[Drag][LGBTQ][Theater and Performance] Drag performance and female impersonation ephemera documenting mid twentieth century queer nightlife and theatrical entertainment in the United States. Materials span the 1950s through the early 1980s and include promotional pieces, programs, and magazines associated with prominent drag performers and venues including Charles Pierce, Jim Bailey, T......
[African-American Art][Harlem Renaissance] Harmon Foundation Exhibition of the Work of Negro Artists, 1931, a pivotal institutional public recognition of Black visual art during the Harlem Renaissance. Issued for the February 16–28, 1931 exhibition at the Art Center in New York, the catalog represents the final year of the Harmon Foundation’s.....
[Civil Rights][MLK Jr.][Vietnam War][Anti-War] King, Martin Luther, Jr. Speeches by The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. About the War in Vietnam (1968) marks a decisive and controversial moment in the Civil Rights Movement when the famed preacher and activist voiced a strong opposition to American military intervention in Vietnam.....
Archive of Prohibition, temperance movement and alcohol regulation ephemera chronicling the political organizing, religious campaigns, and moral debates over alcohol consumption in the United States from the 1890s through the 1940s. Produced by temperance organizations, political advocates, physicians, government bodies, and reformers, the materials trace the public discourse surrounding alcohol.....
[African American][Music][Harlem Renaissance] Holiday, Billie. Printed music and jazz periodicals dating from the 1930s through the 1960s documenting the career and cultural reception of one of the most influential African American vocalists of the twentieth century. Emerging from Harlem’s nightclub scene during the late Harlem Renaissance and early Swing Era.....
Archive of Four Honorary Certificates Recognizing the International Disability Advocacy and Literary Contributions of Helen Keller, Including a Certificate Awarded toher teacher Anne Sullivan. 1936–1948. Four printed certificates with manuscript entries and applied seals, each mounted to period cardboard supports. Subjects: Disability rights; Deaf and Blind advocacy; Women reformers; International.....
[Prohibition][Law and Policy] Correspondence on Prohibition and enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment between a New York lawyer and a clergyman, 1926. Eleven letters consisting of 27 pages, exchanged between Rev. W. Russell Bowie, rector of Grace Church in New York City and a prominent Episcopal clergyman, and Seymour van Santvoord.....
[African American][Music][WWII] African American nightclub photographs from early 1940s New York City documenting the intersection of Black military service and urban nightlife during World War II. Six images of African American servicemen in uniform socializing with elegantly dressed women and companions in prominent Manhattan and Harlem nightclubs. The photographs illuminate.....
Harlem press photographs dating from the 1940s through the 1960s document social, political, and cultural life in one of the most influential African American urban communities in the United States. During the mid twentieth century Harlem functioned as a major center of Black cultural and political activity, continuing the legacy.....
Hurlbut, E. P. Essays on Human Rights and their Political Guaranties, 1845, a forceful antebellum treatise defending natural rights philosophy and explicitly advocating the legal equality of the sexes within American political thought. Written in the context of intensifying debates over democracy, reform, and the authority of utilitarian political theory.....
Civil rights political pamphlet archive documenting competing national and Southern responses to lynching, racial violence, and federal civil rights intervention during the immediate post–World War II period. Issued between 1946 and 1951, the publications capture a formative moment in the political struggle over civil rights legislation, federal authority, and racial.....
7th Avenue Original Subway construction album documenting cut and cover excavation, timber bracing, and utility rerouting in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1914, a ground-level record of the Dual Contracts expansion that extended the IRT south along Seventh Avenue Extension and Varick Street to meet rising transit demand on.....
New York Public Service Commission investigator F.G. Daniell documenting the infrastructural failures behind the October 21, 1913 double boiler explosion at the Richmond Light & Railroad Company plant at Livingston, Staten Island, which killed fireman Daniel Sullivan, engineer Francis Hannan, and another worker, completely cutting electric service and trolley operation.....
[Women's History][WWI] Women’s military band and Red Cross parade photographs, ca. 1918 to late 1920s, document female participation in civic military culture during and after the First World War. The photographs record uniformed women performing in drum corps and marching ensembles associated with National Guard armories and patriotic auxiliary organizations.....
Prince Hall Freemasonry ceremonial and civic life in New York appears throughout this archive documenting African American fraternal leadership during the later decades of the twentieth century. Prince Hall Masonic lodges formed one of the most influential institutional networks within Black communities in the United States, combining ritual practice with.....
Steve Rose's photographic coverage of demonstrations, strike activity, broadcast spaces, and police control in New York City and Washington, D.C., circa 1969–1971, with dissent moving through street assembly, underground and movement media, institutional protest, and municipal enforcement. Rose, active in New York documentary photography during the early 1970s, photographed activists.....
Warhol, Andy. Trash (1970) documents the intersection of underground cinema, LGBTQ performance culture, and the New York avant garde film scene associated with Warhol’s Factory during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Six promotional lobby cards for the film depict cast members including transgender performer Holly Woodlawn and actor Joe.....
The Yacht “Fleetwing” of N.Y. 212 Tons. Competitor in the Great Ocean Yacht Race, from New York to Cowes, Dec. 1866. Making the run in 14 days 6 hours mean-time, an original color lithograph issued by Currier and Ives documenting one of the earliest celebrated transatlantic yacht competitions of the.....
Large archive of personal correspondence (1926–1927) documenting the student years of Glorian Duvall Devereux of Shelter Island, New York, offers concentrated evidence of women’s finishing-school education, courtship, and upper- and middle-class white youth culture immediately preceding the Great Depression. Created during Devereux’s enrollment at Lasell Seminary School in Newton, Massachusetts.....
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg espionage prosecution documented in photographs and legal records created during the early Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs were convicted in 1951 of transmitting atomic secrets related to the American nuclear weapons program to Soviet intelligence networks, making.....
Primary-source photographs documenting United States naval expansion during the Spanish–American War era, recording the emergence of a modern battleship fleet as the nation extended military presence beyond coastal defense into overseas operations. The archive supports research into late nineteenth-century naval modernization, fleet composition, and the development of American sea power.....
King, Martin Luther, Jr. Meet the Press: America’s Press Conference of the Air. Volume 9, Number 11, Sunday March 28, 1965, preserves the printed transcription of King’s nationally broadcast NBC appearance during the climactic phase of the Selma voting rights campaign. Issued only weeks after the violence of “Bloody Sunday”.....
[LGBTQ] [Drag] [Film & Entertainment] Simon, Frank. The Queen. New York: Grove Press. 1968. The Queen is a raw portrayal of the life of drag queens partaking in competitive drag shows in New York during the 1960s. Archive of 8 silver gelatin photographs containing stills from the film. The documentary.....
Anthony, Susan B., Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage. History of Woman Suffrage Volume I, published 1881, presents one of the earliest comprehensive documentary histories of the American women’s suffrage movement written by its principal leaders. The work was compiled by three central organizers of nineteenth century women’s rights.....
[WOMEN IN SPORTS] Photographic collection of 18 rare vintage photos celebrating girls and women in sports. Some are identified with names and locations. Locations include New Jersey, Canada, New York, California, Massachusetts. Dated approximately 1900-1940. Various sizes; mostly between 8.5" x 11" and 6.5x 8.5", with four smaller photos at.....
