Blog - For The Record — NYC Department of Records & Information Services

Dog Licenses in the Old Town Records

Dog owners in New York City will be familiar with the process of registering and licensing their pets. The Department of Health requires owners to pay a fee and fill out a form that includes the dog’s name, breed, gender, color, and vaccination and spaying/neutering status. This has been standard procedure for well over a century: the first dog licensing law in New York State was passed in 1894. The Municipal Archives collections are notably diverse and comprehensive so it should come as no surprise that dog licensing records can be found in its holdings.   

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

The place to look is the Old Town records collection. With a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the Municipal Archives has been processing the collection during this past year. It is comprised of records created in the villages and towns that were eventually consolidated into the Greater City of New York in 1898. They date back to the 1600s and consist of deeds, minutes from town boards and meetings, court records, tax records, license books, enumerations of enslaved people, school district records, city charters, information on the building of sewers and streets and other infrastructure.

The collection provides documents that are crucial to understanding when the towns and villages were purchased—or sometimes wrested—from the indigenous inhabitants, how the land was divided and sold, who governed the communities, and essentially, a fascinating record of daily life in the communities that made up what became the five boroughs of New York City after 1898.

For the Record recently highlighted the collection and the processing project.  It described records from the Board of Health, pertaining to slavery in the villages, records about taxes and school districts and town meetings and basic infrastructure and court proceedings. The Old Town collection also contains eleven ledgers related to dog licensing, all from towns and villages in Queens County.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

While these ledgers provide documentation of an important function of the Board of Health and the history of this practice, it is also simply fun to look through the license books and see what kinds of dogs past inhabitants of the city owned—and what they named them.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

The dog license ledger from the Village of Far Rockaway, dated 1896 to 1897, only a couple of years after the state law was passed, shows how the information required to register a dog with the government remains largely unchanged. Just as it does today, the registration asks for the owner’s name and the dog’s breed, description, and name. The price for registering seems to range between $1 and $2 per year (compared to $8.50 today). 

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

Old Town Records Collection* NYC Municipal Archives.

One can see that popular dog breeds were spaniels, poodles, and pugs, among others. Owners seemed to favor royalty-inspired names such as Prince and Duke.

New York City today is a dog-loving city, and it is clear from these records that this has been the case for a very long time. Look for future blogs that describe the rich and fascinating content of the Old Town collection. 

 *All photos are from: Old Town Records Collection, MS 0004, Subgroup 4, Series 6, Subseries 3, Vol. 28: License Book, Dogs, 301-601, 1896 July 1-1897 July 8

We’ll assume Mr. and Mrs. Clinton B. Nichols, of Queens County, obtained a license for their dog, ca. 1890. Borough President Queens photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

 

Archival processing and digitization of the Colonial Old Town Records is made possible by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

 

Deinstitutionalization of Mental Healthcare in New York

In 1994, WNYC-TV aired an episode of their current events talk show New York Hotline titled “Mental Illness.” Hosted by Ti-Hua Chang, an expert panel discussed the ongoing challenges of mental health treatment, legal issues surrounding mental health policy and history of deinstitutionalization (and defunding of mental health services) in New York. Many of the issues raised nearly 30 years ago sound tragically like the conversations being held today. Why do so many with mental health problems become homeless? How does the experience of homelessness worsen mental health? How do we help those who refuse treatment ?  Why are so many people with mental disorders skeptical of public mental health services?

One thing that makes discussing the topic so difficult is that our understanding of mental health has changed significantly over the course of the last century. Terms like mentally ill and mentally retarded were often used interchangeably. Homosexuality was viewed as a sickness like psychopathy or schizophrenia. Addiction was (and still is) often seen as a moral or character failure instead of a health crisis that could affect anyone.

According to the 2022 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5), a mental disorder is “...a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or development processes underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress or disability in social, occupational, or other important activities. An expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor or loss, such as the death of a loved one, is not a mental disorder. Socially deviant behavior (e.g. political, religious, or sexual) and conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are not mental disorders unless the deviance or conflict results from a dysfunction in the individual, as described above.”

