Frequently Asked Questions (SCRC FAQs)

We regret that we cannot answer questions about the value of your old books. For a guide in answering such questions, please refer to "Your Old Books," a publication of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association, the Antiquarian Booksellers' of Association of America, or your Yellow Pages for a local antiquarian/rare/used bookdealer. Another source of information would be searching online sites such as Bookfinder.com.

We hold no personnel or employee files in the following collections: American Book Company, American Locomotive Company, D. H. Baldwin Company, Baltimore and Ohio RR, Chesapeake and Ohio RR, Clark Music Company, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western RR, E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., Erie Lackawanna RR, Hocking Valley RR, George F. Johnson, Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley RR, Lake Ontario Shore RR, A. E. Nettleton Company, New York Central RR, Pere Marquette RR, Spiral Press, Street and Smith Publishers, Unadilla Valley RR.

To those seeking land in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State:

The Special Collections Research Center holds the papers of Gerrit Smith (born 1797, died 1874), a businessman and reformer of the 19th Century. Smith gave land sited in the Adirondack Mountains of NYS to free Black Men, permitting them, as land owners, to vote. Only free, male, landowners could vote during Smith's lifetime.

SCRC has no information on the further disposition of those lands, and no institutional interest in tracking them through more than 100 years to the 21st Century.

If you seek to purchase land in New York State you must contact real estate dealers licensed to practice in this State. SCRC does not maintain lists of real estate agents.