Andy Lanset
Black History Highlights of Municipal ...
Andy Lanset
Black History Highlights of Municipal ...
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

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.

New Visions of Old New York

At the end of December, the agency will close an exhibit that has been on display for the past year, New Visions of Old New York. The collaboration between the New Amsterdam History Center and the New York City Department of Records & Information Services has been the most well-attended exhibit that the agency has hosted. Those who missed the in-person display can view it at our online exhibit on archives.nyc.

Mapping Early New York, Courtesy of the New Amsterdam History Center.

Rendering of 1660 Castello Plan of New Amsterdam, James Wolcott Addams. I.N. Phelps Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. NYC Municipal Library.

New Visions of Old New York features historical maps, drawings, sketches, and official documents from the New York City Municipal Archives alongside newly imagined, digitally-generated content from the New Amsterdam History Center’s Mapping Early New York project. The selections represent ways in which the lives of women, enslaved people, and Native Americans intersected with the settlement created by the Dutch West India Company.

A closing event on December 11th brought together the organizers and others in the community to reflect on the exhibit. Maria Iacullo-Bird of Pace University led a panel discussion with Michael Lorenzini (of the NYC Department of Records & Information Services), Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (an Algonkian Historical Consultant for The New Amsterdam History Center), and Kamau Ware (founder of the Black Gotham Experience, which tells the oft-forgotten stories of the early Black residents of New York City).

Still image, Kierstede House. Mapping Early New York, Courtesy of the New Amsterdam History Center.


Archives Conservation Teams Up with the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Municipal Archives’ Conservation staff recently completed a major project to conserve the Brooklyn Bridge drawings collection, which consists of more than 11,000 drawing plans. With the support of a three-year Save America’s Treasures grant from IMLS and a one-year grant from the New York State Library, conservators worked diligently over a nearly five-year period to stabilize and photograph the collection. As part of the project, the Archives’ Conservation Unit collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Scientific Research Department to conduct scientific analysis of selected drawings to determine the composition of media and paper, causes of degradation, and to use infrared imaging techniques to enhance faded writing and drawing in graphite.

East River Bridge, “The Brooklyn Bridge Up Close.” Photograph by Elena Carrara, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The successful collaboration also prompted the Met to mount an exhibition of seven important drawings from the collection in a joint special installation with their Education Department, which opened on December 8th. On view until February 22nd, the installation displays, for the first time since 1983, several of the large-scale presentation drawings created by John and Washington Roebling and Wilhelm Hildenbrand. The longest drawing in the collection, which depicts the full span of the bridge and measures more than 25 feet long, has never been exhibited before. Thus, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see these exquisite drawings in an equally exquisite setting.

Lindsey Hobbs speaking at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 9, 2025.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Met invited me to participate in an “Expert Talk” on December 9th along with Marco Leona, the David Koch Scientist in Charge at the Met, and Met Curator, Elena Carrara. Open to the public, the panel spoke about the history and preservation of the collection, the scientific work performed by the Met, and the exhibition process.

Given the size of the collection, not to mention the colossal size of many individual drawings, preserving and exhibiting the collection presented numerous challenges. The Met may in fact be one of few institutions in the world that could successfully mount an exhibition on such a scale. In addition to size, the condition issues the drawings presented posed challenges for conservation, framing, and transport.

“The Brooklyn Bridge Up Close.” Photograph by Elena Carrara, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Prior to their accession by the Municipal Archives, the drawings spent the better part of a century in a dusty carpenter’s workshop beneath the Williamsburg Bridge under the purview of the Department of Transportation and its various historical iterations, where they were often consulted by City engineers for bridge repairs and renovations. Subjected to water leaks, mold, exhaust fumes from surrounding traffic, and rough handling, the drawings took a great deal of abuse. The primary condition issues we encountered included deteriorated paper supports, discoloration, tears and abrasions, local staining, faded media, and damage from mold and degraded adhesives.

