The Transcription Project, Early Mayors' Collection II

Recent blogs have described the work archivists have accomplished transcribing collection inventories, lists, finding guides and other descriptive materials into searchable databases and spreadsheets.  The transcription projects began when the Municipal Archives closed to the public on March 16, 2020, and all staff began to work remotely from home.  This week is the second installment describing the Early Mayors’ collection transcription project. 

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Correspondence from the American Society for the Protection of Animals appears frequently in the collection; not surprising given the vast number of horses in the city and the potential for mis-treatment. The ASPCA’s interest was not restricted to the equine population. Letter from John P. Haines, President of the ASPCA to Mayor Thomas F. Gilroy, June 9, 1893. Early Mayors’ Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Early Mayors’ collection includes correspondence and documents from New York City mayoral administrations from 1826 through 1897 and totals 157.5 cubic feet.  The collection had originally been assembled by Rebecca Rankin during her 32-year tenure as the Director of the Municipal Library between 1920 and 1952.  This was a core collection in the Municipal Archives when it opened in 1952 and remains one of the most important series documenting nineteenth-century government and policies.

The Early Mayors’ collection also includes typewritten summary descriptions of every document in the series prepared by archivists and librarians in the1950s and 60s. Mr. Idilio Gracia-Pena, Municipal Archives Director (1976-1989), and DORIS Commissioner (1990-1995), recently confirmed that these typewritten summaries had been produced under the direction of James Katsorhis.  He had worked as an assistant to Rebecca Rankin and took over as head of the Archives when Rankin retired in 1952.

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New Yorker Jonathan Lawrence wrote to Mayor Wickham about the importance of having street signs at each corner. Lawrence notes that the Common Council had been petitioned on this subject every year, but had not acted. May 8, 1893. Mayor William Wickham. Early Mayor’s Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Conservator Cynthia Brenwall has been part of the team transcribing the Early Mayors’ collection typed inventories. In describing the work, she observed “…  average New Yorkers wrote to the mayor and city officials a LOT! They made complaints, asked for help, inquired about unusual topics and sent congratulations every day.  Apparently, New York was dirty! The amount of complaints about ashes and garbage, dead animals in the streets, stables located in basements and smells coming from the “offal docks” is astonishing.”

Brenwall also noted “…for the most part, women were irrelevant in public life at the time...at least as seen through these documents.  With the exception of a few public charities, searches for lost children and the ladies of houses of ill repute, women are very rarely mentioned in these letters.” 

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Nora Casey, an emigrant who arrived in this country in June, had been diagnosed as “insane” and confined to the Emigrant Asylum, Ward's Island. On September 1, 1888, Ellie Casey informed the authorities that her mother would not be able to accompany her sister home to [County] Cahirciveen, Ireland. Other documents indicate that the mother and sister lived in Massachusetts and asked for her to be moved to live with them. But the Board reviewing whether immigrants might be a “public charge” were bound to send her back to Ireland, where there was nobody to take care of her. Mayor Abram Hewitt. Early Mayors’ Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Similar to archivist colleague Amy Stecher’s description of work on the Early Mayors collection transcription project, Brenwall also remarked on the staggering amount of corruption in the city. “From policemen taking bribes for not reporting gambling and prostitution houses in the 1880s to men stealing luggage from newly arrived immigrants at Castle Clinton. to election fraud and a whole scheme of illegal electrical wires run through the city...it seems like everyone was out to make a buck.”

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Police Captains were required to reported on the condition of “panel” houses in their respective precincts. “Panel Houses” were houses of prostitution that were constructed with hollowed out walls where thieves could hide and wait for a chance to rob men patronizing the establishments. “Panel House” thieves relied on the reluctance of their victims to press charges and face publicity. Many of these houses were under the protection of the police. Police Captains report, April 1874. Mayor William Havemeyer. Early Mayors’ Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

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Licensing places of public assembly was among the New York Police Department responsibilities during the 19th century. Carnegie Hall received a good report from the NYPD, April 21, 1892. Mayor Thomas Gilroy. Early Mayor’s Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

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In 1890 a substantial portion of City residents were immigrants and City officials believed that its population was undercounted by federal census-takers. The Harlem Democratic Club, along with many other New Yorkers urged a re-count. Mayor Hugh Grant directed that the New York Police Department conduct another count. The result was the 1890 “Police” census which quantified the City’s contention that the numbers in the federal count were significantly lower. Harlem Democratic Club, September 1890. Mayor Hugh Grant. Early Mayors’ Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

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Mayor Grant’s efforts to persuade federal officials to accept the revised numbers were unsuccessful. The November 6, 1890, letter and eight-page attachment from the Department of the Interior to Mayor Grant made that clear. Early Mayors’ Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Ms. Brenwall concluded that the more thing change, the more they stay the same.  I was repeatedly struck by how many issues of the time are very similar to issues of today. Cholera and yellow fever outbreaks that caused quarantines, police force issues, citywide celebrations marked important occasions and give all residents a respite from daily life and the recognition that as New Yorkers we must take care of each other for the city to be successful.”

