NYS Library Blog

The New York State Museum’s dog treadmills, shared as part of their Look at This social media series, inspired us to use New York State Library resources to discover related materials in our collections.

U.S. Patents at the NYS Library

The NYS Library has been a United States Patent and Trademark Resource Center since 1871.  The collection includes nearly everything the USPTO has published and distributed, ranging from early material in paper, through microforms, CD/DVDs and up to their current online databases. The collection also includes many commercially published resources. You can use the patent collection for both patentability searches and historical inquiries.

Using NYS Library patent resources, we located several 19th-century patents for machines powered by animals—often referred to as animal power, horse power, or dog power. They were built to power equipment ranging from sewing machines to butter churns to washing machines. One of many dog churn patents was issued to Franklin Traxler of Scottsburgh, NY on June 12, 1866. This iteration was a rotary-style churn in which the animal walked on a circular, rotating platform. The text of the patent explained the use of a cam-wheel and friction-rollers to move a lever that powered the churn.

Exploring NYS Butter Production through Government Documents

Since the NYS Library's creation in 1818, we have functioned as a repository of official New York State government documents and currently have the largest collection of NYS documents in the world.

Two government publications in the NYS Library's collections provide a snapshot of NYS butter production toward the end of the nineteenth century. A report titled summary of butter and cheese made in factories in the state of New York : during the season of 1892 identified 468 factories engaged in butter production (255 exclusively focused on butter, the other 213 producing both butter and cheese).

The table below displays columns for towns in Chautauqua County, with columns reporting the number of separate butter and cheese factories with a record of pounds made for each. There is another column to record the number of factories that made both butter and cheese with product totals in pounds, as well as a column to view the total weight of butter and cheese made in each town. In Chautauqua County in 1892, 26 factories produced butter and 42 produced cheese.

According to a map showing the location of the butter and the cheese factories in the State of New York, U.S.A., 1899 / compiled and issued by the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of New York, the number of butter factories in Chautauqua County in 1899 had grown to almost 40.

The blue circles on the map indicate the location of butter factories while green dots indicate cheese factories. The full map shows the highest concentrations of butter and cheese production in the central and western parts of the state with lower activity in the southeast, across the mountainous Adirondack and Catskill terrain, and in the areas surrounding the Finger Lakes. 

In real life, this map is over four feet wide! Download the file from our Digital Collections and zoom in for the highest quality viewing experience.

A Habit of Disappearing

A February 15, 1832 issue of the New England Farmer contains an article by J. Buel of Albany titled "Making and Preserving Butter." The article lays out the steps for making butter: mainly to ensure proper nutrition for cows, separate the cream, and churn before it becomes bitter. The speed of churning is advised to be regular and moderate: “If too slow, and at intervals only, the separation is tedious and uncertain. If violent, the cream is much too heated, and yields a white insipid butter.”

A footnote from this section, shown below, discusses the use of dogs in this capacity: "The dog churn is in general use in many counties, particularly upon the borders of the Hudson. In Orange we hear this in operation in a summer morning at every farm house. It is a great saving of labor to the family, which has a barrel of milk to churn daily. In one place I saw a sheep treading the diagonal platform, and another tied at hand to relieve him."

Naturally, the effectiveness of dog-powered churns depended on the willingness of the dog to power the machine. According to newspaper anecdotes discovered through the NYS Library's electronic resources, this could prove difficult.

A June 28, 1891 article from the Buffalo Courier Express titled "Gould in a Dog-Churn: Why the Railroad King Left his Country Home" loosely credits the dog churn as influencing Jay Gould's decision to leave his family's farm to pursue individual success. Gould, the notorious Gilded Age businessman, is quoted as saying his family's dog churn "had a great deal to do" with his career: 

“My father had a little dairy farm in Delaware County, and the special products of that farm were butter and cheese. We had a rotary churn, which was operated by a treadmill on which we worked a large dog and sometimes a sheep. In course of time the dog and the sheep came to understand what was in store for them when they saw the persons about the place setting up the churn. Thereupon they were in the habit of disappearing. On such occasions, to supply the missing motor, I was pressed into service, and eventually I came to understand that when the churn was preparing, I was in danger of involuntary servitude; and so I, also, used to disappear.”
 

Another disappearing act is noted in the Western New-Yorker out of Perry, New York on October 22, 1891. Ponto, a mastiff, "got to know when churning day came around as well as any in the house. On the morning of that day he would loiter about the kitchen door until he was fed, and as soon as he heard the note of preparation--the bringing of the cream jugs, preparing the churn, &c.--he would put for the woods and would not be seen again until night."

Be sure to check out the NYS Museum’s Look at This series on social media. Follow this space as we dig into NYS Library collections and electronic resources to discover what related material we can find!

The NYS Library has provided JSTOR with access to rare prison newspapers from our holdings. JSTOR has digitized those newspapers and made them freely available to the public as part of their collection, American Prison Newspapers, 1800s-present: Voices from the Inside.  

Supported by a Mellon Foundation grant, this collection has been in development for five years and counting. We are glad to be contributing partners on this project. Since historical prison newspapers can be obscure, this is a chance to amplify those voices from within. Our contributions include the following titles:

Star of Hope

Published by incarcerated individuals since 1899, this official monthly newspaper circulated throughout several New York State Prisons. Read Star of Hope on JSTOR.

The Prison Observer

Now known as Roosevelt Island, Blackwell’s Island was once the site of the New York County Jail. Incarcerated individuals housed there published their own official monthly newspaper. Read The Prison Observer on JSTOR.

The Star-Bulletin

Published at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, this monthly newspaper features color print, poetry, sports, and the arts. It’s on par with other newspapers of the day. Read The Star-Bulletin on JSTOR.

The Summary

Published weekly at the New York State Reformatory in Elmira, this prison newspaper dates back to the 19th century. It includes railroad schedules, local news, and aggregate data on incarcerated individuals. Read The Summary on JSTOR.
 

This year marks the 140th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty's arrival in New York Harbor. 

The Statue of Liberty was originally conceived in Paris as a bold and generous gift from the French people to the United States, commemorating the centennial of the American Revolution and celebrating the enduring friendship between the two nations. 

Initiated by French abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye and brought to life by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with engineering by Gustave Eiffel, the statue was also intended as a powerful symbol of freedom and democracy. By 1884 the towering figure was complete. 

Workers packed Lady Liberty into 214 wooden crates—about 350 individual pieces in all—and loaded them onto the French naval transport Isère for the long Atlantic voyage.

New Yorkers awoke on June 17, 1885, to the thrilling sight of the Isère sailing past Sandy Hook and up into the harbor. Even partly hidden in crates, the statue’s colossal scale captured imaginations.

Yet for all the fanfare, one awkward fact remained: there was no pedestal ready to receive her.

Under the gift agreement, France would fund the statue, while Americans were responsible for the pedestal. Fundraising began in 1876 but soon stalled due to economic and political setbacks. By the mid-1880s, some even proposed relocating the statue if New York couldn't meet its goal. Then Joseph Pulitzer stepped in. In 1885, his newspaper, the New York World, launched a campaign inviting donations of any size, promising to print every name. Over 120,000 people, many giving just pennies, answered the call, raising the final $100,000 needed to complete the base.

Another effort to fund the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal involved selling mini replicas of the statue to the public. These small statues became popular souvenirs and a creative way to raise money, allowing everyday Americans to feel personally connected to the project and its message of freedom.

With money secured, crews hurried to complete the granite base within Fort Wood on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island). Reassembly of the statue began in the spring of 1886; by October 28 President Grover Cleveland stood beneath the veiled figure to dedicate “Liberty Enlightening the World.”

Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus,” later affixed inside the pedestal, gave poetic voice to Liberty’s welcome, “Give me your tired, your poor…,” linking the monument forever with America’s promise of refuge and opportunity. 

The 140th milestone of Lady Liberty's arrival serves as a poignant reminder that living up to the nation’s founding ideals requires ongoing commitment and a willingness to reevaluate how we treat those seeking the very promise the statue was meant to extend.

Further Reading:

For more information about the statue’s design and construction process in detail, check out The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. The booklet shares insights into the engineering feats required to build the statue and Bartholdi’s hopes for its impact on the world

Check out the Oration at the Unveiling of the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, delivered by politician and former U.S. Representative Chauncey M. Depew on October 28, 1886. In his speech, Depew praises the statue as a powerful symbol of freedom and human progress, welcoming it as a beacon of hope to people around the world, especially immigrants arriving in America. He also reflects on the importance of self-government, civil liberties, and the shared values that connect nations committed to liberty.

The New York State Museum’s Beech-Nut Circus Bus, shared as part of their new Look at This series, inspired us to use New York State Library resources to discover materials about the Beech-Nut company.

Beech-Nut Newspaper Advertisements

Using electronic resources offered by the NYS Library, we found a variety of Beech-Nut newspaper advertisements from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Newspaper databases, like America's Historical Newspapers, America's Newspapers: New York, or Newspapers.com: World Collection, are available for the public to access on-site using the NYS Library's computers available on the 7th floor. Remote access is available for registered borrowers with a valid New York State Library card beginning with a P.

This advertisement from the December 30, 1894 issue of the New York Herald uses the promise of commissions to incentivize sales of Beech-Nut products to grocers, noting that "only men with first class reputations need apply."

The Buffalo News from March 28, 1916, advertises the Westfield Domestic Science and Household Appliance Exposition at Elmwood Music Hall, noting that a Miss Kashner will be demonstrating Beech-Nut foods at the Beech-Nut booth. A drawing of a jar of Beech-Nut brand sliced bacon is pictured in the bottom left corner, while a woman tilts a pan of bacon as if demonstrating how to prepare it.

This advertisement for Beech-Nut Coffee is from a July 1925 issue of the Daily Sentinel, published in Rome, New York. The ad has a drawing of an assortment of Beech-Nut food at the top with text below describing Beech-Nut Coffee.

Coffee sort of belongs to breakfast and breakfast sort of belongs to Beech-Nut. Isn't Beech-Nut Bacon the very soul of breakfast? And what more fitting companion for Beech-Nut Bacon than Beech-Nut Coffee, a rich and glowing coffee with a fragrance that gives cheer to the early morning?

