Complete Archive

Before the creation of Greater New York on January 1, 1898, the counties bordering New York County —Kings, Queens, Richmond, and Westchester Counties—were comprised of municipalities (villages, towns, cities), some of which date back to the early days of Dutch and English colonization of Lenapehoking (Lënapehòkink in Unami), the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. This collection includes records created and/or maintained by these municipalities before they were dissolved, annexed, or consolidated into what is now modern-day New York City. This vast collection, commonly known as the "Old Town records," contains administrative records, court records, financial records, land records, voting records, tax records, military records, records documenting enslaved people, and municipal infrastructure records, among other record types, circa 1630-1943.

The Office of the Borough President was created in 1898 to compensate the formerly independent communities in the four counties of New York, Kings, Queens and Richmond for the loss of governmental power to the consolidated Greater City of New York. They operated as “local mayors,” with substantial control over construction and maintenance of streets, sidewalks, highways, sewers and public buildings. The Queens series includes photographs of Rockaway and other beaches as well as an unusual collection of lantern slides depicting a Civil War Veterans’ reunion, parades, Spanish-American War troops, and sample markings to identify World War II-era aircraft.

Grover Whalen, Commissioner of the Department of Plant & Structures, launched WNYC Radio in 1924. Through original programming and recordings made at City Hall events and press conferences, WNYC Radio reporters, engineers and producers captured a wide range of important cultural and political personalities. The Archives collection of sound recordings comprises lacquer phono-discs and audio tapes from 1937 to 1970.

Dating from 1949 to 1996, the WNYC TV moving image collection includes mayoral press conferences, dignitaries visiting City Hall, and educational films about city government.

In 1943, when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) ceased operation, the Municipal Archives acquired the manuscript records of the NYC Unit of the Federal Writers’ Project, including the photographs assembled to illustrate the publications; most notably the Guide to New York City and New York Panorama. The WPA staff acquired the photographs from their colleagues on the WPA Federal Art Project, commercial sources, and their own staff photographers. Caption information is generally the description originally recorded by WPA staff and date 1935-1943.