After the Transit Archive  visit, I feel like I have a better grasp distinguishing between a primary and secondary sources. I was very impressed by the amount of  security and protection the archivist handled their collection and the knowledge the accompanies this job. It is not just simply placing old things in a basement and locking them away, but there is a science that must be well understood.  For example, its important to understand  that temperature and light( incandescent,natural,fluorescent..)  can emphatically damage an item from oxidation or even reactivity of volatile chemicals. Even the enzymes naturally secreted by our sweat glands and sebaceous glands can taint the quality of the item.

I was upset that we spent very little time browsing over the content, but one thing I found truly unique were the advertising images that once stood over  GC and around time square. To me they seem more of an art rather than some cheesy ad like we now see today. I guess you weren’t allowed to place any “junk” around especially if it is going to be display over GC. Viewing old images of time square you can see how the structure and the space was destined for that area to be of high significance later in time and i wish my parents or grandparents would have been savvy enough to purchase space/real estate there!

Some of the content were difficult to cite as they were lacking information:

The Gateway to a Continent. (1940). New York,  New York City Architects. NY Transit Archive. 130 Livingston Street Brooklyn, NY 11202. 17 June 2016.

This was a book that contained advertising  images  of fancy hotels that were distributed downtown and around  Grand Central around the 1940s.

Image of a resource (I have not obtained it yet)

On June 17th, we visited NY Transit Archival which is located on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Passing through the security gates, we found ourselves in the basement of the building walking towards the archival.

We saw many of amazing photographs of Grand Central Terminal, New York Public Library and the neighborhood which were taken in early 20th centuries. What held my excitement was drawings such as elevation and Plans of Grand Central Terminal as well as the surroundings on the site. The transition of the neighborhood, neat lines, details of the beautiful ornaments, everything on the drawings were helpful for my deep research of Grand Central Terminal, but also it made me feel the history and these people who worked on the drawings.

Another source that I liked very much was a book with a green hard cover with a image of a statue. “The Gateway to a Continent”

It was published in 1940, and it has 40 pages. This book is not only the Terminal, but also the neighborhood and other famous and important buildings affected to architectural history in Midtown of Manhattan, such as Helmsley Building. In many pages, there were beautiful and cheerful sketches of buildings, neighborhood and people, and those were the things that made me feel I would like to have this book by myself.

As questions for further research, I would say “How the Park Avenue was changed and how people reacted to the construction of Grand Central Terminal.”

Running Head: William J. Wilgus papers

William J. Wilgus papers

The New York Public Library, Archives & Manuscripts

Manuscripts and Archives Division Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

This assignment is to understand how to use APA citation and to know how much finding aid is useful for researchers.

We look into William J. Wilgus papers on The New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts for our research of Grand Central Terminal. This is a really great guide that help us to find information that we are looking for. It is originated simply, but very strong and important facts that researchers would like to know about William J. Wilgus. For instance, with less than a page, it explains very well as overview about his biography with some key terms, people, and years that also help us to understand and think about the history around that era. Then there are lists of series what we can find in the papers with brief descriptions. Also there are some other tabs other than the overview on the top of the website, and there you can find more details related to the series.

William J. Wilgus was the civil engineer very well know as the chief engineer of Grand Central Terminal construction. With his intelligence and talent, William worked for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, but also after he opened his own consulting practice, he advised many railroad companies and helped the city and the states for their developments.

Citation :

William J. Wilgus papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

http://archives.nypl.org/mss/3325#overview

Reflecting on what you learned on the tours of Grand Central Terminal and the information from the videos, answer the following question in a 200 word reflection be submitted by Thursday. Describe the reasons why Grand Central Terminal had a different outcome than Penn Station. In other words, why was Grand Central saved and not Penn Station? What forces caused the different outcomes?

I really enjoyed our third visit and second tour to GCT. I really enjoyed it because it provided congruent information along with our first tour with dan.  Dans tour was a more inside tour and behind the scenes tour where as our second tour guide provided us with many important information about the outside. I enjoyed three major things during our second tour.

