Treating the Brooklyn Bridge Drawings, Phase One

On January 17, 2020, we introduced the Municipal Archives Conservation Unit’s latest project, “Conserving Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge Plans.” Before the Archives temporarily closed in mid-March, project conservators had devised some innovative protocols for treating the oversized plans (up to 36’ in length!) in these two iconic collections.  

The project is funded by the New York State Library’s Conservation/Preservation Program. The goal is to perform the necessary treatments so that the drawings can be stabilized for improved storage, either rolled, or housed in new 7-foot long flat file drawers.

Conservator Clare Manias examines a 14-ft. Brooklyn Bridge drawing. NYC Municipal Archives.

Project conservators began with the oversize Brooklyn Bridge items. Drawings this large present a unique set of challenges. Routine treatments, transporting the drawings, photographic documentation, and use of available workspace all need to be approached differently. It became clear that we would need to think creatively to make the most efficient use of our time and workspace.

The constraints imposed by the size of the drawings means something as trivial as moving a drawing to the conservation laboratory requires three people. One person opens the doors and ensures the hallway is clear. The other two conservators load the drawings—usually 3 or 4 at a time—on a rigid foam core board which is carried by hand to the laboratory. The size of these drawings and the fact that they are currently housed in Mylar sleeves also makes them very heavy! In the laboratory they are placed on an extra-long table that can accommodate two drawings side by side. Two smaller tables that are on castors can also be pushed together to create another long table to accommodate some of the smaller drawings.

With these constraints in mind, we decided to batch our documentation photography, surface cleaning, and media testing as a “phase one” in treating the drawings. The basic “batch” process is as follows: we photograph a drawing, then while it is still in place on the table, we surface clean it, and test the solubility of the media. We also take notes on the condition of the drawing. Combining these tasks limits how often we need to transport the drawings to and from storage.

It is important to document the process of conservation treatments. Ethically, it is necessary for conservators to leave written and photographic documentation of the treatment that has been performed as a reference for future conservators. The photographic images taken during this process may be the only way for patrons to view the drawings, given their size and fragile state.

The size of these drawings required us to adopt innovative methods for the photography part of the project. Ordinarily, for small objects, a handheld camera or a camera on a copy-stand would suffice; however, these drawings are too long for that method. The majority of the drawings range between 6-to 15-feet in length and are about 2-to 3-feet wide. It is just not possible to capture the entirety of the drawing in one image, thus we shoot the recto and verso of each drawing in sections and later merge them together in Photoshop to create a panorama of the entire work. To successfully do this, we need to make sure that the images are all taken from the same angle, with the same settings, so that they will seamlessly align.

Conservator Sara Bone photographs an oversize Brooklyn Bridge drawing with the camera on the mono-stand, LED lights, and light reflection board. NYC Municipal Archives

The key piece of equipment for this type of photography is the mono-stand. The mono-stand allows the camera to be positioned about 9 feet above the floor, and the height can be adjusted, as needed.  It is also on wheels, so it can easily be moved along each section as we take pictures. Blotters covering the table surface provide a clean, consistent background for the image and help to maintain contrast against the items we are photographing. The height of the camera on the mono-stand is adjusted based on the width of the drawing. A drawing with a smaller width means the camera can be closer to the object to have it fill out the frame.  It is generally best to have the camera slightly zoomed in because when it is fully zoomed out it has a tendency to give a “fish-eye” effect, which makes stitching together the panorama more difficult.

With the camera positioned high up on the mono-stand, we need a stepladder to reach the shutter button! While there are some systems that sync the camera to a computer to remotely release the shutter, this is not possible with our setup.

Another vital piece of equipment are LED lights with softboxes that provide consistent diffuse light to ensure that the images are as accurate as possible. The overhead lights are turned off during photography because they have a warmer temperature light and do not provide even lighting. We rely primarily on the LED lights, although there is natural light that comes through the windows as well. A color bar is inserted into each of the photos so that in post-processing we can adjust the white balance and make sure the color information conveyed is accurate.

Because the drawings are placed on a table and the lights can only be positioned on one side of the table, the top edge of the drawings appear more in shadow. To aid in the way light reaches all areas of the image, we created our own light reflection board. A sheet of blotter was mounted to a rigid board and propped up on stands. When placed on the other side of the drawing on the table, this allows the light to bounce off the white blotter and reflect back onto the drawing. We move the light apparatus along with the mono-stand as we take the photographs at regular intervals, capturing every section of the drawings. Two people position the lights and reflection board while a third person is up on the stepladder taking the picture. Usually all three pairs of hands are needed to carefully flip the drawing over so the other side can be photographed.

