Series II: Flat Files

includes scenes of farmland and portraits of prize winning bulls.

consists mostly of lithographs of patriotic themes.

includes images of more domestic animals, as well as a series of engravings of prize horses done for The New-York Spirit of the Times newspaper between 1835 and 1837.

photographs of sculpture, mostly of Rogers groups.

includes two 17 x 22 inch mounted albumen photographs of the moon. One was taken on March 6, 1865 from New York City by Lewis M. Rutherford, who donated the photo to N-YHS the next year. The other was taken by Dr. Henry Draper in Hastings, New York with a silvered-glass telescope on September 3, 1863.

includes sheet music for "The New Bloomer Polka," and Godey's and Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine fashion plates, Currier & Ives prints of the bloomer fashion and another fashion called "the Grecian Bend." Uniforms included are U. S. Army uniforms, shown in Army-issued historical prints.

contains charts with keys to the telegraph flag system, and prints celebrating the laying and completion of the Atlantic Cable.

is primarily prints dealing with the 1836 Helen Jewett murder case in New York City. It also includes a print of "The Man Monster- Peter Sewally alias Mary Jones."

include many printed copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Emancipation Proclamation and other public documents. Many of these are lithographed copies of a calligraphic exercise, in which the text has been altered in scale and pen stroke thickness so as to create images such as portraits within the text. For example, the text of the Emancipation Proclamation has been highlighted in certain ways so that Abraham Lincoln's face is clearly visible in the text. These prints (which include the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States) were all drawn by R. Morris Swander, and were printed in 1865 by P.S. Duval, a Philadelphia lithographer. An original drawing of this sort of treatment of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America shows the faces of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson within the text. The drawing may well be by Swander as well.

Impressions of the United States Constitution include one printed in the 1830s by C. L. Adams & Son in Boston. A statistical chart showing some results of the 1840 Sixth United States Census was also printed by C. L. Adams in 1844. One of the impressions of the Emancipation Proclamation was designed in 1864 by F. S. Butler, a 14 year old from San Francisco. Another is a vibrant chromolithograph by Max Rosenthal showing Civil War scenes and portraits of Generals. All impressions of that document date from 1864 and 1865.

Impressions of the Declaration of Independence date from as early as 1826 and include many after the design of John Binns, with ornamental seals representing the states of the Union and portraits of Washington, Jefferson, and Hancock. Several others were designed by Benjamin Owen Taylor and engraved by Peter Maverick. Many incorporate a vignette after Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence," including a hand-colored lithographed published in 1856 by J. C. Buttre of New York. A rare hand-colored engraving of the document by Humphrey Phelps was published in 1845.An impression published in 1876 celebrates 100 years of American Independence and includes vignettes of scenes from the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

includes plates numbers 1-5 and 9-12 of Louis Prang's "Trades and Occupations" set of his "Aids for Object Teaching," chromolithographs which he designed for educational use in 1874. Each plate shows a different career. This subseries also includes several oversize alphabet cards.

contains a composite photograph showing every single member of the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey combined circus that played at Madison Square Garden in 1929.

is mainly United States national and state flags, some international. Includes a chromolithograph, "A Chart of National Flags" published by J.H. Cotton in New York in 1860.

includes a hand-colored Currier & Ives print of "Young America Celebrating."

includes machines and photographs of exhibits of industrial skill.

includes specific machines, such as the cotton gin.

is primarily photographs of a Squadron A. Many of these photographs take place at a training camp in Sea Girt, New Jersey.

largely prints of Native Americans, with some of African Americans, and a few general prints. These include "The Life & Age of Man," a broadside from ca. 1830 printed in both English and German, and a rare copy of the corresponding "Life & Age of Woman." "Afro-Americans" includes broadsides and prints celebrating the 15th amendment to the Constitution, and several prints showing aspects of the slave trade. A folder of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" material is primarily prints of scenes from the book, most printed in France in 1854.

"Indians of North America" includes portraits and scenes of life, photographs, and prints. Any portrait or image of an Indian in which a tribe was named has been filed with others of that tribe. One folder of damaged photos includes a photograph by Edward Curtis. Most of the prints are lithographs by John T. Bowen and lithographs and engravings after the work of early 19th century artists Charles Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, Charles Bird King, and J. O. Lewis, and others. These are foldered by artist.

