“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” – John Updike

New York City don’t quit. The songs tell you it never sleeps, it’s a city so nice, they named it twice, the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down. It’s a helluva town.

It’s got a helluva a storage attic too.

When it comes to all things New Yorkese, the New-York Historical Society museum and its associated library is a killer of a research source. (And they will kill you if you forget that hyphen, too, buddy-boy.) Where else are you going to find a collection of restaurant menus from the 1600s?
(As far back as the early Dutch settlers, what most New Yorkers talked about at lunch was where they were going to go for dinner.)

The library requires registration and is primarily geared to scholars, writers and other researchers who need access to the extensive primary materials collections as a site describes:

Printed Collection The Printed Collections form the core of the Klingenstein Library’s holdings and include staggering numbers of publications relating to New York and American history: 350,000 books and pamphlets; 10,000 newspaper titles (or over 1 million issues); 18,000 broadsides; over 10,000 published maps and atlases; 15,000 pieces of sheet music; 10,000 dining menus; and over 500 hotel files.

Manuscript Collection The Manuscript collections contain over 20,000 linear feet of archival materials including family papers and organizational and business records that document the lives of important New Yorkers and Americans as well as average citizens.  The bulk of the manuscript collections are from the 18th and 19th centuries, but we also have important materials from the 17th century and a growing number of 20th and 21st century collections.

Digital Collections The New-York Historical Society’s growing digital library now includes thousands of photographs of New York City, Revolutionary Era maps, manuscripts, and broadsides, Civil War materials, manuscripts relating to slavery and African American history, and numerous other historical resources from the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library as well as highlights from several Museum collections. The digital collections listed above are freely available online.

Web Site
http://nyhistory.org

Library
– Catalog
https://bobcat.library.nyu.edu/primo-explore/search?vid=NYHS
– Collections
https://www.nyhistory.org/collections-0

Archives
The archival collections at N-YHS are extensive. Consult the catalog for a complete guide.

Special Collections

Center for Women’s History
https://www.nyhistory.org/womens-history/women-in-the-archive

Tennis fans, take note: Billie Jean King’s archives are housed here.