About Us

Former Library chairman Arnold Whitridge
Former Library chairman Arnold Whitridge

Trustees Past and Present

Chairs

  • 1856:   Robert Kelly
  • 1857:   Charles Richard Swords
  • 1858:   Gulian Crommelin Verplanck
  • 1870:   Frederic de Peyster
  • 1882:   Robert Lenox Kennedy
  • 1883:   Charles Edward Strong
  • 1885:   Frederick Sheldon
  • 1885:   Henry Drisler
  • 1887:   John Mason Knox
  • 1890:   Frederic James de Peyster
  • 1894:   George Van Nest Baldwin
  • 1898:   Johnston Livingston de Peyster
  • 1900:   Edward King
  • 1903:   Charles Boyd Curtis
  • 1905:   Frederick Augustus Schermerhorn
  • 1907:   Frederic de Peyster Foster
  • 1929:   Charles de Rham
  • 1930:   Lewis S. Morris
  • 1944:   Hamilton Fish Armstrong
  • 1957:   Frederic R. King
  • 1966:   Arnold Whitridge
  • 1979:   Spencer Byard
  • 1985:   Henry S. F. Cooper Jr.
  • 1992:   William J. Dean
  • 2005:   Charles G. Berry
  • 2012:   Barbara Hadley Stanton
  • 2016:   Carol Collins Malone
  • 2021:   Ellen M. Iseman
  • 2023:   George L.K. Frelinghuysen

Secretaries

  • 1754:   William Peartree Smith
  • 1756:   Gabriel Ludlow
  • 1758:   John Vanderspiegel
  • 1769:   Samuel Bard
  • 1789:   Edward Greswold
  • 1791:   Jacob Morton
  • 1792:   Isaac Leonard Kip
  • 1794:   John Forbes
  • 1815:   John Pintard
  • 1816:   Anthony Bleecker
  • 1827:   Evert Abraham Bancker
  • 1837:   William Inglis
  • 1855:   George Christian Anthon
  • 1856:   Henry Van Schaick
  • 1857:   William Jones Hoppin
  • 1877:   Frederic James de Peyster
  • 1880:   John Mason Knox
  • 1883:   George Van Nest Baldwin
  • 1894:   Charles Boyd Curtis
  • 1903:   Beverly Chew
  • 1929:   Frederic A. de Peyster
  • 1945:   Rodman Gilder
  • 1953:   Spencer Byard
  • 1979:   Henry S.F. Cooper Jr.
  • 1985:   Gordon R. Fairburn
  • 1993:   Anthony D. Knerr
  • 1996:   Charles G. Berry
  • 2005:   Daniel M. Rossner
  • 2020:   Timothy N. Wallach
  • 2023:   Susan L. Robbins

Treasurers

  • 1754:   John Watts
  • 1755:   John Morin Scott
  • 1756:   Gabriel Ludlow
  • 1756:   David Clarkson
  • 1757:   William Peartree Smith
  • 1758:   John Vanderspiegel
  • 1771:   Samuel Jones
  • 1796:   Daniel Phoenix
  • 1810:   Edward William Laight
  • 1838:   William Henry Harison
  • 1842:   Alexander Robertson Rodgers
  • 1855:   Charles Edward Strong
  • 1859:   Otis Dwight Swan
  • 1877:   Richard Edwards Mount
  • 1880:   Edward Schell
  • 1891:   John Andrew Hardenbergh
  • 1896:   John Jordan Morgan
  • 1898:   Archibald Douglas Russell
  • 1899:   Frederic de Peyster Foster
  • 1907:   Henry Cotheal Swords
  • 1924:   Charles de Rham
  • 1929:   Edmund P. Rogers
  • 1934:   Arthur J. Morris
  • 1965:   Walter Maynard
  • 1971:   Porter R. Chandler
  • 1972:   Joseph P. Geraghty
  • 1984:   James Q. Griffin
  • 2005:   George L.K. Frelinghuysen
  • 2023:   Timothy N. Wallach

Trustees

  • 1754:   James Alexander
  • 1754:   Henry Barclay
  • 1754:   John Chambers
  • 1754:   James De Lancey
  • 1754:   Joseph Murray
  • 1754:   Benjamin Nicoll
  • 1754:   John Watts, Sr.
  • 1754:   William Alexander (Lord Stirling)
  • 1754:   William Peartree Smith
  • 1754:   Robert R. Livingston, Sr.
  • 1754:   William Livingston
  • 1754:   William Walton

 

