How am I Doing?

On Tuesday, October 26 we hosted a Tenement Talk unlike any other. Historian Jonathan Soffer discussed his research—the Former Mayor Ed Koch—with his research subject himself. Introduced by New York Times journalist and writer Sam Roberts, the mayor and his biographer reflected on Koch’s entire political career in less than two hours.

The charismatic mayor told the audience that he had loved “belonging” to New York City and believed being its mayor was the greatest job imaginable. He told us what he thought of as his triumphs, including restoring NYC’s credit and bringing to life an economy long in decline. Koch felt that his ability to brush off failures, his willingness to put aside politics to assemble a talented staff, his respect of others rights—including his critics—and a sense of humor which saved him from harping on failures to the point of debilitating disappointment were all at the root of his success.

But with a critical historian face to face with a controversial and tell-it-like-it-is New York icon, the conversation predictably moved on to the negative aspects of Koch’s career. More than 20 years after his mayoral term came to an end, Koch tried to justify to the Tenement Talk crowd the decisions that led some to believe he was apathetic to the plight of the poor and people of minority, choosing instead to use available resources to privilege the rich and white.

Impassioned, he insisted that an audit of the numbers shows that the majority of the budget in the 1980s was channeled towards programs that overwhelmingly existed for the poor, the elderly, or people of color. But in a quieter tone, Koch confessed to Soffer and the Tenement Talk audience that although Sydenham hospital in Harlem was offering a degraded level of care in 1980, he regretted his decision to close it down because, in the end, the amount of money the city saved can not compare to the symbolic value of the hospital that was the first to admit black physicians.

At the heart of the talk was the question of what Koch meant to New York, for better or for worse. Here at the Tenement Museum, we are constantly trying to trace the lines between past and present New York, asking ourselves how the experience of New Yorkers, especially immigrants, through the years have changed. I was born only a year before Koch’s last in the Mayor seat and can’t imagine the dirtier, more chaotic, and less functioning New York of the 1970s that Soffer, Roberts, and Koch described, but many people in the room knew it first hand. Whether you believe that Koch revived the “greatest city in the world” or that he entrenched a socially unjust status quo, to what degree do you think today’s New York was molded by the brazen forces of the Koch era?

- Posted by Julia

Update about a Collection Item

Last week we featured this item, found in the Museum in 2008:

A reader wrote in with some information about the artifact, sending us a short article from The Financier, New York edition, from May 19, 1917:

Liberty Loan Buttons Arrive in NY

“Button! Button! Who's got the Button?” This is the game that every man woman and child in the United States is expected to play for the next two weeks. On the seriousness with which all the players regard the game will depend to a large extent America's success in the World War.

The button is the Libery Loan badge which will be given to every subscriber to a Liberty bond. The game will be to see how many persons wear the button on June 15.

The first installment of thirty thousand of these buttons out of the two hundred and fifty thousand which the Treasury Department has alloted [sic] to the Second Federal Reserve District, in which New York City is located, arrived from Washington this morning. The headquarters of the Liberty Loan Committee have received strict orders from the Federal authorities to exercise the greatest care to prevent these badges being worn by any but bona fide subscribers to the loan.

The Liberty Loan button is blue with a red circle in the center. From a distance it appears not unlike a campaign button, except that instead of the face of the candidate, there is inscribed the head and shoulders of the Statue of Liberty with her flaming torch On the outer border of blue there is written in white letters, “Get Behind the Government.” The red center contains the inscription “The Liberty Loan of 1917.” The man or woman who wears the button has enrolled his name on the loan for Liberty's Roll of Honor. Get a button.


So, it appears someone in 97 Orchard Street - or a friend or family member - purchased a Liberty Loan in June, 1917.

Questions for Curatorial... New York Irish History

A while back I gave a Moore tour and was asked some questions I couldn't answer. As a responsible educator, I went back to the office and talked to our Curatorial Director, Dave Favaloro. So, if you happened to take my tour a few weeks ago and are faithfully reading the blog... here's what you wanted to know!

- Kate

1. Do we know if the other Moore daughters who died are formally, properly buried like baby Agnes?

Yes, all of the Moore children, as well as Bridget and Joseph, are buried in a family plot, which was purchased in April 1869 following Agnes’ death.


2. Were many middle or upper-class Irish moving to New York at the same time as Famine victims?

While few middle or upper-class Irish immigrated to New York during the 1840s and 1850s, by the mid-19th century, the city was home to an Irish community that according to historian Hasia Diner, “contained many economic layers,” including unskilled laborers and skilled craftsmen, as well as the more settled, affluent descendants of earlier Irish immigrants – merchants, physicians, lawyers, and teachers.


3. During the mid-19th century, did people from Northern Ireland immigrant to New York?
 
Although the majority of Irish immigrants who settled in New York during the 18th century were Protestants from Northern Ireland, by the mid-19th century, their numbers paled in comparison to Catholics from the south and west of Ireland.


4. What was the relationship between Catholic and Protestant Irish immigrants in the 19th century?

By the mid-19th century, Catholic Irish vastly outnumbered Protestant Irish in New York City. Relations between the two groups were generally adversarial, and sometimes hostile and even violent.

The worst episodes of violence between Catholic and Protestant Irish in these years were the Orange and Green Riots of 1870 and 1871. In 1870, eight people were killed when outraged Catholics protested during the annual July 12 Boyne Day march, held by Protestant Irish Orangemen to celebrate the victory of Prince William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Tensions within the Irish community had been building for years, as Protestants argued against the Catholic "threat" to American values and their "inability to be good citizens." The following year, plans for the march coincided with the first revelations of the Tweed Ring scandal, in which Boss Tweed and his Tammany followers had taken millions of dollars from the city in political graft. Rumors of violence on both sides prompted the state to provide the marchers with military and police protection, despite attempts by Mayor A. Oakley Hall to ban the parade.

In 1871, threats of violence proved correct when crowds of Catholic Irish lining the parade route along Eighth Avenue began throwing rocks at the marchers. In response, the military accompaniment began to shoot indiscriminately into the crowd, killing sixty-two, mainly Catholics. While the 1871 riot was the last major outbreak of violence against Irish Catholics, Orangemen continued to march for several more years and join organizations like the American Protective Association that espoused nativist ideals.