The La Guardia and Wagner Archives was established in 1982 at

LaGuardia Community College LaGuardia Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former congressman and New York City mayor ...

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

, Queens, New York, to collect, preserve, and make available primary materials documenting the social and political

history of New York City The written history of New York City began with the first European explorer, the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. European settlement began with the Dutch in 1608. The "Sons of Liberty" campaigned against British authority in New York Ci ...

, with an emphasis on the mayoralty and the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. The purpose of its founding went beyond serving as a repository, but to establish the college as a location for scholarly research.Then AND Now: The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives
" The archives serves a broad array of researchers, journalists, students, scholars, exhibit planners, and policy makers. Its web site provides guidelines to the collections, as well as over 55,000 digitized photographs and close to 2,000,000 digitized documents.

Collections

This growing repository contains the papers of several mayors, the records of the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

, the

New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the U ...

, the piano maker

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to ...

, and a

History Collection. Many of the documents and photographs are available on their website.

Abraham D. Beame

Abraham Beame Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy. ...

was Mayor of New York from 1974–77. The Beame Collection consists of 1,800 photographs, more than 100 artifacts, and an assortment of papers documenting key themes of the Beame years. These include the

fiscal crisis A budget crisis is an informal name for a situation in which the legislative and the executive in a presidential system deadlock and are unable to pass a budget. In presidential systems, the legislature has the power to pass a budget, but the e ...

of the 1970s and the

United States Bicentennial The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. It was a central event ...

. The Beame oral history project has gathered unique recollections of more than 30 associates and contemporaries of the mayor.

David N. Dinkins

David N. Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enteri ...

was the first African-American mayor of New York City, he was elected in a time of racial tension, high crime rates and economic uncertainty, serving from 1990-1993. Running for mayor he managed to defeat

Edward I. Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was mayo ...

and

Rudolph W. Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1 ...

, the mayors who are also present in the collections. The collection spans the years 1948-2000 and consists of 55,311 folders across 150 document series. The archives holds the full content of 34 series, representing about 25% of the collection,on microfilm. These include substantial number of subject level series, several important correspondence series and the press office/speeches series. The original documents are housed at the Municipal Archives of the New York City Department of Records and Information Service. The remaining record Series within the Dinkins Mayoral Collection were not microfilmed and are available only at the NYC Municipal Archives in their original print form.

Edward I. Koch

The archives is acquiring the personal papers of

, New York's dynamic 105th mayor served three terms, 1978–89. This collection of predominantly post-mayoral materials includes 2,300 photographs, videos, and a variety of documents. Included in the collection are materials donated by contemporaries and associates of the mayor, facilitating research on such issues as charter revision and economic development. A portion of Mayor Koch's mayoral speeches, which is contained within the Koch Collection at La Guardia, is now available online in electronic full-text form. These speeches deal with some of the defining issues of the 1980s. Dozens of oral history transcripts offer insights into major public issues of the Koch years. A microfilm copy of the Koch Departmental Correspondence, held by the Municipal Archives, is available as well. The archives has produced several compilations of Mayor Koch's documents surrounding

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

and the fiscal crisis. The Archives also recently completed a booklet of photographs and oral histories of former Mayor Koch, with every U.S. President from Reagan through Obama. This is part of an ongoing project to document former Mayor Koch's remembrances using his favorite photographs.

Fiorello H. La Guardia

As mayor during the turbulent period from 1934 to 1945,

Fiorello H. La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...

initiated major reforms during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1982, the mayor's widow, the late Marie La Guardia, donated her husband's personal papers to

. These documents, photographs, and personal artifacts chronicle Mayor La Guardia's life and times, providing an invaluable record of New York City history. The collection contains transcripts of La Guardia's speeches, personal correspondence, and more than 3,000 photographs. It also has original sketches, scrapbooks, and records of his tenure as director general of the

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

after World War II. The archives holds a microfilm copy of selected series of La Guardia's mayoral papers housed at the

New York City municipal archive The New York City Municipal Archives (NYCMA) is a division of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services, located in the Surrogate's Courthouse in Manhattan. Founded in 1950, the Municipal Archives preserves and makes access ...

. This includes the mayor's scrapbooks, which record the media's reaction to La Guardia and the issues of the time. Selected documents are available online on the Archives' website in full-text digital form, including letters from Mayor LaGuardia to his sister Gemma, who sought her brother's help in returning to the United States after surviving a

Nazi forced labor camp ''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially durin ...