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Railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt complained to Mayor Edward Cooper that the conductor of a street car on which he was a passenger “willfully” obstructed another car on Christopher Street and should be reprimanded. July 5, 1879. Mayor Edward Cooper. Early Mayors’ Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Brenwall added that her work over the last several months has been “…an amazing deep-dive into Victorian-era New York! Creating a searchable document is going to such a great resource for researchers and history buffs alike once we completed this project.” 

We look forward to making available the results of this telework project undertaken by the Municipal Archives.

Unemployment in the Great Depression

As has often been stated, the Covid 19 pandemic has yielded the worst economic situation since the Great Depression.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment now hovers just under 8%, after reaching a high of 14.7 % in April 2020.  At the peak of the Depression, however, national unemployment reached a high of 25% by 1933 and one third of New York City workers were unemployed.  In his book, The Lean Years, Irving Bernstein provides data from the federal Committee on Economic Security showing that the number of unemployed workers increased from 429,000 in October 1929, to 4,065,000 in January 1930.  By October 1931 nine million Americans were out of work.

Frequently, in discussing how NYC fought back during the Depression, the focus turns to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.  But, he wasn’t the Mayor at the inception of the Depression.  Instead it was James Walker, the so-called “Beau James” due to his spiffy clothes and nighttime gallivanting.  Elected in 1925 with the help of former Governor Al Smith and the Tammany machine, Walker defeated incumbent Mayor John Hylan.  Walker styled himself as the “people’s mayor”—he relied on publicity and wit, not policy or good government. Yet some observers of City government have described him as a decisive problem solver. He did oversee revisions to the Building Code and the City’s tax structure.  But, it was his public persona that people liked.   Opposed to Prohibition, he once staged a “We Want Beer” event in 1932 attended by 100,000 people.   In 1929 he ran for re-election, beating the Republican candidate—LaGuardia--handily.   Walker resigned in 1932 after a corruption inquiry revealed many “beneficences” given to him by City contractors.  

Mayor James J. Walker, seated at left, and film actress Marjorie King at the Motion Picture Club Ball, Waldorf Astoria, February 1932. Municipal Archives Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Walker was in the hot seat when the stock market crashed in October 1929.  Today, we are used to a centralized government that focuses resources on city problems but as Warren Moscow long-time New York Times reporter wrote in a 1976 reflection on Depression-era government. “there were no central departments of Highways, or Public Works. The city Street Cleaning Department did not extend to Queens and Richmond, where the Borough Presidents appointed their own men to lean on brooms. There were five separate Park Departments and no Department of Traffic, although the police were beginning to restrict some side‐streets, but not avenues, to one‐way use.”  Although Walker created the Department of Hospitals which put all of the municipal hospitals under one charge and developed large-scale construction projects such as the TriBorough Bridge and the West Side Highway, City government did not have a mechanism to provide large-scale relief.   At this point, unemployment insurance didn’t exist anywhere in the United States.  New York City, like all other municipalities relied on a patchwork of philanthropic and charitable societies to provide assistance to the poor, the unemployed, the homeless and the hungry, with those most indigent sent to almshouses.  Despite valiant efforts, the Depression would change that system.  

Known as “Hoovervilles,” large makeshift encampments of unemployed and homeless New Yorkers began to appear around the city during the Great Depression. Red Hook, Brooklyn, ca. 1931. Municipal Archives Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In March 1930, the New York Times reported that 35,000 people protested unemployment in the City as part of an International Unemployment Day by the Communist Party.  Protesters marched toward City Hall only to be violently stopped by police officers.

Also in March, a coalition of trade union leaders wrote the Mayor with proposals that “will bring an immediate measure of relief.” They focused on public works; creating a system to provide direct relief and a process for finding work without paying private employment agencies.  In doing so, they noted that the City’s public works program fell short and that “rather than a speeding up of public works an actual recession in the letting of contracts has been the case.” They cited the reduction in contracts for subway construction, the lack of funding for slum clearance and housing construction and the lack of a system to provide relief.  “Daily reports reveal that the private welfare agencies are swamped with requests for assistance.  In the meantime, the Department of Public Welfare, which has as its chief function the relief of the destitute, has no funds available to meet this emergency.  In fact, it is the practice of the department to shift applications for relief to the private charity agencies which have publicly stated their inability to meet the heavy demands being made on them.  The responsibility of the city towards its workers demands not charity but that the city provide immediate relief for the jobless who are in dire straits through no fault of their own.  It would be a lasting disgrace if in the richest city of the world a single man, woman or child should go hungry.”

The Department of Public Welfare operated a Lodging House on the Pier at East 25th Street, November 22, 1930. Photographer: Eugene de Salignac. Department of Bridges, Plant & Structures Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

A report from the Welfare Council of New York City discussed the pressure on the city’s employment and welfare agencies noting there was “a serious falling off in placement of workers in jobs and a corresponding increase in the number of homeless men, seamen and families applying for assistance.”   The report also discussed “the disastrous consequences” for the unemployed and their families.  “Constant anxiety and undernourishment bring suffering to the worker and his family.  Undermining of physique and the loss of self-respect which accompanies weeks of fruitless search for work gradually bring mental and moral degeneration, and from being merely unemployed the worker becomes unemployable.  His troubles do not cease when a job is found.  The physical and mental deterioration consequent upon a long period of unemployment, a lowered standard of living and the burden of accumulated debt are long continued.”

