The Bronx County Historical Society is a private non-profit organization that collects and disseminates historical material and information about the New York City borough of the Bronx, as well as southern Westchester County, New York.
The Society collects items such as books, reports, photographs, objects, and other artifacts about the Bronx as well as archival records documenting groups and individuals in the borough. It provides information to thousands of people each year through its Research Library and The Bronx County Archives, by mail, over the phone, and via digital communication. The Society also works with the New York Public Library's Bronx Library Center and its branch libraries in sharing these resources. The Bronx County Historical Society is digitizing select portions of its collections.
The Society honors Bronx High School valedictorians with an annual awards ceremony held at the Museum of Bronx History. The Society is also the largest publisher of books and articles about the Bronx and produces The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, the oldest continuously published historical periodical in the New York metropolitan area.
Partnerships and special projects
The Bronx County Historical Society is a joint sponsor with Fordham University's Department of African and African American Studies of the Bronx African American History Project. Over 230 oral histories have been gathered so far, fourteen associated archival collections accessioned, and many books, articles, lectures, musicals, commemorations, and exhibitions have been produced. The oral histories are being cataloged at The Bronx County Archives.
In 2010, the Society launched the Bronx Latino History Project, which highlights Latinos who lived or contributed to the Bronx throughout its history. Because the Latino population is the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the borough since the mid-20th century (constituting more than half of the county's population), the Society's education department is continuing the process of increasing its collections to reflect the Bronx's ethnic diversity.
BCHS Research Library The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library is the only facility in New York City solely dedicated to the collection, preservation, and dissemination of the history and heritage of the Bronx. The diverse materials in its collections document the growth and development of the Bronx from its early days as part of Westchester County, through its annexation to the City of Greater New York, and up to the present.
The Research Library houses over 7,000 books, pamphlets, and periodicals, a number of which also exist in digital formats, as well as more than 200 atlases and maps. Its Photograph Collection comprises 75,000 photographs and slides, including 3,000 nineteenth- and early twentieth-century glass negatives; and 1,600 postcards. The Research Library also has a sizable A/V Collection, which contains more than 200 audio cassettes, 300 reel-to-reel tapes, 150 phonograph records, and 200 video cassettes and DVDs. The Research Library's Vertical file collection includes more than 400,000 newspaper clippings and other ephemera on Bronx subjects.
In conjunction with Fordham University, the BCHS research library houses collections of the papers of Jamaal Bowman, Aurelia Greene, Jackie Robinson, and other notable figures associated with the Bronx.
The library received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1977 "to research and publish the first comprehensive reference work on the history and heritage of Bronx County."
The Bronx County Archives
The Bronx County Historical Society founded The Bronx County Archives in 1974 to act as a repository for Bronx municipal records. Since that date, The Bronx County Archives have acquired a dedicated building, located next door to The Bronx County Historical Society Research Library, equipped with moisture- and temperature-controlled storage space. The Bronx County Archives currently house 114 individual collections, which comprise around 3205 cubic feet and uniquely document many aspects of Bronx history. These aspects include Bronx businesses and economic development; city planning and infrastructure; civic organizations and clubs; culture and cultural institutions; capital disinvestment and urban devastation; education; healthcare; housing and cooperatives; local history; municipal records; politicians and political parties; and radicalism and community activism. The Bronx County Archives also contain especially rich documentation of Black and Jewish life and culture in the borough. A growing number of archival collections document Latino life and culture in the Bronx as well. As of July 2020, finding aids have been created for the majority of collections and will be provided to researchers upon request.
National landmark historic houses
In addition to the Bronx County Historical Society Research Library and The Bronx County Archives, The Bronx County Historical Society administers two national landmark historic houses, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the home of poet Edgar Allan Poe, and the Valentine–Varian House, a colonial-era farmhouse that hosts the Museum of Bronx History.
BCHS publications
Since its founding in 1955, The Bronx County Historical Society has published, authored, commissioned, and produced popular books, monographs, pamphlets, periodicals, bibliographies, research aids, classroom guides, primary source collections, radio broadcasts, videos, musical performances, and other special interest items on many aspects of Bronx history. In addition, since 1964 the Society has published an annual journal on Bronx history that contains scholarly articles, reminiscences, oral histories, book reviews, and poetry.
