#49 March 2006 Archives Publishes Rare New York City Public Housing Photos By Staff A vast collection of New York City Housing Authority photographs documenting the pre- and post-World War II housing projects and tenements that were eventually demol - ished to make way for the city’s ambitious urban renewal plan can now be viewed on the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives’ website. The gallery comprises 2,500 vintage black and white photographs that were selected among an estimated 35,000 4x5 negatives taken by NYCHA photographers between 1939 and 1967. The Housing Authority placed the collection in the archives two years ago and during that time the repository has been involved in the process of preserving and indexing the photos. Describing the collection as a “treasure The 1940 photograph shows the Nerola family in their Corona apartment on 52nd trove,” Dr. Richard K. Lieberman, director Avenue. The family planned to be re-housed in a newly built project. of the archives, explained its historical sig - nificance. “What makes this collection so valuable is that you have images of these LaGuardia Prepares for the neighborhoods before they changed. The photos capture 19th century New York before the bulldozers came in to create the EPA Audit modern New York.” The collection takes the viewer back in time to a New York City that has been By Tony N. Lugo, Assistant to the Vice In an agreement brokered with the EPA, long forgotten. One goes to a South President, Administration all CUNY campuses, including its gradu - Jamaica neighborhood where blocks of ate, medical and law schools, have sub - It has come to the attention of the rickety old wood frame houses would be mitted themselves to self-audits, providing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the site of the South Jamaica Houses. To campuses with the opportunity to inde - a number of colleges and universities the bustling streets of the Lower East Side pendently measure where they stand across the country have been failing to that would give way to the more tranquil when it comes to environmental standards comply with federal environmental regula - life in the Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses. without facing immediate fines or public tions. The EPA has vowed to remedy the And to the countless dilapidated and over - domain write-ups for noncompliance. problem by initiating a robust auditing crowded slums that were razed to make Once the self-audit is completed, the find - campaign subject to severe penalties. way for the construction of such public ings will then be presented to the EPA for LaGuardia is presently taking steps to housing projects as Kingsborough, Thomas final review. comply with an EPA audit scheduled for Jefferson, and Frederick Douglass. “The good thing about doing a self- the latter part of this year. Continued on page 12 Continued on page 6 www.laguardia.edu Archives Show Students How To Do Primary Source Research By Steven Levine, Coordinator for Education Programs, LaGuardia and Wagner Archives A central goal of the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives since its founding over twenty years ago has been to introduce students to working with primary sources (original documents) from the archives' collection. More then a thousand stu - dents each semester visit the archives to learn about the difference between pri - mary and secondary sources and, most importantly, to comment and write about documents from the archives’ collection. To further this goal, Director Richard K. Lieberman and Professor John Chaffee began a program nearly two decades Steven Levine, left, the archives' educational coordinator, shows an artifact from the ago teaching critical thinking through pri - Mayor Abraham Beame collection–an oversize boxing glove inscribed by Muhammad mary sources. These efforts led to well Ali-–to members of the English faculty: C. Jason Smith, Ximena Gallardo, Stafford developed projects used by critical think - Gregoire, Raven Blackstone, Lee Nelson, Linda Chandler, and Gordon Tapper. ing faculty, including the Harlem Riots of 1935, French Children of the Holocaust, sor and archives staff for a research The concept of developing themed and events surrounding 9/11. Students paper assigned by their professor. classes using the archives’ resources received guided tours of the archives, Two EARP groups have successfully includes other departments as well. class visits by archives staff, and multiple developed classes using this format, and Faculty in the social sciences, guided by visits to the Archives by students who used a third group, led by Professor Gordon Professor Janet Michello and a continua - document packages developed by Tapper, is currently developing classes. tion of the program with critical thinking Archives staff to write research papers Some of the topics students have faculty, guided by Professor Chaffee are that became part of the Archives’ collec - researched include: Open Admissions at currently developing classes in their disci - tion. CUNY, the 1939 World's Fair, plines. Their students will receive a simi - These projects were so successful that Organized Crime in New York, and Life lar introduction to using primary sources the archives launched a program in the in New York City Public Housing. Continued on page 9 spring of 2004 to develop thematic class - es with professors in the English Department, based on the work devel - Book Review: A Year in the oped by Professor Chaffee. The English Archives Research Project (EARP), initially Life of William Shakespeare developed by Dr. Lieberman and Professor Brian Gallagher, is composed of two parts: a) a visit to the archives, where Book review by John Henry Davis, ments. Mostly, however, they fall back on archives staff members Tara Hickman and Professor, Humanities sheer speculation, fueled by an imagina - myself, work with students in small groups tive reading of the plays to feed their own The mystery that was William teaching them how to interpret a docu - particular bias in creating their own ver - Shakespeare’s life may never be truly pen - ment, such as a letter, cartoon, govern - sion of the man. etrated. He may have deliberately kept his ment report, or newspaper article, and James Shapiro takes a different tact, and intimate relationships, political leanings, teach them the difference between a pri - it is a rewarding one. Following the lead religious beliefs, working process, and true mary and secondary source. b) Students of some other notable biographers, espe - inspirations cloudy for a host of reasons. later return individually to the archives to cially Stephen Greenblatt’s “ Will in the do primary source research from a docu - Biographers must rely on a few fragments ment package developed by their profes - of doubtful theatrical and literary docu - Continued on page 7 2 www.laguardia.edu Evans advised, “Start small. Try to win ACE Shows some of these city contracts and get your name known.” He added, however, that Businesses How to large state or federal government con - tracts can be hard to come by, and one Vie for Government should seek other opportunities as well. “You have to look globally,” he said, noting that often out of state and interna - Contracts tional companies are looking to do busi - ness with companies already established in the New York area. This, he pointed out, has helped his company expand. Skyline Connections, a company of now 30 employees, has provided com - puter products and services to organiza - tions including the New York Police Department, the FBI, Red Cross, Bank of America and Lockheed Martin. It received the 2003 Metropolitan Transit Competitive Edge Award and was hon - ored as Regional Minority Firm of the Year in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is also a member of PTAC’s Million Dollar Club, designating it as a company that has secured more than $1 million in government contracts. “To stay in business and grow your Attending the Procurement Technical Assistance Center’s conference, were, left, business, you have to be selling every Benjamin Hunt, Gail O. Mellow, and Rodney Evans. day,” Mr. Evans commented. Speaker Mary Vavruska, also a PTAC participant and graduate of LaGuardia’s By Liesl Fores, Executive Assistant, Division telecommunications certificate program, of Adult and Continuing Education ating in its eleventh year, recalled that he started out in PREP Preparing for Profit, a stressed the importance of finding a niche Over 100 businesses gathered at government contracting training program and researching that market. “I learned so LaGuardia on February 17 to learn how at LaGuardia’s Division of Adult and much,” she said of her studies at to win government business contracts. Continuing Education that helps partici - LaGuardia, explaining that she had come “How to Sell Your Products and pants navigate the procurement process. from an auditing background. Today, she Services to New York State,” sponsored Mr. Evans admitted humble beginnings, is the owner of TCE Systems, Inc., which by LaGuardia, Empire State Development having been fired from numerous jobs in provides transmission systems for wireless Corporation, and New York State Office the past. After attending the Million Man communications and voice data systems of General Services, offered attendees March in Washington, D.C., in 1995 for offices and constructions trailers. TCE advice on the business certification and becoming inspired to open his own Systems does business with numerous process and how to bid on local, state, business, he registered for the PREP pro - organizations, large and small, including and federal government contracts, as well gram within ACE’s Procurement Technical the New York Police Department and as practical information from experienced Assistance Center (PTAC), which assists Department of Health, and has some business owners who have been success - Queens and other New York City firms— long-standing “confidential” contracts. ful in acquiring such contracts. in particular, small, minority, and women Ms.