In Photoshop, the images are adjusted for white balance and then cropped close to the borders of the drawing. The “Automate: Photomerge” function is used to automatically align the images into a panorama. Manual adjustments can then be made as needed.

Brooklyn Bridge drawing 4121-G, section. NYC Municipal Archives.

Following photography, with the drawing still out on the table, we begin the surface cleaning of both sides, using a soot sponge. The sponge lifts up the surface dirt without being too abrasive on the paper. Many drawings are so dirty that we see a dramatic difference as we clean! After surface cleaning the media is tested to see if it is water-soluble. Testing media is an important step because we need to check whether the ink is stable. We would like to wash as many of the drawings as possible to remove acids and other harmful byproducts in the paper. To test the inks and other media, we drop a small bead of water on an obscure section of the media to see whether the ink will bleed or if any lifts off when pressed with blotter.

Finally, we take notes on the condition of the drawing which completes phase one of treatment. Each drawing is then wrapped in acid-free buffered tissue and moved to temporary storage to await phase two, which will include more targeted treatments such as washing, mending, and lining. Using our batch treatment protocol we will photograph, surface clean, and media test the 78 Brooklyn Bridge drawings in an organized and efficient way.

We are looking forward to resuming the oversize drawings conservation project when the Archives re-opens. Look for updates in future blogs.

Those Boys of Summer Are Gone Again

It’s 1958 all over again.

That was the year after the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants played their last games in New York City and left for the West Coast – Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively. Those storied old National League ballparks – Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds – became ghost towns, with no teams playing in them and no fans cheering, booing, drinking beer and munching on hot dogs.

More than 35,000 baseball fans turned out to witness the Dodgers defeat both the Yankees (6-1) and the Giants (1-0) in a double header at Yankee Stadium to benefit the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office on April 14, 1943. Fiorello LaGuardia Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Now, 62 years later, all the ball parks across North America, from Boston to San Diego, are ghost towns – victims of the coronavirus, COVID-19, that has scratched at least the first half of the baseball season. There were tentative plans to start the season in July, but many details – big and small – must still be worked out.

But a trip through the Municipal Archives digital galleries brings back those sweet memories of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers – “The Boys of Summer” Roger Kahn wrote about, and the rival New York Giants. The Yankees were the only game in town from 1957 through 1961, depriving at least two-thirds of all New York baseball fans of a team to root for.

Now, even Yankee Stadium is quiet in this Summer of Covid-19.

Mr. and Mrs. Babe Ruth (center) and Kate Smith (lower left) at the 1936 World Series (Yankees vs. Giants) at the Polo Grounds. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Dodgers and Giants rivalry dates back to the 1880s. They first faced each other in the 1889 World Series, when the Giants, based in Manhattan, played against a Dodgers’ forerunner, the Bridegrooms from Brooklyn. It was an inter-city rivalry — Brooklyn and New York City were separate cities at the time. The Giants, who played in the Polo Grounds, took the best-of-11 series, six games to three from Brooklyn, which played in the old Washington Park near the Gowanus Canal.

Charles Ebbets eventually accumulated 80 percent ownership of the Dodgers and built Ebbets Field at a cost of $775,000 ($19.4 million in today’s dollars) in 1912. The new stadium hosted its first game in April 1913.

Ebbets Field, plot plan, New building application,1912, Department of Buildings (Brooklyn) Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Ebbets Field, Cedar Place elevation. New building application,1912, Department of Buildings (Brooklyn) Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Ebbets Field, Second tier plan, New building application,1912, Department of Buildings (Brooklyn) Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The team, known lovingly as “Dem Bums,” had its share of characters in the 1930s, including Dazzy Vance, Babe Herman and Chick Fewster, who somehow once all ended up up on third base at the same time. Two were called out in one of baseball’s wackiest plays.

They also had some of the most loyal fans who stuck with them despite losing five of six World Series matchups with the Yankees between 1941 and 1956 – and their collapse in 1951 when they blew a 14-game lead to the Giants and lost the pennant race on Bobby Thompson’s homer known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

Ebbets Field, Brooklyn. 1940 Tax Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In the late 1940s, when Brooklyn had a growing African-American population, General Manager Branch Rickey broke the game’s color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson, who overcame discrimination, segregation and vicious taunting by opposing players and fans in other cities, to become the first black Major League Baseball player and Rookie of the Year in in 1947. He later led the Dodgers to their only World Series championship in 1955. (No one counts the 1889 win as a Dodger victory since they were then called the Bridegrooms, ostensibly because about a half dozen of their players got married in 1888).

