Contest responses to Lenore Skenazy's "Only in New York" and "New York Stories" columns, New York Daily News

Call Number

MS 3232

Date

1988-1995, inclusive

Creator

Daily news (New York, N.Y. : 1920)

Skenazy, Lenore

Extent

4.587 Linear feet

in 11 document boxes.

Language of Materials

The documents in this collection are in English.

Abstract

Submissions by readers of the New York Daily News to weekly contests run in Lenore Skenazy's "Only in New York" and "New York Stories" Sunday magazine columns, in which they answered questions designed to elicit entertaining responses that could only happen to true New Yorkers.

Biographical note

Although perhaps best know for her then-controversial New York Sun article, "Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone" (2008), subsequent book, "Free Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts With Worry)" (2009), and her activism for the "free-range parenting" movement, Lenore Skenazy has had a long career in journalism. Before moving to the short-lived New York Sun (folded 2008), Skenazy was for fourteen years a regular contributor to the New York Daily News, where her byline headed the "Only in New York" and "New York Stories" Sunday magazine columns.

Arrangement

The collection is organized in two series:

Series I. "Only in New York" contest responses, 1988-1990
Series II. "New York Stories" contest responses, 1992-1995

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of letters—some typed, most handwritten, and some on postcards—submitted by readers of the New York Daily News hoping to win one of the weekly contests run in Lenore Skenazy's "Only in New York" and "New York Stories" columns in the Sunday magazine section. The "Only in New York" contests ran from 1988 through at least 1990; the "New York Stories" contests from 1991 or 1992 through 1995 or later. Each week Skenazy posed a question (some of them reworked from previous contests) in which readers were asked to describe the most disappointing thing to have happened on a vacation, or the most creative way they tortured a sibling (or vice versa), or the strangest thing they witnessed at a funeral, or the wildest pickup line they ever used or heard. (See the container list for the complete questions for the entries in the collection; note that the collection is incomplete.) From the most entertaining submissions Skenazy published first, second, and third place winners. In addition to the pleasure of seeing their words in print, winners could expect to receive a "Handsome Keepsake Contest Winner's Plaque" (for "Only in New York") or a t-shirt with the column title printed on it (for "New York Stories").

Subjects

Access Restrictions

This collection is stored offsite. To arrange to consult it, please go to www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282. Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: www.nyhistory.org/rights-and-reproductions.

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: Contest responses to Lenore Skenazy's "Only in New York" and "New York Stories" columns, New York Daily News, MS 3232, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

This collection is stored offsite. To arrange to consult it, please go to www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Lenore Skenazy, 1992, 1995.

Related Materials

Note that the New-York Historical Society does not hold the New York Daily News for the time period covered by the present collection, 1988-1995. The paper has been digitized, and is accessible via the subscription site Newspapers.com.

Collection processed by

Joseph Ditta (July 2023)

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-10-16 10:07:07 -0400.

Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

Archivist Joseph Ditta created this finding aid in July 2023.

Repository

New-York Historical Society

Series I. "Only in New York" contest responses, 1988-1990, inclusive

Arrangement

The collection remains in its original folders, which were marked by Lenore Skenazy with their contest number and an abbreviated and/or paraphrased version of the contest question posed. The container list includes the verbatim questions as recorded in the Daily News, followed by the date the results of each contest were published. "ONY" before each file name stands for "Only in New York."