The Sanford collection, which was donated to the NYS Library last summer, consists of nine manuscript journals, a small group of letters, and a manuscript recipe book. Nathan Sanford (that’s him at left) was Chancellor of NYS from 1823-1826, a NYS Assemblymember and Senator, US attorney general, and a US senator. The family was well connected and Nathan’s descendants married into other prominent families such as the Gansevoorts, Stuyvesants, and Motts.

Most of the journals were kept by Nathan’s son, Robert- covering his days as a student at Union College to 1881, they provide a wealth of detail into the daily lives of New York’s upper class. The other journals were kept by female family members. The recipe book is marvelously descriptive and comprehensive and would be of interest to anyone researching aspects of the domestic sphere in the 19th century.