Operating since 1863, the Brooklyn Historical Society Library was one of only a handful of cultural organizations in Brooklyn in the mid-19th century. Since its founding, the library has assembled the premier collection of research materials on the history of Brooklyn. The collection includes 155,000 bound volumes, 100,000 graphic images, 2,000 linear feet of manuscripts, and over 2,000 maps and atlases. The library also holds genealogies, rare books, newspapers, periodicals, serials, journals, personal papers, institutional records, and oral histories that document Brooklyn's many different ethnic groups and neighborhoods. The collection was designated a major resource library by the Department of Education and has been used by countless students, teachers, researchers and scholars.
Highlights of the collection include an original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation; the papers of the famous abolitionist minister Henry Ward Beecher (PDF or SGML format); the Pierrepont Papers (PDF or SGML format); an important collection of pamphlets dealing with slavery and abolition; and a major collection of Brooklyn and Long Island newspapers.