Below is a partial list of books and pamphlets published or authored by The Bronx County Historical Society, 1955–2020:
Local and regional history Beirne, Elizabeth, ed. The Greater New York Centennial. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society and The History of New York City Project, 1999. Beirne, Elizabeth, ed. The Hudson river. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society and The History of New York City Project, 1997. Beirne, Elizabeth, ed. New York City at the Turn of the Century. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society and The History of New York City Project, 1996. De Brino, Nicholas. History of the Morris Park Racecourse and the Morris Family. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1977. Fluhr, George J. The Bronx Through the Years: A Geography and History. New York: The Aidan Press for The Bronx County Historical Society, 1964. Fluhr, George J. The Historical Geography of the West Bronx. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1960. Gilbert, Allan S., ed. The Buried Bronx: Recent Archaeology in the Borough. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1991. Gilbert, Allan S., ed. Digging The Bronx: Recent Archaeology in the Borough. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2018. Hermalyn, G. The Concourse Action Program: The Parks. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1981. Hermalyn, G., and Sidney Horenstein. Hudson's River. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2020. Hermalyn, G. Morris High School and the Creation of The New York City Public High School System. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1995. Hermalyn, G., and Elizabeth Beirne. Time and The Calendar. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society and The History of New York City Project, 2011. Hermalyn, G., and Anthony Greene. Yankee Stadium: 1923–2008, Images of Baseball. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2009. Hermalyn, G., and Robert Kornfeld. Landmarks of The Bronx. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1989. Hermalyn, G., and Lloyd Ultan. A Historical Sketch of The Bronx. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2018. Hermalyn, G., and Lloyd Ultan. "The Bronx." Pp. 160–65 in The Encyclopedia of New York City. Second edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Lazarus, Douglas, ed. Re-Inspired: The Erie Canal, America's First Great Work of Civil Engineering. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2010. McAuley, Kathleen A. Westchester Town: Bronx Beginnings. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2017. McNamara, John. History in Asphalt: The Origin of Bronx Street and Place Names. Fourth revised edition. Harrison, NY: Harbor Hill Books, 2010. McNamara, John. McNamara's Old Bronx. Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1989. Mead, Edna. The Bronx Triangle: A Portrait of Norwood. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1982. Mendez, Ruben P. A History of the Riverdale Yacht Club. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2008. Schliessman, Ronald. The Bronx in the World of Books. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1962. Serrano, Alfonso. Latin Bicentennial. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, n.d. Stelter, Lawrence. By The El: Third Avenue and Its El at Mid-Century. New York: New York Transit Museum and The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2007. Ultan, Lloyd. The Beautiful Bronx 1920–1950. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979. Ultan, Lloyd. Blacks in the Colonial Bronx: A Documentary History. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2012. Ultan, Lloyd. The Bronx in the American Revolution. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1975. Ultan, Lloyd. The Bronx in the Frontier Era. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1993. Ultan, Lloyd. Legacy of the Revolution: The Valentine-Varian House. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1980, 1983. Ultan, Lloyd. The Northern Borough: A History of The Bronx. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2009. Ultan, Lloyd, and G. Hermalyn. The Birth of the Bronx. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 2000. Ultan, Lloyd, and G. Hermalyn. The Bronx in the Innocent Years, 1890–1925. Revised edition. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1991. Ultan, Lloyd, and G. Hermalyn. The Bronx: It Was Only Yesterday, 1935–1965. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1992. Wolf, Edward. History of the Early Bronx. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1969.
Roots of the Republic series The Bronx County Historical Society. About the Declaration of Independence: 200 Years of Freedom. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1975. Lankevitch, George. Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1996. Lankevitch, George. The First House of Representatives/The Bill of Rights. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1996. Quinn, C. Edward, F.S.C. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1988. Quinn, C. Edward, F.S.C. The Signers of the Constitution of the United States. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1987. Streb, Richard. The First Senate of the United States. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1996. Ultan, Lloyd. The Presidents of the United States. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1989.
Edgar Allan Poe Beirne, Elizabeth, ed. Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe at Fordham. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1999, 2008. The Bronx County Historical Society. Poems of Edgar Allan Poe at Fordham. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1975. McAuley, Kathleen A. Edgar Allan Poe: A Short Biography. The Bronx, NY: The Bronx County Historical Society, 1982.
Educational material and primary sources