The Bryant Library Local History Collection

Established in 1953 as the Grist Mill Historical Collection, the Bryant Library Local History Collection is a resource for information on the history and heritage of the Roslyn area, including Roslyn Village, Roslyn Heights, East Hills, Flower Hill, Roslyn Estates and Roslyn Harbor. The Local History Collection is housed in the Bryant Room, which is located on the upper level of the library. It contains an extensive reference collection consisting of 19th and 20th-century books, maps and atlases, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings, and original manuscripts. Special holdings include material on William Cullen Bryant, Christopher Morley, and Clarence H. Mackay and family, as well as a collection of books and ephemera printed by The Stone House Press.

Other notable collections are:

• A digital collection of over 300 historic postcards of Roslyn depicting its inhabitants, businesses, places of worship, various buildings, and natural features is available on the New York Digital Heritage website.. The bulk of the postcards are black and white with some being hand colored, the collection dates from the early 20th Century.

• Searchable copies of the earliest issues of The Roslyn News and its predecessor, The Roslyn Tablet, covering the years 1876-1903, are available on the New York State Historic Newspapers website. Later issues of The Roslyn News are available on microfilm in the Local History Collection.

• The “Everyday Voices” Oral History Collection of interviews with Roslyn “Old Timers” that describe life in early 20th century Roslyn, and the “Memories of Morley” collection, which includes interviews with family members, neighbors, and friends of Roslyn Estates author Christopher Morley (1890-1957). These interviews from the Bryant Library’s Oral History Collection were recorded at the library between 1968 and 1978. In 2018, the library received a Recordings at Risk grant that enabled cassette tapes of the original recordings to be digitized and indexed.

Archive Hours: by appointment

Address: 2 Paper Mill Rd., Roslyn, NY 11576

Website: https://www.bryantlibrary.org/local-history/

Online Collections Inventory: https://www.localhistory.bryantlibrary.org/collections-inventory

Contact:  516.621.2240, ext. 260

localhistory@bryantlibrary.org   

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