Initially, data was unreliable and incomplete.   In the April 23, 1930 edition of “Library Notes” a publication of the City’s Municipal Library, Rebecca Rankin wrote about the difficulty in obtaining accurate figures of how many people had been affected.  “Owing to the inaccuracy and incompleteness of any figures available on unemployment at any one time, there seems to be some doubt as to whether times are as bad as portrayed.”

W.E.B. DuBois wrote Mayor Walker in 1931 asking for “information as to what was accomplished for the relief of unemployed Negroes last year in New York and what plans you have for the coming year.“  The response from the City was that relief funds were not segregated by race and  further, that if the information could now be obtained by investigation, it does not seem to me desirable to obtain it.”

The impact of the Crash is not initially apparent in the correspondence of the Department of Welfare.  But by June 1930, the Mayor and other officials were receiving letters requesting assistance.   Welfare Department Commissioner Frank J. Taylor wrote several acknowledgements to the Secretary to the Mayor, Charles S. Hand.  Invariably they would begin, “I am in receipt of your letter of the (date) instant enclosing a communication from…

Mrs. Mary Streppone in which she complains that family is in destitute condition and husband is out of work…

Manuel Manzano, who states that he was hurt while employed by the U. S. Electrical Mfg Corp…and desires assistance in his case with the Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation, as he is penniless and sick with a wife and three children dependent upon him…

Edward Reynolds, relative to his mother and her application for pensions for five of her grandchildren, whose parents are dead. …

Max Warsinger who is badly in need of help and requests some kind of work…

In all cases, Taylor promised that a representative from the Department would visit the writers to see if there is something to be done “to help them out.”  The end result is not summarized in the files.

Richmond Borough President John Lynch to Mayor’s Committee Secretary McAndrews regarding contractors, telegram, November 20, 1930. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor’s Committee Secretary McAndrews request to Brooklyn Borough President regarding contractors, telegram, November 19, 1930. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

In October 1930, Mayor Walker created the Mayor’s Official Committee for Relief of the Unemployed and Needy which consisted of himself as the Chair, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Welfare, Frank J. Taylor as the Vice Chair, the City Chamberlain, Charles A. Buckley was treasurer, and the secretary to the Mayor, Thomas F. McAndrews was the Secretary.  A slew of other city officials were listed as members. In the announcement he said, “The first cold spell that falls on this city is going to find a terrible condition.  I want to be prepared for it.  I want to feel that during it and after it, this administration, this group of men that make up this administration, have not left a thing undone that they could have brought about as a contribution to the alleviation of any suffering that will be found in this city.“ 

By November 1930, American City, a monthly magazine providing policy, equipment and other advice to city leasers reported on how cities were tackling unemployment.  New York had a lot going on: “A City Employment Bureau is functioning; a police census of unemployed is in progress; the eviction of needy families for non-payment of rent is being halted; the police and other employees are arranging to donate extensively to unemployment relief; Mayor Walker has appointed a Cabinet Committee on Unemployment to deal with questions of food, clothing, jobs and rent; municipal lodging facilities are being added to.  At the same time an effort is being made to prevent a flood of unemployed men from pouring in upon the city.”

The New York Life Insurance Company donated space to be used as the committee’s headquarters.  The Committee drew upon eighty-one City workers assigned by departments as diverse as Transportation, Fire, Law, Police Tenement House among others.   Salaries were paid by the originating agencies, thus reducing the operating costs of the Committee.  The Police Department received a special acknowledgement in the 1931 report.  “The members of the Police Department unstintingly gave of their personal time and energy in the field as investigators and reporters for the Committee.  During the long hours of the night, patrolmen in the seventy-seven precincts packed and wrapped food packages.  Even on Sundays, they prepared for the coming weekly distribution of food.  The Welfare or Crime Prevention Bureaus of the police precincts coordinated in the work with the patrolmen on post.” 

Five Months of City Aid for its Unemployed, 1931. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

In its first eight months, the Committee raised roughly $1.626 million and paid out $1.487 million according to a report on its activities through June 30, 1931.  Nearly 11,000 families had been paid direct monetary relief.  Eighteen thousand tons of food was distributed to close to a million families including a Kosher distribution to 6,000 families for the religious holidays.  Other disbursements were for coal, shoes, clothing and a donation to the City of Utica for their unemployed.  In the same period, the Welfare Council spent more than $12 million for relief and emergency work wages, all raised through voluntary contributions.

