The History Buff17509 Bearpath Trail, Eden Prairie, MN, 55347 orPalm Beach, FL, 33480 

New York City Icons
 
Letter by Mayor Laguardia
and Signed Photo of Robert Moses
SOLD
 
Two New York City Icons. Robert Moses (19887-1981). Although he never held elected office, Moses was arguably the most powerful person in New York City government from the 1930s to the 1950s. He literally changed shorelines, built roadways in the sky, and transformed vibrant neighborhoods forever. His decisions favoring highways over public transport formed the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation.Moses's projects were also considered by many to be necessary for the region's development, and Moses participated in the construction of two huge World's Fairs: one in 1939 and the other in 1964. Moses was also in large part responsible for the United Nations' decision to headquarter in Manhattan as opposed to San Francisco. To Moses's critics, however, he will always be remembered for believing that, "cities are for traffic," and, "if the ends don't justify the means, what does?"At one point, one quarter of federal construction dollars were being spent in New York, and Moses had 80,000 people working under him. Moses spent middle class money on the middle class.Moses had direct influence outside the New York area as well. City planners in many smaller American cities hired Moses to design freeway networks for them in the 1940s and early 1950s. Few of these were built; initially postponed for lack of funding, projects still unbuilt by the 1960s were often defeated by the awakening citizen-led opposition movement.Moses was the subject of Robert Caro's book The Power Broker. This book is still used in graduate schools in courses dealing with administration because Moses was an administrative genius.Caro paints Moses as uniquely destructive to the American urban fabric. Yet the author is more neutral in his central premise: the city would have been a very different place -- maybe better, maybe worse -- if Moses had never existed. Most people believe the city is far better off for Moses having lived there.
 
The offering is an 8 in.x 10 in. signed B&W photo of Moses signed Robert Moses, n.p, n.d. but circa 1950.
 
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia ( 1882 – 1947) was the Republican Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945. He was popularly known as "the Little Flower," the translation of his Italian first name, also perhaps a reference to his short stature of just 5 feet. A popular mayor and a strong supporter of the New Deal, LaGuardia led New York's recovery during the Great Depression and became a national figure, serving as President Roosevelt's Director of Civilian Defense during the run-up to the United States joining the Second World War.He is one of the most famous and well known mayors in the history of the city.LaGuardia also served in the armed forces and in congress before becoming mayor.He was a very popular figure, often an ally of Moses and he was a maverick republican reformer with ties to labor.
 
In this letter to William Paley of CBS fame has the mayor writing to Paley to get him to serve on a committee to bring a convention to NYC.The letter is on City of New York Stationery and had a clear dark signature by F. LaGuardia. The letter is dated September 9, 1035. NYC obviously needed to stimulate the convention business in the Great Depression.
 
Price:The pair-$OLD