Activist New York
Ongoing
Back to Exhibitions
Explore the drama of social activism in New York City from the 17th century right up to the present.
In a town renowned for its in-your-face persona, New Yorkers have banded together on issues as diverse as civil rights, wages, sexual orientation, and religious freedom. Using artifacts, photographs, audio and visual presentations, as well as interactive components that seek to tell the story of activism in the five boroughs past and present, Activist New York presents the passions and conflicts that underlie the city's history of agitation.
Activist New York online!
Continue the Activist New York experience online with additional original content, materials for teachers, and images of activism in the city today taken by New Yorkers like you. Contribute your own images to our activism gallery by using the hashtag #ActivistNY on your Instagram and Twitter.
New York artist Keith Haring created designs used in anti-AIDS campaigns, including the posthumously printed image at the top of this 1991 GMHC dance-a-thon flyer. He also founded the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989 to assist AIDS-related and children’s charities. Haring died of AIDS-related illness in 1990.
Image Info: Gay Men's Health Crisis, 1991, Museum of the City of New York, Mark Ouderkirk Collection, X2011.12.133.
As the nation’s hub of manufacturing, mass marketing, and advertising, New York became a center for woman suffrage-related memorabilia. Activists distributed a wide array of lapel buttons, armbands, pennants, badges, and song sheets to raise money and publicize their cause.
Image Info: 1910s, Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Moen, 49.215.12.
United Bronx Parents was founded by Evelina López Antonetty in 1965 as an education reform organization focused on mobilizing Puerto Rican parents and children. By the 1980s, the group also provided a range of services and programs to the South Bronx community.
Image Info: United Bronx Parents, 1967, Courtesy the United Bronx Parent Records, the Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY.
The shirtwaist, a mass-produced blouse marketed in a variety of styles and prices, became enormously popular in the late 19th century. Made in New York factories, the shirtwaist symbolized the “New Woman,” freed from restrictive traditional garments and ready to participate in a widening array of public activities, including wage labor and union activism.
Image Info: Gray and white striped cotton with linen collar, ca. 1895, Fisk Clark & Flagg, E.A. Morrison & Son, 898 Broadway, New York, Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Mrs. John Hubbard, 41.190.22.
While a “Jim Crow” system of legal segregation is often thought of as unique to the American South, federal and local policies that shaped housing, employment, and schools made discrimination pervasive in New York and other northern locales.
Image Info: Bruce Davidson, 1962, © Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos.
Twenty-three Jewish refugees from Brazil and two European Jewish merchants arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. Colony Director-General Peter Stuyvesant wanted to turn them away, complaining of “their deceitful business towards the Christians.” The Company ordered Stuyvesant to let them remain and enjoy the same rights they would have in the Dutch Republic, and Asser Levy became the first Jewish person to own property in the colony.
Image Info: September 5, 1677, Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Mrs. Newbold Morris, 34.86.1.
Exhibition Catalog
Follows centuries of New York activism to reveal the city as a globally influential machine for social change.
Supporters
Activist New York and its associated programs are made possible by The Puffin Foundation, Ltd.
Activist New York is the inaugural exhibition in The Puffin Foundation Gallery, which is dedicated to the ways in which ordinary New Yorkers have exercised their power to shape the city's and the nation's future.
In-Depth Stories
Telling the Stories of Activism in New York City Today
Dante from Million Hoodies for Justice is just one of the NYC activists profiled in our new Activist New York touch screen interactive stations.
The New York Women Who Dismantled Prohibition
Women have been considered some of the most visible advocates of the temperance movement, but did you know that women were also some of the most active opponents of the 18th amendment?
What’s On for Activist New York
Activist New York Special Programs
Visit the exhibition Activist New York to discover New Yorkers’ fights for freedom and equality. Afterwards, create protest posters for a movement that inspires you for change.
Reimagining Violence Prevention
Times reporter Ashley Southall leads an expert discussion about how urban communities are developing new approaches to violence prevention.