D.J. Jaffe from the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, New York Hotline Episode 616: Mental illness (1994) WNYC-TV Collection

The way we treat and house those with mental disorders has changed significantly, too. Starting in the 1970s, New York State government began a long term ‘deinstitutionalization’ effort of mental health services. They sought to end large-scale institutions for people with mental disorders and transition to smaller, regional community centers that are prevalent today. One of these centers, Fountain House, was founded in the 1940s by former patients to provide a standard of care based on mutual support through social activities, temporary housing and job placement.

Fountain House Member Dorothy Purnell, New York Hotline Episode 616: Mental illness (1994) WNYC-TV Collection

The new 911 mental health response teams the administration of Bill de Blasio began in 2020 were inspired by a similar program, The White Bird Clinic. This Eugene, Oregon program began in 1969 to respond to mental health crises with health care workers instead of police, as well as more broadly serving low-income residents of the town. 

Despite these efforts, many might observe that the system today is in a desperate state. Mental disorders seem more prevalent than ever and so too are issues like homelessness and substance abuse. Some. like journalist Ti-hua Chang. might ask if it's not more humane to force these people into treatment, to institutionalize them for their own wellbeing. When considering the question, Dorothy Purnell and NY Civil Liberties Union attorney Norman Siegel both struggled to agree that people who are in dire need of healthcare might sometimes, in limited instances, benefit from being institutionalized against their will. When the need seems so dire for so many for so long, why is there still such resistance to institutionalization? While the full answer is deeply complex, one word may sum it up better than any other: Willowbrook.

Mayor Beame reappoints Dr. June Jackson Christmas as Commissioner of Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services (1973) WNYC-TV Collection

Willbrook State School was a school for the “mentally retarded”, operating from 1947 to 1987 on Staten Island. Housing mostly younger children, it was built for 4,000, but reached a population of over 6,000 by the 1960s, making it the largest such facility in the world. When Robert Kennedy toured the school in 1965, he referred to it as a snake pit where children lived in conditions worse than animals in a zoo. Cruel and unethical studies wherein mentally handicapped children were purposefully exposed to hepatitis were carried out with little regard for scientific rigor or patient safety. The 1972 WABC expose, titled ‘Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace’  first broadcast disturbing images from inside the facility. The outcry over Willowbrook and similar institutions led to the passage of the 1980 ‘Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act’ (CRIPA), which empowers the Attorney General to investigate state-run institutions that hold large numbers of people, like jails, nursing homes and mental health facilities.

It also led to closing these institutions and moving the residents to local settings, many of which were group homes staffed by social workers and medical personnel.

Regrettably, this deinstitutionalization movement was often paired with budget cuts for public mental health programs as government bodies across the country grappled with economic decline in the 1970s and ‘80s. While places like Willowbrook could not be allowed to continue, the increased funding that Commissioner Christmas hoped would fill the gaps of the mental health care system was not allocated under Mayor Beame or his successors.

The de Blasio Administration  increased funding for mental health treatment and new outreach programs. Organizations like Fountain House have expanded significantly and continue their vital mental health work.

If you or someone you know is suffering from a mental health crisis, please don’t hesitate to contact NYC Well by phone at 1-888-NYC-WELL (1-888-692-9355), by texting “WELL” to 651-73 or visiting their website at https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/en/.

Researching the Topic Abortion in the Health Commissioners Collection

The Municipal Archives has always focused on processing and providing access to collections with the broadest appeal to researchers. Two examples are the Mayoral collections and the Department of Parks series during the era of Robert Moses from the 1930s to the 1960s. Continuing this practice, the on-going processing of the New York Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit records will serve as a resource for people researching a wide array of topics in American history.

Another collection with comprehensive significance, both in terms of its intellectual content and quantity, is the Health Commissioners records.  

Demonstrating for free abortion clinics, Foley Square, ca. 1970. NYPD Special Investigations Unit photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

This week, For the Record focuses on the topic of abortion and family planning services, highlighting relevant material in the Health Commissioners records during the early 1970’s when Dr. Mary McLaughlin served as Commissioner.

