Monument to Fannie L. Quintard, outside the mausoleum of Charles Morgan, ca. 1870. (Lot 3922, Sec. 81)

Mausoleum of William Niblo (1789-1875), opposite Crescent Water, ca. 1875.

Dewey Mausoleum, ca. 1890. The large mausoleum of the Dewey family stands immediately behind the monument to Charlotte Canda (1792-1866), who died suddenly on the night of her seventeenth birthday. The small monument encircled by a cast iron fence in the right foreground of this photograph memorializes Charles Albert Jarett de la Marie, the French nobleman who was Charlotte Canda's fiancé. Overcome with grief, Charles committed suicide a year after Charlotte's tragic death, shooting himself while at the Candas' residence. Because of his suicide, he could not be buried in the Canda's lot because the land had been consecrated by the Catholic Church; instead he is buried in an adjoining lot. (Lots 8612 and 2375, Sec. 106)

Monument to Irad Hawley (1793-1865), ca. 1865. (Lot 2762, Sec. 102)

Monument of the Wardwell and Draper family, ca. 1870. (Lot 16063, Sec. 33/46)

Monument to Mateo C. Rodriguez, ca. 1861. (Lot 12345, Sec. 161)

View south from Ocean Hill, circa 1870.

Mausoleum of Isaac Newton Phelps (1802-1888), ca. 1865. (Lot 6576, Sec. 9)

The Arctic Monument, in the Brown Family lot, circa 1875. The Arctic Monument, standing at the center of the Brown family lot, was commissioned by James Brown (1791-1877), head of the powerful Brown Brothers banking firm, to honor those lost in the sinking of the steamship Arctic. When the Arctic went down in 1854, James Brown lost a number of family members: his son William Benedict Brown, William’s wife Clara Moulton Brown, their infant daughter Grace, his daughter Maria, his daughter Grace, and her son Herbert. Their names are carved into the front of the monument. Sculpted by artist John Moffitt, the marble monument features at its center a likeness of the sinking Arctic. Though the ship’s mast and sails have been lost over time, the monument’s stone canopy has protected much of the ship’s detailing from the elements. Look up above the ship at the detailed carving by Moffitt. (Lot 2134, Sec. 22)

View west from the lots of the Bayard and Cutting families, overlooking Pastoral Dell, ca. 1860. (Lot 6615, Sec. 23)

Monument to Reverend John F. Messenger on the Messenger family lot, ca. 1880. (Lot 506, Sec. 93/94)

Monument of William Hunt Norris, ca. 1875. (Lot 1968, Sec. 77)

Monument to Abraham Scribner (d. 1862), ca. 1875.

"Lot of the Thorne and Donaldson family, ca. 1874. (Lot 7959, Sec.26)"

Monument to Thomas M. Smith, ca. 1860. (Lot 10883, Sec. 94)

View near Fountain Hill, circa 1875.

Mausoleum of Cornelius Kingsland Garrison (1809-1885), ca. 1875. The Garrison mausoleum is one of the largest and most elaborate tombs at Green-Wood. It was designed by architect Griffith Thomas (who is interred at Green-Wood) in the Moorish Revival style, and constructed in the early 1870s. The elaborate stone fence seen in these early photographs has since been removed. (Lot 13628, Sec. 28)

Monument to Civil War veteran Lieutenant William Moir Smith (1839-1861), ca. 1880. William Moir Smith, a Union officer during the Civil War, fell mortally wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. He was just 22 years old. The monument is a tribute to his military service, adorned with items from the typical uniform of a Union soldier, including a forage cap and infantryman's belt set with a cartridge box, cap box, and bayonet scabbard. Additionally, the laurel leaves on the stone symbolize victory and eternity. (Lot 5007, Sec. 75)

Lot of the Hopkins and Robinson Families, ca. 1865. (Lots 13257 and 11952, Sec. 161)

Monument to Ann Rooker, ca. 1900. (Lot 7371, Sec. 55)

Monument to Charlotte Canda (1828-1845), ca. 1865-1890. Once the finest monument in Green-Wood, and the most-visited cemetery monument in America, the monument to Charlotte Canda (1828-1845) memorializes a young girl who died a tragic death in a carriage accident on the night of her seventeenth birthday. The basic design of Charlotte’s monument was sketched by her as a memorial to her recently deceased aunt. After Charlotte’s death, her father adapted to sketch to memorialize his daughter, including elements such as the books, musical and drawing instruments that she was so fond of, and the parrots that were her constant companions. Charlotte’s effigy appears in the niche, with a star above it, symbolizing immortal life. A butterfly with wings extended is emblematic of her liberated spirit. To commemorate Charlotte’s age at death, 17 rose buds, symbolic of a female life cut short, make up the wreath around her head; the monument is 17 feet high and 17 feet deep. The monument, with the exception of the angels (which were carved in Italy), was executed by John Frazee (1790-1852) and Robert Launitz (1806-1870). Long lost from exposure to the elements, Canda’s epitaph once read: “So sinks from sight Eve’s golden star / Lost in the watery depths afar/ Yet still does the fair planet burn / Not hopeless is our Charlotte’s urn / In God’s own morn her orb will rise / Once more – a star of Paradise.” (Lot 1380, Sec. 92/106)

