Historical Anniversaries

New York City is awash in historical anniversaries. In 2024, the Netherlands Consul General of New York established Future 400, commemorating the arrival of Dutch colonists in 1624, and imagining a more inclusive future.

New Visions of Old New York, created as part of a long-term collaboration with the New Amsterdam History Center’s Mapping Early New York project.  

In 2025, New York commemorates the 400th anniversary of the founding of City government and the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal. And, next year, we will mark the country’s semi-quincentennial—the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States as well as the 25th anniversary of the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center.

Mayor Eric Adams announced a citywide commemoration, Founded by NYC, which showcases events and sites throughout New York that “explore the City’s ongoing tradition of making history.” In partnership with NYC Tourism + Conventions, FOUNDED BY NYC will celebrate how New York City has made history, and continues to do so—highlighting the achievements driven by the creativity and resilience of the five boroughs and its people, including the perspectives of marginalized audiences like those of the Indigenous community, women, and people of color. 

Dutch vessel, 1660, in 3D, courtesy New Amsterdam History Center, Mapping Early New York.

As part of this exploration, the City’s Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) has opened a new exhibit: New Visions of Old New York. Created in collaboration with the New Amsterdam History Center, the exhibit features a touchscreen with an interactive 3-D map describing places and people in New Amsterdam and uses records from the Municipal Archives and Library to illustrate the presence of women, indigenous people and enslaved people. The exhibit is located in the gallery at 31 Chambers Street and will run throughout 2025 and is open to the public.

Broadway, 1660, in 3D, courtesy New Amsterdam History Center, Mapping Early New York.

The Municipal Archives and Library collections at DORIS are vast and document government decision-making and interactions with a diverse community. The earliest collections date to the 17th Century and include court cases, matrimonial banns, powers of attorney, indentures of apprentices, mortgages, deeds, conveyances, meeting minutes, and government edicts. The early records provide insight into the people of New Amsterdam.

In 1625, the City’s population consisted of a handful of European residents and a substantial number of Indigenous peoples. Native Americans long pre-dated the settlers and helped the new arrivals survive. From its earliest years, the colony was notable for its diverse population. The religious groups in New Amsterdam included Lutherans, Quakers, Anabaptists, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. The colony attracted immigrants from the Netherlands, Germany, England, Scandinavia, and France. Both free and enslaved Africans also resided in the population.

Stories of everyone here in the 17th century—women, Native Americans, Black people-both enslaved and free, Dutch, English, Jewish, and Quaker settlers—are important because they are part of a complicated history, one that emphasized tolerance and acting by conscience. But also one that relied on enslaved people to build the commercial center that now is the capital of the world. And one that did not understand or particularly value the complex culture of the Lenape.

Castello Plan, 1660, in 3D, courtesy New Amsterdam History Center, Mapping Early New York.

The New Visions of Old New York exhibit and programming planned for the next few years provide an opportunity to recognize every culture that contributed and continues to contribute to a fair and just City.

During 2025, the New Amsterdam Stories project will be revitalized. This online site uses records from the Stadsarchief Amsterdam and NYC Archives to document the experiences of colonial settlers.

An Indian Village of the Manhattans, D.T. Valentine’s Manual. NYC Municipal Library.

In recent years, the Archives began focusing on a collection of Dutch records that had previously been ignored—the Old Town records from the town governments in Queens, Brooklyn, and Westchester County. Included in the collection are records documenting a business transaction between the colonists and Indigenous Americans. Unlike many similar records, the document includes the names of seven Native Americans: Tenkirau,  Ketamun, Arrikan, Awachkouw, Warinckekinck, Wappittawaekenis, and Ghettin.

During this 400th anniversary of the founding of a municipal government in New Amsterdam, we will use these colonial records to better tell the stories of a shared, complex history.

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Links:

• https://newamsterdamstories.archives.nyc/news-and-events 

• https://www.dutchcultureusa.com/future400/

• https://www.business.nyctourism.com/founded-by-nyc-b2b

• https://newamsterdamstories.archives.nyc/stories-of-new-amsterdam

Department of Street Cleaning Photographs

“You Live in the Greatest City in the World – Let’s Make it the Cleanest and Healthiest,” is the wording on the sign on a Department of Street Cleaning cart photographed around 1908. The same sign today would not seem out of place on a Department of Sanitation truck and probably would have been a reasonable exhortation two hundred years ago. Except, until 1870, the City mostly contracted-out street cleaning services.  