Firstly, when we were standing in pershing square which is also Park Ave, you see so many tall buildings, However,  when you are standing on the corner of park ave and East 41st,  you look in front of you, you see an amazing building, which is not so tall, with beautiful sculptures and a 14ft clock, and when you look to your left you see another not so tall building which is the New York Public Library which are both major tourist attractions with amazing architecture history.

Secondly when we were standing in Pershing Square, When our tour guide asked how tall do you think and the clock and sculpture was, I got it so wrong, although my guess was not stated aloud it was stated in my head. When he said the clock was 14 feet and the sculptures were 30 to 40 feet I was astonished. We were then able to look at the person who sculpt it, in the middle of working on it and then we can see the comparison because standing 7 stories below it, it doesn’t look so big.

Lastly, When we walked out of Grand Central Terminal and then to the left of us was Grand Central terminal I was like “What the heck” I was so confused, because we were in GCT but when we walked out of it we walked out of another building.

William J Wilgus was an extraordinary engineer Legends. He is most famous for engineering Grand Central Terminal in 1913 which took 10 years to build. He is known to be an “Engineering Legend” He accomplished many things that had not been before. Such as before Grand Central Terminal, the Grand Centrals before. Grand Central Depot and Grand Central station were built above ground, and were made of steam. However this was very inconvenient and put harmful fumes into the air. Wilgus  collaborated with an electrical engineer named Frank Sprague and was able to build trains that ran on electricity, This also enabled it trains to be built underground because rationally you cannot have a steam train underground. It was also because of Wilgus ideas it allowed for the movement of trains to be below ground. His Brother in law May Reed was in the firm Reed and Stem a very successful architecture firm. When Wilgus returned back to New York  from the west, his Engineer status continued to build up until becoming a chief Engineer. New York City was growing along with the number of trains. Unfortunately, sometimes with America it takes a horrible accident for things to change. In 1902 two trains collided because I believe one or both of the trains could not see the signal due to the smoke, this ended with the lost of 17 lives. This made the removal of the Grand Central Station which operated above ground with steam trains to what is now Grand Central Terminal which operates below ground and with electricity. One of the smart things that William Wilgus was able to due in order to help with the finances of Grand Central Terminal was the idea of using the land and real estate above the trains and leasing them out. I can imagine now the lease amount to have a sky rise above Grand Central Terminal

The MTA Archival visit was extremely thought provoking because of how much there was to see! The MTA archives were filled with some amazing primary sources of GCT that depicted various times of and around the terminal. Looking at the sources, and knowing how GCT is today, gave me an interesting perspective on not just GCT, but also about how archives preserve a moment in time for future generations to look back at. I’m sure when the photographs that we saw were taken, no one thought much about the pictures, because they were still current and life probably seemed “boring” and dull. However, those same photographs of the terminal being built, and the surrounding areas of Bryant Park, and Times Square are priceless to us because of how unequivocally different that time is to this.

At the archive we were fortunate to meet with Haley, who accommodated us and was our archive proctor. She brought us some pretty interesting primary sources from the Metro North Collection, and also gave us some insightful information about finding aids (kind of like metadata- data about the sources, like what agency the source was organized by, the type of material, the date of the source, etc.), and about different materials that we looked at (cyanotype, etchings, gelatin coated).

There were two sources that I found extremely interesting. Unfortunately, the photograph that I really wanted to use as a source of GCT being built, I was unable to get. However, the other source was a wartime pamphlet:

Title:  “Wartime Guide to Grand Central Terminal”

Creator/Publisher: NY Central System

Year: 1940

This source was extremely descriptive as well as intended as a visual aid. The source was in pamphlet format (a double gated pamphlet) and was intended as wartime paraphernalia most likely intended for to motivate troops and bring business to the terminal. It was published in 1940, which means that it was created during World War II.

