The Lloyd Sealy Library's Criminal Trial Transcripts of the County of New York 1883 - 1927 collection includes the verbatim typewritten proceedings of 3,326 court cases, held in various courts of New York County, which included Manhattan and The Bronx until 1914. Specifically the transcripts originate from:

1. Court of General Sessions 1886-1927  - Transcripts #1- 1000 | Transcripts #1001 - 2000 | Transcripts #2001 -3106B
2. Supreme Court of New York County 1896 - 1922 - transcripts #3107-3267
3. Court of Oyer and Terminer  1886 -1895 - transcripts #3268-3296
4. Tribunals in Police Court, City Magistrates Court, Sheriffs Office, Coroner's Office 1883 - 1907, 1926 -transcripts #3297-3323
5. Unspecified Courts 1905, 1914, 1918 - transcripts # 3324-3326
6. Incomplete transcripts and unidentified pages, undated - [reels 423-424] note: the content of these reels is not indexed or listed
7. New York City Criminal Court, Stenographer's Index 1883-November 1920 [reel 425] -  note: this handwritten volume indexes - by stenographer number - more transcripts than those  in our collection - providing numbers linking to court materials and DA files in the Municipal Archives of New York

Many transcripts in our collection are now freely available are found by searching "trial####" on the Library Digital Collections. If you do not have a trial number, find it in our Criminal Trial Collection Index which is arranged by court and date of start of trial - please scroll down the page to find the last PDF containing the names indexes of defendant/judges/attorneys if you are researching an individual. The last PDF on this page also contains a charges index based on NY State Criminal Laws at the time. You can view a long list of all 3,369 trial transcripts in this collection or use the tabs in this guide to browse them.  

As of June 2025 all transcripts in the collection are digitized - please email libspcoll @ jjay.cuny.edu with the number and reel of the specific transcript you request to be uploaded to our Library Digital Collections.

For more information on researching these court records and many others please see our Research Guide to New York Criminal Courts

See  also bibliography of books and articles written by researchers who consulted the trial transcripts. 

Once you have established that the transcript you are looking for is in our collection  by consulting the index or browsing the long list of transcripts, the digitized transcripts can be accessed in three ways:

1. A selection of transcripts are currently digitally available  here by searching "Trial###".

2. Request a digital copy by transcript & reel numbers by ILL through your home library. Tell your library's I.L.L. dept. to request the reel through Illiad or OCLC [our ID is: VVJ and the OCLC number for the collection is 25107755  or email libill [at] jjay.cuny.edu.

3. Request upload by reel and transcript number directly to special collections librarian by emailing libspcoll [at] jjay.cuny.edu.

We suggest the following format for citing one of our transcripts:

This collection came to Lloyd Sealy Library in 1972, as part of a initiative to save Records from destruction before the 1977 Local Law that preserved City Records. in 1983-1984 the Library completed an NEH Preservation and Access grant funded project to index and microfilm the collection; this project included creating 425 reels of microfilm and discarding the brittle and crumbling originals. The three volumes of the index created by this project are arranged by court name and date of trial, are available on paper at the Lloyd Sealy Library Reference Desk and as PDFs on the Library Digital Collections.The last volume of the index offers indexing to this collection by defendants, judges, attorneys and charges.  

The index provides the metadata for the digitally available transcripts on the Library Digital Collections. The microfilm reels were professionally digitized in 2007, 2016, 2019 and 2025 supported by a combination of of Metro Digitization Grants, private donors and Library funds. As of June 2025 all of the microfilm reels of transcripts have been digitized and are available on demand. 

If you need assistance finding or accessing a transcript send an inquiry to libspcoll [at] jjay.cuny.edu.

These transcripts contain primary material important not only in the study of the interaction between persons accused of crimes and the criminal justice system but in the study of immigration patterns and urban development during this period. The Court of General Sessions was a lower criminal court under the jurisdiction of NY State to try defendants charged with breaking NY State  Law within the borders of New York County (1st Judicial District). For a history of the New York City courts, see The Encyclopedia of New York City, ed. Kenneth T. Jackson (New Haven: 1995), pp. 290-95.

For more information about the Trial Transcripts Collection, read: Faber, Eli and Rowland, Eileen. (1989). Trial transcripts of the County of New York, 1883-1927: a historical introduction with an index to the microfilm collection. New York: John Jay Press. The nature of this Collection, gaps, corrections and collations with trial materials in other NYC repositories are discussed in: Kleinhans, Elysabeth (1985) Transcripts of criminal cases in New York City. 

For additional records of the Court of General Sessions, New York County and other New York City Courts, please contact the Municipal Archives of New York. please note that they hold Court Records and  Manhattan D.A. case files . We also suggest consulting the Criminal Court Records at the New York State Archives in Albany. For suggestions of other collections and resources on criminal trials, please see this page.  Lloyd Sealy Library has digitized several other trial transcripts in our collection. We also have an extensive collection of published criminal trial transcripts, most of which are in pamphlet form and in our rare book collections.

