Mayor David N. Dinkins, A Photo Medley

New Yorkers went to the polls on election day, November 7, 1989, and elected David N. Dinkins as the City’s first black Mayor. Inaugurated on January 1, 1990, Dinkins served one term, through December 31, 1993.

Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Collections of mayoral photographs in the Municipal Archives date to the administration of Fiorello LaGuardia. This week’s blog is a picture essay, highlighting images from the Dinkins mayoralty.

Mayor Dinkins’ staff included photographers who documented his daily activities and the surrounding environment. The pictures begin with the January 1, 1990 inauguration ceremony and continue through his next-to-last-day in office, on December 30, 1993, when he held an Open House at City Hall.

As required by the City Charter, the Municipal Archives accessioned the collection of prints and negatives, along with the paper records in 1994. They constitute approximately 35,000 images, and total 70 cubic feet.

Although the activities of earlier mayors were documented by city photographers, the practice of employing full-time dedicated photographers to document mayoral activities began with the administration of Mayor Koch in 1977. Koch’s photograph collection is also maintained in the Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins’ photographers, Joan Vitale Strong, Diane Bondereff, and Ed Reed continued the same system as devised by Mayor Koch’s chief photographer, Holly Wemple. The process began with a request from a mayoral staffer, usually a person in the press office, submitting a form to the “Mayor’s Photo Unit.” The form specified the name, date, time, and place of the event as well as the intended use of the photographs, i.e. publication, or “personal.”

The photographers used 35mm SLR cameras. Although the bulk of the pictures were shot on black and white film, some of the more important events, such as the reception and ticker-tape parade for South African leader Nelson Mandela, were also documented in color.

The photographs taken at each event are filed in individual folders labeled with the date and subject. The folders contain negatives of the pictures, cut into strips, stored in archival sleeves; contact sheets; and often, prints of selected images in a variety of sizes. The photographers generally chose one or two of the best shots—usually the most flattering of the Mayor—to be printed and distributed to newspapers and/or other persons who appear in the pictures.

The folders also contain other useful information and related paperwork such as press releases, memos with further details about the event, background information, and the names of media outlets where prints were sent for publication.

The bulk of the pictures in the collection document “meet-and-greet" events and press conferences at City Hall and Gracie Mansion. The photographers also accompanied the Mayor on visits and appearances he made throughout the city.

Mayor Dinkins was visiting Japan when the first bombing took place at the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. He toured the site on March 1, and three weeks later he invited students from P.S. 91 to visit with him in City Hall. The class, one of several public school groups visiting the World Trade Center during the February 26th bomb blast, was stuck in an elevator for nearly six hours.

Mayor David Dinkins and First Deputy Mayor Norman Steisel tour the site of the World Trade Center explosion, March 1, 1993. Photographer: Diane Bondareff. Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.  

Mayor David Dinkins speaks with a class from P.S. 91, City Hall, March 24, 1993. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong. Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

A tennis enthusiast, Mayor Dinkins negotiated an agreement with the United States Tennis Association that kept the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament at Flushing-Meadows. Mayor David N. Dinkins with John McEnroe (left) and Arthur Ashe (right), at the U.S. National Tennis Center, Queens, April 22, 1992. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong. Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins’ establishment of the “Safe Streets, Safe City,” program was one of the highlights of his administration. Mayor Dinkins receives a gift from Loisaida Inc. at a visit to a youth center expanded with funding from the new program, Lower Eastside Action Program, December 6, 1990. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor David N. Dinkins celebrates the “Earth’s Birthday Party” with Carly Simon and a party of pre-schoolers who each released a butterfly that they had raised from caterpillars. April 20, 1990. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins announces accessible bus and transit options with Anne Emerman, Commissioner of the Office for People with Disabilities, at the 125th Street subway station, June 29, 1990. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins pays a courtesy call with Dalai Lama of Tibet, the Regent Hotel, September 11, 1990. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins jams with Paul Simon at a press conference announcing free summer concerts, City Hall, July 28, 1991. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins meets with graduates of the Volunteers of American Sidewalk Santa “school,” City Hall, December 24, 1990. Photographer: Joan Vitale Strong, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Dinkins helps serve Christmas dinner to members of the Grand Central Partnership Multi-Service Center, a drop-in site for the homeless, Grand Central Terminal, December 24, 1991. Photographer: Ed Reed, Mayor David Dinkins Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Mayors of the Greater City of New York

Recent blogs have discussed how the increasing importance of the mayor within city government over the course of the 19th century is reflected in the volume and significance of mayoral records in the Municipal Archives.

