Greater Astoria Historical Society

When possible, the Greater Astoria Historical Society attempts to acquire and preserve artifacts of historical significance to Queens. The GAHS played an important role "in saving the cornerstone of Congregation Mishkan Israel, the third oldest temple in Queens. It had been sitting near (a sidewalk in Queens) until a Greek American, George Stamatiades, and others helped to get a hearse from Quinn's funeral home, whose historical background is Irish Catholic, to save the synagogue stone,"[2] and relocate it to the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

The holdings of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, on loan and owned, include a collection of rare and unusual items available for public perusal. The GAHS maintains a Library/Research Center that contains over 10,000 items, including books and publications on local history, a photographic record of the community, and neighborhood ephemera and memorabilia. The GAHS holdings include dozens of antiquarian atlases and thousands of historic maps of Queens and surrounding areas from the now defunct Belcher Hyde map company among others. The holdings also include an almost complete run (or the morgue file) of the Long Island Star Journal, "a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star-Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal—The Flushing Journal (1841)."[3]

The Greater Astoria Historical Society actively solicits the donation of photographic images related to Queens history. The GAHS holdings include thousands of black and white photographs, photographic slides, glass negatives and tintypes and include the works of notable Queens historians Vincent F. Seyfried and Frank Carrado, informally known as the "Mayor of Long Island City." The GAHS has published hundreds of these photos in their books, and has scanned thousands of images. More than 3,000 of these images are available online through the Astoria History Project. The GAHS also has an extensive collection of images relating to the history of the East River, which can be viewed at East River NYC.

The Greater Astoria Historical Society has a historical plaque program, which designates noteworthy locations in Queens. The GAHS has erected a plaque on the apartment building at 43-30, 46th Street, in Sunnyside, Queens, where legendary jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke, "the remote and mysterious jazz cornettist... died in obscurity."[4]

In collaboration with local historians, the Greater Astoria Historical Society has authored or co-authored four books on the history of Queens: Long Island City, Postcards of Long Island City, The East River, and The Queensboro Bridge. The GAHS has also published a free map that includes popular walking tours along the East River in Queens. The GAHS also compiles a weekly column for the Queens Gazette, summarizing historical articles from the Long Island Star Journal, a newspaper that chronicled life in Queens, from the 1840s until 1968.