s premier cultural resources with grant support to preserve properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places and for projects involving collections that document significant places. The Institute for Museum and Library Services administers the SAT-funded projects.
Valentine's Manuals
For the Record readers may have observed articles are frequently illustrated with images copied from Valentine’s Manuals. Published annually between 1841 and 1870 (except 1867), and formally titled, Manuals of the Corporation of the City of New York, these volumes are a familiar source for information about municipal government, and particularly, graphic depictions of “old New York.”
Schooling in Midwout, Brooklyn in 1666
The December 1666 entry provides a fascinating glimpse of the school day three and a half centuries ago. It came to light during the digitization of selected volumes in the Old Town collection. Funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the Municipal Archives has been processing the Old Town collection. This collection is comprised of records created in the villages and towns that were eventually consolidated into the Greater City of New York in 1898.
The People vs Mary Jones: Rethinking Race, Sex and Gender through 19th-Century Court Records
During her arraignment interview, Mary was asked to clarify her “right” [or legal] name and sex. In response, she stated “Peter Sewally—I am a man.” A New York City native of about thirty-three years of age, she claimed to have “always dressed [in women’s clothes]” while attending parties among the “people of her own color.” She had also dressed this way in New Orleans, a city to which she may have traveled while “in the state service.”