Michael Lorenzini
The LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier and the 1940 ...
Arafua Reed & Neen Lamontagne
NYC Commission on Human Rights, project update
Kenneth R. Cobb
Alice Austen House, Staten Island Landmark

This week, For the Record takes a journey through records in the Municipal Library and Archives that document Alice Austen (1866-1952), and her homestead in Staten Island. Located on bluffs overlooking New York Bay, the Gothic Revival cottage known as Clear Comfort is now in the portfolio of the New York City Historic House Trust. It has been fully restored and includes a museum dedicated to Austen’s work.

Alice Austen House, Staten Island Landmark
Pauline Toole
Revisit the 1964-1965 World’s Fair at DORIS
Andy Lanset
Socialists on the City Airwaves

The LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier and the 1940 World’s Fair Bombing That Inspired It

DPW 5666: LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Conveyor, built by the Dept of Public Works for the Police Department Bomb Squad, September 1, 1942. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

July 4th, 1940 - Detective Joseph J. Lynch of the NYPD Bomb & Forgery Squad was at his Bronx home with his family, but on call, when the phone rang. A suspicious bag had been found at the World’s Fair. An electrician noticed it the previous day in a ventilation room of the British Pavilion and assumed it belonged to another worker. When he saw it again on the 4th he picked it up and brought it to his supervisor’s office. Hearing a ticking noise coming from it they alerted police officers assigned to the Fair. The officers picked up the bag and brought it to an empty area behind the Polish Pavillion.

NYPD_d_0807-01: Two views of bomb case similar to the one that exploded at the World’s Fair, 1941. #1-Inside of bomb case showing clock. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Although this bomb is not the bomb that exploded at the World’s Fair, it is a replica constructed by Lt. James A. Pyke.

The lack of urgency is surprising, as an operator at the Pavilion had received a bomb threat earlier that week, but most bomb calls were hoaxes. Extra officers assigned to the Pavillion had done security sweeps but found nothing. Det. Lynch told his wife he would be back for dinner, borrowed his sister’s car and picked up his partner Det. Ferdinand A. Socha in Greenpoint on the way to Queens. The Bomb Squad attracted intelligent men, Lynch had graduated from Fordham University and had worked as a pharmacist but joined the NYPD for the job security. Freddie Socha had studied medicine before joining.

NYPD Emergency Service Unit 21 was first on the scene, and they had secured the area, a ring of officers standing at what they thought was a safe distance. Detectives Lynch and Socha approached the bag wearing nothing but their business suits, as protective clothing had not yet been invented. Kneeling on the ground Det. Socha cut a small opening into the case with a pen knife so Lynch could peer inside. What he saw would have been several sticks of dynamite attached to a clock. Lynch was heard to say, “It’s the business” and then the bomb detonated.

NYPD_es_1919b: Bomb explosion, Polish building at World’s Fair, July 4, 1940. Emergency Squad #21. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

NYPD_23139a: Bomb found in British Pavilion exploded at World’s Fair building killing Det. Lynch and Det. Socha of the Bomb Sqd., 110th Sqd., case #84 and Det. Wrage, Hom. Sqd. Photograph by Ahlstrom #1398, 5:40 p.m., July 4, 1940. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

The blast carved a huge hole in the ground and blew Lynch and Socha several yards backward. They must have died instantly, the medical examiner’s report describes gruesome injuries, their bodies torn apart by the blast. Detectives William Federer and Joseph Gallagher, who had approached closer to relay information, were severely injured in the blast along with Detective Martin Schuchman. Patrolman Emil Vyskocil had turned to tell bystanders to keep back and suffered serious injuries to his back and legs. The investigation concluded that there were no projectiles in the device, but that dirt and rocks, along with metal from the clock, acted as shrapnel. Another eight officers were injured in the explosion.

NYPD_d_496b: Detective Joseph Lynch, killed in World’s Fair bombing, July 4, 1940. Photos for 18th division. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

NYPD_d_496a: Detective Ferdinand Socha, killed in World’s Fair bombing, July 4, 1940. Photos for 18th division. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

Reward offered for information leading to the capture of the World’s Fair bomber, printed in the NYPD magazine Spring 3100, August 1940. NYC Municipal Library. 

The clouds of war were already hanging over the Fair. America had not yet entered World War II, as Pearl Harbor was still eighteen months away, but the US was sending Britain weapons for its fight against the Nazis. Timing the explosion for the 4th of July, in the British Pavillion, led investigators to immediately suspect a German sympathizer, possibly a member of the German-American Bund. The Bund had held a pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden a few months earlier. Communists, the Irish Republican Army and the extremist Christian Front were also possible suspects. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia rushed back from a holiday to visit the scene and reassure New Yorkers. He put 1,500 officers on the case, and the next day police raided the Bund’s offices and arrested former member Caesar Kroger. Despite some evidence that he was plotting attacks, police could not tie him to the case. Without solid leads, the City offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, a tremendous amount of money in 1940, and the Detectives’ Endowment Association added another $1,000.

