New New-York Historical Society | New-York Historical Society

After a three-year renovation at our landmark Central Park West location, the New-York Historical Society has reopened. From our magnificently reconceived space to our fascinating exhibitions to our informative public programs, everything is new at the New-York Historical Society. So step inside, join the revolution and discover how we’re making history matter more than ever.

New Multimedia Film Experience

Visitors can witness the dynamic forces that have shaped the nation and the city in New York Story, an eighteen-minute theatrical media experience set in the custom-designed, state-of-the-art Robert H. Smith Auditorium that illuminates the story of New York and its rise from a remote outpost to a city at the center of the world.

New DiMenna Children's History Museum

The first-ever museum bringing American history to life through the eyes of children, where kids plus history equals serious fun!

Explore 300 years of New York and American history through the eyes and lives of children of the past! The DiMenna Children's History Museum is a museum-within-a-museum and occupies the New-York Historical Society's entire lower level. It includes character-based pavilions, a children's library, a Whiz Bang Quiz Machine, and interactive exhibits and games. The DiMenna Children's History Museum encourages children to identify with the people whose enterprise and creativity changed the course of our history. All ages can enjoy and learn in the DiMenna Children's History Museum, but the exhibits are targeted at age 8-13.

New Exhibitions

The New-York Historical Society is the only museum in the metropolitan area where you can encounter acclaimed exhibitions that are part history lesson and part art exhibition. These shows break new ground in scholarship while they introduce you to the beauty, sometimes the darkness, and always the complexity of bygone eras. Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn is the first exhibition to relate the American, French and Haitian struggles as a single eighteenth-century global narrative. The exhibition features the original Stamp Act! The last time news of the Stamp Act came to New York in 1765, it sparked a revolution! This is the first time it’s ever been outside the UK. Making American Taste: Narrative Art for a New Democracy provides a new perspective on American art from roughly 1825 to 1870. The exhibition features Louis Lang’s powerful The Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment From the Seat of War, displayed for the first time in New York City since the 1940s.

New Programs

Each year we present over 100 riveting Public Programs on history and current events featuring such luminaries as Toni Morrison, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Gloria Steinem and many, many others. Recent collaborators have included the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Central Park Conservancy, and even the New York Yankees.

New Galleries

Explore the story of New York and America in the newly designed Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American History, which focuses on New York's seminal role in the founding era of the United States with New York Rising. Other highlights include:

Here is New York, a rotating selection of approximately 6,200 photographs taken by the people of New York City on September 11, 2001, and immediately afterward
an original piece of ceiling from Keith Haring’s “Pop Shop”
History Under Your Feet, an educational scavenger hunt for visitors. This permanent installation provides an illuminating overview of our diverse collections and orients visitors to the experiences waiting deeper in the Museum.

New Restaurant

Acclaimed restaurateur Stephen Starr, of Buddakan and Morimoto, brings casual elegance to the New-York Historical Society with Caffè Storico (Italian for “historic”).

The restaurant features dishes inspired by classic Italian cicchetti, or small plates, as well as handmade artisanal pastas. Award-winning chef, Jim Burke, brings an approachable, refined style to the Venetian menu with a deep sense of authentic Italian cuisine developed during his time in Italy. An all-Italian wine list with over fifty labels, twenty of which are available by the glass, accompanies a full bar.

The seventy-four-seat dining destination, located in the newly renovated iconic Central Park West institution, is open daily for lunch and dinner, as well as for Sunday brunch.

New Store

Our beautifully redesigned Museum Store features a large selection of gifts, books and limited edition art prints. Located just inside the 77th Street entrance, the Museum Store is your one stop for everything New-York Historical, from Audubon prints to exhibition books and much more. And if you can’t visit us in person, you can shop online at http://www.nyhistorystore.com/.