Bartlett Arkell's Celebration of Grocery Clerks

A 1925 book from our collections, titled Grocery clerks who have become successful; a few interesting sketches compiled for the benefit of grocery salesmen, compiled, published and distributed by Bartlett Arkell, president of the Beech-nut packing company, was compiled, published and distributed by Bartlett Arkell, President of the Beech-Nut Packing Company. The publication offers stories of individuals who began their working lives as grocery store clerks and who went on to find great success in other fields—the most notable being Abraham Lincoln.

At the start of their careers as grocery clerks, Frank D. Bristley and David Flynn earned three dollars a week. H. C. Bohack had a salary of seven dollars a month plus board. John S. Rossell, working for his father, “received no wages, but his father was very proud of him...” Rossell wanted for nothing, the text clarified, and he went on to become president of the Security Trust and Safe Deposit Company in Wilmington, Delaware.

The book tells of Sir Thomas Lipton (founder of Lipton tea), who left Scotland to come to America and spent five years traveling and working, from New Orleans to South Carolina to New York. He saved enough money to return to Scotland and start a grocery store. As the book states: “four shillings a week at the age of eleven, a millionaire before he was thirty. His is a grocery store clerk’s career with a vengeance.”

Other stories focus on the lessons learned rather than financial gain. Enos K. Sawyer earned six dollars a week at the beginning of his career but stated that “the monetary consideration should be of secondary importance.” To him, the value of a grocery clerk job was the opportunity to familiarize oneself with business fundamentals and to seek further training and specialization for greater long-term success. The public nature of a grocery clerk also provided valuable “insight into human nature which is denied to most young men.” This is the overall spirit of the book: that a foundation in one's early working life as a grocery clerk would instill skills needed to achieve great success later.

Further Research: Our Catalog and the Historical Document Inventory

Our catalog points to a collection titled Beechnut Corporation records, 1912-1960, identified in our catalog as part of the Historical Document Inventory (HDI). The HDI was a statewide project overseen by the New York State Archives from 1978-1993 to identify historical materials throughout New York State. Collection items in our catalog designated HDI are not located at the NYS Library and can be found in one of approximately 1,250 repositories throughout the state.

Though no longer maintained, the HDI list is still a valuable resource for locating valuable collections across NYS. It is recommended that researchers contact the individual repositories before planning a visit to ensure accurate and up-to-date information. The HDI note in our catalog for this Beech-nut collection, for example, is from 1982 and directs users to the Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery. Since the completion of the HDI project in 1993, the institutions are now known as Arkell Museum at Canajoharie and the Canajoharie Library. The Beech-nut collection can be found at the Arkell Museum. 

 

Written by Matthew Laudicina, Manuscripts and Special Collections Unit

As the both the city of Saratoga Springs and the greater horse-racing community brace for the return of the Belmont Stakes to the Saratoga Race Course for the second year in a row, we here at the NYS Library wanted to take a moment to reflect on the history of horse racing in the Spa City (and share some fun historical images while doing so!).

The Saratoga Race Course first opened on August 3, 1863, an effort spearheaded and organized by former prizefighter and future member of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Morrissey. Little did John know that he would be creating a venue and seasonal summer activity that would become synonymous with the city of Saratoga Springs.

Races at the Saratoga Course

One item in our library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) that offers us a glimpse into some of the signage one might have seen during the early days of the operations of the Saratoga Race Course is a broadside titled “Races at the Saratoga Course.” This advertisement dated August 21, 1883, and assigned the call number BRO1418+, includes a fun illustration of horses racing at the top of the advertisement. It also informs viewers of the four races that were to be held that day, along with purse information and details on the participating racehorses.

While the festivities that will be held leading up to and at the conclusion of this year’s Belmont Stakes will no doubt be an exciting and celebratory ode to this special event, it will by no means be the first of its kind; Saratoga Springs has a well-earned reputation as a city that knows how to throw a party! One particularly fascinating collection of photographs, held by MSC under the call number PRI5722, provides a vivid example of a classic Saratogian celebration.

Battle of the Flowers

These photographs are from the Saratoga Floral Parade and Battle of the Flowers and are available to view in our Digital Collections. This celebration, created by Franklin Webster Smith, a wealthy Boston merchant and regular summer resident of Saratoga Springs, was conceived as a response to Saratoga’s growing reputation as a city of gambling and other unsavory vices. Smith’s vision for the celebration was to encourage both improvements to the city and several public events, culminating with the annual grand floral fête, which featured a parade and ball, while at the same time offering a wholesome counter to the untoward nature of the culture surrounding the Saratoga Race Course. While the festival grew to an unsustainable size and was eventually discontinued in 1902, these images allow us to peer into history and appreciate what was once a grand spectacle conducted in classic Saratoga-Style!

Many of the photos, such as item numbers 15 and 67, really capture the family-friendly nature of the celebration. Floats and carriages, all adorned with beautiful, wholesome floral décor, truly paint a vivid picture of the wholesome, vice-free intention with the floral parade. Items 11 and 19, meanwhile, show the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the glorious Battle of the Flowers, with huge floats, throngs of celebrants with bicycles in tow, and, of course, horses abound! 

We would be remiss to not also draw special attention to item 89, which shows three small children on a small flower-adorned wagon, with two small goats leading the way!

We hope that good times will be had by all at this year’s Belmont Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course, whether it’s to enjoy the action at the races, or perhaps to stop and enjoy the flowers along the way!

One of the most exciting ways that we construct our history is through the personal papers of past New Yorkers. The long and winding history of the Erie Canal is no exception. Many papers, including letters, diaries, and other writings, are carefully maintained at the NYS Library to allow researchers, educators, and New Yorkers to hear from these voices in the process of constructing our shared history.

It’s hard to know if these writers understood how important their observations would be to future New Yorkers. During this time of increased “continental thinking” and in the wake of more than one major military conflict with the powers of Europe, it’s possible that these individuals were writing for perpetuity. In many cases, they had already lived through history-making times before turning their minds to the Erie Canal. Other missives may be less clear cut in their intentions but no less helpful in helping us to piece together what life was like for our New York predecessors and what was on their minds. Regardless of their original intentions, these items can be stacked together to reconstruct life before, during, and after the construction of the Erie Canal.  

Western Inland Lock Navigation Company 

After the American Revolution, Philip Schuyler redirected his prodigious energies toward his interests in surveying and engineering, and toward the improvement of internal waterways. He served as president of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, the precursor to the Erie Canal, and was a well-connected political figure in Albany. Schuyler’s correspondence can be considered a constellation of power players and ideas in early America and New York, and his role in the construction of the canal continues in this pattern.

In the 1796 letter pictured below, Schuyler instructs an unknown recipient to purchase clay for improvements to Western Inland Lock Navigation Company works, in particular an earthen wall near a guard lock on the recommendation of engineer William Weston. Schuyler wrote: 

New York March 14 1796  

Dear Sir  

Mr. Weston has recommended that about an acre and an [sic] half of ground of Mr [indecipherable] meadow should be obtained adjoining the river above the guard lock for the purpose of procuring clay & [indecipherable] to strengthen & compleat the embankments.  

Will you be so good as to try to purchase it from the owner, or if he refuses to sell the fee simple, then to agree with him to take what earth we may want, and the money will be paid him in conformity to any agreement with him which you shall make. – If he refuses this also, Mr [indecipherable] has freedoms to apply [indecipherable] as the magistrate to have the damages valued in conformity to law.  

I have the pleasure to advise you that the Senate have agreed to loan the company fifteen thousand pounds and I make little doubt but the Assembly will acceed to them.  

We have a good prospect that Mr Weston will assist us in the second year and that the canal at Fort Schuyler will be compleated in all [indecipherable], and many of the obstructions between Schenectady & the falls be removed –  

The directors [intreat?] you to continue to have the toll collected for the passage of the boats, Mr  Constable has some time since written you on that subject but I apprehend his letter has [indecipherable]  

I am Dear Sir, with  

sentiments of great regard  

Your Obed. Servant  

Ph. [Philip] Schuyler

English canal engineer William Weston was one of the few trained engineers practicing in America during the 1790s, and his opinion was highly valued by Schuyler and others. Weston oversaw construction on part of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company’s locks. Later, he was asked to review plans for the Erie Canal and considered them viable. Weston was eventually offered the position of chief engineer for the Erie Canal project but was enjoying his retirement in England and politely declined. 

You can view this letter in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections. In addition, the Library is home to the Schuyler Family Collection, 1679-1823. This collection contains Philip Schuyler’s correspondence to others about the Revolutionary War, business matters, land transactions, and government. Some letters to family members are also included, such as those to Schuyler’s similarly famous and accomplished sons-in-law, Alexander Hamilton and Stephen Van Rensselaer. 

Adventures of Elkanah Watson 

The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was active in pursuing information and improvements. In 1791, the company sponsored Elkanah Watson on a trip west from Albany to search for a water route to best connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes.  

Watson’s life is largely characterized by his travel adventures. As a young apprentice, he was tasked with traveling from Providence, Rhode Island, to Charleston with $50,000 sewn into the lining of his clothes. During his travels, he adopted the practice of keeping a detailed journal which described the difficult travel conditions he often faced. Watson kept up his journal for the remainder of his life.

A September 9, 1791, entry in Watson’s journal illustrates the challenges of inland water travel before the development of canals. Watson writes: “In many places the windings [of Wood Creek] were so sudden & short that while the bow of the boat was ploughing in the Bank on one Side her Stern was rubbing land against the other.”  Two days later, he expanded on these difficulties:

“Nothing can exceed the crookedness of Wood Creek & nothing can be more trying to the Patience of an active mind under its present obstructions than Sailing through it. The Points & Necks crooks every moment presented themselves, carrying us all round the Compass & in many places running exactly Paralel [sic] to each other at a little distance. We counted 188 distinct Points on both Sides between Canada Creek & the Royal Block House, 27 Miles. At a place called the Neck, 4 miles from the Oneida Lake we measured 7 paces across the Neck, & our boats had to go a mile round to meet us on the opposite side. …” 

Watson, like Philip Schuyler, was a man of many interests and correspondents, and he left behind a trove of personal materials when his adventures finally ended. Some pages from Watson’s journal, including those quoted above, are available to view in our Digital Collections. Additionally, the NYS Library is home to the Elkanah Watson Papers, 1773-1884. This collection includes Watson’s journals, papers, and other records. Like Philip Schuyler, Watson corresponded and interacted with many famous figures of the day. His journals often include attached or transcribed letters to and from others, among them George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. 

