author
Stephen M. Ostrander
A 19th-century Brooklyn lawyer and historian, he devoted his major work to telling the long story of Brooklyn and Kings County with the detail of someone who knew the city from the inside. His writing helped preserve the memory of a fast-changing place just as modern Brooklyn was taking shape.
2 Audiobooks
A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume II.
by Stephen M. Ostrander
A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume I.
by Stephen M. Ostrander
About the author
Educated in Brooklyn and at Columbia College, Stephen M. Ostrander trained as a lawyer before turning his attention to the civic and historical life of the city. Contemporary biographical material in A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County says he was admitted to the bar while still young and became active in Brooklyn public affairs.
He is best known for compiling A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, an ambitious account of the borough's growth, institutions, and people. The published edition explains that when he died in 1885, he had already completed substantial manuscript material and gathered extensive notes and research for the project.
That combination of legal training, civic involvement, and careful historical work gives his writing its character: factual, local, and closely tied to Brooklyn's identity in the 19th century. For readers interested in New York history, his work remains a valuable window into how Brooklyn understood its own past.