NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. A society formed for the collection and preservation of materials relating to the national, civic, or ecclesiastical history of the United States in general, and the State of New York in particular. The idea of such a society was first agitated in Massachusetts in 1789 by John Pintard, but it was not until November 20, 1804, that the New York Historical Society was organized by a number of leading citizens, among them De Witt Clinton, Anthony Bleecker, and Peter G. Stuyvesant. The history of the society since that time has been one of earnest effort in the formation of a library and museum, a gallery of paintings, a department of antiquities, and other features in which it has been eminently successful. The library has a choice and valuable collection of books, lithographs, maps, manuscripts, engravings, etc., besides a collection of works on heraldry. The picture gallery contains 889 paintings, of which about 200 are portraits, and 600 pieces of sculpture, mostly portrait busts and medallions. The collection includes the New York Gallery of Fine Arts, the works of the American Art Union, the Bryan Gallery of Old Masters, the Durr Collection, and the original water colors prepared by Audubon for his work on natural history. In the department of antiquities there is the Abbott collection of Egyptian antiquities, considered one of the greatest in the world. The society spent the first five years of its existence (1804-09) in old Federal Hall, on Wall Street. It occupied rooms in the Government House from 1809 to 1816; in the New York Institution from 1816 to 1832; in Remson's Building, Broadway, from 1832 to 1837; in the Stuyvesant Institute from 1837 to 1841; and in the New York University from 1841 to 1857. Since 1857 it has been installed in the building at 170 Second Avenue.
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundations, was formed by the consolidation on May 23, 1895, of the Astor Library, the Lenox Library, and the Tilden Trust.
The Astor Library, incorporated January 18, 1849, was founded by John Jacob Astor, who bequeathed $400,000 to establish a free public library; gifts from other members of the Astor family trebled its buildings, added largely to its book collections, and increased its endowment to $941,000 in 1895. Opened February 1, 1854, with about 80,000 volumes, in 1895 it had 267,147 volumes.
The Lenox Library, incorporated January 20, 1870, received from James Lenox his library, art collection, its site and building, and an endowment amounting to $505,500 in 1895. It was not a general reference library, but an institution for the exhibition and scholarly use of book rarities. In 1895 it contained 86,000 volumes.
The Tilden Trust was incorporated March 26, 1887. To it (before incorporation ) Samuel Jones Tilden had bequeathed his private library, 20,000 volumes, and the bulk of his estate, over $5,000,000, to establish a free public library. The will was contested and the trust provisions declared invalid. By a compromise agreement the executors secured for the trust about $2,000,000, part of the share of one of the heirs.
The new corporation had an endowment of about $3,446,500, owned the Astor and Lenox li- brary sites, and possessed 353,147 volumes and pamphlets. Through an address to the Mayor legislative permission was secured May 19, 1897, for an issue of bonds by the city to construct a building on the reservoir site at Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, and to contract with the library for its occupancy. Plans were adopted November 10, 1897, and the corner stone was laid November 10, 1902.
On December 11, 1900, the New York Free Circulating Library offered to consolidate; the offer was accepted and on February 25, 1901, reorganization was completed. The following libraries also came into the system: Saint Agnes Free Library on August 1, 1901; Washington Heights Free Library on December 1, 1901; the New York Free Circulating Library for the Blind on February 21, 1903; and the Aguilar Free Library on February 28, 1903. By these accessions the circulation department consisted on March 1, 1903, of 18 branch libraries, owning 320,816 volumes.
On March 12, 1901, Andrew Carnegie offered to give about $5,200,000 to erect branch libraries in New York City, if the city would furnish sites and maintain the branch libraries when built. An act passed April 26, 1901, permitted the city to accept such a gift, and in a contract executed July 17, 1901, between the city and the library acting as Carnegie's agent, the city agreed to provide 42 (later increased to 65) sites in Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond, on which the library agreed to erect buildings with funds provided by Carnegie, the city agreeing to pay annually for their maintenance one-tenth of the sum expended by Carnegie. The first building so erected, on East Seventy-ninth Street, for the Yorkville branch, was opened December 13, 1902; the second, for the Chatham Square branch, was opened in the summer of 1903; four more will be ready by the end of the year.
In the new institution the 500 periodicals received in 1895 have increased to 4500 in 1903; the annual receipts of 12,483 volumes and 2599 pamphlets in 1895 increased to 65,381 volumes and 87,868 pamphlets in 1902; the 94,331 readers consulting 260,694 volumes in 1895 increased to 165,434 readers consulting 410,671 volumes; and the total of 353,147 pieces available to readers in 1895 amounted to 1,131,961 on March 1, 1903.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. An institution of higher learning in New York City. It had its inception at a meeting of citizens of high business and professional standing in the rooms of the New York Historical Society, January 4, 1830, when a committee of nine was elected to proceed in the establishment of a new university on a liberal and comprehensive foundation. The committee secured a long list of subscribers to the undertaking and finally merged its existence into that of the first University Council elected by the subscribers, October 16, 1830, and chartered April 18, 1831. The original university building was erected in 1835 on Washington Square. The University College was opened in 1832; the Law School in 1835; the Medical School in 1841; the School of Applied Science (formerly Civil Engineering) in 1862; the Graduate School in 1886; the School of Pedagogy in 1890; the Veterinary College (incorporated with the university) in 1898; and the School of Commerce in 1900. The greatest era of development in the
