“A True and Perfect Inventory”: the Municipal Archives Collection of 18th and 19th-century Estate Records, Part One — NYC Department of Records & Information Services
Lists of people’s possessions when they died—pretty dry stuff, right? Well, the files in the Municipal Archives’ collection of estate assets from 1786 to 1859 may be brittle with age, but the glimpses they offer into Manhattan life from the era of George Washington’s presidency through the runup to