To help us better understand how the drawings were created and what specific materials and media we were dealing with, I reached out to the Met’s Scientific Research Department in July 2023 and proposed a collaboration. The Met’s scientists often collaborate with smaller institutions via their Scientific Research Partnerships program to share their extensive analytical capabilities. Their enthusiastic yes to the proposal led to several visits between our institutions and a very productive partnership.

New York Approach, East River Bridge. “The Brooklyn Bridge Up Close.” Photograph by Elena Carrara, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Met’s findings confirmed the presence of certain pigments, such as vermillion, Prussian blue, earth pigments, and smalt, which helped to direct the methods used in our treatment of the drawings. Awareness of the presence of specific pigments also supports guidelines for light exposure given their known light sensitivity. Other findings revealed potential agents of deterioration in the paper substrates of some of the drawings, including rosin and kaolin. Infrared imaging allowed us to read for the first time some of the many notations written by Washington Roebling on the drawings and give a clearer view of intricate details. The imaging and analysis conducted by the Met not only supported our recent treatment efforts and understanding of drawings but will continue to support preservation of the collection in the future.

The work of Archives’ conservators along with the generous support of the Met’s Scientific Research and Education Departments have yielded insights into the Brooklyn Bridge plans that would not have otherwise been possible. The collaboration has been a wonderful opportunity to support a more nuanced approach to the drawings’ treatment and to expand the Archives’ audience for this remarkable collection.

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-brooklyn-bridge-up-close

On Mayors and the Counting Thereof

This past August, historian Paul Hortenstine noticed that the “Official” list of Mayors failed to include the second term of Mayor Matthias Nicolls (Nicoll). He had served two non-consecutive terms, the first from 1671-1672, and the second from 1674-1675. Hortenstine was not the first to notice this discrepancy. In 1989, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society published an article by Peter Christoph revealing that every mayor after #7 had been misnumbered. As Christoph pointed out, if a Mayor had two non-consecutive terms the practice was to assign them two numbers, starting with Thomas Willett, who was Mayor #1 and #3. He noted four other early Mayors credited with two terms.

We thought the error might have been due to a little-known hiccup in mayoral history. In July 1673, the Dutch (who had established the colony of New Amsterdam in 1625 and lost it in 1664), invaded and took it back. For fifteen months the colony (renamed “New Orange”) was under a Dutch “Council of War,” that restored the Dutch-style government of a council of Burgomasters and Schepens. As a result, there was not a “Mayor of New York” between July 1673 and November 1674, when the English Governor, Edmund Andros, reappointed Nicolls. Moreover, Nicolls had not been Mayor when the Dutch invaded, his successor, John Lawrence, had assumed that role. So, by all rights, Nicolls served two non-consecutive terms with another Mayor in the middle, making him Mayor #6 and #8. Thereby moving everyone else one place down the line. Lawrence was appointed Deputy Mayor in 1674, but also served another non-consecutive term as Mayor, the 2nd time in 1691, making him both #7 and #20 (under the corrected numbering system).

Human Rights Day: How Human Rights Discourse has Impacted the New York City Government since the 1940s

This past May For the Record introduced a new project Processing and Digitizing Records of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives as part of their Documenting Democracy initiative, the project will enhance public access to records created by the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Key activities of the project include rehousing and processing 268 cubic feet of records, digitizing the earliest 53 cubic feet, publishing digitized materials, an online finding aid, social media content and blog posts, and curating a digital exhibit that showcases both the collection and the project’s progress.

This 1964 flyer is from grassroots organizing efforts to end segregation in New York City’s public schools. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box: 59, Folder: 17. NYC Municipal Archives.

This week, project staff discuss the historical background of the human rights movement and how the records in the CCHR collection tell the story. Several items identified during processing serve to illustrate this important historical trajectory.

In 1943 Mayor LaGuardia established The Mayor’s Committee on Unity, the first New York City municipal government entity created specifically to address racial and religious tensions and discrimination. The Committee investigated discrimination, mediated community disputes, and produced reports on issues such as inequities in education and city services. Its leadership and membership reflected the city’s diverse communities, and its research was widely circulated to government agencies, universities, and civil rights organizations.

