EAD
TABLE OF CONTENTSInventory |
Guide to Long Island Daily Press Photograph Morgue Collection
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Descriptive Summary | ||
| Creator | The Long Island Daily Press | |
| Title | Long Island Daily Press Photograph Morgue Collection | |
| Dates: | 1926-1977 | |
| Abstract: | The Long Island Daily Press Photograph Morgue Collection consists of photographs, drawings and maps that were made to illustrate news stories and feature articles published in the Long Island Daily Press newspaper. Most of the photographs were taken by staff photographers employed by the Press. A smaller number were taken by freelance photographers, by news services such as Associated Press, or by photographers employed by the public relations departments of various companies and organizations. In addition to the photographs there are also drawings of proposed buildings that were made by various architectural firms, and maps that were drawn by illustrators on the Press staff. | |
| Extent: | 3,637 photographs, 13 boxes, 9.4 cubic feet | |
| Identification: | L-16 | |
| Location: | Archives at Queens Library | |
Historical/Biographical Note
The Long Island Daily Press was a daily newspaper that was published in Jamaica, Queens. It was founded in 1821 as the Long Island Farmer. The paper’s founder, Henry C. Sleight, was born in New York City in 1792, and raised in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Sleight got his start as a newspaperman when he worked on the staff of the Suffolk County Gazette, a weekly newspaper published in Sag Harbor. During the War of 1812 Sleight enlisted in the army and saw action on the Kentucky frontier. After the war he remained in Kentucky for a few years, during which time he published another weekly newspaper, the Messenger, and later went into the mercantile business. After suffering heavy business losses due to a fire, Sleight returned to New York and settled in Jamaica, where he established the Long Island Farmer.
The Long Island Farmer began as a weekly newspaper, publishing its first issue on January 4, 1821. It continued, sometimes as a weekly and sometimes bi-weekly, under Sleight’s successors Thomas Bradley, Isaac F. Jones and Charles S. Watrous. In the 1880s the paper came under the ownership of John C. Kennehan, a farmer and printer who had been in charge of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s Long Island Department. At the time Kennehan became its owner the Farmer’s offices were located on the west side of Herriman Avenue (now 161st Street) in Jamaica. Kennehan was still the paper’s editor in 1898, when Queens County was partitioned, with the western portion of the original county (including Jamaica) becoming part of Greater New York City, while the eastern portion became present-day Nassau County. In response to these changes, Kennehan began to change the Farmer’s format and approach to bring it into line with Queens’ new role as part of an emerging metropolis. After Kennehan’s death his nephew James F. Sullivan took over as the Farmer’s owner, but after some setbacks he sold his interest in the paper to James O’Rourke.
In 1912 the Long Island Farmer absorbed the Long Island Democrat, Jamaica’s other weekly newspaper. At the same time the Farmer became a daily newspaper. In 1920 a Jamaica lawyer named Benjamin Marvin became the Farmer’s sole owner. At the start of the following year the newspaper changed its name to the Long Island Daily Press and Farmer.
In June of 1926 the Long Island Press and Farmer was acquired by the Ridder Brothers, owners of New York’s German-language newspaper, the Staats-Zeitung. The Ridders shortened the paper’s name to the Long Island Press and appointed William F. Hoffman as its publisher. During Hoffman’s tenure the Press built a new printing plant and offices at 92-24 168th Street, south of Jamaica Avenue. The first papers were printed in the new building on September 17, 1931. In February of the following year Hoffman launched a Sunday edition, the Long Island Sunday Press.
Later in 1932 the Ridders sold their controlling interest in the Press to Samuel I. Newhouse, who also owned the Staten Island Advance. In June of 1938, Newhouse acquired the Press’ main competitor, the Long Island Daily-Star Journal. In the years that followed, many stories and photographs that appeared in the Press would also appear in the Star-Journal. The Newhouse family would continue to publish the Star-Journal until 1968 and the Press until 1977.
Under Newhouse’s ownership the Press began to expand its coverage eastward, first to Nassau and then to Suffolk County. In 1932 the Press’ daily circulation was less than 30,000. By 1952 that number had climbed to 157,000. With the arrival of the post-war boom in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk the Press’ circulation continued to rise, reaching an all-time high of 445,000 daily and 422,000 Sunday in 1969. But with the economic decline of the 1970s many of the stores and other local businesses that the Press depended on for advertising sales either closed or cut their advertising budgets. At the same time the Press began losing circulation, particularly in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, as other New York daily papers expanded their suburban coverage. In March of 1977 the Long Island Press ceased publication, citing increasing costs, decreased advertising revenue and declining circulation. The old Long Island Press building stood unoccupied on 168th Street until 2005, when it was demolished to make way for the Home Depot store that currently occupies the site.