  • 1755:   Philip Livingston
  • 1755:   John Morin Scott
  • 1755:   William Smith, Sr.
  • 1755:   John Vanderspiegel
  • 1755:   Peter Van Brugh Livingston
  • 1755:   William Smith, Jr.
  • 1755:   John Livingston

 

  • 1756:   Henry Cruger
  • 1756:   Oliver De Lancey
  • 1756:   George Duncan Ludlow
  • 1756:   Gabriel Ludlow
  • 1756:   David Clarkson

 

  • 1757:   Benjamin Hildreth
  • 1757:   Goldsbrow Banyar
  • 1757:   Peter Keteltas
  • 1760:   John Bard
  • 1760:   Whitehead Hicks
  • 1765:   Walter Rutherfurd
  • 1769:   Samuel Bard

 

  • 1770:   Samuel Jones
  • 1773:   Robert R. Livingston, Jr.
  • 1773:   Samuel Verplanck
  • 1774:   John Jones
  • 1774:   John Tabor Kempe
  • 1774:   Peter Van Schaack

 

  • 1788:   Henry Remsen
  • 1788:   Matthew Clarkson
  • 1788:   Edward Greswold
  • 1788:   Robert Watts
  • 1788:   Daniel Crommelin Verplanck
  • 1788:   Brockholst Livingston
  • 1788:   Hugh Gaine
  • 1789:   Gulian Verplanck

 

  • 1790:   John Pintard
  • 1790:   Jacob Morton
  • 1791:   John Blagge
  • 1791:   Frederick William Augustus, Baron Steuben
  • 1791:   Rufus King
  • 1791:   Benjamin Moore
  • 1791:   Nathaniel Hazard
  • 1791:   John Cozine
  • 1792:   Francis Childs
  • 1792:   Israel Wilkes
  • 1792:   Edward Livingston
  • 1792:   William Samuel Johnson
  • 1793:   James Miles Hughes
  • 1793:   Charles Wilkes
  • 1793:   Samuel Latham Mitchell
  • 1793:   David Van Horne
  • 1794:   Richard Varick
  • 1794:   William Linn
  • 1794:   John Kemp
  • 1795:   William Pitt Smith
  • 1795:   Daniel Phoenix
  • 1795:   William Denning
  • 1796:   Thomas Eddy
  • 1796:   Thomas Jones
  • 1796:   James Kent
  • 1796:   William Laight
  • 1797:   William Johnson
  • 1798:   John Henry Livingston
  • 1798:   Peter Wilson

 

  • 1800:   John Mitchell Mason
  • 1801:   Daniel McCormick
  • 1803:   Egbert Benson
  • 1807:   John Stevens
  • 1809:   Edward William Laight

 

  • 1810:   Peter Augustus Jay
  • 1810:   Gulian Crommelin Verplanck
  • 1810:   Anthony Bleecker
  • 1811:   Clement Clarke Moore
  • 1811:   John Henry Hobart
  • 1812:   John Richardson Bayard Rodgers
  • 1814:   John Augustine Smith
  • 1815:   Samuel Farmar Jarvis
  • 1816:   John Ferguson
  • 1816:   John Jordan Morgan
  • 1817:   Charles Drake
  • 1817:   David Samuel Jones

 

  • 1820:   James Renwick
  • 1821:   John Kearney Rodgers
  • 1824:   John Le Conte
  • 1824:   Ezra Weeks
  • 1826:   Evert Abraham Bancker

 

  • 1832:   Charles Baldwin
  • 1832:   James Campbell
  • 1833:   James Ellsworth DeKay
  • 1833:   John Frederick Schroeder
  • 1833:   Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright
  • 1834:   Stephen Clay Williams
  • 1834:   Enos Thompson Throop
  • 1834:   John Anthon
  • 1834:   William Berrian
  • 1834:   Henry James Anderson
  • 1835:   Washington Irving
  • 1837:   Edgar Evertson
  • 1837:   Charles Goadsby Ferris
  • 1837:   Andrew Hammersley
  • 1837:   Henry Nicoll
  • 1837:   John Richard Townsend
  • 1837:   William Samuel Johnson
  • 1837:   William Anson Lawrence
  • 1837:   William Henry Harrison
  • 1837:   William Inglis
  • 1838:   William Kent
  • 1838:   Nathaniel Fish Moore
  • 1838:   Charles Alexander Clinton
  • 1838:   Daniel Seymour
  • 1838:   Alexander Robertson Rodgers
  • 1839:   Henry Brevoort Jr.
  • 1839:   Rufus Lathrop Lord
  • 1839:   Dayton Hobart

