Rob Snyder becomes Manhattan Borough Historian
By Molly Rosner
Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer appoints Dr. Robert W. Snyder Manhattan Borough Historian. Photo from left to right: MBPO Brewer, Dr. Rob Snyder, Cal Jones, Borough Historian Emeritus, Gary Urbanowicz, Executive Director New York City Fire Museum. Image Courtesy of the Office of Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer.
On December 3, 2019, as a student jazz trio from LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts played in the background, a group of local historians gathered at the New York Fire Museum to celebrate the appointment of Dr. Robert Snyder to Manhattan Borough Historian.[1] The crowd — many of whom had worked together at different colleges and museums around the city — drank the signature cocktail, (appropriately a Manhattan) and examined the display of old fire trucks, artworks, and Tiffany silver on display at the museum. The position of Borough Historian is an unpaid volunteer role first assigned under Borough President Robert Wagner in 1950.
The evening’s program began with welcoming remarks from the Executive Director of New York’s Fire Museum, Gary Urbanowicz, who has himself published two books about the FDNY. Urbanowicz explained the significance of the building we were gathered in at 278 Spring Street — as one of Manhattan’s oldest (fifth oldest to be specific) museums (first located at 155 Mercer Street). Built in 1904 and now about to become neighbors with Disney/ABC, the building it first housed 12 horses. Urbanowicz’s father had worked as a fireman in that very building.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer spoke next explaining Robert Wagner, as Borough President, had appointed Edith McGinnis, Executive Secretary of the City History Club New York, as the first borough historian of Manhattan. Brewer explained, “She encouraged the study of local history in school through a program called Know Your City” adding, “she hosted a radio quiz program under the name Aunt Edith so maybe we can have Uncle Rob, you never know.” The radio program aired four times a week on WNYC and WNYE.[2]
An excerpt from the school manual Know Your City, beautifully describes the city: “Surrounded by a view unequaled by any in the world, Central Park serves as an emerald breathing space for the city…While living at 206 West 84th Street, Edgar Allen Poe sat on a rock overlooking the Hudson for hours on end…”[3] As the first Manhattan Borough Historian, her role often blended with her paid job at the City History Club. As much of New York was still built with wood and with tools to enforce fire regulations, fires were a piece of New York history it was fitting that part of the directive of the local historian was to “examine into the condition, classification, and safety from fire of the public records of the public offices of such county, city, town or village…”[4] Ms. McGinnis’s primary mission was to ensure that New York City’s “local history would not be lost to future generations.” McGinnis continued to serve under Robert Wagner during his time as New York City’s Mayor. Gale Brewer related that “In 1962 she argued eloquently before congress for Ellis Island to be converted to a replica of the early lower Manhattan island… in the mold of Colonial Williamsburg.” McGinnis wanted the island to show Manhattan “as it was when it was the Nation’s first capital.” She noted what many people recognized as an ongoing battle to balance preservation and innovation in the growing metropolis: “New York City’s national historic monuments or landmarks have fought a losing battle with developments necessary for the growth of our city.”[5]
Brewer noted that one of her proudest moments in public services was keeping Mayor Michael Blomberg from merging the city’s archives with the department of Citywide Administrative Services, which is primarily concerned with managing city property and buildings. “I said ‘Hell no!’” Brewer shared to a round of applause and laughter.
Next to speak was Cal Jones, who served as Manhattan Borough Historian under three Borough Presidents. He was born and raised in Central Harlem and related a story from his time as a student at Frederick Douglass Junior High where he told his teacher, renowned Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, “History don’t interest me.” He ended his remarks asking the group, “Who’s doing the research while you’re partying?”
Rob Snyder and Cal Jones. Image Courtesy of the Office of Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer.
The final speaker was, of course, Rob Snyder. As a professor of journalism and American Studies in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at Rutgers University-Newark, Snyder has written widely on New York City and journalism history. (He served as Director of the American Studies Program and was a member of this author’s doctoral dissertation committee.) A New Yorker since birth, Dr. Snyder has at different times in his career focused on widely different topics — from New York’s transit workers to the history of Vaudeville, Ashcan artists portraying New York’s immigrant and poor neighborhoods, he wrote Crossing Broadway, a close study of Washington Heights where he was born. He is currently working on a book about Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Murray Kempton.
Snyder shared some of his plans for his tenure as Borough Historian, stating “I want to knit you into a stronger community.” Snyder plans to spend the next few months talking to the historical community hoping that he, in his new role, can facilitate stronger ties. He posited the idea of an annual conference and more public debates about contemporary issues including climate change and affordable housing. He noted the hard work of historians and archivists around the city, including Sarah Aponte who is the Chief Librarian at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, documenting the largest immigrant group in New York today; Cynthia Copeland who has overseen the recent Seneca Village Project; Eric Washington, author of Boss of the Grips about Grand Central Terminal’s Red Caps; Don Rice and Paul Thompson for their work on the Lost Inwood lecture series; the many exhibits curated by Sarah Henry and Steve Jaffe at the Museum of the City of New York; history exhibits generated by Pauline Toole, the Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Records; Marci Reaven and Jeanie Haffner and the Hudson Rising exhibit at the New-York Historical Society; and historians and curators at the Roosevelt House. Snyder recognized that he follows in the footsteps of longtime City Councilman Paul O’Dwyer, who served as borough historian from 1986 to 1990.
Snyder would like to see more people researching and writing history in less isolated environments. He mentioned creating workshops around Manhattan where people can gather to study and write about family history and issues facing the city. He mentioned that the study of history is a crucial way to understand the past but also the present, just as McGinnis stated in 1962. She wanted people to “realize that there is a relationship between our beginnings and their own present struggles.”[6]
Snyder is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City (Cornell University Press), The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York (Ivan R. Dee), and Transit Talk: New York’s Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories (Rutgers University Press). He has co-authored Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and their New York (Norton/Smithsonian) and All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrant and the Making of New York (Columbia).[7]
One current project being spearheaded is a directory of local historians that will be available online and in print. Those who wish to be included in the directory can fill out the form here.
Rob Snyder delivers his remarks at the New York Fire Museum. Photo by Molly Rosner.
Molly Rosner is Assistant Director of Education Programs at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark and her MA in Oral History from Columbia University.
[1] The event was coordinated by Madison Marlow, Event Specialist for Borough President Gale Brewer.
[2] Geoffrey T. Hellman, “Borough Historian,” New Yorker, January 2, 1953, 19.
[3] As quoted in ibid., 20.
[4] Id.
[5] “Disposal of Ellis Island (New York Harbor): Hearings before the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate,” Eighty-Seventh Congress Second Session,” September 26, December 6 and December 7, 1962. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 1963, 253.
[6] “Disposal of Ellis Island (New York Harbor): Hearings before the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Government Operations United States Senate,” Eighty-Seventh Congress Second Session,” September 26, December 6 and December 7, 1962. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 1963, 254.
[7] Lawrence Lerner, “Professor Robert Snyder Named Manhattan Borough Historian,” November 26, 2019.