The New York City Department of Records and Information Services announced the addition of 30,000 photographs to its on-line gallery.
From the NYC Department of Records: Some of the more unusual images from this series depict political groups monitored by the New York City Police Department’s “Alien Squad.” These photos range from Communist Party rallies in Madison Square Garden to the Nazi summer retreat in Yaphank, Long Island run by the German American Bund. See all the Alien Squad photos. DOR staff and researchers from New York University’s Tamiment Library are collaborating to identify people in the photos. If you recognize someone, please let us know by emailing commissioner@records.nyc.gov.
These are among more than 2,000 photographs added from the NYPD departmental files and Emergency Services Unit (ESU), dating from 1928 to 1941. The ESU photographs document mayhem including street car accidents, early airplane crashes, explosions and the proverbial cat stuck in a tree.
With this new group of photos, the online gallery now totals more than 900,000–the largest collection of historical images of New York City in the world. Read the full press release.
The Online Gallery provides free and open research access to items digitized from the Municipal Archives’ collections, including photographs, maps, motion-pictures and audio recordings. The holdings are arranged by collection; or you may search “All Collections” by keyword or any of the advanced search criteria. Patrons may order prints or digital files, and license images or film clips for commercial use. Please see the Order Page for further details about ordering prints or licensing the materials. To order prints directly from the gallery click on the “Buy Print” button in the image detail view to launch the shopping cart.
If you cannot satisfy your research needs using the online gallery and/or have other research questions, visit the Municipal Archives, or please Contact the Municipal Archives.
Some of the images in the Online Gallery may be subject to third-party rights such as copyright and/or rights of privacy/publicity. Any person who believes that inclusion of an item on this site violates his or her exclusive rights should notify us under the DMCA. Before using any images from this site, please review our Terms and Conditions.
NYPD Keeping Tabs, Just in Case
Most histories trace antiterrorism squads to the Haymarket bombing in Chicago in 1886, after which American police departments devoted a new zeal to gathering intelligence.
In 1904, the New York Police Department formed an Italian squad, and two years later the alien squad was created to contain a surge in immigrant crime.
Less than a decade after that, the bomb squad was deployed. Bolstered by surveillance and infiltration by federal agencies, the squad went on to focus on communists, socialists, anarchists, fascists, labor agitators, advocates of birth control and civil rights, antiwar protesters and other “enemies of government.”
As new enemies surfaced, the squad was re-branded as the radical squad, the neutrality squad, the red squad, the Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation, the Bureau of Special Service Investigations and even the public relations squad. After Sept. 11, the demographics unit monitored Muslims.
The photographs seen here were collected in the ’30s and ’40s by the Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation. They are part of a trove of 30,000 newly digitized images released Friday by the city’s Department of Records and Information Services, adding to a collection of more than 870,000 that was unveiled in 2012.
Following a 1985 court ruling, the Police Department agreed not to investigate purely political activity unless criminal activity was suspected. That has not prevented lawyers for the city and civil liberties groups from squabbling over the terms of the agreement ever since.