Pauline Toole
Coffee
Lauren Gilbert
The World Fashion Center New York Never Built
Pauline Toole
The Policy of the Club: Ralph Bunche, the U.S. ...

This guest post uses archival documents in the Municipal Archives and Library collections. Readers are advised that as with all U.S. history, there are references to race and its direct relationship to institutional choices. Please note that quotes in this post contain outdated language, e,g. use of the term “Negro.” These instances have been retained and referenced in their original form to maintain historical accuracy and context.

December 1950: Ralph Bunche, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in resolving global conflicts including the 1949 Middle East peace accord.

July 1959: United Nations Under-Secretary-General Bunche inquires about membership in the Westside Tennis Club so his son, Ralph Jr., can continue lessons from the Club’s tennis pro. The Club president, Wilfred Burglund dismisses the possibility because “the policy of the club was to exclude Negroes and Jews.”

Melissa Minnich
Commemorating September 11th

New York is a symbol of freedom.
Everyone in the country loves you.
We hope your hearts are o.k.
You are very special to us.
Our families care about your families.
Remember we love you and are always thinking of you.
Keep up your spirits and God bless us all.

On September 11, 2026, New York City will commemorate the lives of the 2,983 men, women, and children killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. This historic moment transformed both New York City and the nation in ways both big and small, and messages of hope, encouragement, love, and resilience poured in from across the country.

Kenneth R. Cobb
Parton Is Such Sweet Music

Early in the afternoon of August 21, 1978, on the steps of City Hall, Mayor Edward Koch presented Dolly Parton with the key to the City. In his remarks at the ceremony the Mayor addressed Dolly directly:  “Dolly, you may be the only entertainer in America who has what it takes to turn New York City into a small town.” 

According to the transcript of his remarks, before he presented Dolly with the Key, he asked: “When can we do this again?”

Dolly Parton’s reply to Mayor Koch is lost to history, but thanks to the Mayor’s photograph collection we know they did meet again, nine years later at Gracie Mansion, on August 31, 1987. 

The Dog Days of August in the Municipal Library

In honor of National Dog Month, we are taking a look at the history of rules, recommendations, and practices surrounding dog ownership in NYC through the collections of the Municipal Library.

There has been a law on the books since 1859 requiring all dogs in “any street or public place, in either the cities of New-York or Brooklyn,” to be “properly muzzled, or unless being led by a chain or string” as recorded in the 1866 Code of Health Ordinances from the Metropolitan Board of Health. (This was, of course, before the consolidation of New York City’s five boroughs in 1898.)

In 1878, as reported in the daily City Record, Mayor Smith Ely, Jr. issued a proclamation establishing a dog pound at 16th Street and the East River, where all seized dogs would be delivered by the appointed dog catchers. Rather harshly, any dog “not claimed within forty-eight hours, and redeemed by the owner, by paying the sum of three dollars” was to be “killed and destroyed by drowning.”

The Municipal Library is a Library—A Conversation with Julie Robbins

On June 24, 2026, sometime late afternoon, encircling the wooden conference table of the Department of Records and Information Services headquarters at 31 Chambers, where on the walls, assembled as asymmetrical triptychs are framed historical black-and-white photographs of bridges, street scenes, or graphic news clippings, three DORIS staff sat. At the center of the table two cell phones recorded a conversation: Commissioner Smith-Cruz with Assistant Commissioner Cobb, sat across from the Deputy Librarian, Julie Robbins. At the eve of her retirement, what began as an interview quickly became a recalling of the role and its impact on our city’s records. Below is a snippet of the conversation.  

Welcome to Fear City 

In my search for content that I could use to write curriculum aids, I came across a startling item in the Municipal Library vertical files: Welcome to Fear City: A Survival Guide for Visitors to the City of New York.  

The cover image was too compelling to ignore, and its contents were even grimmer than expected. This “Survival Guide” contains nine “tips” for, well, surviving a vacation in the Big Apple. As you can see when you click inside the pamphlet, the tips are ominous, foreboding warnings such as “do not walk,” “avoid public transportation,” “Remain in Manhattan,” and “stay off the streets after 6 P.M.”

Swanky Restaurants, Luxury Hotels, & Radical Theater: A Review of the Immigrant Communities of New York

Beginning in 2018, For the Record posted articles about the Municipal Archives ongoing project to preserve and inventory the Manhattan Building Plan collection. In the most recent post last year, Project Archivist Amy Stecher provided a Building Plan Update. This week, conservator Elsie Karlak contributes a narrative of her three months on the project:

I was lucky enough to join colleagues as we continued to process plans for buildings located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The first home for many immigrants to the United States, this neighborhood experienced rapid growth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as evidenced by the large volume of “new building” (NB) applications submitted to the Department of Buildings to construct multi-family dwellings, usually described as tenements. Likewise, requests for permits to add plumbing, fire escapes, and other alterations illustrated the ongoing work necessary to make tenements safer for their residents.

A Century of Play: A History of New York City’s Playgrounds

As the summer heats up, we are taking a look at the history of New York City’s public playgrounds through the collections of the NYC Municipal Library. Government reports, manuals, photographs, and planning documents reveal how playgrounds have reflected the city’s changing priorities for more than a century, from public health and crime prevention to patriotism, accessibility, and safety.

A book titled Grounds For Play: The Movement that Built Playgrounds for the People of New York traces the origins of the playground movement in the late 19th century, when the city had no municipal playgrounds. As immigration surged, families crowded into squalid tenements, leaving children with little place to play beyond the congested streets. Reformers argued that public playgrounds would promote children’s health, provide safe spaces for recreation, and keep them away from the temptations of street life.

Central Park Lake Tour

With the return of warm weather, it is time to get outside and enjoy the City’s beautiful parks. This week, For the Record visits Manhattan’s Central Park for a tour around the Lake—19th Century style!

Located between 70th and 76th Streets, the 20-acre Central Park Lake connects the varied landscapes of the southern end of the park to the more pastoral vistas in the north. Park designers Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned the Lake as a way to provide an escape from urban life by creating an oasis within the city.

In winter 1858, the Lake became the first area in Central Park to be opened to the public. Called the “Skating Pond” on Vaux and Olmsted’s Greensward plan (their winning-design for the park competition), the Lake shows how the designers developed natural-looking waters throughout the park landscape.