The Alexander Stewart Scott Diary

Later diarists documented their experiences on the completed canal. In 1826, just one year after the Erie Canal opened, law student Alexander Stewart Scott traveled from Quebec, Canada, to Albany before heading west to Buffalo on the Erie Canal. The journey lasted for over three months, and Scott’s diary is packed with details about his experiences and his means of travel.

One episode from Scott’s diary recounts his experience sleeping (or trying to sleep) aboard a packet boat. Packet boats on the Erie Canal offered comfortable passenger travel, as they were outfitted with large windows for sight-seeing and bunk beds with varying levels of privacy for passengers to sleep in each night.  

The image above, from Marco Paul’s Voyages & Travels, Erie Canal (New York: Harper, 1852), provides a helpful illustration of a similar scene. For more illustrations, view Marco Paul’s Voyages & Travels, Erie Canal in our Digital Collections. 

Of his own experience in the bunks, Scott writes that he could not help: 

“[…]laughing at what happened in the course of the night. While in my Birth [that is, berth] & asleep, I chanced to throw my arms about at a great rate (probably under the influence of some Dream). I awoke with my exertions, and found myself actually in the fact of hitting a Gent[leman] who was in the Bed next me, a slap on the Face, which he, apparently of a cholerick disposition & half asleep, took in high dudgeon, & immediately showed fight – in his eagerness to resent the supposed injury he jumped up & tumbled out of Bed – overthrew a Chair and Basin of Water on the person under him in the lower Birth, who also it appeared did not intend to put up quietly with (as he imagined) such unprovoked usage – the hula- bulloo awakened all the other Passengers …  

… I was obliged to stuff the Bed clothes into my mouth to prevent my betraying myself by laughing …” 

While Scott may have been a fun travel companion, he was also exact in keeping track of his itinerary. The back of his diary is given over to tracking his mode of travel, his expenses, and the miles he logged during his trip. Scott traveled by canal, stagecoach, ferry, steamboat, and wagon. On his return trip to Quebec, on board a canal boat between Buffalo and Palmyra, Scott paid “3 cents a mile.” 

The entirety of Alexander Stewart Scott’s travel diary is available to view in our Digital Collections.  

Preserving New York Voices 

The collections of the NYS Library continued to grow throughout the 1800s to include literary and historical treasures such as books, letters, maps, and even other artifacts such as relics from George Washington’s famous life. More than once, Library leaders sought expanded and improved space for the prestigious (and popular) collection.

Famously, in 1911, the NYS Library was ravaged by the Capitol Fire of March 29. While items like the draft Emancipation Proclamation and a draft of Washington’s Farewell Address were saved from the blaze, the majority of items were lost. In his history of the NYS Library, Cecil R. Roseberry writes: 

“[...]only after the calamity did the majority of the [Albany] population begin to understand how large and important a library it had been. Before, the average man-in-the-street, as well as most newspapers, had a tendency to think of the State Library as 'a room on the third floor of the Capitol'; now they awakened to the astonishing fact that it had been rated fifth among libraries of the United States, and that it had stood among the 20 largest in the world” (p. 88).  

The NYS Library lost 450,000 books and 270,000 manuscripts in the fire. Samuel J. Abbott, a nightwatchman and Civil War veteran, perished in the fire.

Salvage, restoration, and rebuilding began immediately after the fire. While many books could be replaced, the Library’s collection of manuscripts faced a different path to rebirth. In 1912, New York State acquired another batch of Van Rensselaer Manor materials, including maps, surveys, leases, mortgages, and more. Other rare materials found their way to the recovering Library in the ensuing years, including letters by DeWitt Clinton, Philip Schuyler, and members of the Van Rensselaer family (Roseberry, p. 105). Even in unspeakable tragedy, the Library remained entwined with the forefathers of the Erie Canal—the voices of Clinton, Schuyler, and the Van Rensselaers continue to reach through the years to speak to successive generations of New Yorkers. 

Your Words: the NYS Personal History Initiative 

The presence of New York voices is what brings New York State history to life. The story of the Erie Canal contains a chorus of expertise, opinion, and experiences captured by the pen strokes of New Yorkers past. Surely this is one of the most exciting ways to study, interpret, and construct our shared history.

As part of the NYS Personal History Initiative, the NYS Library invites you to submit your own stories! The NYS Library’s Personal History Initiative collects and preserves stories from individual New Yorkers and New York communities. As we’ve seen in this exploration of letters and journals, the day-to-day experiences of all New Yorkers, from Long Island to Plattsburgh and from Albany to Buffalo, make up the foundation of our state's history.  

We invite you to explore stories on the PHI website by browsing our current collections. We hope they inspire you to document your own experiences! The NYS Library collects writing, photos, recordings, and artwork through our New York Experience prompts, which ask New Yorkers to upload their own stories to add to the historical record, alongside those of Philip Schuyler, Elkanah Watson, and Alexander Stewart Scott.  

What will future New Yorkers learn from your stories? 

In Conclusion

The New York History Conference is taking place later this week on June 5th and 6th. We hope that you have enjoyed this series of Erie Canal blog posts exploring this year’s conference theme of “Constructing the Empire State.” The NYS Library is home to many, many items that reveal the exciting and convoluted history of the Erie Canal, and we’ll continue to explore the collections as part of our ongoing celebration of 200 years of the Erie Canal.

Be sure to check out all of the posts in our Erie Canal/New York History Conference series and stay tuned for more from the collections of the NYS Library. 

The Seneca Chief set out from Lockport on October 26, 1825, carrying a victorious Governor DeWitt Clinton and an unsuspecting barrel of Lake Erie water. A flotilla of boats loaded with various products from Western New York followed for the 10-day voyage on the newly finished Erie Canal to New York City. The procession passed through several communities that lined the canal and was welcomed with speeches, artillery salutes, and fireworks in celebration of what New York and American democracy had accomplished in the Erie Canal.

On its journey from Buffalo to New York City, the Seneca Chief passed through 83 locks. It was 363 miles from Buffalo to Albany, and about another 125 nautical miles from Albany to New York City via the Hudson River.

A special cannon “communication” preceded the convoy of boats all along the route. The Grand Celebration! flyer below (available to view in our Digital Collections) asked the citizens of Geneva to illuminate their houses on the evening of October 26 and invited them to attend a community dinner, “...for the Purpose of Demonstrating the Joy Which the Citizens of Geneva, in Common with the Citizens of the State, Feel at the Completion of the Erie Canal [...]” It also announced that there would be cannon fire and the ringing of church bells to mark the completion of the project. 

Wedding of the Waters

Ten days later, the procession entered New York City for the final phase of the celebration. The “Wedding of the Waters” ceremony took place in New York Harbor off Sandy Hook. A choreographed parade of domestic and international vessels formed a circle in the bay while Clinton (now aboard the Chancellor Livingston steamboat) and others gave speeches and ceremoniously poured a barrel of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean. The scene is rendered in detail in Benson John Lossing’s 1895 three-volume book Our Country, a Household History of the United States for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time, available in the collections of the NYS Library. 

The celebration also included a parade of floats representing members of several societies, trades, and professions, including firemen, bakers, coopers, stonecutters, house painters, comb-makers, and—luckily for us and the historical record—printers! Cadwallader D. Colden’s memoir is largely dedicated to the celebration of the opened Erie Canal and includes detailed documentation about the planning and preparation of parade routes, military observances, and much more. The complete list of societies that met ahead of the parade at the Wedding of the Waters can be found on page 130 of Colden’s memoir, available to view in our Digital Collections. 

While the NYS Library does not have an image of the printers’ float specifically, we can get pretty close to what it looked like by combining sources from our collections. The first image below, also from Cadwallader D. Colden’s memoir, features a fire department float from the parade. The image depicts a float, pulled by four horses, carrying a fire engine and four firemen. The second image comes from Robert Hoe’s A Short History of the Printing Press and of the Improvements in Printing Machinery from the Time of Gutenberg Up to the Present Day. It illustrates a Peter Smith hand printing press similar to what would have been on the printers’ float. The NYS Library holds multiple copies of Robert Hoe’s Short History of the Printing Press.  

Samuel Woodworth, a New York printer, wrote an “Ode for the Canal Celebration” (pictured below) at the request of the printers of New York City. Copies of the ode were printed on two working printing presses that had been mounted on a “moveable stage,” or float, pulled by four horses. The presses produced 3,000 copies of the ode during the parade. In all, 8,000 copies of the ode were distributed at this event. Three hundred printers marched behind the float.  

You can also view the “Ode for the Canal Celebration” in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections. The “Ode for the Canal Celebration” is part of the NYS Library’s expansive collection of Broadside Ballads, or topical, narrative poems or ballads printed on a single sheet of paper. As an enduring form of “street literature,” broadside ballads often reflect contemporary public attitudes about current events.  

Water Music

Music was another way for New Yorkers to express their pride in the canal, but today’s most well-known Erie Canal song was probably never sung on the canal. Low Bridge! Everybody Down (or Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal) was written in the early 1900s by a professional songwriter as a nostalgic look back at the old Erie Canal. 

While the cover illustration for the sheet music depicts a classic old canal scene of a barge being drawn by a mule with the rider ducking under a bridge, the cover provides further clues to the song’s provenance: an inset reproduction of a news-clipping concerns plans by the New York State Department of Public Works to sell abandoned portions of the Erie Canal. You can get a closer look by viewing the Low Bridge sheet music in our Digital Collections. 

From the late 1890s to the1970s, New York City’s music publishing district was known as “Tin Pan Alley,” a nickname which was likely a reference to the continuous sound of pianos coming from seemingly every open window as songwriters searched for a hit. You can listen to a recording of Low Bridge! as part of the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox Early Tin Pan Alley playlist.

Sheet music is one of the NYS Library's largest special collections: there are approximately 35,000 musical scores, dating from the 1790s to the 1970s, including a major collection of 20th-century scores. Interestingly, while New York City is often considered the heart of the music industry, the NYS Library's collection indicates that music publishing also flourished in the canal-adjacent cities of Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, and Albany, as well as in many smaller cities or towns in upstate New York.

A more contemporary composition is Charles Gilfert’s Grand Canal March, pictured below and available to view in our Digital Collections. Charles Gilfert was a composer who also managed an Albany theater for a brief period. He “most respectfully inscribed” his composition for pianoforte to Governor DeWitt Clinton. 

