Did you know that the library where Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr borrowed their books is still around?

The New York Society Library has been in existence since 1754 and it’s still going strong today.  Originally, it occupied space in the very multi-purpose City Hall, which later became Federal Hall, a building which provided the place where George Washington was inaugurated as President in 1789 and the courtroom where Levi Weeks would be tried in 1800.

So where did Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr borrow their books?  By 1800, the Library had moved out of Federal Hall and was housed in a snazzy new purpose built building on Nassau Street.  (So, no, they couldn’t just pop over from the courtroom to return a book in the same building by March 1800– although given the marathon pace of the Levi Weeks trial, they wouldn’t have had time to!).

The coolest thing?  The New York Society Library saved their ledgers so I was able to see what all the major players in the trial (Hamilton, Burr, Brockholst Livingston, Cadwallader Colden, Judge Lansing, and so on) had been reading!  You can tell a lot about a person from their taste in books… and that was certainly the case here!

Here’s a peek at Burr’s borrowing history….  In early 1800, he was taking out a book on astronomy– possibly for the edification of his daughter Theodosia?

I am so indebted to the NYSL (of which I am a proud member) for retaining and sharing these records– and being such a palpable link to the city’s past!