We are busy preparing to move. We’ll be back next week with more blogs. Stay warm.
Bush Terminal warehouses, Brooklyn. B & O Rail car in foreground, 1912
Municipal Archives – the Institutional History
The records created by New York City’s governing bodies have been of enduring concern from the colonial era to the present day. Throughout the 18th century, the City was somewhat less than zealous about the preservation of its records, but when faced with the Revolutionary War, precautions were taken. In April 1776, the Common Council issued orders “to secure those authentick documents which may be of great service in a future day.” The records were removed to private homes in Westchester County, and when British troops marched up the lower Hudson Valley, the City’s records were transported farther north to Kingston, in Ulster County. Despite these safeguards, some records fell into the hands of the British and wound up in the Tower of London where they allegedly still remain. With the return of peace in 1784, many documents and papers stored upstate were returned, only to suffer in the next century a fate far worse - neglect.
David T. Valentine, 1859. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library.
In 1803, the Common Council established a Committee to “Investigate Keeping of Public Records.” The Committee recommended procuring a sufficient number of boxes of a suitable size for keeping the city’s records. About 24 years later, records accumulated and storage space was insufficient, so the Council allocated “the small room in the attic at the head of the staircase in City Hall,” to the City Clerk for records storage.
In 1844, in response to the apparent negligence of NYC’s historical records, David T. Valentine – who, as City Clerk, was responsible for publishing the Corporation of the City of New York manuals – began adding facsimiles of historical documents and sketches to the manual, in addition to the lithographic plates previously included.
The first outside report on the condition of New York City’s archives was prepared in 1900 by Harold Osgood for the Public Archives Commission of the American Historical Association. His findings showed that the city’s records were scattered about, uncared for, and impossible to use for research. Unfortunately, Osgood’s report didn’t change the conditions of city government’s records.
Rebecca Rankin with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Latin-American Scholarship Students, City Hall, ca. 1940. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
In 1939, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia established the Mayor’s Municipal Archives Committee. Led by Rebecca Rankin, librarian of the Municipal Reference Library, the Committee proposed the acquisition of a building suitable for centrally storing records of all city departments. The Board of Estimate approved the purchase in 1943. World War II diverted the Committee’s plans and they turned to salvaging old records for the war effort. Previously, the Department of Sanitation had burned records authorized for disposal.
The Committee disbanded at the end of Mayor La Guardia’s term in 1945. Mayor William O’Dwyer reactivated the Committee in 1948 in response to a report charging that worthless records were taking up valuable office space and creating operational inefficiencies. The revived Committee was almost entirely made up of city officials, with Rebecca Rankin reappointed as its head. Their principal goal was the development of a “modern” records management program which would provide for provide retention and retrieval of city records, the timely disposal of obsolete records and the preservation and servicing of archival records.
Rebecca Rankin receives a ‘scroll of merit,’ from Mayor Vincent Impellitteri upon her retirement. Mayor’s Reception Committee Chairman Grover Whalen is seated at left, June 25, 1952. Official Mayors Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The Rhinelander Building in lower Manhattan was home to the Municipal Archives and Records Center from 1952 until the 1960s when the building was demolished for construction of One Police Plaza. 1940 Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Recognizing the importance (as well as the poor condition) of the city’s historical records, the Committee urged the creation of an agency to care for the city’s documentary heritage. Following this recommendation, the Municipal Archives was established as a division of the Municipal Reference Library in 1950. In addition, the Municipal Records Center was established in 1951, also as a division of the Library. Between 1950 and 1952, the Board of Estimate financed the Committee’s request for a study conducted by the National Records Management Council. The study included modeling the filing, indexing, keeping, making and disposing of city records, using five city agencies in the pilot project. Archives staff worked with the Council to inventory, appraise, develop retention standards and transfer records. The Mayor’s Municipal Archives Committee continued to function in an advisory capacity on matters relating to records preservation and disposal until it was disbanded by Mayor Wagner in 1964.