Polo Grounds, Field and Lower Grandstand plan. NYC Municipal Archives.

Then the seemingly impossible happened – owner Walter O’Malley decided to move the beloved Bums to Los Angeles after a rancorous fight with the city and its imperious Parks Commissioner, Robert Moses, over building the Dodgers a new ballpark to replace the deteriorating Ebbets Field.

The Municipal Archives contains letters, telegrams, and pleas, mostly from Brooklynites, to build the Dodgers a new stadium at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues – all for naught. The Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 in front of a paltry crowd of just 6,700 fans. The stadium’s capacity was about 30,000 at the time every game was nearly sold out during the Dodgers’ heyday.  

At the same time, the Giants, who played in the Polo Grounds since 1885, were also planning to go westward. The team, known as the Gothams from 1883 to 1885, fielded some powerhouse teams winning a handful of pennants and World Series matchups in the early 1900s and then again in the 1930s through 1954.

Baseball teams composed of active members of the New York City Police, Fire, and Sanitation Departments drew crowds to the Polo Grounds stadium in the late 1930s. The New York Police Department vs. the Sanitation Department, September 17, 1939. New York Police Department Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

During those years, fans filled the stands to root for such as stars as Mel Ott, Carl Hubbell, Bill Terry, Bobby Thomson, Sal Maglie and Willie Mays, who made a nearly impossible over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz blast to deepest center field of the Polo Grounds – some 470 feet from home plate – during the 1954 World Series between the Giants and the Cleveland Indians.

The Polo Grounds also hosted games between city police, fire, and sanitation teams for many years when the Giants were out of town – as well as Negro League games. In 1941, the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees played a double header “City Championship” game at Yankee Stadium, offering 50,000 tickets at $1.10 apiece.

The New York Police Department vs. the Fire Department, Polo Grounds, June 11, 1938. New York Police Department Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

But in 1957, Giants owner Horace Stoneham joined forces with O’Malley and went to California seeking a second Gold Rush. The Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds on Sept. 29, 1957, losing to Pittsburgh 9-1.

Collegiate football at the Polo Grounds. Texas A. & M. vs. Manhattan College, October 1937. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Like Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds went quiet for baseball. For Ebbets Field and the Dodgers,the quiet was  permanent. The stadium was demolished in 1960 and replaced by a huge housing complex known as the Ebbets Field Apartments; the only remnant of the baseball stadium is a plaque.

The Polo Grounds, which had hosted many football games over the years, went quiet for baseball until the New York Mets were founded in 1963: They played their first two hapless seasons there while Shea Stadium was being built. The Polo Grounds, home of the old American Football League’s New York Titans in the early 1960s, hosted its last-ever game in September 1963. It was torn down the following year to be replaced by a giant – pardon the pun – housing complex. All that remains is a huge old staircase that led from Coogan’s Bluff downhill to the stadium.

Mayor LaGuardia stands by while New York State Governor Herbert Lehman prepares to throw out the first ball for the first game of the 1936 World Series (Yankees vs. Giants) at the Polo Grounds, September 30, 1936. (Negative damaged.) WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

And, now in the Spring and Summer of 2020 the ballparks of New York – Citi Field and a new Yankee Stadium – are once again quiet. The Boys of Summer are gone once again.

Spectators enjoy the 1936 World Series ( Yankees vs. Giants) at the Polo Grounds, 1936. WPA Federal Writer’s Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

There are no fans roaring like they did when Willie Mays robbed Vic Wertz at the Polo Grounds; no wild cheers as when Gil Hodges — tied the then-record for most National League grand slams in early September 1957 at Ebbets Field. Things just won’t be the same until a Major League umpire cries out “Play Ball,” in a stadium that, for at least a while, won’t have any fans in attendance, no kids to chase after balls in the stands and no smell of hot dogs and beer.

Every baseball fan in America is waiting.

From Health Officer of the Port to Disease Detectives: Public Health Workers in New York City

More than 250 years ago, the sole responsibility of New York City's first public health workers, as they could be called, was keeping disease out of the city. It is a function essential to a rapidly-growing metropolis. Centuries later, we are again face-to-face with it, even as New York in 2020 bears almost no resemblance to the port city at the lower tip of Manhattan it once was.

Until the late 19th century, the role of public health was largely to react to outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and yellow fever. A Health Officer of the Port enforced the quarantining of ships coming into New York Harbor when there was a known or suspected contagion.

Group portrait of 17 sanitary inspectors, 1870-1873. NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1805, a designated board of the mayor and legislators was tasked with overseeing the health of city residents. Officials kept increasingly robust counts of the dead in an attempt to stem these diseases. The city's sanitary inspectors, part of the nascent Board of Health, worked to ensure the streets were free of garbage and rotting animals and vacant lots were unsoiled.