Was there any reason to worry, given the daily contributions received in City offices, earmarked for the unemployed and relief?  While sceptics might question if any of the funds were skimmed, the accounts from the committee clearly show the amounts received and disbursed.  The largest source of funds was from city workers who donated 1% of salaries to help the City’s needy, yielding $1.56 million of the money raised.  Other sectors also contributed.  Sports teams held matches and games.  The Notre Dame football team played the New York Giants, raising $115,153 for the fund.   Broadway also stepped up staging nineteen performances that raised nearly $18,000.    

Mayor James J. Walker’s Committee for the Relief of Unemployed. Schedule of Benefit Performances through the co-operation of the Actors’ Equity Association, 1931. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

Any notion that the times weren’t so bad had vanished by April 1931.  In Library Notes, Rankin wrote that the City helped 30,000 families in February, an increase of 60% over 1930.  “Estimates indicate that 750,000 persons, ordinarily employed in gainful occupations are now without jobs.”  The $8 million in funding for wages paid to workers on public works jobs had been spent.  The State Legislature appropriated $10 million for wages and the Board of Aldermen approved $2 million in revenue bonds to be used for supplies and labor on public improvements and in public institutions—on such public work as will be of permanent value but which the City would not now perform except for the present unemployment emergency.”

A report in the Municipal Library’s vertical files written by economist Edna Lonigan for the Welfare Council of New York City issued in 1931 analyzed the number of unemployed New Yorkers by Occupational Groups.  She estimated that 25% of waiters, 20% of musicians, 15% of deliverymen, 50% of longshoreman, 10% of telegraph operators and 33% of organized construction workers, among other occupations, were unemployed in December 1930.  A memo from the Welfare Commissioner cited census statistics in estimating that 640,000 New Yorkers were unemployed—more than 10% of the population.

“The conditions are so extreme…” Letter to Mayor Walker from Raymond Ingersoll, March 6, 1931. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

As the economy continued in a downward spiral, it became clear that the well-intentioned private welfare organizations and one-off City efforts could not keep up with the need.   Rankin wrote, “The most pressing problem for every municipality at this time is unemployment.”

Message to the Legislature from Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt… proposing comprehensive plans for meeting the crisis in New York by State participation, 1931. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

In a move that foreshadowed elements of the New Deal, New York State Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt submitted several proposals to the New York State Legislature for enactment in August 1931.  The package contained five bills. The first set up a temporary administration, appropriated $20 million to fund employment on State and local public works programs, permitted the money to be used for food, fuel and rent but prohibited using the money as direct relief.  The second bill increased the personal income tax by 50% and authorized the Comptroller to offer bonds immediately in anticipation of the increased tax revenue.  The third bill gave local governments the ability to issue three-year bonds to fund public works which would reduce unemployment. Bill Number Four established a five-day work week on all public works. And the final bill allocated funds to pay bonuses to soldiers as required by an earlier law.  In the transmittal message Roosevelt wrote: “—upon the State falls the duty of protecting and sustaining those of its citizens who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in their old age unable to maintain life.

But the same rule applies to other conditions.  In broad terms I assert that modern society, acting through its government, owes the definite obligation to prevent the starvation or the dire want of any of its fellow men and women who try to maintain themselves but cannot.”

Sounding familiar today, he assailed the federal government.   “It is idle for us to speculate about actions which may be taken by the Federal Government…It is true that times may get better; it is true that the Federal Government may come forward with a definite construction program on a truly large scale; it is true that the Federal Government may adopt a well though out concrete policy which will start the wheels of industry moving and give to the farmer at least the cost of making his crop. The State of New York cannot wait for that.  I face and you face and thirteen million people face the problem of providing immediate relief.”

Taylor testified on behalf of the City in support of the proposed legislation.   In doing so, he praised New York City’s work and noted that the City’s experience was unrivalled by any other unit of government.  Calling the Governor’s relief request “conservative rather than extreme” he forecast that the City would spend $37.9 million on relief in 1931 or approximately $648 million in today’s dollars.    

List of contributions received in the Office of the Mayor during the month of February 1931. Mayor James J. Walker Subject Files. NYC Municipal Archives.

The final report of the Mayor’s Official Committee described the money raised and disbursed between October 1930, and June 1932.  In total, they collected $3, 124,345 and spent $2,930,566.  The report noted that for each $1 spent, 99 cents “went to the needy.”  The monies were used for direct payments to the needy as well as food, clothing and coal for heating. 

Walker was brought down after an investigation and legislative hearings headed by Judge Samuel Seabury.   In January 1932, Assistant to the Mayor Charles F. Kerrigan wrote an eleven-page letter to the State’s legislative leaders requesting them to cease funding the investigation.   In closing he stated, “We are now engaged with all our might in trying to avert a great calamity in this city and this country.  We have engaged men and women of the highest talents and public spirit to assist us.  The $400,000 wasted on this Investigation would have provided for feeding 4,400 people daily since the investigation began.  The $2,000 a day now being used would feed 4,400 starving men, women and children every day this winter.   The taxpayers of the State and all local governments are now being burdened with heavy costs to relieve the widespread suffering and want… This Investigation should be halted at once, and the balance of the fund, if any remains should be returned to the State Treasury for the relief of the taxpayers and to meet a part of the mounting deficit of the State government.”

