Posts from the Manuscripts and Archives Division

In this episode, NYPL's Tal Nadan spoke about the Horn & Hardart Automat with Lisa Hurwitz, director of the documentary film The Automat, and Alec Shuldiner, author of a 2001 dissertation on these once ubiquitous coin-operated eateries in New York and Philadelphia.

In this episode, author Debby Applegate discusses her new book about how Adler, a young Jewish immigrant, became the proprietress of one of Manhattan's most notorious bordellos in the era of Prohibition enforcers and the New York City vice sqad.

In this episode, NYPL's Melanie Locay and Amy Sohn, New York Times bestselling author of The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship & Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, discussed Sohn's research into a critical moment in the history of anti-censorship and reproductive rights activism in America. In 1873, the Comstock law passed, penalizing the mailing of contraception and obscenity with harsh sentences and steep fines.  Anthony Comstock, special agent to the Post Office and the law's namesake, viewed reproductive rights as a threat to the American family. Between 1873 and the 

"Jump in and let your enthusiasm be your guide. Just because somebody hasn’t written about a piece of information yet doesn’t mean it isn’t out there—it’s amazing what is just waiting to be discovered."

In this episode, NYPL's Matt Knutzen and NYU Professor Tom Augst probed the archives of Brown Brothers & Company and revealed the hands-on role that the financial firm played in managing one Southern plantation.

On March 4, 2021, Doc Chat kicked off Women's History Month by examining the intersection of gender, conservation, activism, fashion, and birds—yes, birds!—in the early 20th century.

Melanie Yolles is an archivist who was on the cutting edge of digital access to archives, entering the Library’s first archival inventory in digital form in 1988.

In this episode, we were joined by Barbara Heller and Anna Pinto who worked on a new edition of 'Pride and Prejudice' filled with reproductions of the book's Regency-era correspondence.

The 1939 New York World's Fair promised a view of the "World of Tomorrow" through its dazzling displays of up-to-the-minute cultural and technological advancements. The fair's iconic posters were the topic of the most recent episode of Doc Chat—find a recording of the event below as well as links to related resources to explore.

In its inaugural episode, NYPL's Meredith Mann and Alicia Cheng, author of 'This Is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot', discussed American ballots' evolving graphic design and what they can tell us about the history of voting and elections.

Demons fleeing statues, corpses reanimating, stones transformed into gold: who knew that seeing a seven-headed beast would not be the most freakish thing to happen to someone? Yet these incidents and more are present in the several illuminated Apocalypses held in the NYPL’s Manuscripts and Rare Books collections.

NYPL's Susan Kriete and Cara Dellatte used two evocative photos to piece together the life of "Militant" Maude Malone, who was not only a feminist and activist, but also a NYPL Librarian.

Thousands of additional images shot by Davies are now available in our Digital Collections.

The NYPL has a bevy of resources to support students and educators on this journey.

Our in-person visits are on hiatus, but we are still available to help you with virtual consultations and advice.

You can honor Earth Day and Arbor Day Every Day.

A sampling of publications whose authors relied upon the Library’s archival and rare book collections in their research.

The editor of "The Superwoman and Other Writings by Mirian Michelson" discusses her study of the trailblazing author and journalist, and how digitized records of the Century Company have aided her research.

To celebrate Herman Melville's 200th birthday, the Library is displaying notable Melville items from our collections, including family correspondence and literary manuscripts.