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Central Park Terrace at North End Mall, Detail of Ornamental
Panel in Niches under arcade. Collection: Central Park
Drawings
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Central Park Terrace at North End of Mall, Detail of
Ornamental Panel in Niches under arcade. Collection:
Central Park Drawings
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More than 1,500 drawings pertaining to Central Park
during the critical stage of its design and construction
from 1850 to 1880, are housed in the Archives. Park
designers Olmsted and Vaux and well-represented. The
collection includes renderings of everything from landmark
structures like the Boathouse, Belvedere Castle, and
Bethesda Terrace to a three-level circulation pattern
for people, horses, and vehicles, and a complete underground
drainage system.
The collection also contains drawings for 61 other
parks throughout the city including the original drawings
of Riverside Park, the Museum of Natural History, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the only extant pre-1934
drawings relating to City Hall Park, and Gracie Mansion.
Among this group are drawings by McKim, Mead and White
for Washington Arch in Washington Square Park and New
York Public Library facade drawings for Bryant Park
by Thomas Hastings of Carerre and Hastings.
Parks Commissioner and General Files:
The manuscript records of the Parks Department include
Office of the Parks Commissioner, 1940-1975, and General
Files of the Department of Parks, 1934-1959. The Parks
Commissioner series includes the correspondence of New
York's legendary planner and builder, Robert Moses.
This series totals 65 cubic feet and spans the years
1940 through 1975. The material pertaining to Robert
Moses dates from 1940 through 1956, and totals 43 cubic
feet. The General Files of the Department of Parks totals
740 cubic feet and consists of carbons or originals
of incoming and outgoing correspondence, memoranda,
transcripts, reports, contracts, news clippings, maps,
blueprints, plans, printed materials, photographs, and
a few architectural drawings concerning virtually every
component of the Department's administrative actions
from 1934 through 1966. The General File is divided
into two subseries: Administration Files and Borough
Files. The Administration Files date from 1934 through1966
and total 331 cubic feet. The Borough Files, range from
1934 to 1966 and total 409 cubic feet.
COLLECTION STATUS:
There is an item-level catalog
of the drawings collection. The drawings have been microfilmed;
in addition, 4"x5" color microfiche has been produced
for approximately 600 drawings that contain color. The
Robert Moses Commissioner series was microfilmed in
its entirety; and selected folders from the General
Files series was microfilmed with assistance from the
National Endowment for the Humanities. The Brooklyn
Borough series from the General Files have also been
microfilmed in their entirety.There is a folder-level
inventory of the Commissioner and General File series.
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