"His goal was to sketch the river from St. Louis all the way to New Orleans." -Banvard's Folly (2015)"He was actuated alone by a patriotic and honourable ambition of producing for America the largest painting in the world." - American Art to 1900 (2009)"Banvard gained international acclaim in the 1840s with the largest painting ever executed." - The Great Plains Region (2004)In 1840, artist John Banvard (1815–1891) began to ...

Josiah Henson (June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Dresden in Kent County. Henson's autobiography, The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849), is widely believed to have inspired the character of the fugit...

Addison Richards takes us on a trip up the East River and down the Hudson, around Manhattan, the whole of New York City in the 1860's.

In 1830 slave Josiah Henson escaped from Charles County, Maryland, to Upper Canada where he founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves.His autobiography, the full title of which is The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself, inspired the character of George Harris in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

A short piece that describes Old Time Taverns in New York city from the time of the founding by the Dutch to the American Revolution. John Austin Stevens Jr. (1827–1910) was a leader of business, an adviser of government and a student of the American Revolution. His was the founder of the Sons of the Revolution.

According to Wikipedia: "Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education or the Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education, was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s. It was founded by former Unitarian minister George Ripley and his wife Sophia Ripley at the Ellis Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts (9 miles outside of downtown Boston) in 1841 and was inspired in part by the ideals of Transcendentalism, a religious an...

William Andrus Alcott (August 6, 1798 – March 29, 1859), also known as William Alexander Alcott, was an American educator, educational reformer, physician, and author of 108 books. His works, which include a wide range of topics including educational reform, physical education, school house design, family life, and diet, are still widely cited today.

This is probably the most notable of all regional books about New York and Long Island. It is the work of Walt Whitman, and its pages reveal the serious professional journalist, and not seldom the poet, writing brave things in prose.The editor comments in his introduction, "Whitman, though a native of the New York area, loved it and wrote of it with the zeal and zest usually found only in those from elsewhere who have made New York their chosen home." Indeed, he lived in the region ...

“That negro slavery is not the only one that this country has had to contend against is surprisingly shown in Miss Bourne’s ‘White Slavery in Colonial Time.’” -St. Alban’s Messenger, May 28, 1903Where white people kept as slaves to work on America colonial platations against their will?In 1903, Annie Nettelton Bourne (1865-1943) answers this question in her short 12-page work titled "White Slavery in Colonial Times," that appeared in the June 1903 issue of ...

Contemporaneous essay by a resident describing the fall of the city.

In "A Comic History of the United States," Livingston Hopkins employs a wry and satirical tone to chronicle the vast and tumultuous history of the United States. Through comic illustrations and clever prose, Hopkins deftly navigates major events, cultural shifts, and key figures, transforming complex historical narratives into accessible and entertaining insights. The book, rich in humor and wit, mirrors the Victorian era's burgeoning interest in popularizing history, catering to a readers...

"Uncle Tom's Story of His Life" is a slave narrative written by Josiah Henson, who would later become famous for being the basis of the title character from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. The narrative provides a detailed description of his life as a slave in the south. Josiah Henson (1789-1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada, now Ontario, in 1830, and founded a settlement...