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Messages for the President-Elect collection

Call Number

MS 3027

Date

2016-2017, inclusive

Creator

New-York Historical Society

Extent

1 Linear feet in one record carton

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The collection includes about 5,700 sticky notes from New-York Historical Society's special installation Messages for the President-Elect. Inspired by artist Matthew "Levee" Chavez's work Subway Therapy, Messages consisted of notes posted to N-YHS's front glass wall by visitors expressing thoughts concerning the upcoming inauguration of Donald J. Trump as U.S. President. The special installation was in place from 20 December 2016-20 January 2017.

Biographical/Historical Note

Messages for the President-Elect was a special installation at New-York Historical Society inspired by Subway Therapy, which was created by artist Matthew "Levee" Chavez following the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald J. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. From the day after the election until 16 December, Chavez invited passersby at Manhattan's Union Square subway station to express their emotions about the election on sticky notes (e.g., Post-its) and post them to the station wall. When Chavez's work was taken down, about 5,600 of the approximately 20,000 total notes were donated to New-York Historical Society. In connection with the donation and in light of the continuing public discussion about the election in advance of Inauguration Day on 17 January 2017, New-York Historical applied Chavez's concept within its own building. On the glass wall at the front entrance of N-YHS's building, facing Central Park West, visitors were invited to write on sticky notes their answer to the question: What's your message for our incoming president? The special installation ran from 20 December 2016 through 22 January 2017.

Arrangement Note

There is no particular arrangement to the sticky notes, that is, how they are found in the container does not necessarily reflect their original relationship to one another on New-York Historical's Society wall.

Scope and Contents Note

The Messages for the President-Elect collection includes about 5,700 sticky notes posted to New-York Historical Society's front glass wall from 20 December 2016-20 January 2017. A small number were added to the collection in early February by a visiting school group. Given the limited space on the glass wall, the posted notes were thinned each day to make room for more, and off-point vulgar/obscene notes were taken down to avoid provoking others in a similar vein. All remaining notes were finally removed/deinstalled from the wall on 23 January. All sticky notes removed from the wall during the course of the installation were retained, except for those that were badly damaged and a set of about 22 notes that included the first name of a person (unknown but unrelated to the theme of the project), her phone number and derogatory references.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers. Special handling instructions are found in the collection container. N-YHS also holds two other, similar collections of sticky notes (see Related Materials Note); to ensure that the contents are not accidentally mixed, only one of the collections may be presented to a patron at any one time.

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation Note

This collection should be cited as Messages for the President-Elect Collection, MS 3027, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition Note

The collection was created by New-York Historical Society from the content of its special installation Messages for the President-Elect (20 December 2016-20 January 2017).

Related Archival Materials Note

The artist Matthew "Levee" Chavez donated a portion of his work Subway Therapy, which was the inspiring concept behind Messages for the President-Elect, to New-York Historical. See call number MS 3025.

Chavez's work inspired similar projects in other parts of the country. One such project was implemented by the third grade of the Brooklyn Friends School. N-YHS holds that collection as well; see call number MS 3026.

Collection processed by

Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:51:17 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information Note

The individual sticky notes/Post-its that make up the collection were housed on plastic sheets and in archival trays by conservator Alan Balicki in April 2017. The descriptive finding aid was prepared by archivist Larry Weimer in May 2017.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024