Mayor LaGuardia was deeply disturbed by the incident. He was already worried about the war reaching New York, and death and injury of so many officers was unprecedented. He summoned Lt. James A. Pyke, Commanding Officer of the Bomb Squad, to City Hall and said that such a thing could never happen again. They discussed ways to safely transport bombs away from civilian areas to where they could be detonated in controlled explosions. Pyke set to work designing a bomb transporter.

DPW_2584: Department of Public Works workers weaving the basket for holding “infernal machines,” December 10, 1940. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

DPW_2612: Interior of Explosion Chamber of the LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, Brooklyn Bridge Mechanical Shop, December 19, 1940. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The first LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier (during testing the trucks were referred to as “Bomb Carriers” although later “Bomb Conveyors” was also used) was built by the Engineering Bureau of the Police Department from an old truck bed covered with a hut of blasting mats. Blasting mats had been in use in the mining industry and during the construction of the IRT subway—the NYPD wove theirs from steel elevator cable. It was like a wicker basket made of steel and an inner envelope of steel mats held the bombs. It was tested on September 30, 1940, in an ash dump near Avenue U and East 76th Street in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn. Three explosions of increasing size stress-tested it: 1) two half-pound sticks of dynamite, 2) ten half-pound sticks, and 3) twenty-five half-pound sticks. The blasts were contained to the NYPD’s satisfaction. Blast gases would dissipate out of gaps between the cables, but the full force of the blast and any shrapnel would be contained.

FHL_2017: The second test model of the LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, during field tests, 1941. Photograph by Det. Joseph Prefer, NYPD. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

FHL_2011: The second LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, nicknamed “Big Bertha,” during field tests, April 1941. Photograph by Det. Joseph Prefer, NYPD. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Proof of concept in hand, Pyke and the NYPD engineers with the Department of Public Works built the 2nd LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier. It used a steel framework and sat on a separate trailer. Pyke said it resembled “a ‘49 Pioneer covered wagon.” This model had a door in the rear and officers would place the bomb inside a smaller basket and suspend it inside the carrier. They dubbed this creation “Big Bertha” and on April 12, 1941, they tested it. Attending these tests were Mayor LaGuardia, and Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine, along with other NYPD and FDNY officials, representatives from the US Secret Service, the DOJ, US Naval and US Army Intelligence, Army Ordnance, US Coast Guard and a whole host of police departments. The tests: three sticks of dynamite, 6 sticks of dynamite, 12 sticks of dynamite in a case similar to the World’s Fair bomb, and finally a pipe bomb of 14 sticks of dynamite. The initial tests damaged the inner container, but the outer container held. However, shrapnel from the pipe bomb significantly damaged the outer shell. A final test of 24 sticks of dynamite split one of the welds on the frame but was deemed a success.

FHL_2025: Test explosion inside the Second LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, April 12, 1941. This photo was taken during the test of a replica of the World’s Fair bomb. Photograph by Det. Joseph Prefer, NYPD. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

FHL_2022: The LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, showing damage after field tests, April 12, 1941. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

A conference was held at City Hall on May 13th to review the results of the tests and suggest improvements. The committee decided on the following changes:

  • To eliminate the bomb cradle inside the carrier as its steel could act as shrapnel in a blast;

  • To add another layer of cable mats as an “air cushion”;

  • To add a winch system to carry the bomb so that detectives would not need to enter the blast chamber, (in the final design this was constructed of wooden gears to reduce steel shrapnel that might penetrate the shell);

  • And to make a self-closing and locking outer door.

Blueprint for New “La Guardia-Pyke” Bomb Carriers for the Police Department, 1941. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

DPW_4425: Welding a new steel frame for the LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, September 8, 1941. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

A LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Conveyor, still in use in the early 1970s. Spring 3100, Jan/Feb 1973. NYC Municipal Library.

The final design plan for the third LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier was approved June 6, 1941, and three were ordered built. By 1942 they were in use, with “Big Bertha” held in reserve. Pyke submitted two reports to Mayor LaGuardia and in 1943 Pyke published the full results of the tests and the final design in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. The design was so successful that other municipalities around the world copied it. Big Bertha’s sister carriers were used by the NYPD until the 1990s (in NYPD parlance they were all called “Big Bertha”) when new technologies replaced them. One of them was preserved at the Central Motor Depot and in 2022 it was restored by DSNY and the FDNY and returned to the Emergency Service Unit as a museum piece. It is the oldest active-duty vehicle in the NYPD fleet. The 1940 bombing that inspired its creation was never solved and the NYPD still considers it an open case.