The source is interesting because it shows the extent that GCT went in order to bring business, even in the time of warfare. To me it shows that GCT was able to become a center even in the face of war. This source would be vital in research for the uses of GCT, one of the uses also being a place where troops were being transported.

For further research:

What other uses of GCT arise over different periods of time? What use is being put to GCT today?

How did WWII effect the railroad business?

How did GCT cope with changing technological advances?

The GCT walking tour last Thursday was extremely interesting, since we were able to experience the terminal through the eyes of an architectural enthusiast. The main focal point of last Thursday, wasn’t just the GCT building itself, but more of GCT and its surrounding buildings that made up Terminal City. Understanding the background information around a topic is crucial in understanding the topic itself, and I feel like understanding not just GCT but the surrounding era, the economy of the time, the surrounding buildings, and how they ended up becoming part of and the inspiration to something as grand as Terminal City is just as vital as actually understanding the GCT building and its own unique history.

What I found really interesting was the architectural similarities of GCT (especially the  Pershing Square Viaduct) to Parisian architect (Alexander III Bridge). I really enjoyed how Tony (tour guide), explained how the love of Paris inspired Wilgus to bring Parisian elements into GCT. For me, it kind of shows how there are roots of Europe in our “New World” city. Yet for all our “New World” charm, we were still able to create our own statement with GCT.

Our visit to the archives was extremely interesting and one hour was not enough to browse through its offerings! Haley brought out files of photographs from the beginning of construction until the end of it (1913). She explained why the photographs differed–the blue, unclear photographs were made of a different, cheaper material (iron) and clearer ones could be made from platinum. We also got to see pamphlets and brochures from the time that gave us an idea of what was important enough to attract guests. What really caught my attention were the blueprints. There was one blueprint in particular that showed grand central terminal and all the buildings surrounding it. As Haley eloquently stated, this brings us back to the idea that the architects, engineers, and visionaries were not just creating a building but were creating a neighborhood which we consider “Terminal City.”

I also learned more about archival procedures. For example, archives reside in the basement because of the lack of windows and less humidity and it’s also imperative to wear gloves when handling items such as photographs. Sunlight, humidity, and the oil from our fingertips could damage these artifacts. Also, because we are using this for academic purposes and much of the artifacts were dated between 1923 and 1977 without copyright notice, our class is able to freely use the artifacts from the archive. This is called “fair use.” Haley also explained what the numbers on the various folders mean. An example is using “2010.20.26.10” 2010 is the year the artifact was given to the archive, 20 is the sub series number, 26 is the folder, and 10 is the collection of items that come along in that selection.

Overall, I really enjoyed our visit to the archives and hope to go back there again. There’s so much information stored in that basement and I feel like we just barely scratched the surface in the short hour we were there.

Some sources I took particular interest in are as follows:

From “The Gateway to A Continent. Grand Central Zone” Taken from WikiMedia Commons

“The Gateway to A Continent. Grand Central Zone” was published by New York in 1939. It is a pictorial spread that depicts beautiful illustrations of Grand Central Terminal and the surrounding buildings. I thought it was interesting because of the details pictures and also because it emphasized that the creating of Grand Central Terminal was the rebirth of New York City. As quoted from this source, it is a “new horizon of steel and stone” and GCT and the surrounding buildings create a “city within a city.”

“Landmarks Preservation” written by John Pyke, Jr., is a great read that argues why landmarks should be preserved, the history of landmark preservation, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the criteria for becoming a landmark/the rules. With Grand Central Terminal being a landmark and there having been a heavy dispute over keeping the building intact, I think this primary source would be excellent to use to understand the struggle over making it a landmark.

Some questions for further research to consider regarding archives and Grand Central Terminal are as follows:

1. How exactly did the emergence of other methods of transportation (planes, automobiles, etc.) affect Grand Central Terminal and how did GCT compete?
2. What is the process of donating artifacts to an archive?

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