Monument to Lemuel Smith, ca. 1870. (Lot 6589, Sec. 25)

Monument to Samuel Finely Breese Morse (1791-1872), ca. 1875. Samuel F. B. Morse, perhaps best known for the invention of the telegraph and development of Morse Code, was also a leading painter, serving as the first president of the National Academy of Design. After Morse's wife fell ill and died before he could reach her, Morse turned his attention to developing a faster means of communication - what would become the electromagnetic telegraph—the first practical system for communicating faster than a person could carry a note. Morse's monument at Green-Wood stands prominently atop a hill overlooking Crescent Water. (Lot 5761, Sec. 25/32)

View in Green-Wood showing the lot of Peter Cooper (1791-1883), before the installation of his monument, with a view of Ocean Hill, 1891. Cooper was the greatest philanthropist of his time; all others were compared to him. He founded Cooper Union for the free education of those who otherwise could not affort college. (Lot 3932, Sec. 97/101).

View of Ocean Hill from Vine Dell, looking east down Ocean Avenue, ca. 1870.

Monument to Abraham Scribner (d. 1862), ca. 1875. (Lot 13137, Sec. 160)

The "Sea Captain's Monument," memorializing John Correja (1826-1910), ca. 1880. The monument of Captain John Correja was carved by sculptor Patrizio Piatti from Carrara marble that Correja brought back from Italy on his ship in the late 1850's. The sextant held in the marble Sea Captain's hands was the same one that Correja used for years to guide his ship across the seas. It disappeard long ago, but early photographs such as this one record how the monument originally appeared. Note the green wash on the marble hands; that is from the bronze of the sextant. (Lot 9457, Sec. 41)

View of Meadow Hill in The Green-Wood Cemetery, ca. 1885.

Monument to Charlotte Canda, ca. 1874.

Monument of the Sprague family, ca. 1880.

"Lot of the Thorne and Donaldson family, ca. 1875. (Lot 7959, Sec.26)"

Monument of William Anson Lawrence (1805-1844), ca. 1870.

View of Fountain Hill in Green-Wood, ca. 1865. Fountain Hill was so named for the large fountain that stood at its crest. The fountain has since been removed.

Monument to William Shepard Wetmore, ca. 1875. (Lot 639, Sec. 97)

Mausoleum of Stephen Whitney (1776-1860), ca. 1875. The mausoleum of merchant, cotton speculator, and real estate investor Stephen Whitney occupies a prominent spot atop Ocean Hill in Green-Wood. When Whitney died in 1860, he left an estate estimated at $15 million (close to $400 million today). The Gothic Revival structure has an octagonal plan with a copper roof and gabled entry vestibule. Each of the eight sides features a dormer with a stained glass window. Also known as "Whitney Chapel," it has a desk and bench inside for a priest or devotee. (Lot 9, Sec. 98)

Monument of General Thomas Spencer Dakin (1831-1878), ca. 1880. (Lot 6953, Sec. 54)

Mausoleums of Charles Howard Clayton and others, along Fountain Hill, ca. 1865. (Lot 7011, Sec. 34)

Monument of Charles T. French, ca. 1880. (Lot 5101, Sec. 97)

Detail of the Arctic Monument, circa 1875.

View of Chestnut Hill in The Green-Wood Cemetery, looking across Hydrangea Path, ca. 1880.

Monument of Frederick Derbyshire (d. 1855), ca. 1875. (Lot 7935, Sec. 118)

View near Meadow Water, a glacial pond once located at The Green-Wood Cemetery, ca. 1875.

Monument to American physician, naturalist, and politician Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764-1831), ca. 1860. (Lot 1389, Sec. 77)

View near Fountain Hill, undated photo.

Monument to William S. Packer (1800-1850), ca. 1870. (Lot 170, Sec. 104)

Mausoleum of William Niblo (1789-1875), opposite Crescent Water, ca. 1880.

