The New-York Historical Society Celebrates 200 Years

NEW YORK CITY

:The young republic was a mere quarter-century old in November 1804 when wise old heads organized New York's first museum, the New-York Historical Society. Its stated purpose was "discovering, procuring, and preserving whatever may relate to the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of our country, and particularly of the State of New-York."

The society was billeted in Federal Hall where George Washington had been inaugurated 15 years earlier. In those days, New York was a city of some 70,000 souls who lived in the two-mile area between the Battery and Houston Street. Greenwich Village was exactly that - a village. The organization at first was pretty much devoted to meetings and discussions of literature and natural history, but the early acquisition of founder John Pintard's library in 1809 set the society on course. By then the society's collections included 4,265 books, 234 volumes of government documents and a startling range of almanacs, newspapers, maps and engravings, manuscripts and portraits.

In the 200 years since its founding, the society's collections have exploded in quality, range and volume. Now, when the New-York Historical Society mounts a show, it has the ability to draw from an astonishing range in its own collections.