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Revisit the 1964-1965 World’s Fair at DORIS

The 1964-1965 World’s Fair began as an idea floated by lawyer Robert Kopple in 1958. In August, 1959 Mayor Robert F. Wagner declared that 1964 would mark the 300th Anniversary of the establishment of New York City to be commemorated by holding a World’s Fair. (This was before City government determined that the City’s actual origin date could be traced to the Dutch colonists who occupied the region and established government operations in 1624.)  

An exhibit in the lobby at 31 Chambers Street, showcases highlights of the 1964-65 World’s Fair. The display draws heavily on brochures, reports and maps from the Municipal Library’s vertical file collection.

Socialists on the City Airwaves

The recent election and swearing-in of Zohran Mamdani a member of the Democratic Socialist Party was not the first socialist or progressive—of one persuasion or another—to run for elected office in the city. Mayor David Dinkins, for example, was also a member of the Democratic Socialist Party. Mayor Mamdani’s victory, however, offers an opportunity to look back at some of the socialist voices New Yorkers have heard over WNYC, the City’s municipal radio station, across the decades.

Before 1938, many candidates, would have found it difficult to gain access to the City’s airwaves at all. WNYC’s director at the time, Christie Bohnsack, largely followed the lead of the Tammany Hall political machine, which tended to lump progressive movements together under a broad—and pejorative—“red” label.

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.  

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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.

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.

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.

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).