Historical Archaeology

The historic archaeology collections at the New York State Museum consist of 3 million artifacts from archaeological sites throughout New York State. Over 600 individual collections represent the extent of New York’s history from seventeenth century Dutch settlement to the early twentieth century.  Urban archaeology is particularly well represented with over 2 million artifacts from Manhattan and approximately 400,000 from Albany documenting the urban development of the state from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries.  When combined these artifacts represent the largest urban archaeology collection in New York.  Collections from a variety of rural, industrial, military, and commercial sites are also available for research.