In 1932, the year Walker resigned, the American electorate voted Herbert Hoover out of office and elected FDR to lead the country.  The resulting New Deal and partnership with eventual mayor LaGuardia transformed the country and the City.

Mayor Gaynor and Children in the City

This is the third selection from “Some of Mayor Gaynor’s Letters and Speeches,” a volume in the Municipal Library’s rare book collection.  Published in 1913, it is a compendium of the Mayor’s writings on “…a wide range of topics . . . from lively to severe,” as noted in the introduction by W. B. Northrop.  In this series of letters Gaynor addresses some of the city’s youngest residents (and two apparently not-so-young resident).    

Child Health Station No. 42, North 1st Street, Brooklyn., n.d. Municipal Archives Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Boys in Streets, August 10, 1911

To: Mrs. Jessie F. Stearns, New York City

Dear Madam:  Your favor complaining of boys playing in the streets is at hand.  You ask if a law could not be passed prohibiting boys playing in the streets, saying that it “would be a blessing to humanity.”  I might ask you whether if such a law were passed you think it could be enforced?  Our boys have a hard time to get along in the crowded districts of the city.  They must play somewhere. I went around to the recreation piers the other night and found great numbers of them there, but they cannot all go there.  We must bear with them.  Have you any boys?  If you had, do you think you could keep them off the streets?

Gymnasium Class, n.d. Department of Public Charities Collection. NYC Municipal Archives

Street Ball Playing, August 10, 1911

To:  Masters LeGrande Sampson, William E. Westbrooke, Samuel C. Ward Jul, Joseph Carey and Raymond Luetke, New York City

Dear Boys:  It is too bad that you cannot play ball somewhere in peace.  Of course the police cannot always let you play on the street, but now and then they can wink so hard with both eyes as not to see you when you are doing no harm to passersby and the street is not crowded.  In the parks, you may only play on the places assigned to baseball playing.  The keepers will not chase you out unless you play where baseball is not permitted.  I wish we had the grounds for you all to play, but unfortunately we have not.  So boys, do the best you can, and I will help you a little now and then if you send me word.

Inwood Park Day Camp, August 20, 1934. Department of Parks and Recreation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The “Wink” Letter to a Little Girl, September 15, 1911

To:  Miss Helen Roth

Dear Miss Roth:  I have received your letter of September 11, telling me that you and the little girls in your neighborhood have no place to play after school, and that wherever you go to play you are chased.  I am very sorry about it, and I will see if I can do something for you.  Some people think you ought to stay in the house all the time.  But you must go out, and you must play somewhere, and we must let you play in the streets until there is some other place provided.  Do you know I receive letters daily from men and women who hate to see the children play in the streets at all.  But on inquiry I always find out that they are people who have no children of their own. You say you want to skate on roller skates.  Maybe I can get the police up that way to wink so hard with both eyes that they won’t see you when you go by on your roller skates.  But be careful not to run into anybody or bump into an automobile.  But there are very few accidents of that kind.  When one such accident happens a lot of people write to me as though it were the rule instead of the exception. 

Rooftop playground, n.d. Department of Public Charities Collection. NYC Municipal Archives

Roof Playgorunds, August 29, 1911

To:  Master Benjamin Blau, Crotona                                                                       

My Dear Boys:  Your several letters informing me that you won the ball game on the roof playground of Public School 188 last Thursday night, and reminding me of my promise to send a set of balls and gloves to the winners are at hand.  I note that one of your letters seems to betray doubt that I will keep my word.  I do not blame the writer for his doubts, considering the many ill things which are being publicly said of me. They may well create doubts even in the minds of the boys.  I am sending you a box of twelve balls, and also a set of mitts and gloves.  I want to tell you how much I enjoyed my visit to the roof playgrounds of the public schools last Thursday night.  I never saw finer dancing by girls.  I hope that the boys will be given dancing lessons next year.  I regret that these playgrounds were closed so early as August 26 for lack of music.  Next year, we will try to remedy that also.  The playgrounds and piers ought to be kept open as late in the season as possible.  I also thank you for electing me an honorary member of your ball club.

The first day of school, September 9, 1992. Mayor David N. Dinkins Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Police and Boys Playing Ball, May 15, 1912

To:  Master Charles Van Buren,  Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dear Master Van Buren:  Your letter complaining of the police chasing you and your companions out of the lot where you play ball is at hand.  I will take charge of the matter and see what we can do.  Most of the police behave with intelligence, but I am sorry to say there are a few stupid ones on the force yet that we would like to get rid of.  A policeman ought to be the friend of the boys on his beat.  I am very desirous of having the police let the boys play on every available lot or space in the city.  In this case you have the permission of the owners, and I do not see why the police meddle with you, except to see that your ball does not fly over the fence and hit someone.  You boys have to play somewhere.  The people who think you ought to stay in the house all the time are also very stupid or else very ill-natured.

