About the Museum

The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It presents exhibitions, public programs, and research that explore the history of New York and the nation. The New York Historical Museum & Library has been at its present location since 1908. The granite building was designed by York & Sawyer in a classic Roman Eclectic style. The building, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, is a New York City designated landmark. A renovation, completed in November 2011, made the building more accessible to the public, provided space for an interactive children's museum, and facilitated access to its collections. Louise Mirrer has been the president of the New York Historical since 2004. Beginning in 2005, the museum presented a two-year exhibit on Slavery in New York, its largest theme exhibition in 200 years on a topic which it had never addressed before. It included an art exhibit by artists invited to use museum collections in their works. The Society generally focuses on the developing city center in Manhattan. Another historical society, the Long Island Historical Society (later Brooklyn Historical Society) was founded in Brooklyn in 1863. The New York Historical holds an extensive collection of historical artifacts, works of American art, and other materials documenting the history of New York and the United States. It presents well-researched exhibitions on a variety of topics and periods in American history, such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Slavery in New York, The Hudson River School, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Tiffany designer Clara Driscoll, and the history of the Constitution. The Society also offers an extensive range of curriculum-based school programs and teacher resources, and provides academic fellowships and organizes public programs for adults to foster lifelong learning and a deep appreciation of history.