LIBRARY
The collection consists of over 10,000 books, magazines, pamphlets and music titles, the majority from the late 18th through the mid 20th Century. The music collection of over 1,400 items contains sheet music, libretti, song books and hymnals from the early 19th through the mid 20th Century.
ARCHIVES
Personal & Business Papers: There are assorted papers related to 18th Century ancestors. The papers of George Suckley (1765 – 1845) from Sheffield, England, mark the beginning of family papers which continue through the life of his great-great granddaughter Margaret Lynch Suckley (1891 – 1991). Diaries, account books, ledgers, banking records, school records and scrapbooks related to travel and entertainment are associated with many individuals. Included as well are papers from extended family members including Anderson, Beekman, Bowne, Chew, Dows, Galatti, Garrettson, Hambley, Hunt, Livingston, Lynch, Montgomery, Olin, Philips, F. D. Roosevelt, Rutsen, Sands, Schuyler and Tillotson.
Business Papers relating to the Suckley, Montgomery
and Sands families include ledgers, ships’ logs, bills and memorabilia from
business ventures in Haiti (1802 – 1806), trade during the War of 1812;
steamboats on Lake Maracaibo, SA and the Mississippi River in the 1820s and
1830s; real estate in Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Maine, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Rhinebeck and Dutchess County, NY from the 18th through the late
20th Century.
Maps & Indentures: The flat map collection of over 500 items contains manuscript and printed maps of property holdings, travel and tourist maps and early New York and East Coast road maps. Over 500 indentures and deeds supplement the map collection and contain manuscript maps of properties purchased, sold or held as mortgages.
Photography: There are over 20,000
photographs in the collection, mounted in albums, loose and framed representing
photographic processes from 1839 to 1991. All of the photographs are being
scanned and entered into
the Wilderstein database. About 5,000 photographic images are now available and
more are added on a weekly basis.
RESEARCH AREAS
Farm and Land Holdings, Dutchess County, NY (18th, 19th, 20th Centuries); Wilderstein Estate Decorative Arts - Pottier Stymus, Herts Brothers, Joseph Burr Tiffany; Landscape and Architecture - Vaux & Company, Lord & Burnham, John Warren Ritch, Arnout Cannon Jr.; Methodist Church; Civil War; World War I; American Ambulance Field Service; Northern Railroad Route and Washington Territory; Trade with Haiti, South America, Europe and East Coast Merchants 1788 – 1830; Electricity.
ACCESS
Access to the Wilderstein Research Collection is available by appointment.
Email: curator@wilderstein.org Telephone: 845.876.5911
Postal address: Curator; Wilderstein Historic Site; PO Box 383; Rhinebeck, NY 12572
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SPONSORED BY THE SOUTHEASTERN LIBRARY RESOURCES COUNCIL