In 1943, Lt. Pyke took a leave of absence to report for duty in the Navy as a munitions expert. He formally retired from the NYPD in 1944 but rejoined after the war as a Captain. In April 1941, Lord Halifax, the British Ambassador, presented silver plates to the widows of Det. Lynch and Socha “in recognition of the gallantry” of their husbands. Easter Lynch, widowed with five young children, sent a dismissive telegram to the King and Queen of England. Reports of its content vary, but a family friend recalled it saying:

“Thank you for your dish. If I had a house where I could use this for calling cards, it would be greatly appreciated. A basket of fruit to feed my children would be much better.”

NYC Commission on Human Rights, project update

In March, 2025, For the Record introduced a new project “Processing and Digitizing Records of the New York City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).” Supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) of the National Archives as part of their Documenting Democracy initiative, the project will enhance public access to records from the CCHR that have been transferred to the Municipal Archives. Key project activities include rehousing and processing 268 cubic feet of records and digitizing the earliest 53 cubic feet. Project archivists will publish an online finding aid, social media content and blog posts. They will also curate a digital exhibit that showcases both the collection and the project’s progress.

Pamphlet from conference on racial bigotry and the Press, 1953. REC0103, Box 27, Folder 6] CCHR Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

This post discusses how the Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) developed a reparative description guide and how it was applied to the CCHR project. The post also describes an interesting parallel within the CCHR records. 

Making of the DORIS Reparative and Inclusive Description Guide 

In 2023, DORIS began developing the Guidelines for Reparative and Inclusive Description, a reference manual to assist Municipal Archives and Library staff in their reparative description practices. City Service staff Israt Abedin and Arafua Reed, City Service Fellows, coordinated the project. Other components included the publication of the agency's Harmful Content statement, several community engagement campaigns including the In Her Own Name research-a-thon and the Records of Slavery transcription project. All fit within the agency's diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiative. The manual uses a question/answer format to address questions that may emerge in day-to-day work, such as how to acknowledge uncomfortable or brutal imagery and language that is outdated. Creation of the guide drew from the researcher input, guides developed by various other repositories, and a theoretical understanding of the archivist’s role. For the Record published an update on the project in June 2024. The document was completed in the spring of 2025 and first utilized by archivists processing the City Commission on Human Rights collection.

What is Reparative Description? 

Reparative description has existed within the library and archival fields for some time. Many cite Howard Zinn’s essay “Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest” as a starting point to understanding those efforts. Throughout, Zinn argues that the idea of a “neutral” archive is impossible, because the people creating and preserving the record carry their own biases. Archival integrity is maintained by acknowledging biases may exist and adjust practices accordingly. The core of this work lies in power: the power of the record in establishing what is a “historical truth” and the power of the archivist in deciding how that “truth” is told. It also hinges on access; by expanding the language for an archive, the documents within become easier for diverse populations to find and to use.

This often means acknowledging that the people who created the records simply did not see humanity in the subjects of certain records, or the creation of those records sought to erase the humanity of others. It also means recognizing the silence or absences that a lack of documentation causes. It’s important that the records archivists maintain are not altered, but rather supplemented with additional information that acknowledges the harmful language and/or bias within the initial statement. How does one implement that without causing more harm? This is an ongoing question that responsible archivists ask, as the answer is not fixed, but rather evolves with time.

Reparative Description in the City Commission on Human Rights Collection The City Commission on Human Rights collection proved to be a good selection for implementation of the reparative description guide due to the nature of the agency’s work and relationship to the communities they serve. An example of how archivists used the guide involved addressing pre-existing folder titles created by the Commission. During the processing phase, archivists determined that preservinge the original naming conventions provided historical context. As can be expected, language describing minority groups from the 1940’s-1970’s is outdated, making this older terminology a candidate for redescription. To balance historical accountability with contemporary access, original language was retained, and reparative description was added in brackets. Simply replacing outdated or harmful language entirely would erase evidence of past harm and introduce inconsistencies that ultimately hinder research and accountability.

Here are some real examples from the collection that used reparative description in the folder titles: 

  • Meeting September 14, 1949: Department of Welfare Request Regarding Alleged Discrimination in Lodging Houses Against Negro [Black] Homeless [Unhoused] Men 

  • 5452-J-PH Employment-Physical Handicap [Physical Disability]

The first example comes from records in the collection created by a predecessor to the CCHR, the Mayor’s Committee on Unity (1943-1955). The second folder title comes from case files created by the CCHR between 1969 and 1976. This series captures complaints of discrimination that individuals had raised against employers, landlords, schools, and places of public accommodation (bars, restaurants, stores, etc.). Each file includes descriptions of incidents, notes from investigations, correspondence, evidence, and records of resolutions along with the reasoning behind them. Each case file has a code with a purely numeric order number and an alphabetic code which indicates what type of situation brought about the discrimination being reported (Employment, Housing, Public Accommodation, Education) and, in some cases, the type of discrimination, as in the case above which indicates that the complainant was filing for physical disability discrimination in employment.

