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. It also operates many public educational programs. Since 2001, the president of the society has been Kenneth T. Jackson of Columbia University.

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 mortage 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 buidling 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.

The society's collection continued to grow throughout the 20th century, but renewed financial woes in the 1970s and 1980s forced the society in the early 1990s to limit access to its collections to professional researchers. 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.

External link

• Official site (http://www.nyhistory.org/)