New-York Historical Society collection of New York City tavern licenses
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Abstract
The collection includes about 400 tavern licenses, plus many related excise tax receipts, from New York City dating from the 1780s and 1790s. One outlying exception is an 1862 license for a tavern in Morrisania, Westchester County. The collection as a whole was compiled over time by New-York Historical Society from various donations, especially those of former N-YHS President Samuel V. Hoffman.
Arrangement Note
There is no particular order to the overall collection, but generally the earlier licenses (circa 1784) are in the first folders and the later licenses (1790s) are in the later folders. A broader mix of dates are found in the fourth folder, including the 1862 outlier. Within some folders, the documents are arranged by license number.
Scope and Contents Note
The collection includes about 400 tavern licenses, plus many related excise tax receipts, from New York City dating from the 1780s and 1790s. There is one outlying exception to this: an 1862 license for a tavern in Morrisania, Westchester County. The licenses are signed by the New York City mayors of the time, James Duane and Richard Varick, and the excise receipts are signed by Commissioner of Excise and Alderman Abraham P. Lott. The licenses were granted to a variety of individuals and pertain to several wards of the city. The licenses of the 1790s refer to the licensee's occupation (often grocer or innkeeper, but others appear as well) or to whether a woman licensee is a widow (licenses of the 1780s have "innkeeper" preprinted on the form). The container list below includes an item level description of all the documents in the collection.
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Access Restrictions
Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Use Restrictions
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 Note
This collection should be cited as the New-York Historical Society collection of New York City tavern licenses, MS 443.28, New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition Note
The collection as a whole was compiled over time by New-York Historical Society from various donations and a purchase. All but ten of the licenses were donated to N-YHS by a former N-YHS President Samuel V. Hoffman, on four different dates: 3 January 1910, 26 November 1923, 21 September 1926, and 7 October 1926. One license was likely received as part of a bequest of manuscripts from Hoffman on 21 April 1943 (see folder 3). Other donated licenses were: one by Thomas P. Teale on 5 October 1847 (see folder 5); three by Robert F. Seybolt on 27 September 1932 and 20 September 1939 (see folder 4); one by E.B. Child on 23 March 1933 (see folder 4); and one by C. Otto von Kienbusch on 6 January 1958 (see folder 4). Four licenses with affidavits were purchased on 15 January 1918 (see folder 3).
About this Guide
Processing Information Note
Volunteer Alison Barr compiled the detailed document list and entered the data to the collection management system. Archivist Larry Weimer added the overall descriptive notes to produce a finding aid.