During its lifetime the Press covered national and world news events, but its primary focus was on Queens and suburban Long Island. In 1947 the paper received its first major award from the New York Newspaper Guild for a series of articles by reporter Seymour Marks about the “Redfern Rookery” in Far Rockaway, said to be the country’s worst slum. Among the many journalists who worked for the Press were Walt Whitman, who contributed stories in 1840, and Fred McMorrow, later an editor at the New York Times. Jimmy Breslin, who later became a well-known columnist for the New York Daily News, got his start working for the Press, first as a copy boy and then as a sportswriter.
Sources:Arena, Salvatore “L.I. Press Left Imprint in Jamaica” New York Daily News, January 17, 1982
Coglan, William R. “A 156-Year-Old Friend Passes” Long Island Forum, November, 1978
Collins, Thomas “The Long Island Press, 1821-1977” Newsday, March 26, 1977
Marks, Seymour “The Press, Long Island Share Era of Growth” Long Island Daily Press, May 21, 1971
Rainie, Harrison “How an Ex-Farm Journal Became a Cropper” New York Daily News, March 26, 1977
Woodberry, Warren Jr. “Jamaica Scores a Home Run” New York Daily News, November 3, 2005
“Back in the 80s When the Press Was the Farmer” Long Island Daily Press, September 18, 1931
“Dear Reader: We Were 125 Last Week and Forgot to Tell You – the Press” Long Island Daily Press, January 11, 1946
“Press Publisher 30 Years a Newspaperman” Jamaica Jinjer, January, 1929
Return to the Table of Contents
Scope and Content Note
The Long Island Daily Press Photograph Morgue Collection consists of photographs, drawings and maps that were made to illustrate news stories and feature articles published in the Long Island Daily Press newspaper. Most of the photographs were taken by staff photographers employed by the Press. A smaller number were taken by freelance photographers, by news services such as Associated Press, or by photographers employed by the public relations departments of various companies and organizations. In addition to the photographs there are also drawings of proposed buildings that were made by various architectural firms, and maps that were drawn by illustrators on the Press staff.
Typically, when a Press staff photographer returned from covering a story he would complete an assignment sheet. This sheet would include the photographer’s name, the date of the assignment, and descriptions of the various prints that the photographer was submitting for publication. The descriptions were usually numbered, with the corresponding number written on the back of each print. An editor would then select whichever photographs he wanted to run with the story. The editor would then stamp each photograph on the back, and write in the date it was received and the day it was to be published. Sometimes he would write in other information, such as the names and addresses of individuals shown in a photograph, the subject of the story or the section of the newspaper in which it was to appear. During the years when the Newhouse family owned both the Press and the Long Island Star-Journal, many photographs appeared in both papers. If an editor wanted to run a particular photograph in both the Press and the Star-Journal, he would indicate on the back of the photograph that “cuts” were to be made for both papers. A slip of newsprint with a typed caption would be pasted or clipped to the photograph. After the photograph had been published the date of publication would be written or stamped on the back of the photograph. The Press staff would then file the photographs in its morgue. The Press’ photograph morgue was a row of file cabinets located on the third floor of the Long Island Daily Press Building. The original photographer’s assignment sheet would often be clipped or pasted to photographs when they were filed in the morgue. Sometimes caption sheets were also included. Photographs in the morgue were frequently reused for follow-up stories, or on occasions when it was not possible to send a photographer to cover a story. If a particular photograph was reprinted a second publication date was stamped or written on the back. Photographs received from news services or organizations were usually identified with the organization’s stamp or with a slip of paper, pasted or clipped to the photograph, often including a caption written by the organization.
The Archives does not have any paperwork to indicate when or under what circumstances the Long Island Press photographs came to us. As near as we can tell, we received them not long after the Press went out of business in 1977. At that time our staff determined that the best way to make the photographs available to the public would be to disassemble the collection and place the individual pictures into our Illustrations Collection. However, in keeping with proper archival practices, we decided that we would identify and remove all Long Island Daily Press photographs from the Illustrations Collection and consolidate them into the Long Island Daily Press Photograph Morgue Collection. This also makes it easier for our archivists to determine copyright ownership and to make our digital collections available online.
