Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Long Island lantern slide collection

The Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Long Island lantern slide collection, spanning the period circa 1870 to circa 1950, consists of 235 lantern slides housed in four lantern slide boxes. The collection primarily depicts historic houses, homesteads, churches, schools, and other buildings located in Brooklyn, N.Y. There are also images of houses and buildings located on Long Island, N.Y. and Manhattan. Many of the houses depicted in the collection were built by Dutch American families whose descendents were some of the earliest European settlers in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Long Island. Most of the images consist of exterior views but the collection also contains several interior views of houses. The majority of the lantern slides are black-and-white but there are some hand-colored slides, as well as several full color images which seem to be transparencies made in the 1950s or 1960s and mounted in the lantern slide format. Finally, there are some images that are copies of local maps, as well as copies of drawings depicting the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War.

Some of the lantern slides originated from New York City-based lantern slide manufacturers T.H. McAllister-Keller Company and Charles Besler Lantern Slide Company. There are also a few slides produced by photographer Gould W. Hart.