Monument to sea captain and shipbuilder Menemon Sanford (d. 1852), ca. 1875. A competitor of Cornelius Vanderbilt in the shipping business, his monument reflects his maritime connection, with a ship at sea tossed by waves, ropes, mast, capstan, sextant, telescope, and calipers, all of marble. (Lot 1146, Sec. 43)

Monument of Aaron Arnold (1795-1876), located along Atlantic Avenue in Green-Wood, ca. 1870. (Lot 1427, Sec. 118)

Abraham S. Scribner Monument, Ocean Hill, ca. 1865.

Mausoleum of the Steinway family, the famous piano manufacturers, ca. 1875. Piano maker Henry Engelhard Steinway (1797-1871) migrated to New York City from Germany in 1851. By 1860, his company, Steinway & Sons, had already become the leading piano manufacturer in the country. The business stayed in the family for many years and continued to find great success. The Steinway Mausoleum at Green-Wood, built in the 1870s at a cost of $80,000 (equivalent to over $1.5 million today) is the cemetery's largest, with room for between 150 and 200 interments. It was designed by sculptor and funerary architect John Moffitt. (Lot 15388, Sec. 46/47)

Monument of Otto Fabricotti (d. 1869), ca. 1875. This ornate marble monument no longer stands in Green-Wood; a simpler granite gravestone now stands in its place. (Lot 18912, Sec. F)

View northwest from Ocean Hill on a snow covered winter's day, ca. 1860.

Monument to Horace Greeley (1811-1872), founder and editor of the New York Tribune, ca. 1875. Greeley's monument was erected by America's printers. Topped with a bronze bust of him by Charles Calverley, the pedestal has a bronze bas-relief on one side which shows Greeley as a youth, with composing stick in hand, standing over his type case. Another panel depicts a plow, an apparent allusion to Greeley's famous recommendation to the unemployed during the panic of 1837, "Go West, young man, and grow with the country." Greeley wrote his own epitaph, "Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; riches take wings; the only earthly certainty is oblivion; no man can foresee what a day will bring forth; while those who cheer today will often curse tomorrow; and yet I cherish the hope that the journal I projected and established will live and flourish long after I have mouldered into forgotten dust.. and that the stone which covers my ashes may bear to future eyes the still intelligible inscription, Founder of The New York Tribune." (Lot 2344, Sec. 35).

"Precious Georgie," monument of George Sidney Cuyler, ca. 1880. The son of Theodore Ledyard Cuyler and Annie E. Cuyler, George Sidney Cuyler died at the age of four from scarlet fever, leaving behind a twin brother, Theodore, and two heartbroken parents. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler (1822-1909) was the longtime pastor of Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church and nationally known for his work in both the temperance and abolitionist movements. Cuyler employed noted sculptor Charles Calverley to create a likeness of young Georgie to adorn his monument. The marble relief cameo, protected from the elements behind glass, remains in fine condition. (Lot 4228, Sec. 23/34)

Far view of the monument to the Pierrepont family, designed by Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival Style, ca. 1860. (Lot 534, Sec. 68)

View of mausoleums along Crescent Water, ca. 1865. Several monumental mausoleums stand along Crescent Avenue, overlooking the glacial pond Crescent Water. Pictured here are the mausoleums of the Groesbeck and Ferris families.

The Harper Brothers Monument, ca. 1880. The four partners of Harper & Brothers, once the leading publishing house in the world, are interred together at Green-Wood. James Harper (1795-1869), John Harper (1797-1875), Joseph Harper (1801-1870) and Fletcher Harper (1806-1877), each contributed to the success of the business with such notable periodicals as Harper's Weekly and Harper's Bazaar. Though James was originally interred with his wife at the Sands Street Church, their remains were later brought to Green-Wood. The fitting monument to the brothers is four-sided, with each side dedicated to one of the brothers and bearing his bronze portrait. (Lot 947, Sec. 95)

View south from Ocean Hill, ca. 1870.

This stereoview shows the monument of the Callicot family in The Green-Wood Cemetery, ca. 1865. (Lot 5636, Sec. 20).

DeWitt Clinton Monument, ca. 1870.

Monument of the Gassner family, ca. 1860. (Lot 5518, Sec. 45)

View of Dale Water, ca. 1875. Dale Water is one of at least eight glacial ponds that existed on the land that would become Green-Wood. Dale Water has since been filled in, but four other bodies of water remain, including nearby Crescent and Dell Waters.

Mausoleum of shipping magnate Charles Morgan (1795-1878), ca. 1875. (Lot 2590, Sec. 81)

View along Dale Avenue, ca. 1875.

View of Crescent Water and the mausoleum of William Niblo, ca. 1865.