State Library Treasures

At the NYS Library, DeWitt Clinton’s initial campaign to build an impressive and useful collection was continuing in full force. For a collection which relied heavily on personal gifts and donations, the holdings grew quickly, perhaps due in large part to the fact that Clinton, Tayler, and others overseeing the Library in its early days were personal friends with former leaders and heroes of the Revolution who were in possession of countless documentary treasures from the nation’s past.

The Library trustees under DeWitt Clinton began publishing the Library’s catalog, even after the collection grew to thousands of items. Impressive selections from the early inventory included a first edition of Chaucer’s Works, the Domesday Book, Marshall’s Life of Washington, and the works of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, and Alexander Hamilton (Roseberry, p. 6).  

Soon, the NYS Library was home to a number of impressive items that inspired a sense of pride in the collections. As the collections grew in volume and prestige to include such treasures as Audubon’s Birds of America double elephant folios, Library leaders sought to improve reading spaces, item storage, and the arrangement of books (Roseberry, pp. 16-18).  

Since its earliest days, the NYS Library and its stewards have sought to collect, preserve, and share the items that tell us stories about ourselves and the world where we make our home. From the initial efforts to enshrine knowledge and cultivate pride in New York accomplishments, the NYS Library has grown its collections to include over 20 million items.  

Next Week: Our Journey Concludes

Celebrations around the Erie Canal brought New Yorkers together to share in the triumph of the canal and to mark a milestone in American achievement. At the same time, the stewards of the young NYS Library were assembling a collection to accomplish a similarly impressive feat that would be a source of pride for New Yorkers and a monument to human knowledge and effort. The fruits of these twin efforts are the countless documents maintained at the NYS Library that help us to construct New York’s stories.

The New York History Conference is coming up in June. This year, the NYS Library is exploring how we construct New York History. Join us next week for New York Voices! 

Years of fighting land wars in the colonies had shaped American thinking around transporting large groups of people, a line of thought that led directly to the construction of the Erie Canal. As Americans pushed west, their efforts to connect people and products also resulted in considerable exploration and alteration of the land, some reflection on man-made impacts, and the production of maps, sketches, and more documents that help us tell the story of early New York State and the Erie Canal. 

Moving People

Before the Erie Canal, colonists used ancient Native American trade routes that followed New York’s natural waterways. Turnpikes, or toll roads, were in use by 1800, but were not much more than dirt paths. The turnpikes were ill-suited for the large-scale commerce by land that the young nation very much demanded.  

In addition, the experience of trying to move large numbers of soldiers and equipment between Albany and Oswego during the French and Indian War (1755-1763) prompted new conversations about building a canal between Albany and Lake Ontario and between Albany and Lake George. The map below, titled Communication Between Albany and Oswego, was printed in a history of the war published in 1772. It illustrates the dramatic twists and turns of the natural water route from Albany to Oswego. The complete book, The History of the Late War in North-America, and the Islands of the West-Indies Including the Campaigns of MDCCLXIII and MDCCLXIV Against His Majesty's Indian Enemies, is available to view in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections.

In addition to the twisting waterways, colonists faced a considerable barrier to westward expansion in the Appalachian Mountains, which cut off easy access to the interior of the continent from Georgia to just south of the Mohawk River in New York. However, the people living in the colony of New York had the distinct advantage of the break in the mountains that ran along what we now call the Hudson River valley and the Mohawk River valley. That break is visible in the photograph below, which features a relief model map created in 1897. The shading on the mountain ranges provides a good illustration of the break in the river valleys that allowed people to move westward. View the relief map in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections. 

Moving Land

Even with the convenient break in the mountains, constructing the Erie Canal meant making considerable alterations to the rugged natural makeup of New York State.  

Large swaths of forested land were cleared to make way for the canal. This activity and its impacts had different effects on those who encountered the new landscape. In 1829, Basil Hall published forty illustrations of landscapes in North America, which he had captured during trips he made in 1827 and 1828. The book, Forty etchings from sketches made with the camera lucida, in North America, in 1827 and 1828, is available in its entirety in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections. It includes many breathtaking views of the natural landscape and some detailed scenes of towns, cities, and fledgling infrastructure taking shape across New York State. 

Illustration IX, titled “Newly Cleared Land in America,” depicts cleared land in Ridgeway, New York, 40 miles west of Rochester. The image captures the stumps of a cleared forest with some signs of human habitation at the edges, including fences, a small structure, and domestic animals. Hall introduced this etching with the following commentary:

“The newly-cleared lands in America have, almost invariably, a bleak, hopeless aspect. The trees are cut over the height of three or four feet from the ground, and the stumps are left for many years till the roots rot; - the edge of the forest, opened for the first time to the light of the sun, looks cold and raw; - the ground, rugged and ill-dressed, has a most unsatisfactory appearance, as if nothing could ever be made to spring from it.”

Cadwallader D. Colden, a stockholder in the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company and enthusiastic Erie Canal supporter, had a much different reaction to such scenes in New York State. In 1825, Colden wrote:  

“Indeed, to see a forest tree, which had withstood the elements till it attained maturity, torn up by its roots, and bending itself to the earth, in obedience to the command of man, is a spectacle that must awaken feelings of gratitude to that Being, who has bestowed on his creatures so much power and wisdom.”

Cadwallader D. Colden appears on the “pillar of faces” dedicated to the Erie Canal’s supporters, as does his grandfather, Cadwallader Colden, a surveyor-general of the Province of New York and early advocate for improved internal navigation to support trade. 

In Lockport, a village that sat 30 feet above the canal’s water level, thousands of workers used wooden beams, ropes, oxen, horses, gunpowder, shovels, picks, and wheelbarrows to excavate a three-mile section of the canal that ran through solid rock. This work and its result are well documented in Cadwallader D. Colden’s Memoir, Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals, available to view in our Digital Collections. 

Displacement

The story of the Erie Canal’s construction is trailed by a complicated legacy manifest destiny and disenfranchisement. The triumph of the canal project and the westward surge of people seeking land and natural resources devastated Native American communities. In the name of nation building and progress, these long-standing communities were forced off their ancestral lands and sent to reservations.

Before construction on the canal began, land speculators correctly bet that a canal connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie would be a good business investment. They began buying purchasing property with the intent to sell it at a higher price upon completion of the canal. By 1800, 25 years before the canal would open, various land speculation companies had gained the rights to most of western New York. As settlers flocked to the region, they pressured the government to make more land available and, by 1870, only a few small reservations remained. 

Maps at the NYS Library

When the NYS Library opened in 1818, it was home to 669 volumes and only nine maps. In just three years, the collections grew to over a thousand volumes and a few hundred pamphlets (and, presumably, maps) (Roseberry, p. 6). This growth in collections speaks both to DeWitt Clinton’s efforts to amass an impressive and useful collection of books (largely through gifts) and to the studies, surveys, and mapmaking activities that the government undertook during the 1800s.

New York State did not content itself with completing a massive feat of engineering in the 1800s. In fact, as part of the surge of nation-building in the former colonies, New York undertook, in the words of Cecil R. Roseberry, “a significant and pioneering work in the field of science” (p. 15). The Natural History of New York grew from the Natural History Survey launched by the NYS Legislature in 1836. That same year, the first geologic reports were added to the NYS Library’s shelves. Today you can view sections from the Natural History of New York in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections. The section on Geology in particular includes detailed maps and drawings.

Today, the NYS Library houses a wide selection of maps from the state’s history, including military and political maps; land patents, records, and surveys; and many maps produced by the Federal government and New York State government. Map enthusiasts are in good company at the NYS Library and may be interested in our Annotated Bibliography of Selected New York State Maps: 1793-1900. 

Further Downstream

The development of the Erie Canal carried the U.S. further and further from the years of the French and Indian War, the Revolution, and the War of 1812. The completion of the canal was an unprecedented and unparalleled cause for celebration, and New Yorkers took every opportunity to observe the occasion.

The NYHC is coming up in June. This year, the NYS Library is exploring how we construct New York History. Join us next week for Song and Celebration! 

When DeWitt Clinton became New York’s governor in 1817, shortly before construction on the Erie Canal began, he had already served in government for some time. Clinton had worked as a secretary to his uncle George Clinton, New York’s first governor, and as Mayor of New York City, a member of the NYS Assembly, and a member of the NYS Senate. In his first address to the state legislature, Clinton spoke to a sea of faces that included other powerful and connected figures like Stephen Van Rensselaer III and Martin Van Buren, both of whom also left their marks on the Erie Canal and on New York State as a whole.  

It’s likely that any researcher or reader exploring New York’s history will encounter the fascinating interwoven arcs of the state’s early leaders. These threads are long, beginning before the American Revolution, and are knotted along the way with the stories of New Yorkers’ trials and triumphs in the early days of the United States. The story of the Erie Canal—and the parallel growth of the NYS Library—is certainly one of these stories, and in this week’s post, we’ll introduce a fascinating cast of characters. 

Memoir of DeWitt Clinton 

David Hosack was a physician, botanist, New York power player, and longtime friend to DeWitt Clinton. In 1829, just four years after the Erie Canal officially opened, Hosack published his Memoir of DeWitt Clinton with an Appendix, Containing Numerous Documents, Illustrative of the Principal Events of His Life (available in the NYS Library’s Digital Collections). David Hosack, it should be noted, was also a famous face of early America: he was the physician who treated Alexander Hamilton following his fatal duel with Aaron Burr at Weehawken.

In telling the tale of the Erie Canal, Hosack identifies “great classes” of men who contributed to the conception and construction of the canal, including men who predicted and communicated the utility of connected waterways and “the various canal commissioners, engineers, surveyors, and many private but public-spirited citizens in various parts of the state, who have zealously given their personal attentions and services to this herculean undertaking...”  

Pillar of Faces 

Also included in Hosack's book is an engraving (by John L. Morton, based on a sketch by Stephen H. Gimber) portraying the “public-spirited” men who leveraged their power and connections for the long project of the Erie Canal. The engraving depicts a tall pillar flanked by two angel-like figures with flowing hair and garments. The pillar is decorated with fifteen portraits of famous faces known to have influenced the construction of the Erie Canal. George Washington, as an early supporter of improved infrastructure, fittingly occupies the top row of portraits on the pillar.  