In 1952, the Archives and the Records Center were separated from the Library and placed under management of the New York Public Library as the Municipal Archives and Records Center, or MARC. Funding for the operation of this “branch” was provided by the City. The arrangement endured until 1967, when MARC was transferred to the temporary jurisdiction of the Office of the City Register in the Department of Finance.
Letter of Transmittal of Findings, Mayor’s Task Force on Municipal Archives, December 30, 1966. Page 1 of 2. Mayor Lindsay Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Letter of Transmittal of Findings, Mayor’s Task Force on Municipal Archives, December 30, 1966, page 2 of 2. Mayor Lindsay Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
The transfer back to the city was largely in part due to findings issued in 1966 by Mayor Lindsay’s Task Force on the Municipal Archives. The group, composed of distinguished historians, scholars and heads of academic and cultural institutions, had been directed to conduct a study of the city’s archives and records management practices. Unsurprisingly, the Task Force reported essentially the same situation described by their predecessors on the Mayor’s Committee: i.e. the city’s historical records were still being neglected.
MARC changed administrative hands again in 1968, when it was transferred from the City Register and briefly became an operational bureau of the Department of Public Works. A year later, when the Municipal Services Administration began operating, MARC came under the wide umbrella of this “super agency” (one of many formed by Mayor Lindsay’s administration that would later be dismantled by his successors).
The Municipal Archives were housed in a privately-owned commercial building at 23 Park Row from the 1960s to July 1979. Department of City Planning Transparency Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Beginning in the early 1970s, MARC staff were largely focused on records storage and developing a citywide records management program; with few resources devoted to the Archives. Operating the Municipal Archives was reported to be MARC’s “greatest difficulty” and was “virtually unmanned.” The 1971 MARC annual report noted: “Were it not for the direct intervention of MARC’s Director and Deputy Director, the service undoubtedly would have been discontinued or suspended. While thousands of annual visitors and correspondents have displayed great patience and understanding regarding our staff problems, we feel that unless this activity is supported by a professional and clerical staff, we may, with the greatest reluctance and regret, be forced to close our doors.” The fiscal crisis of the 1970s led to further staff reductions.
“A Brand New Agency Will Keep Old City Records,” news article, New York Times, July 29, 1977. Vertical Files, Municipal Library.
Growing concerns regarding the City’s historical records both within and outside government in the 1970s finally prompted significant action. City Council President Paul O’Dwyer, and other leaders rallied support in the Council for passage of Local Law 49 of 1977, creating the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). The legislation incorporated suggestions from Mayor Lindsay’s Task Force and was hailed as a major innovation in the field of archives management. Consisting of three functional divisions. the Municipal Archives, the Municipal Records Center and the Municipal Library, DORIS would operate as an independent agency under direct control of the Mayor. The legislation added a new Chapter to the City Charter (Chapter 72), and clearly delineated appraisal, accession, processing, conservation and servicing of archival records as functions of the Archives division.
The new agency DORIS was allocated space in the Surrogate’s Court at 31 Chambers Street. However, until the necessary renovations in Surrogate’s were completed in 1984, the Municipal Archives occupied space in the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street after vacating 23 Park Row in July 1979. Tweed Courthouse, ca. 1949. Municipal Archives Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
DORIS fared relatively well through the 1980s. But even though the value of an efficient records management program had been accepted by several successive city administrations, the Archives, Library and Records Management programs were significantly underfunded from the 1990s through the 2000s.
New compact shelving in the Municipal Archives’ cold-storage vault at Industry City.
More recently, with support from Mayor de Blasio, the Archives has enjoyed a renaissance. Increased funding has enabled hiring new professional staff in all areas of the Archives including conservation, digital programs, processing, and research services. And in 2021, the Archives will cut the ribbon on its new state-of-the-art storage facility in Industry City, Brooklyn.
Saluting Shirley Chisholm
On January 20, 2021, Senator Kamala Harris will be sworn-in as Vice President of the United States. She will be the first woman to serve in this role. Her ground-breaking achievement is notable not only for her gender, but also for her Caribbean and South Asian heritage. This historic moment reminds us of Shirley Chisholm, also a woman with a Caribbean background, and her ground-breaking run for the presidency almost fifty years ago.