The value of the Health Commissioners collection derives from the pre-eminence of the City’s Health Department as it defined the role and scope of public health services, not only locally, but for the entire nation. These records document how the City managed complex public health and political considerations in response to disease, epidemics and innumerable health-related challenges. 

The collection is vast. It totals 742 cubic feet and is composed of 21 series, one for each of the medical professionals who served as Commissioner of the Department of Health from 1928 through the early 1990s. Researchers can explore dozens of interesting topics in the collection including chronic and degenerative ailments such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and glaucoma; campaigns against venereal disease, smoking, drinking, and substance abuse; vaccination programs for polio, measles, diphtheria, hepatitis, and other diseases, many of which faced controversy upon their introduction. Other subjects represented in the collection are sickle-cell anemia, fluoridation, lead poisoning, asbestos, rat and mosquito control, asthma, and methadone. The records pertaining to the AIDS epidemic, HIV testing, and needle exchanges, beginning in the 1980s, are especially important and uniquely informative.

In 2017, For the Record featured the collection in a post Milk, Midwives and Medical Quackery. 

Mayor John V. Lindsay swears-in Dr. Mary McLaughlin as Commissioner of the Department of Health, May 28, 1969, City Hall. 1969 Annual Report of the Health Services Administration, Municipal Library.

On May 28th, 1969, Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed Dr. Mary McLaughlin as Commissioner of the Department of Health. She was the second woman to hold the post (the first was Leona Baumgartner who served from 1954-1962). Under McLaughlin’s leadership, the Health Department launched initiatives that addressed narcotics addiction, mental health, and lead poisoning. The series also provides ample documentation of another important issue– abortion.  

Memorandum regarding abortion practices in the United Kingdom, filed January 1, 1970.  Health Commissioners Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1970, three years before the Roe v. Wade U. S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion all around the country, New York State enacted legislation that permitted abortions up to the 24th week. Reviewing the correspondence, pamphlets, and news articles in the 33 folders on the topic in the Dr. McLaughlin series reveals that New York’s abortion legislation was influenced by similar debate and action in the United Kingdom.

The series also provides relevant material regarding where abortions could be performed. Specifically, whether women could obtain the service at clinics and doctors’ offices, not just hospitals. Dr. McLaughlin championed a ban against health providers performing abortions in their private offices. She believed regulating the procedure would be more effective in hospitals. Dr. McLaughlin’s motivation was to keep women as safe as possible; hence the initial decision to limit the procedure to hospitals.  

Correspondence received June 1970. Health Commissioners Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

Dr. McLaughlin held firm on her decision, weathering criticism from her colleagues, constituents, and the press:  “We don't want to act as detectives who go in to investigate after something has happened...we’re interested in the prevention of deaths and complications.” (New York Times, September 18, 1970). Eventually, the Board of Health enacted regulations that allowed early terminations (up to twelve weeks) to be performed at clinics.

Another aspect of the subject that can be investigated in the records is the number of procedures. The Health and Hospitals Corporation anticipated that more than 600 abortions would be performed per week, or roughly 110 a day. As it turned out this number was an over-estimation; the actual number was fewer than 800 procedures in two weeks.

Information about abortion is not just confined to the 33 folders in the Dr. McLaughin series. There are more than 1,400 folders on the topic throughout the Health Commissioners records.

Researchers are invited to explore this rich resource.  The collection finding guide provides a complete description of the collection and information about access.

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage month. In recognition of this tribute, For the Record is showcasing manuscripts and photographs documenting some communities in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) Collection. The May 14, 2021 blog Documenting the New Deal recounted the history of New York’s Unit of the FWP. It described how the draft manuscripts and photographs had been prepared for 64 books, only a handful of which were published, notably the New York City Guide, and New York Panorama.

Manilla Restaurant, 47 Sands Street, Brooklyn, NY, November 19, 1938. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection, Federal Art Project photograph. Photographer: Pollard. NYC Municipal Archives.

One of the more notable research endeavors of the NYC FWP were studies of the dozens of ethnic groups and communities that made up the city’s population. Then, as now, New Yorkers came from around the world—Armenia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, Egypt, Syria, Turkey—to name just a few counties. The list of countries also included several Asian Pacific nations—China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.   