The engravings after Bodmer were published in London in 1839 and later, and seem to be plates from several different editions of Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, the published journals of the Maximilian-Bodmer expedition. This book was published in German, French, English; the plates are captioned all three languages. Most of these engravings are brilliantly hand-colored. The plates measure 13.5 by 21 inches and smaller.

Twenty lithographs by John T. Bowen were published by F. W. Greenough in 1836-1838 and 1842. Bowen was a prominent lithographer who produced the lithographs for Audubon's Birds of America, among other works. Bowen's illustrations of Native Americans were published in several of McKenney and Hall's popular books about Native Americans. These lithographs, while showing similar portraits to those in the books, appear to have been individually issued. They were "drawn, printed & coloured" at Bowen's lithographic studio in Philadelphia.

Works associated with George Catlin include several facsimiles of notes and sketches made by Catlin on his visits with Native Americans, as well as Currier & Ives prints after Catlin's paintings. Also included are two advertisements, one looking for subscribers for Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio. The second is an announcement in French of the coming appearance of the "O-jib-be-wa's," members of one of Catlin's European traveling Indian shows. A large portrait of Osceola was lithographed by Catlin himself in 1838, after his painting of the Seminole chief.

Several prints commemorate the visit in 1710 of four Iroquois kings to the court of Queen Anne of England. Individual full-length mezzotint portraits of each king by John Simon after paintings by John Verelst and bust-length portraits by Peter Schenck from paintings by John Faber are foldered together.

Several portraits were drawn from life by J. O. Lewis between 1825 and 1840 and lithographed by Bufford's Lithography in New York City. In addition, this folder includes a broadside published by Lewis in 1840 with a portrait and life history of Elkswattawa, "The Prophet of Tippecanoe."

Nine lithographs were hand-colored by Lehman & Duval after paintings by Charles Bird King, and published by Key & Biddle, 1833-1838. King painted Indian visitors to his studio in Washington, D.C. from 1821 to 1840s. Several hand-colored lithographs were drawn, colored and published by Daniel Rice & James G. Clark in 1842-1843. "Indians of South America" is six colored engravings of Incan costumes from an 1809 French atlas, Voyages au Perou Faits Dans les Annees 1790-1794.

Includes two photographs. 1) Photo of 18 women in a group portrait, autographed by each of the women; although there is no identifying information on the photo, the donor informed N-YHS that these women were tour guides at NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York (Gift of Lois and Ronald Ziegler, 2019). 2) Photograph of women passengers in what appears to be a subway car, circa early 20th century. (Source: anonymous donation, May 2019).

includes prints of different denominations worshipping, especially Shakers. Prints of biblical scenes are also included here.

includes prints of horse racing, picnicking, hunting, fishing, and ball playing. Several of the horse racing prints show races held at Jerome Park in the Bronx.

divided into "Railroads" and "Vehicles." "Railroads" is mainly comprised of photographs, some of these are of train engines. Copy photographs show the ceremonies for the laying of the last rail on the transcontinental railroad. "Dewitt Clinton" was the first steam-powered passenger train in New York. It traveled sixteen miles from Albany to Schenectady on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad line in 1831. "Aircraft" includes a print from circa 1835 showing the "Prince's Aerial Ship. Star of the East!" a fanciful blimp-like structure outfitted like a cruise ship. Aircraft accidents is a folder of photographs showing the 1970 crash of a Trans International Airlines DC-8 plane at Kennedy Airport. "Automobiles" includes photos of early cars, and plates from Safety for Twenty Million Automobile Drivers, a how-to-drive manual from 1922. The photographs show a person doing driving maneuvers in New York street scenes. "Carriages & coaches" is a large category that includes both photographs and prints. This category also holds a photograph mounted on a wood frame of the ship Normandie, donated in April 1939 by the ship's owner, the French Line.

mainly historical prints depicting events (apart from wars) that are not found in any other category. The "Colonial Period" folder contains prints of pilgrims and one showing "William Penn's Treaty with the Indians." This category also includes several prints showing "The First Prayer in Congress," September 1774. "1975-1976" includes prints and ephemera related to the 1975 Bicentennial celebrations.