Community members frequently brought neighborhood concerns directly to the Mayor’s Committee on Unity; especially complex or ongoing issues were assigned to subcommittees. For example, the Subcommittee on City Services in Congested Areas investigated inequities in sanitation services within densely-populated minority neighborhoods, while the Subcommittee on Press Treatment of Minority Groups worked with local newspapers to encourage adoption of fair and non-discriminatory news coverage protocols.

This 1944 pamphlet was published by the City-Wide Citizens’ Committee on Harlem, another early civil rights organization that worked with the Mayor’s Committee on Unity to address inequities facing Harlem residents during the mid-20th century. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box 25, Folder 5. NYC Municipal Archives.

Long before Mayor LaGuardia established the Unity Committee, specifically dedicated to human and civil rights, several organizations laid the groundwork for addressing institutional discrimination and the need for change. A few organizations that influenced the debate and worked with the City government are shown below.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, held its first meeting in New York City. They came into being after the 1908 Springfield Race Riot in Illinois. Accounts of mobs terrorizing the town, lynching Black citizens and burning homes and businesses shocked the nation. The first national organization formed to fight for the rights of Black Americans, the NAACP interracial membership included the Black writers and activists W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. They led national campaigns against lynching and segregation, advanced rights through strategic litigation (culminating in victories like Brown v. Board of Education), and built sustained public advocacy for racial equality in the United States.

in 1913, the B’nai B’rith, a Jewish fraternal organization, founded the Anti-Defamation League to combat antisemitism and fight for civil rights for all marginalized groups in the United States. Members monitored extremist groups like the KKK, fought against discriminatory hiring practices, and promoted civil rights legislation.

In 1942, a group of interracial students in Chicago organized the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They were inspired by methods of non-violent protest and applied those tactics to help end segregation and discrimination in the United States through sit-ins, voter registration drives, and numerous de-segregation campaigns.

1947 cartoon strip, “Hopeless Henry” by Kaulee. Produced in the aftermath of World War II, the strip was designed to build public support for the newly formed United Nations while also challenging discriminatory attitudes at home. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box: 44, Folder: 9. NYC Municipal Archives.

During WW II, Americans heavily promoted the idea that they were fighting for democracy, freedom, and the dignity of all people. There was a strong cultural understanding of the dichotomy “Democracy vs. Fascism.” This idea strengthened changing attitudes towards the necessity of human and civil rights, not just in the war effort, but in the U.S. as well. The 1940’s were still a deeply racially segregated era in the U.S., but northern urban centers, especially New York City, Chicago, and Detroit were some of the first to reach beyond the concept of individualized racism and start addressing structural racism within localized urban contexts.

This 1951 report reflects city government’s engagement with the moral challenges of segregation and efforts to confront and change those conditions. It also demonstrates the influence of ideals shaped by World War II and the emerging international human rights framework established by the United Nations. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box: 38, Folder: 11. NYC Municipal Archives.

The United Nations established Human Rights Day in 1950 to celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Adopted on December 10, 1948, the Declaration is the first global statement of fundamental human rights. In recognition of this occasion, it is valuable to consider how national and international human rights discourse in the latter half of the twentieth century shaped the work of New York City government.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, declared “. . . in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. The American Civil Rights Movement gained momentum after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. In 1957, the City’s Unity Committee evolved into a permanent city-funded agency, the Commission on Intergroup Relations.

Cover sheet from a 1963 research study conducted by the Greater Urban League of New York on the “Problems of Integration in New York City Public School since 1955.” The study was used to guide the City Commission on Human Rights plan of action to more comprehensively tackle desegregation. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box: 60, Folder: 7. NYC Municipal Archives.

Events around the country during this period, ranging from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, integration of the Little Rock Central High School, the March on Washington and passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, all contributed to a greater awareness of discrimination. While New York had made attempts to address school segregation prior to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, progress was slow and uneven. By 1964, frustration over these delays led to a series of massive school boycotts co-organized by the NAACP, the Harlem Parents Committee, CORE, PACE, and the Pan Hellenic Council. About 45% of all NYC students boycotted school on February 3, 1964. An estimated 464,361 students and teachers participated overall, the boycott being so large that it exceeded the number of people who took part in the March on Washington.

