On April 5, 2018, at a ceremony hosted by the New York Archival Society in the Rankin Reading Room at the Department of Records and Information Services, Commissioner Pauline Toole read a proclamation from Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing April 6, 2018, in the City of New York as “Idilio Gracia-Peña Day.” Society President Kevin Foley introduced Mayor David N. Dinkins who graciously acknowledged the decades of service to the City of New York by his friend and appointed Commissioner, Idilio Gracia Peña.
Digitizing Historical Photographs
On April 5, 2018, at a ceremony hosted by the New York Archival Society in the Rankin Reading Room at the Department of Records and Information Services, Commissioner Pauline Toole read a proclamation from Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing April 6, 2018, in the City of New York as “Idilio Gracia-Peña Day.” Society President Kevin Foley introduced Mayor David N. Dinkins who graciously acknowledged the decades of service to the City of New York by his friend and appointed Commissioner, Idilio Gracia Peña.
Honoring and Welcoming Idilio Gracia Peña, April 6, 2018
On April 5, 2018, at a ceremony hosted by the New York Archival Society in the Rankin Reading Room at the Department of Records and Information Services, Commissioner Pauline Toole read a proclamation from Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing April 6, 2018, in the City of New York as “Idilio Gracia-Peña Day.” Society President Kevin Foley introduced Mayor David N. Dinkins who graciously acknowledged the decades of service to the City of New York by his friend and appointed Commissioner, Idilio Gracia Peña.
Rebecca Rankin
As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we are reminded of the remarkable Rebecca Rankin and her essential role in the development of the Municipal Library and establishment of the Municipal Archives. Rankin served as Municipal Reference Librarian from 1920 until her retirement on June 30, 1952, the day the Municipal Archives and Records Center—long championed by Rankin—was officially opened.
Equal Pay and Equal Employment
The Municipal Archives and Library collections contain material that provide a vital backstory to today’s efforts to gain equal pay and equal employment opportunities. They illustrate the sustained efforts of women to gain equal pay as New York City teachers in the late-19th and early 20th centuries, and the efforts beginning in the 1970s to win equal pay and employment opportunities for women in City government, including the appointment of women to leadership positions at City agencies.
Women in Civil Society
The debate over women’s equal rights and full access to all areas of society is persistent, and the archival records at the MA repeat a single story of limited access for over three centuries. What is inspiring is the unrelenting struggle for education, property, labor rights, suffrage, and quality of life. And most unnerving is the history on repeat.
We’ve recently begun documenting and highlighting within our collection guides the unique instances in which women spoke and government responded.