Reparative Description and the Subcommittee on Press Treatment of Minority Groups 

A particularly revealing parallel within the CCHR collection appears in the Commission’s earliest records. The Mayor’s Committee on Unity established a Subcommittee on Press Treatment of Minority Groups to engage directly with local newspapers to promote fair and non-discriminatory standards for news coverage.

The Mayor’s Committee on Unity recognized the powerful role local newspapers played in shaping public perception of minority communities and potentially fueling social tension. In response, the Subcommittee spent years systematically reviewing reporting patterns and inflammatory language in the city’s major newspapers. Members compiled data to identify coverage that contributed, often unconsciously, to the escalation of racial and ethnic tensions within the city’s communities.

Data List, Box 27 Folder 6, CCHR Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Their reports detailed the language used and reporting patterns of local newspapers.

They engaged directly with editors of local newspapers whose reporting practices raised concerns, sharing findings and assisting in the development of protocols designed to address racial and religious bias in coverage. 

New York Times protocol. REC0103, Box 27, Folder 6. CCHR Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

They also took part in conferences aimed at journalists, where they examined the broader implications of inflammatory language in news reports and its power to shape public perceptions of minority groups.

Pamphlet from conference on racial bigotry and the Press, 1953. REC0103, Box 27, Folder 6] CCHR Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Pamphlet from conference on racial bigotry and the Press, 1953. REC0103, Box 27, Folder 6] CCHR Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

There is a clear parallel between the work of the Subcommittee on Press Treatment of Minority Groups and the contemporary archival work taking place in the CCHR project through reparative description. Both efforts engage institutions that are often treated as neutral or authoritative sources of truth: the news media and the archive. In each case, information is not passively recorded but actively shaped through processes of selection, description, and framing by individuals working within institutional systems. The language used to describe events, people, and histories, whether in newspaper headlines or archival folder titles, plays a significant role in how those subjects are located, understood and remembered. When prior descriptive practices go unquestioned, institutional authority can mask the biases embedded within, allowing harmful narratives to persist as accepted truth. By examining and intervening in these frameworks, both the Subcommittee and contemporary archivists challenge assumptions of neutrality and make visible how descriptions can either reproduce harm or allow accountability and repair.

Conclusion 

The City Commission on Human Rights collection offers a strong example of how institutional language shapes public understanding. The Subcommittee on Press Treatment of Minority Groups shows an awareness of the power of description and a willingness to intervene when those descriptions caused harm. When applying contemporary archival practices such as reparative description, the collection shows how questions of representation, accountability, and institutional responsibility have been negotiated over time.

Today’s post was written in collaborative effort between Arafua Reed, who contributed to the writing of the Reparative Description Guide and Neen Lamontagne, the project archivist managing the City Commission on Human Rights grant project.

Alice Austen House, Staten Island Landmark

Alice Austen House, Staten Island Landmark

This week, For the Record takes a journey through records in the Municipal Library and Archives that document Alice Austen (1866-1952), and her homestead in Staten Island. Located on bluffs overlooking New York Bay, the Gothic Revival cottage known as Clear Comfort is now in the portfolio of the New York City Historic House Trust. It has been fully restored and includes a museum dedicated to Austen’s work.

Revisit the 1964-1965 World’s Fair at DORIS

Promotional card distributed by corporate participant, Sinclair Oil, 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The 1964-1965 World’s Fair began as an idea floated by lawyer Robert Kopple in 1958. In August, 1959 Mayor Robert F. Wagner declared that 1964 would mark the 300th Anniversary of the establishment of New York City to be commemorated by holding a World’s Fair. (This was before City government determined that the City’s actual origin date could be traced to the Dutch colonists who occupied the region and established government operations in 1624.)  

An exhibit in the lobby at 31 Chambers Street, showcases highlights of the 1964-65 World’s Fair. The display draws heavily on brochures, reports and maps from the Municipal Library’s vertical file collection. The “vertical files” contain new clippings, handouts, media releases, leaflets and other documents that librarians compiled and stored in vertical file cabinets. The files on the 1964-65 World’s Fair are extensive. File folders in alphabetical order ranging from Accommodations to Women document both the 1939 and 1964 Fairs. The exhibit also includes items from the Municipal Archives, including donated ephemera such as a Sinclair Oil dinosaur.

Proposed exhibit for corporate participant, Sinclair Oil, 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Sinclair Oil dinosaur mascot, plastic model, 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The Fair ran for two years, April 22 through October 18, 1964, and April 21 through October 17, 1965. Industrial and technological changes premiered at the Fair included color television, push button phones, and air conditioning. If you ask New Yorkers of a certain age what they recall about the 1964 World’s Fair, a flood of fond memories are disclosed. The 1964-65 fair conjures futuristic images, modern inventions and youthful excitement for those who attended. Some remember it as a monument to a less-troubled city and country. Others hold a less positive view of the Fair.

In The Power Broker, for example, author Robert Caro characterized it as Moses’ last grasp at immortality. It was a way to achieve a bigger goal:  “…a dream out of his youth that had remained bright in his old age—a dream of a great park, the greatest in New York City, the greatest within the limits of any city in the world, the ultimate urban park, rus in urbe supreme, a park worthy of being named “Robert Moses Park…. The Fair, he realized at once, might at last be the means to achieve it. For the site of the Fair, like the site of the dream, was the Flushing Meadows.”

Brochures, 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Souvenir plate. 1964 New York World’s Fair.

According to Caro, ever since the 1920s, Robert Moses had envisioned turning the ash heap in Queens into a large park. In the mid -1930s he had a chance when the trio of federal, state and City governments funded park infrastructure to create the 1939 World’s Fair: The World of Tomorrow. Projected to reap a $4 million profit for the City that would fund a ribbon of parks throughout Queens, and managed by Grover Whelan, the Fair was a financial disaster. Most of the exhibits and buildings constructed for the event were bulldozed and debris littered the post-fair site which soon became overgrown and swampy. After World War II it was under consideration as the location for the United Nations, despite its deteriorated condition. The next evolution was the proposed 1964 World’s Fair with a theme, “Peace through Understanding.” Quite a lofty sentiment but one that did not suffuse the multi-year build or the Fair itself.  

In 1959, Mayor Robert Wagner petitioned the federal government for authorization to hold the Fair in Flushing Meadow Park, formerly the site of the 1939 World’s Fair. The federal government approved the proposal. The governing body for world’s fairs (nowadays called Expos), the Bureau Internationale des Expositions, rejected the proposal because it violated rules on timing and location. Moses didn’t help matters. As a result, European countries boycotted the Fair, except for Spain.  

This did not deter Robert Moses who had become the President of the World’s Fair Corporation, forcing Kopple out. Moses focused recruitment efforts on the rest of the world. Ultimately, the Fair’s 144 attractions included pavilions from 80 countries, 24 States and 350 companies, trade associations, organizations and religions.

The Clairol Building in the Industrial Area offered a hair color analysis to women over the age of 16. 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Twenty-four African countries showcased various cultural traditions in the pavilion dedicated to that continent. France, Denmark, Sweden and Greece were represented by commercial associations showcasing their wares. Swiss engineering was well-represented by the Sky Ride. The government of Israel declined to participate; a coalition established the American-Israel Pavilion. Close by, the Kingdom of Jordan displayed the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls and a poem decrying the status of Palestinian refugees which triggered substantial outcry and protests.   

General Motors “New Futurama” show and the Vatican’s display of the Michelangelo sculpture Pieta were enormously popular. In Futurama, riders floated through various scenes imaging the ocean, desert, and city at a future point, showcasing new inventions. The “It’s a Small World” show produced by Pepsi Cola along with the Disney Corporation collected an entry fee, none of which actually went to UNICEF. Ford Motors debuted a new car: the Mustang. And Sinclair Oil’s dinosaur symbol was omnipresent. The beauty products manufacturer, Clairol, offered women older than 16 an opportunity to peer into a big plastic bubble for the purpose of receiving an analysis of the person’s best hair color.

Schaefer Beer, a Brooklyn brewery, sponsored a “Resturant of Tomorrow” along with a beer garden and exhibit on brewing in the F&M Schaefer Center. In addition to this pastel drawing, the Municipal Archives collection includes several plans in various formats for this pavilion. Schaefer was boycotted by the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) for discriminatory practices. 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Almost all of the pavilions were temporary structures, demolished at the end of the Fair in 1965. Remnants of the Fair still exist in Flushing Meadow Park. They include the Unisphere, the New York State Pavilion, the Hall of Science and Industry, the Terrace on the Park, and the Marina, which was constructed especially for the Fair. The NYC Pavilion is now the home of the Queens Museum.  

“Fair is Fair,” sheet music, 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The Fair opened at the height of the Civil Rights movement. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had delivered his inspirational I Have A Dream speech at the March on Washington in 1963. A coalition of Americans, led by the Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) were organizing around the country for the right to vote, leading to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. 

New York City was not immune from the battle for civil rights. The “Freedom Day” school boycott in February 1964, rent strikes, protests against employment discrimination, a six-day uprising after a detectives shot a young man in Harlem had all ratcheted up pressure for the City to address racial inequity. The Fair offered an opportunity to respond to demands for fair and equal employment, quality schools, substandard housing, discriminatory pricing, among other issues.    