Roller-skating in Central Park, June 1937. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Children in Her Way, October 31, 1912

Dear Mrs. _____:  I thank you for your letter.  But the children on roller skates think you and your motor car are in their way, while you think they are in your way.  Which is right?  The point of view is everything, or not at all events very much, as is the case in all things.  Now you will say that I am joking with you again.  Show this to you husband and I will leave him to say whether I have not got back at you pretty well.  We are trying to diminish the roller skating in places where it is dangerous for the children to use roller-skates.  But of course, we cannot

Moving the Archives, part II

“The City of New York is finally catching up with over two centuries of neglect in the care of its records.” Thus began an October 1953 article in the American Archivist touting the 1952 creation of the New York City Municipal Archives and its integration into a records management program. At the time, the Municipal Archives and Records Center was housed in the Rhinelander Building, and the Municipal Reference Library was still a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL). As of December 1952, the Archives had an estimated 12,000 cubic feet of material, and “no standard storage or filing material.” The collection has grown significantly since then, by more than a factor of ten, and as the diversity of its collections has grown, the limitations of standard storage shelves has made preservation difficult.

This past January we described the construction of the Municipal Archives’ new off-site storage space in Industry City. A lot has happened to the world since then. However, we are happy to report that after a shutdown of several months, the project continues. We have had to adjust the schedule due to COVID-19 and, like a lot of construction projects, supply chain issues are still creating delays. But, our new custom shelving is going up, HVAC equipment is installed, and we are starting to see the shape of what will be.

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HVAC equipment being lifted to the roof of Building 20, Industry City.

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Rails being installed for the movable shelving.

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Shelving going in above the decking and rails for the compact movable storage system.

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The HVAC system required an enormous amount of ductwork.

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Insulated elevator vestibules will prevent energy loss and protect collections from dust intrusion.

In 1953 the Municipal Archives and Records Center installed a state-of-the-art microfilm laboratory. Now, almost 70-years later, we are building a state-of-the-art digitization lab in the new space, with workstations for digitizing motion picture films, magnetic video tapes, still film, and flat art. New high-speed scanners that are gentle on archival materials will allow the mass digitization of paper records.

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Floor plan for the new digitization lab at Industry City.

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The new research room for patrons taking shape.

In 1953 it was reported that “As yet relatively little reference use has been made of the archives. Reference services in 1952 averaged about 35 a month. Chairs and tables are available for use by researchers, but the supervisor has not as yet felt sufficiently prepared to cope with a heavy reference load and thus has not publicized the collection very much.” While the new Industry City space will have chairs and tables for researchers, our digitization programs have allowed us to reach far more researchers through our online portals than could ever visit our offices. An average of 740 people a day are visiting our nyc.gov site. Over the last several years the Archives has provided reference service to more than 50,000 patrons annually and the on-line gallery had over 200,000 users last year.

Not much had changed since 1952 for the “Typed guides and inventories… available as finding aids to help researchers,” but over the past few years archivists have been inputting all those inventories into ArchivesSpace, work that they were able to continue remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new integrated access portal now under way will allow researchers to search across all Library and Archives collections.

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Insulated walls being installed for the cold storage vault.

A new cold storage room will house the photographic and magnetic tape collections of the Municipal Archives, including thousands of original WNYC broadcast tapes recently accessioned from the NYPL.

By early next year, we will have moved 140,000 cubic feet of New York City government’s historical records into this new space, including mayoral records, maps, photographs, ledgers and other documents. These records will be available to researchers onsite instead of being trucked to Manhattan, thus making a contribution to a greener City. Seventy years hence there undoubtedly will be different preservation and storage solutions for the born-digital records of today’s government. But the foundational documents at our Industry City location will be safe, secure, and available.

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Source: Jason Horn, Municipal Archives and Records Center of the City of New York, American Archivist, volume 16, issue 4, 1953: https://americanarchivist.org/doi/pdf/10.17723/aarc.16.4.h1335164g7567424

The Transcription Project, Early Mayors’ Collection

Two recent blogs described the work archivists have accomplished transcribing the original hand-written captions for the Brooklyn Grade Crossing Commission and Condemnation Proceeding photograph collections into searchable spreadsheets. The transcription projects began when the Municipal Archives closed to the public on March 16, 2020, and all staff began to work remotely from home. This week the blog describes the Early Mayors’ collection transcription project.

The Early Mayors’ collection includes correspondence and documents from New York City mayoral administrations from 1826 through 1897 and totals 157.5 cubic feet. The collection had originally been assembled by Rebecca Rankin during her 32-year tenure as the Director of the Municipal Library between 1920 and 1952. This was a core collection in the Municipal Archives when it opened in 1952 and remains one of the most important series documenting nineteenth-century government and policies.

Noteworthy stationery is one of the auxiliary benefits of researching 19th-century correspondence. Letter of recommendation, May 22, 1886. Early Mayor’s Collection, William R. Grace. NYC Municipal Archives.

In the early 2000s, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a grant to the Archives to microfilm the collection. Subsequently, the finding aid has been edited and made accessible on the agency website. More recently, the Archives began digitizing the microfilm edition to make it available for on-line research.

