2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Templeton Strong. Today he is recognized as a brilliant diarist - to nineteenth-century New York City what Samuel Pepys was to seventeenth-century London. From 1835 to 1875, Strong recorded the political, social and cultural world of New York - the treacherous currents where ships and men often floundered. Among historians, he is especially recognized for his record of the Civil War. A tireless public servant, Strong served as a dedicated, if sometimes curmudgeonly, trustee for many institutions including the New York Society Library.

Join Library staff Harriet Shapiro and Cathy McGowan for a visit to Strong's 19th-century world with historical narrative, images, dramatic readings, and music.