Site map, 1964 New York World’s Fair, Flushing Meadow, Queens, New York.

In early April, the Brooklyn chapter of CORE announced a “stall in” at which drivers would run out of gas or otherwise have their automobiles incapacitated along the five roadways leading to the Fair. The protest was opposed by CORE national leader James Farmer, but the local activists persisted. On opening day, the City deployed more than 1,000 police officers along the highways. Despite the local organizing, and perhaps because of City government’s threats, very few drivers participated, and the “stall in” was unsuccessful. But protests continued throughout the duration of the fair, including pickets at the Florida exhibit at which four young women were arrested for holding illegal placards and trespassing. Regular protests occurred at the Schaeffer Brewery location, protesting employment discrimination.

New York State Pavilion, color rendering. 1964 New York World’s Fair.

Speaking at the opening of the Fair in 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson addressed the Fair’s theme:  Peace Through Understanding.

“This fair represents the most promising of our hopes. It gathers together, from 80 countries, the achievements of industry, the wealth of nations, the creations of man. This fair shows us what man at his most creative and constructive is capable of doing.

But unless we can achieve the theme of this fair--"peace through understanding"-unless we can use our skill and our wisdom to conquer conflict as we have conquered science--then our hopes of today--these proud achievements--will go under in the devastation of tomorrow.”

Student protestors drowned out portions of the President’s speech by shouting chants of “Freedom Now” and “Jim Crow Must Go” to the dismay of the leaders assembled for the event.

Even Dr. Ralph J. Bunche the Under-Secretary for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations had complaints. He wrote Governor Nelson Rockefeller about the limited representation of Black people in the film shown at the New York State Pavilion. The Governor defended the film, exhibiting a lack of awareness. For example, for the section depicting the City’s nightlife, he wrote “. . . in the section showing New York City at night, there are shots taken of chorus lines in two night clubs and the Rockettes . . .  there is at least one Negro girl included in the Rockettes shown in the film.”

Aerial photograph of Flushing Meadow Park, 1961. New York World’s Fair Corporation Report #1, May 8, 1961.

Aerial photograph of Flushing Meadow Park, 1964. New York World’s Fair Corporation Report, January 1965.

Like its predecessor, the 1964-65 World’s Fair was not a money-maker. Moses and the Fair Corporation had projected a $53 million surplus in year one which would be used to repay the City, investors and to fund improvements to Flushing Meadow Park. Instead, the Fair ultimately operated at a loss. In July, 1964, a confidential letter to business and media executives called the Fair a fiasco. Only 27 million people visited the fair in its first year, far short of the 40 million promised by Moses.

The Department’s exhibit New York World’s Fair 1964-65 will be open to visitors through March 2026. The exhibit uses photos and ephemera from the Municipal Archives and Library collections to highlight key exhibits and features of the fair. 

The symbol of the World’s Fair, the Unisphere, rose 140 ft. above a reflecting pool.

Socialists on the City Airwaves

The recent election and swearing-in of Zohran Mamdani a member of the Democratic Socialist Party was not the first socialist or progressive—of one persuasion or another—to run for elected office in the city. Mayor David Dinkins, for example, was also a member of the Democratic Socialist Party. Mayor Mamdani’s victory, however, offers an opportunity to look back at some of the socialist voices New Yorkers have heard over WNYC, the City’s municipal radio station, across the decades.

Before 1938, many candidates, would have found it difficult to gain access to the City’s airwaves at all. WNYC’s director at the time, Christie Bohnsack, largely followed the lead of the Tammany Hall political machine, which tended to lump progressive movements together under a broad—and pejorative—“red” label.

BPS 12625: WNYC Director Christie Bohnsack (in bowtie, far right) at a reception at the WNYC studio in the Municipal Building, July 31, 1929. Mayor Jimmy Walker is at the microphone. Photograph by Eugene de Salignac, Department o Bridges/Plant & Structures Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Change began with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia’s second term in 1938. La Guardia had run with the support of the relatively new American Labor Party (1936-1956), a nexus of labor leaders and former Socialist Party members who rebranded themselves as the Social Democratic Federation.

La Guardia appointed Morris S. Novik as director of WNYC. Novik arrived from WEVD, a station owned and operated by the progressive Jewish Forward and founded by the Socialist Party as a memorial to its late leader, Eugene Victor Debs. The connection was unambiguous—and not lost on La Guardia’s opponents.

Daily Worker article about lefty teens on WNYC, from August 29, 1940.

Within weeks, critics seized on a WNYC travelogue that painted an unusually rosy picture of the Soviet Union while avoiding criticism of Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship. The broadcast touched off a political storm, complete with calls to shut down the station and a formal investigation. The controversy eventually collapsed when it was revealed that the program had been produced by a subsidiary of the American Express Company as a piece of travel promotion. Still, the episode appears to have had a chilling effect.

