The New York Historical

The New York Historical stands as the city's very first museum, established in eighteen hundred and four by a group of prominent citizens who felt that a young nation needed to aggressively preserve its own story. They began this mission at a time when the United States was still defining its identity, and their initial efforts to document the past were so urgent that they sometimes struggled just to keep the lights on. Before settling into this grand granite building on Central Park West in nineteen hundred and eight, the institution spent over a century wandering through seven different locations across Manhattan, including a stint in a former almshouse near City Hall.