Chapter Two of the story of the New-York Historical Society
Humble beginnings, 1804-1857
On November 20, 1804, a merchant named John Pintard gathered a group of ten prominent New Yorkers and established an organization with a mission "to collect and preserve whatever may relate to the natural, civil, or ecclesiastical History of the United States in general and of this State in particular."
This quote is from the Society’s original Constitution, which is reprinted in its entirety in Appendix A.
With this broad statement of mission, The New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) was born. Among the Society's earliest activities were canvassing for new members (for a $10 initiation fee and $2 annual dues),
These amounts are not as high as one might suppose. According to a “composite commodity price index” compiled by John J. McCusker, professor of history and economics at Trinity University, the $10 initiation fee is the equivalent of around $110 in 1991 dollars, and the $2 annual dues equates to $22 per year. For a discussion of the techniques used to develop this index, see McCusker (1992, tab. A-2, pp. 323-332).
educating the public on the importance of historical records and their preservation (by sponsoring lectures on history by prominent New Yorkers), and collecting whatever items people would donate. In an 1805 appeal "To the Public," which was distributed directly to prominent citizens and printed in the New-York Herald, the Society explained the importance of accurate historical documentation: "For without the aid of historic records and authentic documents, history will be nothing more than a well-combined series of ingenious conjectures and amusing fables."
The entire appeal “To The Public” is reprinted in Appendix B.
It then requested donations to help it record authentic history, asking for "Manuscripts, Records, Pamphlets, and Books relative to the History of this Country." A long and varied list of desired materials followed, ranging from items such as copies of laws and records to more unusual items such as proceedings from ecclesiastical conventions and narratives of Indian wars.
The breadth of the Society's appeal seems ambitious—"Our inquiries are not limited to a single State or district, but extend to the whole Continent"—but as only the second institution of its kind in the small nation, so comprehensive an agenda was understandable. The population of the entire United States in 1804 was only about six million people, the population of New York State approximately six hundred thousand, and the population of New York City just seventy-five thousand. Consequently, at that time, the Society's agenda was not overly aggressive; in fact, its first appeals resulted in just a trickle of donations.
The library got its real start in 1809 when Pintard sold his own book and manuscript collection to the Society. With the nucleus of a collection established, the Society was incorporated in the State of New York on February 10, 1809.
The act of incorporation recognized the Society “by the name of ‘The New-York Historical Society,’ and by such name they and their successors forever hereafter shall and may have a succession.” That is how the Society came to have the hyphen in its name, which has ever been dropped (Vail, 1954, p. 34).
Still, none of the eleven founders endowed the new Society financially, and it operated on a shoestring. Fortunately, New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton was one of the Society's founders. For the first five years of its existence, meetings were held rent-free in a room at City Hall. As the Society's collection grew, however, the cost of maintaining the library quickly outpaced revenues. In March 1810, the Society turned to the state assembly for relief. This initial request for funds was rejected, but when the Society petitioned the state for assistance four years later, it was more successful; an 1814 bill sponsored by DeWitt Clinton (who had been elected New York State senator) passed, granting the Society the right to raise, by means of a lottery, $12,000 to support its activities.