The population of Manhattan skyrocketed mid-century with the arrival of Irish and German immigrants, more than doubling the population between 1840 and 1860. Yearly outbreaks of cholera were exacerbated by tightly-packed housing quarters where these newcomers resided in neighborhoods such as the Five Points. Efforts to manage the health of the population became a more pressing issue for city government.

Aerial view of Hoffman Island, off Staten Island, once used to quarantine incoming immigrants, circa 1934-1945. Mayor LaGuardia Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The state created a new board of professionals to oversee health in New York City and its immediate surrounding areas in 1866. This was followed by a full-fledged Department of Health, staffed by doctors and other professionals in 1870. New York City opened the first city-controlled diagnostic laboratory in 1892, employing bacteriologists who mitigated outbreaks of infectious diseases over the years through testing and producing antitoxins and vaccines. The city’s public health lab continues this work to this day.

Additional waves of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe around the turn of the century and reforms in the social, educational and labor realms ushered in the public health nursing movement. In 1902, the New York City Department of Health created the first public health nursing program in the country. City nurses were installed at schools and paid home visits to millions of families and new mothers to tackle high infant mortality rates. Baby health stations popped up around the five boroughs. Public health nurses advised and examined pregnant women and mothers of young children, gave referrals, instruction on early child care and breast-feeding, information about access to city services and provided low-cost, quality milk.

Nurse visiting patient, possibly with tuberculosis, in tenement apartment, ca. 1910. Department of Public Charities Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Fleet of “healthmobiles” employed by the Department of Health in the late 1920s to promote information about diphtheria and offer free toxin-antitoxins. NYC Municipal Archives.

Through the Great Depression to the post-World War II years, federal and private money funded an expansion of health services. Physicians and nurses staffed new district health centers. More food inspectors examined more establishments. And the city increased resources focusing on child health by bringing dentistry into the fold of city services.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia with Department of Health Commissioner John Rice touting the plunging city death rate to under 10 per 1,000 of population for the first time, 1939. Mayor LaGuardia Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Baby Health Station under elevated tracks at Gun Hill Road and White Plains Road, Bronx, circa 1940s. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Department of Health struggled and contracted under Mayor John Lindsay’s superagency reorganization plan and subsequent economic crisis of the 1970s only to take on renewed importance when HIV appeared and devastated the city. The city was able to secure outside funds to bolster staff and much-needed tracing, research and outreach programs. City health workers continued the uphill fight against HIV/AIDS on a community basis. They tackled tuberculosis outbreaks and lead poisoning among vulnerable populations into the 2000s.

Technicians at work in a Department of Health laboratory, circa 1940s. NYC Municipal Archives.

As the city launches its contact tracing and testing program for Covid-19, it is important to remember this work has a history in New York City. During the first decades of the 20th century, the Department of Health’s Dr. Josephine Baker was instrumental in tracking down asymptomatic carrier “Typhoid Mary” Mallon. Department employees, sometimes with the help of volunteers, have used detective methods of sorts to track, refer and follow up on cases of tuberculosis, venereal diseases and later, HIV/AIDS. At the threat of a smallpox outbreak in 1947, city health workers and volunteers vaccinated an astonishing 6.3 million New Yorkers in a month! In 1978, staff epidemiologists tracked the source of the city’s first outbreak of Legionnaires Disease.

The city continues to disperse health workers to New Yorkers’ homes, schools, restaurants and other businesses to monitor the city’s health on numerous fronts. Providing direction for New Yorkers coping with the Covid-19 pandemic is the latest example of the city’s public health workers fulfilling a centuries-old imperative.

Orchard Beach

New Yorkers may remember the 2020 Memorial Day weekend as the year they did not go swimming at City beaches. In the ongoing effort to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, City beaches will remain closed to many beach-goers, including swimmers, on what is the unofficial start of summer. Perhaps they will open later in the summer when it becomes safer.  

Can’t swim in the ocean? The two million pictures in the Municipal Archives photograph gallery are always a good distraction. 