Unfortunately with the passage of time it had become increasingly difficult to tell which pictures were Long Island Daily Press photographs and which were not. We were able to identify a large number of photographs in the collection using the photographer’s assignment sheets, but in many cases the only information included with the photograph was a date. In most cases we identified these photographs by consulting the Long Island Daily Press microfilm for that date. Certain other photographs we identified using clippings in our vertical file collection. In some instances there was only a number written on the back of the photograph, or no information at all. Many of these photographs we identified using other photographs in the collection that had previously been identified. Photographs from outside sources (such as wire service or public relations photographs) were included with the collection if it could be determined that they had been published in the Press, or if they were marked in some way that positively identified them as having come from the Press morgue.
Although the Long Island Press covered national and world news events, its primary focus was on Queens and suburban Long Island. Almost all of the photographs in the collection depict people, places or events in Queens, Nassau or Suffolk Counties. Many photographs highlight local businesses, such as the Gertz Department store in Jamaica, or the many aerospace companies, including Fairchild, Grumman, and Republic, that were based on Long Island. One series of photographs, taken between 1962 and 1964, shows the development of the Lunar Excursion Module, built at the Grumman plant in Bethpage for use in the Apollo space program.
Not only did the Press report the ways in which Queens and Long Island were helping to shape national events, it also showed how national issues such as the Vietnam War and the struggle over housing integration played out at the local level. Press photographers covered anti-war demonstrations by students at Queens College and St. John’s University, and protests against proposed low-income public housing in Forest Hills. During New York City’s fiscal crisis of 1975-76 the Press published photographs of shuttered firehouses in Richmond Hill and uncollected garbage piled up on the street in Long Island City. All of these images are included in the collection.
Many photographs in the collection were taken to illustrate stories about community problems, such as unsafe streets, vandalism in local parks, or deteriorated public schools. A typical series of photographs depicts overcrowding and poor conditions at Jamaica High School in the early Sixties. There are shots of broken stairways and classrooms with peeling paint and leaking ceilings. The Press saw itself as the voice of the people of Queens. It wanted the concerns of ordinary citizens to be heard and addressed by government and business leaders.
The Press also documented the growth of suburban Long Island. For example, March, 1949 photograph shows prospective homebuyers warming themselves around a camp fire as they wait for a chance to purchase new houses scheduled to go on sale in Levittown. Two later sets of photographs look at the town on its tenth and twentieth anniversaries. The collection also includes aerial views of new expressways, hospitals and housing developments under construction.
Other major events covered by the Press include the September 1938 hurricane, the closure and demolition of the Garden City Hotel and the renovation of Flushing Town Hall.
Return to the Table of Contents
Arrangement
Physically, we have separated the photographs into prints and negatives. They have been filed according to size, by Queens Library Archives control number.
When the photographs originally came to the Archives they were in file folders, organized by subject headings assigned by the Long Island Daily Press staff. However, the majority of the photographs were subsequently placed into our Illustrations Collection in such a way that the original filing scheme was lost. In bringing this collection back together we have organized the photographs by first by location, then by date, and then by photographer. All photographs that were shot by a single photographer for a single assignment have been filed together. Wherever possible we have placed photographs that were published in the Press first in sequence, followed by any unpublished shots that were taken for the same assignment. Photographer’s assignment sheets have been filed with the corresponding photographs, with the corresponding control numbers written on the assignment sheet.
Return to the Table of Contents
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item,
date (if known); The Long Island Daily Press Photograph Morgue Collection ; L-16
- Archives at Queens
Library
- Queens Borough Public Library
Library
- 89-11 Merrick
Boulevard
- Jamaica, NY 11432
Provenance
Unknown
Access Restrictions
Open for research without restrictions. Manuscripts are only available in the Archives at Queens Library, please call (718) 990-0770 for hours. Manuscript users will be required to complete the division's Manuscript Usage Form and deposit their photograph identification or Queens Borough Public Library card with a staff member. The identification will be returned to the user after she/he has returned the material. Manuscript users will deposit all their personal items behind the reference desk. Manuscript users must use the division's loose sheets of paper for note taking. To reiterate, no pen of any type is permitted. Paper and a pencil are available upon request. Manuscript users may be required to use special handling procedures depending on the conditions of the material.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from
the:
- Archives at Queens
Library
- Queens Borough Public
Library
- 89-11 Merrick
Boulevard
- Jamaica, NY
11432
- Phone: (718)
990-0770
Return to the Table of Contents
Access Points
Subject Organizations:
- The Long Island Daily Press
Subject Family Names:
- Samuel I. Newhouse family
Subject Topics:
- Newspapers
Subject Places:
- Jamaica (New York, N.Y.)
- Long Island (N.Y.)
- Queens (New York, N.Y.)
Document Types:
- TIFF Images
Return to the Table of Contents
Inventory
[The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.]
