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.
Lunch & Learn: The Great Fire of 1776
Online (Zoom)
Thursday, September 17 - 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.
In 1776, New York City was a central battleground of the Revolutionary War. Occupied by the Continental Army, the unruly rebels repeatedly threatened that they’d rather burn the city than let the British take it. However, their occupation of the city was brief. In September of that year, British forces captured the city and a few days later, much of it mysteriously burned to the ground.
On September 17, Dr. Benjamin L. Carp, author of the first book to fully investigate the Great Fire of 1776, will discuss the mysterious nature of the tragedy and the charred ruins that were left behind. Uncover stories of espionage, terror, and radicalism, as Dr. Carp paints a vivid picture of the chaos, passions, and unresolved tragedies that defined New York City’s Revolutionary War experience.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: Reel Freedom
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, September 22 - 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 September 22, join Dr. Alyssa Lopez, author of Reel Freedom: Black Film Culture in Early Twentieth Century New York City, as she discusses the relationship between Black film culture and space in New York City.
From its origins in the early twentieth century to its firm establishment in the 1930s, Black film served as both a form of entertainment and a means of resistance that was closely tied to the demands of Black New Yorkers for access and equality in the city. Dr. Lopez will chronicle how ordinary people, labor activists, journalists, filmmakers, and theater managers and owners all shaped Black film culture.
Discover how Black New Yorkers leveraged cinema to make the city their own and to enjoy urban living to its fullest.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: The Women's House of Detention
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, October 6 - 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, October 6, in commemoration of LGBTQ+ History Month, historian Hugh Ryan will reconstruct the little-known lives of the cis women, trans men, and nonbinary people incarcerated in the Women's House of Detention, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition — and demonstrating that by queering Greenwich Village, the House of Detention helped define queerness for the rest of the United States.
From the lesbian communities forged through the Women’s House of Detention to the turbulent prison riots that presaged Stonewall, discover the story of one building, the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: Indigenous New York - Ironworkers Who Shaped Manhattan
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, November 10 - 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, November 10, Dr. Allan Downey will delve into the vibrant histories forged by Indigenous peoples throughout twentieth-century New York City.
The Mohawk (Kanien’keha:ka) and other Indigenous ironworkers - renowned for their daring work, balancing thousands of feet in the air while constructing iconic landmarks such as the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center, and the United Nations Headquarters - have had a discernible impact on the landscape of New York City and other major North American urban centers since the 1880s.
Join us to learn how the Kanien’keha:ka ironworkers became synonymous with New York City. They have taken on an almost mythic presence in the city’s folklore, figures as recognizable as its landmarks and well-known across the United States and beyond.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: Urban Histories, Local Voices - A Conversation on NYC Chinatowns
Online (Zoom)
Thursday, November 19 - 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 November 19, we welcome Dr. Tarry Hum, Professor Emeritus at CUNY and 2025 Caring Across Generations Fellow, and Marc Kirkeby, historian, writer, and former contributor to our For the Record blog, for a conversation about the evolution of infrastructure, demographics, and community life in two dynamic neighborhoods: Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Flushing, Queens.
Dr. Tarry Hum is the author of Making a Global Immigrant Neighborhood, Brooklyn’s Sunset Park (2014) and lead editor of Immigrant Crossroads: Globalization, Incorporation, and Placemaking in Queens, NY (2021). Her research focuses on immigrant urbanism and growth coalitions, transnational capital, and urban and community planning.
Marc Kirkeby’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, NY Daily News, and Rolling Stone. Visit Archives.NYC to explore Marc’s 2017 Sunset Park series.
RSVP to join us by clicking here.