 

  • 1840:   Peter Augustus Schermerhorn
  • 1840:   Anthony Barclay
  • 1840:   Frederic de Peyster
  • 1841:   Augustus Fleming
  • 1841:   Robert Bowne Minturn
  • 1841:   Benjamin Isaac Haight
  • 1841:   Joshua Coit
  • 1841:   James De Peyster Ogden
  • 1842:   James Isaac Jones
  • 1842:   Joseph Delafield
  • 1843:   Joseph Green Cogswell
  • 1843:   Jacob Harvey
  • 1845:   John Hamilton Gourlie
  • 1846:   Orville Dewey
  • 1846:   Charles Mortimer Leupp
  • 1846:   James Henry Titus
  • 1847:   Charles Astor Bristed
  • 1848:   Jonathan Sturges
  • 1849:   James William Beekman, Sr.

 

  • 1850:   William Templeton Johnson
  • 1853:   Edward Jones
  • 1854:   John Bigelow
  • 1855:   George Richard James Bowdoin
  • 1855:   George James Cornell
  • 1855:   Jacob Harsen
  • 1855:   Martin Ryerson Zabriskie
  • 1855:   Charles Edward Anderson
  • 1855:   Cornelius Du Bois
  • 1855:   Robert Kelly
  • 1855:   Benjamin Hazard Field
  • 1855:   Charles Edward Strong
  • 1855:   George Christian Anthon
  • 1855:   George Thomson Elliot, Jr.
  • 1855:   Jacob Post Giraud Foster
  • 1855:   Oliver Wolcott Gibbs
  • 1855:   Robert Le Roy
  • 1855:   Henry Van Schaick
  • 1855:   William Henry Anthon
  • 1855:   William Adams
  • 1855:   Charles Richard Swords
  • 1855:   Otis Dwight Swan
  • 1856:   Lewis Colford Jones
  • 1856:   William Jones Hoppin
  • 1856:   Robert Lenox Kennedy
  • 1858:   James Paine Cronkhite
  • 1858:   George Folsom
  • 1858:   John Romeyn Brodhead
  • 1858:   William Allen Butler
  • 1858:   Thomas Ward
  • 1858:   Henry Crawford Dorr
  • 1859:   William McMurray
  • 1859:   Stacy Budd Collins
  • 1859:   Evert Augustus Duyckinck

 

  • 1862:   Thomas W. Clerke

 

  • 1870:   John Lambert Cadwalader
  • 1871:   Edgar Simeon Van Winkle
  • 1871:   Stephen Payne Nash
  • 1871:   Edward Schell
  • 1871:   Frederick Sheldon
  • 1873:   Richard Edwards Mount
  • 1873:   Henry Drisler
  • 1874:   Frederic James de Peyster
  • 1876:   Francis Aquila Stout
  • 1876:   Richard Tylden Auchmuty
  • 1877:   Adam Tredwell Sackett
  • 1879:   George Cabot Ward
  • 1879:   John Mason Knox

 

  • 1880:   James Monroe McLean
  • 1882:   Johnston Livingston de Peyster
  • 1883:   George Van Nest Baldwin
  • 1885:   Albert Mathews
  • 1885:   Edward King
  • 1886:   James William Beekman, Jr.
  • 1888:   Henry Augustus Cram

 

  • 1891:   John Andrew Hardenbergh
  • 1892:   Charles Boyd Curtis
  • 1894:   Robert Fulton Cutting
  • 1894:   Charles Henry Marshall
  • 1894:   Frederick Augustus Schermerhorn
  • 1894:   Frederic de Peyster Foster
  • 1897:   Charles Coolidge Haight
  • 1897:   David Maitland Armstrong
  • 1898:   Alfred Pell
  • 1898:   George Winthrop Folsom
  • 1898:   Archibald Douglas Russell

 

  • 1901:   Beverly Chew
  • 1901:   Henry Cotheal Swords
  • 1904:   Timothy Matlack Cheesman
  • 1905:   Jacob Harsen Purdy
  • 1906:   Stiles Franklin Stanton
  • 1907:   David B. Ogden
  • 1908:   Howard Townsend
  • 1908:   Bayard Tuckerman
  • 1908:   William Emlen Roosevelt
  • 1909:   Paul Tuckerman

 

  • 1912:   Archer M. Huntington
  • 1913:   Frederic A. de Peyster
  • 1915:   Charles de Rham
  • 1915:   Henry E. Gregory
  • 1917:   William A. Alcock
  • 1919:   Frederic F. de Rham

