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Edward Jennings Collection
Contents
Descriptive SummaryCreator: Edward Allen Jennings, 1882-1958 Biographical InformationEdward Allen Jennings was a physician in New York City. He received his medical degree from Columbia University in 1913 and then served as a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps during World War I. He later worked on the staffs of the Harlem, Fordham, and St. Luke's hospitals. Jennings had a lifelong interest in the history of New York City and church architecture. He amassed a collection of old photographs from which he made over 150 lantern slides. After extensive research at the New York City Department of Records, Jennings also wrote Manhattanville: An Architectural Retrospect, which remains unpublished. Jennings died on September 11, 1958, at the age of 76. Historical NoteLaid out in 1806 by Jacob Schieffelin and John B. Lawrence, the New York City community of Manhattanville existed during the first half of the nineteenth century as a sparsely populated rural village in the northwest section of Manhattan. Surrounded by hilly, open land and large country residences, the neighborhood was centered in the valley bordered by what is now 123rd Street to the south, 140th Street to the North, and west and east by the Hudson River and Convent Avenue. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution came the completion of the Hudson River Railroad in 1851, which linked Manhattanville with the rest of the city. The village began to change into a bustling enclave of German and Irish laborers who found employment in the woolen mill, brewery, and Hudson River ferry terminal in the area. Streets were paved; churches, schools, and a dispensary were built to serve the population, which grew from 500 residents in mid century to 14,675 in 1900. The institutional predecessors of Manhattanville College -- the Academy of the Sacred Heart and the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart -- were located in the Manhattanville section from 1847 to 1952. The Landmark Map included in The Iconography of Manhattan Island, by N. Phelps Stokes (New York: R. Dodd, 1918-1925) is a good reference point for the neighborhoods depicted in the Jennings lantern slides. This detailed, multi-page map (v. 3, pp. 174-180) was originally prepared for Stokes in 1891, with revisions made in 1918. Approximate borders for the neighborhoods, as labelled on the map, are:
Scope and ContentBook manuscript, photographs, correspondence, news clippings and lantern slides which document the architecture and landscape of Manhattanville, Harsenville, and Bloomingdale -- New York City neighborhoods which correspond to the present day West Side of Manhattan. Images depict churches, homes, taverns, and other buildings in the late nineteenth century, often with accompanying descriptive text. ArrangementThe collection is arranged in three series:
Series Descriptions
Container ListScrapbook 1. Manhattanville Photographs Photos are numbered as follows. An accompanying sheet gives Jennings's original captions.
Scrapbook 2. Manhattanville and Old Bloomingdale Photographs Photographs are numbered as follows. An accompanying sheet gives Jennings's original captions. Manhattanville
Old Bloomingdale
Manhattanville Book Manuscript and Related Materials Oversize Box 1
Lantern Slides
Access PointsPersonal Names
Topical Subjects
Genre / Form Terms
Administrative Information
AcknowledgementA part of this collection has been preserved with a grant from the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials. |