Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Access
For more information on making arrangements to consult the collection, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Conditions Governing Use
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
This collection should be cited as: "New-York Historical Society Portrait Collection, PR 052, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society."
Separated Materials
From time to time, material in the Portrait Collection that is determined to have been separated in the past from its original place in personal or family manuscript collections, will be removed and returned to that manuscript collection.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Portrait Collection was accumulated over time, primarily during the 20th century,
from a variety of sources, including
• Edmund Bramhall Child (1846–1946).
• Robert Fridenberg, who donated thousands of portraits culled chiefly from illustrated
books.
• Henry O. Havemeyer (1847–1907). Many of the prints in Subseries I.B and I.C came
from his collection.
• Samuel Verplanck Hoffman (1866–1942), whose copy of Men of Affairs is found in Subseries I.E.
• Daniel Parish Jr. (1838–1914), a collector who was a long-time and regular donor
to the Historical Society. On May 15, 1906 alone he gave "1,754 Prints, consisting
of portraits (many of them are book plates and cut from Illustrated Newspapers)."
• Max Rosenthal (1833–1918) and Albert Rosenthal (1863–1939), circa 250 prints of
celebrated historical figures.
• William Ives Rutter Jr., who gave a large collection of family portraits.
A significant part of this collection consists of portraits separated over time from
their original provenance in personal and family papers held in the New-York Historical
Society's manuscript department, a practice followed until, perhaps, the late 20th
century.
Processing Information
Collection processed by committee, and a WORD-document finding aid produced June 30, 2003. Archivist Joseph Ditta migrated the original finding aid to ArchivesSpace in March-May 2020.
Accruals
The Portrait Collection remains open for additional single items or small sets of related photographs and other images obtained by gift or purchase.