LONG
ISLAND STUDIES INSTITUTE
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General
Information | Publications
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Hofstra University's
Special Collections Department is located Room 036 of the Joan & Donald E. Axinn Library. It is a repository
for a number of book and non-book materials, which are organized in
groups called collections.
Due to the nature
of the holdings, the items in Special Collections do not circulate.
They must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Since some
of the more specialized items may not be represented in LEXICAT, it
is suggested that researchers consult the staff of the Special Collections
department who have access to additional finding aids. This site contains
a small sample of rare book and archival collections held in Hofstra
University's Special Collections.
The Special Collections
department is open daily, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. until
4:45 p.m. Researchers wishing to use very rare or unusual materials
may make an appointment to ensure the availability of the materials
at the time of their visit. On occasion, arrangements can be made
for special appointments.
The Long Island
Studies Institute, a cooperative venture between Hofstra University
and Nassau County, is a major center for the study of Long Island's
local and regional history. The collections are available to scholars,
teachers, students, and the general public with an Institute library
card. The library card may be obtained at the Institute for immediate
use.
The Institute
consists of both a research facility and a program of meetings, exhibitions,
conferences, and publications pertaining to Long Island and its heritage.
The site also serves as a repository for governmental records, both
archival and published. The staff is responsible for the acquisition
and preservation of materials, which have been donated by generous
individuals and organizations.
The Institute's
collections, housed at Hofstra University's West Campus facility
include Hofstra University's James N. MacLean Nassau County
American Legion Memorial Collection, the Hofstra University Long Island
Studies Institute Collection, and the Nassau County Museum research
and reference collection.
THE
JAMES N. MACLEAN
AMERICAN LEGION MEMORIAL COLLECTION
 The
James N. MacLean Collection was established at Hofstra University
in 1951 to pay tribute to deceased members of the Nassau County
American Legion. The
Legionnaires continue to support the collection through generous
donations. These donations fund the purchase of books and other
resources, which are then dedicated in honor or in memory of their
fallen comrades. The
MacLean Collection contains materials documenting the history
of New York State with a primary focus on Long Island. It includes
not only social and genealogical history, but also the culture,
economics, and natural history of New York and Long Island. The
collection has a particular emphasis on Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
In addition
to books and pamphlets, the collection includes newspapers on
microfilm, maps, family papers containing manuscripts, journals,
and ephemera relating to individuals and families from the region. |
THE
HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY
LONG ISLAND STUDIES INSTITUTE COLLECTION
The Hofstra University Long Island Studies
Institute Collection consists of the following manuscript
collections: the Carman Family Collection, the Pearsall Collection,
the Hershkowitz Collection of New York County Court Records,
and assorted community records and papers; and the following
microfilm collections: the Brooklyn Eagle from 1841 to 1951,
Federal and New York State Census records for geographic Long
Island, and street directories of Brooklyn and western Queens.
With
certain exceptions, the books, pamphlets, maps, and microfilms
are available for on-site research without prior notice or
appointment. Patrons traveling from a distance may want to
call ahead and verify that the materials they wish to consult
are available. Contact the Institute at (516) 463-6411.
Photocopying
service is available; however, due to the fragile nature of
the materials, all photocopying is at the discretion of the
curatorial staff. Patrons are responsible for all
copyright restrictions and regulations related to copied
materials.
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THE
NASSAU COUNTY MUSEUM
REFERENCE LIBRARY COLLECTION
| The
Nassau County Museum Collection, named in honor of former Nassau
County Historian Jesse Merritt, was originally housed in the Nassau
County Museum in Eisenhower Park. Included among its holdings
are the collections of the Nassau County Historical Society and
the Agricultural Society of Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties.
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The
reference collections include books, pamphlets, more than 12,000
photographs, newspapers, maps and atlases of the changing Long
Island topography, vertical files of clippings and ephemera, published
town and municipal records, census records, genealogies, manuscripts,
and audiovisual material that constitute a rich repository for
researching Long Island's history, genealogy, and heritage.
The use
of individual items such as manuscripts and original photographs
may be restricted. Please call in advance (516) 463-6411.
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Additional Collections
support themes, formats, or specific types of materials. These include
but are not limited to the following materials:
| Calderone
Theatres
Collection
The Calderone
Theater Collection contains information about the Calderone
Theatre, Hempstead Theatre, Rivoli Theatre, Mineola Theatre,
Valley Stream Theatre, Cove Theatre, Lynbrook Theatre, and Westbury
Theatre, which were owned by Dr. Frank Calderone. In the collection,
there are clippings and photographs related to all of the Calderone
theatres. Programs from the theatres show the various trends
in entertainment from the 1920s to the 1980s.