4 panoramic photographs of President William McKinley's funeral carriage in Washington, DC.

filed in chronological order and includes contemporary prints, commemorative prints, and a few photographs. The bulk of this category is Civil War material. There is only a small amount of material from World Wars I and II. The "Pequot War" folder contains a plate from John Underhill's 1638 book Nevves from America showing the layout of an Indian fort.

"United States Revolution" includes a set of lithographs published by Strobridge in 1893 showing important events from the war. "War of 1812" includes many contemporary prints, including several French prints commemorating the Treaty of Ghent. Two early American lithographs of the Battle of the Thames, dated 1833 and ca. 1837, are also notable. One of these is hand colored. A contemporary broadside is illustrated with relief woodcuts and advertises The First Book of Remarkable Events of the Present American War. Another, similarly illustrated broadside is a prose account of the battle of New Orleans.

The "Crimean War" is represented by one contemporary photograph. The albumen print is 7.5 by 9.25 inches on a 12.25 by 15.5 mount, and appears to be part of a French series of photographs of the war. It is hand annotated "Sebastopol," and has a French title Tirailleurs Indigens sous les Armes, or Indigenous Riflemen in the Army. The soldiers are wearing Turkish costumes and turbans.

"Mexican War" contains an 1847 Army Portfolio with chromolithographs of scenes of the war after drawings by Captain D. P. Whiting of the 7th Infantry. "Battles and Campaigns" are almost all lithographs by Currier & Ives or Sarony & Major. A few prints appear to have been lithographed in Mexico by Mexican artists. Some of these are titled in English and Spanish. This category also contains two copies of a hand colored map, "Seat of War & Battles," published in 1847 in New York by Ensign & Thayer, with text about notable people and battles in the war.

The "United States Civil War" encompasses many types of material. Contemporary photographs were removed, as noted in Series I. "General" folders include sheet music for the "Maryland Guard Galop" and for "U.S. Army Calls - Military Quadrille." Several disbound pages of an album include reproductions of pro-Confederacy cartoons and caricatures and prints of scenes from the war. A broadside detailing the "Comparison of Products, Population, and Resources of the Free and Slave States" was published in Massachusetts in 1861. A diagram for how to knit army mittens, printed by John J. Hinchman & Co., New York.

"Afro Americans" includes prints of African American soldiers and a flyer for Newark's celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1906. "Campaigns & Battles" are filed alphabetically and include many chromolithographs published ca. 1888 by Kurz & Allison, as well as Charles Magnus' published views of battle sites around Richmond. "Military Facilities" includes prints showing volunteer refreshment saloons and a Brooklyn Sanitary Fair. "Camps" includes a camp-made paper flag from Camp Wadsworth in Spartenburg, South Carolina.

"Military life" includes 4 folders of plates from Edwin Forbes' Life Studies of the Great Army (1876), in which he etched forty different scenes, mostly views of soldiers, mainly at rest. "Military personnel" includes composite portraits of Union and Confederate generals and other army officers. Individual portraits of these men may be found in the portrait file.

Materials documenting the "Spanish American War" are mainly chromolithographs and published inserts, prints, and pages from Leslie's Weekly, Harper's Weekly, and Collier's Weekly periodicals. A "General" folder includes several of these inserts with American flags printed on them and text urging the recipient to "cut out flag and put in window." Also included is a broadside from 1904 detailing the "Cost of War and Warfare" by Edward Atkinson. Atkinson published several books and pamphlets on this same topic; this broadside may have served as a prospectus for these works. Material is organized by theaters of war. "Phillipines" includes many prints showing the Battle of Manila, and a few of the commemorative Dewey Arch erected in New York City.

"World War I" material is also primarily chromolithographs and newspaper inserts. One folder contains front covers of Leslie's Weekly from 1917-1918 while the magazine was running its series, "The War in Pictures." These covers are all patriotically illustrated, mainly by James Montgomery Flagg. Photos in this category include several of victory parades in New York.

"World War II" contains a few advertisements for wartime saving and other conservation minded appeals. Photographs taken (mainly by the U.S. government) during World War II were removed to PR 076 World War II Photography Collection.