Department of Records - Municipal Library Notes - MAY 2022

Municipal Library Notes

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Municipal Library Notes - May 2022

SPOTLIGHT ON SUMMER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

Spotlight on: Summer Youth Employment

By Christine Bruzzese, Director, Municipal Library

Summer employment provides opportunities for young people to obtain work experience and plot their career paths. Employers can profit by mentoring and training these young people. This article focuses on some publications regarding summer youth employment in New York City.

The Urban Corps began with a proposal from Deputy Mayor Timothy Costello in 1965. Costello believed that creating an internship program for college students to work in city government would benefit both the interns and the agencies that employed them. The Urban Corps Preliminary Report was issued in Summer 1966. Below is an explanation of the Educational Program component.

The following image is from the cover of Urban Corps News for Summer 1985. Urban Corps is now known as Public Service Corps.

Another program utilized by city agencies is the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). Currently, it is administered by Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) working with various partner organizations. Here is a page from the DYCD Annual Summary of 2013, giving information on service options available for employing summer interns.

Municipal Library Notes May 1922 Freedom of the City

By Christine Bruzzese, Director, Municipal Library

The Freedom of the City was an award given to individuals to honor their outstanding achievements and contributions to the public good. This custom began in 1702 and the award became known as the Key to the City by the mid-nineteenth century. More information on this custom and a list of some designees is presented in the article from Municipal Library Notes, dated May 10, 1922. The image below presents a list of recipients of Freedom of/Key to the City from 1860 to 1922.

Abortion Information in Municipal Library Vertical Files

By Pauline Toole, Commissioner, NYC Department of Records and Information Services

Recently, the Supreme Court's draft decision in Dobbs v Mississippi was leaked to the public. The decision, as currently written, overturns the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade which determined there is a Constitutional protection of the right to obtain an abortion.

The vertical file drawers of news clippings and agency reports in the Municipal Library contain four folders about abortion in New York City, including a very thick file from the 1970s.

New York State decriminalized abortion in 1970 by passing a simple law that made abortions provided by a licensed doctor legal within 24 weeks of gestation. Women and their doctors made the decision. State residency was not required.

Many people, including leading proponents of legalization and medical professionals predicted that there would be chaos on July 1, when the law took effect. They predicted large numbers of patients would overwhelm the hospital and clinic system. Complicating matters, the City's Board of Health rules had just been published on July 1 and did not take effect until October 19, 1970, creating confusion. Ultimately, the rules established provider qualifications and permitted abortions to be accessible in doctors' offices and clinics until the 12th week of pregnancy. Thereafter, the procedure was to occur only in hospitals. The regulations also required birth control information be available for patients.

An article from July 1971 in the Health Department's publication Family Planning Perspectives reported that the doomsayers were wrong. "None of these dire predictions has come to pass. In the first year since the law was enacted, about 164,300 legal abortions have been performed in New York City in 15 municipal, 52 voluntary, and 37 proprietary hospitals, and in some 18 free-standing clinics." Four out of 10 of these have been performed on New York City residents, largely in municipal and voluntary hospitals, and about 55 percent of resident abortions have been performed on poor women free or at minimal cost.

Charts produced by the Health Department showed that upwards of 76% of abortions occurred in the first trimester. Births to unmarried women dropped for the first time since record-keeping began in 1954. Access to legal abortion impacted the number of "incomplete" abortions--those cases that were self-induced or initiated in unlicensed facilities from 415 a month in 1970 to 220 per month in 1972.

All indicators showed that safe, legal abortions were provided in New York City to women regardless of income or place of origin.

In 1972 remarks at a Michigan meeting of the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws, Health Services Administrator Gordon Chase described how the Right to Life groups were working to repeal the New York law and would have succeeded if Governor Nelson Rockefeller had not vetoed legislation. Almost prophetically he said: "I believe Right-to-Life will be stronger than ever. And, I believe they can win unless we begin to fight back really effectively...we were complacent. We sat back and said, "we're on the side of right" and "they can't win."
But we were wrong. They almost did win-and would have if not for the Governor's veto after the end of the session. And, it was our complacency, in part, that helped them. Those of us who support abortion must organize now for the uphill fight ahead. Not just for the fight in New York either--but for the fight here in Michigan--in fact, for a fight in every state in the nation."

Upcoming Event:

Spaces of Enslavement in Early New York with Andrea Mosterman

By External Affairs

Do you only envision slavery in the American South? Join historian Andrea C. Mosterman, author of Spaces for Enslavement, as she discusses the colonial Dutch system of slavery and the myth of humane slavery practices in Early New York throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Mosterman shows that methods of racialized spatial control in New York had much in common with southern plantation societies. In fact, Dutch communities engaged in a daily struggle with Black New Yorkers, who found ways to claim freedom and resist oppression. Mosterman, Associate Professor in Atlantic and Early American History at the University of New Orleans and recipient of the 2020 Hendricks Award for her book, will speak at our virtual Lunch & Learn on June 7th from 1pm to 2pm.

Learn more and RSVP here.

To learn more about upcoming events, please sign up for our Events Mailing List.

Help Us Tell Their Stories This Memorial Day

By External Affairs

This Memorial Day, pay tribute to those who served by inviting them to share their stories and preserve them forever in the NYC Municipal Archive. The Neighborhood Stories project is an inspiring citywide initiative that aims to gather oral history-style interviews from New Yorkers across the five boroughs.

Neighborhood Stories empowers veterans and every New Yorker to share their own rich history and personal insights. Recording and preserving memories of life in their communities is simple and accessible thanks to a virtual format. Visit the Neighborhood Stories website to learn more and sign up to share your story: https://www.archives.nyc/neighborhoodstories.

This is the NYC.gov news you requested for:

Municipal Library Notes

Unsubscribe | Preferences | Comments

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE!

Stay Connected