The following web pages were developed by the Lewis Mumford Center,
University at Albany, to provide information regarding a set of 50 people
who lived in New York City in 1920.  It is based on data collected in an
urban history project directed by John Logan. The sample includes native
whites, first and second generation immigrants from Europe, and African
Americans.  We have traced these people back to 1900, when many of them -
especially African Americans - lived in other states.  What interests us is
how members of different groups were incorporated into the city during this
period, especially where they lived, the composition of their families, whom
they married, and what were their occupations.

Click here to see this list of people. First, you will find information
about the person's household in the 1920 census manuscript.  Then you can
choose to learn more about the person's neighborhood in 1920, or connect to
their household listing in the census of 1900.  There are many stories that
can be told from these bits of evidence.  Few New Yorkers had easy lives;
most depended on their family and community networks to get by; and some, as you will see, experienced real improvements in their lifetime or at least
hope for their children's futures.

In addition to this, US News and World Report wrote about some of these
cases more in depth which you can review clicking here.

A similar story, not based on our cases, was published more recently in The New York Times by Jim Rasenberger. "The Old Neighbors" provides a look at some of the people who have lived in Rasenberger's New York City apartment building since it was built in 1910.

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