I’ve appointed Dr. Rob Snyder to be our brand new Borough Historian! Dr. Snyder is a professor of journalism and American Studies in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at Rutgers University-Newark. He’s written widely on New York City history and media issues. He is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City (Cornell University Press), The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York (Ivan R. Dee), and Transit Talk: New York’s Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories (Rutgers University Press). He is the coauthor of Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and their New York (Norton/Smithsonian) and, most recently, All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrant and the Making of New York (Columbia).

In addition to Dr. Snyder’s appointment, I’m working on a directory of local historians for public distribution. If you are a local historian or expert on Manhattan’s history, please contact events@manhattanbp.nyc.gov to inquire about being in the publication.