Locating the Gage Trunks
Every manuscript collection in the Clements has its own tale of survival and travels from the time of its creation until safely ensconced on the shelves of the Library. One of the most interesting is that of the papers of Thomas Gage (1719-1787), British commander-in-Chief in America from 1763 to 1775. It was on Gage’s watch that the American colonies exploded into rebellion, and his papers are critical to understanding events of the time.William L. Clements was fortunate to purchase the...
Map Division: Mapping Sugar Production
The hurricane season has once again seized our attention as enormously powerful storms form over the North African desert and move out to sea, drawing up moisture as they drift westward. Concern for family members who have moved to a warmer climate (and for permanent residents as well) draws more public awareness than usual to the waters south of the United States and help remind us that the Clements Library is not just a repository documenting mainland colonial and nineteenth-century...
A Story from Clements Library Lore: “Young Man, Make It Americana”
From its founding, the William L. Clements Library has dedicated its collecting efforts to the subject of American history. While some aspects of the collecting scope have changed over the years, we have generally held firm to the idea that items must be "Americana" in some fashion.Plato. [Platonis Opera omnia latine]. Colophon: Impressum Florentie per Laurentiũ [de Alopa] Venetũ, 1485. Soon after the Library's founding in 1923, our first Director, Randolph G. Adams, discovered the...
Out of the Ordinary Gems & Oddities Trivia Answers REVEALED
Many of you who visited our previous exhibit might have participated in the trivia challenge What Is That Thing? We invited visitors to identify objects in case 16. We can now reveal their names and purposes! Read what the mystery objects were below: First Item: Powder TesterThe first object is an eprouvette or gunpowder tester. To determine the quality of powder a small amount is placed in the tiny vertical barrel, the muzzle of which is covered with a flap connected to the notched...
Celebrating Mother’s Day at the Clements Library
In the late afternoon of October 22nd, 1831, Maria Bradford gave birth to a "plump & fat" little girl whose "good lungs, made a great noise the minute after she was born." "As soon as I heard the child cry," she remembered, "I began to laugh." Maria was admonished by the attending physician to neither laugh nor talk for several days so as not to "disturb [her] whole system," but as we read her letter in the Bradford Family Papers we get a glimpse of the overpowering joy that came upon...
The Robins of Spring
In early 1862, George Driver was serving on board the Highlander as a supply officer and doing his part for the Union cause, making his father enormously proud. The George Driver Family Papers include Stephen Driver's letter to his son dated March 2nd, which weaves together discussions of the Civil War and descriptions of home. Stephen looked to connect with George through mundane things like looking at the same new moon and listening to familiar birds singing. In a brief aside, Stephen notes...
Love Letters in the Samuel Latham Mitchill Papers
Samuel Latham Mitchill was a man of many interests. He held a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, studied law, taught chemistry and botany at Columbia University, and served in both state and national legislatures. Even with so much on his mind, his wife, Catherine, was still never far from his thoughts.The Clements Library's Samuel Latham Mitchill Papers include detailed letters he wrote to Catherine while he was serving in Congress. Discussions of politics and Washington society...
Digital Images from the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York
The old halfway house at the junction of Broadway, 8th Ave. & 59th St. "If any one among us may calculate surely on a sublunary immortality, Mr. VALENTINE is the man. He has linked his name indissolubly with one of the greatest cities in the world in a manner which time shall strengthen not efface." These were the accolades heaped on David Thomas Valentine (1801-1869) by The New York Times in 1863. Valentine, who served as Deputy Clerk to the Common Council for 37 years (apparently...
Learning Through Maps
Americans in general—and younger people in particular—are often criticized for being woefully deficient in a geographical understanding of their country, continent, hemisphere, and world. In many ways such criticism is justified, and the noticeable reduction in geography instruction in schools has done nothing to improve the situation. This is unfortunate because regular use of maps can fill the gaps in understanding of the form of our world, and atlases, whether printed or...
Civil War Snowball Fights
A snowball fight from A Book of Winter Sports: An Attempt to Catch the Spirit of the Keen Joys of the Winter Season (New York, 1912).The arrival of the winter solstice often coincides with the first significant snowfall of the season. As adults we mostly view snowfall with dread, knowing that our morning commute to work the next day will be slower and more dangerous than usual. In those moments we tend to forget that snow in the form of snowmen or snowballs can be a tremendous source of...