Saving Papers is a crucial part of what we do here at the Archive Project. We save archival materials created by historic preservationists and other individuals and groups that tie into New York City’s preservation history. We then work to find long term homes for them, collaborating with key collecting institutions that make the materials available to researchers and the public over the long term.
The Archive Project has stepped in many times to rescue papers relating to preservation history. It’s part of our mission to save key documents in preservation and ensure a useful public record of the hard work of preservationists. The Archive Project has stepped in to save everything from activist Jack Taylor’s records of efforts to designate the Ladies Mile District to architect Lee Harris Pomeroy’s materials regarding the fight to save Broadway’s historic theater district. Both collections now reside in the New-York Historical Society. More examples where the Archive Project has had a role in saving papers:
- Margot Gayle papers
- Friends of Hopper Gibbons Underground Railroad Site
- Victorian Society archives
- Efforts to save New York Community Gardens papers
- SoHo Memory Project collection
- James Marston Fitch papers
- South Street Seaport (Schermerhorn Row) papers
- Neighbors Restoring the Historic Yorkville Clock papers
- Dorothy Miner
- Luchow’s Restaurant
- Ladies Mile Historic District
- David Garrard Lowe papers
- Beaux Arts Alliance records
- Joyce Mendelsohn papers
Please contact us with any tips regarding papers relating to historic preservation efforts in New York City. If you want to find out more about the work we do to save papers you can read the article on saving Jack Taylor’s papers here, or you can read more about the process of saving Lee Harris Pomeroy’s archives here, and William J. Cook NYPAP’s Vice Chair explains why saving legal preservation archives is essential for the future of preservation here.