Research

Article 18 of the 1777 New York State Constitution authorized the governor to grant pardons and reprieves to convicted criminals. This power was continued in the state constitutions of 1821 and 1846 and was expanded to include commutations by Article IV, Section 5 of the Constitution of 1894.

State commissions, authorities, and other government bodies are sometimes merged with other entities or simply phased out of existence. The State Archives and State Library archive the Websites of such organizations before they cease to exist and their sites vanish from the live Web.

Access Problems Affecting All Archived Websites

When you visit these archived sites, keep in mind that some types of site content cannot be archived properly:

The State Archives and the State Library are pleased to provide access to archived copies of State government Websites that are no longer available on the live Web:

The State Archives holds thousands of maps and surveys dating from before the Civil War. Among the records are surveys of lands granted to individuals or groups by the Colony and State of New York.  On rare occasions, these records show the occupants of lands.

The New York State Archives holds records relating to thousands of past inmates of New York State prisons. These records take the form of admission and discharge registers, summary cards, and inmate case files.  Most of the records are not indexed by inmate name; they are arranged by inmate identification number, which corresponds roughly to the date the inmate was admitted to prison.

From 1921-1965, New York State law required the Motion Picture Division (and its predecessor, the Motion Picture Commission) to review every motion picture proposed for public exhibition in New York State and to issue a license for exhibition unless the film contained material that was "obscene, indecent, immoral, inhuman, sacrilegious, or of such character that its exhibition would tend to corrupt morals or to incite to crime."

The Archives has registers, compiled by New York’s town (and a few city) clerks, containing information on Civil War military service (series 13774).

The Archives has census records of inmates in almshouses and poorhouses for the period 1826-1921, the bulk of which date from 1875-1921 (series A1978).  Census forms provide information on individual inmates' personal, family, and economic history.

The New York office of Fairchild Aerial Surveys (a commercial firm) produced low-altitude, oblique aerial views of a variety sites in New York State only.  The Archives holds images of these views dating ONLY from 1947-1957 (series B1598).

The Archives has brief abstracts of New Yorkers' WWI military service in the Army, Navy, and Marines (series B0808).  Abstracts for Army nurses and Navy yeomen (female) and nurses are also included.