Just beneath Washington is the less familiar face of Elkanah Watson, who helped to start and run the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. In later years, Watson would cast himself as the sole originator of the Erie Canal idea, though he may have struggled to press that point with the other faces on the pillar. For example, Philip Schuyler is best known for his exploits as the head of a family of serious means during the American Revolution but was also deeply interested in engineering. He served as president of both the Western and Northern Inland Lock Companies and sought means for canal improvement. Jesse Hawley’s portrait appears in the third row down on the pillar, to the right of Philip Schuyler and George Clinton. Hawley is largely credited with first publishing a plan to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.  

Library Experience 

In addition to the Schuylers and the Clintons, other famous New York families made their mark on the Erie Canal and the lands it connected. Just above DeWitt Clinton’s place of honor (at the foot of the pillar, held gently by an angel figure) is the visage of Stephen Van Rensselaer III, who served many posts in both the state and federal government during his life.  

Stephen Van Rensselaer III very much embodied the “continental” shift in American thinking that followed the War of 1812. As heir to the Van Rensselaer Manor and one of the largest landowners in the country at the time, Stephen earned the “good patroon” moniker and was casual about collecting rents from his tenants. In fact, his interests seemed to lie elsewhere, particularly in engineering and higher education. He founded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and was a supporter of nearby Williams College in Massachusetts. He served on the Erie Canal Commission for 23 years and spent over half of those years as its president.  

While serving in the War of 1812, General Stephen Van Rensselaer commanded an Albany fighting force known as the Albany Volunteers, or the Irish Greens, headed by James Maher. They saw action at both the Niagara Frontier and Sacketts Harbor. In 1813, the Irish Greens were part of the force that crossed Lake Ontario into Canada for the raid on York, where government buildings, homes, and multiple libraries were pillaged and burned. According to Cecil R. Roseberry’s account, “[s]o far as known, that was the nearest James Maher came to any library experience before Governor Van Buren made him State librarian” in 1828 (For the Government and People of this State: A History of the New York State Library, p. 11).  

Being the Sixth Canal Tour for the Honorable Stephen Van Rensselaer 

Between 1822 and 1824, Amos Eaton, a pioneering researcher of New York State’s geological, agricultural, and mineralogical resources, undertook five geological surveys of the Erie Canal at Stephen Van Rensselaer’s request. Eaton was also a lecturer and a co-founder of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (known then as the Rensselaer School.) From 1826 to 1831, Eaton spent his summers using a hired canal boat  as a floating laboratory, lecture hall, and dormitory for students of the state’s natural history.

Eaton’s papers and journals are available to view at the NYS Library, including Journal “E”: “Amos Eaton’s Geological Journal from May 1st to June 10th 1826, Being the Sixth Canal Tour for the Honorable Stephen van Rensselaer.” (New York State Library call number: SC10685). 

Looking Ahead 

The early days of the United States were marked by repeated and protracted conflict with foreign adversaries. These conflicts were largely played out across the land and waterways of New York State and would come to shape the development and construction of the Erie Canal, and of New York State, for years to come.

The New York History Conference is coming up in June. To celebrate, the NYS Library is exploring how we construct New York History. Join us next week for the follow-up to our discussion of People and Power, where the story of the canal is told through Maps and Movement! 

At the NYS Library, we’re gearing up for the New York History Conference, taking place June 5 and 6 here at the Cultural Education Center in Albany. The conference brings together librarians, archivists, educators, historians, and museum professionals to share resources on the practice, research, preservation, and teaching of New York State history.

This year’s conference theme is Constructing the Empire State: Innovation, Environment, and Imagination in New York History, and wow, are we excited. Staff at the NYS Library have been hard at work preparing a new online series that tells the story of the Erie Canal—celebrating its 200-year anniversary this year—through the Library’s unparalleled collections. It’s a story with a full cast of characters—some very familiar—as well as difficult journeys, new discoveries, and celebrations of New York triumphs in New York voices. New York’s history is a real page-turner, and the saga of the Erie Canal is one of our favorite chapters.

NYS Library: We Put the “Story” in “History”

DeWitt Clinton is largely regarded as the “Father of the Erie Canal.” He was one of the original members of the Erie Canal Commission beginning in 1810, and in 1817, Clinton (by then serving his first nonconsecutive term as New York’s governor) received approval from the Legislature to begin construction on the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal officially opened in 1825, and its success carried DeWitt Clinton into his second term as governor.  

DeWitt Clinton, lover of New York infrastructure, was the Godfather of the NYS Library long before he presided over the canal’s Wedding of the Waters. In 1818, Clinton established the New York State Library, only the third state library in the country, behind Pennsylvania and Ohio. The establishment of state libraries across the young nation was largely a response to Congress’ 1813 decision to send copies of its laws, journals, and documents to each state.

In 1818, there were only 27 libraries open to the public in New York State, but “none of much consequence,” according to the NYS Library’s preeminent biographer, Cecil R. Roseberry. The Library of Congress, though established in 1800, had been burned by the British during the War of 1812 and was still in the process of rebuilding. Clinton and several associates gave from their personal libraries and archives to begin building the State Library’s collections. David Hosack, a physician, author, and contemporary of DeWitt Clinton, described the governor’s personal collection of books at the time as being a “large and well selected library of scarce and valuable works.”

Connecting New Yorkers by Word and Water

The Erie Canal and the NYS Library share more than just a father figure in DeWitt Clinton. They both represent a turning point in American history, when U.S. citizens began turning their attention away from war and toward infrastructure, toward improvement and connection with each other. This is perhaps best exemplified by the parallel acts of government that established the Erie Canal and the NYS Library.

Both are still in use today. Though once primarily used for commercial purposes, the canal is now enjoyed more widely for recreation. The NYS Library, at over 200 years old, continues to collect, preserve, and make available government documents, manuscripts, maps, books, music, and other items that help us to construct the history of New York State.

For more information about the storied history of the NYS Library, do yourself the favor of reading Cecil R. Roseberry’s For the Government and People of this State: A History of the New York State Library, available in our Digital Collections. 

Collect Them All!

Join us as we tell the story of the canal, its power to connect far-flung people and places, and the many times in New York’s history that the canal became inextricable from other New York stories—especially that of the NYS Library.  

From now until the New York History Conference, we’ll be exploring these exciting connections, which we’ve organized into four themes: People and Power, Maps and Movement, Song and Celebration, and New York Voices. Check back each week for a new theme and stories told through the items available in the NYS Library’s collection of scarce and valuable works. 

Inspired by the opening of Outcasts: Mary Banning's World of Mushrooms, the newest exhibit at the New York State Museum on view until January 2026, staff at the New York State Library turned to our collections to explore what mushroom-related content our shelves have to offer.

Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms

An 1895 publication of Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and How to Distinguish Them by W. Hamilton Gibson contains thirty colored plates of mushrooms alongside descriptions intended for ready reference. Gibson lists physical characteristics such as the shape of the mushroom caps, stems, spores, and tube surfaces, as well as descriptions of taste, odor, habitat, and season in which the mushrooms could be found.

This plate shows the Agaricus gambosus, or the St. George's Mushroom, from several perspectives. The cream-colored mushroom is shown up close with a rounded top with the spores visible underneath. A ring of mushrooms is shown growing in grass in a ring shape. The taste is noted to be highly flavored with the potential to be gamy.

This plate of the Agaricus ostreatus, or the Oyster Mushroom, shows an array of mushrooms with light yellow caps and white spores growing in a vertical cascade from a tree trunk. The background is colored with shades of blue, purple, and brown. Gibson notes the taste of this mushroom to be "suggesting the flavor of the cooked oyster."

This plate of the Cantharellus cibarius, or the Chantarelle, shows three mushrooms in deep yellow to orange shades growing alongside a tree trunk. Their taste is described as "peppery and pungent in the raw state; mild and sweet after cooking" with an odor of "ripe apricots or plums."

Mushroom Recipes

Recipes are included for mushroom soup, mushroom stew, mushrooms on toast (broiled, stewed, or fried), pickled mushrooms, and stuffed morels. In a recipe for mushroom catsup, Gibson advises that, “Care should be taken that the spice is not so abundant as to overpower the true flavor of the mushrooms.” 

Gibson feels strongly about this—he stresses elsewhere that the “true mushroom epicure” does not approach a mushroom as “an absorbent vehicle for the gastronomic conveyance of highly seasoned sauce or dressing, but for the unique individual flavor which differentiates the fungus from other kinds of food.” The recipes Gibson compiles in this section are primarily simple in nature, though some, like Morelles à la Italienne, Fried Clavaria, or Mushroom Ragoût include flavorful additions such as lemon, vinegar, onions, spices, or herbs.

A Warning on Poisonous Mushrooms

Gibson is careful to warn readers of poisonous mushroom varieties like the Amanita Muscaria, shown on the plate above in orange, yellow, and reddish tones with spotted caps.

Even the dedication of Gibson's book is a warning--written inside a curved, mushroom-like shape (an early developmental shape of the Deadly Amanita), it reads:

To the Reader, kind, gentle, or other, to whom, in the hopes of continued grace and well-being, The Frontispiece and the chapter on "The Deadly Amanita" is herewith particularly referred with The Author's solicitude, "Forewarned is Forearmed."

In the chapter on the Deadly Amanita, Gibson emphasizes that, "its seductive treachery (some twenty-five deaths having been recorded in the public journals during the summer of 1893 alone), render it important that its teeth should be drawn, and its portrait placarded and popularly familiarized as an archenemy of mankind."

Further Resources

View a full-text scan of Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms through the Internet Archive.

Gibson, W. H. (1895). Our edible toadstools and mushrooms and how to distinguish them; a selection of thirty native food varieties, easily recognizable by their marked individualities, with simple rules for the identification of poisonous species, by W. Hamilton Gibson. With thirty colored plates, and fifty-seven other illustrations by the author. Harper & Brothers. (NYS Library call number 589.22 G45)


 

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…”

These two lines open Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” This year marks the 165th anniversary of the poem, written in April 1860 and first published in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly (which came out in December 1860). This National Poetry Month, we're taking a deep dive into the long life of this distinctly American poem. 

Longfellow's Reminder

Longfellow was inspired to write his dramatic poem about Paul Revere’s legendary midnight ride after visiting the Old North Church in Boston, MA. Through vivid imagery and rhythmic verses, the poem tells the tale of Revere’s actions on April 18, 1775.  

Longfellow likely gathered details for the poem from primary sources though he takes some creative liberties with historical details. For example, he portrayed Revere as a lone hero who single-handedly warned the colonies, when in fact he was part of a larger network of riders.