. After his last term, LaGuardia traveled across war-torn Europe and China to deliver aid to starving children as Director General of the

(UNRRA). The thank you letters he received from children in Italy are featured. Also available electronically are the text of his Sunday radio broadcasts over

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

from 1942 through 1945. The archives has available a microfilm copy of La Guardia's congressional papers, which are housed at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

. The collection contains more than 100 hours of audio and video tapes of and about La Guardia, including

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

interviews with the mayor's friends and associates, radio broadcasts and newsreel footage.

John V. Lindsay

John V. Lindsay served as mayor from 1966-1973, a tumultuous time in New York history, characterized by racial and labor unrest, angry political protest, a

police corruption Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers end up breaking their political contract and abuse their power for personal gain. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers. Internal police ...

scandal and deteriorating municipal finances. Lindsay built his political reputation as a maverick Liberal Republican Congressman from Manhattan’s Silk Stocking district between 1959 and 1965. He brought a Kennedy-like glamour and excitement to

Gracie Mansion Archibald Gracie Mansion (commonly called Gracie Mansion) is the official residence of the Mayor of New York City. Built in 1799, it is located in Carl Schurz Park, at East End Avenue and 88th Street in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan. ...

. The Lindsay Collection spans the years 1962-1973 and consists of 4,575 folders, 182 photographs,2 videos and a two-volume scrapbook. The four document series consist of: Departmental Correspondence; General Correspondence; Subject Files; Confidential Subject Files. The records include correspondence, reports, transcriptions of speeches, and other public records, along with campaign documents and other materials related to his

mayoralty In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

. The original documents of all but the scrapbook series are housed at the Municipal Archives of the New York City Department of Records and Information Service.

Queens History

The archives houses a collection on the social history of Queens from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. This includes a 2,000-image photo collection. It contains views of transportation, leisure, work, and family life in New York's largest borough. The history of Astoria,

, and Woodside are especially well documented in this collection. The images show the transformation from a rural county in the late 19th century to an urban borough by 1950. The collection also has more than 90 oral histories on everyday life in Queens. An additional aspect is the papers of two settlement houses, Forest Hills Community House and Sunnyside Community Services. These collections shed light on a variety of important themes in the social history of post–World War II Queens, including race relations, demographic changes and transportation. In the future, the archives will continue to strengthen its resources as a center for the study of modern New York City. In addition, the archives is working to acquire microfilm copies of the papers of all the 20th-century mayors.

Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)

The Papers of Real Estate Board of New York, donated to the Archives by the Board in 2017, document the history of private real estate in New York City from the Board’s founding, in 1896, to 2018. The largest portion of the Collection consists of the “Property Cards” (~200,000), produced by Real Estate Board of New York, which chronicle the real estate history of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

properties. The other documents (~ 24cf) are divided between those published by REBNY (Manual and Diaries, REBNY Minutes, “Roll Call”

Board of Governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

, The Reporter, Open Market Sales Volumes, Reviews of Tax Assessments, Annual Journals, Annual Reports, and an Annual Banquet publication), and Non-REBNY publications (News-clippings, Manhattan Land Book, Owners of Real Estate in 1915, Manhattan Daily Transfer Reports, and Brooklyn Street Maps). There is also Subject Files Series, which includes office occupancy surveys, and there are several folders of REBNY President Steven Spinola’s correspondence. The Collection also contains 38 Videos(including mostly copies of the “Realty Views” T.V. Program), 24 audio cassettes, about 3 cf of photos (mainly of the REBNY Annual Banquet), 25 artifacts (including the ceremonial trowel used for the groundbreaking of REBNY’s 10-14 East 41st Street building in 1925), and 20 real estate handbooks/guides.

Robert F. Wagner

Mayor

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Robert Ferdinand Wagner II (April 20, 1910 – February 12, 1991) was an American politician who served three terms as the mayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965. When running for his third term, he broke with the Tammany Hall leadership ...

was the second generation of the Wagner family to devote himself to public service. His father was U.S. Senator Robert F. Wagner, a major figure on the national scene in the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

era who sponsored landmark

labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

, and

social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

legislation. The mayor's son, Robert F. Wagner Jr. (deputy mayor), served as a member of the

, chair of the

New York City Planning Commission The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...

