Kingsborough Historical Society.

Collecting area: Materials, especially photographs and ephemera, related to South Brooklyn (Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach) and to transportation in Brooklyn.

The collection, originally part of Kingsborough Community College, was established in 1972 to document the history of the southern part of Brooklyn. It is comprised of photographs relating to communities such as Manhattan Beach, Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay, Floyd Bennet Field, Gravesend, and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn dating back to the eighteenth centruy. The majority of these items date to the mid to late twentieth century. In June 2003, Kingsborough Historical Society donated this material to the Brooklyn College Library Archives. Professor Emeritus of Kingsborough Community College, John Manbeck, former Brooklyn Borough Historian, director and archivist, put this collection together. He sought unique and significant artifacts from various institutions and donors, among them the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, the National Archives, the Long Island Historical Society, and Brooklyn Public Library. There are original and non-original photos, documents, posters and objects, correspondence, manuscripts and papers-all made available to the public so that this collection encompasses not only the remnants of a long-ago Brooklyn, but also illustrates the efforts that Professor Manbeck and the Kingsborough Historical Society went to in order to collect and preserve so much of Brooklyn's past.