NYC Undercover

This week, For the Record highlights two exceptional opportunities to experience innovative interpretations of archival material. Both make use of historical New York Police Department (NYPD) surveillance films from the Municipal Archives collection.

The first is the annual Photoville festival where the Municipal Archives has debuted “NYC Undercover: Post-War Sound and Vision from NYPD Surveillance and WNYC Radio” a film exhibit combining historic NYPD silent surveillance films from the 1960s and 70s, with vintage WNYC radio broadcasts.

Spring Mobilization Committee March, April 15, 1967. NYPD Special Investigations Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (later called the National Mobilization Committee) organized some of the first large-scale protests of the war in 1967.

DORIS archivist Chris Nicols created NYC Undercover using video from various events and WNYC radio broadcasts. The end results include ticker-tape parades for the Gemini III and Apollo 11 astronauts paired with an interview with legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson, who expressed his view that the astronauts were heroes, as well as an NAACP and Congress for Racial Equality protest in Southeast Queens matched with audio from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech to the City Council after winning the Nobel Prize, and more.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (third from right), Andrew Young (1), Bernard Scott Lee (2) and other supporters in the Spring Mobilization march near the Hotel St. Moritz, Central Park South and 6th Avenue, April 15, 1967. NYPD Special Investigations Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The NYPD surveillance films had been originally created by the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations (BOSSI) between 1960 and 1980. During their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, BOSSI gathered information on individuals and groups arrayed along the political spectrum, but particularly civil rights, anti-war and feminist activists.

Nicols selected the audio from the Archives’ collection of broadcasts recorded by the municipal radio station, WNYC. Launched in 1924, reporters from the city-owned station turned up at events for more than seven decades, recording everyone from news announcers, musicians, and celebrities, athletes, poets and politicians. In 1996 the radio station was sold by the City to the nonprofit WNYC Foundation and it will celebrate its centennial next year.

Earth Day, Union Square, April 22, 1970. NYPD Special Investigations Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Earth Day celebrations in Union Square Park included cleanup crews composed of school children and community members. Con Edison, often criticized for their environmental policies, donated brooms, mops, and other supplies for the cause. Other events in the park included Frisbee games and a massive plastic bubble filled with “fresh air.”

NYC Undercover will be on display through Sunday, June 18 at the Emily Warren Roebling Plaza in Brooklyn Bridge Park, from 12-6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 12-8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. For more information, visit https://photoville.nyc.

The second opportunity also makes use of historic NYPD surveillance films. On June 16, 2023, Department of Records and Information Services’ Public Artist in Residence, Kameron Neal, will debut Down the Barrel (Of A Lens). The screening will take place at the Brooklyn Army Terminal’s Annex Building. The program is free and will run from June 16, through June 18, 2023. More information and RSVP is available here.

During Neal’s residency at DORIS he examined the digitized NYPD surveillance footage from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. As noted above, the films capture a turbulent time in the City’s history. Mostly shot by plainclothes officers from 1960-1980, Neal’s interpretation focuses on a constellation of moments in the film collection when people stopped to look back directly into the camera lens; acknowledging they were being surveilled. 

Columbia students climb a barricade during protest, May 21, 1968. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. In the Spring of 1968, student protests broke out at Columbia over links with the Department of Defense and plans to build a gymnasium in Morningside Park. Students occupied several buildings.

Designed as a two-channel film installation, one channel contains footage of civilians looking directly into the camera, while the other creates an abstracted portrait of the NYPD through jittery shots of their shadows, trench coats, and shoes. The two channels face one another as a symbolic reimagining of these police encounters.

The Public Artist in Residence (PAIR) program is a municipal residency run by the Department of Cultural Affairs that embeds artists in city government to propose and implement creative solutions to pressing civic challenges. 

While both exhibits use some of the same film, the resulting projects are vastly different and illustrate how these rich collections can be used in creative pursuits. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in New York City

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The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mayor Wagner, City Hall, December 17, 1964. Official Mayoral Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 1964. Upon his return from Europe the following week, Mayor Robert Wagner presented Dr. King with the Medallion of Honor, the city’s highest award.   

