New York

NYPL to Take Archives of East Village Eye, Newspaper of 1980s Downtown Scene

The complexity and difficulty of placing the relatively small archive of an underground arts paper with a repository that can preserve it highlights the challenges facing historic preservation. 

Isaac Sears and the Roots of America in New York

by Sam Roberts

The career of merchant and patriot Isaac Sears highlights the underappreciated role of New York City in the movement for American independence. 

Rigged Elections: A Real New York Story

by Jim Sleeper

New York City's political history shows that brazen attempts to rig elections didn't emerge with Team Trump. 

Footage in NYC's Archives Sheds Important Light on the Northern Civil Rights Movement and Police Efforts to Undermine It

by L.E.J. Rachell

Surveillance footage in the New York City Archives helps to highlight the importance of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to the northern civil rights movement – and the techniques the NYPD used to disrupt it. 

Rational or Not, Crime Fears Threaten the Subway with a Death Spiral

Can studying past crime panics help cities convince riders to use mass transit systems when fear of crime is on the rise? 

How the "Jewel of Harlem" Became Unlivable

Opened in 1967, Esplanade Gardens’ co-op apartments were seen as a way for Black families to acquire intergenerational wealth and gnaw away at centuries-long inequality in housing.Then it started falling apart.

2022's Labor Uprising Reminds of More Radical Past and Possible Future

by Xochitl Gonzalez

The Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers' Organization encouraged its college-educated members to take on industrial work to support a labor union movement in crisis; the moment encouraged a broader sense of who is a worker. Today, are workers in health, service, and logistics coming to a similar recognition? 

Museum of Natural History in New York Removes Theodore Roosevelt Statue

While Roosevelt's support of natural history has been noted, museum officials acknowledged that the statue "communicates a racial hierarchy" that constitutes a darker side of the former president's legacy.

Rise And Fall Of A Movement — A Review Of “The Young Lords: A Radical History”

by Leo Valdes

Johanna Fernandez's history of the Puerto Rican activist organization reconstructs the movement's roots and shows that an organization formed in 1969 still offers a useful diagnosis of an "urban crisis" rooted in experiences in housing, schools, hospitals, and jails. 

The History of Women in the New York City Marathon

Amateur Athletic Union rules in the 1970s didn't sanction any competitive race for women longer than 1.5 miles. Kathrine Switzer and other pioneering women marathoners discuss a half-century of change. 

Jefferson Statue to be Removed from NY City Council Chambers

"Annette Gordon-Reed, a Harvard Law School professor and a Jefferson expert, objected to the idea of taking down the Jefferson statue, but said that if it were to move to the New-York Historical Society, where she serves as a trustee, it would be a best-case scenario."

When the Young Lords Took Over a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care

by Emma Francis-Snyder

"The dramatic takeover of Lincoln Hospital produced one of the first Patient’s Bill of Rights, changing patients’ relationship with hospitals and doctors nationwide."

See a Piece of History: Retired FDNY Fireboat John D. McKean

The Fireboat McKean Preservation Project and the Hudson River Parks Friends offer those in New York the opportunity to visit the McKean at Pier 25 in lower Manhattan. The McKean's half-century of service most notably included evacuation and firefighting support on 9/11. 

Remembering Minoru Yamasaki’s Twin Towers

"That two of Yamasaki’s major buildings would end up as rubble, one by politics, one by terrorists, seemed like the last word. And yet critics’ and historians’ views of the towers, as well as views of Yamasaki’s reputation, have also undergone a series of transformations."

The Stealth Sticker Campaign to Expose New York’s History of Slavery

Slavers of New York is a guerilla public history project that seeks to remind New Yorkers of the ties to slavery of the families whose names are commemorated in the city's streets, parks, and other place names. 

‘A Tale of the Forgotten Patriots’: New Brooklyn Tour Explores History of British Prison Ships Moored in NYC During the American Revolution

New York's East River was a mooring site for British prison ships where Colonial revolutionary prisoners were held in dangerous (and disgusting) conditions. 

Does New York Still Want to Be the Capital of the World?

by Kenneth T. Jackson

Local development politics threaten a development in lower Manhattan, an example of the difficulty in building affordable housing that threatens the city's vitality.   

Incognegro, Part II: How New York Law Enforcement Worked to Destroy Core

by L.E.J. Rachell

Ray Wood's memoir alleges that as a rookie NYPD detective he was coerced to act as an agent provocateur to convince members of New York's Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) chapters to commit crimes or other acts that would discredit and destroy the movement. The NYPD and FBI could clear the air by releasing their files on infiltration of Black-led organizations. 

A New York Drugstore Nearly as Storied as the City Itself

"The store, on Sixth Avenue between West 8th and 9th Streets, is in the very center of Greenwich Village. And its landmark interior, which dates to 1902, is wonderfully preserved, with its original tiled floor and oak shelves."

With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Community Activism

by Laura L. Lovett

Recovering the legacy of New York activist and organizer Dorothy Pitman Hughes means writing "a history of the women’s movement with children, race, and welfare rights at its core, a history of women’s politics grounded in community organizing and African American economic development."