Questions about the Trial Transcript Collection, and requests to see any transcripts, or any of our Special Collections should be directed to libspcoll [at] jjay.cuny.edu.

In addition to our Trial Pamphlet Collection, the library holds a few trial transcripts outside of our Criminal Trial Transcripts collection

For early 19th century New York City & County trials see

Daniel Rogers, The New-York City-Hall Recorder for the year.... Which reported on interesting cases that took place at the New York Court of Sessions and other NYC courts from 1816 (volume I) to 1821 (volume VI). This publication is available digitally andoriginal copies of vol.3:no.11 (1818:Nov.) and  vol. 4 (1819)-v.6 (1821) are available by appointment in our special collections room KFX2005 .N47

There are also early NYC court records at the Municipal Archives

We have made other Trial Transcipts in our collections digitally available on the Internet Archive:

• The people of the state of New York, plaintiff-respondent against Ruth Snyder and Henry Judd Gray, defendants-appellants : case on appeal. (1927)

• The people of the state of New York, respondent, against William Byers, also known as William Snyder, impleaded, etc., defendant-appellant : record on appeal from Court of General Sessions, New York County. (1955) Open Special Collections KF224.B9 B9

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Trial.

• Grand Jury Testimony (August 1950 through March 1951) is now digitally available from the U.S. National Archives.
• John Jay Library also has the United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities Investigation of Communist activities (the Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case and affiliates) Hearing (Aug. 2-5, 1955).

Alger Hiss Trial (1950, 1952)

• United States of America, appellee, against Alger Hiss, appellant: transcript of record, on appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. (1950)
• United States of America, appellee, against Alger Hiss, appellant: petition for rehearing. (1950)
• Alger Hiss, petitioner against United States of America: petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. (1951)
• United States of America v. Alger Hiss, defendant: affidavit. (1952)
• United States of America against Alger Hiss, defendant: notice of hearing of motion for new trial: motion, affidavits. (1952)
• United States of America against Alger Hiss, defendant: supplemental affidavits in support of motion for new trial. (1952)
• United States of America, against Alger Hiss, defendant: second supplemental affidavit of Chester T. Lane in support of motion for new trial on ground of newly discovered evidence. (1952)
• United States of America against Alger Hiss, defendant: memorandum in support of defendant's motion for a new trial under Rule 33 on the ground of newly discovered evidence. (1952)
• United States of America, appellee, against Alger Hiss, appellant : appellant's brief on appeal from order denying motion for new trial. (1952)

Lloyd Sealy Library Special Collections has an extensive collection of rare published pamplets reporting on proceedings of criminal trials, with an emphasis on NYC and NY State. Search CUNY+ [keyword subject: Trials and New York is suggested]

Notable 19th century trials heard in NY County are  reported in the NY City Hall Recorder which is available online and by appointment in the special collections room.

For additional records of the Court of General Sessions, New York County and other New York City Courts, please contact the Municipal Archives of New York. This repository also holds the grand jury indictment records for many trials in the John Jay Collection, accessible by our stenographer number in our index. There are more state court resources at the New York State Archives. There's also a collection of records relating to the Court of General Sessions of NY County at the NY State Archives .

Many federal trial transcripts are held by the National Archives (NARA), which has a branch in downtown New York City. New York City is in the Southern District of New York of U.S. District Court. The records of this court are available at NARA - NYC.

 New York State Court Libraries with Trial Transcript Holdings:

Some Kings County [Brooklyn] trial transcripts are held by the Kings County Supreme Court Library.

Some New York County trial transcripts are held by the NY County Supreme Court Library.

Some Bronx County trial transcripts may be held by the Bronx County Supreme Court Library (Bronx county was separated from NY County in 1914)

Some Queens County trial transcripts may be held by the Queens County Supreme Court Library.

Other NY State Court Libraries may also have trial transcript holdings.

It is advisable to call ahead and make an appointment with the above libraries before visiting.

see also: Guide to New York Court Records on Family Search.

Selected Individual Transcripts available digitally:

Rosenberg Grand Jury Transcripts (1950-51) at the Library of Congress

Lizzie Borden Murder Trial Transcript (Boston 1893)

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial Transcript (NYC 1911)

Nuremberg Trials Project, Harvard University (Nuremberg, Germany 1945-47)

Unofficial Transcripts of the O.J. Simpson Trials (1995 - 1997, Los Angeles)

Other Resources:

Trial Pamphlets, broadsides, and other publications guide

The Proceedings of London's Old Bailey Online

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive , University of Virginia

A useful blog post on finding  18th - 19th century trial transcripts online  in Blogging Pedagogy