Orchard Beach, aerial view, June 15, 1937. Still under construction in the summer of 1937, a year after its official dedication, the white sands of the new 1.06-mile crescent-shaped Orchard Beach connected Hunter Island (foreground) with Rodman’s Neck. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses disliked the pebbly gray sand of Long Island Sound and had the fine white sand of the Rockaways dredged and hauled by barge to his new beach in Pelham Bay Park. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Bathhouses, Pelham Bay Park, April 9, 1934. Pelham Bay Park had been a popular summer destination with hundreds of bungalows and bathhouses. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Searching the gallery for “beach” photographs brought up dozens of evocative images—many, not surprisingly—in the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) collection. And of those, the vast majority document the work of Robert Moses, New York’s legendary “Master Builder.” Appointed by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia as Commissioner of the Department of Parks in 1934, Moses served through four mayoral administrations until 1960. Widely criticized today for destroying neighborhoods by routing highways through them, Moses also was responsible for creating pools, parks and beaches throughout the five Boroughs.

This selection of photographs from the gallery features Orchard Beach, one of eleven new swimming pools and beaches Moses opened in the summer of 1936. Located on the east side of Pelham Bay in Pelham Bay Park, Orchard Beach was built with millions of federal Works Progress Administration dollars and workers. Often called “The Bronx Riviera,” Orchard Beach is a superb example of Moses’ reputation for superior design and ‘getting things done.’

Federally-funded WPA workers demolish existing structures and the retaining in Pelham Bay Park, April 9, 1934. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (seated at right), at the dedication ceremony for Orchard Beach, July 25, 1936. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Although only one-third completed, Orchard Beach was the eighth of eleven new city aquatic recreational centers formally opened during the summer of 1936. In his remarks at the dedication ceremony Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia addressed those who denounced the WPA relief program as a wasteful ‘make work’ government boondoggle: “We have heard of criticism from time to time of relief work as a way of meeting depression problems. Well, I believe relief work has become an American institution.  It is the American way of meeting the emergency relief problem. It is a way of treating the relief problem in a sound and sensible way, in that it gives the community something in return for aid which it extends.” 

The “something in return” the Mayor saluted that July morning would eventually include an 8,000-car parking lot, a magnificent bathhouse with locker rooms, restaurants and shops, plaza, and boardwalk as well as parkland, nature trails, picnic areas, playgrounds, an athletic field, tennis courts, boat harbors, and the beach itself.

Aerial view of Orchard Beach, the pavilion and vast parking lot, June 24, 1938. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Orchard Beach Pavilion, April 4, 1939. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Architect Aymar Embury II (1880-1966) designed the 200,000-square foot pavilion as the centerpiece of the beach complex.  Moses had wanted it to blend in with the hilly, wooded landscape behind it and had to plead with the WPA for approval of Embury’s colonnaded classic design solution.  Embury went on to collaborate with Moses on several other projects including the Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and Jacob Riis Park. 

In 2006, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Orchard Beach as a landmark calling it “among the most remarkable public recreational facilities ever constructed in the United States.” In the designation report, Landmarks described the concrete, brick, and limestone bathhouse:  “… embellished with tile and terrazzo finishes, [it] features two monumental colonnades that radiate outward from a raised central terrace. The crescent-shaped promenade, which follows the curve of the beach, is paved with hexagonal blocks and edged by cast-iron railings evoking a nautical motif.”  

Orchard Beach Pavilion upper terrace, June 15, 1940. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Boat harbor, Orchard Beach, 1939. Rowboats available for rent by the hour were another amenity for Orchard Beach visitors. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Arriving for a day at Orchard Beach, 1939. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Shorts and a t-shirt would not have been considered appropriate attire for the journey to the beach in the 1930s. Beach goers were expected to bring their bathing suit, or rent one, and change in the bathhouse, using one of the 5,000 lockers to check their clothes, or risk a $5.00 fine if caught slipping into their trunks in the bathroom. Other rules forbade sitting on a newspaper on the sand to prevent the inevitable litter.  Offenders were tried within hours at a special court.

Concession building, Orchard Beach, 1940. The nautically clad sales staff at the beach shop offered model sailboats, Kewpie dolls and big straw hats. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Concession area, Orchard Beach, September 10, 1940. Embury’s Moderne-style is evident in the concession interior. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Crowded summer beach scene, Orchard Beach, circa 1940. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

An extraordinary achievement, Orchard beach provided wonderful recreational opportunities for Depression-weary City residents.  Today, we look forward to the day we can once again “dive in” at the beach.

We’ll Be Back!

We’ll Be Back!

New York is a destination city. In 2019, more than 66 million visitors from the United States and around the world enjoyed sights and venues throughout the city with maybe only a “sold out” notice spoiling their good times. Preliminary numbers for 2020 looked like it would be another record-breaker. That is, until 8 p.m., March 22nd, when Governor Andrew Cuomo put New York State on “pause,” closing all but essential businesses and requiring residents to “shelter-in-place.” Overnight, the city’s entire $70-billion tourism industry evaporated.

