Created by Julie Golia for the SAFA Summer Fellowship

1. Exploring Gabriel Furman’s
Brooklyn
SAFA Summer Fellowship 2013

2. Google map screenshot, taken July 22, 2012; Bernard Ratzer, Plan of the City of New York in North America, circa 1770; Map Collection, NYC-
[1770].Fl.F.RA; Brooklyn Historical Society
What is Brooklyn today? What was Brooklyn in the past?

3. Brooklyn Eagle Historic Series, 1946; reprinted from Flatbush, A Neighborhood Guide, Brooklyn Historical Society, 2008.
Brooklyn … back then
• Dutch origins
• Just 1 of 6 small agricultural towns in
colonial Kings County
• Parts of the growing town of Brooklyn
became a village in 1816
•Brooklyn became its own city in 1834
•Consolidated with other parts of Kings
County over the 19th century
•Consolidated with Greater NYC in
1898, becoming 1 of 5 boroughs

4. Brooklyn Eagle Historic Series, 1946; reprinted from Flatbush, A Neighborhood Guide, Brooklyn Historical Society, 2008.
Gabriel Furman and Brooklyn
• born in 1800 on Fulton Street – Brooklyn
only small town of a few thousand people
• Dad was an influential politician & judge
• Prolific
historian, writer, lawyer, politician
• Helped establish municipal
services, institutions, schools
• Declined as public figure in 1840s - may
have been addicted to opium!
• Died 1854 – Brooklyn had over 100,000
residents and was on its way to being 3rd
largest city in country

5. Early Brooklyn farm, circa 1880, V1972.1.824; Early Brooklyn and Long Island photograph collection, ARC.201; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Brooklyn’s origins: farming and agriculture

6. Slave bill of sale, Gilleyam Cornel and Jan Lefferts, May 21, 1751; Lefferts family papers, ARC.145, box 3, folder 9; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Brooklyn’s reliance on slavery until 1827 emancipation

7. John William Hill, View of the Lower Aqueduct on the Erie Canal, New York, circa 1829-1830; 1974.47; New-York Historical Society.
Erie Canal opens 1825, and Brooklyn farmers adapt

8. Man plowing field, 1888, V1974.7.10; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.
In parts of Kings County like Flatbush, Flatlands, and New
Utrecht, farming persists until the 1910s and 1920s

9. Bernard Ratzer, Plan of the City of New York in North America, circa 1770; Map Collection, NYC-[1770].Fl.F.RA; Brooklyn Historical Society
…But even as farms persist deep in Kings County, other areas
closer to New York City begin to grow and develop.

10. Bernard Ratzer, Plan of the City of New York in North America, circa 1770; Map Collection, NYC-[1770].Fl.F.RA; Brooklyn Historical Society
“Brookland Ferry”

11. G. Parker, Engraving of Robert Fulton, circa 1820; M1992.398.1; Brooklyn Historical Society.
1814: Robert Fulton
established the first steam
ferry line between Fulton Ferry
in Brooklyn and Wall Street in
New York

12. John Chester Buttre, Engraving, Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont, 1860; M1975.176.1; Brooklyn Historical Society
Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont
was an early investor in the
steam ferry. He was also
one of the first major real
estate investors in
Brooklyn’s history.

13. Hezekiah B. Pierrepont House; V1973.6.233; Brooklyn Historical Society.

14. Map of H.B. Pierrepont's property and part of the adjoining land, in the village of Brooklyn, county of Kings and state of New York. Wm. C.
Pierrepont. 1825. Pierrepont-1825.Fl. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

15. Montague Street Hill in 1850; Brooklyn Eagle Postcard, Series 49, No. 290; V1973.4.955; Brooklyn Historical Society.

16. John William Hill, Lithograph, Brooklyn, Long Island, 1853; M1975.1155.1; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Brooklyn’s Commercial Waterfront

17. Pierrepont Stores, circa 1890; V1973.5.854; Brooklyn Historical Society.

18. Brooklyn Brush Manufacturing Company articles of incorporation; 1978.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Brooklyn’s free black community
expanded as well.
Faced with increasing racism –
even after the 1827 emancipation
law – many African Americans
focused on building self-sufficient
black institutions, businesses, and
communities.
Black Brooklynites were also
among the first and most
influential abolitionists – fighting
for the an end to slavery across
the country.

19. John B. Johnson and Edward Hall, Design for front elevation of Brooklyn City Hall, M1975.48.2; Brooklyn Historical Society.
The growth of Brooklyn institutions: municipal
organizations, schools, theaters, libraries, and more.

20. Engraving, Long Island Historical Society, 1884; V1973.2.232; Brooklyn Historical Society.
1845: Packer Institute
1861: Brooklyn Academy of Music
1863: Long Island Historical
Society (today BHS!)
Gabriel Furman himself helped
spark Brooklynites’ interest in
collecting and chronicling their
own history.

21. Brooklyn at Furman’s death…
• Still only one of many very different towns
in Kings County
•7th largest city in country … soon to be the
3rd largest
• Bustling urban and residential center
• Growing economy
• Increasingly diverse – and unequal –
population