Every now and then, while processing a collection, an archivist stumbles into a mystery that just needs to be solved. This is exactly what happened recently to our team cataloguing the Manhattan Building Plans collection at the Municipal Archives.  The current portion of the ongoing grant-funded project is focused on Lower East Side buildings. An interesting set of 18 plans for Block 318, Lot 10, dating from 1905, depict two city-owned structures along the shore of the East River, under the Williamsburg Bridge anchorage, between Tompkins Street and South Delancey Slip. Both buildings had ..read more

Have you ever encountered a photograph on the Municipal Archives digital collections platform, where a woman is only identified by her husband’s name or her title, such as Mrs. Julius Ochs Adler or First Lady of Republic of Upper Volta? By many standards, this practice is considered outdated and it limits access for researchers. Additionally, this practice centers Western naming standards, where it is more common for women to take their husband’s last names. Wife [Eva Sámano de López Mateos] and Daughter [Eva/Avecita Leonor López Mateos Sámano] of Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos. Mayor ..read more

The Municipal Archives holds numerous of collections relating to the city’s role in the American Civil War. Many relate to the fraught topic of service in the military, an issue that simmered at the intersection of immigration and racism, finally boiling over in New York in July 1863. Archives collections document military recruiting efforts, aid for families of volunteer soldiers, and the explosive issue of paying substitutes to be soldiers. The Draft Riot Claims collection has garnered particular interest from scholars. To explain the importance of this collection, some background is in orde ..read more

“Eamon de Valera, former Prime Minister of Eire, returned today to the city of his birth, arriving at LaGuardia Field from Shannon aboard the American Overseas airliner London Mercury at 4:58 a.m.” (The New York Post, March 8, 1948.) Born in New York City in 1882, the Irish leader devoted his life to the cause of Irish unification. In March 1948, he embarked on a two-week tour of the United States. His first stop was his hometown, New York City. City Greeter Grover Whalen’s records, and the subject files of Mayor William O’Dwyer, document de Valera’s two-day sojourn in the city. Frank Ai ..read more

This For the Record blog post expands on a brief article in the February 2024 edition of the Municipal Library’s newsletter. New York City can count many groundbreaking women among its residents and leaders. Few, though, have been as inspiring as Constance Baker Motley who should be celebrated more widely, particularly in her adopted home of New York City. Yet there is only one public space honoring her—a recreation center on East 54th Street that the Parks Department renamed for her in 2021.    The second Black woman to graduate from Columbia University Law School, Motley was one of ..read more

Before watching the Netflix film Rustin, what I knew about Bayard Rustin, a key organizer and mastermind behind the March on Washington, was limited. I had only seen Rustin’s name mentioned in the organizational files of the New York Police Department (NYPD) Intelligence Records, also known as the “Handschu” collection. However, after a closer examination of the Handschu records, I became aware of Rustin’s prolific involvement with numerous organizations, and his influence on some of the most successful demonstrations in civil rights history. March on Washington, Flyer, 1965. Handschu Collect ..read more

At 12:30 p.m. on April 30, 1789, a military escort arrived at Franklin House in lower Manhattan to conduct president-elect George Washington to Federal Hall where, about ninety minutes later, he took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. The current Federal Hall, which replaced the original structure in 1842, is a well-known historic site and national landmark that has been welcoming visitors ever since. History has been less kind to Franklin House. Located at the intersection of Cherry and Pearl Streets, Franklin House was demolished in 1856. This week ..read more

The For the Record  blog has frequently commented on the serendipitous nature of archival research. Thanks to imperfect descriptions and the sometimes haphazard filing practices of record-creators, researchers are often rewarded with seemingly random items. The typescript featured this week turned up in Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s subject files, in a folder labeled “Speeches, 1936.”   Henry Modell, to Hon. Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, January 8, 1936. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. The five-page typescript is titled “Cheese Club 1/13/36.”&nbs ..read more

20 East 127 Street, Langston Hughes’ house, 1940. Tax Photograph collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Continuing our celebration of WNYC’s 100th Anniversary and in honor of Black History Month, we present this 1957 recording of Langston Hughes discussing the challenges faced by Black writers from a National Association of Authors panel discussion “The Writer’s Position in America.” The themes he discusses: representation, pigeonholing and lack of intellectual freedom, seem as salient today as they were in 1957. Langston Hughes was an icon of the Harlem Renaissance, and although best known as a ..read more

The Municipal Archives photograph collections are renowned and widely valued for their comprehensiveness. For example, the tax photograph series includes pictures of every house and building in all five Boroughs circa 1939 and 1985. As useful as they are, however, they depict only building exteriors. Pictures of building interiors are less well represented in the collections. There are interior views in New York Police Department crime scene and Housing Preservation and Development collections for example, but they are relatively few in number. Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue ..read more