Brooklyn Bridge and the lower Manhattan skyline, ca. 1987. The iconic towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the greatest public-works achievements of the 19th Century, has attracted photographers since completion in 1883. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Times Square, ca. 1987. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The current travel restrictions present an un-precedented and unique circumstance in New York City’s history. With the exception of a relatively short period after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and the occasional blizzard or hurricane, visitors have enjoyed “the city that never sleeps,” without interruption.

New Yorkers are looking forward to the day when we will once again welcome friends and visitors to explore this great metropolis. In the meantime, we can ‘virtually’ visit some of the city’s most popular attractions as depicted in pictures commissioned by the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau in the mid-1980s. It is a small collection—only 52 transparencies—but their bright colors and iconic scenery showcase what the city has to offer. Although the pictures are not dated, based on signs and banners, it appears the bulk were taken in 1986 or 1987. 

Fifth Avenue entrance, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 1987. The Museum’s entrance steps have long served as a welcome respite for visitors and a prime location for people watching. The Museum is celebrating its 150th birthday in 2020. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau. Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The New York Convention and Visitors Bureau created the photographs to illustrate their promotional materials. Formed in 1934 by merchants, hotel owners and other businesses to bring conventions to the city, the Bureau is a non-profit making entity. The Bureau and its companion organization, NYC & Company, are not city agencies, although they do receive budget support from tax-levy funds.

United Nations member flags welcome visitors to another popular city destination, ca. 1987. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The bronze sculpture of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center is a can’t miss midtown attraction, ca. 1987. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Given the many enduring wonders of the city it would seem that the Bureau’s job would be easy. But there were times when promoting the city was a challenge. “Has New York's image unjustifiably soured, from Fun City to Crime City?” headlined a June 14, 1972, New York Times story about the Bureau’s launch of their annual “New York is a Summer Festival.” For the coronation of Ms. Bernadette Allen, the 19th-annual Summer Festival Queen that year, the Bureau hosted a gala event at one of the city’s premier tourist venues, the Empire State Building. They enlisted celebrities such as Duke Ellington and the “ageless” actress Gloria Swanson to preside over the festival. It is not entirely clear how Swanson’s remarks at the launch, as quoted in the Times, would help to promote tourism: “I chose to live in New York City in 1938 because I pay taxes here.” Perhaps the comment she added, “I’m the hostess with the mostest,” better served the cause. 

The Twin Towers dominate the pre-9/11 Lower Manhattan nighttime skyline, ca. 1987. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Over the next several decades, the city experienced a renaissance and with it, tourism boomed. According to the Bureau, in 1977, more than 16 million tourists visited the city. By 1990, the figure climbed to 20 million, and surpassed 31 million by the end of the decade. After 9/11, tourism in the city gradually escalated up to 54 million in 2013. In 2019, the Bureau counted more than 66 million visitors—53.1 domestic travelers; and 13.5 arriving from overseas.

Taxis in Manhattan, ca. 1987. By the late 1980s, the Chevrolet Caprice had replaced the once-ubiquitous Checker Cab as the taxi of choice for fleet owners. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Antique auto in the Coney Island Boardwalk parade, ca. 1987. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Aqueduct Raceway in Queens, ca. 1987. The New York Convention and Visitors Bureau used their promotional materials to lure visitors to attractions outside Manhattan. New York Convention and Visitors Bureau Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Hard Hat Riots, May 8, 1970

Friday, May 8, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the uglier incidents in New York’s history, in a year that was one of the most tumultuous in recent US history. In front of Federal Hall and under the statue of George Washington, construction workers stormed a student protest against the Vietnam War and chased both students and bystanders through the streets, beating and kicking them. Known as the Hard Hat Riots, it sparked two weeks of protests, counter protests and marches. Historians and journalists have debated the meaning of the incident ever since.

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Construction workers raising American flag on the steps of Federal Hall, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Construction workers breaking through police lines, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

It is hard to make sense of the event without understanding the backdrop:

On April 29, 1970, President Nixon ordered American troops into Cambodia to track Viet Cong forces. The Vietnam War was already deeply unpopular and dividing America, but Nixon had run on a campaign of ending the war with honor. He asked Americans for patience in a famous November 1969 speech urging the “silent majority” of Americans who were not out protesting to stand by him. Now he was expanding the war, “leaving Vietnam through Cambodia” as the comedian George Carlin put it.

