Searching for the Marquis

This week, For the Record interviews archivist Rossy Mendez about her work assisting a patron researching the 18th-century French statesman, the Marquis de Lafayette.   

Portrait, Marquis de Lafayette, n.d. Public Design Commission photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

FTR: What was the nature of the inquiry?

RM: An organization called the American Friends of Lafayette is making plans to celebrate the bicentennial of his tour of the United States in 1824. A member of the Friends group contacted us for help in documenting Lafayette’s six-day stop in New York City.  

FTR: How did you start the research?

RM: As we do with most inquiries, we contacted the patron to confirm the topic and learn any details that might help us guide the research. Then, my first stop was the Municipal Archives’ Collection Guide, our online catalog of the holdings. I entered “Lafayette” into the search box.

FTR: What did the results look like? 

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Resolution, Common Council, 1824, Common Council collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

RM: Well, it turns out there are a lot of things and places named for Lafayette in New York City, but the results did not pop up with any collections or series about the man himself.   

FTR: Did you have a plan B? 

RM: Yes. I knew the specific date of his visit, so I thought, “what collections do we have with records documenting that time period?” Our mayor’s papers, which are well-indexed always seem to have something pertinent to every topic you can think of, but only date back to 1826, so that was a dead end. But then I considered the other branch of government—the legislature—and their records. Which brought me to the Common Council papers.  

FTR:  How did you research possible records in the Common Council papers? 

RM:  The Common Council papers is just one of many series created by the various legislative bodies. But luckily, for the early 19th-century period, there is an inventory we created when the papers prior to 1832 were processed and microfilmed a few years ago. And there he was. The inventory listed two folders, one from 1824 labeled “Special Committee for General Lafayette” and a similar one for 1825. Apparently, he came back for a second visit in 1825. 

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Letter, Marquis de Lafayette to Common Council, October 12, 1825, page 1, Common Council, 1824, Common Council collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

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Letter, Marquis de Lafayette to Common Council, October 12, 1825, page 2, Common Council, 1824, Common Council collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

FTR: What did you find in the folders? 

RM: It was great. I found all kinds of correspondence and documents about preparations for his visit, and several about a portrait of the Marquis—or General, as they referred to him. And as I read through the documents it became very clear that he was held in very high regard by the people of New York.

FTR: What about the Proceedings of the Common Council?  

RM: I went to the Common Council papers first because this collection has documents received by the Council, such as petitions and letters which I thought would be more interesting than the Proceedings which is a written transcription of its activities. But I did also check the Proceedings. We have both the original handwritten minutes plus the transcribed and printed version. The printed edition is well-indexed. One of the entries referenced a painted portrait of the General.   

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Resolution, Common Council, 1824, Common Council collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

FTR: Many of the documents are about the painted portrait of the Marquis. Is there anything more in the Archives about this artwork?

RM: I knew we have a photograph collection from the Public Design Commission. It used to be called the Art Commission and they are in charge of all artwork in City-owned buildings. I went to our photograph gallery and typed Lafayette into the search box. It resulted with more than 2,500 pictures! Turns out there are a lot of streets named Lafayette and we have pictures of every house and building along those streets in the Tax photo collections. But then I noticed a photograph of a full-length painted portrait of Lafayette and another picture of a statue.

Statue Marquis de Lafayette, n.d. Public Design Commission photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

FTR: Circling back to the Collection Guide, is it accurate to say that the Common Council papers collection did not come up in the Guide when you searched for “Lafayette” because the inventory where you found his name listed has not yet been linked to that collection in the guide? 

RM: Yes, but we’re working on doing just that. Adding inventories and lists to the Guide is one of our current customer service initiatives. It’s a big job, though. 

FTR: Good to know. And this is an excellent reminder that the knowledge and experience of our archivists is itself an essential resource of the Municipal Archives.

New York’s First Earth Day

On April 22, 1970, nearly one million New Yorkers paraded, marched, and strolled up and down a car-free Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, from 59th Street to 14th Street, and along 14th Street between Second and Seventh Avenues. The one-day event recognized the first Earth Day when New Yorkers joined with Americans across the country to bring awareness to the emerging consciousness about air and water pollution.

