0.9 Chapter seven: retrenchment and the struggle for survival, 19  (Page 6/20)

The outpouring of public support for the Society's collections and the increasing media scrutiny (several newspapers wrote editorials on the eve of the Society's closing) attracted the attention of local, city, and state politicians. Ruth Messinger, the Manhattan borough president, said that "the important work of the Society must be sustained." Mayor Dinkins voiced his support, saying that "the preservation of the important collections of The New-York Historical Society is a high priority."

The Society closed its doors, as scheduled, at the end of the day on Friday, February 19. More than a hundred scholars demonstrated on the front sidewalk, holding placards pleading for the rescue of the Society. Inside the library, 105 researchers—more than three times the usual number—used the Society's col­lections for what they feared might be the final time.

Commentary on the Society's plight grew even more dramatic with the clos­ing. Wilbur Ross said that he viewed the Society as "a metaphor for New York City. ... If we let this go into dissolution, we're saying a lot about ourselves." Ruth Messinger echoed this sentiment: "You don't close collections unless you're opt­ing out of civilization." She expressed her hope that a way could be found to keep the library open, even if on a part-time basis.

The efforts of the advisory committee, together with the huge outpouring of public concern for the collections, were successful in postponing a permanent closing of the Society. On February 23, the Society received an emergency grant in the amount of $66,000 to be used to reopen the library and keep it open for three days per week through April 2. The grant was pieced together from funds contributed by the city (through the Department of Cultural Affairs), the state (through the New York State Council on the Arts), the Manhattan borough pres­ident's office, and the city council.

The emergency grant, small as it was, marked the first time the Society had received financial support for general operations from the public sector in more than a century. It had taken the threat of total dissolution to make it happen. In discussing why the Society had been denied membership in the CIG in previous years, Luis Cancel, the commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, pointed to the Society's narrow constituency. He noted that although he had re­ceived many calls from architects and historians bemoaning the loss of the Society, there had been little public outcry. He said, "We're not waiting for a groundswell of support before we try to rescue [the Society], but we recognize this lack of response as indicative of how thinly based this organization is and why it needs to take a hard look at itself, while we try to figure out how to keep it alive."