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Collection Data
- Description
- Robert Moses (1888-1981) was an American public official and urban planner who played a major role in the development of the New York Metropolitan area and New York State in the 20th century. The Robert Moses papers span 1907 to 1980, covering Moses' professional life leading public authorities. The papers detail the development of highways, bridges, tunnels, parks, infrastructure, and housing throughout New York City and State. The collection consists of correspondence and memoranda, drafts, published writing, reports, maps and designs, clippings, printed matter, press releases, speeches, and photographs.
- Names
- Moses, Robert, 1888-1981 (Creator)
- Caro, Robert A. (Correspondent)
- La Guardia, Fiorello H. (Fiorello Henry), 1882-1947 (Correspondent)
- Lehman, Herbert H. (Herbert Henry), 1878-1963 (Correspondent)
- Lindsay, John V. (John Vliet) (Correspondent)
- Moses, Robert, 1888-1981 (Correspondent)
- Papp, Joseph (Correspondent)
- Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979 (Contributor)
- Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 (Correspondent)
- Smith, Alfred Emanuel, 1873-1944 (Correspondent)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1907 - 1980
- Library locations
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Shelf locator: MssCol 2071
- Topics
- Trump, Fred, 1905-1999
- Wagner, Robert F. (Robert Ferdinand), 1910-1991
- Long Island State Park Commission
- New York (N.Y.). Department of Parks
- New York (State). Constitutional Convention (1938)
- New York (State). State Council of Parks
- New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)
- New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
- Power Authority of the State of New York
- Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
- United Nations
- City planners -- United States
- City planning -- New York (State) -- New York
- Parks
- Playgrounds
- Public housing
- Urban renewal -- New York (State) -- New York
- Public officers
- Genres
- Documents
- Maps
- Photographs
- Correspondence
- Clippings
- Speeches
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Robert Moses (1888-1981) was a public official whose vision played a major role in shaping the physical development of the New York Metropolitan area. Moses was born on December 18, 1888 and raised in New Haven, Connecticut and on East 46th Street in Manhattan. He graduated from Yale University in 1909, and went on to receive a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1914. Moses began his career with the Municipal Research Bureau in 1913. By 1922, as an advisor to Governor Al Smith, he had become involved in the areas to which he devoted most of his career: parks, construction, and highways. Moses was married twice, and had two daughters. He died on July 29, 1981.
Moses was principally responsible for the construction of an enormous number of major public projects in the state and city of New York, including the Triborough Bridge, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the Throgs Neck Bridge, and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge; the Cross-Bronx Expressway, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the FDR Drive, the Northern and Southern State Parkways, and the Long Island Expressway; as well as Jones Beach State Park and the Robert Moses State Park on Long Island; and the Robert Moses Power Plant on the St. Lawrence River and Robert Moses Power Dam on the Niagara River. Moses was also responsible for the construction of several major public housing projects in New York City and the development of the Lincoln Center campus.
During his long career, Moses accumulated multiple offices and positions, often concurrently, allowing him broad powers across New York State. Despite his many positions, Moses never held any elected office. A controversial figure, his development projects displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, including Black, low-income, and immigrant communities, and emphasized highways over public transit infrastructure.
Positions Mosesheld include:
Long Island State Park Commission, President 1924-1963
New York State Council of Parks, chairman 1924-1963
New York Secretary of State, 1927-1928
Jones Beach Parkway Authority, President 1933-1963
Bethpage State Park Authority, President 1933-1963
Emergency Public Works Commission, chairman 1933-1934
New York City Department of Parks, commissioner 1934-1960
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, chairman 1934-1968
New York City Construction Co-ordinator, 1942-1960
New York City Planning Commissioner, 1946-1960
New York State Power Authority, chairman 1954-1962
New York World's Fair, President 1960-1966
Special Advisor to the Governor of the State of New York on Housing, 1974-1975
- Content: The Robert Moses papers, dating from 1907 to 1980, provide a vast, though by no means comprehensive, view of Robert Moses' long career as a public official.
The collection is arranged into thirteen series beginning with General Files that cover the entirety of Moses career, and followed by content from the agencies Moses worked for and projects he worked on. This includes the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, Emergency Public Works Commission, Office of the City Construction Coordinator, his New York Gubernatorial campaign, New York City Department of Parks, New York State Constitutional Convention, Long Island State Park Commission, New York State Council of Parks, New York State Power Authority, Public Housing Development, and the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. The final series contains Printed Matter from throughout Moses' career.
The collection contains correspondence, memoranda, drafts, published writing, notes, reports, speeches, maps and designs, press releases, clippings, printed matter, and photographs.
The great number of positions which Moses held, many of them concurrently over long periods of time, make it difficult to identify precisely which portions of the collection document which aspect of his career. Similarly, the often unorthodox means by which Moses sought to achieve his plans at times obscures any separation of duties.
The letterhead of a given department is no guarantee that the matter discussed in the letter is within the purview of that department. Similarly, over the span of the papers, Moses' secretaries and filing systems changed: some files are alphabetical by subject, while others are chronological. Researchers should look at multiple series, as material on specific topics may be spread throughout the collection.
Over his long career Moses interacted with numerous politicians; world leaders; architects and developers; business executives; publishers; writers and journalists; and entertainers. Prominent correspondents represented across series include: Al Smith, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Fiorello La Guardia, Nelson Rockefeller, Frank Lloyd Wright, Herbert Hoover, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Herbert Bayard Swope, Herbert Lehman, Thomas Dewey, Robert Wagner Jr., Prescott Bush, William F. Buckley Jr., John Lindsay, Jacob Javits, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein. Developers represented in the collection include William Zeckendorf, Samuel LeFrak, and Fred Trump. There is also correspondence with various members of prominent families including the Roosevelts, Rockefellers, Guggenheims, Kennedys, and Bushs.
Some material may contain language and terminology that is outdated, harmful, or offensive.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 189.92 linear feet (430 boxes, 66 volumes)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Cartographic
- Identifiers
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b11635614
- MSS Unit ID: 2071
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 03e26f60-c17c-013d-ae47-0242ac110003