“I am the candidate of the people of America.” With these words, on January 25, 1972, Shirley Chisholm launched her candidacy at a news conference in a Baptist Church in her Brooklyn district. Chisholm was then serving as a representative to Congress from Bedford Stuyvesant.
Shirley Chisholm (left) and Coretta Scott King, join Eleanor Holmes Norton as she is sworn-in at City Hall by Mayor Beame as the Commissioner of the City Commission on Human Rights, March 8, 1974. Mayor Beame Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Born in Brooklyn in 1924 to Caribbean-immigrant parents, Chisholm began her political career in 1964 winning an election to the New York State Assembly. In 1968, she became the first the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. And in 1972, she became the first African-American woman to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination to the office of the U.S. President. During the press conference announcing her candidacy she clearly stated who she was:
“I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests. I am the candidate of the people of America…”
Shirley Chisholm announces her candidacy at a news conference in a Baptist Church in Brooklyn, January 25th, 1972. WNYC film 2776, NYC Municipal Archives.
Although her candidacy was ultimately unsuccessful, Chisholm did receive 430,703 votes during the primary season, 2.7 percent of the total. She outpolled candidates like U.S. Senator Scoop Jackson, former North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford and New York City Mayor John Lindsay. And in June 1972, she became the first woman to participate in a presidential debate. Chisholm said she ran for the office “in spite of hopeless odds... to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.” Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982, and died in Florida in 2005.
Municipal Archives mayoral collections include correspondence from federal offices and officials. Member of Congress Shirley Chisholm wrote to Mayor Koch to express her support for the “trade-in” of federal funding for the controversial Westway Highway to support mass transit. September 23, 1980. Mayor Edward Koch Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
More recently, New Yorkers have celebrated Chisholm’s achievements. On July 2, 2019, the Shirley Chisholm State Park opened in Southeast Brooklyn. Located on 407 acres adjacent to Jamaica Bay, the new park occupies some of the highest ground in the city and offers spectacular panoramic views of the Empire State Building and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. And soon, a statue of Chisholm will be erected in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, thanks to the work of the She Built NYC Commission dedicated to creating monuments in city parks to honor notable and historical women.
When Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982, she said she did not want to go down in history as “the nation’s first black congresswoman” or, as she put it, “the first black woman congressman.... I’d like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts,” she said. “That’s how I’d like to be remembered.”
And we will remember her. Long-time WNYC cameraman Frank Rosa captured Chisholm’s memorable presidential candidacy announcement on 16mm-color film. The original footage is one of the stellar items in the Municipal Archives’ collection of WNYC films. It recently has been digitized as through a Local Government Records Management Improvement Grant from the New York State Archives.
The Archives’ WNYC film collection has long enticed historians, filmmakers, and researchers with its wide-ranging subject matter and visual appeal. Previously, providing access was a challenge. Using a projector could easily scratch the film. Viewing footage manually is cumbersome and potentially damaging. Beginning in the 1980s, the Archives received grant funds to reformat selected footage onto various videotape formats, the only technology available at that time. However, those tapes are now reaching the end of their useful life and beginning to deteriorate. With the advent of more affordable digital technology in the 2000s, the Municipal Archives has endeavored to digitize films so that they can be safely viewed and copied. Over the course of this latest grant-funded project, more than 150 hours of original WNYC films dating from the 1960s and '70s has been digitized. When processing and cataloging is completed, the footage will be made available in the DORIS web gallery. Look for future blogs highlighting footage in this unique collection.
In the meantime, take a few minutes to watch a remarkable woman make history.
The Mayors of the Greater City of New York
Recent blogs have discussed how the increasing importance of the mayor within city government over the course of the 19th century is reflected in the volume and significance of mayoral records in the Municipal Archives.
