Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Collection of Housing Serials
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Abstract
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Collection of Housing Serials groups 74 titles relating to housing originally received by the Tamiment Library through subscriptions, donations, and as part of archival collections. The majority of the collection consists of incomplete runs of newspapers and newsletters published by tenant associations, co-op federations, and neighborhood groups across the Northeastern United States between 1950-2000. Additionally, there are serials and pamphlets produced by agencies addressing planning, eviction, and homelessness, and a handful of titles from elsewhere in the US and from the United Kingdom. The serials address issues of living conditions, urbanization, and gentrification, often in the broader context of social movements happening more widely; there is also discussion of everyday community news more generally, with some titles including sections in Spanish. No complete runs of publications are contained herein, and generally only a handful of issues of each publication are held.
Arrangement
Material is arranged at the file level, in alphabetical order by publication title, with issues of each publication organized chronologically. Each title is listed alongside its publishing organization and city of origin, where available.
Scope and Contents
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Collection of Housing Serials assembles partial runs of 74 publications addressing issues around housing, published between 1925 and 2002 mainly in the United States. The majority of the collection consists of newspapers and newsletters distributed by community organizations, alongside self-produced pamphlets, circulars, and one-off reports containing guidance from agencies addressing problems in housing. The serials document exchanges between government agencies and tenants' groups, relaying news of changes in housing law, standards governing living conditions, discriminatory renting practices, rent strikes, gentrification, squatting, and homelessness. Some titles record events in neighborhoods acutely impacted by changes in the availability and quality of housing, chronicling communities in the Bronx, Morningside Heights, Fort Greene, and the Lower East Side, New York; Somerville, Brockton, and Newton Centre, Massachusetts; and in the Bay Area of California and Seattle, Washington. Among the organizations whose publications are included are the Bronx Tenants Union; the Lower East Side Joint Planning Council; the Architects' Renewal Committee in Harlem; the Cambridge Tenants' Organizing Committee; the Amalgamated Housing Corporation; the United Housing Foundation; and Jobs or Income Now (JOIN). The majority of serials date between around 1970-1995, with a handful of earlier titles; smaller areas of the collection include single publications from London, England, and Toronto, Canada, and a report on the conditions of housing in the United States published in Switzerland. Publications often also cover neighborhood and community news more generally, addressing issues around jobs, transit, police brutality and anti-racism efforts, and some include Spanish-language sections. No complete runs of publications are contained herein, and generally only a handful of issues of each publication are held.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from this collection.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Collection of Housing Serials; TAM.729; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection combines serials relating to housing drawn from two discrete groups of material held by the Tamiment Library. The first was a partially inventoried backlog of serials received by the library through donations, subscriptions, and in archival collections. The second group consisted of around 1,700 serials, newspapers, and magazines, organized by title as an artificial collection, referred to as Periodicals.001 or Boxed Newspapers. This material was combined, inventoried, and arranged and described in subject-based categories in 2017. The accession number related to this collection is 2017.049.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The material in this collection was assembled from various backlogs of uncataloged material held by the Tamiment Library. This material was inventoried, separated according to its subject matter, and arranged in a series of subject-based artificial collections. Serials are arranged alphabetically by title, and where possible are listed alongside their publishing organization and place of publication.
