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A Very Dangerous Disease of Childhood: Measles in NYC in
the 20th Century
According to a 1927 report on
Ten Years of Measles in New York City, “from 1916
to 1925 there were 226,324 cases of measles in New York
City; some 4,817 of these ended fatally.” Decades before the
development of a vaccine, the report decried the “absence of
any adequate technique for establishing artificial immunity”
and “little promise of success in any mass effort to prevent
the disease,” which it described as “the most highly
contagious of all communicable diseases,” with 90% of the
deaths occurring in children under the age of five.
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“Ten Years of Measles in New York City.” Reprint from
Medical Review of Reviews, July 1927.
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A New York City Health Department Weekly Bulletin from 1930,
with the headline “A Very Dangerous Disease of Childhood,”
warned the public about the severity of the condition,
stating: “It is difficult for health administrators to
understand why measles is generally regarded as a trivial
disease not to be compared in its disastrous effects with
diphtheria or scarlet fever.” The bulletin recalculated
prior measles fatalities, which were believed to have been
undercounted as a result of attribution to pneumonia rather
than to the underlying measles infection that caused it.
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City of New York Department of Health, Weekly Bulletin, Vol.
XIX, No. 21, May 24, 1930.
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Just a few years after the development of the measles
vaccine in 1963, the October 1967 issue of
Health News from the New York State Health
Department featured an article with the triumphant title,
“Measles Meets Its Match,” which described the “effective
vaccine and vigorous information-education campaign” that
had led to a 92% decrease in statewide cases since the
previous year. The article discussed the vast public health
campaign that led to this success, involving “250,000
pamphlets, posters, and fact sheets” along with radio and
television ads and educational exhibits at fairs and school
events, all promoting the “free distribution of more than a
half-million doses of measles vaccines.” The United States
declared measles eliminated in 2000.
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New York State Department of Health, Health News,
October 1967.
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Frick Collection Reopening
Designed by the firm of Carrère and Hastings and
completed in 1914 at a cost of over $5 million (nearly
$160 million today), Henry Clay Frick’s Beaux-Arts
mansion is located on 70th Street at Fifth Avenue.
This was the former site of the 1870 Lenox Library
designed by Richard Morris Hunt (see below), which was
demolished by Frick after the Lenox joined with the
Astor and Tilden Libraries in 1911 to form the New
York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
After a renovation by architect John Russell Pope,
Frick’s former home opened in 1935 as a museum for his
collection of 14th- to 19th-century European painting,
sculpture, and decorative arts.
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After One Hundred Years: An Account of the Partnership
which has Built and Sustained the New York Public
Library, 1848-1948. New York: Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations, 1948.
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The Frick Collection was designated a
New York City Landmark
in 1973 and a National Historic Landmark in 2008.
According to the New York City designation, “this
great mansion presents a striking picture of imposing
grandeur and architectural distinction on Fifth
Avenue.” It is “one of the finest examples of French
Louis XVI architecture in New York City” and “houses
one of the finest art collections and art reference
libraries in the world.” The building is visible below
in a 1961 photo from the Mayor Robert F. Wagner
records at the Municipal Archives.
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Ironically, while the Frick was being designated a New
York City landmark in 1973, the Landmarks Commission
was in a battle with the museum to save the mansion of
George D. Widener, a 1909 Louis XV–style residence
located next-door at 5 East 70th Street, which the
museum had purchased and planned to tear down to build
a new wing. After the demolition was ultimately
approved, the museum came under fire once again for
scrapping their plans for the new wing and installing
a garden in its place. The original 2014 plan for the
current renovation prompted protest from
preservationists who objected to the removal of that
now-beloved garden, and the designs were later revised
to retain it.
Closed since 2020, the Frick Collection has just
reopened after a $220 million renovation with a new
underground auditorium, an education center, and for
the first time, access to the second-floor bedrooms,
now functioning as galleries.
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Celebrate National Poetry Month!
April is National Poetry Month, and April 19 marks the
60th anniversary of New York City’s Landmarks Law,
which was signed into law by Mayor Robert Wagner in
1965. The following poem is found in an unusual 1965
book of verse by Arthur Cort Holden held by the
Municipal Library, entitled
Sonnets for My City: An Essay on the Kinship of
Art & Finance as Factors in the Development of the
City and the Moulding of Man's Environment. In this collection of 200 sonnets, the author, an
architect and city planner, seeks “to show that
Finance, which seems so unyielding, is susceptible and
pliable in the hands of Art.”
LANDMARK PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Here round the church, low brownstone homes are set;
One speculator senses chance for gain;
High rise apartments, a mortgage from the Met;
All protests from the neighbors seem in vain.
This tree lined square’s low buildings make its charm,
Desired frontage, taxed because it’s rare;
Great city’s need for income works the harm,
So business judgment builds tiered boxes there.
Must beauty and rare landmarks yield their place?
And economic forces uncontrolled
Destroy fine records of past living’s grace?
Has good taste vanished with the men of old?
Bard framed a sanction, written into law
To make taste vocal; that’s what law is for.
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April is Records Management Month!
The New York City Charter gives the Department of
Records and Information Services (DORIS) the duty to
“establish standards for the proper records management
in any agency or government instrumentality funded in
whole or in part from local tax levy monies.” Further,
it establishes the municipal records management
division and defines its function, which includes
recommending improvements in records management
practices.
This month, the Records Management Division at DORIS
has been sharing tips online on how to improve control
over records and scheduling “clean-up” sessions at the
agency. Last week, the Division hosted records
managers from throughout City government for an
information sharing get-together.
DORIS has initiated a project to manage City
government’s born-digital records, which have
accumulated over many years. City government is
storing more than 13 petabytes of digital records.
That is 13 quadrillion bytes! One equivalent would be
20 million five-drawer filing cabinets.
By implementing an Electronic Records Management
System (ERMS), each participating City agency and
office can reduce the quantity of digital records
being stored. The ERMS being deployed is a Software as
a Solution (SAAS) that was chosen in collaboration
with the City’s technology agency after consultation
with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Many of the born-digital records are eligible for
disposal because they have exceeded the amount of time
they are supposed to be kept. Disposing of these
outdated records is not easy because each record type
must be identified and listed on a disposal
application that is reviewed by the Law Department and
DORIS. Important electronic records that should be
transferred to the Municipal Archives are sitting on
servers without inventories.
The ERMS project provides a software solution to
identify and manage the born-digital records so they
are kept safely for the correct amount of time.
Beginning in 2022 with a five-agency pilot program,
DORIS tested the tool and began a phased
implementation. As of April 9, 2025, 30 agencies are
using the ERMS solution to manage their records
inventories, with 139 million records in the system
and additional records under management daily.
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Join the
NYC Department of Records and Information Services
(DORIS)
virtually via Zoom from 1-2 PM on Tuesday, May 13th
for our next Lunch and Learn,
Brooklynites.
Before it was a borough, Brooklyn was our nation's
third-largest city. Its free Black community attracted
people from all walks of life who sought to establish
a town rooted in a radical, anti-slavery ideology. On
May 13th, Prithi Kanakamedala will discuss her first
full-length book,
Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free
Black Communities that Shaped a Borough, which recounts the lives of these remarkable New
Yorkers and considers their lasting impact on New York
City's most populous borough and our city today.
When: Tuesday, May 13th @ 1 PM EST
Location: Online (via Zoom)
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