La Guardia and Wagner Archives
The La Guardia and Wagner Archives was established in 1982 at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, New York, to collect, preserve, and make available primary materials documenting the social and political history of New York City, with an emphasis on the mayoralty and the borough of Queens. The purpose of its founding went beyond serving as a repository, but to establish the college as a location for scholarly research. 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 Housing Authority, the piano maker Steinway & Sons, and a Queens History Collection. Many of the documents and photographs are available on their website.Abraham D. Beame
Abraham Beame was Mayor of New York from 1974 to 1977. 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 of the 1970s and the United States Bicentennial. 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 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 to 1993. Running for mayor he managed to defeat Edward I. Koch and Rudolph W. Giuliani, 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 Edward I. Koch, 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 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 initiated major reforms during the Great Depression and World War II. In 1982, the mayor's widow, the late Marie La Guardia, donated her husband's personal papers to LaGuardia Community College. 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 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. 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 labor camp. After his last term, LaGuardia traveled across war-torn Europe and China to deliver aid to starving children as Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. 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 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 collection contains more than 100 hours of audio and video tapes of and about La Guardia, including oral history interviews with the mayor's friends and associates, radio broadcasts and newsreel footage.
John V. Lindsay
John V. Lindsay served as mayor from 1966 to 1973, a tumultuous time in New York history, characterized by racial and labor unrest, angry political protest, a police corruption 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. 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. 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, Long Island City, 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”, produced by Real Estate Board of New York, which chronicle the real estate history of Manhattan properties. The other documents are divided between those published by REBNY, and Non-REBNY publications. 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, 24 audio cassettes, about 3 cf of photos, 25 artifacts, and 20 real estate handbooks/guides.Robert F. Wagner
Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. 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 era who sponsored landmark labor, civil rights, health, social security, and social welfare legislation. The mayor's son, Robert F. Wagner Jr. (deputy mayor), served as a member of the New York City Council, chair of the New York City Planning Commission, 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. He mobilized resources for the war on poverty 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–-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, 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.