Rack Cart with Officer, 1908, Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

The photograph of the cart is one of approximately 300 black-and-white prints depicting Department of Street Cleaning workers, equipment, and activities dating from the 1890s to 1925. Recently accessioned by the Municipal Archives, they are uniform in size, measuring approximately five by seven inches. Each is captioned on the reverse. Originally mounted in an album, the prints have been re-housed in acid-free envelopes.

Roll Call and Inspection of Drivers, 1908. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Like many City agencies, the Department of Street Cleaning began using photography in the early years of the twentieth century to document their work. Although relatively few in number, the Street Cleaning pictures capture an essential municipal function at a time of transition from an exclusively human (and horse) powered operation to one with motorized and mechanical assistance. The many pictures of trucks, tractors, snow “scoops,” flushers, and other equipment attest to the Department’s growing reliance on machinery.

One striking feature of the photographs, especially those from the earlier time period, is the ubiquity of horses. Two recent For the Record articles, Stables and Auction Marts: Building Plans With Horses and Horsepower: The City and the Horse discussed the importance of horses to transportation, construction and recreation in the city. The Street Cleaning pictures add to that theme with an abundance of images that document how critical horses were to the Department’s mission. In addition to the many photographs of horse-pulled carts and wagons, the Street Cleaning series includes several pictures of veterinarians employed by the Department, illustrating how they cared for their equine population.

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Inspection After Hook-Up, n.d. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Department Veterinarian Treating Horse, n.d. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Another aspect of Street Cleaning work that quickly becomes apparent in the pictures is snow, and the removal thereof. The snow-related images vividly illustrate the effort it took to clean snow from the streets. A 1915 survey of City departments, with budget information, shows that out of their total annual budget of $4.5 million, the Street Cleaning Department spent more than $650,000 to employ “contractors,” i.e. day laborers, mainly for snow removal. (Government of the City of New York, A Survey of Its Organization and Functions, 1915, Municipal Library.)

Fifth Avenue, 1908. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Contractors Loading Snow, 1920. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Contractor Dumping Snow into North River, 1916. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

As noted above, many of the pictures depict newly acquired mechanical equipment, obviously important to the Department as it modernized in the twentieth century. But equally apparent is the human effort needed to perform the work. “New York’s Strongest” is, and has always been, an apt motto for workers in the Street Cleaning Department. 

In addition to the Street Cleaning pictures, Municipal Archives collections include a series of photographs originating from the Department of Sanitation, successor agency to the Department of Street Cleaning in 1930. The Collection Guides provide information about this larger (35 cubic feet) collection.

The Commissioner’s Carriage Before Motorization, n.d. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Model T Ford, 1914. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

The Street Cleaning pictures have not yet been digitized, but they are available for research. In the meantime, For the Record readers can take a look at sample images from the collection. Like so many other pictures in Municipal Archives collections, the aspects that are ancillary to the subject of the photograph that add interest, e.g. the pedestrians, signs, storefronts, automobiles, and advertisements. The Street Cleaning collection is another good example.

Carts On Way to Inspection Points, n.d., Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Four-wheel Cart Used for Recruiting Help During World War, ca. 1917. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

New York and President Jimmy Carter

On October 5, 1977, President Jimmy Carter visited the South Bronx. “The Presidential motorcade passed block after block of burned-out and abandoned buildings, rubble-strewn lots and open fire hydrants, and people shouting, “Give us money!” and “We want jobs!” Twice Mr. Carter got out of his limousine, walked around and talked to people. He said the Federal Government should do something to help, but he made no specific commitment.” —The New York Times, October 6, 1977. 

Letter from President Jimmy Carter to Mayor Abraham Beame, October 5, 1977. Mayor Abraham Beame Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The pleas Carter heard from the residents of the South Bronx are essentially what the President heard from New York City officials throughout his administration: We want money, and we want jobs!    

Beginning in the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia established a financial relationship between the City and the Federal Government that has continued to this day. It began with Federal funds from President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs that the LaGuardia administration used to lift the City out of the Great Depression. With seven million inhabitants and dozens of “shovel-ready” public works projects, New York received more funding than any other city.

Since then, City finances have been inextricably linked to, and reliant on, federal sources. For a while, it worked. From the 1930s through the 1960s, federal funding flowed, with support for highways and housing as notable examples. By the 1970s, however, new administrations in Washington with different priorities became less sympathetic to urban needs. For New York City, the famous New York Daily News headline on October 30, 1975, “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” summed up the change in relationship. 

The election of Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976 gave New York officials hope for an improved relationship with their Federal counterparts. Researchers interested in documenting the history of the connection between City finances and the Federal Government will be well rewarded by information in the Municipal Library and Municipal Archives collections.  

The Municipal Library’s vertical files on Federal-City Relations are a particularly rich resource for investigating the dramatic story of New York’s fiscal crisis, and recovery, in the 1970s. Although the immediate peril to the city’s economy had passed by the time Carter took office in January 1977, intense negotiations between City, State, and Federal authorities continued throughout his administration. “Carter Cool to Plea on New York’s Loan,” (New York Times, February 1, 1977), and “Carter Opens Drive for Passage of Bill on Aid to New York,” (New York Times, May 9, 1978), are just two examples of the many, almost daily, clippings in the vertical file that chart the ups and downs of efforts to fix the City’s budget.

Mayor Abraham Beame and Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter departing Gracie Mansion, July 1976. Mayor Abraham Beame Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Delving into the Municipal Archives collections to document President Carter’s relationship with the City brings researchers to the Mayor Beame collection. During the Abe Beame administration mayoral correspondence was sent to “central files” where clerks separated letters into different series, e.g. Subject Files, Departmental Correspondence, General Correspondence, and Correspondence with State and Federal offices. The clerks further refined this arrangement by separately filing “President” correspondence.

Mayor Beame’s “President” file for 1977 contains copies of the letters he wrote to President Carter recommending people for jobs in the new administration. In April, the Mayor began to address economic conditions in his correspondence with Carter. On April 20, 1977, he sent a dense three-page letter urging the President to consider the effects of defense spending on employment. “The Mayors of the nation’s older urban centers want our cities to continue their historic role as major contributors to the American economy...  by assuring that these communities receive a fair share of authorized Defense spending, the federal government can provide an important stimulus to the private sector economics of these cities.”

The file does not include a response from Carter directly addressing Beame’s concerns regarding unemployment, but on May 11, 1977, the President wrote to the Mayor about the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA): “I am writing you to emphasize the continuing urgency of our battle against high unemployment. I anticipate that Congress will soon approve the funds we have requested... to double the number of public service jobs provided under CETA.” Carter went on to urge Beame to “...do everything possible to minimize procedural delays... in filling these new jobs.”  

Mayor Edward Koch, President Jimmy Carter, New York Governor Hugh Carey, on the steps of City Hall following approval of Federal loan guarantees for New York City, August 8, 1978. Mayor Edward Koch Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

When Mayor Edward Koch took office as Mayor in January 1978 the “central file” system, with correspondence arranged in series, seems to have been abandoned. Although this makes research in Koch administration records somewhat more challenging, archivists created a key-word searchable inventory for a portion of his records—essentially what would have been his subject and departmental files.

Typing ‘Carter’ into the search box identified a folder of correspondence between the Mayor and the President. In a letter to President Carter, dated February 20, 1980, Koch got right to the point: “I wish to bring you up to date on the progress being made to close New York City’s projected budget gap and to acknowledge the assistance being provided by your staff in identifying additional sources of federal aid.” In three typed pages Koch delineated measures related to Medicaid, Welfare, and Education Aid, and attached a six-page memorandum prepared by the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget that detailed “Federal Actions.”

Mayor Edward Koch, Queens Borough President Donald Manes, President Jimmy Carter, Town Hall meeting, September 25, 1979. Mayor Edward Koch Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Four months later, on June 20, 1980, Koch wrote to President Carter’s Chief of Staff, Jack Watson, about funding needed for the CETA program, and scrawled “Please Help!” under his signature. Koch again used the personal approach in an August 1980 handwritten note to Carter: “Here is the memo you asked that I send to you when we traveled together to the Urban League. Congratulations on the outcome of the Convention. Now we have to pull it all together.” He signed it, Your friend, Ed. Although the convention went in Carter’s favor, the general election in November did not.

Jimmy Carter and HPD Commissioner Gliedman (in red tie) on East 6th Street, Manhattan, July 30, 1985. Department of Housing, Preservation and Development Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Jimmy Carter’s connection to New York City did not end with his Presidency. His work for the Habitat for Humanity organization brought him back to New York. In 1985 he met with Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Anthony Gliedman on the roof of a building on East 6th Street in Manhattan where Carter had been working with the Habitat group.

Happy New Year 2025!

Wishing Everyone a Happy New Year!

Confetti, Times Square, New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2007. Mayor Michael Bloomberg Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Spectators enjoying the show, Times Square, New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2003. Mayor Michael Bloomberg Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

At the stroke of midnight, the celebrity host will plunge this replica ball to “drop” the 12-foot diameter LED-lined crystal ball located atop the roof of One Times Square. Photo: 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Musicians jamming, Times Square, New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2003. Mayor Michael Bloomberg Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Happy Holidays 2024

Happy Holidays   

Tree Lighting, December 2007, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Collection. NYC Municipal Archives 

This year there is a happy confluence of holidays—December 25 is both Christmas Day and the start of Hanukkah. And, Kwanzaa begins on December 26. All of us at the Department of Records and Information Services wish our readers a peaceful and happy holiday, whatever you celebrate.

In case you are interested in a little holiday trivia, the vertical files in the Municipal Library yielded an article titled “Christmas in New York: A Dutch Treat.” Author Diane Zimmerman credits Dutch colonialists for establishing many traditions that are associated with the holiday. “…40 short years of Dutch rule were enough to seed a tradition that would spread across the entire nation and give New York a claim to be the American model for Christmas.”

The author contrasts the Dutch immigrants in New Amsterdam with the English puritanical settlers of Massachusetts, who outlawed celebrating the holiday! In New Amsterdam, festivities began with St. Nicholas Eve in early December and carry on until early January. In fact, in the Court Minutes of New Amsterdam, the December 14, 1654 entry includes this interesting resolution:

As the winter and holidays are at hand, the Burgomasters and Schepens resolve, that there shall be no ordinary meeting between this date and three weeks after Christmas. Wherefore the Court Messenger is ordered not to summon any person, in the meantime, to a regular Court. Done.” 

DORIS is not taking such an extended holiday. But, we are issuing this very short blog early and will be back on January 3. Happy Holidays! 

Happy Birthday, Calvert Vaux!

Calvert Vaux, ca. 1880. Courtesy Historic New England.

This week For the Record celebrates the 200th birthday of Calvert Vaux, one of New York City’s most influential architects. If you are familiar with Vaux (pronounced Vox) at all, it is most likely as the co-designer of Central Park. Along with Fredrick Law Olmsted, Vaux created the pastoral designs, architectural highlights and thoughtful details that made the park unique and New York City’s greatest treasure. Despite his brilliant designs, it is more likely that you only know about Olmsted and not Vaux, whose importance has been lost to history.  

Vaux’s biographer, Francis Kowsky begins his book, Country, Park & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux, by stating that Vaux “fervently advocated the power of art to refine and elevate the human spirit. An accomplished architect and landscape architect, he believed that well-planned, picturesque buildings and naturalistically laid-out parks and grounds enhanced the lives of all who used them.”  

Jefferson Market Courthouse, February 12, 1938. Department of Bridges/Plant & Structures Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Designed by Vaux and Frederick Clark Withers in 1887, this landmarked building now serves as a branch of the New York Public Library. Done in the Victorian Gothic style, the building included civil and police courtrooms. The brick-arched basement was used as a holding area for prisoners on their way to jail or trial.

Born in London on December 20, 1824, Calvert Vaux trained as an architect. He became a skilled draftsman and accomplished artist. In 1850, he emigrated to Newburgh, New York, to work with Andrew Jackson Downing, one of America’s foremost landscape gardeners (the 19th-century term for a landscape architect) and one of the very early proponents, along with William Cullen Bryant, of reserving a space in New York City for a world-class park. Through connections he made during his time in Newburgh and as a way to honor Downing, who died in a riverboat accident in 1852, Vaux encouraged city officials to call for a competition to design the park—a competition which he and Olmsted eventually won. The Central Park: Original Designs for New York’s Greatest Treasure tells the complete story of the competition, Vaux’s architectural features, and hidden highlights in the park.

