Events
DORIS offers programs, tours, and activities related to our holdings. Join our mailing list to be the first to know about exhibition openings, upcoming events, recent blog posts, and much more.
Note: If you require an auxiliary aid or service in order to attend a DORIS event, please contact the Disability Service Facilitator.
Note: To request language interpretation services, please contact the Language Access Coordinator at least three (3) business days before an event.
Lunch & Learn: Buried Beneath the City
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, January 14 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series - an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On January 14, join us as Amanda Sutphin, Director of Archaeology at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), shares highlights from her co-authored, award-winning book, Buried Beneath the City: An Archaeological History of New York.
The book explores the ever-evolving City of New York and the day-to-day world of its residents through artifacts—from the first traces of Indigenous societies more than ten thousand years ago to the detritus of Dutch and English colonization through to the modern metropolis. These artifacts reveal the density, diversity, and creativity of a city perpetually tearing up its foundations to rebuild itself.
In commemoration of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s upcoming 60th anniversary, this talk will also discuss the LPC’s role in the city’s archaeology.
RSVP to join us virtually (via Zoom) by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: Educated for Freedom
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, February 11 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series - an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On February 11, join us as Dr. Anna Mae Duane discusses her book, Educated for Freedom: The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up to Change a Nation.
In the 1820s, few Americans could envision the full potential of Black children in a nation deeply divided by slavery. Educated for Freedom chronicles the extraordinary lives of James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet, two Black New Yorkers who rose from the margins of society to become pivotal figures in America's transformation from a slave-holding society to one aspiring toward freedom.
Smith and Garnet first crossed paths at the New York African Free School on Mulberry Street—an ambitious experiment in education founded by leaders who believed in the power of freedom to reshape the nation. Despite the odds, their remarkable achievements defied a country that refused to recognize Black talent and potential.
Join us to explore how their stories, friendship, and legacies illuminate the activism of New York City’s vibrant free Black community and its crucial role in steering the national course toward liberty and justice.
RSVP to join us virtually (via Zoom) by clicking here.
Saving Radio City Music Hall with Rosemary Novellino-Mearns
Online (Zoom)
Thursday, March 13 - 6:00-7:30pm
Join the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) this March for a special Women's History Month virtual presentation.
In January 1978, Rockefeller Center president Alton Marshall announced that Radio City Music Hall would close its doors that April and was slated for demolition, shocking fans worldwide. Determined to prevent this from happening, a group of the Music Hall employees, fans, dancers, and politicians banded together to save the theater.
On March 13, join Rosemary Novellino-Mearns, the former president of the Showpeople’s Committee to Save Radio City Music Hall as she shares her firsthand account of the three-month struggle to reverse Rockefeller Center’s decision.
Using archival media coverage and personal anecdotes, Rosemary will discuss how she and the Showpeople’s Committee fought in a David-and-Goliath battle to preserve the iconic theater for future generations.
RSVP to join us virtually (via Zoom) by clicking here.
Lunch & Learn: You Have Unleashed A Storm
Online (Zoom)
Tuesday, April 29 - 1:00-2:00pm
Join the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series - an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.
On April 29, join us and Dr. David Viola for an in-depth discussion on his upcoming book, You Have Unleashed a Storm: New York City’s Descent into Chaos During America’s Most Explosive Era of Radical Violence.
Using newly declassified files, preserved court records, and archival collections such as the Municipal Archives’ Handschu Collection, Viola delves into the untold history of domestic terrorism and political radicalism that shook New York City in the 1960s and 70s. He will reveal how these records illuminate the city’s rapid transition from postwar prosperity to turmoil and highlight the NYPD’s role in navigating this era of radical violence.
RSVP to join us virtually (via Zoom) by clicking here.