Browse Items (1395 total)

In 1853 after extensive study, the New York City Common Council approved a site surrounding the Croton Reservoir for a Manhattan park. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and designer Calvert Vaux were winners of a design competition, and in…

Repeating design is roughly based upon a hexagon, with wedge-shaped objects at the vertices and a distinctive geometric pattern along each edge. At one vertex is a radiant heart with "I Love Pati" inscribed inside, and attached to the other elements…

An original copy of an insurance policy (including receipt) purchased from the Ontario and Livingston Mutual Insurance Company by James Wadsworth of Geneseo, N.Y. on "His Custom Flouring Mill" in Livingston County, N.Y. (probably on Conesus Creek in…

This poem, by Ophelia Bailey, shares her wishes that she could do more with her life like going to school to be a nurse or teacher. Bailey states that she wants to go into those occupations so that she can help people no matter their age or other…

Anti-Irish sentiment in America had dated to the early 1800s, when immigrants arrived to work on major infrastructure projects like canals and railroads. This only accelerated during the Great Famine (1845-52) and afterwards. Frederick Opper was the…

In 1784, a grateful New York state legislature granted to the important American revolutionary Thomas Paine a farm seized from Tory supporter. Paine lived here between 1802 and 1806, surviving one attempt upon his life. Eventually the saltbox house…

The structures depicted here are in all likelihood those of the Theron Higgins Mill located alongside the Little River in Worthington, MA. They’re rendered in a somewhat telescopic view so as to compress a nearly impossible number of scenic elements:…

Perhaps influenced by geocentric cosmologies, earth is divided in four quandrants: two on land (a prickly pear cactus and a fire), and two under water. Surrounding the planet are four nested spheres: a rainbow of multicultural colors, upon which…

Prior to the 1800s, corn was planted by hand in hillocks or rows. Industrial technologies profoundly affected agriculture with many patent machines like this horse-drawn planter designed by Calvin Olds. In a language typical for other devices of the…