Established in 1957, the Commission on Intergroup Relations had a broad mandate, but it created fewer records than the earlier Committee on Unity, and its successor organization, the City Commission on Human Rights. It could be argued that the committee was struggling to keep pace with a rapidly shifting social landscape, resulting in record-keeping practices and organizational structures that were less robust than usual.

In 1962, the Commission on Human Rights took over this role and the administrative records reveal a complex engagement with civil rights issues, activist groups, and civil rights leaders of that time. The first executive director of the Commission on Human Rights, Madison Jones, was the point person for all civil rights issues relayed from the Mayor’s office, as evidenced in the records of their frequent correspondence. A large part of the administrative records also deals with the desegregation of NYC schools. Materials found in the series include reports, action plans, data, press releases, and boycott responses. The CCHR was definitely aware of, and in conversation with, civil rights activist groups and civil rights leaders—there are references and mentions of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in the records.

This excerpt from a 1962 letter written to Madison Jones, the executive director of the City Commission on Human Rights inquires if Jones had invited Malcolm X to the 1962 Harlem Leaders Conference, an interesting piece of ephemera showing the dialogue happening in the NYC government regarding prominent civil rights leaders. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box: 61, Folder: 31.

The relationship between CCHR and the political discourse of the time seemed to shift in nature, to that of response, as opposed to the early Mayor’s Committee on Unity’s work, which was more preemptive and forward-looking. But the political discourse around human rights was also very different in the 1940’s compared to the 1960’s, which could partly account for the change in the Commission’s programmatic planning. The archival records suggest that it was the activist groups who pushed for the changes that the city government then responded to, and the city government was often targeted and criticized for its seeming indifference due to its slow bureaucratic processes in making the changes. It would certainly be an interesting research topic to study how the city government’s actions changed, how the political landscape changed, and how the public’s attitudes towards the city government changed when reflecting on civil rights issues from the 1940’s-1960’s.

This summary of negotiations regarding a discriminatory rental practice at the Electchester Housing Cooperative was found amongst correspondence sent from CCHR executive director Madison Jones to the Mayor’s Office. It’s important to note that two local branches of the NAACP and the American Jewish Congress, another civil rights activist group, were part of the negotiations, showing further dialogue between the city government and civil rights activist groups. NYC Commission on Human Rights collection: REC0103, Box: 60, Folder: 28. NYC Municipal Archives.

Current City Organizations Dealing with Human Rights

Since the 1960’s there have been continual changes in the discourse on human rights and in the City’s response to these issues. Several commissions and offices addressing these intersectional concerns have been established, in addition to the CCHR. The City established the Equal Employment Practices Commission in 1989 through the Charter.

In 2022, voters passed an amendment to the City Charter establishing the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice. It is comprised of several governmental offices and commissions that bring an intersectional approach to equity, including NYC Her Future (NHF), the NYC Commission on Gender Equity (CGE), the NYC Unity Project (UP), and the NYC Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) as well as multi-agency bodies like the NYC Pay Equity Cabinet (PEC) and the NYC Taskforce on Racial Inclusion & Equity (TRIE). Together, these offices and commissions aim to engage New York City’s diverse communities and constituencies, advance equity and promote racial justice within New York City.

The City Commission on Human Rights has continued operating under the same name from 1962 until today. The passage of the Human Rights Law of the City of New York in 1965 gave the CCHR authority to prosecute discrimination in private housing, employment, education, and public accommodations. These demanding and important aspects of the CCHR’s work, continues until today. Currently, the CCHR also promotes education on human rights issues through outreach programs and restorative justice practices at community service centers throughout the boroughs.

Conclusion

This dynamic evolution of the concept of human rights has left important evidence in the archival records of New York City’s government. The City Commission on Human Rights Collection offers a concrete, detailed look into the history of a municipal government’s engagement with the fight for human rights, its categorizations, communications, methodologies, applications of the law, and both its achievements and shortcomings confined to the practice of a single city’s governance, from the 1940’s until today.

Federal support for Documenting Democracy was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives.