Archives & Manuscripts

 The Archives and Manuscripts Collections at Brooklyn Historical Society  document the history of Brooklyn and Long Island from European settlement in the 1600s through the 20th Century. These materials include but are not  limited to personal and family papers; municipal records from the towns and  villages that eventually consolidated to become modern Brooklyn;  administrative records of businesses, churches, schools, and community  organizations; as well as ephemera, photographs, architectural drawings and  other primarily visual media

 Access
The Archives are open to everyone, but do require an appointment for use.  Appointments must be requested at least one week in advance, and are  available during open library hours: Wed-Fri from 1-5 PM. Scholars or out of  town researchers interested in doing extensive research in the collections  can request appointments outside of these hours. Requests will be  accommodated on a case-by-case basis. To request an appointment, please fill  out our online form .

Materials in the Archives and Manuscript Collections do not circulate and  must be used in the reading room. Researchers in the reading room are  required to fill out a registration form, check coats and bags, and agree to  abide by our reading room rules. Laptops are allowed, but there is no  wireless Internet access in the library and a limited number of electrical  outlets are available.

Finding Material in the Archives

To begin your research, please browse the collections described on Emma, our online catalog of archives, manuscripts, and special collections. The materials described in Emma are not a comprehensive listing of our holdings; if you do not find what you are looking for, you can contact us to ask if further resources relevant to your research are available.

Visitors may also browse a complete collection of our finding aids, many of which are not currently available online, by visiting the library anytime during library open hours.

Additionally, a large number of the photographs in our collections have been digitized and can be viewed via a searchable database available for use in the reading room during open library hours. No appointment is necessary to use this image database. Please see the Photography Collections page on our website for further information on our visual collections.    

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