Longfellow, a prominent 19th-century poet, wrote the poem just before the Civil War, a time of growing division in the United States. According to literary critic Dana Gioia, the poem: 

"… was Longfellow's reminder to New Englanders of the courage their ancestors demonstrated in forming the Union. Another "hour of darkness and peril and need," the poem's closing lines implicitly warn, now draws near. The author's intentions were overtly political–to build public resolve to fight slavery and protect the Union–but he embodied his message in a poem compellingly told in purely narrative terms."

Come Along for the Ride!

The NYS Library has in its collections a bound first edition of the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly which first showcased “Paul Revere’s Ride.” 

Longfellow, H.W. (1861, Jan). Paul Revere’s Ride. The Atlantic Monthly, 7(39), 27–29. (NYS Library call number 051 qA881 V.7 1861)

If you can't get to the NYS Library, you can explore a scanned version of the original poem on the Internet Archive. You can access a transcript of the poem at the bottom of this post. Looking for a different way to experience this poem? The Library of Congress provides access to a 1916 audio recording of the poem--with sound effects--as part of their National Jukebox collection. 

Transcript: Paul Revere's Ride

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five : 
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, -- “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch 
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light, -- 
One if by land, and two if by sea ;
And I on the opposite shore will be, 
Ready to ride and spread the alarm 
Through every Middlesex village and farm, 
For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”

Then he said good-night, and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, 
Just as the moon rose over the bay, 
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somersett, British man-of-war :
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon, like a prison-bar, 
And a huge, black hulk, that was magnified 
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
Wanders and watches with eager ears, 
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack-door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, 
And the measured tread of the grenadiers
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed to the tower of the church, 
Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead, 
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade, --
Up the light ladder, slender and tall, 
To the highest window in the wall, 
Where he paused to listen and look down 
A moment on the roofs of the town, 
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead
In their night-encampment on the hill, 
Wrapped in silence so deep and still, 
That he could here, like a sentinel’s tread, 
The watchful night-wind, as it went 
Creeping along from tent to tent, 
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell 
Of the place and the hour, the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead ; 
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away, 
Where the river widens to meet the bay, --
A line of black, that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 
Booted and spured, with a heavy stride, 
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere 
Now he patted his horse’s side, 
Now gazed on the landscape far and near, 
Then impetuous stamped the earth, 
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth ; 
But mostly he watched with eager search 
The belfry-tower of the old North Church, 
As it rose above the graves on the hill, 
Lonely, and spectral, and sombre, and still.

And lo ! as he looks, on the belfry’s height, 
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light !
He springs to the saddle, and the bridle he turns, 
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 
A second lamp in the belfry burns !

A hurry of hoofs in a village-street, 
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, 
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet : 
That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light, 
The fate of a nation was riding that night ; 
And the spark struck out by the steed, in his flight, 
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

It was twelve by the village-clock, 
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. 
He heard the crowing of the cock, 
And the barking of the farmer’s dog, 
And felt the damp of the river-fog, 
That rises when the sun goes down.

It was one by the village-clock, 
When he rode into Lexington. 
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed, 
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, 
Gaze at him with a spectral glare, 
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village-clock, 
When he came to the bridge in Concord town. 
He heard the bleating of the flock, 
And the twitter of birds among the trees, 
And felt the breath of the morning-breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown. 
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall, 
Who that day would be lying dead, 
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British regulars fired and fled, --
How the farmers gave them ball for ball, 
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall, 
Chasing the red-coats down the lane, 
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road, 
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere ; 
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, -- 
A cry of defiance, and not of fear, --
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 
And a word that shall echo forevermore !
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, 
Through all our history, to the last, 
In the hour of darkness and peril and need, 
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beat of that steed, 
And the midnight-message of Paul Revere. 

Image Notes

Portrait of Henry W. Longfellow, c. 1861 (LONG 35854) [probable ambrotype]. Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site Museum Collection, Cambridge, MA, United States. 

Select illustrations of Paul Revere from: Longfellow, H. W. (1907). Paul Revere's Ride. Houghton Mifflin. View this illustrated version of Paul Revere's Ride in the NYS Library Digital Collections.
 

Today we’re taking another trip into the NYS Library collections to explore patents! We’re looking at the 1849 patent for the safety pin, invented right here in New York State. Read on for a good story about a deceptively humble invention and why you might need one this spring! 

Keeping it Safe

Anyone who has a safety pin knows that it has hundreds of uses. From its roots as a tool for fastening diapers and repairing clothing, the safety pin has become a symbol for protection, good luck, and solidarity. In the 1970s, the punk rock subculture adopted the safety pin as part of its iconic anti-establishment fashions.  

For many long-distance runners in the northeast, the warmer months mean it's time to hit the streets for road races, and no road race is complete without safety pins to hold runners’ bibs in place.  While there is some (small) controversy in the running community around alternative types of bib pins, the iconic metal safety pin remains the constant companion of choice for many athletes hitting the trails. While Walter Hunt was certainly tuned in to the importance of good design, it’s unlikely that he could have foreseen the popularity of his invention and its many uses! 

Walter Hunt: Inventor and New Yorker

Walter Hunt was born in the 1790s and lived and worked in New York. During his life, he invented or refined several household items and tools, including a fountain pen, a knife sharpener, and an ice plough. Hunt is also credited with building one of the world’s first eye-pointed-needle sewing machines, though he did not pursue commercialization.  

In the 1840s, faced with paying a debt of $15, Hunt began work on a new invention to help him earn the money. He worked on twisting a piece of metal wire into a device with a spring at one end and a protective clasp for the pin’s point at the other. 

A Story in Patents 

The concept of a garment pin was not new, and Hunt’s design was not the first contemporary version of the safety pin, either.  An 1842 version did not include Hunt’s spring mechanism, the feature that exists in safety pins we're accustomed to using today.

Hunt patented his safety pin on April 10, 1849, and sold the rights for $400. A century later, Hunt’s name would make an appearance in an intellectual property suit brought by Isaac Merritt Singer against Elias Howe, who had patented a similar machine in 1846. Singer attempted to invalidate Howe’s patent by pointing out Hunt’s earlier work, which occurred decades before Howe’s patent was granted. However, since Hunt had abandoned the work without patenting it, Howe’s patent was ultimately upheld. 

Patents at the NYS Library

The NYS Library has been a United States Patent and Trademark Resource Center since 1871. A Patent and Trademark Resource Center (or PTRC) is part of a nationwide network of academic, public, and state libraries designated to support the public with trademark and patent assistance.

The NYS Library's patent collection includes nearly everything the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published and distributed, from early material on paper, through microforms and CD/DVDs, up to their current online databases.  

Most of the U.S. patent collection is housed on the 7th floor of the NYS Library. The public is welcome to visit and use the U.S. Patent collection. Patrons can use the patent collection for both patentability searches and historical inquiries.

The NYS Library has trained staff who can assist you in learning to use these tools. Appointments are not required to use the patent collection but are recommended if you would like assistance. You can make an appointment on our website. 

In the early morning hours of March 29, 1911, a fire broke out in the New York State Capitol at Albany. By sunset, the collection of the New York State Library, then housed in the Capitol, had been reduced to ashes.

Much of the New York State Library's collections were lost in the 1911 fire. Many items that did survive the fire emerged from the destruction with lasting marks of disaster. The Van Rensselaer Manor papers, painstakingly preserved by the family for 250 years, were severely damaged. Even cards in the card catalog were affected! You can find images of the damaged items on our Capitol Fire LibGuide. 

Fall River and its industries 

Other surviving materials show telltale signs of the fire but remain legible.  

Fall river and its industries, pictured below, also survived the Capitol Fire. This 280-page volume was published in 1877, and includes illustrations, a folded map, and genealogical tables, to name a few exciting features. In the photos, the book is undergoing assessment and care in the NYS Library’s Preservation unit. Click on either photo to enlarge it. 

Item Details for Further Exploration 

Fall River and its industries: an historical and statistical record of village, town, and city, from the date of the original charter of the freemen's purchase in 1656 to the present time. With valuable statistical tables, family genealogies, etc., illustrated by views and portraits on steel. NYS Library call number 974.48 qF191.

In addition, the NYS Library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) unit maintains the New York State Library Fire Collection, comprising materials from 1899-1942 that document the 1911 fire and the Library's efforts to rebuild its collections. Are you interested in digging deeper into these items? Ask the MSC librarians! 

Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) staff recently stumbled upon an eye-catching, unique item in our collections that we wanted to share with our dear readers. Tucked away in our collection of Bound materials (typically bound volumes of diaries, journals, and the like), is a scrapbook of drawings by schoolchildren, created in 1848. 

Acquired by the NYS Library in July 1948, the cover of the scrapbook is labeled as “District No. 4 Guilderland ‘TRY’” and assigned the call number BD12037. The inside cover of the scrapbook includes a color map of Albany County, drawn by student H. Degraff, age 10. The rest of the scrapbook contains dozens of dazzling drawings from the many talented students whose work is archived and highlighted in this bound item. 

The topics and scenes covered in the drawings range from a sailboat sailing down (one would assume) the Hudson River, to highly detailed portraits of unknown individuals, animals snuggling one another in front of a picturesque nature backdrop, and a child posing with a pet pooch; the list goes on! 

Words cannot do justice to the skill and technique these schoolchildren demonstrate in their drawings. Faces are detailed and anatomically accurate, animals have intricate hair/fur draped over their bodies, and the nature landscapes include accurate shadows and shading. Please enjoy a few select images from this wonderful scrapbook of illustrations. 

Anyone interested in viewing this item for themselves can schedule a research appointment with the NYS Library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections and request to view this gem of New York State’s history for themselves!

NYS Personal History Initiative

New York State is still home to a vibrant arts scene and remains a leader in arts education. As part of the NYS Personal History Initiative, teachers from all New York communities are invited to contribute media and stories to exhibit how students are shaping our cultural landscape. Check out the New York Spotlight: Arts Education collection and consider submitting student artwork. 

While you're there, explore firsthand accounts of life in New York State and share your own story!

In December, 2024, Chelsea Teale of the New Netherland Research Center published an article in the journal of the Holland Society, de Halve Maen. Based on an accidental find in the New York State Archives Applications for Land Grants collection, Dr. Teale was able to piece together the owner and location of a stream depicted on three maps and in other documents: Teunis Viele’s Killetie (Teunis Viele’s Little Stream).  

