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Paul Hammacott Occupy Wall Street Screen Prints Collection

Call Number

TAM.641

Date

2011-2012, inclusive

Creator

Hammacott, Paul
Hammacott, Paul (Role: Donor)
May, Andrew

Extent

0.1 Linear Feet
10 prints and nine printouts, in one folder and two oversize folders

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the name of a widely-publicized demonstration against "corporate influence on democracy, a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the …global financial crisis" that took place on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park, in New York City's downtown financial district, resulting in a two-month occupation of the park by protestors, and within the same space of time, inspiring similar "Occupy" protests and actions in more than 1,500 cities and communities across the United States and around the world. The Collection consists of ten screen prints (many of which were created on the spot, at the Occupy Wall Street encampment) produced by participants in Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and other gatherings in New York City during the fall of 2011 and winter of 2012, for use as protest signs, to be worn as patches, or hung on walls to show support; it also includes printouts of 22 digital or scanned photographs of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and other gatherings in New York City during this same period.

Historical/Biographical Note

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the name of a widely-publicized demonstration by protestors against "corporate influence on democracy, a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the …global financial crisis." The demonstration took place on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park, in New York City's downtown financial district, and included an encampment of protestors who occupied the park in tents and sleeping bags for nearly two months, joined by thousands of supporters. By early October, inspired by this action, similar (and often similarly-named) "Occupy" protests and actions took place in more than 600 communities around the United States and in nearly one-thousand cities across 82 countries.

The genesis of OWS was an email call, issued on July 13, 2011, by Adbusters-- a Canadian anti-consumerist, pro-environment magazine- for a peaceful occupation of the United States' (and the world's global) financial center, New York City's downtown financial district, that also set the date for such a protest, and gave it its name (OWS). Adbusters' proposal spread widely across the Internet and was adopted within weeks by a group of several hundred veteran New York City left-wing and anti-globalization activists (including members of a group called New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts, who had camped out earlier that year near New York's City Hall to protest municipal budget cuts and layoffs). This group of organizers, which called itself the New York General Assembly, was responsible for the careful planning and preparations that resulted in the successful occupation of the park (and its attendant publicity). The encampment also became a temporary community, with its own library, kitchen, field hospital, waste disposal, decision-making organization, graphic and performance art.

Arrangement

The materials in this collection have been arranged in size order to facilitate their preservation.

Scope and Contents

The Collection consists of ten screen prints produced by participants in the Occupy Wall Street protest movement at demonstrations and other gatherings in New York City during the fall of 2011 and winter of 2012; it also includes printouts of 22 digital or scanned photographs. The prints, most of which were created by artists on the spot, at the Occupy Wall Street encampment, were intended to be used as protest signs, worn as patches, or hung on walls to show support. Artists/producers include Paul Hammacott ("American Spring,"Occupy Patriot," and "We Are As Mad as Hell"), Joshua Field ("Corporations Are Not People"), Ray Cross (a clenched fist and "99%") of the Bushwick Print Lab, the Brooklynite Gallery ("Occupy Wall Street"), which specialized in street and pop art in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, collaborative/adbusters (ballerina on bull), Andrew May ("We Occupy for") and "Al" ("Wheel of Fortune"). The printouts of photographs document the artists screen-printing the prints in this collection as well as printing on other objects (such as umbrellas), a display of an array of Occupy placards (including the ones in this collection), and Occupy participants wearing, carrying, or displaying the prints in this collection as well as prints screened onto other objects, such as t-shirts.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by Paul Hammacott, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Paul Hammacott Occupy Wall Street Screen Prints Collection; TAM.641; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials are located at the Tamiment Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Paul Hammacott in 2013. The accession number associated with this gift is is 2014.003.

Appraisal

No materials were separated from this collection.

Bibliographic note

Max Chafkin, "Report from Zucotti Park - Revolution Number 99," (Vanity Fair, February 2012).
Democracy Now! A Daily Independent Global News Hour, "Welcome to Bloombergville: New York Activists Fight Budget Cuts By Camping in Front of City Hall" (transcript of radio broadcast, June 24, 2011).
Nathan Schneider, Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse (University of California Press, 2013).
Matthias Schwartz, "THE POLITICAL SCENE – Pre-Occupied: The origins and future of Occupy Wall Street." (The New Yorker, November 28, 2011).
Matt Sledge, "Reawakening The Radical Imagination: The Origins Of Occupy Wall Street," (Huffington Post, 11/10/2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/occupy-wall-street-origins_n_1083977.html?page=3).
Talk of the Nation, "Occupy Wall Street: The Future And History, So Far," (transcript of radio broadcast, February 9, 2012).
Wikipedia,"Occupy Wall Street" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street).
Wikipedia, "Timeline of Occupy Wall Street"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Occupy_Wall_Street).

Collection processed by

Erika Gottfried

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-06 14:04:12 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

At the time of accessioning, materials were moved into archival housing and a collection-level finding aid was created to describe these materials.

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Container

Box: Shared Tamiment OS009, Folder: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Flat-File-Folder: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012