LIBRARY NOTES
Jules Cohn
Report from the Visitors
Thursday, June 1, 1995
The Library's collection of materials about New York City's politics includes some rare documents useful to specialists and assorted holdings that are standouts for other reasons. Among these are books that signify changes in attitudes about civic life in the long course of the Library's history.
The patrician bias of leading New Yorkers, revealing what is nowadays called the hegemony of the elites, is reflected through the Minutes of the Common Council, 1784-1831. Here are the on-the-record remarks by government officials about the shiftless classes. In the Official Documents of Mayor George Opdyke, published a few decades later (1862-1864), one can become acquainted with the mayor who defended the haberdashery of the city's gentry. Opdyke went to the mat for the principles of New York gentlemen during the Draft Riots, when he ordered the police to defend Brooks Brothers (then located at Catherine and Cherry streets and under siege by rioters) and search the slums for stolen suits, socks, and ties bearing the sign of the celebrated Golden Fleece.
The somewhat more enlightened attitude of the "good government" movement of the 1920-1940's and the enthusiasms and indignations of generations of reformers and muckrakers are well represented.
But my favorite of all the books in the Library's collection is a slim volume entitled Our City - New York. It was published in 1924 "by the High School Students of the City" and exemplifies the pride that New Yorkers once invested in our public institutions. A text brimful with conviction and faith explains how democratic government works and stresses the reciprocal responsibilities of citizens and leaders. Simple and straightforward photographs of graffiti-free schools, bridges and parks are included. And space is provided for proud renderings of New York's fire prevention equipment and police stations, a page from the annual property tax rolls, and a stately garbage can.
More than five years ago, trustee Margaret Mather Byard organized the Visitors' Committee, consisting of Library members who volunteered to report on the collection from their particular knowledge and expertise. Twenty-one visitors' reports are now available in a folder behind the librarian's desk. The preceeding is an excerpt from a report on City politics and history by Jules Cohn, professor of politics at CUNY.
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