The stream ran along the course of what is now Livingston Avenue in Albany and enters into the Hudson River. It is possible that the stream was routed underground in the eighteenth century to accommodate the developing Albany Basin. The article encourages people to use the collection to find obscure geographic information like extinct place names and locations.  

In the image below, it is possible to see the labeled stream extending from the Hudson River southeast.

In November 2024, Chelsea Teale of the New Netherland Research Center published an article in the journal of the Lewes Historical Society, Lewes History.  

In the article, Dr. Teale provides a transcription of a 1661 medicine chest sent to what is now New Castle, Delaware by the City of Amsterdam. The city also sent a new surgeon, Jacob Kommer. 

The Dutch-language list of contents includes predictable tools like tourniquets and basins, but also 20 different botanicals for use in medicines.  

A Holiday Reading

The NYS Library, in partnership with the NYS Museum, invites you to celebrate the magic of the season with a special holiday storytime and read-aloud of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas! This cherished holiday poem will come to life as you explore the fascinating history of the poem with a rare treat—a display of the original 201-year-old Troy Daily Sentinel featuring the first-ever printing of this iconic piece of literature, courtesy of the NYS Library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections.

This event will take place in the NYS Museum’s Adirondack Hall on Saturday, December 21, at 11 AM. After the reading, young visitors can channel their holiday spirit by writing letters to Santa at a festive letter-writing station. Don’t miss this enchanting event for all ages, blending storytelling, history, and holiday cheer! Please visit our events calendar for more information. 

A Historic Treasure

The Troy Daily Sentinel will be on display in the Cultural Education Center from Friday, December 20 through Friday, December 27, 2024. 

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") was originally published in the Troy Sentinel, on December 23, 1823. It appeared without attribution and would do so for the next fourteen years as it made its swift and merry way around the world.

The poem underwent several edits between 1823 and 1844. Most of these involved relatively minor changes to punctuation, typography, and spelling (thro/through, sprung/sprang, peddler/pedlar, etc.). Some more telling alterations had to do with a couple of reindeer names, which changed from "Dunder and Blixem" (Dutch for thunder and lightning) to "Donder and Blixen," and eventually to the German "Donder and Blitzen." 

…and a Mystery!

The poem has often been credited to Clement Clarke Moore, a wealthy New York City professor. However, there is a growing belief that instead, it may have been written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr., a Dutch land surveyor from Poughkeepsie, NY.

In New-York Book of Poetry, in 1837, Charles Fenno Hoffman identified his friend Clement Moore as the author of this now widely circulated and beloved holiday poem. In 1844, Moore included it in an anthology of his own, referring to it as his long-ago "trifle"—a thing he hadn't cared to acknowledge before, but would happily do so now.

Henry Livingston died in 1828, just five years after the poem first appeared in the Troy newspaper. Livingston never claimed authorship. By the turn of the century, members of the Livingston clan had begun to publicly insist that he was the one who had actually written it, citing family lore and other potential evidence.

Today, as families of all kinds gather to give thanks, you have an excellent opportunity to begin your genealogy journey!

Thanksgiving dishes are a delicious way to connect with family history, as recipes often carry the flavors of cultural traditions. Grandma’s famous pie or the secret to Uncle Joe’s stuffing may trace back generations. Exploring the origins of these recipes opens a window into the past, blending history and heritage with every bite.  

Thanksgiving isn’t just about sharing a meal—it’s about savoring the stories behind it.

The NYS Library’s local history and genealogy collections can help you with your family research. Read on for more Thanksgiving history, as well as ideas for sharing your own stories. Click on any image below to enlarge it.

What’s Cooking in the Collections? 

Need some recipe inspiration? Look at these interesting recipes from our collections! And don’t forget to check out our Tasting History series for more recipe ideas and reviews from our wonderful Taste Testers!  

Plain and Easy

Here’s Hannah Glasse’s instructions on how to roast a turkey taken from the 1765 edition of her cookbook, The Art of Cookery:

Don't Mock It Until You've Tried It

Perhaps you’re looking to try something really new this Thanksgiving? How about some mock recipes from Helen Watkeys Moore’s 1918 cookbook Camouflage Cookery. From the foreword of the book: 

Its [the cookbook’s] object is to bring together palatable and economical recipes, by the best known American cooks, for those who wish to prepare wholesome and appetizing dishes. 

Undeniable Star Power

Or, maybe, this year you want to go with a theme? What better theme could there be than bacon? In this 1920’s cookbook, Armour’s Star Bacon Recipes, bacon is the central ingredient for every recipe! 

Celebrations Past and Present  

What was Thanksgiving like in the past? Here’s an entry from the 1870 diary of Emma Waite, a young black woman who lived in Saratoga Springs, New York.  

Extract from Emma Waite’s Diary (BD18715):  

November, Thursday 24. 1870.  

quite plesant for thanksgiving.  
I had a very nice time  
today we had a nice dinner  
and beer and burbun to  
wash it down and then I took  
tea with Mrs Jackson, and  
afterwards attended the Opera  
House to see Les Brigands.  
Silly took the principal part  

Share Your Story

Do you have a Thanksgiving story, tradition, or recipe to share? You can contribute to the historical record by adding your own objects to the NYS Personal History Initiative!  The NYS Library’s Personal History Initiative collects and preserves stories from individual New Yorkers and New York communities. The NYS Personal History Initiative accepts submissions directly through the New York Experience prompts. Everyone has a story. Share yours today! 

However you choose to celebrate, we hope you have a safe and joyful Thanksgiving! 

Today we're sharing three images from the Neil B. Reynolds Photograph Collection (NYSL MSC PRI5151). This collection contains almost two hundred amazing photographs Neil Reynolds took, most of them of his family while vacationing in the beautiful Adirondack Mountain region. 

The first photo shows a group of people enjoying a picnic (1920).

The second photo has three people who appear to be preparing an outdoor meal (1920).

And the last photo shows a man in a boat holding a up a fish. The caption on the back of that picture says, "Good bait for a good catch"!

You can explore more information and additional images from the Neil B. Reynolds Photograph Collection on our website.

Bonus: You can also contribute to the historical record by adding your own outdoor dining memories to the NYS Personal History Initiative! Everyone has a story. Upload your memories to share with others! 

In the run up for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution we've been going through our collections and rediscovering some amazing treasures!  

This commission, dated 19 June 1775, named Philip Schuyler a major general, third in command under George Washington and commander of the Northern Department of the Continental Army.  

The most eye-catching part of this commission, though, is the quite recognizable signature of John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress. His large, distinctive signature is as striking here as it is on the Declaration of Independence!  

From the Van Rensselaer (Rensselaerwyck) Manor Papers (NYSL MSC SC7079). 

It’s almost time for the 2024 Olympic games! Here at the NYS Library, we’re getting ready for the games the only way we know how, by bringing out some winning items from our collections.

These three postcards from the NYS Library’s Manuscripts and Special Collections unit show scenes from Lake Placid, NY, home of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games and probably best known for the ice hockey tournament, the Miracle on Ice!  

Whether you’re looking forward to Paris 2024 or just thinking ahead to winter weather, we’re sure these snowy postcards will add some Olympic-sized cool to your day.

The postcards are from the NYS Library’s Abele Transportation History Collection, SC22662 (Box 31, Folder 5). 

P.S. Don’t miss Roni, the 1980 Winter Olympics mascot, a raccoon who features on the back of each postcard. 

Here at the New York State Library, we have myriads of flowers. It all depends on the angle through which you choose to view them.  For instance, we have art books with paintings of flowers. We have photography collections with flowers from all over the world. Then, we have more specialized tomes on topics such as arrangement, gardening, and reproduction. There are flowers through the lens of New York State: past festival brochures, exhaustive accounts of state flora, and much more. Whatever your choice, please enjoy the colorful view of May Flowers at the New York State Library!

Barnhart, R. M. (1983). Peach blossom spring: Gardens and flowers in Chinese paintings. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Bayley, K. (1909). Easter lilies: Reverie [score]. Koninsky Music Company. *

Botanical fine art weekly. (1894). Wild flowers of America: flowers of every state in the American union. By a corps of special artists and botanists.  

The book of flowers: Flora and Thalia; or gems of flowers and poetry. (1836). Carey, Lea, and Blanchard. 

Dreier, T. (1918, Jan.). The blue flower: A monthly magazine for lovers of flowers. Gloeckner.

Dunthorne, G. (1938). Flower and fruit prints of the 18th and early 19th centuries, their history, makers and uses, with a catalogue raisonné of the works in which they are found. Author. 

Erickson, R., George, A. S., Marchant, N. G., & Morcombe, M. K. (1973). Flowers and plants of western Australia. A. H. & A. W. Reed. 

Gerdts, W. H. (1983). Down garden paths: The floral environment in American art. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 

Goodale, G. L. (1894). The wild flowers of America. Bradlee Whidden. 

Grandville, J. I. (1865). The flowers personified. (N. Cleaveland; Trans.) J. Miller. 

House, H. (1921). Wild flowers of New York. University of the State of New York. *

Line, L., & Hodge, W. H. (1978). The Audubon Society book of wildflowers. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. *

Meeuse, B. (1984). The sex life of flowers. Facts on File.

Mitchell, P. (1973). Great flower painters: Four centuries of floral art. The Overlook Press. 

New York State Department of Commerce. (1981-1983). I love New York spring flower festival. 

Osgood, F. S. L. (1841). The poetry of flowers and flowers of poetry: To which are added, a simple treatise on botany, with familiar examples, and a copious floral dictionary. J. C. Riker. 

Perleberg, H. C. (1938). Fleurs en couleur. Author.  

Pratt, R. (1942). The picture garden book and gardener’s assistant. Howell, Sockin, Publishers, Inc. 

Preininger, M. (1936). Japanese flower arrangement for modern homes. Little, Brown, and Company. 

Prentice, T. M. (1973). Weeds & wildflowers of eastern North America. Peabody Museum of Salem. *

Proctor, J. (1978). Color in plants and flowers. Everest House. *

Pryke, P. (1993). Flowers, flowers!: Inspired arrangements for all occasions. Rizzoli. 

Redouté, P. J. (1982). Lilies, and related flowers. Overlook Press.

Reed, C. A. (1912). Wild flowers of New York. Mohonk Salesrooms. 

Sprague, I. (1887). Flowers of the field and forest: From original water-color drawings after nature. Nims and Knight.