Left-leaning voices were not barred from WNYC after that, but Novik seems to have been cautious about offering airtime to overt socialists or communists. One notable exception came in August 1940, when the station aired a program featuring five young members of junior lodges affiliated with the Communist Party-influenced International Workers Organization (IWO). The Daily Worker reported the teenagers spoke out against a proposal for a military draft, responding to a group of youths who had endorsed a national call-up on Youth Builders a week earlier.

No recordings of explicitly socialist programming from this period survive in the Municipal Archives’ WNYC lacquer disc collection. Newspaper radio listings from late October 1944 and 1945, however, do note a couple of broadcasts titled “Socialist Labor Talk” and “Socialist Party.” These election-season talks include an appearance by Joseph G. Glass, the Socialist Party candidate for mayor.  

Darlington Hoopes in 1952. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Running for Mayor In 1949, and in his earlier campaigns, Congressman Vito Marcantonio campaigned on the progressive American Labor Party line. As such he was included among equal time broadcasts. While such broadcasts were not uncommon because of the FCC provision and leased time, Socialist and Communist Party officials were also heard occasionally in 1930s and 1940s on the major national commercial networks CBS, NBC, and the Mutual Broadcasting System.

The earliest surviving WNYC recordings featuring socialist speakers date well after Novik’s tenure and continued to air under the FCC’s equal-time provision. In October 1952, Darlington Hoopes, the Socialist Party’s candidate for president, addressed issues of affordability and economic insecurity, criticizing both Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Harry Truman’s Fair Deal. Hoopes argued that the socialist model pursued by Britain’s Labor Party offered a path seriously worth considering.

That same year, WNYC listeners also heard from the leading socialist candidates running for U.S. Senate in New York. Socialist Party candidate Joseph Glass used one broadcast to distinguish his views from those of Nathan Karp of the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) and Michael Bartell of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). All three contenders appeared on Campus Press Conference, where newsmakers faced questions from a panel of local college newspaper editors and reporters.

In the November 5th program, moderated by a young Gabe Pressman, Glass argued for cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security and maintained—reluctantly—that communist aggression in Korea needed to be resisted.

Karp of the SLP appeared two days earlier, focusing primarily on party doctrine rather than specific policy proposals. While a bit strident here, he reportedly mellowed in later years and did stand-up comedy at SLP conventions and meetings.

Bartell of the SWP, the Trotskyist candidate, appeared on October 28, 1952. He began by laying out a basic definition of his party as a revolutionary socialist one achieving its goals through democratic means.  The balance of time was spent responding to questions about the Korean conflict, the Soviet Union, China and the Berlin blockade. In his last few minutes Bartell called for an end to an economy based on military armament, a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea, and the abolition of the Smith Act. This law imposed criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence and required all foreigners over the age of 14 to register with the federal government.  

Norman Thomas, 1937. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

In January 1953, prominent American Socialist Norman Thomas delivered the address “What Are We Voting For?” at the Cooper Union Forum. The talk was distributed nationwide through the National Association of Educational Broadcasters’ tape network—the first non-commercial radio syndication system, initiated by WNYC.

In this talk Thomas decried our vote for electors over the popular vote, and the role played by southern white supremacist Democrats blocking civil rights legislation. He argued that on average, there are not large differences between Republicans and Democrats. His answer, in part, is what he called a “democratic socialist party.” Thomas also called for international control over atomic weapons, campaign finance reform, and transparency over “the fog of words.”

Thomas,  a serial Socialist Party candidate for President (1928-1948), would be heard over the municipal station another six times as part of the Cooper Union’s Great Hall series of talks between 1953 and 1964. He also appeared on WNYC’s broadcast of The New York Herald Tribune Book and Author Luncheon in 1964, where he addressed civil rights, nuclear disarmament, and poverty, while warning progressive listeners against political fatalism.

In 1957 “Mrs.” Joyce Cowley, a rare woman candidate with the anti-Stalinist Socialist Workers Party, ran for New York City Mayor. A year earlier she had been a candidate for the New York State Senate. She echoed much of what had been said by Bartell but did emphasize the need for civil rights. She also demanded the removal of the SWP from the Attorney General’s list of subversive organizations. Cowley called for an end to nuclear weapons tests, production for peace, not war and charged that the Democratic Party had conspired to keep the SWP off the ballot.

Michael Harrington portrait photograph from the dust jacket of The Other America. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Although the Democratic Socialists of America would not be founded until 1982, the phrase “democratic socialist” appeared sporadically in 1920s and ‘30s news reports, particularly in reference to Europe, but slowly came into more frequent use during the Cold War. In the 1960s and ‘70s, Norman Thomas and writer and activist Michael Harrington often self-identified as democratic socialists to signal a clear rejection of Soviet communism while maintaining a socialist critique of capitalism. Harrington’s usage of the phrase in the 1960s and ‘70s helped cement “democratic socialism” as a recognizable label in U.S. political discourse.