Huddlestone Arch, plan showing the southern elevation and a schematic sketch of the north side, 1864. Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Vaux designed all 34 Central Park bridges to be unique in order to “prevent monotony from dulling the pleasing effects that the landscape was to have on the spectator’s imagination.”  

Rustic Bridge built across the arm of the Ladies Skating Pond near Bridge No. 4, c. 1860. Pencil with black ink on cloth-backed paper. Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

There has been considerable scholarship about Central Park and other New York City parks designed by Olmsted and Vaux such as the Prospect, Riverside and Tompkins Square parks. What is less well-known is that Vaux had a fruitful career outside of his partnership with Olmsted, which ended in 1872. Vaux worked with fellow Central Park architect Jacob Wrey Mould on projects such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Natural History. With Fredrick Clarke Withers and engineer George K. Radford he carried out plans for public buildings with the Romantic vision of intertwining nature and structure into one. For his many solo commissions, he designed charming buildings, laid out lush parks and cemeteries and developed elegant structures for urban living, not only for the wealthy but for lower and middle classes as well.  

American Museum of Natural History, floor tiles of principal and third floors, artificial stone and tile contract, c. 1873. Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

American Museum of Natural History, side elevation of the central arm, 1872. Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

New Building Application, Elevation, 1888. Manhattan Building Plan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. The Fourteenth Ward Industrial School, also known as the Astor Memorial School was one of twelve Children’s Aid Society Buildings designed by Calvert Vaux and George Kent Radford. In partnership from 1876 until 1893, they developed buildings for the CAS that were intended to give a feeling of a “snug country inn.” The buildings usually displayed varied rooflines and included ornamental features that are reminiscent of Dutch architecture.

As a founding member of the American Institute of Architects, Vaux helped establish professional standards in the field that are still recognized today. In 1857, his book Villas and Cottages was published as a portfolio of his designs for homes. Here, Vaux explained how, together with modern comfort, it was important to establish a pleasing relationship between a dwelling and its surroundings. In addition, he often wrote for leading journals about American architecture and its influence on society. He was a champion for tenement house reform through the development of modern apartment buildings which he billed as “Parisian Buildings” to make them more socially acceptable across the classes.  

In his park designs, he brought to fruition Downing’s notion that well-designed public spaces could be a source of moral and educational enlightenment for all. Vaux felt that beautiful music venues, educational museums and comfortable restaurants could be included without intruding on natural surroundings.

The construction of Central Park marked the beginning of the public park movement in America. In his role as head designer Vaux implemented the pastoral vision that he and Olmsted created at the heart of the city. Nature first, nature second, and nature third. Then architecture. That was Calvert Vaux’s motto to live and work by.  

Ceiling design for the Terrace Arcade, 1860. Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. The Minton Company in England produced the tiles. The brilliantly detailed Terrace is virtually hidden from the rest of the Park, revealing itself only when the visitor is upon it.

Bethesda Terrace and Mall, details of wall and parapet at south stair, ca. 1861. Parks Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Thirty years after he created the original plan for Central Park, Vaux found himself at the end of his career. With a declining architectural practice of his own, in 1887 he again returned to designing landscape plans for parks throughout the city. Working under Parks superintendent Samuel Parsons, Jr., the son of his longtime plantsman in Central Park, Vaux planned small squares and corner parks as well as larger undertakings like designing a new glass greenhouse that was installed in the northern section of the park near the Harlem Meer.

Old Mulberry Bend Park Pavilion, December 12, 1936. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Now known as Columbus Park, Vaux designed the Pavilion near the end of his career when he was once again working for the Parks Department. The structure features arches similar to those used in some of Vaux’s early bridge designs for Central Park. 

In 1889, Vaux and Olmsted returned to their partnership to design one last park together, Downing Park in Newburgh, New York. The two longtime partners agreed to donate their services to design a public park along the Hudson River in the memory of Andrew Jackson Downing. Sadly, Vaux did not live to see the park completed in 1897. He died in a drowning accident near his son’s home in Brooklyn in 1895. To his simple funeral, the Park Department commissioners sent plants taken from the park. Vaux’s son Bowyer explained “The idea of all the flowers and vines and leaves in profusion coming from Central Park seemed most appropriate.”

Death Certificate, Calvert Vaux, Brooklyn, 1895. NYC Municipal Archives.

Death Certificate, Calvert Vaux, page 2, Brooklyn, 1895. NYC Municipal Archives.