Throop, C. W. (1879). Water color studies taken during two summers in Switzerland, 1877 & 1879 (BD23582). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library. Albany, NY. 

Torrey, J. (1843). A flora of the State of New York: Comprising full descriptions of all the indigenous and naturalized plants hitherto discovered in the state; with remarks on their economical and medicinal properties. Carroll and Cook. 

James Vick’s Sons. (1869). Vick’s illustrated guide for the flower garden and catalogue of seeds. James Vick. 

Willsdon, C. A. P. (2004). In the gardens of Impressionism. Vendome Press. 

Yoshida, T. (2002). Portraits of Himalayan flowers. Timber Press. 
 

Happy Women’s History Month from the New York State Library! Did you know that our collections include many interesting items like stamps or magazines from different historical time periods? Visit us on the 7th floor of the Cultural Education Center to check out our exhibit which includes primary and secondary source documents about both the Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage movements.

Documents chosen for this exhibit present the power of voice with cultural elements. The exhibit shares how slogans, graphics and text can influence advocacy with either the Suffrage or Anti-Suffrage movements. For example, the Bloomer Schottisch score composed by William Dressler in 1851. The Bloomer Schottisch is in honor of Amelia Bloomer who was a strong advocate of the Women's Suffrage movement. Amelia Bloomer published the newspaper, the Lily in honor of women and was a supporter of women's clothes being less constrictive. Hence, the pantaloons or "bloomers" were created for women. The score has a great illustration of a woman highlighting her leg with a bloomer.

The exhibit also includes documents that highlight the art of persuasion. For example, the Baseball Schedule from the Women's Anti-Suffrage Association. The baseball schedule is quite detailed and relays information on how New York Women should be, that women and men were created differently to work in different spheres for the common good, how the husband in New York State pays the wife's bills, and how suffrage was defeated in twenty states. 

Selected items are from both the main Research Library and the Manuscripts and Special Collections unit. Unable to visit us in person? Join us virtually on Monday, March 25, 2024 for Celebrating the 19th Amendment. CTLE credit and educator’s guide will be provided with the 1 hour webinar on March 25, 2024.  

References for the Exhibit:

Blackwell, A. S. (1917). In the hands of her friends (cover). The Woman Citizen. 2(6).  

Blackwell, A. S. (1917). Keeping up with the plow. The Woman Citizen. 1(1), 10.

Bronson, M. (1920, November 13).  An Amendment to restore the rights of the people. The Woman Patriot, 4(46), 1-2.

Buckley, J. M. (1909?). The wrong and peril of woman suffrage. F. H. Revel company.

Burr, H. A. (1886). Woman suffrage cook book. Hattie A. Burr.

[Buttons]. (1895-1909). Gertrude Collier Papers (SC13804, folder 1). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

Chapman Catt, C. (1912?). Do you know? In Woman suffrage, arguments and results. (2-3). National American Woman Suffrage Association.

[Collection of stamps supporting women’s suffrage]. (1915). (BRO2859). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.                                          

Coolidge, O. (1966). Women’s rights; the suffrage movement in America, 1848-1920. E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.

Daniel, S. I. (1931). Women builders. Associated Publishers, Inc.

Dressler, W. (1851). The Bloomer Schottish [score]. William Hall and Son. (SCO344). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

DuBois, W. E. B. (1915, August). Votes for women (cover). The Crisis, 10(4).

Empire State Campaign Committee. (1915). A million women appeal to the voters of New York for justice. (BRO2856). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

Empire State Campaign Committee. (1915). How to vote for woman suffrage amendment Election Day, November 2nd, 1915. (BRO2859). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

Empire State Campaign Committee. (1915). Vote for women 1915 [envelope]. (BRO2859). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

Finnegan, M. M. (1999). The suffrage blouse. Selling suffrage: Consumer culture & votes for women. Columbia University Press. 127.

Gattey, C. N. (1967). The Bloomer girls. Coward-McCann.

Gitto, M. (2020). New York State Library educator guide for the 19th Amendment: New York State Library documents of the women's suffrage and anti-suffrage movements. The University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, The New York State Library.

Good Housekeeping. (1920, November). Campbell’s soup advertisement. 71(4). 69.

Hanna, P. (1915). The Anti-Suffrage Rose [score]. Women’s Anti-Suffrage Association (SCO SC12607-130). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. http://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/44691143

Harper’s Bazar. (1869, June 12). The champions of women’s suffrage. 2(24), 381.

Hart, H. (1909). Woman suffrage: A national danger. T. Murby & Co.

Jones, B. W. (1990). Quest for equality: the life and writings of Mary Eliza Church Terrell, 1863-1954. Carlson Pub.

The Literary Digest. (1913). The pro-suffrage number of life magazine advertisement. 46(17). 977.

Logan, S. W. (1999). We are coming: the persuasive discourse of nineteenth-century Black women. Southern Illinois University Press.

Luce, H. R. (1920, October 28). “Congratulations (cover).”  Life, 76(1982).

Luce, H. R. (1917, November 1). Some (as yet) untried ways of winning the vote. Life, 70(1827), 706-707.

Luce, H. R. (1913, May 15). Take down the barriers. Life, 61(1594), 986.

Metcalfe, A.G. (1917). United we differ. Woman's effort: a chronicle of British women's fifty years struggle for citizenship (1865-1914). B.H. Blackwell.

Miller, A. D. (1915). Are women people? A book of rhymes for suffrage times. George H. Doran Company.

National American Woman Suffrage Association. (1912?). Woman suffrage, arguments and results; a collection of eight popular booklets covering together practically the entire field of suffrage claims and evidence. Designed especially for the convenience of suffrage speakers and writers and for the use of debaters and libraries. National American Woman Suffrage Association.

National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., Inc. (1917). Twelve reasons why women should vote [broadside]. (BRO1140). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (1915). Anti-suffrage baseball schedule book. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 23). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (1915, October 31). [Envelope with a "Vote NO on Woman Suffrage" sticker]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 8). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (n.d.). He can’t hold on much longer [political cartoon]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 21). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage. (n.d.). Home! [political cartoon]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 21). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

New York State Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage. (n.d.). Official ballot. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, folder 27). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

New York State Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage. (n.d.). Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917. (SC13339). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.  

New York State Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage. (n.d.). The red behind the yellow, socialists working on suffrage. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, folder 8). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074             

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (n.d.). Red Riding Hood revised. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, folder 19). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (n.d.). Special privileges New York State women have secured under male suffrage. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 8). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (n.d.). Suffragist-feminist ideal family life [political cartoons]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 21). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (n.d.). Think over these facts before voting on the Suffrage Amendment [broadside]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, EL). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage. (n.d.). Votes for women [political cartoon]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 21). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (n.d.). We believe the men of the state capable of conducting the government [postcard]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC13339, Folder 8). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.

New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. (1915). Woman Suffrage has been defeated; Woman Suffrage is going, not coming [leaflet]. Publications collection, 1839-1921. Bulk 1914-1917 (SC 13339, folder 29). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.  https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

New York State Woman Suffrage Party. (1917). Suffrage as a war measure [broadside]. (BRO3054). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY. https://purl.nysed.gov/nysl/122487074

Severn, B. (1967). Free but not equal: How women won the right to vote. J. Messner.

Terborg-Penn, R. (1998). African American women in the struggle for the vote, 1850-1920. Indiana University Press.

Tracey, W. (1919). Why shouldn’t they be good enough now [score]. Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. (SCO13309). New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library, Albany, NY.    

Readers can find just about anything in a library, and as library workers, we’re always happy to help patrons discover all kinds of things between the pages of a book. Sometimes we even discover some surprising finds ourselves! Check out these buried treasures recently found in books from the NYS Library’s collections: 

First up is this winsome 1879 doodle and signature found on a book's end paper. This feathered friend was resting in a copy of Contributions to the early history of the Northwest including the Moravian missions in Ohio, by Samuel. P. Hildreth, M.D. Call no. 977 H64c. 

This next one will probably feel familiar to some readers out there! This grocery receipt from the early 20th century was used as a bookmark at some point. This dispatch from the past was found in a copy of Great conflagration. Chicago: its past, present and future. Embracing a detailed narrative of the great conflagration in the north, south, and west divisions...Also, a condensed history of Chicago, its population, growth and great public works. And a statement of all the great fires of the world, by James Washington Sheahan, 977.31 C531.  

Before dawn on August 2, 1826, Alexander Stewart Scott stepped aboard the steamboat Chambly in Quebec City, Canada. He was on vacation from his studies at law school and was on his way to visit family in western New York. Fortunately for us, he kept a diary of his trip. 

Traveling by steamboat, stage, canal packet, and wagon, his journey took him, via land and water, along a route defined by Lake Champlain, Lake George, and the Erie Canal. 

Scott was 21 years old; the Erie Canal was not yet one year old. (In operation in parts since 1819, it was not officially “opened” until October 26, 1825.)  

He sampled the waters at Saratoga Springs, about which, on August 16, he wrote: “they may be of ‘The Waters of life’ but they have a most villainous taste, extremely saline, and strongly impregnated, as I am told with Carbonic acid – the Village itself is a very handsome place …” 

Walking around Albany on September 25, he visited the New York State Library, which was housed in the Capitol. Of the library he wrote that it had “a small, but as far as I am able to judge a very choice collection of Books.” 

In his second-to-last journal entry, on Saturday, November 18, as he traveled by steamboat on the last leg of his journey, he obviously was bored and so he wrote: 

“…a long passage this; and which is rendered the more dull by the want of Books or something else to help one to kill time; a small Library is a very desirable thing on board of these public Packets, in this respect we are far inferior to the Americans, who … even in their Canal Boats have generally got a pretty good collection of works of different natures for the use of the Passengers – for the reading of which they are commonly charged at the rate of a cent a volume, and often nothing at all …” 

The cherry on the top of this sundae of a book is the expense account of his trip, which lists the places he visited, how many miles it was between his starting point and his destination, his method of transportation, and how much it cost to travel two hundred years ago. 

Scott’s hand-written diary can be viewed as part of the New York State Library’s Digital Collections.  

For teachers: An annotated transcript – with drawings and maps from other New York State Library collections – was published in 2019: Schneider, Paul G., Jr. Everything Worthy of Observation: The 1826 New York State Travel Journal of Alexander Stewart Scott (Albany, N.Y. : SUNY Press/Excelsior Editions)