Blog - For The Record — NYC Department of Records & Information Services

Milk, Midwives and Medical Quackery: Records of the Commissioners of the New York City Health Department

A team of archivists has begun sorting through 60 years of Department of Health (DOH) records thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. During the next year, they will process 800 Bankers Boxes of historical records from 21 NYC Health Department Commissioners, ranging from Shirley W. Wynne in 1929 to Woodrow Myers in 1991. The final result will be a detailed guide to the collection.

The records document New York City’s long-recognized leadership role in disease prevention, vaccinations, health education, food safety, drug and alcohol addiction treatment, family planning, and health care for infants, school children, and expectant mothers....

Burning Bushwick

In 2010, The New York Times Magazine called Bushwick, Brooklyn “the coolest place on the planet,” four years later Vogue Magazine named it the “7th coolest neighborhood in the world.” Whether or not you agree, there is no denying the transformations the neighborhood has gone through since the 1600s, when the Dutch named it Boswijck, or “heavy woods.” One of the most drastic transformations the neighborhood went through was from the 1960s until the 1990s. Though these changes had been occurring for many years at this point, Bushwick was thrown into the national spotlight on July 13, 1977, the day of the New York City blackout.

This Is No Clam Bake: Mayor La Guardia and the Office of Civilian Defense

On June 2nd, 1943 the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office kicked off a ten-day recruitment drive with a parade and rally at City Hall Park. The CDVO was a new agency created under the auspices of the Office of Civilian Defense to oversee volunteer recruitment and organization in New York City. Both Mayor La Guardia, who also served as the federally appointed director of the Office of Civilian Defense, and Governor Al Smith attended and gave rousing, excoriating speeches on winning the war and defending the home front. “In a spectacular ceremony at City Hall,” the New York Times reported, “the Mayor called both ‘yellow’ and ‘lazy’ every man in the city who ‘has taken advantage of his family to avoid military service and yet refuses to serve in the protective services.’” Ticker tape fell on the parade, which was meant to remind New Yorkers of the threat of bombings. Underlying the atmosphere of celebration ran a current of fear.

Celebrate the anniversary of Women’s Suffrage by expanding access to the ballot in New York State

On November 6, 2017 New Yorkers will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the State’s women winning the right to vote. On November 7, New Yorkers will vote in municipal elections. If prior elections are any guide, the turnout will be low. In 2013, 24% of registered City voters turned out at the polls, down from the 93% of eligible voters who went to the polls in 1953. Many surmise that New Yorkers don’t vote because the cumbersome registration process disenfranchises people, just as sexism disenfranchised women, a century ago.

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