John Austen Stevens, image from the NHS collections.
John Austin Stevens (1827-1910), of Rhode Island Avenue, was a prominent historian, author, editor and served as librarian of the New-York Historical Society and secretary of the New York Chamber of Commerce. In 1875 he founded The Society of the Sons of the Revolution, a hereditary organization for descendents of Revolutionary Officers, who could not qualify for membership in the older and more exclusive Society of the Cincinnati. In 1904 Stevens and the Sons of the Revolution purchased Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan and established a museum which celebrates George Washington’s farewell banquet for his troops at the end of the War. Stevens spent his final days in Newport and his papers are part of the Society’s extensive library holdings.