For each group or community, the WPA staff researched and wrote articles on a range of subjects, typically “present distribution in New York,” customs and costumes, history, literature, music, religions, holidays, etc.

Friends of China Parade, Chinatown, December 1937. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection, Federal Art Project photograph. Photographer: Hawes. NYC Municipal Archives.

Friends of China Parade, Chinatown, December 1937. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. Photographer:  Hawes. NYC Municipal Archives.

It appears that this research was primarily intended for their signature publication, The New York City Guide. The Chinese communities in New York received fairly extensive treatment. There are seventeen folders in the collection containing articles on contributions to American culture, occupations and professions, politics, publications, in addition to the topics listed above. The Guide editors distilled this research into four pages for the section on Lower Manhattan, under the sub-head “Chinatown.” It begins with the story of “...the first Chinese known to have visited New York... Pung-hua Wing Chong, who arrived in 1807,” and goes on to describe increasing Chinese migration to New York until imposition of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Pell and Mott Streets, Chinatown, June 1938. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection.  Photographer: Treistman. NYC Municipal Archives.

The passage continues with a description of holidays celebrated in the community, local customs, and a lengthy discussion of popular stores, restaurants and menu items. “Chop suey came into existence in Chicago in 1896... literally translated the name means ‘hodge-podge.’ As prepared by restaurants in Chinatown the dish is far superior to that served in drug stores and cafeterias.”

Shop interior, Chinatown, June 1938. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. Photographer: Treistman. NYC Municipal Archives.

Looking at the coverage of another of the Asian Pacific nations, the Philippines, provides an interesting contrast. A total of three folders apparently sufficed, although maybe not surprising given the relatively small population of Filipinos in the City at that time. The following is one of the articles:

“The Filipinos of New York

Few of the Filipinos who enter the United States come to New York City; most of them settle in West Coast cities. There are 2,000 in New York, about four percent of the country’s Filipino population. Small colonies have developed in the neighborhood of Second Avenue between Thirteenth and Sixteenth Streets, and on Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Streets between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. Some Filipinos are established in Brooklyn and the district around Sands, Concord, and Nassau Streets, and along Columbia and Hamilton Avenues in South Brooklyn.

Since the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935, Filipinos, whose former status was that of American “national” – neither citizens nor aliens – have been classed as aliens, and only 50 a year may enter the United States.

The Filipino American Restaurant at 132 East Sixty-Fifth Street is the only Filipino eating place in Manhattan, but in Brooklyn there are two: the Manila Restaurant at 47 Sands Street, and the Sunrise Restaurant at 67 Sands Street. Favorite native dishes served in these places are adobon baboy—pork fried in garlic and soy sauce—and fish soups such as sinigang isda and sinigang visaya.

Most Filipinos here are Roman Catholics. About 100 belong to the Interdenominational Church at 209 Concord Street, Brooklyn. The only Filipino paper published in the city is The Filipino Student Bulletin, organ of the Filipino Students Christian Movement of 347 Madison Avenue. There are, however, 21 Filipino social and athletic organizations in New York.”

Manilla Restaurant, 47 Sands Street, Brooklyn, NY, November 19, 1938. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection, Federal Art Project photograph. Photographer: Pollard. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Filipino article, much reduced, did appear in the Guide, in the section on the Navy Yard District: “…Around Sands and Washington Streets is a colony of Filipinos; native food, extremely rare in the eastern part of the United States is served in a Filipino restaurant at 47 Sands Street. Among the favorites …mixta (beans and rice), and such tropical fruits as mangoes and pomelos, the latter a kind of orange as large as a grapefruit.” 

Manilla Restaurant, 47 Sands Street, Brooklyn, NY, November 19,1938. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection, Federal Art Project photograph. Photographer: Pollard. NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1993, the National Endowment for the Humanities supported processing and microfilming the WPA Federal Writers’ Project collection. Readers are welcome to explore the collection guide and visit the Municipal Archives to research this rich and varied collection.

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