Library Collections

Local History & Cultures

The core of BHS’s library collections is the general reference collection about Brooklyn and its many facets, from the early Dutch and English colonial period to the present.  To a lesser extent, the book collection also covers New York State, New Jersey, and New York City, with a number of  books focusing on Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as the towns and communities of Long Island.  (The latter evidences BHS’s original founding in 1863 as the “Long Island Historical Society”).

Included are histories, biographies, directories, almanacs, books on the demographics, growth, and sociology of Brooklyn’s various neighborhoods, and varied works about preservation, landmarks, architecture and decorative arts, as well as microfilms of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Brooklyn and Long Island newspapers and city directories, several hundred historic atlases, and over 2,000 maps of Brooklyn, New York, and Long Island.

The library’s collection is particularly strong in colonial and revolutionary era history, as well as in examples of nineteenth-century sermons, religious works, and church histories relating to Brooklyn or Long Island institutions or individuals, such as Henry Ward Beecher.

Although the library does not now actively collect general fiction or poetry, we welcome donations of Brooklyn-oriented works and those by Brooklyn authors.  The collection does include some nineteenth-century works of fiction or poetry, which were added to the library in its early days as a more general reading library for members of the Long Island Historical Society.  In a number of instances, members donated their personal libraries to the library to build the collection in the Society’s early years.


Information on additional resources.

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