This week we will focus on records of the mayors who served during the first two decades after creation of the Greater City of New York in 1898. From the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age, it was a period of massive immigration, revolutionary changes in technology, transportation, communication as well as the creation of the modem capitalist economy, several cycles of boom and bust, and a World War.

Prior to 1898, New York City consisted of only the Island of Manhattan and part of what later became the Borough of the Bronx. The push for annexation of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island to New York City dated as far back as the late 1860s. Proponents of annexation saw that a centralized municipal government could facilitate the development of railroads, utilities and infrastructure necessary to maintain New York’s dominant role in the nation’s economy.

It took nearly thirty years to persuade voters in the areas to be annexed of the benefits of consolidation. Perhaps the most significant incentive was the realization that access to revenue from real estate taxes on the commercial areas of Manhattan could be used to fund needed infrastructure improvements throughout the region.

Finally, in 1894, voters in all areas to be affected approved a non-binding referendum on consolidation. A New York State commission issued a new charter for the greater city joining the formerly separate governments of Manhattan, Bronx Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island into a single entity. Voters approved the new city charter in 1897.

Disasters, national and local, often elicited action from the mayor’s office. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was a typical incident. The Mayor’s Office did establish a fund to aid victims of the disaster.  Telegram to Mayor Gaynor from the Lord Mayor of London, April 17, 1912. Mayor William Gaynor Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1898, Mayor Robert Van Wyck became the first mayor of the new Greater City of New York. Beginning with Van Wyck, the records of each mayoral administration are organized in three key series: subject files, departmental files, and general correspondence. This scheme was maintained almost unchanged over the next century.

1920 Mayor Hylan solicited citizens to join a committee formed in response to concerns about motion-picture subject matter. Mayor John Hylan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Subject files were created for contemporary issues that the mayor and his staff designated as significant for that particular administration. They vary from mayor to mayor and correspond to events and concerns of their respective eras. For example, Mayor Gaynor’s staff designated Titanic disaster relief fund, presidential politics, and welfare, as some of the subject files. And under Mayor Hylan, who served from 1918 to 1926, movies, prohibition, drug addiction, milk investigation, and immigration were designated as some of the subject files.

Subject files contain letters, reports, photographs, telegrams, and memoranda to and from the mayor, in both original and carbon copy format. The correspondents tend to be other high level officials, business leaders, and/or prominent citizens. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject.

The departmental series consists of correspondence to and from the mayor’s office and each unit of city government, including departments, agencies, authorities, as well as state and federal officials. Departmental files were generally maintained on a calendar year basis. They contain similar material as subject files, e.g. memoranda, telegrams, letters, reports, and photographs. Departmental files are arranged chronologically by year and thereunder alphabetically by department name.

Owen R. Lovejoy, General Secretary of the National Child Labor Committee, wrote Mayor McClellan in 1909, and urged appropriations for a variety of education initiatives so that children would “... leave school to enter the ranks of industry before they are fit to do so.” Mayor McClellan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

General correspondence consists of letters between the mayor and citizens, civic groups, and businesses on a wide range of topics. General correspondence is arranged chronologically by year and thereunder alphabetically by surname of correspondent.

An undated memo, found in the papers of Mayor Mitchel (1914-1917), provides a detailed list of strikebreakers, “who participate in most of the strikes occurring on the eastside from time to time.” The rundown included “Dopey Bennie--guerilla and lifetaker, and Big Nose Kelly--strike breaker--election guerilla.”  Page 1 of 2. Mayor Mitchel Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Strikebreakers, page 2 of 2. Mayor Mitchel Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Technological developments in the first years of the new century profoundly impacted commercial enterprise, patterns of mobility and residence, as well as social interaction. Trucks, automobiles, and electrified transit systems transformed the physical city.  The telephone and radio revolutionized communications. The new motion picture industry, which had its origins in New York, further enhanced the city's role as the center of popular entertainment.  

The records of the post-consolidation mayors preserved in the Municipal Archives are an essential resource. Future blogs will examine how mayoral records have continued to serve researchers documenting the events of a tumultuous century.   

New York City’s Earliest Mayors

New York City has a mayor-centric form of government. But it did not start out that way. In 1665, shortly after the English assumed control of the colony from the Dutch, governor Richard Nicolls appointed Thomas Willett as the first New York City mayor. 

Old City Hall, Wall Street. Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, D. T. Valentine. 1847. NYC Municipal Library.