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Mrs. Alberta Williams King, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and Mayor Robert Wagner, City Hall, December 17, 1964. Official Mayoral Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

“This city has officially welcomed many world‐renowned figures,” Mayor Wagner said at the City Hall ceremony on December 17. “I can think of none who has won a more lasting place in the moral epic of America. New York is proud of you, Dr. King.” 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and Mayor Wagner, City Hall, December 17, 1964. Official Mayoral Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

New York City has a long history of honoring special guests—athletes, aviators, astronauts, royalty, world leaders, even a virtuoso piano player—all celebrated with memorable receptions. Since the early years of the twentieth century, bureaus within the Mayor’s Office have been responsible for these welcoming events. During the Wagner Administration, the Department of Public Events had this responsibility.   

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Program for Presentation of the City of New York Medallion of Honor, to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., December 17, 1964. Mayor Robert Wagner Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Examining files in the Public Events series within the Mayor Wagner papers, reveals extensive documentation regarding Dr. King’s reception. On December 1, 1964, Department of Public Events Commissioner Emma Rothblatt convened a meeting of twenty-six people to discuss arrangements for the day’s activities. The resulting multi-page minutes of the “Planning Meeting” detailed the necessary preparations. The press release subsequently issued on December 15, provided the finalized schedule for the day’s ceremonies: “Dr. King will be driven in an official limousine heading a five-car motorcade, with police escort from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.” Proceeding down the East River Drive, the motorcade will arrive at City Hall where Mayor Wagner will present the Medallion of Honor. Later in the evening, at 6 p.m. “Mayor Wagner will tender an official City reception to Dr. King in the Empire Room of the Waldorf Astoria and present a desk set, bearing the seal of the City of New York.”

Program for Presentation of the City of New York Medallion of Honor to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., December 17, 1964. Mayor Robert Wagner Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Correspondence in the files demonstrates the thoroughness of the preparations. The December 15 memo to Public Events staff member Colonel Paul Armus is typical:  “Subject: Lincoln Cars. To: Colonal Armus. Please make the necessary arrangements for the release of the three Lincoln cars for Thursday, December 17th, from approximately 9:30 A.M. until midnight.” Other memos discussed gifts to be presented to Dr. King’s father, mother, and wife. On December 4, Commissioner Rothblatt notified Armus that “The Mayor has decided that the Silver Letter Opener for Dr. King’s father and the charm key for Dr. King’s wife and mother will be presented at the reception on December 17. Just to be certain however, I will have the awards ready at City Hall should the Mayor call for them.” 

Seating Arrangement for Dr. King’s Motorcade, December 17, 1964. Mayor Robert Wagner Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Other folders contain documents concerning the evening reception at the Waldorf Astoria. Labeled “Very Special Attention,” a checklist specified the beverages to be served (Scotch, Rye, Bourbon “on-the-Rocks” and Highballs, Gin and Tonic, Old Fashioned, and Dry Martini Cocktails to be freshly made as needed”), gratuities (“No Tipping” signs to be displayed”), decorations, flags, music (“Provide one well-tuned Baby Grand Piano…”), as well as the extensive menu. It also included a list of the 400 invited guests—Vice President‐elect Hubert Humphrey and Mr. and Mrs. Count Basie, among the acceptances. 

Invitation to Reception for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Waldorf-Astoria, December 17, 1964. Mayor Robert Wagner Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The next day’s New York Times reported on Dr. King’s visit: “Addressing a crowd that packed every corner of the City Council Chamber and overflowed into the corridors of City Hall, Dr. King, in a deep voice and measured tones, said: ‘I am returning with a deeper conviction that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time—the need for men to end the oppression and violence of racial persecution, destructive poverty and war without resorting to violence and oppression’.” 

Memorandum regarding City Hall reception for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., December 2, 1964. Mayor Robert Wagner Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Times also noted that “Dr. King slipped the medal into the right flap pocket of his dark‐blue suit. In the left inside pocket of his jacket was the small, yellow check of the Nobel Prize Committee, made out for 273,000 Swedish kroner ($54,600).” The Times report added that Dr. King planned to donate his entire prize to the civil rights movement.

On this weekend as we reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, please take a few minutes to listen to Dr. King’s remarks at the City Hall ceremony: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. December 17, 1964 at City Hall

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., City Hall, December 17, 1964. Official Mayoral Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

“Yes, our souls have been tried in the cold and bitter Valley Forges of the Deep South, and black and white together, we have met the test. We shall overcome.” 

-Dr. Martin Luther King, December 17, 1964.