We are proud to share with the public the first installment of the online archives of the Village Independent Democrats (VID), donated to Village Preservation in 2023. We have painstakingly digitized the trailblazing local political club’s archives from 1955 at its very beginnings through the 1960s (look for a second installment later this year!).

VID was a groundbreaking political club that changed the course of local and New York City history and politics. They took on and eventually dismantled the local Tammany Hall machine, launched the careers of figures like Ed Koch and Carol Greitzer, and campaigned locally for civil rights, historic preservation, removing cars from Washington Square, ending Robert Moses’ bulldozing plans, and much more.

Our digitized VID archive includes everything from press clippings to campaign literature, reports on civil rights, strategy sessions on fighting Robert Moses, and more. You’ll see figures from Eleanor Roosevelt to Robert Kennedy to Martin Luther King Jr. Learn how these local battles played out in real time with this extensive online archive containing a treasure trove of materials. 

This is one of many historic collections Village Preservation has digitized and made available to the public, including that of the West Village Committee (founded by Jane Jacobs) and the “Manhattan Promenade,” an early proposal to save and transform the High Line into a park, nearly a quarter century before that became a reality.