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Caracost Family Wartime Letters, 1941-1946 2.3 cubic ft.
Macke G. “George” Caracost was a U.S. Naval serviceman from
Island Park, L.I., N.Y. During World War II, he trained at the
United States Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, and
was later permanently stationed at Pearl Harbor, HI, where he
served as an aviation machinist’s mate.
The bulk of the collection consists of wartime correspondence
(letters, V-mails, postal and greeting cards) to and from Caracost;
his sister, Mary; and their parents, Basil and Matilda Caracost,
from 1944 through 1945. Correspondents include family members, friends, and fellow servicemen. The collection includes photographs, news clippings, and general papers
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George Caracost and Fellow Sevicemen
in a Jeep, 1944 |
CARECEN
Collection, c. 1980s-
0.70 cubic ft.
Central American Refuge Center (CARECEN-NY) works to protect the civil rights of immigrants, increase understanding between the native born and newcomer communities, and raise awareness of the interaction of human rights disasters and immigration.
Included in the collection are newsletters, flyers and brochures (some in Spanish), periodicals, and fact sheets produced by CARECEN.
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Graphic from “Al Dia!”
Newsletter Cover, 1987 |
Carman Family
Collection,
1679-1942
12.7 cubic ft.
The collection is comprised largely of the papers of William G. Carman’s Birdsall and Garner family ancestors, many of whom were farmers and merchants in Jerusalem (present-day Wantagh), N.Y. Ancestors from other notable Long Island families—including the Jacksons, Langdons, Powells, Seamans, and Smiths—are also represented in the collection.
Included in the collection, which spans the years 1679-1942,
are business records, personal and business correspondence, estate papers, indentures, land surveys, legal documents, military papers, photographs, print materials, school papers, teaching papers, artifacts, ephemera, and news clippings.
Noteworthy items include a small number of slave indentures
and other documents that make reference to slaves.
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Detail from Valentine’s Day Card, c.1870s |
Fair Media Council
FOLIO Awards Collection,
2003- 2.4 cubic ft.
The Fair Media Council, formerly known as the Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting, is a Long Island based,
not-for-profit organization that advocates for quality local news coverage. The annual FOLIO Awards (FOLIO stands for
Focus on Long Island) are awarded by the Fair Media Council
for excellence in local news coverage in print, radio and
television. The awards program is adjudicated by community leaders to choose news stories that are relevant to the
community, well told and impeccably crafted. The awards
ceremony regularly attracts 800 community, media and
government leaders from the greater New York region.
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Detail from Awards
Program Cover, 2007
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The collection contains winning entries as well as material
from the FOLIO Awards presentations beginning in 2003. Included are print articles, audio cassettes and CDs, video
VHS and Beta tapes, CD ROMs, sample programs, pamphlets
and flyers. |
Fashion
Collection
The
Fashion Collection captures the spirit of various eras
with artifacts and illustrations showing how people dressed
for various social events. The collection also supports
fashion research with a run of American Fabrics Magazine,
a trade publication that served the garment industry in
the 1940s and 1950s.
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Judge
Elizabeth Bass Golding Collection
Judge
Elizabeth Bass Golding (1900-2001) was one of the
first women to graduate New York University School
of Law. She graduated second in her class in 1921,
beaten out of first place by a fellow law student
named Samuel Golding. She started a private law practice
upon graduation, but events would soon move her into
a more public forum. Prior to World War II, Elizabeth
Bass Golding was an active member of the National
Council of Jewish Women, the Nassau County Women's
Bar Association, and served as a committee woman on
the National Committee on Social Legislation. During
the Second World War, Golding was appointed as vice
chairperson for the Nassau County U.S.O., which operated
out of Hempstead, near Mitchell Field.
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Israel
Community Center of Levittown Collection, 1948-2005
The
collection contains materials relating to the Israel Community
Center of Levittown from its founding in 1948 through
April 2005. Included are newsletters, news clippings,
booklets, manuscripts, and letters. Issues of the Center's
newsletter, Shofar, and later, The Shofar,
make up the bulk of the materials in this collection and
run from May 1958 through April 2005 (with gaps).
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Shofar,
Dec. 1958 |
| Long
Island History of Sports Collection
This collection
contains documents, publications, clippings, photographs, ephemera,
and artifacts related to the history of both professional and
recreational sports on Long Island from 1850 to the present. |
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| Long
Island Poets Collection,
1928-
The
collection contains materials by and about Long
Island poets and their works. Included are letters,
newspapers, photos, poems, books, flyers, newsletters,
and an index of Long Island poets.