The invasion of Cambodia inflamed anti-war protesters. Students on college and high school campuses around the country began walk outs and protests. Kent State University in Ohio was one of those schools. After several days of unrest, including the torching of the campus Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) building, the National Guard was called in to quell the protests. On Monday May 4th, the Guard ordered protesters to disperse, firing tear gas into the crowd. For reasons still unclear, a sergeant fired live ammunition into the crowd, sparking a volley of 67 rounds. Thirteen students were hit, leaving four dead and nine wounded.

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Flyer incorporating images from the Kent State shootings for an anti-war protest at 43rd and Madison, on May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, series III, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Flyer incorporating images from the Kent State shootings for an anti-war protest at 43rd and Madison, on May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, series III, NYC Municipal Archives.

The sight of soldiers firing on unarmed college students shook the nation, but it also elicited sentiments that the students “got what was coming to them.” The galvanizing effect on the anti-war movement was immediate, and on Tuesday May 5th students across the nation staged more walk-outs and strikes. New York City Mayor John Lindsay ordered the American flag topping City Hall to be flown at half-mast. Students from Columbia University and City College staged a memorial march between the schools. A small group of students from NYU and Hunter College staged a protest in front of Federal Hall. All week a group gathered there without incident except for Thursday afternoon when a small group of construction workers arrived to confiscate American flags that they said were being desecrated. Mayor Lindsay declared Friday May 8th a day of remembrance and high school and college classes were canceled. Multiple small protests were staged throughout the City.

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Flyer for Wall Street protest on May 7, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, series III, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Flyer for student strikes, week of May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, series III, NYC Municipal Archives.

The crowd at Federal Hall grew to over a thousand, mostly high school and college students. All morning the protesters listened to speakers from the steps of Federal Hall calling for an end to the war and social injustices at home, watched over by a small line of police. Just before noon, over 200 construction workers and others descended on Federal Hall from four directions, joined by others along the way. Many of the men carried American flags and demanded to plant them in front of Washington’s statue. What happened next was unclear, but eye witnesses said a man spit on a flag, blew his nose on it, and taunted the workers. Within moments, the construction workers broke through the police barricades, punched him in the face and started their rampage. Protesters were violently thrown off the steps, “longhairs” seemed to be singled out for the most brutal attacks, but even stock traders and lawyers from nearby firms who tried to shelter the teens reported that they were savagely attacked. A female secretary reported that as she was beaten for trying to help a student a man said, “If you want to be treated like an equal, we'll treat you like one.”1

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Journalist being pushed off of a ledge by workers, May 8, 1970. Photograph by Howard Petrick. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Student injured in riots, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

A group of workers stormed nearby Pace College, upset by an anti-war banner there, beating more students and smashing windows with crowbars and pipes. A group continued to City Hall Park demanding that the flag be raised to full mast. The park and City Hall Plaza were completely open, and the few police onsite could or would not stop the protesters. An aide to Mayor Lindsay was assaulted. A postal worker made it to the roof and raised the flag. When the flag was lowered again moments later, a larger group of angry construction workers broke through the police. Fearing that they might set fire to City Hall, Deputy Mayor Richard Aurelio ordered city workers to raise the flag again. At Trinity Church on Broadway, a makeshift hospital for the students was attacked by the mob and the flag of the Episcopal Church was torn from the building. Many eye-witnesses claimed that throughout the day the police stood by and let the mob beat students. Seventy people were injured and only six arrests were made.

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Student filmmaker after being assaulted by workers, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Construction worker assaulting man on Broadway, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Workers stomping on a man on Broadway, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Workers assaulting pedestrians on Broadway, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Construction workers assaulting people in front of City Hall, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Man injured in riots in front of Federal Hall, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

The press struggled to make sense of this event. Was this Nixon’s silent majority flexing their muscle? Time magazine had just declared “Middle Americans” their people of the year, and it seemed that this was middle America saying they had had enough of the revolution. The last few months had seen activist groups splinter into more violent factions, including the Weather Underground who firebombed the Manhattan home of the judge in the Panther 21 trial and accidentally blew up a Greenwich Village townhouse while making bombs. Many in America looked at events like these and began to wonder if America had, as 63% of them told a pollster for the Nixon campaign, “seriously gotten off on the wrong track.”2

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Arthur Muglia taunting construction workers from the steps of Federal Hall, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

There was a lot more going on below the surface though. First off, the man who taunted the workers was not a student radical, but a middle-aged man in a suit by the name of Arthur Muglia. He told a lawyer, Michael Belknap, who helped him to the hospital that he wasn’t against the war but was protesting the treatment he had been given in government hospitals. Belknap told police he was under the impression that Mr. Muglia “was not all there.” Upon returning to the scene, Belknap pleaded with construction workers to stop beating a student, at which point he was branded a “commie lawyer” and savagely beaten in the face.

