NYC Municipal Archives
Find of the Week: Central Park Topographical ...
Kenneth Cobb
We Shall All Be There: Dedicating Shea ...
Cynthia Brenwall
The Curious Case of the Lighting of the ...
Israt Abedin
Recovering Women’s Names in DORIS’ Digital ...
Robert Garber
The New York City Civil War Draft Riot Claims ...

Glue, Time, Humidity and Heat: Mastering the Elements of Tape Preservation

Typically, when we talk about preserving something in an archive we are looking at a time period of 100 years, if not longer. The New York City Municipal Archives still holds, for example, records of the Dutch colonial settlement in New Amsterdam that date from the 17th century.  Thanks to the work of dozens of skilled archivists and conservators, over decades, these documents have been and will continue to be preserved and made available to the public.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Archives’ video tape collections. It is likely that every tape in the world will become unusable within the next 20-30 years.

Andy Warhol in the City

Artist Andy Warhol, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 1928, became one of the most emblematic and influential New Yorkers of the 20th century. A star student at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology, he arrived in New York City in 1949 and established himself as a talented advertising illustrator. His first home in the City was a small apartment at 1342 Lexington Avenue.

The Surrogate’s Court Rotunda, Restored

In the winter, a shaft of daylight finds its way in.  Pouring in through the large windows, it bounces off the freshly-waxed floor in the vestibule, through the arches of the colonnade, and from there into the rotunda, lighting the northern gallery like a second sun.  It illuminates the area where the water came in, as if it wants visitors to see the marks that time has left on the building.  In the late summer, it will come in straight from above in the afternoon, lighting the northwest corner.  I should know—I’ve been watching it for years.

For the last few years, no one saw this.  In fact, no one really saw the Hall of Records’ grand rotunda at all.  The beautiful chamber was full of scaffolding and plywood walls put up by the construction crew doing much-needed repairs.

The Food Problem: 1918

In government, what is done when a problem is identified? A Committee is formed. This is not a new thought. One of the items recently unearthed in the Municipal Library is a pamphlet entitled “Report of The Food Problem Committee.” This sparked immediate questions: what was the food problem to be resolved? Who was on the Committee? What solutions were offered? How did it work out?

Preserving the Collections

Visitors to the Municipal Archives are often surprised to learn that the oldest records in the collection—dating back to the early 17th century—are in better condition than more recent materials. For example, manuscripts of the Dutch colonial settlers in New Amsterdam are perfectly legible, exhibiting only minor degradation due to age. The fact that they are written in the old Dutch language is really the only impediment to their usefulness for historical research.