Jeffrey I. Richman

Jeffrey I. Richman has been fascinated by New York City’s history for as long as he can remember. In 2007, after thirty-three years practicing law, representing indigent criminal defendants, he became the full-time historian at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Since then, he has led Green-Wood’s Civil War, World War I, and World War II projects which, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, have identified, written, and posted online biographies for thousands of veterans interred there. He blogs about Green-Wood and his latest discoveries and is the author of three books, including Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery: New York’s Buried Treasure (1998). He has also co-designed two Green-Wood maps and curated several gallery exhibitions, including three on the Civil War and one on Coney Island. Driven by his passion for history and a long-standing fascination with nineteenth-century New York, Richman is an avid collector who has amassed a notable collection of stereoview and lantern slide photographs of New York City, including many of the Brooklyn Bridge under construction which he has donated to The Green-Wood Historic Fund. One of his fondest memories is of attending the one-hundredth anniversary of the bridge’s opening in 1983—just one milestone in his love affair with the Brooklyn Bridge.