This week we will focus on records of the mayors who served during the first two decades after creation of the Greater City of New York in 1898. From the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age, it was a period of massive immigration, revolutionary changes in technology, transportation, communication as well as the creation of the modem capitalist economy, several cycles of boom and bust, and a World War.
Prior to 1898, New York City consisted of only the Island of Manhattan and part of what later became the Borough of the Bronx. The push for annexation of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island to New York City dated as far back as the late 1860s. Proponents of annexation saw that a centralized municipal government could facilitate the development of railroads, utilities and infrastructure necessary to maintain New York’s dominant role in the nation’s economy.
It took nearly thirty years to persuade voters in the areas to be annexed of the benefits of consolidation. Perhaps the most significant incentive was the realization that access to revenue from real estate taxes on the commercial areas of Manhattan could be used to fund needed infrastructure improvements throughout the region.
Finally, in 1894, voters in all areas to be affected approved a non-binding referendum on consolidation. A New York State commission issued a new charter for the greater city joining the formerly separate governments of Manhattan, Bronx Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island into a single entity. Voters approved the new city charter in 1897.
Disasters, national and local, often elicited action from the mayor’s office. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was a typical incident. The Mayor’s Office did establish a fund to aid victims of the disaster. Telegram to Mayor Gaynor from the Lord Mayor of London, April 17, 1912. Mayor William Gaynor Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
In 1898, Mayor Robert Van Wyck became the first mayor of the new Greater City of New York. Beginning with Van Wyck, the records of each mayoral administration are organized in three key series: subject files, departmental files, and general correspondence. This scheme was maintained almost unchanged over the next century.
1920 Mayor Hylan solicited citizens to join a committee formed in response to concerns about motion-picture subject matter. Mayor John Hylan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Subject files were created for contemporary issues that the mayor and his staff designated as significant for that particular administration. They vary from mayor to mayor and correspond to events and concerns of their respective eras. For example, Mayor Gaynor’s staff designated Titanic disaster relief fund, presidential politics, and welfare, as some of the subject files. And under Mayor Hylan, who served from 1918 to 1926, movies, prohibition, drug addiction, milk investigation, and immigration were designated as some of the subject files.
Subject files contain letters, reports, photographs, telegrams, and memoranda to and from the mayor, in both original and carbon copy format. The correspondents tend to be other high level officials, business leaders, and/or prominent citizens. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject.
The departmental series consists of correspondence to and from the mayor’s office and each unit of city government, including departments, agencies, authorities, as well as state and federal officials. Departmental files were generally maintained on a calendar year basis. They contain similar material as subject files, e.g. memoranda, telegrams, letters, reports, and photographs. Departmental files are arranged chronologically by year and thereunder alphabetically by department name.
Owen R. Lovejoy, General Secretary of the National Child Labor Committee, wrote Mayor McClellan in 1909, and urged appropriations for a variety of education initiatives so that children would “... leave school to enter the ranks of industry before they are fit to do so.” Mayor McClellan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
General correspondence consists of letters between the mayor and citizens, civic groups, and businesses on a wide range of topics. General correspondence is arranged chronologically by year and thereunder alphabetically by surname of correspondent.
An undated memo, found in the papers of Mayor Mitchel (1914-1917), provides a detailed list of strikebreakers, “who participate in most of the strikes occurring on the eastside from time to time.” The rundown included “Dopey Bennie--guerilla and lifetaker, and Big Nose Kelly--strike breaker--election guerilla.” Page 1 of 2. Mayor Mitchel Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Strikebreakers, page 2 of 2. Mayor Mitchel Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Technological developments in the first years of the new century profoundly impacted commercial enterprise, patterns of mobility and residence, as well as social interaction. Trucks, automobiles, and electrified transit systems transformed the physical city. The telephone and radio revolutionized communications. The new motion picture industry, which had its origins in New York, further enhanced the city's role as the center of popular entertainment.
The records of the post-consolidation mayors preserved in the Municipal Archives are an essential resource. Future blogs will examine how mayoral records have continued to serve researchers documenting the events of a tumultuous century.