Typically, archivists catalog correspondence and office records to the ‘folder-level,’ meaning that descriptive information provided to a researcher includes only whatever had been written on the folder label by the record creator, e.g. “Mayor’s Correspondence, April – June 1897.”   What is unusual about the Early Mayors’ series is that the librarians and archivists who first cataloged the materials in the 1950s and ‘60s also typed brief descriptions of every letter or document in the collection. 

Archivist Alexandra Hilton, has been coordinating the work of the archival staff transcribing these descriptions while working remotely. Ms. Hilton explained how she stumbled across the typed description tucked away in one of the storage rooms in 2012:  “Back then, I was doing research for exhibits and events. Finding this was such a stroke of luck – I photocopied the whole thing, put it in binders, and read it cover-to-cover, marking it up with notes. It’s a great resource that depicts women and minorities, groups of people that are typically difficult to find in a collection of mid-to-late-19th century governmental records.

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Letter from Ella Wilson, aged 15, to Henry Bergh, asking whether something cannot be done for the relief of the poor dogs and the unjust proceedings of the dog catchers, February 14, 1886. Henry Bergh was the founder of the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866 and a co-founder of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1875. Early Mayor’s Collection, William R. Grace. NYC Municipal Archives.

Ms. Hilton added, “I never thought we’d get a chance to transcribe the descriptions so I’m pretty thrilled that we are because it is so dense that browsing it as a physical document is only practical if you have a lot of time. At the start of the project, based on the number of pages scanned, I estimated that the index was a little over 2,500 pages, and described over 27,000 items.”

Archivist Amy Stecher has been transcribing indices of correspondence in the collection that relate to both larger departments such as the Department of Buildings and the Department of Docks, and smaller ones such as the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and the Dog Pound and the Public Pound (for animals other than dogs).

Ms. Stecher describes her work,  “I’ve been surprised by the amount of big-picture information you can derive from the indices alone. Everything I’ve transcribed so far, regardless of subject, is really about the exponential growth of the city’s population and the need to get control over it. This is obvious with something like the creation of the Department of Buildings. But it can also be seen in correspondence related to smaller agencies such as the Bureau of Weights and Measures and the documents indexed under “Lamps and Gas.” These records show the expansion of lamp-lighting services to parts of the city that never needed lighting before.  It reveals a fascinating story of the battle among private companies to win gas-supply (and later, electricity) contracts. 

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Letter to Mayor Wickham from Theodore F. Little, of Summit, New Jersey, regarding a letter found in the street, exposing the sale of counterfeit money in New York City, January 22, 1876. Early Mayors’ Collection, Mayor William H. Wickham. NYC Municipal Archives.

Ms. Stecher noted a pervasive theme in the records—the amount of corruption evident in every department and at every level: “Political cronyism—Tammany Hall is mentioned across various indices—but also fake Weights and Measures Inspectors; drunken, thieving dog-catchers; complaints to the mayor about lottery and other scams; officials removed from office for taking bribes or stealing funds; dereliction of duty at the city-run asylums and hospitals. It is clear that many people took advantage of so much growth and too little oversight.”    

Ms. Stecher, continued, “There is also evidence of some remarkable parallels with the city today: the fascinating and timely Health Quarantines and measures the city took to deal with cholera and yellow fever epidemics, including the establishment of the Quarantine Islands. The Department of Charities and Corrections index lists voluminous correspondence among city officials, outside groups, and individual citizens trying to tackle the dual problems of the ever-increasing number of homeless and displaced persons, which resulted in the creation of the position of the Superintendent of Out-Door Poor. Increasing levels of poverty, despair, and mental and physical health issues highlighted the need for the perpetually-overwhelmed and continually-criticized city-run hospitals and asylums.”

Letter to Silas C. Croft, President of the Department of Public Charities, from Frederick E. Bauer, following-up on an inquiry about the whereabouts of orphaned children Mamie, Tessie, Sadie, and Washington Gleason, September 17, 1897. Early Mayor’s Collection, Mayor William L. Strong. NYC Municipal Archives.

“References to pandemics, the Civil War and its aftermath are evident as well as immigrants and displaced persons making their way to the city and needing help. Many people reach out personally to the mayors and sometimes get results in the form of inquiries and investigations. Reformers such as Henry Bergh turn up in more than one index.”

Based on the transcription work, Ms. Stecher concluded that “these documents make crystal clear that life in New York City was very hard for those with little money or few resources, and could be very rewarding for those with much and many.”

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Look for future blog posts describing Municipal Archives transcription projects.

A False Police Report on a Boy’s Arrest

This is the second selection from “Some of Mayor Gaynor’s Letters and Speeches,” a volume in the Municipal Library’s rare book collection. Published in 1913, it is a compendium of the Mayor’s writings on “…a wide range of topics . . . from lively to severe,” as noted in the introduction by W. B. Northrop. This letter, entitled “A False Police Report on a Boy’s Arrest,” had been sent to Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., Commissioner of Police, on December 19, 1911. Look for more of Mayor Gaynor’s literary output in future blogs.