Information
on this topic can also be found in Hofstra University's
catalogued collection.
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Daniel
Thomas Moran
Suffolk County Poet Laureate
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Long
Island Rail Road Collection, 1880- 0.90 cubic ft
The collection contains materials related to the history of the Long Island Rail Road. Included are legal documents, ephemera, memorabilia, a correspondence register, and an accident log. The legal documents contain inventories of the entire Long Island Rail Road as of December 1880.
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Information Bulletin Cover, 1931 |
| Long
Island Real Estate Collection, 1881-
The collection
includes brochures, auction sale notices, books, maps, news
clippings, newspapers, promotional mailings, certificates, and reports of proceedings. The bulk of the collection is
comprised of real estate brochures (many with price quotes
attached) from 1952 and 1953. The brochures are largely
from real estate developments in western Nassau and eastern
Queens Counties.
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Real estate brochure,
c. 1952 |
Long
Island Theatres & Entertainment Collection,
1897-2005 |
The collection spans the years 1900 through 2005 and includes programs, playbills, booklets, broadsides, movie guides, news clippings, promotional items and newsletters. The bulk of the collection is comprised of theatre programs from 1950 through 1969. The types of theatres represented in the collection include everything from playhouses to stadiums, and the productions run the gamut from lectures to musical extravaganzas.
Notable venues include Westbury Music Fair, Mineola Playhouse and Marine Stadium at Jones Beach.
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Program cover from 1952
Freeport Community Choral production of
“The Vagabond King” |
Jonathan Mulford (1770-1840) Papers, 1799-1843
(bulk dates, 1799-1833). 0.15 cubic ft. |
Collection consists of receipts from the estate of Major David Mulford; tuition receipts from Clinton Academy, Easthampton, N.Y., for Jonathan Mulford’s children; and business receipts and notes of both Jonathan and Major David Mulford.
The Mulfords were descendants of the original settlers of East Hampton, N.Y.
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Clinton Academy Tuition Receipt, 1826 |
| Nassau
County American Legion Scrapbook, 1919-1961
The
scrapbook contains materials concerning the history of the
Nassau County American Legion from 1919 through 1961. The
materials include the following: historical notes about
the "formation period" of the organization;
a list of membership totals by year; information about,
and images of, past County Commanders; yearly summaries
of meetings and activities; ephemera; and news clippings.
The scrapbook
was compiled c. 1961.
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William Lewis
Nassau County Commander
1939-1940
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| Newspaper
Collection
The bulk of this collection is comprised
of clippings of illustrations (largely political cartoons
and reportorial sketches) that appeared in Harper's
Weekly from March 1860 through August 1913. Many of
these illustrations were done by Thomas Nast, who worked
for the newspaper from 1862 until late 1886. Nast's political
cartoons were extremely influential and one of them was
even said to have re-elected Abraham Lincoln in 1864. He
is often referred to as the "Father of American Caricature."
Also
included in the collection are newspapers, news clippings,
magazines, and illustrated journal covers and advertisements.
Many of the aforementioned are from local Long Island source
materials. |
Thomas Nast
Cartoon
Harper's Weekly, 1872
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Pearsall
Collection
This collection
contains documents, photographs and diaries of Louis Pearsall.
The focus of the collection is local life on Long Island in
the early- to mid-20th century, when Pearsall worked as a carpenter,
shipbuilder, and bay man.The documents in the collection cover
many topics relevant to life on Long Island's South Shore.
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Physicians
for Social Responsibility
(Nassau County Chapter)
The
Nassau County Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility
(PSR-NC) was an organization which protested nuclear war in
the '80s and '90s. The group gave lectures, held fundraisers,
led protests, as well as other events, in order to educate
the general population on the topic of nuclear war and to
promote world peace.
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Places
of Worship
Places
of Worship is a photographic collection. Robert Harrison photographed
churches, mosques, and synagogues on Long Island in the early
21st century.
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| Planning
Documents Collection
This
is a collection of documents, pamphlets, plans, and maps focusing
on suburban planning on Long Island. Some topics represented
are erosion, land use, parks, population, transportation, and
water. |
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| Post
Family Collection, 1796-1935
The
bulk of this collection is comprised of letters written
to Long Island Quaker abolitionists Joseph and Mary Post
between 1838 and 1888. Notable correspondents include the
following: Lucretia Mott, abolitionist and women's rights
leader; Isaac Post (Joseph's brother), abolitionist and
spiritualist; Rev. George Truman; and Cyrus Peirce. Topics
discussed are slavery, the Civil War, Christianity, Friends'
Meetings, theological matters, and general everyday life.
