It was 1933; the American people had been struggling through the Great Depression for four years. Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected president and established the New Deal, creating federally funded relief programs such as the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration, resulting in millions of jobs...
Stumbled Upon in the Archives
Dispatches from the Urban Heartland, Part 4: District Street, Brooklyn and the Route to Modernity
Freedom Tour: Nelson Mandela in NYC
Make Your Mark
Childrens' Books
The New York City Municipal Archives preserves more than 225,000 cubic feet of original records, mostly paper. Some is bound into books. I thought I knew a lot about books, especially books about children’s experiences, having worked in children’s publishing for many years. Recent visits to the Archive led me to three books about children unlike anything I’ve ever seen...
The History of NYC's History: Origins of the Municipal Archives
Dispatches from the Urban Heartland, Part 3: Nostrand Avenue, From Myrtle to Montgomery
Contributions and Controversies: The Complex History of Mayor Koch and the LGBT Community
June is National Pride month when LGBT communities around the country celebrate the night that effectively kicked off the modern gay civil rights movement. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, gay and lesbian patrons of the popular Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street decided they had enough of the constant...
Behold the Baby Artichoke, or, Power to the Punies
The Dutch & the English Part 5: The Return of the Dutch and What Became of the Wall
The Last County: The Bronx
The Objective Eye
Behind the Scenes: Book Conservation
The Dutch & the English Part 4: Invasion?
In late August 1664 the Burgomasters & Schepens (mayors and aldermen) of New Amsterdam were faced with “four King’s frigates from England, sent hither by his Majesty and his brother, the Duke of York, with commission to reduce not only this place, but also the whole N. Netherland under his Majesty’s authority…”