In the New York City Municipal Archives WNYC Sound Collection, we hear the voices of presidents, dignitaries, world leaders, artistic revolutionaries, musical geniuses, luminaries of the literati, and cultural icons. The sounds of a city and a nation are captured through nearly a century of transformations, tribulations, and triumphs. WNYC microphones were present when Admiral Byrd returned from his historic flight over the North Pole in 1926 and when Colonel Charles Lindbergh returned from his solo flight to Paris the following year. Perhaps best known are New York City Mayor F. H. La Guardia's weekly Talk to the People broadcasts over WNYC throughout World War II.

Any views, findings, conclusions, recommendations expressed in this web resource do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Recently in Municipal Archives
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Sunday, April 07, 2013
It is April 19th, 1944. Thousands of mourners silently march from a service at the Warsaw synagogue on Rivington Street to City Hall. A few carry signs: "Save Those Jews in Poland Who Can Yet Be Saved!" and, "Three Million Polish Jews Have Been Murdered By the Nazis!" When they arrive at the steps of City Hall, Cantor Moishe Oysher sings El Mole Rachamim, a funeral prayer for the the 40,000 Jews who died a year earlier in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
'The Artistic and the Beautiful': Frank Lloyd Wright's Wide-Ranging Views
Monday, February 25, 2013
In 1957, two years before his death, Frank Lloyd Wright sat down with WNYC to discuss his design philosophy, exhibiting his trademark eloquence and blistering opinions. The year of this interview marks an explosion of commissions for Wright, who by then had been practicing architecture for 70 years.
A 'Lively' Rant on Popular Film, McCarthyism, and Genre Fiction
Friday, February 22, 2013
The writer, critic, editor, filmmaker, television pioneer, and broadcaster Gilbert Seldes comments on censorship, a favorite topic, in this 1953 broadcast of The Lively Arts.
The Activist Tom Mooney, on Death Row, Is Pardoned
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
This dramatic live broadcast from 1939 is a seminal moment in American jurisprudence and political history: the pardon of Tom Mooney, a tireless labor activist wrongly condemned to death in 1917 for a fatal bombing, after he served 22 years in prison.
LeRoi Jones's Poetic Manifesto, "The Revolutionary Theater"
Monday, February 18, 2013
The writer and activist LeRoi Jones (who would later be known as Amiri Baraka) speaks here on February 17, 1965, four days before the assassination of Malcolm X, an event that catapulted him from a charismatic Greenwich Village maverick into a radicalized black nationalist in Harlem.
Art in Public: Stuart Davis on Abstract Art and the WPA, 1939
Friday, February 15, 2013
This live dedication of four Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals in WNYC’s Studio B is most notable for the comments of abstract artist Stuart Davis, the only one of the murals’ creators in attendance.
Diplomatic Impunity: Dean Acheson Counsels Audiences on Disarmament
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
In 1958, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson was out of power but not out of opinions. At this Book and Authors Luncheon the influential statesman weighs in on the pressing foreign policy question of the day: our relations with the Soviet Union.
A Chorus of Conversation: What Is American Music?
Monday, February 11, 2013
In recognition of tonight's State of the Union address, hear a spirited 1950 roundtable on American music, featuring Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss and Irving Fine.
Friendship Train Attempts to Humanize Postwar Effort
Friday, February 08, 2013
These two 1947 broadcasts mark the start and finish of the Friendship Food Train's U.S. journey, a project conceived to help the people of Europe get through the winter.
Edward Barrett Considers Anti-American Sentiment in Latin America
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
The violent anti-American demonstrations occasioned by Vice President Richard M. Nixon's recent trip to Latin America are the subject of this 1958 International Interview with Edward W. Barrett, dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Great Minds and Stellar Talents Consider the State of Modern Photography
Monday, February 04, 2013
"What Is Modern Photography?" is the question posed at this symposium hosted by the Museum of Modern Art's Edward Steichen. An all-star panel of photographers, including Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, Irving Penn, and Ben Shahn, give (or refuse to give) their individual, often contradictory, definitions of the controversial medium. The gathering provides a great snapshot of the state of the art in 1950.
Whitney Young Provides Depth and Texture to Portrait of Racial Inequality
Friday, February 01, 2013
Focused, uncompromising, and yet essentially pragmatic, Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League, answers questions at this 1966 meeting of the Overseas Press Club.
Writer Marguerite Young, Eccentric Documentarian of Utopias
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
"All that I have told in this story is true, down to the last butterfly or flower," claims Marguerite Young in this talk at a 1966 Books and Authors Luncheon.
Richard Wright's Love Letter to Paris
Monday, January 28, 2013
In this brief monologue, the novelist Richard Wright sends home the most glowing postcard of France one could possibly imagine.
Herman Wouk Bucks Literary Trends to Produce Best-Selling Novels
Friday, January 25, 2013
Herman Wouk, appearing in this 1955 Books and Authors Luncheon, contests what he perceives as the common view of his being "a conformist."
Teddy Wilson Contemplates the Future of Jazz
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Pianist Teddy Wilson discusses his career and speculates on the future of jazz in this 1950 interview.
Walter White of NAACP Asserts America's 'Race Problem' Undermines Overseas Efforts
Monday, January 21, 2013
Walter White, head of the NAACP, ponders race and foreign relations at the Great Hall of Cooper Union, in New York City, in this 1949 recording.
Jessamyn West on an Author's Responsibility to Her Readers
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Mr. New York: Grover Whalen's Unique Diplomacy
Monday, January 14, 2013
In this 1956 appearance at the Books and Authors Luncheon, Grover A. Whalen takes us from his childhood on the Lower East Side to his role in assuring that the United Nations would build its headquarters in New York City.
Gran' Pop Has a Touch of the Flu, 1951
Friday, January 11, 2013
What were the signs and symptoms of influenza in 1951? Join Dr. Naltoney to find out.