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Earth Day, Fifth Avenue and 51st Street, April 22, 1970. New York Police Department photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Environmental Action Coalition, a national organization, planned the first Earth Day. The group encouraged activities to educate people about air, water, noise and radiation pollution. They urged creative use of parks, preservation of natural resources, population control, support for mass transit, as well as the treatment of lead poisoning and recycling waste materials.

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Earth Day, Fifth Avenue, April 22, 1970. New York Police Department photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In a press release issued on March 18, 1970 announcing the street closures, Mayor John Lindsay stated, “We in New York are proud to participate in the Earth Day demonstrations . . . to preserve and protect the vital resources which are of critical importance to all Americans.” The release further added that Lindsay had designated a top-level Interagency Task Force to plan and coordinate the City’s participation in Earth Day. 

Mayor Lindsay’s subject files include correspondence he received supporting the street closures. On March 16, 1970, architect James T. Burns, Jr. wrote: “With your help, I am positive that this day will be the beginning of the real involvement of New Yorkers in their own fate as either creators or victims of their environment. The closing of the street is vital to this beginning.”

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Earth Day, Union Square, April 22, 1970. New York Police Department photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Earth Day celebrations in Union Square Park included cleanup crews composed of school-aged children such as those from the Convent of Sacred Heart. Con Edison, a company often criticized for their environmental policies, donated brooms, mops, and other supplies for the cause. Other events in the park included Frisbee games and a massive plastic bubble filled with “fresh air.” Events went on until close to midnight. The clean-up activities also extended to other boroughs like Brooklyn where school children assisted in cleaning a beach.

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Earth Day, Fifth Avenue, April 22, 1970. New York Police Department photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The New York Police Department Special Investigations Unit (a.k.a. Handschu) collection in the Municipal Archives provides excellent visual documentation of Earth day with both surveillance films and still photography. Here are three of their films recorded on Earth Day, April 22, 1970:

Contemporary newspaper accounts described the Earth Day scene: “Mood is Joyful as City Gives Its Support,” read the New York Times headline on April 23, 1970. “Huge light-hearted throngs ambled down auto-less streets here yesterday as the city heeded Earth Day’s call for a regeneration of a polluted environment by celebrating an exuberant rite of spring.”

In the intervening decades Earth Day has been celebrated every April 22. It is now observed throughout the world in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2023 is “Invest in Our Planet.”

Find of the Week

This week, For the Record, revives the “Find of the Week” feature to highlight something surprising, exceptional, unusual, or unexpected in Municipal Archives or Library collections. 

Recently, while bar-coding containers in the Municipal Archives, archivist Katie Ehrlich noticed a box labeled “Department of Parks & Recreation – Artifacts.” She discovered it held about three dozen envelopes containing an eclectic assortment of ephemera. Paperwork appended to the envelopes indicated the contents had been separated from the Department of Parks & Recreation General Files series. In accordance with standard archival practice, photographs, over-size, and other non-paper materials are separated from paper correspondence files and re-housed appropriately.

“Junior Fisherman,” badge, 1959, Department of Parks & Recreation General Files Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Parks Department series had been transferred to the Municipal Archives in 1984 from a Parks Department storage facility beneath the 79th Street Boat Basin along the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan. Archivists processed the collection in the late 1980s and since then this rich collection has served countless research projects.

Here are two items found in the “Artifacts” box. Look for future For the Record posts that highlight other finds.  In the meantime, readers can ponder what circumstances would result in an “Official Three Stooges Fan Club Franchise” certificate filed in Parks Department correspondence.

Three Stooges Official Fan Club Franchise Certificate, 1960, Department of Parks & Recreation General Files Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Theatre Matron Permits

On September 13, 1936, residents and passersby on Third Avenue near 103rd Street in Manhattan witnessed the dramatic, but orderly, evacuation of 400 children from the Eagle Moving Picture Theater where there was a fire. Contemporary newspaper accounts of the emergency noted that Miss Mary McCord, “a matron licensed by the Health Department,” had escorted the children to safety.   

Theatre Matron License Application, Mary McCord, 1936. Theatre Matron License Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Later that year, McCord received a special commendation from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at City Hall.  The New York Times reported LaGuardia’s remarks at the December 23rd ceremony: “I’m particularly pleased that in the first emergency arising in the administration of the law providing for the supervision of children in a theatre, that you were the supervision provided by the law. . . . You justified the sponsorship of this law and in administering it you typified the woman with the ability to take care of such situations.” (December 24, 1936.)    