, deputy mayor for policy, and president of the New York City Board of Education. Mayor Robert F. Wagner served as chief executive of New York City for three terms. From 1954 to 1965, he oversaw the construction of housing, parks, roadways, and schools. He championed the growth and empowerment of municipal labor unions, and sponsored the creation of The

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. He mobilized resources for the

War on Poverty The war on poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national ...

and ventured into new fields in income redistribution for the benefit of lower income groups and individuals. He used city government to combat housing bias and job discrimination. All of these activities, programs, and concepts are reflected in the Wagner Collection, which consists of correspondence, transcripts of 3,000 speeches, over 7,000 photographs, personal artifacts, and a 100-interview oral history collection. Also available in electronic full-text form are the papers of Julius Edelstein, Wagner's executive assistant and closest advisor. Edelstein was a major figure in the redevelopment of the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

–-once described as "the most comprehensive urban renewal project in the U.S."—and a driving force in urban housing throughout the city. Also available in electronic form is the Judah Gribetz donation, a comprehensive file of newspaper clippings, journal articles, reports by city agencies and market surveys of city businesses organized by neighborhood, providing an invaluable guide to the boroughs in New York, neighborhood by neighborhood, for the 20th century. Judah Gribetz was Commissioner of Housing under Wagner. In addition, portions of Senator Robert F. Wagner's papers, held by

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, are available on microfilm. In 1994, the archives received the personal papers of Robert F. Wagner, Jr., documenting the third and final generation of the Wagner family to serve in a public role.

Rudolph W. Giuliani

Rudolph Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...

served as mayor from 1994 to 2001. Giuliani ran for mayor twice against

David Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enteri ...

in 1989 and again in 1993, losing the first election and winning the second, both in close races. Giuliani won his second term more easily against Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger in 1997. A strong and often divisive figure, Giuliani has been widely credited with reducing crime, cutting welfare rolls and restoring business confidence in the city, though his role in bringing about these changes was controversial. Giuliani established his law and order credentials in the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

during the

Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over D ...

, first as Associate Attorney General in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and then as the

U.S. Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the Southern District, New York. In this capacity he prosecuted high profile insider trading cases on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

and masterminded the fabled “Commission” case against New York’s

mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

leaders. The Giuliani Collection spans the years 1947-2001 and contains over 40,000index records across fifty series. The record series include departmental correspondence, general correspondence, subject files, schedules, as well as materials from the deputy mayors’ offices, assistant counsels’ offices, audio/video, and ephemera. A portion of the documents within this Collection are available in electronic form, and the remainder in their original print form only at the Municipal Archives of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. The electronic documents have not been posted online, as some of them may present privacy issues. Most 2001 records are not available, because at the time of processing the Giuliani Papers, these files remained with the Mayor Bloomberg Administration.

Steinway & Sons

Henry Z. Steinway donated the papers of the

piano company to the archives in 1985. The Steinway company figures prominently in American immigration, business, cultural, urban, and labor history. The Steinways first made pianos in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Migrating to America, the family founded a piano company in Manhattan in 1853. The Steinway pianos has an international reputation for technical innovation and musical quality. In 1870, Steinway built a factory in

and constructed

street railway A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

s and housing, contributing to the county's growth and development. The Steinway & Sons Collection consists of family, business, and workers' records from 1853 to 2007. The collection also contains nearly 4,000 photographs, including several signed prints by the famed photographer

Margaret Bourke-White Margaret Bourke-White (; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971), an American photographer and documentary photographer, became arguably best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet industry under the Soviets' ...

, and more than 50 hours of audio and videotapes. In 1995, the archives acquired a restored 1858 Steinway

square piano The square piano is a type of piano that has horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side, with the sounding board above a cavity in the short side. It is variously ...

, which is now part of the collection.

The Council of the City of New York

This collection of the

represents an unparalleled snapshot of the legislative history of America's biggest city from the 1930s and into the 21st century. It includes not only copies of the thousands of enacted laws and official publications, but also the records of public hearings and committee files on legislation under consideration and ad hoc investigations, numerous photographs and negatives, maps, artifacts, scrapbooks, audio and videotapes, as well as the papers of dozens of individual council members, including former leaders

Newbold Morris Augustus Newbold Morris or Newbold Morris (February 2, 1902 – March 30, 1966) was an American politician, lawyer, president of the New York City Council, and two-time candidate for mayor of New York City. Early life Morris, who never used ...

, Joseph Sharkey, Paul Screvane, and Peter Vallone. Three one-time council members rose to the mayoralty of New York City:

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...

Vincent Impellitteri Vincent Richard Impellitteri (born Vincenzo Impellitteri; February 4, 1900 – January 29, 1987) was an American politician and judge who served as the 101st Mayor of New York City, 1950–53. He was elected as a Democrat as president of the Cit ...

, and

Edward Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was mayo ...

. This collection gives a vivid picture of day-to-day life in the city, focusing on constituency issues close to ordinary people such as housing, drugs, crime, welfare, community development, health, and the environment. It also provides historians with a wider understanding of a local government that is frequently overshadowed in the media by the prominence of a powerful mayor. Legislative documents from 1955 to 1997 are searchable on the website. Over 500,000 of these are now available online in full-text form. The website also contains more than 13,000 searchable photographs.

