Collection: Early Mayors records | NYCMA Collection Guides

Collection is open for research. Patrons are required to use microfilm for those series for which it is available. Advance notice is required for using original material. Please contact us to arrange access.

Additional Description

Physical Location

Materials are stored onsite at 31 Chambers St.

Alternate Forms Available

This collection has been microfilmed. Microfilm is available on-site or via interlibrary loan.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by archivist Rhea E. Pliakas in 1990. Staff archivist Rachel Greer revised and standardized the finding aid in 2015. Updated by staff archivist Alexandra Hilton in 2017 and 2018.

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of the records produced by the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York from 1827 to 1897 in the service of conducting official business. These records have been grouped together into one unit, but each series represents the administration of one of the Mayors for which the Municipal Archives holds the records.

Not every Mayor is represented, and not all records from every Mayor are represented. The records of the earliest Mayors in this group are spotty, while the strength of this collection is with the papers of the later Mayors. These records are materials created in the service of the daily business of the Mayor's Office including: correspondence, reports, drafts, ephemera, and other materials. Other material includes official documentation of the City of New York that required the Mayor's approval, including: warrants, affidavits, applications for licenses, licenses issued, oaths of office, and petitions, among other material. The series entitled Unknown contains material produced by the Mayor's Office but is unable to be attributed to any specific Mayor. An archivist devised the folder titles from the materials contained within. Correspondence folders in particular contain materials that deal with a variety of different subjects.

Biographical/Historical Information

The Office of the Mayor of New York City heads the executive branch of New York City government. The Mayor is responsible for the governance of all city agencies and offices, administers the city budget, and enforces the laws and statutes of the city. Since the consolidation of the boroughs in 1898, the Mayor has had jurisdiction over all five. The Office of the Mayor began as an appointed position when, in 1665, New York Governor Richard Nicolls appointed Thomas Willett as the first mayor of New York. Since 1834, the Mayor has been elected by a popular vote.

Mayors of the City of New York

Colonial Mayors: Thomas Willett, 1665-1666; Thomas Delavall, 1666-1667; Thomas Willett, 1667-1668; Cornelius Van Steenwyk, 1668-1671; Thomas Delavall, 1671-1672; Matthias Nicoll, 1672-1673; John Lawrence, 1673-1675; William Dervall, 1675-1676; Nicholas De Mayer, 1676-1677; Stephanus Van Cortlandt, 1677-1678; Thomas Delavall, 1678-1679; Francis Rombouts, 1679-1680; William Dyre, 1680-1682; Cornelius Van Steenwyk, 1682-1684; Gabriel Minvielle, 1684-1685; Nicholas Bayard, 1685-1686; Stephanus Van Cortlandt, 1686-1688; Peter Delanoy, 1688-1691; John Lawrence, 1691-1692; Abraham DePeyster, 1692-1694; Charles Lodwik, 1694-1696; William Merritt, 1696-1698; Johanness De Peyster, 1698-1699; David Provost, 1699-1700; Isaac De Reimer, 1700-1701; Thomas Noell, 1701-1702; Thomas Hood, 1702; Phillip French, 1702-1703; William Peartree, 1703-1707; Ebenezer Wilson, 1707-1710; Jacobus Van Cortlandt, 1710-1711; Caleb Heathcote, 1711-1714; John Johnstone, 1714-1719; Jacobus Van Cortlandt, 1719-1720; Robert Walters, 1720-1725; Johannes Jansen, 1725-1726; Robert Lurting, 1726-1735; Paul Richard, 1735-1739; John Cruger, 1739-1744; Stephen Bayard, 1744-1747; Edward Holland, 1747-1757; John Cruger, Jr., 1757-1766; Whitehead Hicks, 1766-1776; David Matthews, 1776-1783
Pre-consolidation Mayors: James Duane, 1784-1789; Richard Varick, 1789-1801; Edward Livingston , 1801-1803; DeWitt Clinton, 1803-1807; Marinus Willett, 1807-1808; DeWitt Clinton, 1808-1810; Jacob Radcliff, 1810-1811; DeWitt Clinton, 1811-1815; John Ferguson, 1815; Jacob Radcliff, 1815-1818; Cadwallader D. Colden, 1818-1821; Stephen Allen, 1821-1824; William Paulding Jr., 1825-1826; Philip Hone, 1826-1827; William Paulding Jr., 1827-1829; Walter Bowne, 1829-1833; Gideon Lee, 1833-1834; Cornelius V. W. Lawrence, 1834-1837; Aaron Clark, 1837-1839; Isaac Varian, 1839-1841; Robert Morris, 1841-1844; James Harper, 1844-1845; William Havemeyer, 1845-1846; Andrew H. Mickle, 1846-1847; William Brady, 1847-1848; William Havemeyer, 1848-1849; Caleb S. Woodhull, 1849-1851; Ambrose Kingsland, 1851-1853; Jacob A. Westervelt, 1853-1855; Fernando Wood, 1855-1858; Daniel F. Tiemann, 1858-1860; Fernando Wood, 1860-1862; George Opdyke, 1862-1864; Charles Godfrey Gunther, 1864-1866; John T. Hoffman, 1866-1868; Thomas Coman, 1868; Abraham Oakey Hall, 1869-1872; William F. Havemeyer, 1873-1874; Samuel B. H. Vance, 187; William H. Wickham, 1875-1876; Smith Ely Jr., 1877-1878; Edward Cooper, 1879-1880; William R. Grace, 1881-1882; Franklin Edson, 1883-188; William R. Grace, 1885-1886; Abram S. Hewitt, 1887-1888; Hugh L. Grant, 1889-1892; Thomas F. Gilroy, 1893-1894; William L. Strong, 1895-1897
Post-consolidation Mayors: Robert A. Van Wyck, 1898- 1901; Seth Low, 1902-1903; George B. McClellan Jr., 1904-1909; William J. Gaynor, 1910- 1913; Ardolph L. Kline, 1913-1913; John P. Mitchel, 1914-1917; John F. Hylan, 1918-1925; James J. Walker, 1926-1932; Joseph V. McKee, 1932; John P. O'Brien, 1933; Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945; William O'Dwyer, 1946-1950; Vincent R. Impellitteri, 1950-1953; Robert F. Wagner Jr., 1954-1965; John V. Lindsay, 1966-1973; Abraham D. Beame, 1974-1977; Edward I. Koch, 1978-1989; David N. Dinkins, 1990-1993; Rudolph W. Giuliani, 1994-2001; Michael R. Bloomberg, 2002-2013; Bill de Blasio, January 1, 2014-

Arrangement

The Office of the Mayor, Early Mayors' Records are arranged chronologically into thirty series based on each mayoral administration. Mayors who served for multiple non-consecutive terms will have more than one series.

Within these series, a staff archivist arranged materials by subject or department and then chronologically within those groupings. Researchers can assume that very little of the material retains any original arrangement. Materials within folders were arranged by a staff archivist in chronological order, except where doing so would interfere with any remnant of the original order of the material. Within most series, the folders are arranged alphabetically by subject and then chronologically within those subjects.

Series List

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title: Guide to the records of the Early Mayors, 1826-1897
Status: Completed
Author: Rhea E. Pliakas
Date: 1990
Description rules: Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description: English

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The New York City Municipal Archives

Early Mayors records

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Mayors of the City of New York

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