Events
DORIS offers programs, tours, and activities related to our holdings. Join our mailing list to be the first to know about exhibition openings, upcoming events, recent blog posts, and much more.
Note: If you require an auxiliary aid or service in order to attend a DORIS event, please contact the Disability Service Facilitator.
Note: To request language interpretation services, please contact the Language Access Coordinator at least three (3) business days before an event.
Tour the Brooklyn Bridge Collection
31 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007
Tuesday, January 20 - 5:30-6:30pm
Join the Conservation staff at the NYC Department of Records on Tuesday, January 20 for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Brooklyn Bridge Collection!
Go behind the scenes of the Municipal Archives at the NYC Department of Records & Information Services for a rare, up-close look at the original architectural drawings of the Brooklyn Bridge. Led by the Conservation team, this program offers an inside view of how these monumental, hand-drafted plans were created and are preserved today. Participants will see select drawings from the collection, learn about their materials and physical challenges, and discover the conservation techniques that protect them for future generations. This behind-the-scenes experience reveals the artistry, engineering ambition, and meticulous care embedded in one of New York City’s most iconic structures.
Also, visit The Brooklyn Bridge Up Close, a special installation currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 22, 2026, to explore more drawings from the City's collections.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: Language City
Online (Zoom)
Wednesday, January 21 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
Today, half of the world’s 7,000-plus languages are growing increasingly endangered, while contemporary cities - supported by migration - are more linguistically diverse than ever before. As speakers migrate across the globe, linguists and language activists are racing against time to map and document lesser-known, minority, endangered, and Indigenous languages.
Join us on Wednesday, January 21, as Ross Perlin, author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, examines the past, present, and future of the world’s most linguistically diverse city, New York. He will also discuss multilingualism, language policy, and the role technology plays in the evolution and documentation of languages.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: The Village Voice
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, January 27 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On Tuesday, January 27, Tricia Romano, the author of The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper that Changed American Culture, will discuss the symbiotic relationship between New York City and the alternative weekly - the Village Voice - and how this relationship benefited both entities.
First issued in 1955, the Voice showcased the city as a hub for artists, poets, musicians, politicians, and activists, inspiring people to move here. The alt-weekly covered topics such as the environment, government corruption, housing, hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, Off-Broadway, and the AIDS epidemic with gravitas, revolutionizing journalism.
Discover how the Village Voice became not just a local, but also a national and global influence, and how this highly acclaimed oral history came to be.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: A Blacklist Education
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, February 3 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On Tuesday, February 3, Dr. Jane S. Smith will retrace the path that began with a mysterious cache of family records and ultimately led her to the Municipal Archives' Board of Education Collection and the Communist investigation files where she uncovered a McCarthy-era program designed to purge allegedly leftist teachers from the city’s public schools.
A Blacklist Education reveals how Smith discovered that her own father had been one of the targeted teachers, while also exposing the broader anti-communist investigations carried out by the NYC Board of Education and the nationwide campaign against “un-Americanism” that gripped the United States during the 1950s — echoes of which resonate powerfully today.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.