New-York Historical Society collection of scrapbooks and clippings

The collection holds about 100 single-volume scrapbooks, multi-volume sets of scrapbooks, or compilations of clippings not necessarily bound in an album, totalling almost 200 volumes. Newspaper clippings, often deteriorating, likely make up most of the content of the collection and are commonly the exclusive content of many of the scrapbooks. Nevertheless, various other types of documents can be found throughout, especially programs (theatre, concerts, other events) and ephemera (tickets, cards, invitations, event announcements, brochures, etc.). There are some photographs but these are not found extensively; more common are pictorial works, such as postcards and those clipped from newspapers and elsewhere. There are also some letters, though not extensive.

There is a considerable degree of diversity in subject content. The container list attempts to identify the fundamental subject matter or focus of the inventoried scrapbooks and the principal document types in each. Very few of the scrapbooks were titled and so a working title/label for each could be determined by the processing archivist based only on skims within time constraints and so cannot necessarily be fully relied on. Where an album was explicitly titled, that is shown within "quotation marks" in the container list. All other titles/labels were established by the archivist. Generally that title/label used the scrapbook compiler if known, or the subject focus as best as could be perceived.

Following is an attempt to categorize the scope of the scrapbooks:

Several scrapbooks document aspects of an individual's life and/or career, and were compiled by that person. While clippings provide some context, there are typically other and more personal documentary forms in these scrapbooks. Examples of these include:

• William Alfred Robbins scrapbooks, one of which documents his work as overseas secretary for the YMCA War Work during and in the aftermath of World War I.
• Lawrence-Smith School for Boys scrapbook, compiled by its headmaster and tracing the school's history from beginning (1914) to dissolution (1939).
• Edmond Charles Bonaventure scrapbooks, which document his involvement with the French Institute in the United States, circa 1914.
• Dea Carroll scrapbook, which documents the singer/entertainer's career as charity fashion show host, 1953-61.
• Helen Sargent Hitchcock scrapbook concerning the Art War Relief auxiliary of the Red Cross during WWI.
• Charles B. Curtis scrapbook documenting his travels across the United States, Europe, and Asia in 1905-06.
• Programs of musical performances that included the tenor Frederick Specht, 1875-89.
• Alan R. Hawley scrapbooks on "aeronautics," that is, ballooning and early airplane flight, both of which he was an active participant in, 1906-37.
• George Ehler Stonebridge scrapbooks concerning his career as a photographer, poet, and lecturer, 1890s-1930s.

Several scrapbooks include documents that reflect social connections or leisure activities. Examples of these include:

• Marguerite Adelaide Wolfe scrapbook of dances and other social engagements in Narragansett, 1877-78.
• Sydney H. Carney, Jr. scrapbooks of meeting announcements and the like from the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, New-York Historical Society, and other organizations he was a member and officer of.
• Laura Valentine Sawyer scrapbook, documenting her high school years as a Brooklyn teenager, 1912-16.

Several scrapbooks hold collections of certain document types, such as trade cards and other advertising material, calling cards, monograms, prints of artworks or other illustrations, etc. Theater and other programs are found in several scrapbooks, including those of William K. Draper, Betsey (Bessie) van Nostrand Smith, Faye Laird, and others.
Newspaper clippings perhaps predominate the collection. While many of these scrapbooks seem to be compilations of miscellaneous articles of interest to the (often unknown) compiler, many scrapbooks of clippings have a perceptible focus. Examples of these include:

• J.B. Stack's scrapbooks on boxing around the turn of the 20th century.
• Henry E. Davies and Julia Stevens scrapbooks on the 1876 United States centennial celebrations.
• Lispenard Stewart's seven volumes of clippings about himself and his political and social activities.
• Several scrapbooks include clippings about the Civil War.
• An unattributed volume concerning bicycles and bicycling, 1897-98.
• 7 volumes of newspaper articles and images principally concerning naval military matters, especially in connection with the U.S. Navy, 1898-1912.
• Charles W. Bryan scrapbook on the 1940 presidential election.
Clippings of speeches, poems, anecdotes, and other literary pieces are found in many of the scrapbooks. Examples include:

• Richard Wood scrapbook, circa 1800
• Catherine Kimball scrapbook, circa 1836
• Alburn Hager Krum scrapbook, circa 1860s-90s
• A highly structured and indexed scrapbook with clippings from 1841-45 with speeches on various national topics.