MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES

Leonora Gidlund, Director
31 Chambers Street, Room 103 · New York, NY 10007
Open to the public Monday through Thursday 9 AM to 4:30 PM, Friday 9 AM to 1 PM

For more information, call 311 or (212) NEW-YORK if outside of NYC.
You can also e-mail the Municipal Archives via the Contact Us form.

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Founded in 1950, the Municipal Archives preserves and makes available the historical records of New York City municipal government. Dating from the early seventeenth century to the present, the Municipal Archives holdings total approximately 160,000 cubic feet. Accessioned from more than one hundred city agencies, the collections comprise office records, manuscript material, still and moving images, ledger volumes, vital records, maps, blueprints, and sound recordings.

Collection highlights include vital records, census, and city directories that are an essential resource for patrons conducting family history research, the number one hobby in America. Records pertaining to the administration of criminal justice, dating from 1684 to 1966, constitute the largest and most comprehensive collection of such material in the English-speaking world. There are more than one million photographic images in fifty collections including pictures of every house and building in the city, ca. 1940. Legislative branch records date back to the first Dutch colonial government in New Amsterdam. Robert Moses’ papers document the city’s vast infrastructure from 1934 through 1959, and the records of mayoral administrations provide extensive information about every aspect of New York City from 1849 to the present.

The Municipal Archives is committed to long-term preservation of the materials in its care. The institution maintains a conservation unit that performs complex document treatments, a micrographics unit to reformat materials, and a photography unit that produces new prints, transparencies, negatives, and scans from vintage photographic materials for both in-house use and for patrons.

CONSERVATION UNIT

In 1977, when the City of New York launched a capital project to renovate the Surrogate’s Court Building, also know the Hall of Records, planners designated 2,250 square feet as a paper and book conservation lab for the Municipal Archives. The lab officially opened in 1984. Today, it is staffed with two conservators, one conservation technician, a grant-supported special projects conservator, and an intern. The conservation lab is well equipped with a number of specialized machines, such as a leaf caster, a cold-suction table, and an ultrasonic welder.

The conservation staff initiates projects that promote preservation of the archival records and facilitate access to the information contained therein. Prior to any treatments, the conservators conduct a preservation/conservation assessment to determine the most appropriate action. They consult with staff archivists for information regarding the access needs of the collection and research published information for the most up-to-date methodologies.

In a monitored environment, conservators perform complex treatments, routine maintenance, and re-housing activities. Complex treatments include the removal of pressure-sensitive tapes, the reduction of stains, the repair of broken bindings, and mending water-damaged papers. Routine maintenance and re-housing activities, such as surface cleaning and constructing archival-quality enclosures respectively, aim to extend the useful life of a record by mitigating environmental risk factors.

Recent projects include: humidification and flattening of the Grand Jury Dismissed Indictment Records (1844-1900); lining and paper repair of the original drawings of Washington Square Park; binding and text repair, and leaf-casting of mold-damaged pages from the Archives’ collection of Colonial era manuscripts; housing of cracked or broken glass plate negatives depicting the construction of the East River bridges into specially designed boxes; and the production of large portfolios for the re-housing of oversized architectural drawings of the Brooklyn Bridge and the city’s piers.

The following institutions have provided funding for conservation projects: the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials, the New York State Archives Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the New York City Art Commission.

MICROGRAPHICS UNIT

Since 1984, the staff of the Micrographics Unit have been preserving selected series from the Municipal Archives’ vast and diverse holdings on silver-halide microfilm. The director of the Municipal Archives determines which collections should be transferred to microfilm, based on the public’s demand for the information and the collection’s physical condition. Heavily referenced items, such as birth, marriage, and death certificates, are selected for microfilming to allow greater public access. Fragile materials, such as the early colonial records of New York City are microfilmed to help protect the original documents from excessive handling and overexposure to light.

Currently, the lab has a staff of six who are each trained to shoot, process, and perform quality control on both 16mm and 35mm film formats. Before the Micrographics Unit produces any film, the conservation unit prepares the items. This, in turn, allows the maximum amount of information to be collected from the records, while protecting the materials during filming. Fragile documents are carefully positioned and photographed with planetary cameras that are ideal for capturing faded handwriting and the slight tonal variations of aged documents, photos, books, and records.

Prior to filming, the micrographics staff work with the archivists to obtain bibliographic and descriptive information concerning the represented collection.
At the beginning of each roll of microfilm, informational sheets or ‘targets,’ identify the collection or series on the particular microfilm. Additional ‘targets’ introduce each new folder or volume. These targets are used in conjunction with the microfilm roll numbers to produce finding aids for use in the reference room.

Unit staff process the film in-house and inspect each roll for adherence to nationally recognized quality-control standards for density and clarity. From the master copy, a second generation silver duplicate is produced. This is used to create service copies that are used by the public in the Municipal Archives Reference Room or for interlibrary loan. The master copies are stored in a secure, climate-controlled, off-site facility.

The Micrographics Unit staff are funded through a combination of city funds and grants. Past and current projects have been generously supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials, and the New York State Archives Local Government, Records Management Improvement Fund.

PHOTOGRAPHY UNIT

The Municipal Archives Photo Unit was established in 1984. This preservation unit is engaged in a number of different activities ranging from collection maintenance to the production of new prints, negatives, and digital conversion. A staff of three is employed to make images more accessible to the public, to professional researchers, and to public agencies. The Archives now houses close to two million photographic items. Many of the photographs and negatives in the collection are not only historical artifacts, but artistic images.

The Archives maintains a traditional black-and-white darkroom with one 8x10 enlarger and two 4x5 enlargers. Staff are capable of producing both resin-coated prints and fiber prints up to 16x20 inches. There is also a copy-stand studio with setups for both small table-top prints and over-sized objects. The photographers can produce 35mm, 4x5, or 8x10 copy negatives and transparencies. Averaging over 500 photo orders per month, the photo unit processes orders for prints, researches negative locations, shoots copy negatives when necessary, makes prints, and can produce digital output in the form of high-resolution scans and digital prints.

In 2003 the Archives established a digital lab, in partnership with Department of Environmental Protection (DEP.) In addition to annual scanning projects completed for DEP, the Archives has used the lab to preserve and make available collections on fragile paper or those which only existed on glass plates. The most note-worthy of these images are exhibited in the online photo gallery. Patrons can choose to order high-resolution digital files in place of traditional prints or transparencies. The lab has now expanded to include two Macintosh G5 workstations, a 13x19 inch reflective and transmissive flat-bed scanner, and a 5x7 inch drum scanner. In the future, the Photo Unit plans to expand its presence on the web and improve online-user accessibility, and to increase its digital holdings.