Reading about this event today might prompt a question about what matrons did an who they were.  Is there possible documentation in the Municipal Archives about the matrons “licensed by the Health Department.” Regular followers of For the Record will know that the answer is yes, and this week’s article will highlight the recently indexed “Theatre Matron Permit” collection.

The provenance of the collection dates to State legislation passed in 1937 that required motion picture theaters to provide special seating sections exclusively for children, and mandated supervision by licensed matrons. The legislation arose from earlier laws that prohibited children under the age of 16 from entering a theater without an accompanying adult.

Theatre Matron License Application, Lillie Dawkins, 1946. Theatre Matron License Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The subject files in the Mayor LaGuardia collection provide a context for research about children in theaters. In January 1935 the Bronx County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children reported to the Mayor that several theaters “permit children to congregate around the cashier’s booth and ask patrons to buy tickets for them and take them in.”  Contemporary newspaper accounts further illustrate the situation. On January 7, 1936, the New York Times quoted Harry Brandt, president of the Independent Theatre Owners Association of New York:  “The present law makes a beggar of a child who has money to pay his way in, but lacks a proper guardian,” he said. “Their practice of waylaying adults near the box-office and asking them to buy their tickets has its evils.” The Times story continued with an additional quote from a spokesman for the RKO chain, “Anything that would improve the present condition of bootlegging minors into theatres would be welcome.” 

Mayor LaGuardia’s papers also include a letter from Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine, dated February 19, 1935, to the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Commenting on the proposed legislation, Valentine supported a suggestion that “A competent person, preferably a women, should be assigned for such supervision [of children in theaters], and should not have charge of more than 40 children.”

The legislation was enacted, and the City’s Health Department was charged with licensing the matrons prior to their employment by theaters. The Health Department devised a form recording the applicant’s name, home address and years lived there; date and place of birth; marital status and name of husband (if married or widowed); names and ages of children; places, dates, and other information regarding past employment; level of education; a brief physical description; and general health questions. Each application also includes the name and location of the theater, and a small passport-sized black and white photograph of the applicant. Many files also contain physical exam reports.

The Municipal Archives Theatre Matron Permit collection consists of the original applications filed and approved by the Board of Health. There are about 4,000 records in the series. They date from 1936 to 1949, and the total quantity of the series is 35 cubic feet.  In the late 1960s, New York City ended the requirement that theaters hire matrons. The Municipal Archives accessioned the Theatre Matron Permit collection from Department of Health in 1990. 

Theatre Matron License Application, Diana Tompkins, 1936. Theatre Matron License Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

“Mother Gives Birth to Girl at Boro Movie,” read the Brooklyn Citizen newspaper headline on April 3, 1940. “Child weighed six pounds eight ounces born in office of theatre.”  The story went on to describe how the “… young mother had gone to the Alba late in the afternoon and watching “The Fighting 69th “with James Cagney, when she found it necessary to ask for help. Mrs. Diana Tompkins, theatre matron, and Max Scheiring, assistant manager, helped her to the office, police were notified, and an ambulance was summoned from Beth Moses Hospital.

And then there is Marguerite Girardot. A 1940 profile published in the Brooklyn Eagle described Girardot as a “… suffragette, civic and social worker and charter member of the 16th A.D. [Assembly District] Democratic Organization.”  The story noted that “at a time in life when most people take it easy, Girardot is employed as a movie theatre matron …”  The story continued, “For 12 years she has held this position in Century’s Triangle Theatre, Kings Highway and E. 12th Street. ‘And I’ve never been late for work once!,’ she stated with pride.”

Theatre Matron License Application, Marguerite Girardot, 1936. Theatre Matron License Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

While the daily routine of the many hundreds of theatre matrons may not have been as dramatic as that of Diana Tompkins or Mary McCord, the information about their lives as documented in the Theatre Matron Permits collection is a unique treasure. Genealogists will discover a wealth of data, and a photograph, of their ancestors. Historian will use the demographic information about the women’s occupations, birth places, education and family relationships as a valuable resource for topics such as the Great Migration, and the educational and employment opportunities (or lack thereof) for women. 

Future digitization of this series will expand access to the series. The finding guide, and series inventory is available in the Municipal Archives online Collection Guide.