The LGBTQ Collection

Presently the bulk of the

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

collection comes from the Daniel Dromm papers and NYS Senator/Assemblyman Tom Duane. Daniel Dromm, a Queens public school teacher from 1984 to 2009, was a founder of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee and an organizer of the Queens Pride Parade and Festival, inaugurated in Jackson Heights in 1993. The Daniel Dromm papers, consisting of 24 cubic ft. of documents and artifacts, are made up of the following Document Series: Pride; Subject Files, Scrapbooks, Magazines/Publications, Articles and Clippings, Political Campaigns, and Personal/Business Contacts/Appointment books. His papers serve to illuminate Queens LGBTQ history and activism from the 1990s to the early 2010s.The senator Thomas Duane LGBTQ Collection presently consists of two Series: the Gay Literature Series And the Personal Gay Files Series. The Gay Literature Series consists mainly of issues of the Christopher Magazine from 1976 to 1993. The Personal Gay Files Series contains documents collected by senator Duane, before, during and after his time in

political office The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...

, related to LGBTQ issues.

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

The archives is the repository of the

(NYCHA). Founded in 1934, NYCHA was the first housing authority in the United States. The authority manages 336 projects housing more than 403,000 people. The collection covers the period from the late 1920s to the early 1990s. It documents the construction of New York's

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

projects and provides information about the lives of the residents. Most major themes in the social history of 20th century New York can be studied through the records. The collection contains correspondence, reports, news clippings, testimony, and surveys of neighborhoods and tenant populations. It also has more than 50,000 images, including photos of city neighborhoods before the projects were built. About 4,800 can be viewed on the archives' website. In addition, there is a special presentation on the archives' website, with commentary by historian Joel Schwartz. An oral history collection preserves the thoughts and comments of NYCHA staff members.

Vincent R. Impellitteri

Vincent R. Impellitteri Vincent Richard Impellitteri (born Vincenzo Impellitteri; February 4, 1900 – January 29, 1987) was an American politician and judge who served as the 101st Mayor of New York City, 1950–53. He was elected as a Democrat as president of the City ...

was a mayor beset with political and practical challenges. Serving as the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

President at the time of Mayor O’Dwyer’s resignation, Impellitteri succeeded to the mayoralty in August 1950. Despite strong opposition from

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

, he retained the office by winning a special election later that year. Dubbed “Impy” by the press, many considered him ineffectual and he was often outmaneuvered by both Republican Governor Dewey and by the Democratic Tammany leader,

Carmine DeSapio Carmine Gerard DeSapio (December 10, 1908 – July 27, 2004) was an American politician from New York City. He was the last head of the Tammany Hall political machine to dominate municipal politics. Early life and career DeSapio was born in ...

. Serving less than a full term, Impellitteri lost the mayoralty to Robert F. Wagner in the regular election in 1953. The Impellitteri Collection spans the years 1945-1953 and consists of 2,870 folders across three series: Departmental Correspondence; General Correspondence; and Subject Files. Most of the collection covers the governmental records of Impellitteri’s mayoralty (1950-1953). The records include correspondence, reports, transcriptions of speeches, and other public records, along with campaign documents and other materials related to his

. The original documents are housed at the Municipal Archives of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives holds these series on microfilm.

William O'Dwyer

William O’Dwyer was a popular and celebrated mayor during what some have called the golden age of New York City. However, investigations into organized crime and police corruption in the years during and following his mayoralty tarnished his reputation. Backed by

in 1941, O’Dwyer narrowly lost to incumbent

Fiorello LaGuardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City from ...

, but ran again in 1945 to become the city’s 100th mayor. The O’Dwyer Collection spans the years 1936-1952 and consists of 6,151 folders across three series: Departmental Correspondence; General Correspondence; and Subject Files. Most of the collection covers the governmental records of O’Dwyer’s mayoralty (1946-1950). The records include correspondence, reports, transcriptions of speeches, and other public records, along with campaign documents and other materials related to his mayoralty. The original documents are housed at the Municipal Archives of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives holds these series on microfilm.

Education projects

The archive has developed a six-lesson curriculum for local 4th-grade students, aimed at teaching the importance of voting and the history of suffrage. It has also developed the "City of Immigrants" history curriculum, aimed at teaching racial diversity in local schools.

References

External links

La Guardia and Wagner Archives

La Guardia and Wagner Archives blog

La Guardia and Wagner Archives
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{{authority control Archives in the United States History of New York City 1982 establishments in New York City LaGuardia Community College