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Arthur Muglia being punched by a construction worker on the steps of Federal Hall, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Construction workers on Park Row, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

Other eye-witnesses to the riots described seeing men in gray suits with union patches directing the assaults. Construction workers described being told by their shop stewards that they would get paid for walking off their job sites (mostly from the World Trade Center) and “cracking some heads.” Peter J. Brennan, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and Vice-President of the NY State AFL-CIO, called the protests a spontaneous display of patriotism. However, many thought he directed them. Brennan, a staunch anti-communist, had clashed with Mayor Lindsay for several years over many issues, including efforts to integrate the building construction trades. Whether he was the puppet master of the May 8th assault or not, he took full advantage of the aftermath. In the following days, a rather predictable back and forth occurred as Mayor Lindsay criticized the police for their lack of action, and police union leaders accused the mayor of undermining the police. City Hall/NYPD relations were already strained, just a week earlier, Lindsay had established the Knapp Commission in response to Detective Frank Serpico’s tales of widespread police corruption.

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Construction workers leaving the riots to cheers from Stock Exchange workers, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Lindsay demanded an investigation into the May 8th incident. The NYPD interviewed hundreds of witnesses, protesters, and police. They also fielded many calls and letters supporting and opposing the construction workers. An economist from the US Labor Department described pleading with police officers to help the students and make arrests. A Mrs. Tuohey called “to give the name of the biggest communist in the Country—John Lindsay—Gracie Mansion.”

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Construction workers on Broadway during the riots, May 8, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

Police commanders described being stretched thin that day and unprepared for the confrontation. The log for the day describes the Special Events Squad responding to: 300 students at Queens College trying to block the Long Island Expressway, 300 marchers on West 184th Street and Jerome Avenue, 150 people marching to Union Square, 100 Young Lords and Black Panthers demonstrating in front of 100 Centre Street, 100 picketers at John Adams HS in Queens, 300 people marching on Queens Boulevard, a protest in front of the United Nations, a “large disorderly crowd at St. Francis College” and a protest blocking Broadway and 96th Street. That was all before noon! In addition, Mayor Lindsay was scheduled to address a crowd at Foley Square at 1:30 and he requested a heavy police detail including high ranking officers.

Hard Hat protesters and counter-protesters face off near City Hall, May 11, 1970. NYPD Film Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

On May 11, several thousand construction workers, dockworkers and white-collar workers rallied against the mayor, calling him a “commie rat” and worse. Protests, and counter protests by students and anti-war labor groups, continued on May 12, 13, 15, and 17. It culminated in a march on May 20th Brennan organized of 150,000 workers through lower Manhattan’s “canyon of heroes” while office workers showered them with an unofficial ticker-tape parade.

Hard Hats demonstrate for the Vietnam War, 47th Street and 7th Avenue, May 13, 1970. NYPD Film Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Hard Hats demonstrate for Nixon and the Vietnam War, near City Hall Park, May 15, 1970. NYPD Film Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Hard Hats protesting Mayor Lindsay near City Hall Park, May 17, 1970. NYPD Film Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Hard Hat demonstration in favor of Nixon and the Vietnam War, May 20, 1970. NYPD Film Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

It would be easy to look at these marches the same way we look at the Charlottesville march or other recent outpourings of right-wing intolerance, but it’s not that simple. The NYPD surveillance films at the NYC Municipal Archives reveal that at least some of the protesting workers were African-American and Latino. Many working-class Americans of all races looked at the Vietnam War differently than the protesters because it was them and their relatives who were fighting the war while college students were granted deferments. Said one construction worker, “I’m doing this because my brother got wounded in Vietnam, and I think this will help our boys over there by pulling this country together.”3

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Hard hat demonstration in support of Nixon and the police, May 20, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Hard hat demonstration in support of Nixon and the police, May 20, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Hard hat demonstration in support of Nixon and the police, May 20, 1970. NYPD Intelligence Records, Photograph Files, NYC Municipal Archives.

Brennan was the only real winner of this whole saga. On May 26th he went to the White House and presented Nixon with a hard hat. Nixon and his aides saw Brennan as a useful ally and asked him to organize labor support for Nixon’s 1972 re-election. After Nixon’s landslide victory Brennan was appointed labor secretary.

1 https://prospect.org/article/then-one-democrat-anymore/

2 https://web.archive.org/web/20150921181507/http://www.publicopinionpros.norc.org/ features/2006/jun/hugick_supp1p1.asp

3 After ‘Bloody Friday,’ New York Wonders if Wall Street is Becoming a Battle Ground. Wall Street Journal, May 11, 1970.