My new book, Hidden Histories of Jazz Age New York from the Suppressed to the Strange (SUNY Press, 2026) is now available for pre-order!
ARCHIVAL MATERIALS from NYC in the early 1920s
“One hundred years ago today” … This site follows the calendars of 1920-23, posting materials related to the date in NYC culture and history. It has been on hold since 2023, but may yet restart! Panoramic in scope and local in focus, our site includes articles from NYC newspapers and magazines, plus sound, image and video files and links, all telling the story of the life of the city 100 years ago. Scroll down, pick a month, and start exploring!
Land Acknowledgment
New York City sits on land space that was home to the Munsee Lenape peoples, and under their stewardship, before European colonization. We acknowledge the history of occupation and genocide of indigenous nations, and we honor the diverse indigenous peoples connected to this land.
JANUARY 1920
The Babe Ruth trade, James Weldon Johnson’s The Age, Dorothy Parker’s job, the Palmer raids, prohibition, combating Spanish Flu (pictured)…
FEBRUARY 1920
African American History Month: W.E.B. Du Bois, The Crisis (pictured), Marcus Garvey’s U.N.I.A. Harlem jazz. Plus: Scott Fitzgerald, Lunar New Year celebrations…
MARCH 1920
Striking workers, "female impersonators," vaudeville stars (including Helen Keller), the first NY traffic signal (pictured)…
APRIL 1920
The path-breaking Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Louise Bryant, Marius de Zayas’ gallery, the start of baseball, the "Overalls Parade" led by circus elephants (pictured)…
May 1920
May Day, Italian anarchist killed in federal custody (pictured), Oscar Micheaux's answer to the KKK, Marcel Duchamp’s avant-garde art movement…
June 1920
Immigrant cultures and newspapers in Yiddish, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and Ladino; women in the entertainment business; socialist cartoons (pictured)…
July 1920
Summertime! Coney Island; discrimination in sports; picnics, fireworks, and the July 4 “Americanization Jubilee”…
August 1920
Marcus Garvey's pan-African conference (pictured); lesbian culture'; Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" and Paul Whiteman's "Whispering;" the first doughnut machine…
September 1920
The Wall Street Bombing (pictured); African American doctors and clubs; plus special posts for Labor Day and Hispanic Heritage Month…
OCTOBER 1920
Ellis Island/immigration issues (pictured); voter registration; landmark literary moments (Wharton, Millay, Toomer); the World Series hits Brooklyn; Rothstein pleads innocent…
NOVEMBER 1920
Charles Gilpin (pictured) in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones; a consequential Election Day, locally and nationally; white supremacists in the Bronx…
DECEMBER 1920
Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, gang murders, literary censorship, Margaret Sanger's birth control campaign, Jack Johnson’s Harlem club…
JANUARY 1921
White supremacy and the KKK in NYC, bomb threats, the Girl Scouts (pictured) vs. poverty, Enrique Caruso's health…
FEBRUARY 1921
We celebrate Black History Month: Jessie Fauset’s children’s stories, Charles Gilpin's controversial award, Ethel Waters meets Fletcher Henderson, Black businesses...
March 1921
Women's history month! Sophie Tucker, Ana Pavlova and Nati Bilbainita on stage; an all-women police precinct; housing for Black women; women garment workers on strike (pictured)...
April 1921
Avant-garde art (pictured), Tagore in NYC, Black baseball in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, a circus parade, the Port Authority. Plus: restaurant menus and more ...
May 1921
Two revolutions in Black arts: Shuffle Along and Black Swan Records, modern art at the Whitney gallery (pictured), feminist politics, anti-vaccination alarmists …
June 1921
Immigrant Heritage Month, which we honor through music recorded in NYC one hundred years ago for immigrant audiences, and reports of Ellis Island and the new, Draconian, immigration restrictions…
July 1921
Republican and Socialist candidates for mayor, the Marx Brothers (shown) on stage, Shuffle Along continues its run, a pro-booze parade …
August 1921
Ernestine Rose’s Black arts exhibition at the 135th St. library, a Chinatown parade for a Chinese American WWI hero (shown), Stuart Davis’s diary…
September 1921
Back to school! Plus: he New York Association for the Blind, a cop dies a hero, the Greenwich Village Follies …
October 1921
The first all-NYC World Series (shown), plus Black baseball championships. Also: early radio broadcasts, Mayor Hylan records a speech …
November 1921
Election day! Plus: a pro-immigration, assimilationist exhibition, and the subways roll out their new turnstiles (shown) …
December 1921
A milk strike leads to controversy and commodities, Adam Clayton Powell resigns as pastor from the Abyssinian Baptist Church, NYC celebrates the holidays with parties and protests …
January 1922
Smuggled booze (shown), cigar store robberies, horse-drawn taxicabs, the ongoing fight for women’s rights …
February 1922
It's Black History Month! We feature Countee Cullen, Cecil Gaylord (shown), A'Leila Walker, the Abyssinan Baptist Chuch, and more …
March 1922
Women’s History Month! Art of Alice Morgan and Rose O’Neill, politics of Narcissa Cox Vanderlip, birth control activism, the Dolly Sisters (shown) take the stage …
April 1922
Joseph Pennel and Edward Hopper exhibit their artwork, the circus is in town, Nella Larsen applies for a job …
May 1922
We mark AAPI Heritage Month with Kuniyoshi paintings and other features. Plus: an anti-prohibition demonstration, the New York Velodrome opens …
June 1922
For Immigration Heritage Month, we post about music and newspapers for NYC immigrants. Plus: debates about birth control, a tragic Ferris wheel accident (shown) …
SEptember 1922
Teenager Gertrude Ederle breaks swimming records, the Straw Hat Riots (shown), The Hippodrome, the Goldman Band …
October 1922
A women’s anti-lynching organization; an all-NYC World Series; Rose O’Neill, Margaret Sanger, and Marcus Garvey (pictured); a post for Indigenous People’s Day …
November 1922
A sweeping election for the Democratic party, an attempting lynching in Manhattan, and more …
December 1922
Viña Delmar and flapper fiction, Black and Jewish lawyer Rufus Perry, and more …
February 1923
We mark Black History Month with posts about landmark jazz/blues records by Bessie Smith and others, Black dolls, Black poets, the new Spanish sections of Black newspapers, and more …
March 1923
We mark Women’s History Month with posts about a women-led anti-lynching campaign, movies, music, and more, including a guest post about the launch of Time
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