Series II. Proposed Central Park Building, 1860-1876

The series includes a rich set of material documenting N-YHS's eventually unsuccessful attempt to establish a Museum of Antiquities, Science, and Art on the site of the Arsenal in Central Park. The series includes the minutes of the Building Committee formed in 1863 to pursue the Central Park initiative. The minutes, which run until January 1867, have introductory entries transcribing earlier related documents, beginning August 14, 1860. Other documents include correspondence between N-YHS committee members, such as Luther Bradish, George Moore, and Charles Kirkland, and between N-YHS and the Board of Commissioners of Central Park, including Comptroller Andrew H. Green. There is one letter each from Frederick Law Olmsted and J.J. Jarves. Other documents include N-YHS resolutions, committee reports, copies of N-YHS's memorials to the New York State legislature, the 1862 legislative bill authorizing the Commissioners to set apart the Arsenal for N-YHS, and others. There are various summaries of the progress of events over the years, some in draft form, including an 1876 summary written by Edward de Lancey. The series includes one oversize 1865 advertisement for real estate and stock auctioneers Adrian H. Muller, P.R. Wilkins & Co.; the advertisement is in the form of a pictorial map of Central Park with surrounding lots.