Also included in the collection are artifacts, engravings,
genealogy documents, general print materials, indentures,
Monthly Meeting testimonies, pamphlets, photographic prints,
poems, receipts, silhouette prints, sketches, song lyrics,
survey diagrams, and a family photo album. |
Mary
Post
(1806-1892)
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Particularly
noteworthy items include the following: a photographic print
of abolitionist Mary H. (Post) Hallowell (daughter of Isaac
Post), whose home in Rochester, NY, was a stop on the Underground
Railroad; a framed silhouette print of the famous Quaker preacher,
Elias Hicks; a framed engraving of Lucretia Mott; and indentures
related to the sale of land in Merrick as well as other locations.
Also notable are photographic prints of Joseph Post, Mary
Post, Esther Robbins, Willet S. Robbins, Mary Willis, Henry
Willis, and Isaac Post.
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Raynor
Family Collection
The
Raynor family settled on Long Island in the 1640s in the
Hempstead area. They later established themselves in a
place that came to be named after them, Raynortown, which
is present-day Freeport.
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September
11 Project Collection
The September
11 Project Collection, which is composed of material created by
Long Island residents and businesses, consists mainly of records
of September 2001 and the following months. Strong areas of the
collection include e-mail documents, photographs and artifacts
produced by or related to the events of September 11 and the recovery
effort.
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Robert M. Storman American Revolution Collection,
c. 1748- 0.4 cubic ft.
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The collection includes artifacts and documents from the American Revolutionary War period, 1776-1783. Included is a soldier's document box and a Pay-Table-Office order for Private Remembrance Filley. Private Filley was a member of one of the five companies from the 3rd Connecticut Regiment that went to Virginia with Lafayette. These troops played a key role in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
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Pay-Table-Office order, 1782 |
Vintage
Aircraft Photo Album,
c. 1935
The photo
album contains twenty black and white photographs of vintage
commercial and military aircraft made during the 1920s through
approximately the mid-1930s. Included among these aircraft
are the Fairchild 71, the Curtiss "Tanager" and the German-built
Dornier DO-X, which was powered by 12 engines and which had
a takeoff weight of 55 tons.
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Curtiss "Tanager"
c. late 1920s |
George
Wallace Collection, 1999-
The
George Wallace Collection is comprised of typescript poetry
journals and a typescript novel published in October 2001.
The poetry journals, which contain works on a variety
of subjects, are arranged chronologically. David Amram,
author and composer, described the novel in the collection, Down Dream Road, as a "great personal adventure
story and a picture of life's journey."
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George
Wallace, Suffolk County's First Poet Laureate
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Weisberg Family Collection, 1928-1972
1.3 cubic ft.
The collection is composed of photographs, correspondence, ephemera, newspaper clippings, postcards and scrapbooks of Ruth “Shorty” Weisberg and her sister May Weisberg of Floral Park, New York, and their brother Leonard “Len” Weisberg and his wife Mildred Gordon Weisberg of Huntington Station dating from 1928 until 1972. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1940s and 1950s giving a glimpse of what life was like during those years in the Long Island and Metro New York area.
Particularly noteworthy is the World War II era material on the American Women’s Volunteer Service and the American Theater Wing War Service, whose World War II era
Chairman, Antoinette Perry, was the person for whom the
Tony Award was named. Also of note is the memorabilia collected by the Weisbergs while vacationing in Europe through the 1950s and 1960s.
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Ruth Weisberg, c.1942
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Woman's Forum of Nassau County
Scrapbook Collection, 1957-1995
13 binders
The Woman’s Forum of Nassau County was founded in 1944 by Elizabeth Bass Golding. Organized to discuss problems of common concern, the Forum hosted conferences, panel discussions, programs, meetings, etc., that dealt with topics such as alcoholism, aging, housing on Long Island, high school trade schools, town government, and the morality of Off Track Betting. The organization grew rapidly and eventually united more than 500 groups of different races, creeds, nationalities, and interests.
The thirteen scrapbooks that make up this collection document the activities of the organization from 1957-1995. They were compiled by Bernice F. Weshler, who was the publicity director
and a past president of the Woman’s Forum.
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Incoming President Gruen with Judge Dawson at 1960 Installation Ceremony |
World's
Fairs Collection
This collection contains materials related
to the World's Fairs held in Chicago in 1893 and 1933-1934,
and in New York in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965. Included are booklets,
broadsides, postcards, ephemera, flyers, bulletins, news clippings,
maps of the layouts of the1939-1940 and 1964-1965 World's
Fairs, official guidebooks from 1934 and 1965, and memorabilia
from the New York World's Fairs.
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