Mayor William J. Gaynor, frontispiece, “Mayor Gaynor’s Letters and Speeches,” New York, Greaves Publishing Company, 1913. Municipal Reference Library

Mayor William J. Gaynor, portrait, frontispiece, “Mayor Gaynor’s Letters and Speeches,” New York, Greaves Publishing Company, 1913. Municipal Reference Library

Sir:  Some months ago I wrote to you of the case of the eighteen year old boy William Eagen, who called upon me in person and made his complaint. He had been well brought up, and has always lived at home with his parents at 53, 4th Avenue, Brooklyn. Detective Barry arrested him in the street near his home on August 24th last without a warrant. He had never before been arrested or accused of any offense. He was taken to the station house and locked up over night in a cell. The next morning the said officer arraigned him before a magistrate, and made a written complaint on oath that he was a vagrant, i.e., a person without a home, wandering about, and with no means of support. The officer knew that this was untrue. The boy lived at home and worked daily with his father who is a janitor of 17 buildings. When the case was called on August 28th for a hearing, the officer stated that he could l not prove the charge, and the boy was discharged. In my letter to you I asked for a full report of the matter. Later you sent to me the report of Inspector Hughes, chief of the detective bureau, concurred in by the Second Deputy Police Commissioner. That report disclosed that the real reason for the boy’s arrest was that a burglary of the apartments of C. W. Daniels, at 449, State Street, Brooklyn, had been committed, and that the boy was “suspected” of having committed the same. The things stolen were a watch, engraved with Mr. Daniels’ name, a locket, studded with diamonds, and engraved in the same way, and a double chain and fob. The reason for such suspicion given in the said report was that the father of the boy was janitor of the building in which Mr. Daniels had his apartments, that the bulldog did not arouse Mr. Daniels when the burglar entered, that therefor the burglary was committed by someone good terms with the bulldog, and that therefore the burglar was probably young Eagen. Such was the farfetched if not ridiculous theory. The report went on to state that after being arrested and on his way to the station house young Eagen told the officers who had him in charge that the locket lost by Mr. Daniels contained 17 diamonds, that it had been broken up, and that it was useful to look for it. The report also states that while young Eagen was locked up in the cell another officer heard him state to a prisoner in an adjoining cell, he had been arrested on suspicion of the same offense, “I think they have got it on us,” to which the other prisoner responded, “Shut up, some one might be listening.” The name of this other prisoner is Grant, hereinafter mentioned. To this report was attached a letter of the Second Deputy Commissioner to you stating that in his opinion the action of the officer who made the arrest and false charge of vagrancy was justifiable. I felt constrained to write to you that his conduct was unjustifiable.

10th Police Precinct at Bergen Street and Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn. 1940 Tax Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The boy was not a vagrant, and the charge against him was false. The alleged confessions were stated to have taken place after the arrest, and were not revealed to the magistrate at all. I also expressed the view that the so-called evidence given in the report that the boy had committed the burglary was no evidence, and that the alleged confessions stated in the report were trumped up after the boy’s discharge, and after I had called for a report, for the purpose of trying to justify the arrest  Nothing further was done at that time, however, as the said chief of the detective bureau said that the investigation was still going on and that it was expected that sufficient evident would be obtained against the boy. But instead of any evidence being obtained against him, one Alexander Moore has since been arrested, indicted and convicted of the burglary and is now serving a term in State’s Prison therefore, as I have learned. Pawn tickets for the stolen articles were found in his pockets. The stolen articles were all obtained from the pawn shop. The diamonds had not been taken out of the locket.

The report also states that when the boy was discharged by the magistrate his mother who was present exclaimed: “I am going to write to Mayor Gaynor and give you fellows the same dose that Duffy gave the officers in his case”—alluding to young Duffy who was arrested time after time by the police and locked up, and his picture put in the Rogues’ Gallery, for no offense whatever. I have sufficiently ascertained that she had not up to that time ever heard of the Duffy case, and therefore could not have made such a remark. Also she is not a woman who would express herself in that manner.

The case calls for discipline of the officers engaged in it. It is also necessary that this matter be made public so this boy may be fully vindicated instead of being injured for life. It will never do for the police to treat boys in this way. I should also mention that another young fellow named Henry Grant was arrested on suspicion for the same crime. The chief reason for his arrest seems to have been that when a boy he had served a term in the Elmira Reformatory. He was discharged as reformed. The police should be very careful about arresting boys who have served a term in a reformatory. To follow them up and arrest them on sight, on the slightest suspicion, or on no suspicion, as is often the case, after they come out, and even follow them to the places where they are employed, and procure their discharge, is to leave no course open to them except to become habitual criminals. This boy Grant was employed as a chauffeur. I understand that he lost his place because of his arrest. I trust that this vindication of him will suffice to enable him to get other work to do. The police must be made to understand that they cannot arrest and lock people up as they like, but they must keep within the law. The only way to enforce the laws is the way prescribed by law. That which cannot be done lawfully must not be done at all by the police or any other public offices from the President of the United States down. This is a government of laws and not of men.