Over the next 150 years, the colonial governor, and then the governor of New York State, annually appointed the mayor. The early mayors sat on the Common Council and had limited powers. Beginning in 1820, the Common Council elected the mayors. In 1830, the mayor was given the power to veto decisions of the Council, of which he was no longer a member. The first direct election of the mayor took place in 1834 when Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence defeated Gulian Verplanck, both descendants of Dutch colonists. 

As the city grew in population and complexity through the 19th century, so too did the relative importance of the mayoralty. The Municipal Archives’ mayoral papers collection mirrors this trajectory of the executive office in city government. Although the office of mayor dates to 1665, the first collection of mayoral papers consists of exactly two thin folders of documents from the office of Mayor Philip Hone (1826-27). By contrast, the Common Council papers from that same time period totals more than 13 cubic feet. 

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Request for Hand Cart License, by William Madden, submitted to Mayor Philip Hone, May 20, 1826. Mayor Philip Hone Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Application to Mayor Hone by James Maurice for appointment as Auctioneer for the City and County of New York, April 18, 1825. Mayor Philip Hone Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayoral collections from 1827 through 1848 similarly contain one or two folders of documents. One exception is Mayor Aaron Clark (1837-38). During his mayoralty the city experienced a yellow fever outbreak and his collection includes four folders of documents related to quarantining vessels landing in New York harbor.

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Quarantine Report re: Schooner Exchange of N.Y., arriving from the City of San Domingo, on July 1st, 1837. Mayor Aaron Clark Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.  

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Quarantine Report re: Schooner Mary Ann, arriving from Key West, on July 3rd, 1837.  Mayor Aaron Clark Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The collection of Mayor Caleb S. Woodhull, 1849-1851, although still miniscule (.25 cubic feet) in comparison to subsequent mayoral office holders, consists of eleven folders pertaining to the Commissioner of Emigration: Quarantine – Reports of Passengers, and two other folders related to emigrant boarding houses and runners.

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Grant of License to Act as Emigrant Runner, to Charles Frederick Stiernfeld, by Mayor Caleb Woodhull, July 29, 1850. Mayor Caleb S. Woodhull Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Major public works such as the Croton Aqueduct (opened in 1842), the Central Park (opened in 1859), and the Brooklyn Bridge (open in 1883), together with the need to maintain these and related infrastructure—water and sewer lines, utilities, streets, parks, bridges, docks, etc. —led to the establishment of municipal departments. Recurring epidemics and the demand to protect public health led to creation of the Department of Health in 1866. The Department of Buildings, also established in 1866, came in response to advances in building technology that required regulations and oversight. The Department of Public Charities and Correction dates to 1860. And the growing population required more protective services—police and fire. This ever-increasing municipal work force and resulting opportunities for patronage enhanced the power executive office. 

Bridge No. VII, Central Park, Presentation Drawing, 1859. Department of Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Similarly, the volume and intellectual content of the mayoral collections grew during this period.  Mayor William Havemeyer (1873-74) and Mayor William H. Wickham (1875-76) both generated 12 cubic feet of records; the Abram S. Hewitt (1887-88) collection is 19 cubic feet and Mayor Hugh J. Grant (1889-92) tops out at 31 cubic feet. 

In theory, consolidation of the Greater City of New York in 1898 and the vast increase in the jurisdiction of the municipality should have cemented the mayor’s power. Although the mayor became the symbolic head of government, the newly created Offices of the Borough Presidents circumscribed the executive’s ability to control the city’s payroll. Other powers were shared with a strengthened Board of Estimate. But beginning with the mayoralty of Fiorello LaGuardia (1934-45), the powers of the executive began to overtake the other branches and to accrue the powers it enjoys until the present day.

Future blogs will examine the role of the mayor and how the Municipal Archives’ mayoral collections—each unique—reflect the time period and the individual who held the office.  

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Proclamation by Mayor Opdyke, November 21, 1863. 

But before we leave our 19th century mayors, we will give one mayor, George Opdyke (1862-64), a special shout-out in recognition of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation fixing the national observation of Thanksgiving on the final Thursday in November, a move he hoped would help “heal the wounds of the nation.” In New York City, Mayor Opdyke issued his own Proclamation acknowledging the President’s designation of Thursday the 26th as a “…day of Thanksgiving and Prayer” and adding “…it becomes the duty of every good citizen to refrain from all secular employment on that day, and to devote it to appropriate religious exercises.” 

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  Look for our next blog on December 4.