 

  • 1920:   Rodman Wanamaker
  • 1920:   Russell Benedict
  • 1920:   James G. King
  • 1920:   Lewis S. Morris
  • 1923:   W. Gedney Beatty
  • 1923:   Edward C. Parish
  • 1923:   Hamilton Fish Armstrong
  • 1924:   Alfred Seton
  • 1925:   Bertram Cruger
  • 1928:   A. Coster Schermerhorn
  • 1929:   Edmund P. Rogers

 

  • 1930:   Samuel V. Hoffman
  • 1931:   E. Coster Wilmerding
  • 1932:   Henry James
  • 1933:   Donald C. Vaughan
  • 1933:   Edward C. Delafield
  • 1934:   Philip J. Roosevelt
  • 1934:   Arthur J. Morris
  • 1937:   Rodman Gilder
  • 1939:   Frederic R. King

 

  • 1942:   Stephen Vincent Benet
  • 1942:   Walter Millis
  • 1944:   Arnold Whitridge
  • 1945:   Nicholas Roosevelt
  • 1948:   George S. Franklin, Jr.
  • 1948:   William J. Schieffelin, Jr.

 

  • 1950:   Fenwick Beekman
  • 1950:   John Mason Brown
  • 1951:   Charles H. Marshall
  • 1952:   Spencer Byard
  • 1954:   Ruth Draper
  • 1954:   Rosemary Carr
  • 1954:   Louis S. Auchincloss
  • 1957:   Margaret Kernochan Leech
  • 1959:   Porter R. Chandler
  • 1959:   Phyllis Gordan

 

  • 1962:   Walter Maynard
  • 1963:   Walter Lord
  • 1966:   Andrew Oliver
  • 1966:   Mrs. A. Reginald Allen
  • 1966:   Eustis Dearborn
  • 1968:   Jacques Barzun

 

  • 1970:   Thomas Thacher
  • 1971:   Henry S.F. Cooper Jr.
  • 1972:   Joseph P. Geraghty
  • 1972:   John T. Booth
  • 1972:   Gordon R. Fairburn
  • 1973:   Brendan Gill
  • 1974:   Shirley Hazzard
  • 1974:   Andrew Oliver, Jr.
  • 1977:   Harmon H. Goldstone

 

  • 1982:   Barbara Tuchman
  • 1984:   James Q. Griffin
  • 1984:   Anthony D. Knerr
  • 1984:   Maisie Houghton
  • 1985:   Elihu Rose
  • 1986:   Charles A. Platt
  • 1988:   Barbara H. Stanton
  • 1988:   Harold Buttrick
  • 1988:   George Labalme Jr.
  • 1988:   Margaret Cook
  • 1989:   William J. Dean
  • 1989:   Barbara Goldsmith

 

  • 1991:   Jeannette Watson Sanger
  • 1992:   Jean Parker Phifer
  • 1992:   Isabel N. Eberstadt
  • 1992:   Fawn White
  • 1993:   Charles G. Berry
  • 1994:   Robert A. Caro
  • 1994:   Jenny Lawrence
  • 1994:   Margaret Mather Byard
  • 1995:   Theodore C. Rogers
  • 1996:   Lyn Chase
  • 1997:   Ralph S. Brown Jr.
  • 1997:   Benita Eisler
  • 1998:   Mark Hampton
  • 1998:   Constance Rogers Roosevelt
  • 1998:   Christopher Gray

 

  • 2000:   Byron Bell
  • 2002:   John K. Howat
  • 2002:   Linn Cary Mehta
  • 2002:   Daniel M. Rossner
  • 2003:   George L.K. Frelinghuysen
  • 2004:   Susan L. Robbins
  • 2006:   Laurence Bergreen
  • 2006:   Ellen M. Iseman
  • 2009:   Ada Peluso
  • 2010:   Betty Kelly Sargent
  • 2010:   Carol Collins Malone

 

  • 2012:   William G. Bardel
  • 2012:   Barbara Goldsmith
  • 2013:   Timothy N. Wallach
  • 2013:   Adrienne Ingrum 
  • 2016:   Francesca Stanfill
  • 2017:   Ella M. Foshay
  • 2017:   Gretchen Rubin
  • 2018:   Liaquat Ahamed

 

  • 2021:   Akosua Asamoah
  • 2021:   Dwayne Ashley
  • 2021:   John Schwolsky
  • 2021:   Elliot S. Orol
  • 2022:   Warren St. John
  • 2022:   Emily Madison
  • 2023:   Lisa Hess