Monument to John Kerr, ca. 1875. (Lot 16648, Sec. 56)

Monument of Governor DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) of New York, ca. 1860-1870. DeWitt Clinton, a United States Senator, governor, and mayor, and the visionary behind the Erie Canal, was at one time the most revered New Yorker. Having died in 1828, Clinton was originally interred in Little Albany Cemetery. Green-Wood, however, in an attempt to attract publicity to the newly-established cemetery, made arrangements to have Clinton reinterred, with an heroic bronze monument marking his grave. The statue of Clinton is by sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, and the bas reliefs that adorn the monument base were designed by Richard Upjohn. It was unveiled, with much fanfare, in 1853. (Clinton Dell, Sec. 108)

Mausoleum of Ambrose Cornelius Kingsland (1804-1878), ca. 1865. (Lot 8033, Sec. 75)

Monument to Abraham Scribner (d. 1862), ca. 1865.

Mausoleum of Cornelius Kingsland Garrison (1809-1885), ca. 1865.

Mausoleum of William Niblo (1789-1875), opposite Crescent Water, ca. 1870. Nineteenth Century impresario William Niblo was the proprietor of the fashionable Niblo's Garden, a theatre that featured sensational entertainment from acrobats to vaudeville to opera. An entertainer in all aspects of his life, Niblo was known to host picnics for friends in front of his spectacular white marble mausoleum, which dates to the 1850's. He even stocked Crescent Water with goldfish to entertain his guests! (Lot 6618, Sec. 26)

Monument to Elias Howe (1819-1867), inventor of the sewing machine, 1906. The monument to Elias Howe, standing prominently at the intersection of Battle and Hemlock Avenue, features a bronze likeness of Howe, sculpted by famed artist Charles Calverley. (Lot 19967, Sec. H)

Detailed view of monument to Charlotte Canda, ca. 1875.

Vandervoort monument, ca. 1860. (Lot 3832, Sec. 81)

Monument to Charlotte Canda, ca. 1890.

Monument of Mary T. Baldwin Norris, ca. 1865. Walk around behind Mary’s sculpture; note the signature of the sculptor, Joel Tanner Hart. Hart also sculpted busts of Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. Originally from Missouri, Hart established his studio in Florence, Italy, where he died in 1877. Sculptor Hiram Powers called Hart “the best bust-maker in the world.” (Lot 1968, Sec. 77)

View of five mausoleums along the southeastern side of Ocean Hill, from the intersection of Central and Grove Avenues, ca. 1865.

View of Crescent Water, with visitors lounging across from the mausoleum of William Niblo (1789-1875), ca. 1865. As a precursor to New York City's parks, visitors to Green-Wood in the mid-nineteenth century would come not only to visit those memorialized in the cemetery, but also to picnic, take in the natural beauty of the landscape, and view sculpture by renowned artists.

Mausoleums of the Groesbeck family and the Ferris family, along Dale Avenue, opposite Crescent Water, ca 1865. (Lots 7998, 7731, Sec. 27)

Mausoleum of prominent surgeon Dr. Valentine Mott (1785-1865), ca. 1870. (Lot 6035, Sec. 98)

One sure-fire way to lose a presidential election? Become the mayor of New York City first. Running the country’s most populous city seems like an excellent résumé booster, but every NYC mayor who’s tried has failed to secure the nation’s highest office. By Serena Troshynski, Reference Librarian, NYPL Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History, and Genealogy.

View of Green-Wood grounds workers along Dale Avenue, ca. 1865. Misidentified by the publisher of this view as "Grave Diggers," these men were likely grounds workers who maintained the landscape of the cemetery. They are shown here standing in front of the Hilton family lot, alongside a portion of Dale Avenue that has since been removed. (Lot 11626, Sec. 8)

View west from Ocean Hill, overlooking the lot of Peter Cooper (1791-1883), ca. 1875.

View along Cypress Avenue, ca. 1860.

DeWitt Clinton Monument, ca. 1860.

Monument to Charlotte Canda, ca. 1865.

View across Dell Water, showing Dell Path and several hillside mausoleums, ca. 1875.

Monument to Irad Hawley (1793-1865), ca. 1870.

Robinson family lot, ca. 1865. (Lot 11952, Sec. 161)

Monument of Jane Debevoise, ca. 1860. (Lot 6422, Sec. 57)

Monument to Sarah R. Graham (d. 1850), ca. 1880. (Lot 12783, Sec. 27)

Chauncey Mausoleum, ca. 1870. (Lot 1017, Sec. 95)

View of Crescent Water, looking down Vale Avenue from Dale Avenue, ca. 1875.