Michael Harrington, a member of the American Socialist Party and head of the League for Industrial Democracy, appeared on the city’s station in 1968. In an interview with Patricia Marx he discussed his influential book The Other America, which exposed the persistence of poverty and inequality in postwar America.

Many socialist ideas—variously labeled, constrained, and contested—have surfaced repeatedly in New York City’s political life and on its municipal airwaves, even during the Cold War period of intense suspicion and retrenchment. The evolution of those voices over WNYC reflects not only shifts in the political climate but also broader debates about democracy, economic justice, and legitimacy in public discourse. Mamdani’s victory suggests that many arguments on behalf of the poor, working class, and disenfranchised, once relegated to the margins, have reentered the civic mainstream, carrying with them a history that is longer, and more complex, than current headlines may suggest.

Andy Lanset (retired) was the Founding Director of the New York Public Radio Archives.

Welcoming Home the Troops, 1945

Recently, Municipal Archives conservators began treating an oversize scrapbook of photographs taken in 1945. Located in the Grover Whalen papers, the evocative pictures capture the spontaneous joy expressed by New Yorkers as they welcomed home their sons and daughters and victorious war-time leaders.  

Thousands of spectators lined the streets as General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his motorcade traveled through the City, June 19, 1945.  Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Known as the City’s “Official Greeter,” Whelan led the Mayor’s Office for Receptions to Distinguished Guests, a.k.a. the Mayor’s Reception Committee, from 1918 to 1953.  

On June 19, 1945, just six weeks after hostilities in Europe ceased, Whalen and Reception Committee staff organized a reception for General Dwight D. Eisenhower. According to news reports the following day, crowds estimated at a half million gave a rapturous thank you to “Ike” as his motorcade made its way from LaGuardia Airport in Queens, to Manhattan, traveling down Fifth Avenue and Broadway and up the Canyon of Heroes. After a brief ceremony at City Hall and a luncheon at Gracie Mansion, Eisenhower’s motorcade brought him to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. His whirlwind day concluded with a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria. News articles noted that New Yorkers mostly ignored instructions from City officials to hold off on showering the victorious leader with paper, then still needed for the war-effort.  

Baseball fans gave General Dwight D. Eisenhower a standing ovation as his motorcade entered Yankee Stadium, June 19, 1945. The Yankees played the Boston Red Sox. The Sox won, 1 – 0. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

French war-time leader Charles F. De Gaulle greets the crowd from the steps of City Hall during his ticker-tape reception on August 27, 1945. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia stands to his left at the microphones. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives. 

Two months later, on August 27, the Reception Committee let New Yorkers express their gratitude to the French leader Charles F. De Gaulle. Soon after, on September 13, the Committee organized a ticker-tape parade and welcome home ceremony for General Jonathan Wainwright. The Committee again used their considerable skill to stage welcome home events for Admiral Chester Nimitz on October 9, and Admiral William Halsey on December 14.

Reception Committee staff pasted pictures from the events on 30 large (18 by 24-inch) scrapbook pages; usually three or four to a sheet. They are not captioned. The paper has deteriorated but it may not be possible to remove the pictures without causing damage. For now, conservators will clean the photographs and re-house them in appropriate containers. Future digitization will provide public access.

For the Record readers are invited to review a selection of pictures from this unique artifact.

Young spectators seem awed by the passing spectacle. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Wounded service men and women watch the parade from indoors. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Thousands of New Yorkers crowded into City Hall Park to get a glimpse of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and hear his remarks during the reception on June 19, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Police officers struggle to contain the happy crowds along a parade route, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Spectators packed the sidewalk in front of the New York Public Library during a parade for returning service men and women, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives. 

General Jonathan Wainwright steps from the cabin of the ATC plane which brought him to LaGuardia Airport from Washington, D.C., September 13, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the crowd at his City Hall reception on June 19, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Police officers struggle to contain the happy crowds along a  parade route. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

A smiling New York City police officer helps keep the crowds at bay, 1945.  Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives. 

Tanks roll up lower Fifth Avenue during a parade for the returning soldiers and sailors, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey Jr, Commander of the Navy’s Third Fleet in World War II needed a blanket for warmth during his ticker-tape parade on a chilly December 14, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Soldiers and sailors flank City Greeter Grover Whalen, French leader Charles De Gaulle and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as they exit City Hall following the reception ceremony on August 27, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

A parade spectator leaps to greet General Jonathan Wainwright riding atop his limousine during the ticker-tape celebration along lower Broadway, September 13, 1945. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.